Category: Run!

Week 32:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 6

Upcoming Races-

SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

This was an odd one.

I ran but not enough. I lifted but not enough. I had an odd headache on Wednesday, my side pain became a little worse and then my back started hurting towards the end of the week. Really?? I can’t blame the lifting because I barely did it this week.

I also stupidly dropped a migraine pill down the side of my recliner on Thursday evening and spent 3 days tearing the chair apart, vacuuming sides trying to find the damn thing. Meanwhile my cat was confused as to why she wasn’t allowed in my room for 3 days. Surprisingly the chair still holds together after I put it back together- although I feel a little crooked.

This training week called for a step back week and a 5K race. However that didn’t fit my not running life schedule. Plus I have a 5k scheduled for the following week. So I decided to flip weeks 6 and 7. Except somehow I still screwed it up.

The week should have played out like this- a 6 mile run, 5 mile run and a 9 mile long run. 4 Liift4 workouts sprinkled around for cross training.

And reality?

Monday-Liift4
I had planned on running after work but we got out really late. Combine that with who beats who game I play with the cleaners and that I had already seen their truck pull in and I just decided to push the run to Tuesday. Then I ended up stuck in traffic on the way home. However I stuck to the lifting plan.

Tuesday-Rest
I had plans for running and plans for Liift4 but my side pain which is mostly tolerable these days was intense. Something I did that day must have angered it but I don’t know what. But considering I am 8 months in without a diagnosis who knows???

Wednesday-1.2 miles
Epic fail! I headed to the lake path for a 4 miler but all of my gear was in the wrong places in my car. As I was getting my pepper spray from my gym bag as opposed to my pack, I put my car key down on the front seat. Can you guess what comes next? Yep. Locked my key in my car. Tried all my doors and pushing the windows down. Nope. I talked my parents into getting my spare and driving it to me on the caveat that I take them to dinner after. 😛 I then squeezed in a lap of the lake while waiting for them. In all honesty, I may have called it at a lap anyways as there were 2 total creeper cars on the backside of the lake.

Thursday-5 miles -tempo intervals
Not gonna lie, after the previous days’ fiasco and the last week of rough running, I was not feeling this run. And for some reason, I thought I had a 40 minute tempo on the plan. We were under an air quality warning the latter half of the week so I broke the tempo into intervals- it was supposed to 15-15-10 but it was more like 12-12-6. I ran a completely different route than normal and there was a hellacious headwind that damn near shoved me backwards in the last interval. I made up for it in the cool down though when I inadvertently hit an 8:30 pace for 1/2 mile thanks to The Big Gigantic. Oops, not how to cool down. Then the chair drama started.

Friday-Liift4
More chair drama. I searched for hours and tore the thing apart to no luck. Grrr.

Saturday-Rest
I had a work event at the homeless shelter in the morning. I was thankful for the chance to help out, I’ve missed helping out since it’s been a few years since we ran a dinner night each month. This event was a walk and I was calling on all years of race experience working the registration tables.
Afterwards I went home and performed more surgery on the chair and was finally successful. The pill was found! After that I was in a cleaning mode so I kept organizing a few things before running some errands and then being lazy.

Sunday- 8.23 miles
When my alarm went off in the morning, I kind of growled at it. I just wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t feeling like doing much of anything. I made a quick trip to SLO to the Running Warehouse to exchange the Neuro’s and then came home and took what was supposed to be a 20 minute nap. An hour later I finally decided to head out for my run. I wasn’t feeling like a long run anymore so I figured I would just run a short run and break in the new shoes instead.

And yet, I kept running. Up one hill and down the other. There’s a reason I don’t do long runs in my neighborhood. I stopped twice to BodyGlide my heels as I felt a blister forming from the new shoes. I told myself to bring a band aid but forgot. Oops. A funny moment happened around halfway when I ran past a car that had been in an accident. It looked like it had been rear ended- it still had the bumper of the other car attached- and the it had hit something else. They must have it had towed there but it still smelled like a car accident- that metal on metal on burnt plastic smell? Apparently that brings back memories for me as I kind of started to hyperventilate. 😛 I’ve been in a few accidents but until today I wouldn’t have said that smell would trigger any reaction. On the return route I went a different way.
For not wanting to run my long run, I ended up running all 8. Only to check the plan later and realize it should have been 9. Oops.

