Category: Run!

A Long Not So Slow Run

The weather man was actually right and we had a very rainy Saturday. Not complaining because we need it but it did push my long run back until today. Saturday was spent building a cabinet for my mother for her garage. Every time my pops goes out of town, I get a “honey do” list. The cabinet was one of those MDF things you buy in pieces. Some very colorful language ensued, I hurt my ankle, pinched a finger and realized that wood glue peels off your fingers just like Elmer’s did back in grade school. 🙂 But it was built and muscled into place (weighed 200 lbs!), well mostly. One door is out of whack. 😦 That counts as a workout right?

I don’t know why I tell myself I am going to run in the morning, I never follow through. It is too cold and my bed is so cozy. After a little lie in this morning, a late breakfast (or early lunch) and some errands, I headed out for my run. The rain had held all day but I dressed for it just in case. Full pants, tank and and long sleeved layer on top. All topped with an ear warmer. I was also wearing the ankle compression socks. Ankle is a misnomer, they were more like crew, they went halfway up my leg. It reminded me of when I played tennis in high school. For some reason we thought we were cool wearing crew boys socks with our skirts. Ha!

I was a little overdressed in the beginning but I forced myself to keep everything on, I knew I would be cold eventually. Plus there was some more wind today than usual. I had plans to get the puppy and take her for a walk, so I was only going to run 8. The first 4 at a steady pace, last 4 at a much slower pace. I started out ok and the first 4 went as planned. Then it got a little tricky.

I was trying to take some pictures for the blog so occasionally I would stop and pause the Garmin and Nike and take a pic or 2. Start them back up and keep going. At the last shot I didn’t pause the Garmin so time kept running. Oops. Nike had paused fine and restarted fine. Half a mile later, I noticed they were .30 miles different. The Garmin was ahead but the pace on Nike seemed right so I just kept going. The last few miles seemed hard, harder than a 10:30 should have been, which is what I thought I was running. At the end, the Garmin showed 8.32 and Nike 8.02. I must have had my Wheaties this morning, mile 8 was 8:47. Say what?!

Thinking both devices had serious issues, I Google mapped it. It showed 8.46. Well crap. Since I know the time on the Nike was accurate for time actually ran, I took that time and randomly chose 8.2 miles. That is not the pace I was trying to maintain for a long slow run but I am stoked that I held it. I later logged into Nike and was able to see where the signal drop happened. I have never had a problem there before so I’m not sure what happened 😦

I then headed for the puppy and what I thought would be a nice stroll. Except she was ready to go and wanted to run the whole way, I had to hold her back at times. Plus she still randomly likes to just plop flat on the ground and I almost trip over her. Another 2.7 miles in 38 minutes. And I was done. And cold, the temperature had dropped a bit.

I later went to dinner with my mother. This time I was wearing the full length compression socks under my jeans for recovery. So far I like them but I am going to need a few more times wearing them to decide. I must say that I thought they would be tighter. Or at least feel snugger. But then I wear knee socks or derby socks almost every day during winter and spring so maybe I’m just used to it? Who knows.

First week of the reboot plan successfully completed and I feel pretty good. I am hoping to maintain that through next week finishing with a 10K on Saturday. 🙂 I was originally supposed to be running a half marathon but with my ankle being sore, I decided to try and be smart and not push it. My first half of the year is still set for March and I will run SLO in April.

How was everyone’s weekend?

I know I need to just use 1 device but it’s so hard! Anyone else use 2?

Tiny bit of business-

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Intervals and a Big Oops

Hooray, it’s Friday!!!!

Who’s racing this weekend?

Today was a pretty good day. I worked the early shift at work and was even able to get off a little early. I have an awesome boss. I mean I really do, yesterday, while parallel parking I bumped her car. Like our bumpers were kissing. I swear I checked before turning off my car. I never felt a bump, apparently I am just that skillful at backing up. Ha! No damage at all but it was a momentary panic attack. Did I mention it’s review time?! Part of today was spent doing battle with my usual Friday temptation-one day I will resist, I will be strong. It just wasn’t today.

