Author: Fallon @ Slacker Runner

Week 35:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 7

Upcoming Races-

SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

So, I’m finally on the right week. Did anyone notice that I posted “week 32” 3 times? Haha, I really need to pay more attention when I copy and paste.

Last week was fairly uneventful outside of running which is fine by me. Plus this week is shaping up to be crazy so I needed a calm one.

This was a surprisingly solid training week. It had it’s ups and downs but when it came to sticking to the plan, it was pretty solid.

The plan called for a step back week with a 5K race instead of a long run. So it should have looked something like this- 4 mile run, 3 mile run, 5K race, maybe an extra easy run if I was feeling it and 4 Liift4 workouts.

Monday-3.1 miles
My legs do not like running the day after a long run. Not even a recovery run, my right leg and hip protest but running on Monday was fit my schedule. I kept it slow and easy and a little shorter than plan called for but I knew there was only so much my leg was going to put up with. That said, it was a decent few miles.

Tuesday- Liift4
I really meant to do this in the morning but nope. Another late night work out. We’re in the final 2 weeks of the challenge and my arms were shaking.

Wednesday- Rest
Oops. I meant to run but was easily distracted on the way home.

Thursday- 4.2 miles/ Liift4 legs
My hip was so stinkin’ sore. I’ve been trying to use my chair this week and I just can’t, it hurt my hip. Or aggravates my IT band. Whatever. By Thursday, my hip was pissed by 3 days of trying to make do. I had to stop and stretch it out various times throughout the run. I didn’t feel like things really loosened up until the middle of mile 3. By then I was done. Then at home I did the Liift4 leg workout not knowing what a sweat fest I was in for. 😛

Friday-Rest
After the brutal leg workout the day before and having a race the next day, I thought rest was the best choice. If you read Friday’s post, you know I wasn’t exactly stoked on the race but one of the upsides of the new location was that it was a 10 minute drive from work. So I hustled down on my lunch break to pick up my bib and shirt. Funny thing- a local runner I’ve met before was working packet pick up so I chatted for a moment but could tell that he had no idea who I was. Ha!

Saturday- SLO Ultra 5K
Race recap to come. I’ll just leave you with this-

Sunday- Liift4
I had hoped to add in that extra easy run but without giving away race details, I still wasn’t feeling quite right. I decided to just play by ear and see how things went and that ended up being the Liift4 workout late in the evening. I am fine with that.

10.7 miles for the week. Low but I did all the required workouts for the week. I missed a Liift4 workout but that was also deliberate- I tend to pass on the ones that are entirely HIIT because I end up breaking myself. Seriously. I cannot do a mountain climber without hurting myself- no matter how many modifications I make.

How was your week?

Rambling On 40

40?? Hot damn!

It’s Friday and it’s a 3 day weekend- shout it out!

I am looking forward to some nice down time this weekend, I don’t know about you but I really need that extra day. However I have to get through a race first.

I have a 5K on Saturday. A “trail” race. This race organization irritates me but I keep signing up for them. I’m already cranky. I have a feeling this “trail” race is going to be more golf course than trail. I am really hoping I am wrong. Only time will tell. But things were off to a rocky start when an email went out months back saying -Surprise! Venue Change! Oh and the 50 miler and marathon runners have all been bumped to the 50K and the 5 miler became a 5K. Ummmm???? The only distance that stayed the same is the half but I am not in trail half marathon shape right now. Although the last 4ish miles with a downhill elevation loss look like my favorite kind of trail. Sorry -fire road. Ok, I’ll stop being bitter. Maybe I’m wrong.

I’ve wanted to try running in my new PureFlow’s again but with a race coming I didn’t want to aggravate the blister anymore. Boo. Thankfully, I think it is nearly all gone.

My October continues to get more and more insane. I just found out my work trip may be 2 weeks. I have 2 travel races. I am currently only home 1 weekend and that weekend is potentially filled by a local half but then I found a trail race down by LA that looks super awesome. Ever heard of Space Rock? Someone tell me to stop!!!!! I should stay home. I should…. right?

What’s your random this week?

Week 32:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 6

Upcoming Races-

SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

This was an odd one.

I ran but not enough. I lifted but not enough. I had an odd headache on Wednesday, my side pain became a little worse and then my back started hurting towards the end of the week. Really?? I can’t blame the lifting because I barely did it this week.

