Wednesday, February 6, 2013

The New Year started in February in 15 minute intervals

I didn't want to say anything too soon because I had a feeling I was going to jinx it.  After being sick for exactly 35 days, I pushed through and finally started feeling better.  While sometime around January 6th I was barely able to run 20 minutes at a 12 min/mile pace, today I'm able to run 4 miles at a 9 min/mile pace.  Ah... good old self, it's been nice to see you again.

I've been able to run daily (even if it's 15 minutes) the past few days starting on January 27th.  I did skip February 1st (bummer), mostly cause I needed a breather before taking on this challenge of running every single day.  It was already an unsuccessful New Year's resolution since I barely ran in January.  And by barely, I mean I ran 49 miles all month... but I had been logging 100 mile months, so put yourself in my shoes, and you'll understand that cutting work outs in half means the world to me!

My resolution was to run AT LEAST 15 minutes every day which I've done, so the mileage is not ridiculous.  But keep in mind that those 15 minute days are the days that I'm supposed to rest or ride my bike so it's either a 15 minute easy work out or a 15 minute warm up jog to get on my bike after.

These have been my work outs so far:
Jan 27 - 4.9 miles
Jan 28 - 2.25 miles (Rest day)
Jan 29 - 3.3 miles
Jan 30 - 1.7 miles + 1hr 18mph ride
Jan 31 - 3.4 miles
Feb 2 - 1.7 miles + 1.5hr 16mph ride
Feb 3 - 4.85 miles
Feb 4 - 1.75 miles (Rest day)
Feb 5 - 4.9 miles
Feb 6  - 3.3 miles

That alone adds up to just over 32 miles, which is not too shabby for 10 days of running after a terrible case of cold, sinus infection and pleurisy.  Didn't want to add crazy mileage too soon, but I'm ready and I have my eyes in that 90min workout on my schedule for Sunday. I'm back in my happy place.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Unbreakable

While my life has been kind of boring lately (primary reason why I haven't posted anything lately), apparently other people's lives have tons going on.  For starters, my running soul-mate is pregnant.  This is not new... I've known for a few months, but since she now lives in Bend, OR, I hadn't really seen her.  So this weekend, I did oh so very girly stuff and went to her baby shower.  It was so weird to see her pregnant, yet so awesome.  She looks really happy and I'm amazed that she will be a mom in just 2 months.  Why am I amazed, you ask?  Mostly because she would be opening presents, and tearing up at those teeny tiny clothes and then say something like: "I wanna go outside and lift my dress up to cool down".  Yep, that's my dear friend Theresa.  But she makes me smile.  

T$ and I in NYC for my Bday in 2009
Also, this past weekend I watched the movie Unbreakable: The Western States 100.  My boss recommended it a few months ago and I finally got a hold of it on Friday and watched it Saturday morning.  For those who are familiar with my blog, you can see I added a new "blog I follow": Riding the Wind.  The author: Anton Krupicka or in other words: the most bad-ass runner out there.  Not sure about the most bad-ass, but he definitely is in my eyes.  Now that I've gotten into trail running, I gotta have people to look up to. Him, Dean Karnazes (the ultramarathon man), Scott Jurek and after watching Unbreakable: Geoff Roes.  Lucky for me, Anton and Scott live in Boulder, Geoff now loves in Nederland (a small town 40 minutes away from Boulder.  I'm pretty lucky to be surrounded by celebrities.  So all I gotta do now, is to actually get out there.  Blows my mind that Krupicka actually runs Green Mountain a few times per week.  Is that insane or what?!?!

Anyway, back to the movie... The Western States 100 is one of the toughest 100-mile races out there and for the first time ever in 2010, four super champs of ultra running were going to go at it together.  Scott Jurek had the course record at 15hr36m but this year you had Hal Koerner, who had won the Western States 100 two consecutive times before; Anton Krupicka, who had won Leadville-100 a couple times; Geoff Roes, who had won every single ultra race that he had entered; and Kilian Jornet from Spain who had won some crazy European ultras too.  If they wanted to win, they had to go all out and potentially crush the record set by Jurek in 2004.

Anyway, I'm not gonna tell you who wins, but here's the very inspirational trailer: Unbreakable: The Western States 100. And maybe you'll all get inspired to go for a jog too.

Workout update: I've been running consistently the past week and this week.  I successfully completed 51 miles of running in the month of January despite my health issues, and I'm currently going at it stronger than ever.  I'm so ready to train.