Category: Ambassador

Dress Rehearsal

It was the weekend before SLO, so of course I made sure to get in all my workouts right? Ummm, no. I had good intentions but was feeling tired on Saturday. Even after sleeping in. I ended up helping my mom move a bunch of rocks. After multiple buckets of lifting rocks and carrying them, my hamstrings were cranky again. I decided that counted as cross training and was good or the day. 🙂

When too tired for miles, Mizuno make great yard work shoes.

Sunday though was going to happen. Last longish run before SLO. My training plan called for a 75 minute 2/3 progression run, each third progressively faster. On race days, 75 minutes could mean 8 miles, however on long run days, that would be more like 7. Having not run on Saturday, I was internally hoping for 9 at an easy pace. Since I know the likelihood of breaking 2:00 this weekend is small, I was fine with longer, slower miles.

I was a little sore from the rocks, oops, so I headed to the lake path for a flat surface. I headed out before lunch!! Who am I? My mom came with me, she was going to walk laps of the lake while I was running. I walked my usual warm up and just got to running. I didn’t feel up to the 2/3 plan but I thought maybe I could run the first have around 10:45 and the last half around 10:00. That sounded like a solid plan to me. That’s what I thought I could do, I was wrong. But in a good way for once! I didn’t feel like I was moving faster but according to my splits I was. I’m not sure how I hit those when I was feeling super tired but no complaints from me! Mile 6 was a little slower as I had run into my mother again and walked a bit with her. At that point, she was planning on only one more lap and I was torn between 2 or 3 more miles. It was a warmer day than planned so I decided to be smart and call it at 8 miles. It was in the 70’s by the time we were done. Last longish run done! Bring on the taper- oh wait, my plan doesn’t have one!It’s crunch time for the race now, so I set out on Sunday in a potential race day outfit. I had purchased a new skirt at Lululemon the week before so I wanted to test it out. SLO has a Lululemon now, well kind of, it’s only open 3 days a week, and my first time there cost me some money. I love their shorts so I bought a new pair and a skirt. Oops! I think I am a skirt fan now. If I could have an unlimited budget at Skirt Sports and Lulu, that would be awesome. Well, there and Mizuno too. 🙂 Endless shoes and skirts!!

I also hope it is partly the shade. :) — I also hope it is partly the shade. 🙂

Over all the outfit worked well. I am still not sold on the shirt and I will be wearing full compression socks but the skirt is a go. It turned out to be super comfy for 8 miles and that was without any Body Glide. I figured that was the only way to figure where the hot spots might be. 🙂 Since my mom was with me, I asked her to take a pic. I think another goal of 2015 is to finally get a decent race pic. Seriously, the pics from Surf City and Wine Country were so bad. So bad. Actually breaking 2:00 might be easier than a good race pic. Ha! My sock tan makes me laugh. I don’t wear full compression socks that often, just long runs and races but check that out!

Does moving rocks count as cross training?

What do you like to race in?

Do you take good pictures?

8 into the Wall

Ooof, it’s been a long week. And I have 2 more days of work to get through, wah. Ok, now 1 since I fell asleep before finishing this last night.

I knew going into this dietary change that the first few weeks were going to be rough. I just didn’t realize how tired I was going to feel. This is a new level of tired. In some ways the adjustment is going easier than I thought but I know it will take a few weeks to figure things out and get in the flow. I’d like to try to give it some more time before I get into more details, hopefully. I’m anxious about how it will go over for some reason.

Last week we hit the 90’s a few times and this week we have had some crazy wind going on. I left work on Wednesday and was treated to 35 mph winds. Which might be nothing to someone else but is about 16x the normal for around here. I was glad I wasn’t running until Thursday. Plus, Thursdays’ run was making me anxious so putting it off was a little bit of denial. Thursday was the rescheduling of Tuesday’s speed work. 8 miles on tap- 2 mile warm up, 4 miles at half marathon pace, 2 mile cool down. Say what?! 8 miles mid-week was the first part that made me anxious. Luckily I had a half day on Thursday, so that was kind of awesome. As for half marathon pace miles, I have never intentionally set out to run those paces in a run outside of a race. When I cut back on the speed work in March due to my hamstring issues the only workouts I missed or abbreviated were tempos or intervals. This was the first time pace miles were on the schedule. Plus being so tired and basically under-fueled made me nervous. I am all for running on an empty stomach but it’s been a very light few days- calorie wise. I wasn’t even sure I could hit those paces right now.

