Category: Run!

Finally a Reason

Friday morning, I woke up feeling like I had slept more hours but they were just as crappy. I just wanted to burrow under the covers for a few more hours. But I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for work. Since I was feeling crappy, I wore my newest skirt and my most comfortable boots to work. Fake it ’til you make it right?

Yeah, I rock funky socks, every day :) — Yeah, I rock funky socks, every day 🙂

Don’t worry, I push the socks down before we open the doors. 🙂 I was also treated to this morning view while picking up the cookies-

Shaping up to be a good day, right? By early afternoon, my headache had turned into a head pounder and my swallowing was so painful. Ahhhh, light bulb moment, I was sick. Maybe that explained the week of crappy sleep and the zoning out I did a few times at night. I watched Biggest Loser on my DVR over the week, but I couldn’t tell you a dang thing that happened. I don’t remember it at all. 😦 After leaving work yesterday, I crashed in the Comfy chair with a blanket. I was hoping I would be better in time for a long run today.

I had a little shopping trip planned with my mom; she wanted help looking for a wedding gift for one of her former players. I set an alarm in the hopes I could get a run in this morning first. Ha! My head and throat were worse. So I tried to get a little more sleep before getting ready for the day. Shopping went well, even if both my mother and I were feeling poorly and moving a little slower than usual. Even though my throat hurt, I was able to enjoy lunch. 🙂 She also found a great gift, which is good as the wedding is tomorrow. 🙂

She then needed to head to the Tennis Warehouse to pick up a few things for the team. Uhoh- danger zone! The Running Warehouse was literally 10 feet away. And I had been feeling the urge for new shoes. I was one of those rare runners who only had one pair of shoes. I wore them for every race, training run and occasional trail adventure. When they wore out, I replaced them. With my planned increase in training this spring and more half marathons on the schedule as well I was thinking about getting another pair.

The place was packed, but then the store front is small. However customer service there is amazing. I tried to resist, I really did. I ended up trying on the Mizuno Wave Inspire 10 and the Mizuno Wave Rider 17. I love my current pair of Inspire 9’s so I was optimistic for the 10’s. They felt like an entirely different shoe, tighter and flatter. Not cool. The Wave Rider’s on the other hand felt awesome! Restraint be damned!

The Wave Rider’s are a neutral support shoe so that is a change. So I will be trying them out on the treadmill for the first few runs. If I like them, I figured I would use them for the flatter, shorter runs and races. I can’t wait to test them out. Our shopping trip was longer than planned; I ran out of daylight. My mother cannot make a quick trip to Petco. I ended up wandering away at one point and having a conversion with a little boy about betta fish. He was excited because they are fighter fish. I told him we have one at work that likes to try to attack a coworker. He thought that was great. 🙂

Once home, I had absolutely no energy for the gym. So today became a rest day. I am hoping that I will feel better tomorrow and can get in some miles. Maybe not the 8 that I missed today but anything between 4 and 6 would be cool. It will have to be early though as I am my mother’s plus 1 for the wedding. My dad, well he’s not the partying type. Neither am I, really, but I fake it better. 🙂

How was everyone’s Saturday?

Was I really the only one with one pair of shoes?

The Difference in Numbers

It’s almost Friday!!!!

The schedule for Wednesday showed a 5 mile run. However, sleep on Tuesday night while better than Monday was the opposite of good. I was tired and my head hurt so I skipped the run and went for a rest day. Since running 2 days in a row, I was hoping a day off might. No dice. Again with the restless, crappy sleep. I barely managed to drag my tired butt out of bed this morning at 6:40. Why was this bad? I have leave for work by 7:15. If only I could find a way to channel that speed into running. 🙂

Work for the last week has been great all day and then chaos for the last 45 minutes. Is there some weird moon thing going on or something? Today was no different. I also spent over 30 minutes sitting in my car at lunch waiting for a car wash. Apparently I wasn’t the only one running errands on lunch. So now the outside matched the inside. Well, kind of. Now that it looks all shiny and clean, I can see just how badly I cleaned the inside windows. Seriously, I make them look worse after cleaning them.

After the last minute craziness at work, I changed and was ready to hit the gym. Tonight’s run called for an easy 3. However I ended up stuck behind a car going 20 miles under the speed limit who brake checked me every quarter mile. So much for a nice calming commute 😦 So I had some energy to burn by the time I finally made it to the gym. Once again I had the Garmin and Nike+ to track my miles. Combined with my fuel band on the other hand, I probably looked like the biggest gear nerd. The place was packed. It was the busiest I had seen it all week, I almost didn’t find a treadmill.

