I found out yesterday about a 5k/10k run in Seattle - the 20th Annual UW (University of Washington) Dawg Dash. I decided to try going for the 10k and went to Road Runner Sport near Green Lake and filled out an application and paid the $25 entrance fee. I got a pretty nice long-sleeve shirt with the same logo you see here.

The 5k run started ~5 minutes prior to the 10k race at Husky Stadium on the UW campus just after 9:30 this morning. Because it's the "dawg" dash, the unofficial name of the UW Huskies sports teams, people could actually bring dogs with them. Suprisingly, they didn't bother me very much and only a small part of the 10k course overlapped with the 5k course where most of the dogs were.

I started out going not that fast because from my running experience I usually see people starting out too fast and then dropping fast by mid-course. I never wear a watch when I race, but I think I started out at about 6:30. Between the second and third mile I sped up a bit to catch up with a pack in front of me. I stayed behind a guy probably in his mid-40s who had a Portland Marathon 2005 long-sleeve shirt on him. By the 4th mile a guy came up from behind us and sped up the pace. I suffered greatly to stay with him and I kept saying to myself that I can't let him get again. I stayed with him until just in front of the stadium entrance where there was about 400 meters to go. Unfortunately he sped up and I couldn't catch him and one guy passed me before the end, but I definitely beat the guy with the Portland Marathon shirt.

I ended the race at I think ~37:27, which would put me at just over a 6 mile pace. I'll find out the official results soon. I posted the race on the right side of this blog along with some other previous races I ran before I started this blog. Hopefully they'll be many more in the future, especially cycling races.

[Monday, 10/31/05] OK, the results have been posted, and it turns out I finished in 37:44, which equates to a 6:05 pace. It's worse than I thought, but on the other hand I would have been mad at myself for just missing a sub-six minute pace.

Total: 10k (6.2mi) Race; 37:27 (6.01 pace); 37:44 (6:05 pace)

I was too close not to do it: go over a 100 miles for the week. That's not really hard to do, especially if it's all done on a bike. Just two 50-mile rides will do it. But out of five workouts, three were runs. A good week.




Total: 9.24mi Run (7:38min./mi.); 940 calories; ??? lb.

Belltown to Chateau St. Michelle

That was the plan today and it worked very well. I went there with my friend LiveStrongrrrrl who is in town from NYC. It was a bit windy and cold today -- only about 50 degrees when we started out. But it was sunny for most of the way and pleasant because we had quick-dry long-sleeve tops on. After we finished riding, it seemed that it took longer to get there than riding back, which seemed quicker but harder. In fact, it turned out that it took 1:24:51 to get to the Chateau St. Michelle winery (22.2mi), and 1:26:10 to get back (22.0mi?).

In any case, we had a great time there. Once you enter the property through gates marked with the Chateau St. Michelle name, the road takes you about 200 yards through vinyards on each side of the road. I think they're there just for show because the actual vineyards are located in central-southern Washington, but nevertheless they look very nice and are well kept. We then proceeded through the parking lot and took our bikes on a walkway to one of the entrances. Once inside we quickly made our way to an L shaped wine-tasting bar (the end of which you can see in the picture)! My friend suggested that we eat something with the wine, so she bought crackers, cheese, and a couple of apples. The woman who was serving the wine told us that they normally wouldn't allow us to eat at the bar because the odor of the food could interfere with other people's sense of smell, but it wasn't too busy so she said, "Uh, sure, no problem" (in a nice way).

We tasted four wines. Normally, the cost is $5/person, but we chose to share because we didn't want to be too trashed with over 22 miles left to ride. And I think it was the right thing to do, as much as we wanted to try more wines. The other worry--which I actually think is more importnat--besides the "inability to operate machinery" is dehydration. The wines we tasted were:
- 2003 Cold Creek Chardonnay ($25.99)
- 2004 Cold Creek Riesling ($19.99)
- 2001 Cold Creek Cabernet Franc ($29.99)
- 2002 Cold Creek Cabernet ($29.99)

They're all from the Cold Creek Vineyard in celebration of the 30th harvest. In any case, if you haven't been there, I'd recommend going. You can get a tour of the facilities (some wine is barreled and stored there) and learn about wine-making in addition to tasting.

