Month: March 2015

Why Worry

Warning- this was a little disjointed before last weekends’ race now it may seem even more so.

I’ve been a little all over the place lately. I don’t think I’m in a funk at the moment but I feel it getting closer. Maybe that’s why I fixated on this damn song so quickly. It’s not like it’s awesome but it’s been bouncing around my brain and finding ways into this blog and my Instagram over the last month. I need to figure this out so I can branch out the music options a bit, hehe.I’ve been so tired lately and things just ache. My head, my legs, my ankle, etc. My stomach responded to the new medication for a bit but then decided that was just a trick. Even I am sick of talking about my damn stomach. But on that note, I see my gastro again next week so maybe we will try something new, fingers crossed. Oh, I dream big, don’t I? 🙂

As for my aches and pains in my legs, I know it’s not overuse. Despite my goal of 1000 miles this year, my mileage has remained average and steady. Like I wrote in my February recap, I am not going to break myself to hit some arbitrary mileage number. It wasn’t until writing that statement that a light bulb lit up in my head. Even then, it took a while to turn on. Kind of like the way the original compact fluorescent bulbs used to warm up slowly? That was me. But once the idea was there I couldn’t shake it. I fought with myself on every run because while part of me realized it was something I needed, it also made me feel like a quitter. That or I was admitting defeat. A part of me still feels that a little bit.

Where I am going with this? Re-assessing goals. I set a goal to break 2:00 in the half this year and I am not changing that goal. It will happen this year but it is no longer my goal for SLO. While I am loving my training plan for the sense of direction that it gives me, I am not 100%. SLO is 37 days away now and I still haven’t figured things out stomach wise. I almost skipped Wine Country because I was afraid it might interfere with the goal to break 2:00. I finally decided that was not a good enough reason to pass on one of my favorite races. Turns out, running it was the better choice.

I’m also changing my plans for SLO because I want to have fun that weekend. I want to enjoy the expo and not worry about how much walking I am doing. I want to enjoy the ambassador meet and greet and meet all the new ambassadors. We are tentatively planning to all do dinner that night and I would like to not worry about how what I eat will affect a huge goal the next morning. I want to enjoy the amazing scenery and crowds that are a part of this race. Don’t get me wrong, I am running that half to the best of my ability and I will have no complaints if I PR. But whether or not I do will not color my view of that weekend or my performance in a negative way. I had enough of that in 2014.

I love running and want to continue to improve but I am not going to lose the fun that I find in it as well. So, yes, a part of me feels like a quitter taking a step back. I also think this made more sense before I pulled off a 2:06 at Wine Country. However I made the decision to push my goal back before registering for Wine Country. So maybe the reason I ran it well was because I wasn’t stressed. Maybe I put forward my best time since October 2013 because I finally remembered that one of my strengths running wise is in not stressing. Well and being healthy, but I think I’ll actually break 2 before they figure out what’s going on with my stomach. Ha! I am sticking to my training plan because I want to improve as a runner long-term not just for a short-term goal. This way I won’t want to cry when I am nowhere near the prescribed pace for 400 repeats. Give me some time and I will nail those paces. Before last week I was nervous about the hills at SLO- now- bring em’ on.

So, tell me your thoughts?

Good choice- bad choice?

Is this quitting or being smart?

Do you have another song co I can get this one out of my head?!

Wine Country Half- Recap

Otherwise known as the tale of 8 seconds.

I registered for Wine Country knowing that it might not be the best idea given my recent hamstring issues. But, it being the very first half marathon I ran, I really do love this race, hills and all. I wanted to run it partially because of that and partially because it was year number 5 for me and you can’t break that streak right? That said, I was going into it with low expectations. I had a rough week with troubles sleeping. I pushed too hard on Thursday’s run and was feeling it in left leg. Plus the weather was predicted to be hot and cloudy. I was ok with the hot forecast but not so much with the cloudy. Clouds = moisture = asthma. So, very low expectations. Which I was ok with as I have been having some thought battles with myself while running lately. But more on that next time.

Race swag

She claimed it.

Saturday- So not a restful day before the race. I worked in the morning and had a full afternoon of errands and tire rotations. Lunch was mostly skipped due to that- smoothie for the win! In fact I ate less on Friday and Saturday then I have in weeks, let alone leading up to a race. I tried to catch part of the tennis team’s match but it was seriously over 90 and there was no shade at the courts so I only lasted 20 minutes. I picked up my bib and swag and did manage to drive the course. Yes, I know it well but I wanted to make sure there were no surprises. The plan was to update my playlist and go to bed early that night. Ha! I have been having troubles with my phone and it crapped out on me. It took me 2 hours to get it running again and by then it was late. So no new playlist. I ran to a mix of Fall Out Boy, Set It Off and Papa Roach.

