Time: 8:30am
Where: Burke Gilman trail, Bryant to gas works park and back
Workout: 8 miles, LSD
Notes and observations: Nice-ish weather, for once. Funny as I arrive in Wallingford, due to timing and location, and probably weather, the trail is so much more lively. Wallingford is the halfway mark of this 8 mile route. I run along Lake Union and can see the last of the early morning rowers heading back to their boathouses. Sigh. I’d rather be rowing, I repeated a few times.
My splits:
Mile 1: 9:21
2: 9:21
3: 9:38
4: 9:24
5: 9:39
6: 9:51
7: 9:36
8: 9:32
… Miles 1&2 are an average because I forgot to hit the button. Miles 6&7 include traffic light waits.
Not bad, in fact quite good, IMO. My goal was to run a natural feeling pace.
Music: 8 Foo Fighter albums on shuffle.

Time: lunch
Where: Downtown Bellevue Park and vicinity
Workout: warm up to park, then loops of 1′ on 1:30 off. Cant say for sure but I’ll guess 4-5 miles.
Notes and observations: harder than treadmill intervals because a lot of it is a guessing game. The exertion on the on was there and i definitely went easy on the off. More than I allow when on the treadmill for sure. But I couldn’t keep track of how many loops I did. Too much thinking required there.
Music: foo fighters, wasting light

Tomorrow = 8 miles. Woot!

Time: before work
Where: gym treadmill
Workout: the plan was 5 mile but was cut down to 4.
I tried to do a tempo thin again. Mile 1 was a warm up, and miles 2-4 were at a faster than 9 min mile pace. Considering myblast 5k score that is basically race pace.
Notes and observations: I missed that last mile because I had to go the bathroom real bad, and jumped off the treadmill @ 4 miles. Lost my rhythm after that so just cooled down then hi the shower. Speaking of race I am contemplating doing the Top Pot 5K, and not because you get a free doughnut after the race. It would be good to see what my time wold be after all this running…
Music:

Happy St. Patrick’s day!

Time: 8:30am
Where: Burke Gilman trail heading west
Workout: 7 miles, alternating one mile easy/one mile hard
Notes and observations: You know it’s bad when Seattle people are complaining about the rain. But seriously, it’s been ridiculous. The thing about running is, what kind of weatherncancels an outdoor workout. In rowing you stay out of the water when it’s below freezing, or there are whitecaps. For cycling snow might keep you indoors (unless you’re lance Armstrong). And running? I guess snow, maybe. But steady rain certainly does not cancel, Alas.

This one mile hard/easy was on my training program from the get go, but I was like, whatever I’m not doing that and opted for the easier 5 minutes on/off route instead. With over a month of training under my belt I decided to give it a shot today. Not bad, felt okay, with the best mile coming in at mile 4. The splits below are based on the mile markers on the b-g. I do love living so close to the Burke.
Splits (miles 1and 2 are a bit off since I forgot to hit the lap button):
Mile 1 10:03
Mile 2 8:17
Mile 3 8:17
Mile 4 9:35
Mile 5 8:06
Mile 6 9:29
Mile 7 9:11
Music: shuffle including vampire weekend, foo fighters, killers, and the orig twilight soundtrack. and taylor swift. Rock on.

happy march madness

time: before work

where: gym treadmill. nasty gym

workout: 4 miles.

mile 1= warmup – 1o min mile

miles 2 – 3 = 200m intervals each lap … 6.7; 6.9; 7.1; 7.1/7.2; 7.2; 7.1; 7.0; 6.9

mile 4 = slower intervals, and then a cool down

Notes & Observations: My fast is getting faster. 38ish minutes. I was really proud of my time but 12+ hours, including a full workday, pajama night preschool event, and additional work after that, I can’t remember what that time was. It’s a miracle I can get anything done without writing it down first.

Music: Listened to my “beat the bridge” playlist, which included a random mix of paramore; green day; james; led zeppelin and more. Here’s a secret I will share. I always like to kick off my ‘race’ playlist with some led zeppelin. I’m getting the led out. Eek. Did I just say that.

Time: Lunch

Where: Downtown Bellevue Park, for the most part

Workout: 5 miles. The attempt was to run “at tempo” (what is the right lingo?) miles 2 – 4.

Notes & Observations. Downtown Bellevue Park is ideal because you don’t need to concern yourselves with traffic lights or cars. Unfortunately you are dodging Eastside dogs (not to be confused with normal dogs, ha ha). The signs say 1 lap = 1/2 mile but I’ve never believed it. Sure enough I mapped it on mapmyrun and 1 lap is more like .44 miles, even if you go up the incline on the bellevue square mall side. So I took a roundabout warmup to the park from LSQ, ran 7 loops then took the roundabout route back. In all it took around 45 minutes. My 2 loop times ranged between 7:53 and 8:10, so I really did pick up the pace during that time, regardless if I was doing the full mile.
Splits, fwiw
9:22
7:53
8:11
8:04
12:04

Music: The Killers

Time: 8:30 am
Where: Burke Gilman, this time heading towards sand point
Workout: 6 mi, 5′ on, 5′ off
Notes and observations: don’t set your interval timer when you’re tired, because you set it for five hours instead of five minutes. Took it easy because my week was so messed up. Looking forward to returning to my regular scheduled programming.
Music: shuffle, foo killers snow patrol soundgarden

Time: Morning

Where: Burke Gilman Trail, from Sandpoint to Wall of Death out and back

Workout: 7 miles, LSD

Notes & observations: LSD is soo boring. I tried to maintain 10:00 min mile pace and it felt sluggish and slow. It only made me run slower. I picked it up around mile 5 and ran miles 5 and 6 faster, then took it down again in the last mile. In my mind, I’ve already adjusted my half-marathon goal from 10 min mi pace to something a little bit faster, maybe between 9:40 and 9:50. We’ll see. Maybe miles 8 – 13 are a different story.

Music: A mix that included Foo, Killers, Soundgarden and more.

Time: lunchtime

Where: gym treadmill

Workout: 4 mi, 39:30

Mile 1: warmup -6.1
Miles 2 – 3: baseline of 6.1, accelerations of 200m x 8: 6.6 – 6.8 – 7.0 – 7.1 – 7.1 – 6.9 – 6.9 – 6.9
Mile 4: 6.0/6.1
Notes and Observations: Left foot feeling fine, now it’s the right. Intervals make workouts so much more bearable. One month of training and I didn’t miss a workout. Of course, it was a short month, but still…

Music: Vampire Weekend