Category: Run!

Week 4- A Little Early

I am kind of liking these weekly recaps. I feel like they are helping keep me on track. Particularly this week, I ran the gamut of craving a run to feeling like doing nothing but stuffing food in my face. Yes, I am a stress eater. There were donuts involved this week. And those Sweet Potato Food Should Taste Good chips. Both so yummy but so not on the approved list of foods. 😦

I alternated between heels and flats all week but my legs are still pissed. I rarely get to sit while training and I am feeling it. I don’t think my legs ached this bad after my first half marathon. Then I just couldn’t sit down…or get up without help. 🙂 I normally stand the good majority of the day but would usually sit for about 2 hours through out the day. Now I just fall into the comfy chair exhausted on my lunch. Trainee #3 starts on Monday so I need to figure something out. Unfortunately running shoes are not an option.

Monday– Actual- 3.5 miles -12:13, 10:39, 10:13 and change

I had to do some rearranging this week, which meant a Monday run. Oof, that was hard. Monday running just seems harder. Plus I don’t think my legs appreciated running the day after my long run. I usually rest the following day. I tried to treat it like a recovery run and keep the pace easy but I was all over the place. I even wore compression socks since I knew I was sore. Truthfully, I wore them all day. I might have to do that more often until things calm down.

Tuesday- Rest

I had blood work planned for the morning. This was part of why I switched up my running days. I didn’t think they were going take a lot but I figured I better err on the side of caution. Ugh, I hate needles. I got to the lab at 7:04, they opened at 7. I was the 15th person in line. Seriously?! I was actually late to work.

Wednesday- Speed work- sort of

The plan called for a 25 min warm up followed by 3 minutes at HMP, 1 minute easy jog x5, then 16 min cool down. Sounds easy enough but I just wasn’t feeling it. As I drove north, I was trying to decide what to run and where to run it. My mom called and she wondered if I would head out with her. No speedwork-yay! So we headed out for a short 3 mile jaunt. That turned into 4+ for me with some random intervals. I was planning on taking it easy but then I decided to just run whatever I felt like. So I ended up up with really random speed intervals while I looped around and occasionally met back up with my mom but it was fun. 🙂

Thursday- Rest

Hmmm, I am sure I did something interesting this day but I can’t remember anything so I guess not? I know I posted this.

Friday- Rest

I was at work by 7:30. I am on vacation Monday and Tuesday so I wanted to make sure I did everything I needed to do before leaving. I was out a little after 5:30 and I though about running a few miles but I did all my weekend errands instead. One less stress this weekend right?

Saturday- Rest – more than likely.

I am torn between running or walking a couple miles as a shakeout for tomorrow or resting. My legs are still super sore and I can’t decide which one would be the smarter choice. I also need to decide exactly what shirt I am running in tomorrow. And I am procrastinating packing my change of clothes while I type this. For some reason, I am can’t decide what I am going to want to put on after tomorrow’s race. #decisionsdecisions Whatever it is, it needs to be comfy enough to get me through a day of walking and shopping. Ok, maybe hobbling and shopping. 🙂 I had helping making a new playlist though-

Sunday- Shoreline Half..and my birthday 🙂

To be continued…

Happy Saturday!!!

What do you like to do after a race?

How was your week?

Do you stand or sit at work?

Suddenly Shoreline

You know you’re a runner when you find out that a local race you’ve run the last 2 years on your birthday weekend is a week later this year and you’re bummed out. 2 years ago I ran the Rock to the Pier 10K the day before my birthday. Last year, I stepped up to the half marathon that was now on my birthday. The 10K rocked, the half marathon kicked my ass. Both were still awesome. There’s something about running a race on/near your birthday that is kind of awesome. Well except for seeing the new age on your bib, that usually stings a bit. 🙂

I was still planning on running Rock’n Around the Pier this year but I just wasn’t feeling very into it. The race has 12+ miles on the beach. Add the sand and the inevitable humidity and I was preparing for a rough time. Throw in a lazier than planned June and I was starting to dread it. Plus, last year I ran it with NikeC, that’s not in the cards this year. So I decided to do the smart thing, I figured I would run the 10K instead. It would mean the loss of bling, but it’s not all about the medals. Right?

2 weeks ago, I got an email. California has a half marathon series every year, and you can earn an extra medal at the end of the year at one of the Series end races for a variety of challenge. Pretty cool but the odds of me running any of the end races are kind of small. The emails let you know of upcoming halfs in the series though. The race at the top of this email was Shoreline Half. In Ventura. On my actual birthday. Could I, should I? Nah, no, that would be crazy.

