Category: Run!

Vacation Week 1 Recap & Night November

Winter has arrived. The last few nights have been in the 20’s-yippie. 😓 I will adjust but haven’t just yet. My toes feel like Popsicles. Between a long, cold hike and the frozen Turkey Trot last week they still feel frozen. But besides that, I put more miles on my legs last week than I had in any training week in a long time. Yay for vacation!

Monday– 4.5 miles- progression. I chatted about that in this post but this was a good run. It wasn’t the speediest but it felt comfortable. I hadn’t felt that in a while while running. 😃

Tuesday– Rest. With 8 miles on Sunday and then Monday’s run I decided to implement a 2 days on/ 1 day off schedule for vacation. I figured my inherent laziness would kick in at some point but I also didn’t want to push too hard too fast.

Wednesday– 9+ mile hike/ trail run. More on that will be in Wednesday’s post. I’ll just say this- I had to climb up—out of a bat cave. With my iPhone flash to light the way.

Thursday– Turkey Trot! Also mentioned in my last post- so cold!! And all the miles caught up with me.

Friday– Rest. I really wanted to be outside hiking for REI’s #optoutside but my right leg was so sore and tight from #allthemiles in a short time, (for me) I could barely walk. I spent the day taking it easy and alternately cursing/ crying with my foam roller. 😒 Zero shopping was done on this #blackfriday.

Saturday– More rest. My right leg was still super tight and sore. It would actually buckle every now and then when my quad locked up. Fun. I spent the day wandering around SLO and made nice with my foam roller again.

Sunday-3.8 miles. Night 3 of sub 30* temps, there was no way I was running in the morning. I’d like to say I’ll get used to it but yeah, probably not. Winter is the time of year that running in the mid afternoon rocks. 😄 I was pressed for time as I was going to an afternoon movie but I wanted to see how my legs felt. The right one felt great, nothing at all like the past few days. The left on the other hand was back to it’s old tricks. I had to stop a few miles in to stretch out a super tight calf. Grrr. It loosened up for the last mile or so but I need to figure out why that calf tends to get super tight. Other then the tight calf issue, it was another good run. All of this week’s runs had zero walk breaks. I can’t remember the last time that happened. 😃

Weekly mileage- 23.42

Who am I? 😄 Throw in last Sunday’s 8 and my 8 day total hit 31.42. How many rules of running did I break there? 😃 To put that in perspective let’s talk about how November as a whole went.

Miles- 59.9
Races– Big Sur Half Marathon 2:23:26
Turkey Trot 10k- 1:04:49

So yeah, half of this month’s mileage happened last week. Oops. Seriously why can’t I run at 3 all the time? I know my treadmill motivation is seriously lacking. I run so awkwardly slow on it, it also makes my legs overly sore. New goal for December- conquer the treadmill. Either that or invest in a headlamp and brave the cold, dark mornings. Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

How was your November? Are you ready for December?

Anyone brave the shopping this weekend? Score any good deals?

A Tale of 2 Runs

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had planned on finishing this post for Wednesday night but I was exhausted after a planned hike that grew…by a lot. More on those adventures next time. 😄

I guess Monday was my first real, official day of vacation. I slept in. It was lovely. I was feeling a little sore (my feet) after Sunday’s hike/ trail run but I was looking forward to a run. Running outside on a weekday during daylight savings? Yes please! I wasn’t sure how far I’d get with my feet feeling bruised but they felt pretty good once I started running.

