Category: Run!

A Reason for Speed

Happy Wednesday!

After this weekend’s hot miles, I felt like I had a blister forming on my right foot, which is not cool. I have to admit that I have only had one blister since I started running. I think the heat plus the miles made for some uncomfortable feet. So I switched the usual run on Monday for Tuesday’s yoga. Sometimes I feel like that DVD is easy but I always end up ridiculously sweaty. I also still can’t hold the poses very long either and I have to drop my knee while doing side planks. But I am going to keep trying! Like I said before though, I am glad no one can see me. 🙂

Tuesday was a pretty good day work-wise. I was able to get away for lunch and hit up the Dollar store for some pens and things for my coworkers. Not the healthiest choices but guaranteed to bring a smile to someone’s face. 🙂 I was looking forward to an easy 4.5 miles after work. Then I apparently decided to prove that my hair color is natural. Without going into too many details, we were wrapping up at work per usual, and I went and did something I thought I couldn’t fix. It was a pretty big something. I felt like my stomach had dropped to the floor and I went slack jawed. I was trying to figure out who to call first and trying not to panic. What an example I was setting. 🙂 One of my coworkers said that something similar had happened before and she thought she knew what to do. My face now probably showed complete disbelief, because seriously how does a person do what I did?! We were able to get it straightened out but it took another 20 minutes. Whew. But then I was running behind to get running.

After changing in a hurry and finally getting to the park, I saw plenty of people on the path. I still had to change my shoes and get all my gear together so I was a few minutes longer than usual in my car. When I started to get out I noticed a potential lurker sitting on the fence two places down. Really?! I waited to see if I was just paranoid. He finally meandered down by the horse shoe pit. I got out of my car but kept an eye on the pit and ran the path in the opposite direction than I usually do. There were about 20 people on the path and more in the park and on the playground but I still made sure to keep my pepper spray handy. I am sure that he was probably harmless but my theory is that when you are running alone, everyone has the potential to be creepy so it’s best to be cautious. I didn’t see him on first loop back so I did another. The general uneasiness had me only running 3.5 miles. I also went from an easy 4.5 to a closer to pace 3.5. Potential lurker = run faster.

bettersky — The iPhone didn’t do it justice, so there may be a filter on this

The sky looked amazing as I was leaving, so I tried to snap a few, very quick pics before jumping in my car.

That brought my little challenge to 10 for 10 so far. Today, I had planned on completing the yoga DVD again but my lovely stomach chose to rebel again so today ended up being the 1 out of 7 that I allow myself to be really lazy. I hit my goal every day (7 out of 7, what!) last week so I was hoping this week would be the same, but 11 was not my lucky number. But that’s ok, too.

I am looking forward to getting back on track tomorrow. And I have a 9-10 miler to look forward to this weekend. I also may need to look for new socks as well. For shorter runs, I have been using the Target C9 socks, but I really do not want blisters. Any suggestions?

How had your week been?

Anyone else had any lurkers while running?

Triple Digits

After my post on Friday, I did feel inspired enough to complete a measly ten minutes of exercise. What could it hurt? I decided 5 minutes of punches sounded like a good start. It didn’t occur to my addled brain that that meant that I also had to hold a squat for 5 minutes. I thought I was going to fall over. But I held it. Then I had to take a break before moving on, ha!

Saturday was a work day for me, so I started my day that way. I’ve mentioned before that I work in a different town than normal on Saturdays and the building is bigger than ours. I wear a Nike+ Fuelband everyday but it’s mostly out of habit, I’ve become a little disenchanted with it. I also rarely hit my goal unless I run and even then it’s rare. However on Saturday, I think it was a little confused. It registered that I had surpassed my goal by 11:30 AM, and had exceeded 10,000 steps… at 11:30. Ok, the building is bigger and I worked standing up but come on, that’s a little fast!