While the idea of lapping the lake numerous times didn’t thrill me, I headed to the lake path after work to get in the miles. I parked on the backside so I could have easy access to my car. I treated it like an aid station. I left my water in the car and had some string cheese in case I needed a snack. Mile 1 felt tough but manageable but I was still thinking of only doing an easy 5. I was feeling better in mile 2 so I decided to stick to the original plan. Mile 3 felt hard but not too bad, 9:13 wasn’t where I needed to be but it was pretty damn close. I was trying to not look at my watch while running and just judge by how I felt. Mile 4 felt similar to 3 but clocked in faster at 8:56. I was feeling pretty good but had to detour to the restrooms. Another plus about running at the lake.Starting mile 5, I was still feeling pretty good and starting to think I was going to pull this off. Seeing 9:05 when it buzzed was pretty cool. I was still only looking at my watch when it buzzed the lap splits. Mile 6 was a whole other story. I have no idea what happened. I felt like I was putting out the same effort and running the same pace but I happened to glance at my watch and I saw a 10:00 lap pace. What?!

I had walked slightly more in the beginning of the mile because I had to dodge around a large crowd of people in the park. No matter what I did, I just could not get the lap pace down. I felt like I was running through sand and my legs just wanted to stop moving. Then as I neared my car again, I noticed a truck parked length wise behind it blocking it in. What the hell? I stopped a bit away to see what was going on and instead of hitting pause, I hit the damn lap button. Ugh. Turns out the truck was just a city worker replacing the doggie bags in the dispenser. I then ran on, trying to hit my pace for what I thought was left in that mile. Didn’t happen.

Pace miles done, all I had left was the cool down. The rest of mile 7 still felt hard and sluggish. Mile 8 felt much better. I had a delusional moment during 8 where I briefly considered trying to run my 12 miler right then. Luckily sanity kicked in and I finished with 8. Miles 6 and 7 kicked my ass and I was considering more? I walked back to my car using the fitness equipment along the way to stretch.

So, I hit pace for 3 of the 4 HMP miles. Not too bad. I really wish I would have hit the 4th mile as well but I am still calling it a win. Now I just have to figure out how to get through a 12 miler this weekend without running into the same wall. I think I may slow my pace to a crawl to get through it. Make my goal time on my feet, so even if I have to walk part of it, that’s fine. But we’ll see how it goes.

What about your weekend? Long run or race in the plans?

12 mile crawl or solid 8-10?

How is your weather?

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?!

A Slow Start to February

I feel like all I have been doing this week is playing catch up. I’ve posted recaps of Surf City and January but barely anything else. So I guess let’s keep with that theme and cover the week-

Monday– If I hadn’t made the appointment before Surf City, I would have done it myself after that race. If I had had a pair of scissors I would have chopped off my ponytail at mile 8. Seriously. And it wouldn’t have been the first time I cut my own hair. Luckily I restrained and had the professionals do it the next day-Can’t take non running selfies apparently- it looks longer here. It hits my chin. I have zero post cut guilt- woo hoo!

Tuesday– the schedule called for either a rest day or an easy run after Sunday’s race. Neither option sounded appealing, so I grabbed the puppy and took her for a puppy jog instead.Wednesday– This was the last day of my mini vacay so I decided to move Thursday’s speed work up. I had no desire to run it on the treadmill and on Wednesday I could run it outside. However I had a very tiny window of time. Probably should have gotten out of bed sooner- nah. Also not good was the fact that I had eaten lunch an hour before starting my run. Lunch that was a tri-tip sandwich. Oops. But I did it. At least in a tiny way- first intentional speed work in way too long. Oh, and speed work without a heavy, swinging pony tail was awesome! Then I headed off to the tennis courts to help my mom out at practice. It was time to scare a new group. #goodtimes 🙂

Thursday and Friday were back to work. I actually got caught up on a lot of things. Reviews are done and submitted and now they just have to be presented. The bad thing was my serious overindulgence in donuts on Friday. So not good. But so good. 🙂