I have however been strong on the no soda during the week. 🙂 I have not had any soda since I randomly quit at 10:00 AM Tuesday morning. No headaches to speak of, but I have been draggggggging. With that being said, I did make it to the gym on Thursday night for an easy interval run.

Normally I manually change the speed anytime I want but I decided to try the interval option instead. First question it asked was what my weight was? Nosy much? Why does my weight affect the speed settings on a treadmill? And why do they call it jogging speed? For the sake of all of our delicate egos they should call it something like “fast” and “lightening fast” not “jogging” and “running”. Ok, mini rant over. Having to push the button just once to change speeds was nice though.

My intervals looked something like this-

Length (miles)	Speed
1.25	5.8
.75	6.3
.25	5.8
.75	6.3
.5	5.8
1.00	6.3
.50	5.8

Total- 5 miles not counting warmup or cool down.

(glad to hear I’m not the only one turns off the watch for those!!)

I admit to taking it slightly easy. Even with having a cup of coffee in the morning, I am seriously missing the caffeine. While driving to the gym that night, I told myself I only had to run 4 not the 5 that I planned. Once I was running though, I figured I could run 5 and thankfully there was nothing freaky on the tv’s. Whoever is changing the channels needs to stop, Wednesday night, the tv had Devour-Return of the Man Eating Snake on. I thought I was going to have nightmares about albino pythons eating crocodiles. Yuck!

All in all it was a good run, it felt like productive miles not just filler miles. There were some runs in January that felt like mostly filler. Today was like most Fridays- a rest day. After leaving work, I fought the Friday crowd at Trader Joe’s- not a good idea- before heading home. The mail delivered presents!!!!!

Oh, wow that's pink — Oh, wow that’s pink

I just ordered them Tuesday night so the shipping was great! Have to say that these are my first pairs of compression socks. Oh the shame 🙂 Anytime my pics showed me in knee socks, they were derby socks. I am eager to test them out on my long run this weekend. The weather is calling for rain on Saturday so the timing of that run is a little up in the air. The rain wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for my proclivity for slipping. But we desperately need rain, so no complaints here. Even if it means I have to dodge rocks on the road while driving to work 🙂

Any one have big plans this weekend?

Any ideas on how I can learn to like coffee faster?

Tiny Tempo Time

Happy Hump Day!!!!

After Saturday’s race, I was feeling a little sore and my left ankle was not the happiest camper. In an earlier post I had mentioned that I was was rethinking my training plan. While I liked the way the app worked and laid out the plan, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. It went from my Slacker to crazy a little too quickly. Plus I kind of felt like running had become work. That I had to meet certain goals at certain times. So while I was still following it I was thinking of other ideas. Going back to the original plan but with a little twist, so bring on the Slacker Reboot! But that’s for a later post 🙂

Yeah, that's how we do rain, haha — Yeah, that’s how we do rain, haha

With that in mind as well as the ankle uncomfortable-ness, I took it easy on Sunday as opposed to getting in a long run. While everyone else may have been excited about the Super Bowl, my excitement was brought on by waking up to rain!!!! Nowhere near what we needed but it was still great. I waited for it to warm up a bit so I headed out for an afternoon run. I ran right through kickoff!! Yeah, the Super Bowl’s not really my thing. This time I was prepared in full pants, my warmest long sleeve short and a big ear warmer. It was so much better than Saturday, but it was also 15º warmer. My goal was to take it easy and just enjoy the lightly misting rain. As I topped the last hill and was just shy of mile 4, the sky opened up. Overall I hit 4.31 miles. My splits weren’t the best or share worthy but I love the pace of that last little bit 🙂

Monday’s post was all about the awesome SLO Marathon and how excited I am but I did get in a run that day. It was day 1 of new plan after all. It was a very sluggish 3.5 miles on the treadmill. At least that’s how I felt. My average pace was 10:06 and as a rarity, I ran a negative split. Sweet! Now if only I could do it intentionally. I was actually supposed to do 4 miles but just wasn’t feeling it. I decided not to push it. I did a short cool down walk before leaving. I always turn my Garmin or Nike+ off before my cool down. I can’t decide if its overly prideful because I don’t want to lower my pace or if it’s silly and I am shorting myself mileage. What do you think?

