My Recovery Week

My finish photo from Cinco de Mayo! 

I will get my recap of the Tacoma City Half Marathon up early next week- I promise!  Meanwhile, here is how my week went after the weekend workout extravaganza last weekend.  Did I mention that I played soccer on the night of Friday May 4th- before running 2 half marathons?  Oh, and I also played softball on Sunday evening -after the second half marathon!  So soccer, half marathon, half marathon, softball all within 48 hours = tired runner girl! 

The lovely Tacoma waterfront

I took a rest day Monday (duh!) and also rested Tuesday.  On Wednesday I thought about working out- but changed my mind and took yet one more rest day.  Finally on Thursday I felt like doing something so I popped in Jillian Michaels Body Revolution Cardio workout #1 since I had skipped it last week.  I am really enjoying these workouts- they are quick and each move is easy to follow yet very effective.  Twenty six minutes later the workout was over, I was a tad bit sweaty and quite satisfied with my workout.  I entertained the idea of doing one more DVD but decided to clean out my fridge instead before heading to work.  It was a good choice- I had been putting that task off long enough!  Ha!

It was really bright!!

Anyways, on Friday morning I had an 8 mile run on my agenda.  Well, I don't really have an agenda right now (I need to figure that out soon!) but that is what I usually do as my "long run" the week before a half marathon.  Yes, what you just read is correct- next weekend on May 20th I am running the Capital City Half Marathon with my hubby!  He chose this race out of the ones I expressed interest in- it will be his 3rd half marathon.  He claims it will be his last and that he is sticking to 10K's and under from here on out but I guess only time will tell if that is true.  I will be running with him, hopefully helping to pace him to a PR which is currently set at 2:12:36 from the North County Wine Run.

I decided to run up this hill for FUN.  Yes, I am a thrill a minute kind of gal.

So back to my run, I set out to just run the Tacoma waterfront- the weather was perfect and I was meeting my mom for a Mother's Day lunch right afterwards.  I took some photos and ran without music, just enjoying the morning and the scenery.  Suddenly I had this crazy idea to run up North 30th hill- if you are from Tacoma or are familiar with it you know the hill I am talking about.  I have wanted to try and run up it for a while- so why not today?  I decided to run up North 29th instead- it is a bit steeper but is a side road so there isn't the volume of traffic like on 30th.  You know, less witnesses if I keeled over and died or threw up or something crazy like that. 

Trying to catch my breath and not die I decided to take some pictures about halfway
up the hill- that next street down is 30th. 

I had to stop twice and catch my breath/let my heart rate drop on the way up that huge hill.  But I kind of liked it- I am going to start running up it more often.  I would really like to get all the way up without having to stop.  I didn't like running back down it though, I think next time I will head to 30th for the down part of the run.  I thought about doing some more hill work but after attempting to continue up a different hill, my body really was favoring the idea of being back on the flat, pretty waterfront. 

Made it to the top!  Actually, it still keeps going up for a bit but not quite as steeply.  And clearly I felt it was a good plan to stand in the middle of the road for this photo.

The data from my Garmin- about 300 feet of gain in a mile.  It doesn't sound like much,
but the elevation gain of the Cinco de Mayo half was 128 feet over the entire course!

I was stopped by a train at the light and it made me think of Kim of (Just) Trying is for Little Girls and how she was stopped by a train in a recent half marathon for over 10 minutes.  I cannot even imagine, that would be terrible!  My wait was about a minute and a half, and I was off again to finish my last 2.5 miles along the water.  I was glad I threw that hill in though, and I can say I ran up it at least once!

Waiting on the train.  Tick Tock.  Tick Tock.

After my run I cleaned up and settled out on the deck at Duke's and enjoyed a great lunch with my mom in the sunshine.  My diet has been going really well, I am following the Jillian Michael's plan pretty closely and when I am pressed for time I substitute as best as I can.  I have lost 4 pounds over a 2 week period so that seems about right.  I do get a sweet tooth once in a while but an apple or some grapes seems to be enough to cure it.  Oh, and some dark chocolate chips- those are dangerous to have in the house, I probably shouldn't buy those very often!!  But they are so little.  And so tasty.  Better stick with fruit!   

My mom and I after lunch
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!