Saturday– my alarm went off early- too early. I had plans to attend a nutrition and training seminar put on by the SLO Marathon. The plan was to start the morning with a run. It was raining. Now, rain is so rare here, that I usually love running it. What I did not take into account was just how wet I was going to be and how that would feel over the 2 hours of sitting. I was so damn cold, I was shivering. I also looked like a drowned rat. Once the seminar let out, I found a pair of flip-flops in my car and a light sweatshirt I luckily had been too lazy to take out after tennis on Wednesday. The flip-flops were so much better than wet socks and shoes and the sweatshirt helped after stripping off my outer layers. My tank was still damp so I cranked the heat. It felt so awesome but I think I turned my car into a sauna. I picked my mom up for lunch after getting home and changing and she had troubles getting into my car it was so warm. Ha!The seminar was good. I think the rain kept quite a few people away which was a bummer. I was nervous about the run because I’ve never run in a group outside of a race. We set out for an easy 40 minutes, I ended up in the middle of the pack. There was one person near me on the way out but on the way back I was by myself. It was still nice knowing that other people were out there though.

The seminar briefly covered nutrition and training, Team in Training and the Challenged Athletes Foundation. The nutrition information was basic but helpful as well. It also emphasized how much I have been slacking on that lately. Team in Training is always inspiring and I keep telling myself I should participate at least once but I admit that fundraising goal intimidates me. I don’t think I had heard of Challenged Athletes Foundation before. Talk about inspirational. The woman giving the presentation would have been inspirational before her accident, what she’s accomplished after is just awesome. All in all it was a good morning.

Sunday– As I sit trying to finish this post, I am arguing with myself. My original plan when I knew I had back to back race weekends was to take this week off prior to resuming training for SLO. Then I received my fancy training plan and it said different. It calls for a 90 minute Thirds progression run today. Up until now I hit all the planned workouts for the week. But I am tired and achy and I have little desire to go out in the pouring rain and run. The treadmill sounds even less exciting. I really just want to take a rest day but I feel lazy thinking that. I am just tired, have I said that already? So, the argument continues.

How was your week/ weekend?

How do you solve your internal arguments?

Ever gone to a running seminar thing? Or run for Team in Training?

January Recap

How is it 4 days into February already?! I am not ready for that!

Backtracking to January- well it started great and then derailed. I rang in the New Year and new month with a great 10 mile run. I was ready to get to my training and get started on that 1000 mile goal for 2015. I was doing great up until January 8. Then the sickness hit. I took 11 days off. 11?! That hurt both my training and my miles. According to Smash Run, I ran 10 days in January- 10. That’s 21 days off. Ouch. So with that in mind, I suppose the below number is actually a good thing- 🙂

So 68 miles? Not too bad. January included one race- Spooner’s Cove 25K. My farthest race/ run to date and the most time I’ve spent on my feet outside of working at Taco Bell. Just kidding. However, with the way that my runs were so spaced out, I am not sure how well they added to base building.

As for some of my other goals? Well, socializing didn’t happen because well, who wants to hang when you are contagious? And I finished one book. One of the 4 I started. I did read your blogs and some fanfic online but that last bit doesn’t count. January did have some shiny though- sorry- still excited.So now on to February. The original plan was to run easy/ rest this first week of February and then get to work on speed. My spring goal race is SLO and it is 11 weeks out now. I admit I am nervous about breaking 2. Part of me doesn’t think I can and the other part thinks I need to get out of my own way. Luckily my training plan has me easing back into things the next two weeks so that’s a little comforting. Oh and for added incentive- I received this shiny news in my email this morning-

Runners take their finisher medals seriously because it is a tangible badge-of-honor and proof of their accomplishment. The 2015 finisher medal with the barn and windmill highlights our local rural heritage, and like competing a marathon or half-marathon, it represents hard work and tradition,” said Heather Hellman, Event Director. “Our medals are unique and we change it every year, so they become very collectible. On race day, we look forward to placing our 2015 medals around the necks of all our proud finishers so they can take a little piece of San Luis Obispo home with them.” Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2015-san-luis-obispo-marathon-half-marathon-5k-april-24-26-registration-10056923529

That was just the kick in the pants I needed! Plus I’ve kind of always loved old barns, so I think it’s kind of awesome! The email helped get me out the door today for the baby speed work that was on my training plan. Woo hoo! Let’s see if I can keep this motivation going!

And on the socializing front, ~~my friend talked me into~~ I signed up for a craft swap online. What the hell was I thinking? Oh yeah, I heard Harry Potter and signed up. However I have the crafting skill of Longbottom (nerd moment!!) so I feel sorry for my partner. Fingers crossed!

How has your February started?

Are you crafty? Help!!

What’s your shiny/ dull for the week so far?