Tuesday was a planned rest day and it was so nice 🙂 Today I hit the gym again after work and got in a nice tiny Tempo run. I ran 6 miles with a warmup mile and a cool down mile, with the 4 miles in between at a 9:00 pace. At least that was the plan. Warm up and cool down went according to plan, but the 4 inner miles were 9:30 pace. Oops. My ankle was a little stiff but it eased up as I ran. I was also a little tired since I randomly decided to quit soda today. I am still trying to force myself to like coffee. I am not sure how long this is going to last as I have tried numerous times before but we’ll see how it goes! I told myself I could have soda on the weekends. That would be allowed… So when is it Saturday?

I admit that I am so over the treadmill. Part of me actually wonders if it is contributing to my sore ankle. This lovely article from Runner’s World tells me I no longer have to put the incline at 2, so sweet!!! Today’s run was at .5. I rewarded myself after my run with this yummy smoothie-

It is really sad how tired I am right now. I didn’t drink that much soda anymore anyways. The Doc took away my diet soda, so I cut down to a small coke a day. My head is actually not pounding right now so at least that’s something!

How is everyone’s week?

Anyone else stop their GPS early?

Want to come run SLO? I have a discount code!!!!

I’m an Ambassador!!!!!!

Last week, I promised big news and now for the follow through. I’m the type of person who likes to check and then double-check and the check again before announcing something. I want to make sure I read something right or that it wasn’t a mistake or that they won’t change their mind, etc. Anyways, on to the news!!!!

In my goals post I mentioned that I would love to race the SLO Marathon in April. I have wanted to run the half for the past 2 years but was never able to make it work. Either illness or finances would get in the way and I would spend part of race weekend mildly pouting. So this year I was making it a priority, I was going to run it. So when it popped up in my Facebook feed that they were looking for Ambassadors for the 2014 race, I about jumped out of my chair.

I love SLO, seriously if I could live there I would. The weather is usually amazing which is good because many of my races have been run in SLO. I spend many a weekend there shopping and eating- and running. I always come home with a little less money and a full stomach. Now being that I am a steak and potatoes kind of girl I admit that I don’t branch out often, but have enjoyed some of the best hamburgers and BBQ there. I consider it a reward for a good race– or a rough week. 🙂

Healthy all week until post race reward right?

I stared at the post for a bit and then texted a friend (I needed a little encouragement) before putting together an email and submitting it. I then proceeded to stalk my own email for a week or two. I was super excited but nervous as well. Even after a few years of running I still doubt myself sometimes. But I got an email back!!!!

They asked for a bio and a picture which I promptly sent back. I then still waited a little more before posting this (I also replied from the wrong email and had a temporary panic attack). I am so excited!!!!! I now have a new focus for training and a new goal race in April. 🙂 You’ll be hearing more about the race from me in future, hopefully I can convince you to come join us on race weekend!

Oh, did I mention that Dean Karnazes ran it?

Super Fun Run 5K- Recap

After Thursday’s recap, I took Friday as another rest day. Attempted Runner asked if I had thought about just doing the last 3ish that I needed to hit 80 on Friday. But I don’t generally like running the day before a race plus work turned into a longer day than planned. After work I had the very exciting Friday night plans of making a new playlist and picking out the clothes for today’s race. I probably should have done laundry. Then I tried to get to sleep earlier. That never seems to go according to plan. Instead it was spent tossing and turning.

