Category: BibRave

LA Redemption

Disclaimer: I received an entry into Rock n Roll Los Angeles 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!

Los Angeles.

City of Angels, largest city in California.  I’ve run races from San Diego to San Francisco but some how missed Los Angeles.

That’s not say I haven’t registered for a race in Los Angeles.  In fact Rock N Roll Los Angeles.  I have unfinished business with this race as the 2016 race was home to my very first DNS.  😯  It’s time to balance the scales.

The course for 2018 hasn’t been set yet but 2017 was an out and back with some hills.  I can get behind that.  Plus I get to see the sights of a city that I haven’t toured on foot yet.

LAHashtag2018

Plus there is still all the new upgrades that Rock n Roll made for 2018 that will make the race awesome-

To name a few-

  • New corral markers that light up!
  • Clearer aid station signage
  • You can rock out to on-course mile markers!
  • You can also take a quiz to pick your Rock ‘n’ Roll Spotify BPM playlist that will help inspire you to rock your next run: http://runrocknroll.co/5eux3X

Now it’s still a ways off but I have a couple of options come race day.  If my PR attempt in San Jose fails then this could be a another chance.  If I succeed, then I could just sit back, relax and soak in the atmosphere of “the world’s largest Halloween half marathon”.  Heck, maybe I’ll wear a costume.  Maybe. No promises.  I wore a tutu for 3 miles once and that thing was riding up into places it had no business being.  🤣

Either way I have something to look forward to!

Want to join me?  Use code RNRBRP2018 to save $15.00 on the half.

Ever run in a costume?

*** Ok, so I totally thought I hit publish months ago but cleaning out some comments and drafts on my blog told me differently. Slacker!!!!

 

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 15

I may have taken week 1 of taper a little too far.  And you know what?  I am ok with that.

At this point, cramming all the miles in isn’t going to help me come race day, in fact with this groin/leg issue, it could actually hinder me.  Maybe that’s just something I told myself as I embraced the Slacker in me but I’m still ok with it.

Work was busy in odd ways, time moved quicker than I needed it to and things didn’t always work out.  I threw my pen in the air a few times.   Bad habit, I know but I always make sure there are no customers around when I do it.  😛

I crossed some things off my to do list and went to the movies and saw Rampage.  It’s pretty good but then it’s rare that I dislike a movie with The Rock in it so I was kind of biased.

So how about the running?

Monday/ Tuesday- PT exercises & stretching I had planned on taking these 2 days off from running after my last long run.   I made sure to stretch really well and focused on my PT exercises each night.

Wednesday- Rest w/ some stretching.  I was going to run but I decided to give the leg one more day.  There was also something else but I can’t remember what it is.  Oops.

Thursday- 3.26 miles I headed to the river path after work a little nervous about my leg.  It was a little sore at the start but it loosened up and the run was pretty good.  However it was way too fast.  I told myself to keep all my miles in the 12’s this week to give my leg a break and my brain too.  Plus with how I’ve been feeling, I didn’t think that would be too hard.   However these were in the 10’s and a negative split at that.  Oops.

Friday- Nada Open to close, my brain was mentally fried and I was just done.  I picked up a pizza on the way home.

Saturday- 4.53 miles I headed out in the afternoon for a few easy miles except once again I was moving way too fast.  I obviously had no control over myself last week.  Luckily I knew my mother was out for a walk on the same roads so I had built in excuses to walk when my route met up with hers.  So my running portions may have been too fast but my overall pace looks perfectly slow.  😜

Sunday- Rest.  I’m not going to say oops.  When my alarm went off in the morning for my long run, I had a pounding migraine.  It was the throbbing kind and I can’t run through those, I slapped the phone off, pulled the covers over my head and tried to hide from everything.   The pain eased by mid afternoon and I could have headed out for my run but honestly, I didn’t want to.  My leg was sore, my head still hurt and overall I was concerned that doing the miles for the sake of the miles would actually do more harm than good.  Maybe that’s just something I told myself but I’m still good with it.   Besides I wasn’t completely lazy- I did clean my car- well the inside, and trust me that was quite the work out.