My first ride and blog posting was a 55 mile ride that went by the winery on August 5 of this year. I'm glad I went back. Next time I'll visit another winery in the area, and there are quite a few including Columbia Winery.

One final note: my friend Strongrrrrl did a great job and kept up with me the whole time. 15.5mph is very good for over 44 miles! Yes, we took a break at half-point, but it's still a great time. Most importantly, we had a great time :-)

Total: 44.2mi Bike Ride (15.5mph); 1663 cal.; 140 lb.

Despite the 33mi ride yestereday, I felt refreshed today, probably as a result of eating a whole pizza and sleeping for about 10 hours. So when I started running today, I decided to go for 10 miles. In 2003, I ran 4 half-marathons, so I don't really consider it a big deal and I've been running mostly ~4.5 miles for a while now--it is getting a bit boring. Having said that, 10 miles can be a big deal on the body if you haven't practiced running that distance. But I took a pack of Power Gel with me and ate it once I got to about 4.5 miles. That was by the marina on the left side of the map. I went back and did a loop around a couple of streets on the top of the map to make the distance longer so that I'd hit 10 miles if I went the same way. I also did an extra .75 miles or so by the piers at the bottom of Belltown for the same reason. The pace was only 8:01--and by the way I turned off the automatic pause because if I stop it's of my own volition and not traffic as this route is almost free of cars the whole way--but I wasn't racing. The weather was great: sunny with a cool & crisp fall breeze.

Total: 10.1mi Run (8:01 min./mi.); 1038 cal.; 139 lb.

I went out for an early morning ride with some of my colleagues from work. Even though I left at only 7:30am from my apartment to catch the 7:55 ferry from downtown Seattle to Bainbridge Island, it was only getting light when I started to bike there. 15 minutes earlier and I would have at least needed a back light. We did the Chilly Hilly run which I've done a few times in the past 3 months. It was a great ride and I enjoyed riding in a bigger group -- there were 6 of us. Great opportunity to socialize and have a good workout. I'm definitely looking forward to group-rides like this one in the future!

Total: 33.7mi Bike Ride (15.0 mph); 1114 cal.; ??? lb.

A sunny day up the hill in Belltown, but very foggy down by Puget Sound in Elliot Bay. It was amazingly beautiful and peaciful with the occasional sound of a fog horn ommitted by a ship. The fog of course consists of tiny drops of water and I had to wipe off my glasses every few minutes.

Total: 4.01mi Run; ~500 cal.; 141 lb.

[Backdated on 10/25/2005]

I felt pretty good today for not having exercised in 5 days or so. I ran the standard route along Puget Sound at the bottom of Belltown. Pretty good weather for a run today: upper 50s and cloudy but not raining.

By the way, on a not so related note, there is a school bus depot by the port -- it's where just to the north of where the water ends on the left side of the map along the run route. I've seen buses go through there before in the afternoon to park for the night I imagine. Well today I saw a guy checking the underside of each bus with a mirror. Looking for bombs? Pretty depressing when you think about it. Still, Seattle feels like a very free city without much of a police presence because we don't have that much crime here. Compare that to New York City where it can feel like martial law sometimes nowadays.

Total: 6.42 mi Run (7:25min/mi); 630 cal.; 142 lb.

I'm on vacation in Vancouver, Canada. It's been pretty cold and raining every day here for a while, thus not many opportunities for outdoor recreational activities. I went to the gym at the Hyatt hotel where I stayed at for a short run. A very small gym for a huge hotel, but the equipment was good and the LifeFitness treadmill even had a TV screen embedded in it.

Total: 2.0 mi Run; ??? cal.; ??? lb.

[Backdated on 10/20/2005]

Today was a good ride - a loop around Lake Washington which I haven't done in a while. I beat my best time by a couple of minutes. Interestingly the elevation range (not shown on map; this one shows speed) was -6 to 723 ft. However, I couldn't find a spot on the map with that elevation color.

