Category: Run!

Simple Saturday

I have probably mentioned a lot that I have been super tired lately. I even took an unplanned nap after Run or Dye last weekend. It seems like all I do lately is go to the doctor. So there has been a little change in plans. I had planned on running my third half of the year on May 31^stbut have decided that it would probably be smarter to step back to the 10K. Especially considering that I have 2 papers due in the next two weeks and should really spend some time on those. See, I am a Slacker! I feel bummed missing the half but I decided to use the time to work on training better and to work on my form. I am signed up for a half in July that I am super excited for. NikeC is going to run it too! Woo hoo for race buddies!

The half in July is part of the same event that I ran a 10K in last July. In fact Rock to the Pier was my first race recap on this blog, awww, nostalgia. They also have a Rock’n Around the Pier half and that is what I am running this year. 90% of the race is on the beach and I can’t wait. This year also has a little added excitement to it. Due to the tides, the race starts at 6:30 but high tide is expected to start rolling in before 8:30ish. So, the website warns that the half marathoners will get wet and may have to navigate some rocks at some point. It also states that if runners don’t hit the turnaround point (10K) by the 1:20:00 mark, they will be bussed back to the finish line. Yikes! I’m still looking forward to it though. 🙂

So small but yummy... and dangerous — So small but yummy… and dangerous

Friday was a usual scheduled rest day, and unfortunately the cookies were victorious. Seriously, no will power. Did I mention they are from a french bakery? However it has been a week since I had candy. The only time I have a problem with candy is the beginning of the year. My favorite candy is SweetTarts and I especially love the small ones. For Valentines day and Easter they make special bags of hearts and bunnies. It’s a problem every year. I only eat the red, orange and purple so I usually delude myself until thinking its ok. It’s not. Thankfully, Easter candy is all gone and I’m not really a chocolate person so I am in the clear until next year. 🙂 Maybe by then I will have the strength to resist.

Today was a work day for me so no sleeping in for me. The drive was pretty, no fog in sight and I kind of wished I had a real camera. I passed classic cars going east for a car show and hordes of bikers going north for the Criterium. Plus Saturday work town was gearing up for the AMGEN tour next week. Everyone had a bike, I’m jealous! I have been looking into borrowing one but no luck yet. That’s ok, I still have time. Once off work, I headed home.

The weather was mid 70’s and breezy, so I headed out for an early afternoon run. I read a quote on Twitter the other day and for some reason it was a light bulb moment. I can’t remember who tweeted, I can’t even remember who originally said it (but it was some famous runner) or even the exact wording- blogger fail! But it said something like this-“if you don’t take your easy runs easy enough, it will make your hard runs easy”. Or in my case- races. Easy means eeeasssy; which I already knew but sometimes reading it from someone more talented helps.

I am still working on my form so today was going to be an easy day. I determined that I had to warm up before trying to focus on my legs. I tried to do it from the beginning and just felt like I was running with a limp. So I went back to the old way with a short walk for a warm up. Once I felt warmed up, I went back to working on actively using my right leg. It’s harder than it sounds. 😦 I felt like there was an army drill sergeant in my head- right, right, right. I’m not even sure I am doing anything, other than I am sore in new ways. And oddly enough, the first 3 miles were a bit faster than I thought. Focusing on my legs meant I focused less on pace and somehow that made it seem easier? At least until mile 4, I hit that last hill and felt tired for the first time, I walked a bit. I finished 4.5 miles and stretched. I was a little hot but nothing a little water couldn’t fix.

After that I took Zoey for a walk. I haven’t taken her for a puppy jog in a while. She didn’t bark at any cars, well except for a Directv van, guess she was mad at them for some reason. 🙂 She was feeling pretty lazy though, she kept lying down on the first mile. She’d trot along and then just plop down on the ground. After we turned around, I took her to the school so she could play in the grass. She was very excited and wanted off the leash but that wasn’t happening. Then we headed for home. She was a very good puppy. 🙂

All in all, it was a pretty good Saturday! Now I really should do some research.

How was your Saturday?