14.52 miles for the week. How did I ever come close to 1000 miles in a year once?

How was your week?

Rambling On 39

Ever had a case of the yawns? I was yawning all day on Thursday. I just couldn’t seem to stop.

My Nissan would not let me lock my keys in my car. I can officially confirm that my Ford is not that smart. Neither am I. Lesson learned the hard way.

Speaking of my Ford- I joke that it’s the gutless wonder. Yet, somehow this week, every time I got behind someone- on the freeway, the scenic route, etc., cars kept moving over. Do I look scary???😂

I finished my Person of Interest binge on Netflix. I started a few months ago but took a break when the last season started because I knew what was coming. I won’t lie- I acted like a 5 year old and hid the screen with my hand during part of the series finale. 😂 Still can’t handle it.

Now I need something new to watch.

This week has been odd with the exercise. Makes me wonder how the weekend is going to go.

All the schools have officially started again out here which means my commute has become a little more time consuming. 3 school zones in 3 different cities.😒

But in awesome news- the weather forecast is in the 80’s for the next week!!! Party!!!

What are you up to this weekend?

Week 32:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 5

Upcoming Races-

SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

If I had one word to describe this week, it would be- pain.

I think I watched more stupid movies than ever before. Netflix shamed me with “are you still watching” a few times. 😛I kind of buried myself in a dark hole, I was barely even paying attention to those movies, I just needed background noise (there were some good ones though).

The plan for this week was 3 runs- 4 miles, 40 min tempo, 8 mile long run- and 4 Liift4 workouts. Reality, however-

Monday- 2.5 miles
I was looking forward to my run after work. I thought I had 5 miles on the plan -oops – but I was on board with that. The bottom half of me apparently was not. Right from my first few steps, things felt off. My legs hurt- not just sore but hurt. I walked the first half mile hoping they would loosen up but no luck. I tried running and it felt like the pain was deep in my bones. WTH? A little over a mile in, I stopped to try and stretch it out and almost screamed. It hurt from my hips to my knees but in the bones. I turned around and hobbled back to the car. I didn’t know what was going on but it wasn’t worth risking an injury.

Tuesday- Liift4
My legs were still not right so I focused on my form and modified anything that required any jumping. I kind of do that anyway as I know my limitations but I really did it now.

Wednesday- Liift4
I drove to the lake path to run. I had changed, I had my pack in my lap but I wasn’t feeling it. Like deep down, really NOT feeling it. I’m not a believer in there are no bad runs. Yes, there are. The times in the past that I have forced myself to run when I feel that against it I have either hurt myself or broken a piece of running gear. I drove away without running but I wasn’t completely lazy.

Thursday- Migraine
Bring on the pain. I woke up to the oncoming pain but hoped it would ease up. Both because I had an early morning meeting and because I wanted to run after work. I finally admitted defeat around 11:30 and did something I rarely do- I went home sick. Then I spent the rest of the day napping, watching movies and alternating between being too hot or too cold.

Friday-Liift4 ish
I still had a migraine but I made it through work. I attempted Liift4 in the evening but I only pulled off the lifting portion. When it transitioned to the HIIT work, I tried one move and was like, umm, not happening.

Saturday-8 miles
Maybe it was the migraine that was still around but this was the hottest 8 miles of my life. In hindsight, I maybe shouldn’t have tried for my long run after 2 days of pain. I started my run around 9:15 and while that is early for me; it was already hot. Miles 1 and 2 were good and I was optimistic. I slowed during mile 3 but I was also entering the section I lovingly call the “surface of the sun” so that was to be expected. However mile 4 went south. It got super warm, I was too hot, I was feeling dehydrated and I almost threw up. I was almost out of water and I was only 4 miles in. I rerouted back to my car but I had slowed to a shuffle. I refilled at my car and sat there a bit as it was fully in the shade. By then I needed less than 2 miles so I dumped my pack thinking running without it would be cooler and just shoved my phone in a pocket and carried a water bottle and my pepper spray. I then looped the river trail and the neighborhood until I hit 8. This route needs some shade!

Sunday- Rest
I may have gotten in my long run but I was kind of broken the rest of the weekend. Not only did the migraine not go away, it was a little pissed at me after those 8 miles. The most strenuous thing I did on Sunday was clean my car. Except it was so dirty, that really was a workout.

