Bolder Boulder, Running Recap + Catch-up!

Hey, remember that one time that I didn’t post anything for 2 weeks and then put up 2 posts in one day? It’s today.

SO, for an update on running – since it has been about 2 months. Anyone else feel like this year is blazing by?! The last goals I posted were for April. Since then, Jesse and I have been following (mostly) my 10 week half marathon training plan. Our half is coming up 2 weeks from today! Hoorayyyy for starting our taper! Here were my April Goals:

• Get 10 runs in – FAIL. (DANG, the only goal I didn’t hit. I’m over it.)
• Run a hill workout – CHECK! We found a gradual hill, measured out 1/4 mile from the top using GMaps pedometer, and ran up it 6 times. It was actually… fun.
• Log an 8 mile long run – CHECK!
• Run 50 miles total – CHECK!

April Stats:
9 runs total
52.4 miles (44% increase over March!)
Longest Distance: 8.3 miles
6 speed workouts  
0 races
Average training pace range: 9:07 to 8:28/mi

May Stats:
10 runs total – FINALLY!
68.8 miles (31% increase over April)
Longest Distance: 12.1 miles
5 speed workouts
1 race – Bolder Boulder 10K – 45:40, 7:21/mi avg pace
Average training pace range: 9:28 to 7:47/mi (getting faster!)

The Bolder Boulder was super fun, as always. Jesse’s entire family made it out for the race, and so did my Dad and Stepmom (and 50,000 other people – literally). It’s the biggest and best organized race that I’ve ever run. There are bands, belly dancers, hippies playing instruments, front lawn slip-n-slides, people handing out bacon, doritos, and even liquor (Jesse’s dad inadvertently took a shot of rum thinking it was water), on the sidelines of the entire 6.2 mile course. The weather was perfect, about 50 to 60 degrees throughout the morning, and a sweet break from the rain we’ve been getting every. single. day. for the past several weeks. Apparently we live in Seattle now? My time was 12 seconds slower than last year, but I’m not beating myself up about it. I’ve run the Bolder Boulder 12 times since 2000, and last year I ran my 10K all-time PR. (You can’t expect to do that EVERY year). We also ran hard two weeks ago leading up to the race, so I was definitely not well-rested. I was stoked to be sub-46 minutes again.

Here I am coming around the track at CU Stadium, not kicking because I was totally dead the last 0.2 miles, and trying real hard not to pee my pants.

Also, this happened:

Don’t know this guy, but apparently he does this before and after every race. Impressive? See the first photo above, strong-man is right behind me. He may or may not have passed.

Jesse ran a PR of 49:49, cutting almost 40 seconds off his time from last year.

We made a quick stop at Avery’s new brewery and taphouse before heading home.

I’ve been feeling like a lot of my recent training runs have felt much harder than I remember them being last year. We ran 12 miles AFTER WORK on Thursday, which is definitely a first for me, as we usually do our long runs on Saturday morning. Jesse is judging beer all day at his homebrew club competition (poor guy), so we had to do a weeknight 12 miler. I think that deserves a medal or something.

I was hurting by the last few miles, but this was also our first run after the Bolder Boulder. I’ve been sore all week. Looking at my monthly stats now makes me feel better about that. I’ve done a better job of sticking to my 3 run/week plan than I did last year. Pretty sure I finished the last 5 weeks of my training with only 2 runs per week last year – and somehow ended up in the best shape of my life. So overall, I think my body is probably more fatigued right now, and I’m looking forward to tapering off over the next two weeks.

IN OTHER NEWS (can you believe there’s more?!), we have been married 9 months today! We went to dinner at the Melting Pot last night to celebrate. Actually, we went to the Melting Pot mostly because we got a coupon in the Valpak mailer and we had two gift cards from Christmas that we’ve been saving, but we’ll use our 9 month anniversary as an excuse.

Happy weekend!

Linked up at: MIMM, Weekend Update