I headed for the river path in the mid afternoon. Seriously, I would love it if I could run at that time all fall and winter. How can I make that happen? Anyhow, my goal was to take this run super easy and shoot for 3-4 miles. I really missed this route, it’s like the perfect excuse for a progression run. I kind of zoned out a bit and just kept running. 4.5 miles later I was back at my car. I might have added more but 4.5 was literally 2 feet from my car. 😉 Even better was that I hadn’t needed any walk breaks. Last week, I struggled with a 12:00 pace on the treadmill and Monday I ran a 12:53, 10:38, 10:05, 9:29 for the full mile splits. Why is the treadmill so hard for me?! No walks breaks but I did come to a complete stop when I saw this tree. Because holy crap!-

In trying to temper the urge to #runallthemiles on vacation since I’ve been a super slacker for the past month or so, I rested on Tuesday. I met an old friend for lunch instead. Wednesday’s workout doubled in planned size and left me feeling a little achy. I was a little nervous for the Turkey Trot. But I was running with C and her husband so I was looking forward to it.

Thanksgiving dawned and it was 30º. Allrighty then. Then I tried to get up. Aaagh! My calves were so tight, they were down right painful. How was I going to run a 10K? No lies, I texted C to see if she was ready, hoping she would say it was too cold. No dice. I had ProCompression full socks under my leggings and I left my house in my pea coat and Uggs. I registered for the race in them as well. I didn’t change shoes until about 5 minutes to the start. 😝

Me and C. I really dislike this shirt but it’s the warmest running gear I own. 😦

This trot is super low key. You register on race morning, get your t-shirt and run your race. The course is an out and back on rural roads and the start/finish is literally in the Food4 Less parking lot. C, C-Hub and I had run the race before so we knew the course. My parents usually come to the finish but when I was shivering in my car, I texted them and told them it was too cold and they should stay home. They didn’t listen. The race seemed smaller this year but that could have been due the freezing temps.

It was go time and we were off! I was super tight and cold usually triggers my asthma so I was a little skeptic about how this was going to go. Thankfully C and her husband weren’t feeling particularly speedy either so we just hung out the whole race. My toes were numb, my hands were numb and my butt felt like it was frozen. We joked about turning around at the 5K mark but kept going. It was great catching up with them, I wasn’t able to run with them as much as I had hoped this year. C-hub kept us running and even thought I wanted to walk a few times, we kept running averaging between a 10:30-10:45. I felt so sluggish and my Garmin kept telling me we were running in the 11’s. Guess it doesn’t like the cold either. I was dreaming of a large, hot coffee from McDonald’s and started pulling away towards the end. I didn’t mean to but I was letting my legs do whatever they wanted to, they were still so tight. Mile 6 clocked in at 9:42. Finish- 1:04:49. Not the speediest but much better than I had been expecting and there weren’t any asthma issues. 😎

I also wore my Turkey Trot shirt for the rest of the day. And indulged in a few too many chips and a second slice of cheesecake. It was a great Thanksgiving. I am not fond of crowds so I will be avoiding anything Black Friday related. My original plan was to go hiking but I’ve put 25 miles on these legs in the last 5 days, way more than normal, and my calves are seriously pissed. So my plan is to take it easy, maybe take the puppy for a walk. If I can move.

How was your Thanksgiving? Did you run a turkey trot?

Favorite food of the day?

Are you shopping?

Sunday Summit- East Cuesta

Saturday was my first day of this half enforced, half by choice vacation. How did I ring it in? By doing absolutely nothing. Ok, I did some errands in the morning but I spent the afternoon and evening vegging about in comfy clothes and watching a couple of movies. I also didn’t feel guilty for procrastinating my laundry. 😄 I won’t lie; it was nice. Well, until I ended the evening with the latest episode of Doctor Who and some crying. Boo.

Sunday was a different story. My mom, S and I headed out to hike the East Cuesta trail. “Hike” is kind of a misnomer, it’s all fire road. What makes it fun is that it’s 4 miles up and then 4 miles down. Nothing like a good climb to start your day right?

My plan was to power hike up then run back down.   My mother and I had hiked East Cuesta before about a year ago. It has some amazing views but it was also a trail that freaked me out at a few spots.   There were a few places that I let my overactive imagination run away on a very overcast day. 😃

Sunday was the opposite of overcast.   In fact the temp hit the high 70’s. Hey California- fall would be nice right about now!   I was interested in seeing what had changed. Not only has California been in a major drought but East Cuesta was actually the epi-center of large fire a few months back.    Part of the freeway was shut down and a nearby town was evacuated.

