Ran the Bellingham Duathlon yesterday... did a tri earlier this summer and fell in love! What a wonderful challenge and balance! I've been getting on my bike this summer (not enough) and found new favorite ride around March point- beautiful scenery and just a wonderful ride. Every chance I get, I commute into Anacortes via road bike to enjoy the newly reconstructed bridge across the bay. The colors, the sun, the ocean breezes and smells are amazing!

Running for the Whidbey...

So, I've been negligent in my postings... but got inspired by watching Julie/Julia and now my daughter is going to post a photo a day for a year.. .
I figure I could pontificate about running! I was very ill and lost my head of steam for training.. but I finally got back into it a bit. Got one track workout in and a long (10 miler?) in in Bellingham.

Last week I got a few trail runs in in Anacortes around Heart Lake. I also got a 15 miler in on the Chuckanut in Bellingham.
I had company for a change. Kelly and Julie accompanied me for the first five miles and then met me "on the Boulevard" at Wood's coffee after.
It was a blowy day but running on the trail kept us out of the wind. The second half of the run with my ipod was great! I've sure noticed that I can run faster WITH music. I felt really strong.

The girls are due in this week and I'm so excited. I think this run will be more about the company than the speed.

It turns out that Seattle RnR is sold out and I missed it AGAIN! O bother! That's what I get for procrastinating. But, I was inspired by a woman I ran with in Bellingham. She was training for the Padden tri. I'm thinking this is the summer to do a tri!

Smelt Derby 10K

Ran a 10K in La Conner for my tempo run. It was a bit rainy, but mostly windy.
The course goes through town and then out on the flats.
It hurt worse than I've hurt in a while... mostly tight stomach. Felt good otherwise even with illness this week. Ran with my GPS... set it for 8:15 pace.
I worked mostly on maintaining relaxed pace: shoulders back and down, stance forward with controlled breath. Ended up with a 48:20 about 7:45 pace.
Very flat course.
I'd say that was a good day... back in the day (20 years ago) I dreamed of 7:30 pace and a 45 10K. Not bad for an old lady!

Next week is 3 x 1600 on the track... 4 mile tempo and 10 miler.

Friday Feb 26

On my way to Whidbey Island Half
Using a great half marathon training plan...
I've been sick this week and wasn't sure if I should push the training this week. But, decided to go ahead with it:
Ran 6 miles easy today at the Airport trails. Started with the GPS at 8:45 pace... was doing great, and was thinking about how I shouldn't be worried about pace on easy days. The GPS shut off because I forgot to replace batteries!

Planning on my tempo run tomorrow via the Smelt Derby 10k. Thought it might be nice to see how I'm doing by doing a wee race...

Thought about how Kaden's music is so great for running, yet allows that mind to process which is so important for me. Also, decided to start blogging the progress, set backs, training etc. Thought it might be cool to share and be able to look back at training!