Does anyone know what quote I am talking about?

Anyone have a race?

Such a Slacker

I feel like I was just posting the Run or Dye recap then I blinked and now it’s Thursday. 4 days without a post, total Slacker! I really did mean to post but this week ran away from me, so here we are. On the upside, tomorrow is Friday!!!

On Sunday, I enjoyed an overly warm uncomfortable run. 4.5 miles in 48:08-ouch. I won’t say it was hot, because it was only mid 80’s. It actually nice outside, until you started running that is. 3/4 of a mile down the road, I realized I had misplaced my water bottle. How does a person do that? I pushed on to complete the 4.5 miles but took so many crawl breaks. I felt nasty sweaty at the end but I was done. I also found my water bottle. On top of the dryer in the garage. Oops.

Monday was a pretty good day at work. To keep things lively and stay upbeat on a busy day, a coworker and I had a little transaction battle. It was a close one but I lost. 😦 I don’t usually do that many anymore so it kept me moving. After work I met my mom and the puppy at the lake for a few miles. It was a nice little warm up, I walked a little over 1/2 a mile with them before running. The first mile was slower due to the walking but my legs felt pretty good so I decided to do a little speed work. I managed to pull in a decent progression run for the night.

I was a little sore on Tuesday so I kept it as my usual day. I knew Wednesday was going to be a busy day so I had thought of switching days but decided against it. I lucked out actually because since I work on Saturday I had the chance to leave early on Wednesday. I had a doctor’s appointment in the later afternoon but I thought I could squeeze in a run. I headed to the lake aiming for 3.5 easy miles. I wanted to run an average pace of 10:00-10:15. I also wanted to concentrate on my form.

I noticed awhile back that I relied heavily on my left leg. All of my issues are usually on my left side. I wanted to work on my form but didn’t want to try anything new before the SLO 1/2. I figured that would be a bad idea. 🙂 So after my first mile, which was a little fast, I focused on my right leg and its turnover. Apparently I can’t do two things at once. I couldn’t maintain my planned pace and focus on my form. I ended up being faster than planned. What was weird was that it felt easy. Too bad that doesn’t happen all the time. If that pace could become my easy run that would be sweet, but that’s likely farther out.

And I found this branch in my shoe... — And I found this branch in my shoe…

After my doctor’s appointment, I headed to a tennis meeting with my mother. She likes to drag me along when she can. She always ropes me into filling out the draw forms for her. Wow, 7 team coaches trying to get their players seeded? There were a few times I though there was going to be a throw down. I just kept my head down and kept writing, trying not to laugh out loud.

I’ve been feeling super run down and tired lately and that translated into a rough morning today. It took me a little longer to get going. I figured if I was so tired that I was texting my boss for an extra 45 minutes then I was not running tonight. Boo. Well, more time for an update then! Tomorrow’s a planned rest day, so fingers crossed, I can also avoid the temptation of cookie Friday. Especially since I ate a donut yesterday. Ok, 2 donuts. But they were so good. 🙂

How has your week been?

Any temptations you’ve avoided or embraced?

Happy Friday!!

Run or Dye 2014

Back in January, it hit Facebook that our little neck of the woods was getting a Run or Dye race. I swear my Facebook feed lit up like a Christmas tree. C and I had always said that we wanted to do a fun, less based on pace race, and the fact that we didn’t have to drive far for this was perfect. I had also promised her that I would run in a tutu. When sign up time came around, there were so many locals signing up that the website actually crashed. I probably should have taken that as indicator of how may people were attending this shindig. But, Team Slacker (discount!) was able to register fairly quickly so I put it out of my mind.

When I picked up my packet, I found out that 8000 people registered. What?! That didn’t even seem possible. Friday night before the race, I was texting C back and forth about where we were going to meet up, texting NikeC about what time I was picking her up and texting ME- ok, every time I type that I feel narcissistic, so from now on ME will be ML- about where we could meet up with her group as well. The race was taking place in a park/ golf course across from a community college. Parking was in a few a of the college lots. It wasn’t enough.

