Category: Run!

Week 15 Recap- Extremes

Week 15?! My race is almost here? How did that happen? I haven’t even registered for it yet! Well, crap, I better get on that. Right after this damn heat wave leaves.

Monday- Rest

Lugging one less bag to work on Mondays is kind of nice. Think I’ll stick with this Monday rest thing. I was going to come home and ride the back but I decided to dye my hair instead. #byebyeblonde

Tuesday- 4.51 Miles

Holy speed, Batman, I ran a 7:49 mile?!?!? Awesome! I’m still kind of stoked about that. If you missed me shouting it from the rooftops, you can read about it here. 😃😄

Wednesday-Rest

Day from hell. For reasons I can’t say, the day went south real fast in the afternoon. If there was ever a day to drink, it was this day. But the only alcohol in my house is Patron and I wasn’t feeling shots. 😏 So I ate pizza instead.

Thursday- 4 Miles

It was in the low 80’s when I started my run and it was so nice. There was a nice breeze too. It later turned into a pretty strong headwind but that’s not the point. The cooler temps were amazing, this run actually felt comfortable. I wanted to keep running for a few more miles. But the downside to the cooler temps is the quicker setting sun. And the river bed is not really the place for a post twilight run. But it was a 4 solid miles. ✅

Friday- Rest

Day 10 of 11 in a row working. Stick a fork in me, I’m done. I really did think about getting on the bike when I got home but just couldn’t make myself do it. Plus the heat had come back and my house wasn’t much cooler than outside.

Saturday- 7.5 miles bike

Day 11! With a projected high of 100 I knew I wasn’t running after work. Unfortunately I am just not fast enough to pull off a long run before work on Saturday’s. Even with it being a later start, I still have to be on the road before 8. So errands, laundry and biking was it for the day.

Sunday- 6 Miles AM, 3.2 Miles PM

Shot myself in the foot on this one. I needed to a run a 12 miler. Needed it for this training cycle and mentally because I have as serious mental block with a 12 mile training run. It was also predicted to be 101. My alarm was set for an early morning run, I even managed to go to bed around the 11:30 on Saturday. I was going to do this. Then my alarm went off.

So, the average hours I sleep every night run around 6. And those aren’t a good 6. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in so long I can’t even remember. Until Saturday night. When that alarm went off, I didn’t even think about it, I turned it off. I was in such a good spot sleeping, I wasn’t wasting it. I had a back up alarm an hour later anyways. Except it was turned off in the same way. The sleep was seriously awesome. I did eventually make myself get up and got ready to run. I was out the door by 9:15. It was already warm so I knew I wasn’t finishing 12. So I planned to get in as many as I could before I felt too hot and then do the remainder at the gym a little later. Not ideal but better than nothing.

I pulled off a slow, hot 6 miles before calling it. After a few more errands I was on my way to the gym. I was taking my mom to the movies later so I wasn’t sure I had the time for 6 anymore. Thanks to some stupid shorts and some horrible stomach cramps I only pulled off 3 miles. I started to feel better around 2.5 miles but the first part took so long I wasn’t getting much farther. So I called it and went home to shower for the movies. 9 miles for the day- not what I wanted but not too bad either. I don’t regret the extra sleep at all. I needed that. 😏

The movie- The Scorch Trials– was awesome and the popcorn was a yummy consolation prize. Oh and that temp? We broke records and hit 105*.

Paleo- C

Honestly, this might be a B. I was pretty behaved last week even with all the stress. I didn’t binge on chips or cookies and after Wednesday, I could have rationalized it. But I didn’t. However, I did eat pizza twice and had the popcorn and some candy at the movies. So I am sticking with the C.

Considering the chaos of last week, I am actually content with the training I got in. They were all solid miles that will only help me grow as a runner. I am thinking more long term than short term here and that’s what counts- running for a long time to come. Not just for my upcoming races. 😊 And there was that fast mile! Yeah, I’m going to hang on to that for a while.

Now this week- My boss is on vacation still so one more week with little breaks is on tap. That’s ok, I can do it. Then this weekend is my favorite race of the year! Woo hoo! I will be racing a 10K on Sunday and running a 5K right after. 😜 Oh and volunteering the day before. Love it.