Race morning came all to soon. Since it was so close, I slept as long as possible before heading out. The lane to the grass lot where we park always backs up so I briefly thought about parking in a little lot about 1/4 of mile from the start line. I figured that wouldn’t be a horrible warm up but nah. I parked in the grass lot and wound up a stones throw from the start line. Literally, I could have thrown a rock and hit it. I ate nothing prior to the race and when I could have gotten out and warmed up a bit I stayed in my warm car. The morning had dawned a little cooler than expected. I was just feeling meh. It was kind of nice not being nervous. 🙂 While I had low expectations, I had told my mother I was aiming for 2:15, but really thought it would be more like 2:20. The plan was to text her at mile 10. I headed to the start about 3 minutes til. I met up with H real quick to say hi and then we were off!

Smiles at the end. :) — Smiles at the end. 🙂

Miles 1-3- 9:36, 9:13, 9:15

And I went out of the gate too fast, what else is new? There is fairly large hill at the end of this race so I always intentionally positive split this race. A slightly fast start is one thing but this was ridiculous. There was no way I was maintaining that. Annoyingly enough, I had to stop and tie my shoe during mile 1. Ugh. The hills start in mile 2. I kept telling myself to slow down but my legs would just not listen. I even went so far as to try and bottleneck myself. I tried to intentionally run behind groups of people in an effort to slow down. No luck, but first hill done.

Miles 4-6- 9:19, 9:27, 9:28

Still too fast. I caught up to H around mile 3, it was a nice little check in. I admitted that I was going way too fast for my current fitness but had decided to just go with it. I figured I would hang on as long as I could but knew I was probably going to hit the wall hard at some point. But I was enjoying the views, the vineyards and the clouds and the morning sun and was having fun so I decided to go with it. My breathing was on point, so I figured why not? Just past mile 4, we turn onto the airport road. The road is Trashed. It makes the pic I posted the other day look like a walk in the park. After running this race so many times, I had a plan. I hopped onto the dirt shoulder and ran there for the next 3 miles. It was shale and slightly uneven but it was awesome. I lost H around mile 5. Miles 7-9- 9:25, 9:05, 9:03

Miles 6-9 are a series of rolling hills, I guess all my hills are finally paying off. Where the heck did those splits come from?! I was still feeling good but lost all math computing skills. I hit mile 8 at 1:15. Looking at my watch, I quickly did the math and knew that if I maintained a 10 minute pace I would hit the finish line around 2:07. However that didn’t take into account the big hill at the end so my math told me there was no way I was PR’ing or beating last year’s course time. I was really ok with that. I felt great and was having fun running and rocking out to music and that was the point. Do you see the problem with my math?

Just one of the on course spectators. (taken Saturday)

Miles 10-12- 9:44, 10:09, 9:34

Oh hello wall, nice of you to join me. My breathing had gone from nice and easy to labored. My left leg was feeling tighter as well. Both in my hamstring and my IT band. I took a walk break, texted my mother, and used my inhaler and then pushed on. I also used that walk break to restart a particular song. I have developed a weird fascination with Why Worry by Set It Off, I deliberately started the race with it and used that break to start it over. Guess it helped because look at mile 12.

Mile 13- 11:01

Damn hill. I walk this hill every year. If my math is right (ha!) the hill has an elevation grade of 10+%. It kicks my ass just walking. My heart rate usually increases so I end up walking more at the top too. But I know that going in so seeing an 11 minute split was fine by me. A girl ran past me on the way up, telling me not to give up and just keep running. Nope, I knew what I was doing worked for me. She started walking about 10 feet later. See, the hill is just a beast. I started running again but I was tired and it was so much harder than before. I pushed on though because I was so close to the finish. I really should have paid more attention to my watch. It didn’t occur to me until I was crossing the line what time it was. I crossed the finish line at 2:06:05.

Are you FREAKIN’ kidding me?! My PR is 2:05:57. 8 seconds. 8 seconds.

This race gives you a medal and a wine glass and a bottle of water at the finish. I always feel like I am going to drop something. My mother usually ends up rescuing the wine glass. 🙂 I had seen H a little ways behind me during the tiny out and back so I knew she wasn’t too far behind me, so we waited for her to cross. After chatting a bit, she headed off to find her co-workers and I headed off to stretch in the grass. I can think of 2-3 places where I could have shaved off 8 seconds. My math had been so off from mile 8 on and I just didn’t pay enough attention to my watch after that to know how close I was to my PR. Partly because I hadn’t thought I had a shot in hell of getting anywhere near that time. It honestly hadn’t occurred to me. That said, I am damn proud of how I ran this race. Yes, I started too fast but for the most part, I managed to maintain that. I ran the hills smart and I think running in the dirt for so long was a huge help. I also finally ran the freaking tangents! Which for the windy part meant running along the center yellow line. I just had to dodge a car every now and again. 🙂

Hills, hills, and more hills, I still love this race. Great set up, great views and always a good crowd. Did I mention that the male/ female winner gets their weight in wine? I will be back for another Wine Country.