10.5 miles for the week. I couldn’t have 2 good weeks in a row, could I. Shake it off.

How was your week?

Rambling On 38

Happy Friday. Right?

Running has been more miss than hit this week. I felt a little off all week and actually went home sick on Thursday. Say what? Who am I???

On the upshot, my boss is back so I was actually able to go home when I finally made that choice. Is it sad that one of the things holding me back from going home was that then I would have to admit that I wasn’t running that evening?😂

We had a few days break in the triple digit weather and they were all the days I didn’t run due to feeling poorly. Meanwhile this weekend will start another above 100 trend. I have to laugh, right??

Maybe it’s time to go the movies?? Is anything showing? I won’t tell you the quality of TV I’ve watched this past week.🙃

Or that my food choices haven’t been the greatest this week.

Moving on, onward and upward, right?

What are you up to this weekend?

Week 32:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 4

Upcoming Races-

SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

I was fussy, cranky and tired this week. I had a few too many balls in the air at work at one point. Home town was in the middle of an almost 20 day streak of over 100* weather and I was sleeping poorly.

I like to sleep with the window open during the summer which is odd because I am also one of those people who tends to over react at every sound. Unfortunately this week, some creature decided to come visit the yard every night a little after midnight. And it was not a small creature. I tried to tell myself it was a family of deer. Which is likely was but I worry about the bigger felines. I digress…it was every single night. So eventually I would end closing the window but then it would feel super stuffy and sleep would still be crappy. Grrr.

Ok, training. This week called for a 5 mile run, 4 mile run, 7 mile long run and 4 Liift4 work outs.

So how did I do?

Monday- Liift4
I planned on running after work but work ran long and I was feeling cranky so I decided to push my run to Tuesday. Then while I was driving home I was feeling guilty for doing that only to arrive in run town and then home town to realize they were both completely socked in with smoke from fires. Combine that with the 3 digit temps and somehow my lazy choice was the smart choice.

Tuesday- 3.78 miles
Another hot day, it was around 95 when I started running and there was still a ton of smoke in the air. I decided to stick to the run/walk intervals I had programmed since I had also forgotten any way to carry water on my run. Short and easy miles, that was the plan. My legs had other plans and those running intervals were some of the fastest paces I’ve seen in years. Oops. I did keep it relatively short though.

Wednesday-Liift4
I am sure I did something else but I can’t remember what it was.

Thursday-3.5 miles
I had woken with a gnarly Charlie horse around 1:30 that morning and it never really went away. That said, I still wanted to attempt a run. Oh, my gawd, I was melting. I don’t know why. It was 93, so this was coolest run I had had in weeks. Or it should have been. It was so muggy at the lake path though. I had 3 decent, consistent miles and even though I was able to stop at my car for water, I could tell I was overheating. My leg also hadn’t loosened up at all so I finished 3 laps of the lake and called it. If the lake wasn’t so nasty I may have jumped in.

Friday- Rest
My tiredness and crankiness caught up to me. Could the animal outside at night just stop?! I told myself I was going to work out when I got home from work but I didn’t. I just zoned out watching Netflix’s Insatiable. That show is on crack, people.

Saturday- Liift4
I meant to do my long run. I laid out my clothes and charged my Aftershokz. I set my alarm- 5 of them. I slept through all of them. Grrrr. I thought about running my 8 miles (I also had the number of miles wrong) in the afternoon/ evening but although we finally break the streak of over 100* days it was still hot. Also, ended up taking the cat to the vet so that took up some of the afternoon.

Sunday-7.4 miles
My mother was planning on cleaning her tennis courts in the morning so I figured that would be good incentive to actually get my butt out of bed and run to the high school to meet her. 75* should have felt amazing after the last few weeks but it was more humid than I would have liked and I felt a little wilted.

Pace wise, I was doing fine for a long run but by mile 5 I was feeling hot. My mother was also feeling it on her end as she called me around that point saying she was done at the courts- it was too warm. I convinced her to wait for me in the shade instead of coming to get me and I tried to pick up the pace to the school. I am hoped for 8 to make for the run I shorted on Tuesday but 7 is just fine with me.

14.69 miles for the week. Much better than last week and almost all the miles the plan called for. So close!!

Now if the damn creature in the yard could just go away.

How was your week?