After picking up NikeC nice and early in the morning, I decided to take the back way there. It’s the same rural highway I drive to work everyday, actually. I had mentioned it to ML the night before and she thought it would be slower, plus everyone seems to hate this highway. Not me! Halfway there, ML starts texting me about traffic and C is calling tell me that the left hand turn lane is backed up for literally miles. Another plus about the back way- I got to make a right hand turn onto campus with no traffic! Woo hoo!! We were directed to a lot where we parked. Then it was the walk to the actually event. If you add in the walk to and from the park, we probably did 5 miles overall that morning 🙂

The crowds were ridiculous. The highway patrol was out directing traffic so everyone could cross the highway safely. I had hoped that the majority of people would still need to check in and get packets but judging by the sea of white shirts in front me, most everyone picked up early. We finally tracked down C and her husband, from now on called C-Hub, R and T. We could not find ML and her crew. We were looking for them when we were just absorbed into the crowd and wound up at the starting line; which turned into a mini dance party and the first throwing of dye. Part of packet pickup included a packet of dye, which everyone opened and started to throw around.

That stuff is cold! I don’t know what I was expecting but it felt cold when it hit you. There was a countdown and we were off! Well kind of, even with a wave start it was crowded. There was never really a time when there wasn’t a crowd on the course. That was partially aided by the course being in a golf course, so we running the path. A very incline-y path at that. We did a lot of walking with some sprinting in between for the whole course. Let’s call it fartlek training! We lost R and T fairly quickly, so then it was just the four of us. The first dye station was pink and not too bad. Ran through it and continued on. The stations after that were more aggressive. One purple station was so cloudy, I couldn’t see the ground or my feet.

I love running with C and her husband. They crack me up, plus C-Hub has great drill sergeant moments. 🙂 Then we hit a blue station. They were hardcore! It seriously all went right down my bra, blech! It was starting to get a little sweaty too. About a mile in, I was also feeling pretty stinky. Which is weird because my mother insists that I don’t smell even after my half marathons. I mentioned it to NikeC and she felt the same way. Maybe it was something about the way the corn starch reacted with your skin? Who knows? All I know is that C mentioned it later too.

We kept trucking along, it really was great getting to run with everyone. I got in some sprinting while trying to run away for C Hub, he didn’t think there was enough dye in my hair yet. 🙂 Walking up a little hill we saw turkeys!!!! Don’t know why they were there but we had to try and get pictures of them. I had my phone in a plastic bag so please enjoy the filter de plastic 🙂 It works pretty well, just kind of blurry sometimes.

By the time we went through the later dye zones, I was walking like a mummy, hehe. My arms were at my sides, eyes closed and mouth squeezed shut. It was fun and all but I had kind of had enough corn starch. 🙂 The last pink station was so backed up that we came to a stop while waiting to get through it. C thought about skipping it, but C Hub wouldn’t let her.

There was one last color station after that and then we were running through a campground to get to the finish. It ended up being after a single track stretch of trail and a little wooden bridge. We also met back up with T and R right before the finish line. The finish line was seriously anticlimactic. We crossed the bridge and that was it. No one was cheering as you came across and people were just milling about. There was the color party going on in the middle of the field and some booths selling stuff to the right. That was kind of a bummer. 😦 NikeC and I stayed on the outskirts of the party while the others waded their way into the middle. They had the crowd pleasing moment of everyone throwing their remaining dye packs in the air. I tried to get a pic but was a little late-

Then it was photo time!!!

I texted ML, wondering where they were at on the course but they had already left 😦 We started the long trek back to the cars thinking about lunch. I couldn’t handle the blue boobs anymore so I took off my white tank. I was wearing tanks which might be why I was so warm but I took that white one off while we were walking and shoved it down my bra. So classy, right? But I felt so much better after that. The shirt actually worked pretty well at cleaning myself off as we walked back to the college. NikeC and I managed to get pretty clean by the time we made it to lunch. 🙂

It was around 10:30 when we were walking out and we could see about 1000 or more people still coming as well as a long line of cars still trying to park. The pre-race info has said that the last wave was at 11:00 so I hope all those people had the chance to run. I don’t think they were adequately prepared for the amount of people who signed up. Another beef- strollers. There were so many parents with the kids and babies in strollers going through the course. Not only was the path not that wide, did you really want your poor kid breathing all that in and getting it in their faces?