Call me crazy. I registered. I found a sweet discount online and committed. I also adjusted my training. I had been aiming to hit 4 days a week and up my mileage but I stuck with 3 days and upped my long runs. So my last 3 weeks looked like this-

14 miles overall- 5+ long
16 miles overall- 8 long
18 miles overall- 10 long

Dang, that looks sad. But after 2 Slacker months, I wasn’t trying to break myself by being in a hurry. Plus this race is strictly for fun. For more reasons than just not hurting myself. I am not getting a hotel, I am driving down on race morning with my mom and S (one of her tennis players- she tends to adopt them). So hello to my first ever 3AM wake up call for a race. And hello to packet pickup on race morning. Cuz that won’t be stressful at all. 🙂 The race is flat, which most people would love but I find flat to be my nemesis. Oh and it’s on the boardwalk…along the beach. Hello humidity. #sorrylungs

You know you're a runner when... you are looking forward to a girls weekend that includes a half-marathon!

So am I crazy? Well, that remains to be seen. 🙂 I am hoping for a fun, pretty race. Some shiny new bling and then a day spent shopping and eating around Santa Barbara. Hello Lululemon and Lorna Jane- please take my money. 🙂

So, seriously, am I crazy?

Ever registered for a race at the last minute? I have but not this late for a half.

Do you run on your birthday?

Week 3- Slowing Down

Week 3 done! I hit all the required durations ( and then some) but my pace took a hit. It was the first week with the new hires and I seriously underestimated what training 2 brand new people at the same time would be like. I felt like I was running laps all day. I had to change my heels for flats halfway through Monday and I wore flats the rest of the week. This made navigating the maze of chairs easier but seriously pissed off my feet and legs. Grrr, I missed my boots.

Monday- Rest

I love rest on Mondays. I had tried to change to being a Monday runner but it’s hard. Plus we didn’t get out of work until 6 and I felt like I had run 5 miles already.

Tuesday- Plan 40:00 Easy

Our area was hit with some odd monsoon weather so we had high temps and high humidity. Ugh. It was so rough my mother canceled her tennis practice. She never cancels so I knew it was ugly. I was debating going to the gym but decided for work town instead. Work town is consistently around 65* but I don’t like running there for a few reasons. 1- the humidity is always high (like 70+) and my lungs hate me. 2- I feel like I have to wear pants. I know it’s all in my head but the idea of running in shorts and having a customer spot me freaks me out. I am so weird. 3- I have one route. There are very few sidewalks and the roads have non existent shoulders.

This route is an out and back that starts with an elevation of 150′ and drops to 0 then back up again. My GPS had troubles getting a signal so mile 1 was way off. I ran with traffic for most of the out portion- that side of the street has a sidewalk. Once I hit the state park I thought I was going to have to cut my run short. There was construction in front of the Inn and I couldn’t see a way to the path that gets me to the beach. The street has no shoulders. I spotted what looked like tire tracks and bolted across to the path. Then damn near ate it on the slippery Eucalyptus leaves. Walk break!

I ran to the end of the trail this time instead of just the beach and found the best natural stairs. Seriously I did a little happy dance at the top. I love running in the dirt. Too bad the trail portion is maybe a little more than .5 mile. I took another walk break after I almost did the splits on the Eucalyptus leaves on the way back and then ran on. Mile 4 had 100 ft gain and I ran most of it with my lungs on fire but pulled off a 10:06. Which I think is the fastest I’ve run that even when I was in top shape. Sweet! 4.05 ish Miles- 42:37

Wednesday- Rest

TOM came to visit, I rested. TMI? 🙂 Plus I had a doctor’s appointment with my gastro and Atkins is here to stay. He is also ordering a new CT to see why I have had the odd, intense pains. Boo.

Thursday- Plan – Speed work

This time was a doctor’s appointment with my primary so I can have my thyroid levels checked since I take a nap damn near everyday. Sometimes on the floor. 🙂 I changed before leaving work so I could head straight to the gym after my appointment even though my stomach hated me that day. Then I saw something on Facebook that ~~pissed me off~~ hurt my feelings and the last thing I wanted to do was run. I just wanted to sulk in a corner and binge eat pizza. I went home first. Somehow I pushed myself out the door 45 minutes later. It was a slow, hot miserable run. Seriously it was a slower pace than my long run this week. And I was chased by a damn dog. If it hadn’t been on a chain, I would have been bleeding. As it was I ran into traffic which wasn’t smart. 4 Miles -47:52. Then I ate pizza. 🙂

Friday- Rest

More running around like a crazy person at work. It was so flippin’ busy. I am so jealous of everyone who had the day off.

