This had been a pretty good week running wise. Got in a great 8 mile hike on Tuesday. Actually made it to the gym to run on the treadmill on Thursday and got in a solid 10k yesterday. Since I put in 3x more miles this week than the past few weeks, I chose to stop at three days running this week. My ankle is a little sore and I don’t really want to start training with an injury. Or I was just lazy. 🙂
Saturday I headed out for a run after a short power nap. I’ve noticed that my stomach behaves a little better after a short nap. Why, I have no idea but if I can snooze for 15-20 minutes and have a better run, I’m all for it. Admittedly, sometimes it backfires and I sleep through the timer. California has missed the fall memo so I was able to head out late in the afternoon in shorts and a tank. I know it won’t last much longer but it was pretty nice. I knew my mother was out for a walk somewhere so I figured that I may run into her at some point. I changed my route up a bit so I would run past places I knew she liked to walk. I got about 3 miles in and still hadn’t seen her so I sent her a text. Her response was that she was going down the backside of a street. Ummm, what?
What side is the backside? So I sent a text trying to clarify. Was she closer to street A or street B? Mind you, there are 6 blocks in between those streets. The next response- she’d gone around A and back up. Back up what? There is no up that street. So I head to where I thought she would be, no luck. Ok, I give up. I am just going to finish my run. In my last mile, I get a text from my mother asking where I was. My answer was by the school and that her directions made no sense. I paused my Garmin and hung out for a moment waiting for another text but nothing came so I headed home.
Going up the last hill I get a text asking where I was again. Completely done with texting, I stop again and just call her. Turns out we were a block from each other. I catch up to her and again say that her directions make no sense. She again tells me her route and I snap “learn the street names!”. Turns out what she was calling up street A is in fact Beach street, so not the same!! The other name was off as well. I got super frustrated with her and asked how she was ever going to give emergency directions by saying this street and that street, and around one corner or another. I even warned her our little snafu was going on the blog.
All that aside, I had a pretty good run. Other than my warm up mile and the little stops in mile 4- I can’t text and run at the same time- I kept a decent pace for all of the run. Woo hoo! That’s a big deal for me these days. 🙂 It was a good way to conclude my first, albeit rescheduled, week of training. I am looking forward to next weeks running. Even if I have a few after work commitments and am trying to figure when to run. I’ll leave you with cuteness- I bought Kimi her first cat bed and I think it was a win-
How was your weekend?
How is your weather?
Ever get completely frustrated by text directions?
~So I mentioned I was a little spooked by Tuesday’s trail in my last post. What I didn’t mention was the random hoodie hanging from an equally random tree branch about 2 miles up. Faded black and a little ripped, at a spot where someone could just run into the woods. Creepy.
~I felt good Wednesday after 8 miles the day before but had a big project for work. I figured I would use my rest day and just stay late after work; use the quiet to just bust it out. After a bit I decided to use the restroom and get some water. Ever been in a building that felt like it slightly moved when exterior doors were opened or closed? That happened while I was in the bathroom but I didn’t think much about it because I knew the doors were locked. When I crossed the doorway leading from the break room area, I heard a voice say hello. Aack!!!!!!!! I yelled no and dropped into a sumo-like squat*. Turns out the cleaners come early on Wednesdays. Oops, I almost threw my phone at her. I scared her about as much as she scared me.
*And what do I think I am going to accomplish going into a squat? I did this same thing once on a run when a dog rushed me. At least then I was in shorts, this time I was in a skirt but figured a squat was threatening?! Seriously?!
~I was helping a co-worker with something the other day when his little boy came in to say hi. My coworker had just done something not quite right and we were laughing about it so I told his son that his dad was silly. He did not look happy about that. Come to find out that he later told his dad that his boss had looked mad. So now I scare kids too. Oops. 😦~Less scary but more shocking- I made it to the gym!! I am still not a huge treadmill fan but it felt like a good, solid 4.5 miles. I was a little bored about 2 miles in so I decided to step up the speed by .2 every song. 5.6 to 5.8 to 6.00 for mile 3 followed with .10 distance walk break. Then I did 5.7 to 5.9 to 6.1. Around mile 3.85 I went to 6.6 and stayed there for a few minutes. It wasn’t much but I was able to keep my stomach in check so I call it a win. See ya next time bore-mill.
I have to say that I am liking Mondays as rest days. Even when I didn’t do anything on Sunday to warrant it. 🙂With that being said, I was ready to do something on Tuesday. Just not too early. 🙂 The temperature dropping at night combined with a new set of flannel sheets makes it really hard getting out of bed in the morning. But eventually I managed it. I headed down to SLO for a little shopping and a good lunch. From there my mom and I headed for a trail that she has done before with my dad. This trail is at the top of the grade, and you just pull off the freeway and park. You literally have to climb a fence and gate to get to the path. The fence is more for livestock than people and the trail sites actually tell you to jump the fence so I’m not that much of a rebel. Still, I was spooked for 2 miles for some reason. I knew there were other cars parked so there must be people on the trail but it was over 2 miles before we saw anyone.