Once I found one, I started it up as well as all my gear. I admit I walked a minute of every mile. I ran 10 miles at race pace before walking in my last half marathon, but I can’t run one on the treadmill. What gives? Plus I still haven’t mastered drinking and running, ha! Ok, I’m not that bad but it’s a great excuse. 🙂 I hit 3 miles at just shy of 31 minutes and kept going. I actually sped up. I was tired and hot but feeling ok so I pushed on. 4.5 miles in 44:55 so I pushed stop on both the Garmin and Nike. I walked another quarter mile cool down.

Stat check: The treadmill read 4.5 miles in 44:55. Nike said 4.37 miles in 44:56 and the Garmin? Well, Garmin said 3.90 miles in 45:01. Hmmmm, what to believe. Other than the 60 seconds of walking each mile, I ran between 6.4 and 7.1, so I really want to believe the treadmill. I think the Garmin will only be used outside from now on. Once home, it was time for another smoothie. And hopefully some decent sleep very, very soon. Please? I rarely ever get in a run on Fridays, so I am looking forward to getting in my long run this weekend.

Oh, yesterday I received the medal from the only virtual race I did last year. I’m still not sure how I feel about those but I will admit that I did this one just for the medal. My inner nerd girl was jumping up and down-

How has everyone’s week been?

Any races this weekend?

Treadmill Tuesday

Totally random, but let’s start with this little snippet- Hell froze over!!

Sorry couldn’t help it, but that must be why I made it to the gym two days in a row 🙂 Can we say ugh squared to the treadmill? Maybe it’s because of the circulated air or the fact that you have run while staring at yourself in the mirror but running just seems so much harder.

Last night I slept horribly. First I couldn’t fall asleep and then I tossed and turned. For someone who used to be something of an insomniac, this is not cool. An unexpected bonus to commuting and the crazy insane schedule I had for the first 3-4 months of the year was finally sleeping a little better. I am hoping tonight is better and that last night was just a one off.

6 miles were on the plan for today but I knew that wasn’t likely when I woke up. While getting ready, I figured I could do a 2 mile walk while on lunch and then hit the gym for 3-4 miles after work. That seemed more feasible. As I was walking out the door to go to work, I received a text message. Someone called in sick. 😦 So I canceled the lunch walk with the intention of taking a shorter lunch and getting back to work. Best laid plans right?

We have a Comfy chair at work too, and I sat down after eating my lunch. Then I fell asleep… oops. I had even turned my jacket into a blanket. I woke up almost 40 minutes later. So much for a short lunch, it was just shy of regular. I jumped out of the chair, refilled my water bottle and ran out of the break room. FYI, I also spilled my water 3x today.

I was still tired and was debating even running but I knew I needed to go. Luckily ME emailed me around 4, so I asked her join me. Part of my gym membership is that I can take a guest whenever I want :). She wanted to go, so we planned to meet up as soon as I got back into town. Woo hoo for company! She’s just getting back into things after a nasty bout of strep and I was still tired, so short and sweet it was! 3 steady, solid miles, done! We hadn’t seen each other since before Christmas so we exchanged gifts in the parking lot after. We’re classy like that. 🙂 So, ME is super crafty and she made these adorable earrings for me-

I managed to finally get the Garmin to work on the treadmill. Well, kind of. As you can see in the picture, the mileage was off. Both Nike+ and the treadmill actually agreed for once. The Garmin however was lagging behind. Time for more research on how to get it calibrated properly, or at least as close as I can. I love Google.

I came home and rewarded myself with a nice cold strawberry banana smoothie. I may have killed the blender in the process, it was not a happy camper. Since it’s so heavy, will that count as strength training for the day? Probably not. 😦

How was everyone’s Tuesday?

The First Monday

The first Monday of 2014 is almost over 🙂 Which means that really this could have been a Monday of epic proportions… luckily it was just average. I hope everyone else had a good day. 🙂

I chose to take yesterday as a rest day like my plan called for. I actually felt pretty good after Saturday’s 8 miler. I was only slightly sore, but it was a good kind of sore, you know? So instead I turned my attention to the usual errands and laundry that needs to be done every week. I also cleaned in the inside of my car, good lord did it need it. Except that I cannot clean windows, seriously they almost look as bad as they were before I started. 😦 I finally put a new running sticker on my back window too, now I might actually be able to find it in a parking lot.

Today was a pretty good day at work. It only became really hectic towards the end. But all in all much calmer that I had expected from the first Monday. I wore a dress today that when I wore it a month ago was super comfy and very appropriate. Today however, it felt a little more scandalous. Stupid holiday indulging; too bad it all tasted so yummy 🙂 The dress has a modest V front and back and when I was walking away from my boss, she cracked up laughing. I spun around thinking there was toilet paper on my boot or something and she just smiled. Apparently my racerback tank tan lines are fairly obvious and the back of the dress showed a bit. Oops! Runner problems 🙂

Don't forget the tank top tan! — Don’t forget the tank top tan!