How was your weekend?

Tell me all about your fall weather- I need to live vicariously right now.

Ever run double races?

Fall Teaser

Seriously, how is September half over?!! Actually, I might be ok with that if it wasn’t for the heat.

I love heat, I really do. I mean I use a space heater every day at work- every day. My favorite part of winter is bundling up in cozy sweats with a big fluffy blanket. But I am done. The heat kicked my ass this year. I never adjusted to it like I used to. It never felt comfortable. Normally I love 100* temps. Grrrr. Maybe it’s because I work in a town that rarely gets above 70. Or maybe because home town can have a 30-50 degree change throughout the day? Maybe I am getting old? Who knows. Monday it rained and it was awesome. When I started Tuesday’s run I was actually cold! It was awesome! I thought the temps were finally changing. I was starting to look forward to the 12 miler I need to run this weekend. Then came the news. The temps this weekend are projected to be a cool 100*. Waah.

Ok, deep breath, moving on. 😃

I like starting the week with my easy run, so that was the plan for Tuesday. I headed to the river path for an easy 4. The cooler air must have confused my Garmin because it said I had an elevation gain of over 550 feet for a 4 mile run. Yeah, um no. It’s more like 150. Luckily everything else seemed normal, I run this route often enough to know each mile point. Which is good since this turned out to be a run to remember. 😁

I started out with my usual walking warm up, but started running earlier. It was breezy and I was kind of chilled but it felt awesome. I laughed to myself that running more hadn’t really helped my first mile split but I was feeling good so who cared. I just kept trucking along and feeling good. No need for any walk breaks. Somehow my phone ended up on random and the song choices were amusing me. A song came on that I’d never heard before, I’m not even sure how it ended up on my phone. It was a little melancholy but I really liked it. I’ve been super stressed lately (and not hiding it well here on the blog) and something about it calmed me down and kept me running.

I did have to stop for a moment around 2.5 miles in. My stomach cramped pretty badly which wasn’t surprising considering I’d been eating Starbursts and cinnamon bears for 2 days. An older woman with a huge dog was heading my way and with my track record with dogs, I just decided to stay put until they passed by. No need to anger the dog right? Instead I scared the crap out of it. The dog jumped about a foot in the air when it saw me standing on the side of the path. What would it have done if I had run by?

That pause combined with the eerily timed song earlier had made me think. My fastest mile had been completed on this route in August 2014. I clocked in at 8:05. I suddenly wanted to beat that. Why? I don’t know, but I wanted to try. So I did. As soon as my watch buzzed for mile 3, I opened it up.

I knew I had a busy intersection in the middle of the mile so I my initial pace registered in the 8:20’s. It was feeling pretty good though. My goal was to pick it up just after the intersection. There was a line of cars so I skidded to a stop and paused my watch. The first car actually saw me so I was actually still sliding when they waved me on. In like a second I had slid, paused, un-paused and ran on. Half a mile left, time to fly. Except halfway down the path a dad was walking up with his toddler and a stroller. Between all of them they took up the whole path. I debated blasting through but the toddler was wobbling all over the path. Mowing down a toddler was not on the agenda. Another sudden stop and a pause to the Garmin. Didn’t people know I was attempting something here?!

Un-pause and run on. It was hard getting back into gear. My legs and lungs were protesting now. I ignored them and pushed on. I hit the end of the concrete path and headed for the dirt river trail. I almost ate rocks for dinner as I lost traction rounding the corner of the trail head. I got my act together and pushed on; I knew I was close. That was the longest 3/10 of a mile ever. But I did it!

7:48:9?! Holy crap! Would I have done better or worse if I hadn’t had to pause twice? I don’t know but it’s still awesome. 😃 I slowed to a walk but I didn’t feel like I needed to stop. I was breathing super loudly and probably sounded creepy since I was kind of hidden in the bushes on the trail. I walked for 1/10 of a mile before running it out for a total of 4.5 miles. I felt pretty good.

kind of a smile! not quite dead but kind of a ginger, too. ha!