I also stupidly dropped a migraine pill down the side of my recliner on Thursday evening and spent 3 days tearing the chair apart, vacuuming sides trying to find the damn thing. Meanwhile my cat was confused as to why she wasn’t allowed in my room for 3 days. Surprisingly the chair still holds together after I put it back together- although I feel a little crooked.

This training week called for a step back week and a 5K race. However that didn’t fit my not running life schedule. Plus I have a 5k scheduled for the following week. So I decided to flip weeks 6 and 7. Except somehow I still screwed it up.

The week should have played out like this- a 6 mile run, 5 mile run and a 9 mile long run. 4 Liift4 workouts sprinkled around for cross training.

And reality?

Monday-Liift4
I had planned on running after work but we got out really late. Combine that with who beats who game I play with the cleaners and that I had already seen their truck pull in and I just decided to push the run to Tuesday. Then I ended up stuck in traffic on the way home. However I stuck to the lifting plan.

Tuesday-Rest
I had plans for running and plans for Liift4 but my side pain which is mostly tolerable these days was intense. Something I did that day must have angered it but I don’t know what. But considering I am 8 months in without a diagnosis who knows???

Wednesday-1.2 miles
Epic fail! I headed to the lake path for a 4 miler but all of my gear was in the wrong places in my car. As I was getting my pepper spray from my gym bag as opposed to my pack, I put my car key down on the front seat. Can you guess what comes next? Yep. Locked my key in my car. Tried all my doors and pushing the windows down. Nope. I talked my parents into getting my spare and driving it to me on the caveat that I take them to dinner after. 😛 I then squeezed in a lap of the lake while waiting for them. In all honesty, I may have called it at a lap anyways as there were 2 total creeper cars on the backside of the lake.

Thursday-5 miles -tempo intervals
Not gonna lie, after the previous days’ fiasco and the last week of rough running, I was not feeling this run. And for some reason, I thought I had a 40 minute tempo on the plan. We were under an air quality warning the latter half of the week so I broke the tempo into intervals- it was supposed to 15-15-10 but it was more like 12-12-6. I ran a completely different route than normal and there was a hellacious headwind that damn near shoved me backwards in the last interval. I made up for it in the cool down though when I inadvertently hit an 8:30 pace for 1/2 mile thanks to The Big Gigantic. Oops, not how to cool down. Then the chair drama started.

Friday-Liift4
More chair drama. I searched for hours and tore the thing apart to no luck. Grrr.

Saturday-Rest
I had a work event at the homeless shelter in the morning. I was thankful for the chance to help out, I’ve missed helping out since it’s been a few years since we ran a dinner night each month. This event was a walk and I was calling on all years of race experience working the registration tables.
Afterwards I went home and performed more surgery on the chair and was finally successful. The pill was found! After that I was in a cleaning mode so I kept organizing a few things before running some errands and then being lazy.

Sunday- 8.23 miles
When my alarm went off in the morning, I kind of growled at it. I just wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t feeling like doing much of anything. I made a quick trip to SLO to the Running Warehouse to exchange the Neuro’s and then came home and took what was supposed to be a 20 minute nap. An hour later I finally decided to head out for my run. I wasn’t feeling like a long run anymore so I figured I would just run a short run and break in the new shoes instead.

And yet, I kept running. Up one hill and down the other. There’s a reason I don’t do long runs in my neighborhood. I stopped twice to BodyGlide my heels as I felt a blister forming from the new shoes. I told myself to bring a band aid but forgot. Oops. A funny moment happened around halfway when I ran past a car that had been in an accident. It looked like it had been rear ended- it still had the bumper of the other car attached- and the it had hit something else. They must have it had towed there but it still smelled like a car accident- that metal on metal on burnt plastic smell? Apparently that brings back memories for me as I kind of started to hyperventilate. 😛 I’ve been in a few accidents but until today I wouldn’t have said that smell would trigger any reaction. On the return route I went a different way.
For not wanting to run my long run, I ended up running all 8. Only to check the plan later and realize it should have been 9. Oops.

14.52 miles for the week. How did I ever come close to 1000 miles in a year once?

How was your week?

Rambling On 39

Ever had a case of the yawns? I was yawning all day on Thursday. I just couldn’t seem to stop.