Overall, things looked better than I had expected. It’s interesting how much it seems that fire has a mind of it’s own. Two sections could be black and charred with a healthy, so to speak, section in between. You could see where nature is making a comeback. Which is awesome, but if we have the El Nino they are predicting the charred sections are likely to turn into slide zones.

I maintained a good pace going up and was feeling pretty good.   The forest line has changed so I couldn’t remember where I had been spooked before. 😃   Near the top, there are 2 off shoot trails and I am not sure where they lead. I headed up one for a bit but ended up turning around. I knew if my mom and S made it to the tv towers before me, they would be alarmed.    Once there, we rested a bit before heading back down.

My goal was to run down at a nice comfortable pace.   My stomach was having none of that about 10 minutes in. My fault, I had eaten a fairly large piece of pink champagne cake the night before and my stomach has not been a friend of sugar lately.   From then on it was a run-walk down. All was good until the gun shots. I froze in the middle of trail. Do I keep going or do I go back up?     I figured it was probably someone shooting at targets, I’ve heard it before on trails this was just the first time I was completely by myself and it sounded closer.    I know people like to go shooting in rural areas and it was at consistent intervals so I chose to move on.   But then I remembered the 2 game warden trucks that had passed me on the way up. What if there was a mountain lion sighting on the trail? Aaargh! That freaked me out and after a quick text to my mom, I ran down the trail.

Once at the bottom of the trail, my feet were bothering me so ditched my shoes for some flip flops before heading back up to the trail head to wait for my mom and S.   They hadn’t heard anything while on the way down but were feeling sore from the 4 mile descent.    We headed off for a well earned lunch in SLO.    I’d say we earned our pizza. 😃🍕

8 trail miles on very warm Sunday? I was a pretty happy Slacker.

Scariest thing heard/ seen on a run?

There is Shiny

For a so called, introverted home body, this has been a very social week. Tuesday night, I met up with a good friend who I have not seen in way too long for dinner. It was great catching up. Then, last night, I took my mom to see Riverdance. I had won tickets at work. 😃🎉.

Growing up, I remember watching the performances on tv with my mom and grandparents, we used to love them. Every time we watched I was left wanting to both dance like them and learn to play the violin. They made violin playing look so damn cool. When I won the tickets I was stoked but also worried that they wouldn’t live up to my memories. I had nothing to be worried about, it was freakin’ awesome. Seriously the moves they can with their legs and the sounds? Amazing, if you have the chance to see them, do it. 💃

Once again, I was left wanting to dance like them. And learn to the play the violin again. 😀. But seriously, they have hip-hop inspired dance classes and Zumba- so why has there never been a Riverdance inspired fitness class?!

Social fun aside, I’ve been a serious slacker in the fitness department. I was looking forward to getting in a good run at the gym tonight but it was more of a farce.

My knee still twinges at odd times so I was planning to take it slow. I was going to try watching a show on my phone while on the treadmill. When I say watching, I really mean listening. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to see the phone comfortably without jacking up my stride. I am way behind in Grey’s Anatomy so I figured it was worth a shot. After a nice walking warm up I set the treadmill to an easy 11 minute pace and got running.

I was aiming for a super easy run as I’ve only jogged 3 miles since Big Sur. Also my leg still has moments where something feels off. I was feeling pretty good and looking forward to solid hour run. That was the time goal I set for myself and mileage didn’t matter. Listening to the show worked pretty well for 20 minutes. The the feed just died and I couldn’t get it back. Ok fine. Then 37 minutes in, my stomach cramped in a very bad way and I bailed off the treadmill.

I was ticked because my stomach has been really good the past 2 weeks. I also have barely run the past 2 weeks. I refuse to see a correlation.