So, while I may never ever do it again, I can say I got pretty damn close to my fastest mile ever back in high school. I really only had PE my freshman year of school but I was always stuck doing that Presidential Fitness test. I was so horrible at those. 😉 I’ve been thinking a lot about speed and my next half marathon so it was kind of cool to pull this off. I also think the cooler weather helped. The news just announced the predicted for Sunday has risen to 102 so hopefully the high from this run will get me out of bed early enough to avoid the heat.

Are you enjoying fall yet? Or still dealing with summer temps?’

Favorite part of fall?

Does pausing count?

Week 14- Stutter

I knew going into this week that schedule wise it was the toughest week of the month. My boss left for vacation so starting Friday I was flying solo and the weekend was the Avocado Margarita Festival and I was ~~conscripted~~ volunteering all weekend. With that in mind, I was hoping to front load my miles. Monday was Labor Day and I had Tuesday off so I was optimistic that I could pull it off.

Monday- 4 mile recovery run

I usually take the day off after any race but I was hoping to get in my easy run of the week. This was probably a bad decision. I’d waited until 6 but it was still around 90 outside. My mother was having an evening tennis practice so the plan was to run to the school, maybe do a few laps on the track and then go to dinner. It was utter crap. My legs didn’t want to work and my lower back was super sore and achy. 2 miles in and I was done. However I was 2 miles from home and 2 miles from the high school so I just headed to the school anyways. Somehow I managed to negative split the run but I have no idea how. It never felt any better. 13:11, 11:12, 10:23, 10:10.

Tuesday- Plan– Long run 10-12 miles- Real life- 3 miles

Maybe Monday was a sign or maybe I should have rested- who knows. We had a heat wave last week and Tuesday was a comfortable 103*. I just headed straight for the gym. I was hoping to get in 6-8 miles on the treadmill and then do a temp check. If it had dropped below 90 I was going to finish the run outside. Otherwise I was just going to stay on the treadmill. My back was still achy but I was hopeful it wouldn’t bother me. However, the ankle pain was unexpected. My left shin and ankle straight up hurt. Not ache but actual pain. I called it at mile 3. I’m too close to race day to chance an injury. Plus, it was only Tuesday.

Wednesday -Rest

The Wednesday black hole is back- I can’t remember what I did!

Thursday- 8 miles Stationary bike

Apparently I can’t tell time. Or subtract. I had a doctor’s appointment so I left work early. I had somewhere to be at 5:20 but hoped to fit in my long run or some speed work in between. I didn’t even get out of the doctor until after 3. By the time I got home, changed and was ready to head to the gym (another 103* day) it was almost 4:30. Color me confused, how did I mess up that badly? So I hopped on the bike for some intervals. 😃

Friday- rest

This day kicked my ass. It was straight chaos at work. At one point I straight sat down in the middle of floor behind my desk because I was just done. I ate cookies again to deal with the stress, oops.

Saturday- rest?

Avocado Margarita Festival day one. I slept in a bit before heading back to work town. It’s a good thing I left early because I got super lost picking up a coworker to work the first shift with me. All my fault- I assumed I knew better than Siri. I think he got his revenge though- the route to get back to where I needed to be damn near made me car sick while driving.

A little over 7 hours later and I was free! Haha. Being locked in a tiny room all day is draining. The constant hum of the generator wasn’t helpful either. I felt fried. The only exercise accomplished was walking to and from the event- about half a mile each way. My Fitbit tells me I moved way more than I thought though so who knows.

Sunday- 3.25 miles AM, 3.5 miles PM

I had a later shift at the festival so I squeezed in some errands in the morning. My alarm had gone off for a morning run but my stomach was expressing its displeasure with the previous day’s meals. I had a tiny window before I had to leave so I fit in some miles. It was warm but overall the run felt good. I wished I could have kept running but I had to make sure I could clean up in time. I mentioned the tiny room right? Had to make I didn’t stink it up smelling like I had just run. 😀. I discovered a new level of contortionist though- ever take off a sweaty sports bra just to put on another one? Crap, that was hard.