7.79 miles for the week.   I should be mad or feel guilty about that but I don’t.   Whether I regret this later remains to be seen.

How was your week?

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 14

Don’t freak out, don’t freak out.

My leg is giving me grief.  My back is putting up a fight.  I feel like I am barely running any miles and I am falling apart.  What gives?!  I really should be sleeping more.   How do I become less of an night owl??

Oh my gawd, I made it to taper.  Even though my whole training cycle has been another runner’s taper, haha.   Last week was a rather pitiful peak week but it’s done.

Monday- 2.62 miles  The irony of the mileage of this run is not lost on me.  My leg was not on board.  In fact it protested something fierce.  Fierce to the point of pain and I decided that rest days after long runs were going to have to become a thing during the next few weeks of this training cycle.   I turned around fairly soon into the run and headed back to the car trying not to be alarmed.

Tuesday- Nada I could feel my leg every time I moved.  From the car to work.  Every time I got off my chair or stood still too long.  Boo.

Wednesday-More of the same.

Thursday- 2.3 miles I headed for the lake path hoping the dirt path would be friendly to me and that I could get in a good 4-5 miles.   But that did not happen.  I managed 2 laps of the lake before I threw in the towel.  I may have pushed for more but with this weekend being my last chance to get in 20 miles I figured that was more important.

Friday- Rest I took a vacation day for a once again canceled tennis trip -rain, so I spent the day attempting to catch up on sleep and rest my leg.

Saturday- More of the same. Another rainy day.  I had started reorganizing my closet on Friday and it turned into the never ending project.  🤣

Sunday- 18.25 miles I overslept and started a little later than planned, oops.  I was also running in what I hoped would be my race day outfit to see how it worked out.  With my leg being fussy all week, I wanted to keep the run slow and steady and walk whenever I needed.  And things were actually good for the first 10-12 miles.  The temp was pleasant, my leg was cooperating and I wasn’t tired.  My clothing was another story.  My tank was riding up into a crop top, the shorties under my skirt kept moving around, my pack was shifting down my back, I had to put BodyGlide on at mile 6.  I don’t usually have to use BodyGlide when I wear skirts.  Grrr.   And my shoes were starting to hurt my feet.

The problem arose around mile 14- my back started to hurt.  And I slowed way down.  So much so, that I knew I was going to have a problem keeping my lunch plans with my mother.  Hence the 18.25.  My lower back was super cranky, I think part of the problem was the bladder of water in the back of my pack.  I stopped carrying water on my back due to back pain a few months back and stupidly forgot about it. Silly Slacker.  So another lesson learned- no bladder in the pack on race day- bottles in the front only.

When I mentioned how much slower I had gotten towards the end of the run during the lunch, my mother asked what the minimum pace was before being swept at Big Sur.  Thanks Mom.

23.17 miles for the week.  Not the 20 miler I was hoping for but not horrible.  I am trying to think positive… or maybe I am just in denial.

How was your week?

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 13

Ok, I lied, you get the training recap before the race recap.  Oops.

It’s coming, really!  It’s never taken me this long to write a race recap before but maybe that’s because my brain checked out last week.  I was so tired and just couldn’t figure out why or seem to catch up on my sleep.

I had wanted to move my 20 miler up a week to this weekend as it just fit my schedule better that way but between some leg issues and the extreme tiredness I was getting the feeling that was probably not a good idea.

Monday- 2.5 miles I planned on a few shake out, easy miles to get my legs loose from the day before.  I was aiming for 3-4.   My leg had felt ok during the day at work but it quickly let me know that it was not on board with a run.  Not at all.  I was hoping it would loosen up but instead it steadily grew worse until it felt like the pain was in the bone too which alarmed me so I called it short and just headed back to the car.

Tuesday/ Wednesday- Nada  I was giving the leg a few days to see what it would do.   Working at my desk makes it very, very angry.  I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again- stand up desks are not all they are cracked up to be.