The last two miles through downtown Seattle are never enjoyable because there is no bike lane heading NW, whereas there is a street that had a bike lane heading SE (2nd Ave.). I was in the left-most lane on 4th Ave. following the traffic when I heard the car behind me repeadetly honking his horn. I wasn't slowing the traffic down at all as it was only moving at about 15mph. After passing a few intersecting streets the car got in the right lane next to me -- the driver looked at me and was saying something for a few seconds, obviously not very nice. I gave him a finger and for a minute I thought he was going to swerve at me, but ended up speeding up and I dind't see him again. The car was an old 2-door red Plymouth driven by, if I could make a very subjective judgement, a red-neck.

Total: 39.4 mi Bike (16.9mph); 1499 cal.; ??? lb.

[Backdated on 10/20/2005]

I am posting the largest map of any bike ride or run I've done. This one is 1600 pixels in length. The reason I did it is that you can get a very good idea of exactly where I biked on this USGS topographic map. For example, in about the lower-middle part of the map, as I pull away from Puget Sound, I bike along the railroad tracks, first on a paved pathway, then on a road. The tracks are visible on the map; in fact, you can actually see how many tracks there are at any particular point.

Also, I changed the auto-pause function on the Forerunner to 4mph or less. Previously, when I was walking along the Locks (just SW of the "Standard Loop" title at the top of the map) to cross Salmon Bay (biking is not allowed) the time wouldn't always stop because my speed was just about 3mph. Because of the change, my time has dramatically improved. The walking portion still shows up on the map with the red color--the slowest speed--but the distance and time aren't counted in the overall mph calculation. Thus my average speed was 16.2mph, the fastest (recorded) time so far.

Total: 13.6mi (Bike); 16.2mph; 503 calories; 140 lb.

It was raining again today, thus a good day to go to the gym. Prior to running on a treadmill, I did a set of sit-ups and push-ups. Prior to a year ago or so I used to do them regularly before going out for a run, but since I lost my sports mattress after a move, I've been skipping them. I'll buy a new one soon and I do need it because I have a hardwood floor at home. In the meantime, I'll try not to forget to do them at the gym.

Total: 3.1mi (5k); 27.04min; ??? cal.; ??? lb.

[Back-dated on 10/11/2005]

A 4 mile run today by Elliot Bay. It was in the upper 50s -- perfect temperature for running. The image is a nice color satellite aerial of where I ran. Can you see the Space Needle? (It's a little bit south of the football field.)

Total: 4.09mi Run (7:23/mile); 439 calories; ??? lb. (forgot again!)

A very wet day today. It was just before 2pm when I decided to go for a ride. It's been raining here almost every day in Seattle for the past week week. It was another gray day but it didn't look like it was raining. I checked the radar image on my WeatherBug program and there was a huge green spot all around Vancouver Island and Juan de Fuca Straight, but nothing around Seattle. So I was a bit surprised that it was drizzling when I stepped outside and within 15 minutes it was raining steadily--the kind of rain that sticks around for a few hours and if you're driving you need your windshield wiper set on low, but medium if you have a car in front of you. The back of the yellow jersey was black by the time I got back but easily washed away with a quick rinse. Riding with the maillot jaune--got to love it!


Total: 14.3mi (Bike); 546 calories; ??? lb.

Another day at the gym, and another good one, on the treadmill this time. Here is the breakdown:

0-.5: 6mph
.5-1.0: 6.5
1.0-1.5: 7.0
1.5-2.0: 7.5
2.0-3.75: 8.0
3.75-4.00: 6.0

Total: 4.0mi Run; 475 cal; ??? lb.

A great day at the gym today -- one of the hardest spin classes I've done. The class runs for an hour and today consisted of 30 second to 2 minute sprints along with up to 5 minute climbs with very high resistance.

Total: 15mi Bike (spin class); ~500 cal.; 143 lb.