woo hoo

I can run the whole 3-ish miles from downtown to the end of Taylor Dock along the South Bay trail and back without stopping...woo hoo. Love it. One of these days I'm going to do it twice or run through Fairhaven or something. I just need to get out of bed earlier, which means that I have to stop staying up until 3 am.

So Jake and I are going to buy a house this year. As much as I like my weekends at home, I also find that I get bored at home, so I am going to start a second job on-call at Skagit Valley Hospital. That should be fun. They actually pay more than SJH, so it will be worth it to work a few shifts a month down there. I can't wait to start. Hopefully I can meet their needs and make some extra dough :)

5k and Sun!

Did the 5k this weekend in 36:27...still kind of slow, but I don't care...I ran a race :) And am doing one next month and hopefully a 10k in March or April. Then, of course the 1/2 in June! Yay!

And it was clear today after starting out at a chilly 26degrees, but I still went to Boulevard Park and ran there, it was too nice not to. I love that place.

Race on Jan 17th

Woo hoo. Running a race on the 17th. Depending on my long run tomorrow, I'll do either the 5k or the 10k...hopefully I can do the 10k...it's in Mt Vernon and even starts at 10 am, which is a great start time :)

woohoo

so far the plan is great. I have worked out every day this week. I even did hills on Thursday. Usually when I run the hill (Yew St Hill, yeah), it's really hard to get up and I walk a good portion of it since I pretty run out the door and onto the hill with no warmup. Of course, the downhill portion always feels really good, but then I just feel like I ran down a hill rather than actually running the hill. So, Thursday on the way down, rather than just run straight down, I turned around and sprinted back up to the previous phone pole and then back down a bit and then back up, all the way down the hill. This way, I actually got a hill run in, and it felt great.

I have been erg-ing for cross training and on the easy xt day, I biked and did core stuff. Monday I go back to ballet. Tomorrow, I'm on schedule to run 7 miles, hope the sidewalks are clear. I am so done with this snow stuff.

I'm also seeing really good results on my body. A lot of my clothes are too big, even my workout clothes are getting loose. I can run longer faster already too...I love it. So far I'm down 18 lbs from the "crisis" weight from October 2007.

Time for a nap before work tonight....hope the run tomorrow goes well. I'm sure it will. Yay!

Start tomorrow!

Tomorrow I start my pre-training "training" plan. Just a moderate way to get my miles up before I start my 1/2 marathon training. Woo hoo.

New plan!

So I walked to work last night in the snow and it was glorious! Too bad it's not like that all the time here, or I would do it every day. The only thing is that it took like an hour, and it's just too dark at night to walk that far, but in the snow it seemed a lot less dark.

For my birthday, I am registering myself for 1/2 marathon that's in Seattle in June. Woo hoo! I need to get my miles up...I think I can do that in 6 months. I'll probably hit some 5ks and 10ks depending on my work schedule, but I see those as part of the training.

Yay!

Outside again!

So I bought a smartwool neck gaiter that I'm using as a headband/ear cover, and I actually took it outside today. It was AMAZING! About 40 degrees out and clear, totally invigorating! Wow. I ran through the park and around to the cemetery. There's a long trail section that connects the park to the cemetery, and it used to take me 25 mins/half an hour to get there, and today, it took 14 minutes. That was great. Apparently the treadmill is working :) So now on clear days, I think I will take it outside, and do the treadmill in the rain. I still need a buddy for weights, but running alone is the thing I guess.

I ran 23 minutes all together, so apparently the section I run is about 2 miles. I used to think it was way longer because it took so long. Guess I need to add more to the run. I'll probably do a loop through the cemetery and more of the trails in the park once I am ready to add more to it. Those stairs still suck.

All together it was great to get back outside. Wore long pants, long sleeve purple, light vest, and smartwool band. I need better socks I think, the shoes ventilate a little too well for winter--smartwool for sure!

whooo....

so we're in seattle for jake's dad's surgery this morning.  Why am I up so early?  Well, of course, night shifts have totally screwed my sleep schedule, so I woke up at 3 am...and thought it was like 7 or something so got up to read for a bit.  Now that it's almost 5, I'm debating just staying up, since I was planning on getting up at 7 anyway to go for a run or a swim.  

On the swim note, I wanted to go to Madison Pool, but it looks like they are only in open in the afternoons, what with the City of Seattle's budget being below the red line.  Oh well, guess it's off to Shoreline for me...good, because it's closer, but it also ups my chances of running into someone I know.  That could be...um, interesting.  

Otherwise, all day, I'll be at the hospital waiting with Jake and his mom.  Good think I'm reading the Twilight saga to keep me interested.  They aren't that good, but I do keep reading to know what's going to happen next.  I guess I'm hooked, since I can't put it down.  

If I'm going to stay up, I should probably eat something soon.  Actually, I'm going to nap before I head to the pool.  

Tomorrow, I'm planning on going for a run on the Burke Gilman Trail, so that should be really pleasant right there along the lake.  We'll see how good swimming feels today too, it will probably be really good to work some other muscles for once.  

De-Fense!

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii';/

That was the kitty walking on the keyboard.

Also worked out today for the first time in a week. The Vegas trip really messed up the routine...but got back on today after work. I have found that I am a MORNING workout person. If I get home from work and sleep all day, I can't find the motivation to work out after I get up, so I have to go after work, or it won't happen. It actually works pretty well, becuase what else do I have to do in the morning but sleep?

It's defense mode now in the runup to Turkey Time and Christmas and cookies and such. Didn't get too carried away with the Halloween candy, so that's good.

I am also excited about all the leaves in the yard. If it's not too dark when I get up today, I am definitely going to rake:) Otherwise, I will do it tomorrow. Woot.