Saturday- Rest

I wanted to run my long run in the morning but I wasn’t feeling well and had a headache. I enjoyed a calm 4th with my family and finally watched McFarland, USA. And I call myself a runner? It was really good and even more interesting when I thought I heard work town called out during their first meet. I did!!! They competed against work town! Man, that must have been a drive. Turns out the first time they went to the beach was actually 4 miles up from work town too. They changed the location in the movie. Still it was cool hearing that.

Sunday- Long Run- Plan 1:10:00

Again, I woke up feeling rough and could not get going. I kept telling myself to get out of bed but it wasn’t happening. I finally headed out for my long run around 3. I still didn’t feel great so even though I wanted 10, I was aiming for anything over 6. My mother was out on a walk so the first 4.5 miles of my route was looping around streets and meeting back up with her. Yay for walk breaks! Then she went on her way and I continued running. One of these days I will find a long run that doesn’t have over 800 ft of elevation gain. I also had my first snake sighting of the summer. I refrained from screaming like a little girl but I did run into the middle of the street again. Luckily it was a back road but I really need to work on that. Mile 7, I stopped and spoke with an older gentleman out working on his van. At that point I’d run past him 3x so I think he thought I was crazy. Somewhere along the line I got my math wrong so I hit my driveway at 10.5 miles- 1:58. Considering all the walk breaks in the beginning and a few hills towards the end and I was actually at the high-end of where McMillan says I should be? Sweet! I made it in time for Sunday dinner. Family doesn’t mind if you’re sweaty right?All in all, it was a slow but solid week. Not too bad. I also officially registered for Big Sur in November on Sunday. I booked the hotel a few months ago and followed through with the race. 🙂 Woo hoo! Now I just need to actually register for my goal race in October. Oops.

This week, my goal is actually complete my speed work and have fun at my half on Sunday. And then eat cake- Because it’s my birthday. 🙂

How was your 4th?

How do you react to snakes?

Do you live in a hilly area or flat?

Week 2 Recap- Finding the Long Run

And it’s ~~Sunday~~ Monday. That was a fast weekend. As much as I would love another day or 4 off, I am really looking forward to this week. 2 of our 3 new hires start ~~tomorrow~~ today- woo hoo!!!! The week will be crazy busy but yay!

Monday-

Rest day. I thought about running. Packed my bag just in case but stuck to the plan. My food choices this past week or so have not been the best and my system has been letting me know.

Tuesday-

The plan called for speed work but half way to home town I knew I wasn’t up to it. I was so tired I decided to move my easy run to Tuesday and do the speed work when I was feeling more alert. This easy run kicked my ass. It was only in the high 80’s so I figured I would be fine plus my usual up and back has shade throughout so I though that would help. As I was heading out I saw a suspicious situation- think drug pick up like, or at least how I would guess one of those looked- so I knew I was going to take the longer way back which is a little more public. I though that extra 1/2 mile was going to kill me. I was huffing and puffing so bad I was actually worried about an asthma attack. Easy should not do that! I didn’t look at my splits until later since I was irritated. Ok, I guess it makes a little more sense now. Oops!Wednesday-

After the previous day’s accidental progression, I thought about skipping the speed work. The plan called for a 15 minute warm up then 4 x 2:00 @ HMP with 1:00 recovery in between then cool down. That didn’t sound too bad so I figured I would try one and go from there. Since I have such trouble doing math while running, I decided that my goal half marathon pace will be 9:00. It will give me a tiny cushion to hopefully break 2 hours and the splits will be a little easier to remember while running. 🙂

I'm not the only one who sees the bad math in this right? — I’m not the only one who sees the bad math in this right?

I did my warm up and then changed my watch to current pace so I could pace the intervals. They felt harder than I would have liked but doable so I kept going. My watch flashed low battery as I was finishing the 3rd interval so I stopped to save what data I had before continuing on. I finished my last interval and then did the cool down. I checked my splits as I was stretching and noticed that my intervals were all pretty consistent… and that either I wasn’t using the current pace feature or it was really wrong. I can only dream that my half marathon pace will be 8:30 one day. What the heck?

Thursday-

Planned rest. Another meeting about a race but this time other people showed up, woo hoo! And I got happy mail!!!!! Thanks Pavement Runner!