Hmmm, they look smaller close up
Now trail may be a misnomer. While the sites claim it’s 4.6 miles up with an elevation gain of 1200’+, the trail is actually a dirt road. A well maintained dirt road. Why so maintained? TV towers!! Can’t lose access to those right? 🙂 Also I forgot my Garmin. Fail!! According to my Nike+ app which is kind of working again, it was 4 miles up with just under 1200′ elevation gain. On the way up, there is a steep drop to the right as you wind up the hill. You can see 101 but eventually the cars turn into ants and then you can’t hear them at all. I won’t lie, something about the climb and the trees bordering the side, I was waiting for the something to jump out at us. I am not sure what I was expecting more- a very real mountain lion or some mythical evil creature. You know you watch too much Supernatural when you start cracking jokes about wendigos and Sasquatch’s. Then a woman rode up behind us on a bike. I shrieked like a little girl and jumped 3 feet in the air. Seriously Fallon?! Get it together!We power walked up and power walked down enjoying the views along the way and at the top. It was overcast and chilly but still had great views. From the top we could see all of SLO. This put into perspective just how high up we were. I could see all of the two most well-known peaks in SLO- Madonna and Bishop’s Peak. They looked so small! At one point on the way down I looked west and realized I could see the rock and stacks in work town too! Kind of awesome! I wasn’t feeling well, so we kept the pace easy and stopped to take pictures and I usually didn’t pause the Nike app because it’s kind of a pain. Even with that we still completed the 8 mile trek in 2 hours. That’s not too shabby! I would like to go back again and try running it next time. And maybe keep my cool a little more. 🙂 I also need to remember my Garmin for more accurate data. I am trying to figure out where the other .5 mile is. There was a point when the trail went 3 possible ways right near the end. Plus we lost the mountain biker for a while. She ended up passing us on the way down. She had to have taken one of the other 2 ways.
All in all, I’m happy with an 8 mile day. 🙂 Now if I could just get to the treadmill.
A top 20 finish! I got lost! Have I peaked your interest? 🙂
Having been feeling under the weather for a week, hearing the alarm go off on Saturday morning was rough. It was cold outside, I was tired and my bed was so warm. What was I thinking? Oh I know, it was my pride. I wanted to prove to myself that even feeling crappy all the time, I could still pull a 30 minute 5K in a race. Stupid, I know. Since it was a cold morning and I was fearing asthma issues, I layered up in clothing. Yes, I know it’s cold air I breathe in that causes my issues but I just felt like the layers helped me be mentally prepared. As I still wasn’t feeling great I told myself 31 minutes would be a good adjustment. Like that made a huge difference. Head games, much?It was a smaller local race so I headed out around 8:15 for a 9:00 start time. My mom and the puppy were with me as well. I knew what winery it was at and its general location. Driving out I never saw any signs that said Villa 46, we came up on another winery that I had a run a race at and I knew that we had gone to far. We turned around and headed back the other way, this time paying attention to the street numbers. We find what we are looking for but it says Villa Toscana… and we couldn’t pull in the main drive. Continuing on a little farther we found a delivery driveway with yet another name but same street numbers. We pulled in there and parked next to some trucks that had already parked. Seeing the number of cars parked and then seeing the page of pre-registered runners confirmed that this was going to be the smallest race I have ever run. Only 17 people pre-registered. I think we barely hit 20 by start time. After a little announcement, a race volunteer told us there would be kids guiding us at each turn so we wouldn’t get lost. He also mentioned staying inside the fence. Then we were off! The first mile started on a dirt road but it fairly flat and wide so it was easy to run on. The kids directed us right and we headed out towards the street. As we got to the street I saw an arrow pointing right again but it kind of looked like it was telling us to run on the uneven grass. That didn’t seem right and everyone was running on the street so I followed. Let me clarify that the grass was on the inside of the fence.
Wow, that looks like bad form
As we ran down the street, we passed the delivery driveway. Some people turned up it only to turn around and run back to the street. A volunteer was yelling something towards us but we couldn’t hear him. A group of us chatted, figured they told us to stay on the street and all kept running towards the main driveway. Turned in there, headed back across the start line and back to the first Y. This time the kids sent us left. Mile 1- 9:22. I was feeling good so I was very happy with that time.