Feeling the Need…To be Stupid

I stopped speed work a few weeks ago when I started feeling tightness in my hamstring. After some slower weeks, and more stretching, I figured I would give it a shot. The plan called for 6-8 400 repeats with a 200 m recovery jog in between. Followed by 3 200m strides with a 200 recovery in between, all sandwiched between a 15 minute warmup and 15 minute cool down. That sounded like too much of a push so I adapted it some- you know Slacker Style. 🙂My warm up turned into just over 16 minutes as I ran through a horde of gnats. I then ran while flailing my arms around my face trying to disperse them. Yuck!! Oh well, the people in the playground area probably had a good laugh. Since I was running the intervals at the lake path I figured I would run the intervals on the back side of the lake and take a longer recovery on the front side when running through the parking lot and playground area. I completed 4 400m intervals and 3 200m strides. Except the lake path isn’t the track and I don’t know how to program that into my Garmin so it was actually 4 1/4 mile repeats and 3 .12 mile strides. That is what my brain was capable of computing. 🙂

So for my 1/4 mile intervals I hit 2:04, 2:08, 2:16, 1:59– 8:00-8:24 pace.

My strides (.11-.13 miles) came in at :49, :59, :59—7:32-7:58 pace.

I also didn’t check what pace I should have been doing so there was less pressure on me. Which was a good thing because for a 1:59:00 half I should have been hitting 1:30 for each 400, ouch. And when I plug in my last half, I should have been hitting 1:46. Double ouch. Whatever, the paces I hit were still faster paces than I have been hitting lately. Bonus was that my hamstring never complained while running or later that evening. I wasn’t all out sprinting ever, I made sure to keep my breathing fairly steady and I didn’t want to aggravate my left leg. So I am happy with how my return to speed work went. I was super excited that I finally hit 5 miles at 49:30, I was under 50 minutes for the first time in months, but I hit lap instead of stop on my Garmin. Boo!!!

Thursday was supposed to be an easy run. I was looking forward to both the easy pace and that I had a half day so I was able to head to the river path to get in a run. It was a little warm but there was a pretty good breeze. I really do like that path, it has black top, concrete and dirt. It’s a good mix. There are more than a few intersections (housing tracks) to cross but most of the cars always let me cross first. Even when I would like the break. 🙂 I had a problem with the easy part though. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I should have been aiming for a 10:45 average this close to a race. What do I do? Run an 8:26 mile. Seriously!? Yes, I know I should have slowed down but once I was part way through, I wanted to finish it. Stupid. What was I thinking?

So, yeah, I was a little sore today. I made sure to stretch and ice a bit. I wore compression socks inside my boots as well- pinstripe dress and argyle compressions socks. I’m so stylish. Then again who dressed me for Thursday’s run-

Stupidity aside, I am looking forward to the race. I am not treating it like a race but a long run. Just with a couple hundred friends and aid stations along the way. I love this race and I say this knowing the hill at the end will kick my ass, just like it has before. I like to call it the death hill, partly because of its’ incline and partly because it’s at mile 12. It’s time to add a new wine glass to my collection, too bad I don’t drink. 🙂 I just wish I didn’t have such a busy day tomorrow. With work and errands and packet pick up, I already feel short on time. Crap- I need to go to sleep!

For reasons why I am so nostalgic about Wine Country, read here and here.

Who else is racing this weekend? If you’re in CA, it’s gonna be a hot one!

Ever done the exact wrong thing on your last workout before a race?

Did you ever notice that average pace on the splits screen is different than that on the main screen? The main screen has Thursday’s average pace at 10:18 but above says 10:47.

Testing the Waters

After a great hike on Saturday, I was ready for a long run. Or I was cautiously optimistic for one. My training plan called for 12-14 miles but I knew that was highly unlikely. I was eager but also lazy. 🙂 I was aiming for 8-10. This was my test run. If I felt good throughout the run and after I was registering for Wine Country. Which is now 4 days away.

