Author: Fallon @ Slacker Runner

Ramblin On 67

It’s been a while, I feel some rambling coming on.

I’ve started to realize how much I lie to myself. Ok, maybe not lie but definite denial. And the oddest thing made me realize it. We were talking about movie tastes at work and I was saying that I am not a fan of anything violent like horror movies or crime movies. Then that evening I realized what a liar I was as I was watching a TV show about mostly about murders and reading my book about homicide detectives. Lies!

What’s sad is I was convinced I was telling the truth. So what else have I erroneously convinced myself of?

Running has been more hit than miss these days. I am trying not to stress about it but stress comes so easy these days.

It doesn’t help that we seem to have skipped Spring. I feel like we went from 50 to 90. I am not ready for that.

I finally caved and started watching The Mandalorian. Still not sure how I feel about it. And I am going to get some hate for this but is it me or does it have Firefly vibes?

I was planning on going to 2 concerts this spring. Papa Roach and Shinedown were playing in LA- April and May, respectively- and damn it, I was going. Infest turned 20 in April and I was finally going to see them. Instead, all concerts are canceled and I am blasting music in my car like I am 20. Who needs to hear anyways?

Oh, I bought my first pair of blue light blocking glasses. Not sure how I feel about those either.

Oh and change is coming… but I can’t talk about it. Ha!

Happy Friday! I’m looking forward to my weekend nap.

How are you holding up?

17-Again

Another week, another… well something.

I think I need to stop waiting for things to calm down. It’s just adding stress. I feel like a giant stress ball these days. I know I am not the only one. I used to think I handled stress well. Ha!

Then the heatwave hit town and people got super cranky. And road ragey. I swear there were almost 3 accidents on my way home from work. Someone just let me hide.

And help, my mother keeps sending me TikTok videos. 😂

I made it out for a run on Monday! Except, I didn’t. All day long I was looking forward to my run. I changed after work and headed for my neighborhood. Once I started it was like the past few weeks caught up to me and I was so tired and just not feeling it. So instead I walked and breathed and just tried to look at things differently. Like how did I miss all the 50-60 foot tall trees? Sometimes it pays to slow down. 2 miles.

Plan was to take Tuesday off and run on Wednesday. I mean it was Earth Day! Except I didn’t run and right now I can’t remember why.

I did make it out on Thursday. It was warm and I was slow but other than that I felt pretty ok. I am getting the feeling that I am going to need to adjust to the heat rather quickly this year. 3ish miles.

I actually took my running gear on Friday but I don’t know why. HA!

Saturday morning arrived and I woke knowing the the migraine that had been lurking around the corner was now front and center. I tried to sleep in to fight it but failed. I barely did anything but hide in a dark room and rest on Saturday. Boo.

Sunday was more dealing with the migraine hangover. And a fight with a broken ceiling fan. We were not defeated though and a new fan is spinning away as I type.

So, yeah 5ish miles for the week. I am really struggling with motivation right now. Again.

How was your week?

Take a Moment

I had such a plan.

And it was a good one!

Disclaimer: I received a pair of special release Knockaround sunglasses to participate in a custom campaign as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!

Knockaround wants to talk about plogging and the planet? I’m in, sign me up! I’ve been toying with the idea of adopting a street in my town. This would just give me that last push! My mother and I were talking about a big trash pick up party- us and her tennis team- we were making plans.

Then the world went a little sideways.

While litter still drives me absolutely mad, suddenly the idea of plogging even with gloves was a little off-putting. Especially since I kind of didn’t venture outdoors except to go to work in the first weeks. Which was not good for my psyche.

Turns out I can’t just hide inside anymore, running has opened up so much more to me. You know, I was the treasurer of the hiking and environmental club in high school? Except I don’t remember any actual hiking. Hmmm. Then I graduated high school, started working full time and got lazy.

It wasn’t until I started running that I rediscovered how much I loved nature and being outside. Part of that came from the running of my first real trail race. Which was a complete accident. I swear there was nothing said about trails in the race description. Oops.

I digress.

