No pain, no gain.

Always Running - Women's Open team

Mt. Si Relay Run

After the races.

No big deal.

No pain, no gain. Such truth in that statement. I took off for my ride early last Saturday morning. I was going to follow the path of the Always Running group ride to Fall City. I was hoping my ride that day would be at least by 60 miles, but ideally more.

It was 36 degrees when I left my house, with a windchill of 31. Add more wind to that (I usually ride between 15 and 22 mph) to create my very, VERY frozen and throbbing fingers. Let's just say the pain was bad enough to force me to stop at Starbucks only 8 miles in. I thawed out my digits and enjoyed a hot cocoa and scone. An hour later I took off again, as the temp had risen to a lovely 38 degrees.


From there on, the ride was great! I rode and rode... and rode... almost all the way to Snoqualmie Falls, where I was to turn around so Rob could catch me sooner than later. It was a great ride on the Sammamish River Trail and then through Fall City and back. 88 miles later I was back at Greenlake. And dreading the run to come. Deep down I wanted to keep riding and go 112 miles... because why not? But I knew I had a hard Sunday run ahead of me, so I stopped myself and biked into the drive of my house.


I threw on my running shoes, ate a banana and chocolate gu (yep, that's right!) and hit the lake running. My legs were JELLO. That's a tough transition. Finally by mile 3, my legs were feelinng quasi-normal. By the time they felt normal, my run was over.


So all in all a really great workout. The perfect boost of confidence I needed right now in my training.


And then the pain came. Again. Not frozen fingers but frozen legs. My loving fiance graciously escorted me to Greenlake where we icebathed our muscles. For ten whole minutes. Ten looooong minutes. The cold water helps to decrease inflammation in the muscles and speeds recory. Again there we have it. No pain, no gain.


But do not fear, there is still more to come! Sunday morning I woke up at 4:15.... PAIN! ;) I ran with the women's team of Always Running in the Mt. Si Relay in the Snoqualmie Valley. And lucky me... Tony so kindly assigned me to legs 5 (6.5 miles of uphill) and leg 10 (anchor). So good to me!

Turns out it was a really fun day. I had fun meeting new people and oddly enjoyed pushing myself up a big hill and then again to the finish line. My temporary pain in my extremely fatigued quads was TOTALLY worth it when I was presented with that beautiful 3rd place ribbon. Looks just like the ribbons from St. John's Track and Field days :) I mean, what a prize!

And topping off the great weekend was a delish dinner with Rob. It included veggies, fresh fish, and toasted sourdough bread. YUM. And then I hit the bed hard!

And now I've finished my post-work powerbar. Time for Greenlake...