After another numbing 4 hour shift I was finally heading back to my car. Didn’t think about the fact that now I was lugging all the supplies we used back up the hill. Half a mile uphill with 40+ lbs? Sure no problem. Ha!

I headed to the lake path to get in a few more miles. I really wanted 5 or more but this run was the complete opposite of the morning run. Struggle from the get go. I was achy and stopped to stretch a few times. I also visited with lake cat quite a bit. 😃. I called it after 3 laps.

So while I didn’t pull off a long run this week like I wanted to, I still got in some time on my feet and the bike. More than I thought was going to happen by week’s end. It’s a hell of a lot more than I accomplished this week last year. 😛

Paleo- C

Honestly the week started out well. I derailed on Friday -cookies! Plus my boss put together a little care package for me while she is gone. 2 full size bags of the sweet potato chips, a big bag of pretzels and 2 bags of cinnamon bears. Covering all the cravings since I can’t leave the building. 😀. Saturday’s lunch was provided for the volunteers and I don’t complain about free food. Even if it was wheat bread. I met my parents at Olive Garden that night and had a few bread sticks. Oops. At least my chicken breast and broccoli was on point. 😋.

My goal is to not stress eat over the next two weeks. Good thing the snack bags will eventually be empty and I can’t run to the gas station to buy more. I just need to make sure I don’t have crazy dinners as a way to decompress. Why is food so comforting?!

How was your weekend?

Ever volunteer for local events?

Would you eat an Avocado Popsicle? I saw those this weekend.

Central Coast Cancer Challenge 5K- Recap

My first time running the Central Coast Cancer Challenge was 3 or 4 years ago. It was an entirely different beast then. It was smaller and 2/3 on trails with no warning about that on the website. Actually, I am not even sure it had a website. I ended up running into a friend on race morning and we ran it together. At the time it was the closest I had ever come to running a sub 30 5K. Well, until we realized the course was short. By a lot- we all registered around 2.6 miles. Turns out some course signage had fallen over and was not corrected prior to the race start. Oops. The past few years it has been part of the RaceSLO group so I had been wanting to check it out. Schedule conflicts prevented that until this year.

The race raises money for cancer research and a local charity. Cancer survivors can race for free and get a special race shirt with “Survivor” on the back. In memory/ In honor of bibs are free and participants can write names on them and wear them while running. I love the shirts for survivors but I think there needs to be another category. There needs to be a “Fighter” category for those who are still fighting their way to be a survivor.

As the race got closer I wondered what the hell I had been thinking. I haven’t raced a 5K in over a year, and my speed work has been more hit than miss and speed held for any length of time is problematic for my stupid stomach. So yeah. I had originally planned on trying to PR (current PR -27:48) this race but the closer race day got, the more I was leaning towards just holding on. If I could even break 30, I was going to throw a party. Then I saw the course and just laughed. The race has moved to the center of SLO over the past years and they shut down multiple busy streets for it. Having run some of these streets during the SLO half, I knew partially what I was in for. The course loops downtown and starts with a little less than half a mile sloped down, then you make a left and it’s pretty much uphill for the next 1.5 miles. It’s the kind of hill that you don’t notice driving but kicks your ass running. Ahh, crap. So new plan was to try pull off the following splits- moderate speed, slower speed, fast finish. Pretty simple right? 😃

Having picked up my race bib the day before may have made me too relaxed. Per usual my mom was along for the ride and we didn’t even get to the start line area until 7:45. I ended up bailing out of the car while she found a parking spot. Then I needed a restroom stop and there was a line. Another woman in line and I joked that at least races never seem to start on time. 😏 Took care of business and headed to the start. I hopped into the starting line chute at 7:54. I figured I could use the 6 minutes left until the 8:00AM start time to move my way forward in the crowd and get my Garmin situated. Maybe stretch a bit. Best laid plans right?The race whistle blew at 7:55.

5 minutes early!?!