My Nissan would not let me lock my keys in my car. I can officially confirm that my Ford is not that smart. Neither am I. Lesson learned the hard way.

Speaking of my Ford- I joke that it’s the gutless wonder. Yet, somehow this week, every time I got behind someone- on the freeway, the scenic route, etc., cars kept moving over. Do I look scary???😂

I finished my Person of Interest binge on Netflix. I started a few months ago but took a break when the last season started because I knew what was coming. I won’t lie- I acted like a 5 year old and hid the screen with my hand during part of the series finale. 😂 Still can’t handle it.

Now I need something new to watch.

This week has been odd with the exercise. Makes me wonder how the weekend is going to go.

All the schools have officially started again out here which means my commute has become a little more time consuming. 3 school zones in 3 different cities.😒

But in awesome news- the weather forecast is in the 80’s for the next week!!! Party!!!

What are you up to this weekend?

Week 32:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 5

Upcoming Races-

SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

If I had one word to describe this week, it would be- pain.

I think I watched more stupid movies than ever before. Netflix shamed me with “are you still watching” a few times. 😛I kind of buried myself in a dark hole, I was barely even paying attention to those movies, I just needed background noise (there were some good ones though).

The plan for this week was 3 runs- 4 miles, 40 min tempo, 8 mile long run- and 4 Liift4 workouts. Reality, however-

Monday- 2.5 miles
I was looking forward to my run after work. I thought I had 5 miles on the plan -oops – but I was on board with that. The bottom half of me apparently was not. Right from my first few steps, things felt off. My legs hurt- not just sore but hurt. I walked the first half mile hoping they would loosen up but no luck. I tried running and it felt like the pain was deep in my bones. WTH? A little over a mile in, I stopped to try and stretch it out and almost screamed. It hurt from my hips to my knees but in the bones. I turned around and hobbled back to the car. I didn’t know what was going on but it wasn’t worth risking an injury.

Tuesday- Liift4
My legs were still not right so I focused on my form and modified anything that required any jumping. I kind of do that anyway as I know my limitations but I really did it now.

Wednesday- Liift4
I drove to the lake path to run. I had changed, I had my pack in my lap but I wasn’t feeling it. Like deep down, really NOT feeling it. I’m not a believer in there are no bad runs. Yes, there are. The times in the past that I have forced myself to run when I feel that against it I have either hurt myself or broken a piece of running gear. I drove away without running but I wasn’t completely lazy.

Thursday- Migraine
Bring on the pain. I woke up to the oncoming pain but hoped it would ease up. Both because I had an early morning meeting and because I wanted to run after work. I finally admitted defeat around 11:30 and did something I rarely do- I went home sick. Then I spent the rest of the day napping, watching movies and alternating between being too hot or too cold.

Friday-Liift4 ish
I still had a migraine but I made it through work. I attempted Liift4 in the evening but I only pulled off the lifting portion. When it transitioned to the HIIT work, I tried one move and was like, umm, not happening.

Saturday-8 miles
Maybe it was the migraine that was still around but this was the hottest 8 miles of my life. In hindsight, I maybe shouldn’t have tried for my long run after 2 days of pain. I started my run around 9:15 and while that is early for me; it was already hot. Miles 1 and 2 were good and I was optimistic. I slowed during mile 3 but I was also entering the section I lovingly call the “surface of the sun” so that was to be expected. However mile 4 went south. It got super warm, I was too hot, I was feeling dehydrated and I almost threw up. I was almost out of water and I was only 4 miles in. I rerouted back to my car but I had slowed to a shuffle. I refilled at my car and sat there a bit as it was fully in the shade. By then I needed less than 2 miles so I dumped my pack thinking running without it would be cooler and just shoved my phone in a pocket and carried a water bottle and my pepper spray. I then looped the river trail and the neighborhood until I hit 8. This route needs some shade!

Sunday- Rest
I may have gotten in my long run but I was kind of broken the rest of the weekend. Not only did the migraine not go away, it was a little pissed at me after those 8 miles. The most strenuous thing I did on Sunday was clean my car. Except it was so dirty, that really was a workout.

10.5 miles for the week. I couldn’t have 2 good weeks in a row, could I. Shake it off.

How was your week?