As much as I love daylight savings time and was looking forward to it, there was no way that I was running in the morning. I was looking forward to sleeping in. Besides my favorite time to run is the afternoon, so why change? Ha! I set out around 2:30 for my run. What I forgot to take into account was the unseasonably warm weather we have been having. High 70’s- low 80’s when I set out. This actually sounds like my perfect running weather, and it is, when I am used to it. I’m just not there yet. 🙂I kept it slow and easy and felt pretty good. Because I am a sucker for punishment, I did my usual hill repeats. Why am I not better at hills? Actually I know that part of my problem is the downhills. I tend to slow down when running down a street. Which is odd because I practically throw myself down trails where there is more chance to hurt myself. 🙂 That’s a little backwards. I need to work on keeping my pace more consistent on downhills. It was warm so I was actually managing to keep my pace just under 11:00 for once. I have a route that if I loop twice is 10 miles but then I would have to run past my driveway halfway through. I always end up doing little loops instead and end up shorting myself mileage. Which drives me crazy because in theory I am covering the same ground just in a different way. Ugh. I had just completed mile 8 and was trying to figure out where I went wrong again when my phone went off. Texts from my brother and mother, they wanted to do family dinner…soon. I was still a mile from home plus I needed to try and make myself look (and smell) presentable and that was only if I gave up on 10 miles. I’d kept walking while trying to figure out the plans so that added to getting back home brought me to 9.25 miles for the day. Not what I was aiming for but pretty good. Once cleaned up, I proceeded to eat way too many chips and salsa at dinner with my family. Oops!

It was hot but I got to test put my new skirt!! Too bad I suck at selfies, haha!

I felt pretty good after my run. I was achy but not in any unusual ways. Sitting through dinner in a small booth so soon after running didn’t make it any worse. I had stretched briefly before leaving for dinner so I made sure to stretch really well later as well. I rolled a bit but not too much, I’ve learned my muscles get real cranky if I try to push it with the roller. Also is it any wonder I ache some when the roads I run look this-

Do you slow down or speed up when running downhills?

What do your roads look like?

What’s your weakness- chips and salsa or a breadbasket?

Horrible to Harmony

This week was rough. Which was shown partly in my lack of posting.

The Horrible-

So in an effort to not whine too much, here’s a brief recap. Monday was a typical Monday except that my stomach graduated from asshat to bastard level and that continued through Wednesday. Good thing I don’t run on Monday’s right? Tuesday I was all set to run but my dad had a phone emergency (he’s on my plan). There was no way for me to run and go to AT&T and still eat dinner at a time that wouldn’t piss off my digestive system further. So no run. Wednesday- usual rest day but I needed and wanted to run after missing the day before. After finishing up at work I headed to the lake path hoping I had enough time to get in 3.5 miles before it got too dark. It was a horrible, miserable run. It wasn’t even because of my achy legs or hamstrings. Those felt fine. My stomach was horrible, my toes hurt and my head was not happy. I called it at 2.5 miles.

Waking on Thursday, I found that the headache that had been playing peak-a-boo for days had turned into a full on migraine. Stupid hormones. I thought about calling in but I am covering another location while their manager is out and knew I couldn’t do that. One plus, is that it’s a shorter commute. Never having worked in this location before I kind of felt like I was putting out fires all day and I didn’t know where the fire extinguisher was. The day ran late and by then my head hurt so bad and I was so nauseated that I didn’t even attempt to run. Friday was more of the same head wise, work was a little calmer though. My head hurt so bad that I actually took 2 Aleve for it Thursday. One thing I’ve never mentioned here is that I dislike taking pills. Maybe because I have so many prescriptions as it is but I rarely to the point of never take something for pain. My go to is an icepack for pretty much everything. I didn’t realize how shocking it would be for me to take something though. I had some interesting reactions when I mentioned it to some people. It was useless anyways, they didn’t help. Oddly the only thing that helped was food. Not only food but greasy food. I ate In n Out 2 days in a row for lunch. The pain actually eased for a few hours. But I was so ready for the weekend by the time work was over. Harmony-

Saturday I was super tired and though my headache had eased, it was still lingering. I slept in before heading to SLO with my mom. It’s kind of a monthly thing. We had both taken running gear so we could potentially go on an easy hike. I wasn’t sure I would be up to it but I felt like a sloth. Particularly after 2 days of fast food. 😦 After a good day of shopping we headed to the Harmony Headlands. It’s short, 4 miles out and back, easy, not technical at all, and has a gorgeous turn around. Let’s be clear, this was not a run, it was supposed to be an easy hike. Which for the most part it was, but damn my mom walks fast. It was hard to keep up sometimes. I know I had an off week but come on. But that’s ok, the scenery made up for it. Plus the weather was awesome. I had some phone problems so I didn’t get a lot of pics from the start of the trail but I figured it out by the end.

All in all, it was a great way to end the day. My legs were happy and my head was good too. And we may have seen whales!!! Well just the spouts, still cool though.

How was your week/ weekend?

Ever had a headache that wanted food? Or am I just weird?