Ride - Run

Yesterday after I got home from work on my bike – riding into the wind up Hwy 99 into Salmon Creek and into the wind going down 139^th Street – Tom and I did a very brief, but quick run to start getting used to the whole Run-Ride-Run idea. I’m not that worried about the first 5K, that won’t be much of a problem, but I am a little concerned about the second 5K.

My ride home is 6 miles which is half of what I’ll be riding in the Du, but there are hills involved so that kind of evens out in the end, not really. The distance we ran last night was just 1 mile and for that mile I was able to do it in 11:09 – not bad for having short legs and all. The only thing is I need to run 2.1 miles beyond that so I’ll need to increase the distance over the next few weeks. More speed work would be good too. That’s been helping so I’m pretty sure a few more sessions on the track will help out!

Our modified training schedule will be messed up this weekend. The Monster Cookie Metric Century is this Sunday so I’ll be resting up on Saturday and not running until next week. I would like to do a long run next week and continue doing speed work and maybe throw a tempo run into the mix too. Of course, all of that depends on how much we are cycling and how often I ride to work. I know that I should be making the time to run, but it has been tough since we have not been riding much and the weather has been so good! There will be balance, soon enough though. We’ll do the RACC on May 2 and then I’ll have the remainder of May to really work on my running and probably should temper my riding so that I’m not going all out at the beginning of the race which is so easy for me to do.

I have a massage appointment after work today – looking forward to a little relaxation!

I’m REALLY psyched!

Du Drawing Near

In less than 2 months Tom and I will be participating in the Blue Lake Sprint Du! The start of my training went great, almost followed the training plan, but I got off track – messed up my back for a couple of weeks, started running more than I could actually run on the treadmill and now the weather is getting nice and I decided that I want to bike commute more than run.

Not all is lost…a few weeks ago I started doing fartleks and I can already tell that I’m improving with my speed. I don’t expect to do really great, just enough to finish and hopefully with the feeling of accomplishment and not like I might die or something - so I’m feeling pretty good about the speed-work.

Tonight after I get home from work (via bicycle) Tom and I will go for a short run, a short one, just to get my body used to not stopping after I ride. Since my commute distance is 6 miles (with hills) and is ½ the distance that I would be riding during the du, I think we’ll try to get at least one mile possible a mile and a half in.

All I have to do is remember where I tossed my shoes the last time that we ran!

I’m psyched!

The Du is getting closer...

This week has been more about cycling than running, which I knew would happen. Only one run this week, but we are supposed to do speedwork tonight...ugh. Got a couple of days of bike commuting this week so that was a good.

My obsession with the weather is in full swing now as I keep looking at ALL the weather forecasts that I can think of and try to find a couple that sync with each other and then go and check what the weather is really doing - looks like those weather types were right about today...it's raining and I don't want to ride in the rain. Which is fine because I REALLY need to run. My time the other day was pretty good even with the brief walk break because I ended up inhaling something which was not good.

Allergies have been at a minimum - modern medicine is a good thing! I don't like waking up with a sleep hangover though, so I'll be cutting back on the antihistamine...blah. Doing pretty good for an April though, I'm usually all plugged up and can't breathe which makes all outdoor activities not so good.

I'm finding out that I'm not that stressed to be in the best condition for the Duathlon, I just want to be able to finish and hopefully finish without feeling like I'm going to die. If I feel good about this one after it's all over I may do the all women's Du in August!

Busy Week

This week has been light on training - had a couple of other things that I had to do which cut into my running and I'm off schedule again :( Alhtough, after our run on Wednesday and all the junk in the air, I'm not sure that I want to run again real soon. The house down the street has something that is really pungent and by the time we passed by the second time it was really bad and by the time I got back home I was not breathing that well - wheezing pretty bad!

I really do not like the beginning of spring when all the trees are in bloom and the smelly flowers are all over the place. Another couple of weeks and I'll do better, but for now I am reluctant to get out there. Might have to head to work early a couple days next week to run on the treadmill next week just to get some runs in.

Maybe a rest week isn't a bad idea.

The weekend is looking good

for riding! I know I should throw a long run in somewhere during the weekend, but having a hard time deciding when that will happen. I need about an hour so MAYBE after church, but that will be followed by a intermediate ride with Team Claudson which will feature some hills. Maybe I'll have to postpone the long run and do it Tuesday and just rearrange my run schedule just a little bit...I really want to ride!

Realizations...

I am starting to realize that my running threshold might be at 3 or 4 miles at this point. I was talking to a friend the other day after a run and said that I'm really starting to enjoy running, which is truth. It's hard to believe that one year ago, I was not able to run 1 mile straight without stopping and feeling like I would die. These days I'm tackling hills, doing speedwork and have done a tempo run or two. Running is hard, but negative self-talk really ends things too soon and then what do I have to say for myself?

Overall, I'm just happy with how things are going, a little of this and that and hopefully I'll do alright in the Du. I'm not expecting to do that well, but finish strong. That's all I can hope for at this point. After talking to one of the other people here who had said they would do the Du they revealed that they had not been running much at all, so I feel pretty good about my efforts however minimal they have been in the past couple of weeks.

Until June 13 I'll keep pluggin' along and enjoying running and riding! I'm PSYCHED!