I was not looking forward to the gym tonight. I figured it being Monday and the new year, it would be crazy busy. Plus it was the first Monday of the month and my gym does pizza night. I have never understood the logic of that. So I had to walk past people scarfing down to get to a treadmill and ignore the smell while running. But other than that, it wasn’t busy, it was more of an average day. Woo hoo!

I was looking forward to trying out my new Garmin on the treadmill because it was supposed to work. When I ran on Saturday it had a little trouble finding a satellite, so my Nike + app had at a little faster and a little longer. Yes, I am still using both, which turned out to be a good thing tonight as the Garmin was not working. It kept vibrating that I had a pace of 00:00. I finally turned it off 10 minutes in. It said I had gone .10 of a mile, ha! Nike + tracked the run of 3.5 miles in 34:51.

Tonight felt hard. Maybe I was more tired than I thought, but my legs felt heavy and I was so stinkin’ hot. I seriously felt like I was dripping in sweat (over share!), ugh. My training plan called for 5 miles but I only did 3.5. Nike+ has a new coaching section, so I figured I would give it a shot. This is what this week looks like, um yeah, that’s a bit much for me, but I want to break 2:00 in my half, we’ll see how it goes! Otherwise back to 3x a week for the Slacker!

The Comfy chair has been getting a workout these past 2 days as well. My inner nerd girl has been celebrating the return of Downtown Abbey and Teen Wolf. Hmmm, those look odd next to each other 🙂 But both are so good! One made me misty eyed and the other made me jump multiple times.

So fingers crossed, I get some miles in tomorrow. And I think I finally figured the Garmin out, so I need to test it again 🙂

How did everyone’s Monday go?

What’s you TV guilty pleasure?

Good luck to everyone running Disney!!!

Accidental Tempo

First off, I want to say thank you to everyone for the thoughts left on my last post, they really helped 🙂

Today, I set no alarms. After the past couple of weird days I just wanted to get some sleep. I was hoping a good rest would help. It wasn’t the best but I felt a little more level this morning. Not to say that I didn’t have random moments throughout the day but I ignored them.

I met my mother for lunch where I did indulge a little, tri-tip sandwich and onion rings, yes please. Then we hit up a favorite antique store for a little browsing. I hadn’t realized I hadn’t been there since early November, so many things had changed. I went in with the intention of spending no money, I didn’t need anything and as always, Christmas was more than I planned for 😦 I held strong to this until one of the back stalls. I found this little beauty. Then I saw the price. 30 bucks??? It’s mine. Way too good of deal to pass up. Plus I will never turn down extra storage. Like I mentioned before, slight hoarding tendencies.

I was still kind of full from lunch but I knew I needed to get a run in. Not only did my training plan call for it, but I needed one. I was torn between doing the 8 that was on the schedule or backing it down to 6. I had been text messaging with a friend who commented that her legs weren’t ready to run in shorts. I agreed that mine were the same, hello Holiday 4 7. So what do I do? I decide to try out my new running skirt. So I changed and was out the door.

The plan was for this to be a slow and steady run between 6-8 miles. So when the first 3 came in under 30 minutes, hills and all, oops. My head knew what I needed to do but my feet were not listening at all. Luckily I ran into my mother out walking Zoey again, perfect reason for a walk break to slow down. Of course they were going up that damn hill from New Year’s again, but oh well. We walked for a bit then I ran on. Again my feet ruled my head and I went left up another hill, actually the same one I ~~ran~~ walked up 10 minutes previously.

I looped around and then ran up another hill. Stupid feet. Coming down, I hit 6 miles. I was tired and feeling the too fast pace and hills. I headed for home slowly, telling myself I was done when I hit my driveway no matter what the GPS said. I was tired, my legs were heavy, I had had a too big a lunch, and my upper thighs had been regretting the skirt since mile 5. Once again my feet ruled and when I ran passed my driveway, the Garmin said 7.57. So I ran another .25 mile out and then back. I stopped the Garmin as I began the crawl up my driveway. I was so done. But I felt good in a sore, tired kind of way.

Where's the escalator? — Where’s the escalator?

I started out way too fast and was crawling by the end but I finished it. My feet chose to not listen to my head and maybe I needed that. The true measure will be how sore I am tomorrow. It should be a rest day, but I may try to make up some miles, but they will be really slow ones, I promise. I rewarded myself with a nice hot shower (oh the sting!) and a yummy smoothie 🙂

While on my run, I passed an older lady out for a walk and she told me it was too hot for me to running. It is January 4th and I ran in a skirt and tank top, 72º. I can’t decide if her comment was funny or freakishly correct 🙂

Hope everyone had a good Saturday!!!

Anyone else like antique stores?

I’m not the only one who’ve had my feet overrule my head right?