Mile 1- 9:00

My Garmin was on but didn’t have a satellite yet. I just pushed start and figured I would deal with it later. I got hung up in a crowd crossing the starting line but managed to break free after a few blocks. A little too fast since my Garmin buzzed that I was running a 7:30 pace. Oops, slow it down there. Then we turned up the next street and that was taken care of for me. 😊 I passed the mile marker and checked my watch. I knew the mileage was going to be off but I wanted an idea of my overall time. Except the display was on some funky screen only showing the time lapsed in run/walk intervals. Ok then, guess I was running blind.

Mile 2- 9:42

This felt like the longest mile ever. I kept wanting to take a walk break but was arguing with myself that it was all in my head. I felt like we were climbing forever and it’s not even that steep! We only gained 133 ft. I felt like everyone and their brother were passing me. A woman came running up behind me pushing a stroller- uphill- looking fresh as a daisy. I instantly felt out of shape. I told myself I could walk at the water stop. But knowing that there was only one on the way up I had brought my own just in case. So I kept running. Seriously I felt like I was almost at the freeway on ramp, where the hell was the turn around? Oh there, thank you lord. My watch buzzed for it’s mile 2 a little before that and said 9:42. Ouch, definitely not PR pace. It was the only mile I had seen so I wasn’t even sure I was going to break 30. Grrr.

Mile 3- 8:17

I had hoped the downhill was going to help my pace but my stomach had started protesting around mile 1.5. I wasn’t sure how that was going to play out. I drew level with another woman and we had a little chat. She was surprised at just how much of a hill that had been. She said she hadn’t known. I said I had known but that didn’t make it any easier. 😖 We separated, I think I pulled ahead but I can’t remember! I picked up the pace and started reeling people in. I didn’t really feel like I was pushing the pace fitness wise but my stomach was telling a different story. I ran as fast as it was letting me and figured that was the best I could do right then. I could finally hear the announcer and people cheering. Yay, I was almost done! I could see the clock but it was far away and I thought it said 29:something. Then I realized it read 26:something. Holy crap- run!

Finish- 27:10 New PR!!!

Hell yeah! How I took 38 seconds off of my previous time, I have no idea. I felt like I was crawling up that hill. Now I am left thinking that if I had pushed a little harder on the hill, I could have been sub 27. Fitness wise, I didn’t feel like I gave it my all. I know part of that was due to some serious cramping in the last half but part of that was also due to my pre-race doubts. Or maybe me deciding to just hang on and not stress about the race was what got me that shiny new PR. Who knows. I do know I was happy about the race. I ran according to my plan and managed to pull off a fast time for myself. Maybe next time I will push a little harder. Now I just need another 5k. 😃

Oh and the women with the stroller was rocking the 10K. So fast!

What’s you favorite distance to race? Least favorite?

Week 13 Recap- Hell Yeah

13 out of 17 done! Hmm, my math seems off, I may have to check race day again. Not that I would complain about an extra week right now, though. 🙂

Monday- 9.35 miles bike

My neck was still feeling sore and stiff from Friday’s run in so I opted to not run that day. Instead I headed home and got on the bike. I’ve been testing out the resistance workouts on the bike and so far I like them. I was also thankful that I bought a recumbent- it made things easier on my neck. 🙂

Tuesday- Rest

My stomach was a total asshat all day so I ended up taking a rest day. The night before I had indulged in some candy and while I knew I was probably going to regret it, I didn’t think it would be that bad. Did you know sour straws were made of wheat? I had no idea! While I don’t necessarily have a wheat sensitivity, my stomach has never been too fond of it. Combine that with sugar and ouch. Don’t think I will crave candy for a while though.Wednesday- 3.2 miles

This run was thisclose to not happening. After a rough run on Sunday and 2 days off, I left work looking forward to running. Somehow, I drove past the lake without realizing it. Oops. Ok, I would head to home town. I stopped at Target along the way to pick up some prescriptions. Since I was getting a later start, I bypassed the river path and figured I would run from my old work spot again. Except there was road construction everywhere. Seriously?! It was almost 7pm and a primarily resident area. I was so close to just bailing but I had said I needed to get out of my own way, right? So I ended up parking at the bottom of my driveway and squeezing in a few miles before dark. I even saw one mile in the 9 min range. Sweet.