Took a break here, mile 4.5- top of the hill

After work I headed home to find that my home town was a lovely 96º. Yippee! I ran some errands and waited for it to cool. I waited mostly in vain and was losing some of my new enthusiasm, so I headed out for a run at 4:30. A long run. It was 88º. Because of the heat, I did not care about my pace. I just wanted the distance and the time on my feet. I had layered on sunscreen and had a huge bottle of water. I took it slow and walked when I needed too. I took a breather at the halfway point as well. It actually wasn’t bad, if only there were less damn hills. I normally do one hill 3 times and another 4 but I dropped one of each, so it shortened my route a bit. All in all 8.63 miles in 1:37. Yeah, I was slow, I walked a lot, but I felt good. And yes, I was the only idgit out there.Today hit 105º, woo hoo! I got out of the heat for a few hours by finally going to the movies. The Fault in Our Stars was awesome and I managed to avoid crying. There was definitely water in my eyes, but no tears fell. For a YA novel, the theater was filled with adults. 🙂 And I may have eaten too much popcorn. 🙂 But it was yummy. Afterwards, my mother joined me on the crazy train and we went for a walk. My weather app said 102º but it did not feel that warm. Normally I run ahead and double back to her but today we mostly just walked. It was a good walk, just shy of 4.5 miles.

I would say that this was a pretty good week for the challenge that I set myself. I actually had a lot of opportunities to use an excuse last week. Between a later day at work, a raging migraine, the heat and just being female, I was so close to chucking it. But for once I didn’t. Now if I can only keep it going. It’s gonna be a long summer. 🙂

How was your weekend?

How was your weather?

So far, So good

6 days into my No Excuses summer and so far, so good.

Wednesday as most know was National Running Day. My original plan was to hit the gym that night but I also forgot that Wednesday was going to be a later day at work due to a monthly meeting. Oops. So when my gym buddy bailed on me, I raced to the lake park after work to get in a few miles. I had to run on running day right?

I have never worked out after the meetings before, I would always use them as an excuse to not run that day. But in keeping with my theme, I couldn’t bail on the 4^th day! I planned just a quick 2.5 miles. The first mile was just average but then I was feeling spunky so I threw some sprints into the second lap. I was pretty speedy on the sprinting but apparently slow on the recovery jogs so it was still a 9 minute mile. Ha! But it was a fun change. It was also still in the mid 80’s so I was dripping after 2.5 miles. Blech.

Come Thursday, after three days of running, I felt like my legs needed a rest. I had some things to do after work, and then had a completely unhealthy dinner. However I did not use either of those as an excuse, so it was yoga time at 9:00PM. I am feeling a little less awkward with it but then I am also doing this in the privacy of my own home. So when I fell on my face 4 times, no one was around to laugh at me. And I am not even doing real, proper yoga, it’s the Jillian Michaels version. However, I completed the 30 minute circuit and felt better for having done it.

Today I was supposed to have some blood work done but sleeping felt like a better choice. 🙂 Plus I am kind of afraid I will wind up with a huge bruise like last time. Work was pretty good today too. Friday’s always run a little longer so between that and the planned but canceled blood work, I had figured that today would be the 1 of 7 that I said I would do nothing. But as I type this, I feel really lazy so maybe I will do another dvd after posting this. Hmmm, too bad we can’t place bets on it. I do have to restart the ab challenge though. My little stomach flare lasted through Thursday and crunches and situps were not an option.

I hope to get in a 8-9 miler tomorrow but I have a busy day ahead. Not a lot of things to do but time-consuming things. I work in the morning and I am dragging my mother to the movies in the afternoon. I can’t convince anyone else to join me in the amazing sob fest that is The Fault in Our Stars, so I am making her go with me. 🙂 Bring on the tissues and the popcorn! My gym is only open during those same hours on the weekends, so going early or later is not an option. Hopefully my next post will say that I managed to get in my run anyways. 🙂

Will anyone else be crying with me at the movies this weekend?

How was your week?

Anyone racing this weekend?

May Recap = No Excuses Summer

May was a long, kind of rough month that also felt like it passed in the blink of an eye. But enough whining, lets move on to the numbers-

Races-

Run or Dye– ?????
Bands on the Run 10K- 59:28

May turned out to be my lowest mileage for the year so far. This was due to a variety of reasons but at this point I calling bullshit and saying that they were all excuses and poor planning on my part. Which leads into my summer plans-

#noexcusessummer

As of June 1st, I am done whining. This is going to be really hard so I may need your help. 🙂 What this means is that going forward I will do at least 10 minutes of exercise six days a week. Doesn’t really sound like anything at all, but considering all I do right now is run and sit on my butt, it’s a step in the right direction.