With the change in circumstances, Knockaround decided to focus on how awesome the Earth is. And I needed the encouragement and reminder to take a moment (or few) and just take in what nature had to offer. I feel like I needed something else to focus on and just try to decompress. Which has become a lot harder these days. I’ve been sticking to my neighborhood but have been finding the beauty where it is. We could all use that right now.

Mother Nature is showing us how resilient she is right now and we need to take notes. I’ll keep taking in all the nature moments I can right now.

Of course in my favorite shades- Knockaround. And I just ordered myself another pair. You can’t have too many, right?

How are you decompressing these days?

16- Maintain

This weeks snack obsession- Cheetos. The crunchy ones.

I have mentioned I am a stress eater, right?

Actually last week was a little better. I think. A little calmer at work, a few less carbs. Anyone else eating an impressive amount of banana bread?? Runner was better and my sleep was…well, can’t win ’em all.

I can’ remember anything particular about Monday so let’s just move on to Tuesday. I headed out for a few miles after work. Still running my neighborhood but I park at another work office not far from my house. Anything to avoid my damn driveway. I kept the run short and sweet- 2 miles– it was almost 80 and everyone and their brother was out. I’ve been running variations of this route for almost 10 years; I think I saw more people on Tuesday than I had in those 10 years combined.

Wednesday was another warm day so I didn’t even try to run. Knew the weather was changing soon.

Yep, a 20 degree temp drop on Thursday meant empty roads. I headed out for an easy-ish 5k after work. Easy-ish- I am so out of shape. And even though I am skipping my driveway, I am still running more hills than in the last year or so. This run saw a few hundred elevation gain/loss. Beginning to realize running more places over the past few years actually made me lazier. Oops.

Friday was stress and I just wanted to go home and hide. So I did. I resorted to one of my comfort movies and watched Battleship for the umpteenth time.

Saturday, I ventured out for a few essentials. Then I headed out for a few miles in the early afternoon. 5 miles. Longest run since Napa Valley. Ouch. The middle miles were fairly steady but I was dragging by mile 5. The only upside is that I didn’t allow myself to stop- no breaks. It’s been a while since I did that. Ok, I did stop once for a moment but that was because I had to make a route choice when I was essentially chasing another runner. That kind of doesn’t work right now.

Sunday, I woke with a knot in the hamstring area of my left leg. Odd, never felt anything there before. I was debating if running would help or hurt when my choice was made for me. I ended up being called into work and was there until dinner. I did finally prove that I could make it to my desk phone from the other side of the building before it went to voicemail. The difference between heels and running shoes- ha!

10ish miles and 3 runs for the week. Still small but a marked improvement over previous weeks.

How was your week?

15- Anxiety

I don’t have all the answers.
We’re making it up as we go.
I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve forgotten something vitally important.
I feel like I am letting everyone down.
I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I can’t shut my brain up these past few weeks. I can barely sleep Sunday and Monday nights. I need to run more than I am, not just because I am out of shape but my brain needs the cutoff. That’s one plus to being so out of running fitness, all my brain power goes to trying not break on the run.

I told myself to run everyday after work last week, but I didn’t. On Thursday I swapped the run with venturing off for groceries after work. My hope was that Thursday evening would be better than Saturday morning. It wasn’t bad but it was errily quiet too.

As an extra boost of motivation, I signed up for a few virtual races one night while staring at the tv. One of those races was the Giants Race- Sacramento 5K. Why not?

I headed out for my virtual race on Saturday afternoon. It was nice and sunny, and I figured why not? Even for a virtual race, I went way too fast out of the gate and flamed out hard by the end. I knew I was out of shape and this just kind of proved it ha! It took me 36 minutes to run a 5k! My PR is like 10 minutes faster, ha! Once I added in the warm up, I was just under for 4 miles for the day. Oh and I broke the cardinal rule of “race” day- wore something new. Oh the chafe!

I meant to run on Sunday. It was cold and cloudy and kind of perfect. But that also made it perfect to laze around under a blanket and watch tv. Can you guess which one won?

So this week, I have a new goal… try to get my head on straight. Everything else will fall in line right?

How was your week?