Then mile 2 came. Going left this time sent us down into the vineyard. Gorgeous views but I have run trails up mountains that had better maintained paths than that. I should have worn my trail shoes. By now I had decided to try to pace a tall guy wearing red in front of me and a woman in front of him. Then the inclines started. Ok, all were less than 100 ft but all were short and steep and on loose ground riddled with divets. I know I have maintained an average base lately but I don’t have it in me to run hills right now. However, I can power walk them faster than I can run them. So that is what I did. I lost red shirt here but was able to pass the woman who was struggling with the climb too. From there it was another small climb and out on a grassy section. Mile 2- 10:54. Ouch.
Mile 3 led us around another set of vines and through the actual vines. Have you ever tried to run between vines? It’s hard! Then a little down hill section that I flew down before heading back to the first set of vines. This is where I passed a woman in blue, caught up to red shirt and passed him too. I could have sworn we were going right and up that hill again but the kids waved us left. Wait, what? We should be close to done not running the opposite way of the start line!
I was also way too damn hot. Capri’s and long sleeves were way too much for high 50’s. I passed a guy in white shirt before rounding a corner and another little incline. Red shirt caught back up. No! I sped up. Another trek between two vines and it was up the last biggest hill and back towards the start. I briefly checked my watch because I knew I had to be close to 30. 32:something, ugh.Then I noticed the mileage. 3.2 miles and I still had more to go. What?! Rounded a corner to the start and a woman waved me on through another gate and up the main drive way and finally to the finish. Finaltime- around 34:4? It took me a moment to stop my Garmin. Finalmileage- 3.44. My mileage was echoed by other runners watches as well. According to my mother I was the second woman across the finish line.
Leading up to the finish line
So no, I did not hit the arbitrary time goal that I had set myself. But I felt good throughout the race, my lungs and my stomach behaved for the entire thing. And I passed people!!!! It has been so long since I have done that, it felt kind of awesome. Childish, I know, but still awesome. 🙂 The finish line was kind of gorgeous so we took enjoyed the scenery for a while before heading home. There was a man who ran the race with his chocolate lab so we let Zoey and her meet. Zoey was so excited to meet a dog that wanted to play and not attack her. The lab was small for the breed and super sweet. She put up with Zoey’s hyper level well. So it was a good morning all around! 🙂
Can you guess where we all got lost? The kids did a good job directing us which way to go. However there were no kids at the corner where we went on to the street. When we were supposed to stay inside the fence. Yeah. Oops. Poor listening skills aside, getting lost driving there as well, it was still a good race. I felt a little bad for the poor turn out. I hope they try it again next year. This time, I’ll wear my trail shoes. Oh and blogger fail, I didn’t go back down into the vineyard to get pictures of the course.
Well, November is off to a roaring start. Please read that with the heavy sarcasm intended.
I started to feel a little under the weather last week so I took Saturday off. My stomach has decided to be a littlecrankier this week. I must have jinxed myself. Sunday’s planned 6 turned into a slower 3.5. However on the cooler side, I ran in pants and a short sleeve shirt. I couldn’t tell you the last time I did that, it was odd. But 3.5 is better than none, right?
Can you see the tiny deer?
And none is how the rest of this week has played out so far. I was looking forward to getting going on my training plan. Particularly now that I put my crazy plan out there in print. Since daylight savings means I will be treadmill running during the week I decided that Mondays would be rest days. The gym is always super busy on those days and since I would like to run trails every other weekend I figured Monday would make for a good rest day. Of course that’s the only day I felt good. Hindsight really is 20/20.
Tuesday and Wednesday were out due to my little bugger of a stomach. Today I was gung ho, the gym was going to happen. Then I got super dizzy at work, felt like I was running a fever and just felt wrong. I didn’t even want to eat, which is odd for me, because I love eating. I ended up going to lunch early and napped the entire time. Once off work, it was home bound for me. My poor gym bag has come into work everyday since Tuesday but never used. 😦 Well, I did pull out my long sleeve layer to use as a blanket while I napped but that doesn’t count.
A coworker thought this was amusing… and I had no running pictures. 😦
I am trying a whole mind over matter thing right now. Work has been crazy busy this week with the emphasis on crazy. I have never been one to believe in the “lunar effect” but the way people have been acting this week make me doubt my doubt. Driving home seeing the almost full moon yesterday was like a light bulb moment. Either that or I am grasping at straws. My boss is going on vacation so sick is not really an option. Oh and I have a 5k on Saturday. “Rested” legs are a good thing right? Oh well, at least it is for a good cause.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for listening to me whine. 🙂
I knew my mother was out for a walk somewhere so I figured that I may run into her at some point. I changed my route up a bit so I would run past places I knew she liked to walk. I got about 3 miles in and still hadn’t seen her so I sent her a text. Her response was that she was going down the backside of a street. Ummm, what?
Slacker Runner 