Lunch was awesome. We hit Firestone in SLO because they have outdoor seating. Yeah we were not the only people from Run or Dye to think of that. It was packed! The food was amazing though. We had to laugh because we notice that us girls all ordered burgers and both guys were eating giant salads. 🙂 Then we all headed home where we were met with the task of trying to get clean. It actually came out of my hair fairly easily which I had been worried about. It did not come off skin quite so easily. C and I texted each other later that our underarms still had a blue tinge no matter how hard we scrubbed.

Overall it was a good run. It needed to be in a bigger location and a little better organized but it was the chance to run with everyone that made it great. Would I do it again? Ask me again when I am sure that there’s no lingering dye anywhere. 🙂

April Recap

April was a busy month. Not just for me but most people I think. I mean taxes and Boston in the same month, right? Or in my case, the SLO Marathon weekend. So my month brought me this-

Miles- 70.4
Races-2 – Firehouse 5K & SLO 1/2 Marathon
Money spent- quite a bit
Toenails- 1 almost gone 🙂

I actually felt pretty good after Sunday’s race even with all the hills. I took Monday off, both from running and work, planning to return to both on Tuesday. Work went great on Tuesday and I was looking forward to my run. What I did not account for was the freak heat wave we have had lately. Even work town was friggin’ hot and it rarely gets above 70 there.

I went to the lake after work hoping for an easy 4 miles. I was warm, not hot but uncomfortably warm. It was 88º when I set out. I called it after 5K and just walked back to the car. I didn’t see a need to push it. It was a bummer because my legs felt good but I need to acclimate to the coming summer heat a little better.

For some reason, I thought Wednesday was Thursday all day long. Not cool. I had planned on running after work but for the first time ever, this Slacker forgot her running shoes. How does one even do that? I do have a spare pair in my car (and socks, shorts, shirt and sports bra) but it was hot again, so I decided on another rest day. I did just run 13.1 right? Sadly it meant that my monthly mileage stalled at 70.4 and I had really wanted to get to 75. But I am still on track for my yearly goal, so yay!

Thursday, well yeah. I felt like Thursday turned into a mayday, and not the fun dancing around the May pole kind. Work bordered on insane and the town was crazy. My original plan was to run 3-4 miles in work town before heading to SLO for packet pick up for tomorrow’s race. But there is a huge car show in town this weekend and people were pouring in so I just got the heck out of dodge. I was halfway to SLO when it occurred to me that I had lost $200.00. I could not remember what I had done with it but I did not have it. That was the final straw and I burst into tears while driving down the highway. 😦 Once I made it to packet pick up (Sports Authority), I was texting all of my co-workers in a panic. No one could remember seeing it. There was nothing more that I could do about it then, so I dried my eyes as best as I could and went to get the packets. I figured I would be in and out and hardly anyone would see me, so the red eyes wouldn’t be so bad.

Wrong. This pick up was for Run or Dye. The line was wrapped around the interior of the building. I was in line for over 30 minutes. Seriously?! I am still on the fence about this race as it is. Then when I was picking up my bib and for 4 friends, the Run or Dye staff told me 8000 people registered. I’m sorry what? How do you fit that many people in a smaller park and where do they all park? I was still super cranky so I think I may have given the poor guy the look of death at that news. Sorry!

I was still so frustrated that I was torn between getting a pizza on the way home and eating it all or trying to run it out. I chose the healthy choice and took the freeway exit to run town. I was running behind on time so I was thinking 2 laps of the lake would be good. Apparently there was some function at the pavilion because I had to circle around a few times and ended up parking on the backside of the lake. Which was weird but I jumped out, walked a quick warm up and then just ran. 2 miles later, time had run out but I was feeling a little better.