So I will run a minimum of 3 days a week, 4 if I’m feeling feisty. But I will focus more on quality than hitting a mileage goal.
The yoga DVD has made it’s way into the dvd player and will be done once a week, the kettle bell dvd should be done once a week as well.
Also on the plan is to start using the gym I pay for but haven’t been to in 3 months. And by use I mean something other than the treadmill 🙂

As for the no excuses, I have made a lot of them lately. Work was crazy, it was hot, my stomach hurt, I had the paper to work on, etc. Enough is enough. Work is going to be crazy until at least the end of the year, so I may as well get over it. The heat? As someone pointed out, I live in central California, it’s just a fact of life. I should be thankful that we don’t have humidity. I don’t know how anyone runs in that. My stomach? Well, realistically, it’s never going to work right, I’ve been told that, so why wait in vain for it to be perfect? As for the paper, it’s done and the class is done. Not my best work. 😦

There are 24 hours in a day and really I have next to no obligations. There is nothing stopping me from exercising before or after work other than my Slacker-ness. While it may be hot in my home town, my work town usually runs about 25º cooler. Granted, to run more than 4 miles I will have to find roads with actual shoulders but I’m sure it can be done. And if not, well then there is the nice air conditioned gym. 🙂

In keeping with this new attitude, Sunday I completed the yoga dvd and day 1 of the AB challenge that is floating around right now. After the race on Saturday followed by a 3 mile hike with my mom and the puppy that night, I gave my legs a break from running. We did the same hike as the Firehouse 5K race, it’s still hard just walking. But yoga equals exercise so day 1, done!

Monday was a vacation day for me, which was awesome. I had planned to run 6 miles in the AM and followed by a busy day of errands and helping my mother with her tennis banquet that night. I woke to find that day 2 was going to be a challenge. My stomach was horrible and there was no way I was running then. I did some thinking and knew I had a small window around 1:00 to squeeze in some miles, so I slept a little longer. By 1:00, my stomach was barely better but I couldn’t quit after a 1 day streak so I went out for a slow run. I kept it easy and walked every time it got a little worse. I came to a complete halt at 3.5 miles for a few moments but I pushed though. 4.5 miles completed! Normally, I would have blown off all exercise for the day.

I was supposed to help my mother hand out the awards during the banquet but the puppy was not doing well with the unusual crowd at the house. Finally to calm her down, I took her for a walk. It was supposed to be short, but she had energy to burn and maintained a steady pace for 2.5 miles. She never does that! So in a hap hazard way, I hit my mileage goal for the day anyways. 🙂 I only completed half of the ab challenge though, my stomach was in no mood to do sit ups or crunches.

Today was another vacation day, yay! I met a friend for lunch to celebrate her birthday tomorrow ( Happy birthday ML!). It was yummy. My stomach is still not happy so I was planning on taking it easy and doing the yoga dvd in the evening. Then I ended up helping my mother with tennis practice. It’s spring practice for fall right now, and she has like 30 girls out there. She likes when I come help because I am more of a drill sergeant out there. I lost count of how many times I yelled bend your knees. Even though that could have counted as my exercise of the day and Tuesdays are a usual running rest day, I couldn’t pass up a vacation day and not run. So I set out for 4 miles.

I don’t know if it was my stomach or just because I mentally think of Tuesday as a rest day but it was hard. I ran so slow. Then I got stuck behind a truck doing an awkward 5 point turn in mile 2 and a phone call in mile 3. Ok, I get it, not a fast run day, but still got it in. 🙂 So 3 for 3 so far! Let’s see how far I can go!

It’s back to work for me tomorrow. 😦 Plus I have to get a few miles for National Running Day! I might check out the gym equipment too. But seriously? How do you use that stuff?

What are your goals for June?

No really, any gym tips?

Bands on the Run- Recap

This morning was the 2nd annual Bands on the Run. I passed on it last year, for some reason that I cannot remember, so I was looking forward to it this year. The premise is a 5K/10K/half marathon run mostly on the beach with music along the way. I had originally planned on running the half but made the smart decision to run the 10K. I was tired when I made the decision a few weeks ago and May truly kicked my butt. As I mentioned in my last post, I felt completely unprepared for today’s race. To compound matters, I broke one of my own rules last night and ate pizza for dinner and I mean I ate pizza. Bad move! Never before a race!

I picked up my packet yesterday and other than not being sure where to go, it was a breeze. They had everything ready to go and packaged, even the safety pins. As I got ready this morning, I felt predictably a little ill- my own fault- but I was trying to pump myself up. So out came the bright green and pink compression socks. The shorts I had wanted to wear were dirty-oops- so I randomly chose another pair. I was flying solo this race, so I had an available passenger seat. They make a great staging area. Please tell me someone else has done this?