Thursday- 4.5 miles  I headed to lake path as I had a feeling that the dirt path would be more forgiving than pavement or concrete.   I started slow and kept it nice and easy.  Because spring had suddenly made an appearance and it was 80 degrees at 6 PM, going slow was not an issue.  In fact I needed a few walk breaks due to the warmth.   However those breaks pointed out that my leg was ok once in motion, it really does not the stops and starts of walk breaks.  Which is problematic as I know I will be walking part of this marathon.

Friday- Stupid For some reason I was so freakin’ tired this week… and it was making me stupid.  And slap happy.  I took a nap on my lunch but it didn’t help.  I had a feeling my long run wasn’t happening on Saturday.

Saturday- 2.2 miles  I was still super tired and my leg was sore but this was supposed to be longer.  But we got a little lost.  My mom and headed to do a trail but the one we did a few weeks ago is closed, boo. So instead, we did the Pine Mountain loop.   It gains almost 500 feet in the first 1/2 mile or so but the path is fun with a couple of random off shoots.  Once we made our way to the top, we took one of the random off shoots thinking it would make the path longer but instead we had climb over and under some downed trees before it deposited us almost in someones front yard and on the highway.  Oops!

Sunday- 10 miles My leg was sore and I was still so tired, I pretty much knew that 20 wasn’t going to happen early and I was going to stick to the plan of 12.  But when my alarm went off in the morning, my head was pounding, likely due to hormones from that TOM, so I rolled over and went back to sleep.

That had me heading out for my run in the afternoon.  It was over 80.  I didn’t think it would be that bad.  And it wasn’t until mile 5 and then it was all downhill from there.  So much walking.  I was so damn warm.  I had 2 bottles of water in my pack and I drank them both.   I even took a few moments iny a lone shady spot to just try and cool off.   But no luck.  It took me so long, that I ended up only having time for 10 miles before I needed to head back for Easter Dinner.

19.23 miles for the week.  Not great but not horrible considering how my leg felt on Monday.

How was your week?

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 12

Last week was better… of sorts.

Mother nature decided to rain fury down upon us last week and try to make up for months of doubt.  And yes I meant to spell it like that.

The storm started Tuesday and stayed until Friday morning.   There were mudslides, rocks down, trees down, flooding, too many car accidents and just chaos.  The damn river (of the river path) rose so fast overnight Wednesday that there ended up being 10 swift water rescues on Thursday. 10!  I went to work and I went home, that was it.

I am sure I did other things last week but the rain is the only thing that sticks in my mind besides the running, ha!  So let’s just get to it.

Monday- 3.1 miles I tried to get in a few miles before the storm.   I don’t recall much about the miles but I pulled some decent paces for miles 2 and 3 looking back so it had to be a decent run, right?😜

Tuesday- Thursday- Nada– See opening above.  Unless white knuckled driving counts.

Friday- Rest The sun came out so I took my gear to work to run after we closed.  At least that was the plan.   I got something in my eye and could not get it out.   I tried eye drops, taking out my contacts, nothing worked.   I finally gave up and just went straight home.

Saturday- 3.1 miles 5K shakeout, I had lots of miles planned for Sunday and I wanted to get the legs moving after so many days off.  This run actually felt pretty dang good.  In fact at one point, I felt like I was powering up a hill impressively.  Of course I couldn’t see myself, so I have no idea if that was true or not.  🤣

Sunday- Tent City Half Marathon/ 5 miles = 18 miles total  Surprise! Half marathon #30 went down on Sunday.  At the butt crack of dawn… nope pre-dawn.  In the freakin’ cold.  Race recap to come.  😀

The plan called for 19 miles so after some food and a nap I headed out in the afternoon to complete another 6 miles.  Oh my misery.  I don’t think I am built for 2 a days anymore.  I liked them during my last marathon cycle- this time not so much.  I never found a rhythm or settled into a decent pace.  I dragged ass for 5 miles and knew adding another mile would likely do more harm than good so I just headed for home knowing I would fall short.  But 18 is nothing to frown at right??

24.4 miles for the week.   Better than the last two weeks!!!

How was your week?