Friday-

I was off before 6 so I thought about running a few miles but I didn’t want anything to interfere with getting in a longer run on Saturday morning so I decided to stick to the plan. Instead I did all my usual Saturday errands and shopping so that there were really #noexcuses on Saturday.

Saturday-

I planned on running by 9 but slept horribly so I gave myself an extra 30 minutes. I was out the door a little after 9:30 in an effort to avoid the heat. It wasn’t early enough. The run started in the high 70’s and ended in the high 80’s. Doing 4 hill repeats in the middle didn’t help. I won’t lie, there was way more walking than there should have been. 😦 But 8 miles and my longest run since SLO done. My #runallday shirt was so comfy to run in, a little too big but that’s my fault. 🙂 Thanks to some freaky weather we’ve been having I still ran at the hottest part of the day. The temp dropped in the afternoon and it started to rain! Really?! Miles 1-7 averaged around 11:30 and mile 8 was 9:46. Umm, ok then.

Sunday-

Thought about running but some cleaning projects ran away with the day. On the upside my car is no longer an embarrassment. 🙂 I also worked my Hogwarts swap craft and it’s not coming along like I planned.

Second week of training- complete! My mileage is finally going up- woo hoo!

What are your plans this week? One thing you’re looking forward to in July? How is it almost July?!

Ever seen something shady on a run?

Anyone else’s car look like they live in it? I think I had 6 pairs of shoes in there.

Poser

I don’t recall the exact date but I know that I started running in 2010. Or at least attempting to then. My first race was that fall. Since then I have run 13 half marathons and more than a few 5k’s and 10k’s. All that aside, more often than not, I still feel like a poser. Like I am only playing pretend with running. Instead of dressing up in my mother’s clothes like a little kid, I am putting on short shorts, sports bras and compression socks and just hoping I fit in. Oh and my ever present Garmin.

I was one of those people who said I would never run, hated it. Drove past people running and wondered what the hell they were thinking. Then a friend signed up for Team In Training. Seeing her go through training for a marathon and let’s be truthful, I didn’t like the way my clothes fit, I thought maybe I would try running. However I still didn’t start running until I purchased my first iPhone. I didn’t want to carry a phone and my ipod, I didn’t even think about water, #priorities. 🙂 Even that little beginning was walking. For a while I used those crazy rocker Sketchers shoes that were popular for a very short time. Yeah, that hurt my shins. Then that same friend pretty much bought my first pair of running shoes. I actually started running. But I felt awkward and out of place. I was torn between wanting to walk when cars drove past so they didn’t see me huffing and puffing and running faster so I looked less like a turtle when they passed. Then a few customers asked if that was me they had seen running past their house. Ummm, maybe? I would ask where they lived so I could make sure to run past their houses every time after that and walk when I was around the corner. 🙂 #poser

Then came races. Cue the doubts. Man, these people look fast. What was I thinking? Oh, look at all their pretty gear. I wonder what that does? Hmmm, those shoes look interesting. Hell, I ran in cotton shirts and tennis shorts for over a year. Plus side was big pockets. Oh and I put on weight. Grrrrr. That wasn’t the plan. Running was hit and miss, I’d run 6 days in a row and then take a month off, then throw in a random race. Training plan wasn’t even part of my vocabulary.

Then something changed. Running became less a way to burn some calories and more something I needed to do. Along the way, I picked up some speed and set a few PR’s. Hey, that’s kind of cool. My clothes changed, my accessories multiplied both by quantity and cost and can now fill a box in the trunk of my car. But there were times I still felt out of place, like I was waiting to be told I couldn’t hang with the cool kids. I would stalk online race times for every race I signed up for just to make sure I wasn’t going to be last.

There are still moments, hell entire runs, where I feel like a wannabe. Days when walking seems to be all I can do, or at least seems more efficient than the slow crawl, hobble thing I was doing other wise. When I think everyone passing is wondering if they are gonna have to help me to my car. Then there are the runs that start off hellishly but end on a note that leaves me feeling awesome and ready for more. There are still race mornings when I show up feeling outclassed and outnumbered but what happens between that starting gun and finish line can be pretty unifying.

My superpower? I change from "pretty girl" to "hot, panting, smelly wad of hair and sweat" in under 30 minutes. Wanna see?

In the last few weeks I have had more #poser moments than #runner. But those runner moments make it all worth it. And leave me feeling the deep thoughts. 🙂 Oh and coming in last at a race? #beentheredonethat and it’s no big deal. And I love my compression socks. Time to get my run on. Well, not right now, it’s dark out. 🙂

Ever feel like a #poser?

When was your last awesome running moment?