Thursday- Rest

Since I had a race on Sunday, I had a crazy idea of getting my long run done today. However, work had other plans. We were 45 minutes late getting out of work. By the time I would have changed and headed back to town, I wouldn’t have enough daylight even for 3 miles. Seriously, when did the days get shorter? I thought about the gym but Thursdays are pretty busy and I didn’t think hogging a treadmill for 2 hours would go over so well. Plus I wasn’t too fond of the idea of 2 hours on a treadmill. 😝

Friday- 10.1 Miles- Hell Yeah!

Confession- I ate a donut. 🍩 And it was awesome. Curious thing- so was my run. I worked the early shift so I was optimistic for a long run after work. Being Friday and a busy day at work though, I was doubtful of my follow through. I didn’t even think about the Labor Day traffic until I was on my way to the river path to run. Crap. I wanted 10 but decided 8 would be fine to if traffic was too crazy.I had woken the night before with a horrible charlie horse and I had felt it all day. I walked the first 3/4 of a mile just to make sure it wasn’t going to be a problem. Things felt good when I started running, better than they have in months. I told myself not to get cocky, I was only in mile 2! My goal was just run a nice comfortable pace and maintain it as long as I could. Which, let’s be honest, these days that is about 3 minutes. However, I just kept running, my legs felt good, my breathing wasn’t labored at all and things felt great! I had a lollipop route planned that I thought would put me around 8 miles when done. My math was so wrong. I figured it out around 4.5 when I hit a point in the route that I thought would have been 6.5. Oops. I had to decide if I wanted to go back up for another loop and hit 10 or head down and circle the river bed trail until I hit 8. I was still feeling good so I headed back up the hill for another loop.

I never really looked at my pace on my Garmin, I only recall seeing it once during mile 5 and it showing my ave pace in the 9’s. Slow down! Things were going well, I didn’t want to mess things up! 10 miles completed just as the sun was fading. 10 awesome miles. I ran the whole damn thing not counting the warm up and it felt awesome! I only started to feel sore for miles 9 and 10. Which was to be expected as this was my longest run in over a month but I still managed to pick up the pace a bit there too. In full disclosure- I admit that while I never walked or intentionally took a break, I did hit 5 or 6 stop lights. I was so freakin’ excited by this run. I was still smiling about it on Saturday. That one run will get me through another 2-3 months of crap runs. 😃😃

Saturday- 6 miles bike

I didn’t want to run since I had a race the next morning so I hopped on the bike. I kept things easy as I was a little sore from the previous day’s run. I also headed down to SLO to pick up my race packet so I would have one less thing to worry about on race morning. I missed the shirt deadline so this was a very small packet. I was kind of really worried about this race. I haven’t raced a 5K since July 2014 and I wasn’t sure I was even in 5K shape.Sunday- Central Coast Cancer Challenge 5K

Argh, nerves. After all you can’t have 2 good runs in a week right? Recap in next post. Spoilers on Instagram. 😃Overall, this was the best training week I’ve had in a long time. Like since April. While my mileage didn’t increase I finally feel like I put in 3 quality work outs, oh wait, I cross trained too- 5 work outs! Woo hoo!!! I also followed through with a plan and pulled off my long run before the weekend. Which for September I may have to do more often. Unfortunately, Fridays won’t be an option going forward. With my boss gone, I will be working open to close, so that will fill up most of Friday. So time to do some thinking!

Paleo- B

Overall I made better choices last week, candy and doughnut aside. I have zero guilt about that doughnut though, I give it partial credit for my run on Friday. 😊 My weakness right now is these chips-

Since I won’t be able to leave the building while my boss is gone I am hoping to use that time as a way to make me stop eating them. I still need healthier dinners though. I did enjoy my pizza cheat on Wednesday and it was awesome. 😉

This week will be tight, with work and the Avocado Margarita Festival but I am hoping to get a solid week of work outs in. The heat wave coming in is concerning. Triple digits are predicted for all week. Last week’s cooler weather was just a tease. I may have to be a little Thomas this week- ” I think I can, I think I can”.

How was your week? Is the weather cooling down in your neck of the woods?

How was your Labor Day? Anyone else race?

Do you have a snack food you just can’t stop eating?