After I arrived and parked, I was using the extra time to apply a little body glide. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and a runner was getting something out of his passenger seat right next to me. A little awkward but we’re all runners right? He then sat on the curb to work on his feet and asked which race I was doing. Me, being my usual smart ass self said that I was lazy and running the 10k. Then he told me he was running the 10K, too. Open mouth, insert foot. 😦 I then slunk off to the starting line in shame. Fail!

no talent for an action shot during the race but how about one while I walk?

I knew that the chances of this being a PR race were slim to nil but I went in with 2 goals. Of course the first, the impossible goal was to PR. That would have meant 55:00 and below. The second more realistic goal was to finish under an hour. There were the usual pre-race announcements and a little music played and then it was go time. The 10K and the half started at 8:30. Somehow, I found myself near the front of the pack. Oops.

The race course started in the football stadium of a nearby high school before heading out to the beach. We crossed the starting line and ran about a 1/3 of the track before heading towards the parking lot. From there it was onto a side path that turned into a trail through a tunnel of cypress trees. 3/4 of a mile in, we hit the first band- the high school drum line. I admit I love drum lines so it was cool running through them. Then was the first patch of soft sand. Ugh. It was only about 150 yards so I ran slowly through it. However to get to the beach, you had to go through the dunes. I tried to run, I really did but I just kept sinking, so finally I starting walking and tried to flat foot it across. I had so much sand in shoes. After finally making it to the hard pack, we had 2 miles out and 2 miles back. This is also where the 5K runners went right and the 10K and half runners went left. As we split up we were serenaded by hula dancers. That’s not the right word, but what would it be?

I love running on the hard pack, but I just could not seem to pick up the pace. I was getting frustrated with myself. Mile 2 ran us past 2 guys with guitars. Coming up on mile 3, I still hadn’t seen the leaders pass me on the way back so I was trying to tell myself I could pick up the pace. Then they passed. I think there was a band of some sort at the turn around but I can’t remember. 😦 Turning around I was still kind of cranky but soon had to snap out of it. This was the friendliest race I have run. Everyone was smiling and waving to each other and shouting out props as the runners ran back to the start. How can you be cranky with that? Plus there was this-

I was tiring on the way back and I knew I still had the dunes to go across again. Dune sand sucks. Literally and figuratively. It pulls your feet down and leaves you with sand in shoes as a parting gift. Once again, I walked most of it. I felt goal B slipping away around mile 5 and I became irritated with myself again. I pushed on back through the cypress tunnel and the side path and I was finally back at the school. I took a short walk break before rounding the corner to the football field and running the last 2/3 of the track to the finish line. I honestly hadn’t been paying attention to my watch other than mile splits, so when I rounded the track to the finish line I saw that the clock said 59:00. Seriously?! Run!!! I hauled butt down to the line. Official time- 59:28.

I walked a bit of the track cooling down before heading to the grass to stretch out. I also wanted to lose the 5 pounds of sand in my shoes. While I was dumping the shoe sand into the trash, a guy came up and asked what time I had finished in. Apparently he had used me to pace himself through the race. Really? That’s a first. I think my socks made me easy to spot. 🙂 I was thinking about my time while stretching and I think this is my second slowest 10K. 🙂 I headed over to check the race stats just to see before heading home. Ummm, what? I placed 2nd in my age group. Sweet! I hung around a little longer before heading home. The wind was picking up and I was a little chilled.

A few things I loved about this race- the volunteers all wore shirts that said “I’m with the Band”. Any spot in the trail sections that might trip you up, a branch, a root, a rock, etc. was spray painted fluorescent orange. Thanks for looking out! The drum line- seriously, I got to run through it twice. The start was well organized and the volunteers very helpful. The giant timing clock rocked-

I’ve had time to think about it and I could have run faster. I know I said I felt like I couldn’t but I felt fine after the race, a little too fine. There was more left in the tank, I just need to utilize it better. The difference between me and the woman who placed first in our age group was less than 2 minutes. It is ok to get a little winded in a race, I think I forgot about that.

Overall, goal 2 was accomplished and it was a good race. The weather was great and the course amazing. It will definitely be on my list of races to run again.

Thoughts on running through dune sand?

What about drum lines?