I am something of a clean freak about certain things, so I am really not sure how I will handle people throwing colored dye at me as we leisurely ramble through the course tomorrow. Plus, I am wearing a tutu. I had always promised C that we run a race in tutu’s. Why, I am not sure, I always feel awkward in costumes or outfits. I am still just getting used to running in shorts. But, I did buy a bright pink tutu and I will be rocking it tomorrow. Along with all black. 🙂 I’m picking NikeC up early so we can hopefully get a good parking spot. Then it is time for a Team Slacker meetup! On the upside, I think we have a group of 10 or more running tomorrow! Plus no pre-race jitters. 🙂

And the lost money? Found today, I have awesome co-workers. 🙂

How was your week?

Ever done a Run or Dye or Color Run? Any advice?

Good luck to anyone at Wildflower this weekend!

Tri Dreaming

Please join me on a ramble of a pipe dream-

Sunday’s SLO Marathon was the completion of my 7^th half marathon. I have never run a marathon nor am I sure I want to. When I first started running a few years ago, my naive goal was to qualify for Boston one day. I was averaging 12:30 miles, running less than sporadically and clearly had no idea what I was talking about. Once I did figure it out, my enthusiasm for that idea waned a little. One because by qualifying time for me right now would be 3:35:00- Ummm, not gonna happen. But it was the training time that really got me; a 3 hour run on average on the weekend? Yikes! There’s a reason I call myself Slacker Runner. Would I love to get there someday? Yes, but you’ve got to crawl before walking right?

So I reassessed again. I stumbled on triathlons. Sprint distance that is. A sprint generally runs around a 750km swim, a 20km bike and a 5k run. That sounded totally doable* so I said that I wanted to complete a sprint tri before I was 35. Now, I realize that this would require just as much training as a marathon, but for some reason in my head training for 3 events makes this ok.

Now here’s where the * comes into play. Running a 5K- easy peasy, I got that. Biking- well I haven’t been on a real bike in probably 15 years and when I did own one I rarely rode it. I can bust out 12 miles on the stationary bike but that is so not the same thing. I have also never ridden a bike on a public street so that should be interesting. Then there’s the swimming. I was raised near a lake, so I was swimming before I was walking almost but that wasn’t real swimming. The last time I swam laps was in 8th grade PE. Oh and did I mention that open water swimming kind of terrifies me? Yep, for two reasons. One- people swimming over the top of you or just running into you and two- Jaws. No joke. When we went stand up paddle boarding for work last August, I admit to being a little unnerved.

So this was why I gave myself a 5 year deadline at the time. Plenty of time to suck it up or conveniently forget it. Over the years I came across a few local options but have yet to figure out the logistics of things. Like swimming, how would I train? I can’t afford the gym that has a pool and the municipal pool only has free swim during lunch hours and I work 45 minutes away. Then there’s the biking, I don’t really want to buy anything because what if I hate it and never want to ride again? So that means I have to try to borrow stuff? That’s kind of awkward. Again, a good reason for the 5 year window.

So why bring it up now? Well that window is half over. When the hell did that happen? Also, wandering around the SLO expo on Saturday, a booth caught my eye. Apparently there is a triathlon in November that is super close. So close that I gave them the “say what!” face when they said it was the 5th year. They admitted to poor marketing. Which also means that it wouldn’t be too big. Like Wildflower, which is also super close, but is insanely huge and meant for the people with real talent. Then there’s the SLO Triathlon, which is in a pool but that’s 36 laps!

So why am I so interested in this one? Which involves open water ocean swimming? Because you can modify it. You can swap the swim for a 1.5 mile kayak loop or SUP. Really? Sweet! So not a traditional tri per say but one this Slacker might be able to train for. And you can rent a kayak before hand and they will truck it to the staging area on race day. So now, I am giving myself until August 1 to see if I can train and if I can, I will register right before prices go up on 8-2.

This is probably all a pipe dream but it feels good to write it down. You gotta throw it out there right? Or should I say its good to dream 🙂

Anyone have a crazy running (or other) dream?

How has your week been?

(all images courtesy of Pinterest)