Once I took care of that issue, I knew more running was unlikely. I was already at the gym so I figured I would try one their stationary bikes. The first one I sat down on was dead. No amount of pushing the start button or pedaling was bringing it to life. So I moved over one. Someone had to show me how to start it. 😭 Finally I was pedaling though. Only to find that the thing was off balance and made a clanging sound with every pedal rotation. Oh and the computer didn’t really work. It said I was pedaling a consistent 11.8. No matter how fast or slow my cadence was. I made it 15 minutes before I bailed.

So yeah, tonight seems more #gymfail than win. However, I’ve been in an odd funk lately and I am actively trying to break it. So, like the title (and one of my goals for 2015) says- there is some shiny. 37 minutes on the treadmill and 15 on the bike is 50+ more minutes than yesterday. And the day before. I got to wear my new shoes-that’s always a plus. My leg only twinged a bit during those 37 minutes too. That’s a good sign right?

And while Tuesday and Wednesday were lacking workouts, they were spent having fun and making memories. Those are always shiny.😃

Oh, and I am one day away from vacation. That may be the shiniest of all. 😛

What was your “shiny” this week?

Anyone racing this weekend? Maybe an early Turkey Trot?

Hello Off Season

I took 5 days off after Big Sur. 5 days in a row of intentionally not running. Say what? I figured a week would let all of my little aches and pains and funkiness heal. I don’t know if anything was actually leading towards an injury but I figured a little intentional rest wouldn’t hurt. Intentional rest is odd. Normally if I have 3-4 days off in a row, I start to feel like a lazy, guilty sloth-like creature. And I usually whine about it here. 😃

I wanted to run a few times but I told myself a week and I was sticking to it. It was kind of weird going straight home after work every day. Coworkers asked is if I was changing to run and I said no. How odd. A week turned into a work week- 5 days counts right? I headed out for a short, easy run on Saturday. To make sure I wasn’t tempted to go crazy, I took the puppy with me. It’s been a long time since I stole her for a puppy jog so I figured why not? She did really well. The only time I was concerned is when we were swarmed by vultures. But, really I was concerned about both of us too. Seriously creepy. I may not run by that house again for a while. 😞 They were still there the next day!

So that 3 miles run plus a 7 mile bike ride on Monday trying to shake out the achiness from Big Sur was all the exercise I got in last week. Oops. Failure at the first week of the #holidaysweat. Hmmm, that timing didn’t work out so well. I wanted to run on Sunday but woke upp feeling like I was getting a chest cold. Breathing is still uncomfortable. Grrr. But I would rather feel crappy this week when I have multiple commitments after work which conflict with the gym. Then hopefully, I will feel great next week when I can run whenever I want because I’m on vacation!!!! Woo hoo!

Making Big Sur my last race was not my original plan. I had planned on running a 25k trail race at Montana de Oro to cap off the year but realistically I was not prepared in any way shape or form for that. Luckily I hadn’t registered yet; I knew it might be a long shot after Big Sur. Also it ended up raining that morning so bonus! I’d really be sick if I had run in that. I ran 13 races this year, 7 were 13.1 or longer. I’m good with that. 😄 That said, I may throw in a turkey trot on Thanksgiving because, well, it’s a turkey trot.

As for off season, I am still reading books and plans and looking for a better way to train that I know I can sustain. All these weird, crazy thoughts are in my head right now, so I am taking the time to sift through them. I am also currently reading Ultra Marathon Man by Dean Karnazes. It is not helping to temper the crazy thoughts at all. I need to figure out something soonish though as I am leaning towards running Surf City again and that is the first Sunday in February.

And this week? I have social plans! Holy crap, who am I? I am meeting friends on Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday?! I have tickets to Riverdance!!!! Total nerd moment but I am so excited. Even better- I won the tickets! Woo hoo!

Oh and I randomly decided to quit soda today. Sort of.*

How was your weekend?

Thoughts on Riverdance?

Bets on how long til I cave with the soda? *Disclaimer- I am allowing myself to have it if I eat out- but no more soda at work.