The Super Fun Run is a small 5k /10k that raises money for the local Boys and Girls Club. I ran it last year with a few friends and it was my official 5k PR and the first time that I know of that I age group placed. I was 1st!!! So I was excited going into this race. I was torn between running the 5K or the 10K and I admit it was pride that made me choose the 5K.

My goals going in were-
A- beat official PR- 29:36
B- beat unofficial PR- 27:41 (during HOB 10K)
C- shot in the dark- sub 27

Apparently I can’t handle the cold. My alarm went off and after turning it off I checked the temp. Mid 20’s. Ugh, so I went with the pants. At the last minute I grabbed a headband to cover my ears. Even though the race was within in walking distance of my house, I still drove down. Why? It was freakin’ cold and I had to have somewhere to put the shirt and goody bag after bib pick up. I waited as long as I could in my car after getting my bib before heading to start line.

There were a few pre-race announcements, a count down and then it was go time. We ran across a baseball field and up a driveway before hitting pavement. From there it is an out and back course with a few turns to add mileage. Knowing the course and the small hill in the middle, I was aiming for a 3 mile sandwich- fast, medium, fast. My toes were so cold, I could not feel them. I felt like I was running awkwardly. I kept hoping they would warm up but they never did. 😦 3/4 of a mile in, I had a tightness in my chest and breathing sucked. It hurt to breath. A little past the mile 1 marker and halfway up the hill, I had to walk. Ugh!!! The downhill that followed was great, though.

Mile 1 was actually a great pace but I felt like I was in trouble. I kept pushing but had to take another walk break on the next incline. Meanwhile, 2 women come flying past on the return and I think crap! I wasn’t even halfway and they were already headed back. The turn around point was about 50 yards past the only water station so I grabbed some on the way back.

I cranked it up and flew down the downhill. However my lungs were so very angry and when I hit the return uphill there was no way I was running it. Another walk. After that it was mostly flat and I tried to push it but I just felt like I could not get enough air and that I was crawling. I didn’t even look at my Garmin the last 1.5 miles. My toes were still frozen, my chest hurt but my head was suddenly too hot. I ripped off my headband and kept going. I took 2 more walk breaks. I rounded the final corner and crossed the finish line. I stopped the Garmin at 27:56.

Now I realize that more than half the country and Canada are dealing with sub zero temperatures, crazy windchill and mountains of snow, so today’s 30 should have been no big deal. However, I would rather run in 115 weather than cold. I have no training with cold running. It is dark and cold when I leave for work, but then I get a nice warm car for the next 45 minutes. I am always cold, I have a space heater under my desk that I run every day at work. Seriously. This race kicked my ass. Overall I took 5 walk breaks and they weren’t just at the inclines.

I met my mom and Zoey after crossing the finish line. I drank some water and tried to catch my breath. She and the puppy left and I hung around to try and get some clue of the official standings. I couldn’t remember seeing that many people coming back before I hit the turn around, but I was kind of on my own planet.

Official Time- 27:54
8th finisher overall
3rd female finisher, 3rd female age group

I have no reason to feel down. I made my primary goal but missed B by 15 seconds. I am proud of what I accomplished but wish I could run the course again about 15 degrees warmer. It was 30 when we started and it was still 30 when I left the race. The website said that only 1st age group finishers received a medal so I ending up leaving early. I could not handle the cold anymore. And those 2 women who flew past me? They finished in 18 minutes. Hot damn! I wish I could be that fast!

I was supposed to run another 9 miles after the race to complete my long run for the week but I made it home and ended up sitting on the ground by the slider in the sun until I could feel my toes again. I’m so weird, I know. 🙂 My legs felt stiff all day so I decided to push my long run back to tomorrow.

The shirt this year was actually really cute and much better than last years. This was an actual dri-fit tee and last year’s was all cotton and not football themed at all. I did treat myself to some post race frozen yogurt- 9 hours later when I was warmer. 🙂

How was everyone’s Saturday?

Am I just a big baby when it comes to the cold?