Life Lately and Weekly Workouts (May 18)

Hello, everyone! How was your weekend? Did anyone race?

Life Lately

First off, I apologize for how long it took me to respond to comments and for the couple days of missed posts. After driving 8-15 hours each day, we were completely exhausted by the end of each day. We’re finally here, though, safe and sound and happy!

Life Lately May 17

I am going to finish recapping our trip in tomorrow’s post. We spent a night in Missoula and loved the city, and then the drive from Missoula through Coeur d’Alene and all of Washington was picturesque and stunning. I’ve got so many photos to sort through because I pretty much took photos the whole time from the Rockies to Seattle! 

Life Lately May 17

We arrived in Seattle on Friday and moved the few items we had with us into our apartment in the northern suburbs. Tip: always pack a few pots, pans, and plates in your bags when moving into a new place; we are so glad to have a few tools to cook with after eating out for a few days. After living in a old house turned into an apartment in Valpo, our brand-new apartment feels luxurious: beautiful countertops, twice the counter space, a better layout, and an enclosed patio. Since our movers are in transit, we have a rather spartan existence right now, but it doesn’t really matter because it’s so beautiful here! Okay, a bed other than an air mattress would be nice, but still, we’re so happy just to finally be here.

Life Lately May 17

Charlie loves our new place also. He got so excited about the patio that he actually ran into the sliding glass door! Silly puggle. He behaved so well in all the hotels and has adjusted so well to our new place. As a reward for being such a good boy, we took him to the dog park in Redmond. I’m pretty sure this was paradise for Charlie.

Life Lately May 17

We spent Saturday and Sunday exploring the area. I almost cried tears of joy at each grocery store over how fresh everything is. Like, whole fish with their eyes still clear as glass and gorgeous apples grown just miles away. And the beer and wine? Insane. We spent like 15 minutes trying to decide which beers from Washington and Oregon to try and then realized we live about ten minutes from a bunch of wineries, including my favorite (Chateau St. Michelle). 

Life Lately May 17

We also checked out some of the trails. The Sammamish River Trail (which then connects to the Lake Sammamish Trail) is just sublime. I can’t get over how many trees there are here, especially after Valparaiso cut down a bunch of trees for seemingly no reason this spring.

We also already visited the Brooks Running outlet that’s less than ten minutes from our place. I cannot express my happiness about that place with words so all I will say is I now know where to get to get Pure Flow 3s in every color.

Weekly Workouts

My workouts this week were a bit more relaxed than usual on account of travel. Sharing so much driving left us tired and sleep mattered, especially when we would try to be on the road early. We were able to squeeze in a few workouts, and I realized how much elevation makes a difference when my lungs felt like they were on fire in Rapid City (which is at 3200 ft).
Monday: 4 hilly miles in St. Louis in the rain, 8:19/mile average pace
Tuesday: off – 15 hour car ride
Wednesday: 4 miles, 8:16/mile average pace, on a treadmill in Rapid City. After a short warm-up, I did 5 minutes at marathon pace (8:00/mile), 4 minutes at half marathon pace (7:40/mile), 3 minutes at 10K pace (7:20/mile), 2 minutes at 5K pace (7:00/mile) and 1 minute at about mile pace (6:30/mile) with recovery jogs in between.
Thursday: off – 10 hour car ride 
Friday: off – 7 hour car ride
Saturday: 4 mile progression run on the treadmill, 8:14/ mile average pace. I started out at an 8:35/mile pace (7.0) and increased my speed by .1 mph every 3-5 minutes and finished at a 7:40/mile (7.8) pace. Plus a few miles of walking while exploring trails and parks!

Life Lately May 17

12 miles total for the week.

Spending so much time in a car is less than ideal and I didn’t get in many miles, but one irregular week is not going to throw my fitness off track. Tomorrow starts normal running again, and marathon training starts in two short weeks! 

Questions of the Day:
Did you race this weekend? How did it go?
What was your best run last week?

Share this post

6 Responses

  1. So jealous that you will be living so close to the Brooks outlet and all those amazing wineries! Glad you made it there safely and nice job getting some quality workouts in last week despite spending so much time in the car!

  2. Sounds so amazing there! I’m sure you are going to have an incredible time getting to know the area (and its beer!). Enjoy.

    And yes, I raced–recap on my blog!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *