Category: Run!

Week 9 Recap-Chaperone

Upcoming Races:

Livermore 13.1 -March 26
Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13

This week was exhausting. I feel bruised all over. Man, I’m getting old. I actually crashed around 9:00 3 nights this week which is unheard of for me. This post is a day late because I just couldn’t finish it on Sunday, I was so tired. So let’s get to the recap!

Monday- 2.5 miles– I headed for the lake path after work. I had been watching the light as I drove home on previous nights and I thought I had enough time to get in 3 laps before it went full dark. I knew I had my Knuckle Lights but I wasn’t sure what the vagrant situation might be so I didn’t want to push things. Holy crap, I had never seen the lake that full! I only ended up getting in 2.5 miles. Partly because I jammed my ankle jumping a curb and couldn’t loosen it up by running it out but mostly because I was completely distracted by the sunset-I took about 30 pictures😛. The sky was amazing. My Instagram has more pics too.

Tuesday- Rest Gave my sore ankle a break.

Wednesday-Rest– Same as above. But it felt better so I figured I would be ok to run the next day.

Thursday- 3.5 miles. Mother of migraine. I felt horrible all day. I was torn between running and going home and sleeping. I damn near called in sick to work. I decided to try a few miles to see if it would help the pain and nausea at all. I headed to the lake again figuring it would be easy to bail if it turned out to be a horrible choice. I wasn’t breaking any speed records but for 40 minutes, my head actually felt ok. Then I stopped running and the pain came back, boo.

Friday/ Saturday- California Tennis Classic Long days. My mom’s tennis team was in a tournament up in Clovis and I agreed to be her chaperone/driver. Did I mention I still had a migraine on Friday? Ouch. 2 days with teenage boys and rap music? I did pack running gear with the hope getting in a 10 miler if the court location was in a good area on Saturday but this Slacker forgot her shoes. How! Which was a bummer because the area around the school was awesome, I could have totally gone for a run. What was less awesome was the serious lack of sportsmanship I observed by some of the teams. I seriously thought 2 of the teams were going to come to blows. It started with the players and then moved up to the coaches. Yikes! Then again, if I hadn’t been there as a chaperone I might have responded in kind when one got in my face because I didn’t respond fast enough. Ugh, that condescending tone of voice gets under my skin. The boys did well though, they ending winning their bracket. 🙂

Sunday- 8 miles. I did not want to run. At all. I was exhausted. But I couldn’t miss a longer run 2 weekends in a row. I forced myself out the door and decided to just do what I could. My shoelace came untied and I was rushed by a giant German Shepard in the first mile, I damn near said screw it and went home. Especially when the man told me “excellent choice” when I came to a dead halt. Once again, I restrained my first impulse to snap back extremely colorful words. Put your damn dog on a leash!! I kept running. At the turn around for my 4.5 I pushed on to 5, at that turn around I pushed on to 6 then the 8 mile turn around. I still had an option to shorten it if I started feeling tired. A little past mile 5 I added in a modest hill repeat so I could avoid the killer hill at the end, I just wasn’t feeling up to it. Or so I thought. Come up on 6.8 miles and I realize I really messed up my mileage. The easiest way to hit 8 miles would have to include the nasty hill. I almost started crying. I just couldn’t. I turned around and looped a neighborhood and approached my house another way. I still had a hill but instead of soul crushing I was able to run this one and not hate myself and running at the end.

14 miles for the week. Better than last week and considering how crappy I felt the last half, I’m just going to take it and move on. On the upside, it finally looks like the weather is on the on the upswing and one of my favorite days of the year is on Sunday-time change! More daylight after work hours- woo hoo!

How was your week?

Would you have your tongue about the dog?

Do you like the time change?

Leaded or Unleaded

And the long run headaches are back.

I drink plenty of water so it’s not a lack of hydration. Granted I am prone to headaches and migraines so there is that. I am still loving the Ultima for shorter runs but I am wondering if my issue with longer runs is a lack of calories. I still fuel horribly…as in I don’t. I just can’t eat on my longer runs. I buy gels and gu’s and chews and never eat them. I carry them with me but they just end looking very beat up and expired. So maybe my water needs to gain some weight?

With that in mind, it was time to experiment. So I hit up The Feed.

#1 Gen Ucan Orange- I heard great things and I really liked their protein powder so I was hopeful. Out of the package, it mixed chalkier than I had expected. It kind of seemed like it didn’t dissolve. It didn’t taste powdery it just looked like that. It actually had very little taste. Very bland. Taste aside, I had a surprisingly great 8 mile run. I ran a hill I have never run in its entirety before. I even posted about it on Instagram. My mother made fun of me. My post run headache was very muted.

#2- Glukos Orange- Mixed and dissolved well and was very orange in color. It also tasted very yummy. That said, I slammed into a wall at mile 6 of a 9 mile run. I felt ok leading up to that point and then things went very south. It was the same route as before and at first I thought to blame it on the French toast that I had for breakfast but again that was the same as before too. And I had a headache.

#3 Tailwind Raspberry Buzz- Caffeine!!!! I was heading out for what I thought I was going to be a shortened long run because I wasn’t feeling it so I admit I only mixed 1/2 the pouch. It blended well but oh man, it tasted like medicine. I wasn’t a huge fan of the taste but a I went from not wanting to run at all to bartering with myself to just run 4 to actually running a solid 8 miler that day. Hmmmm. I do like that it has caffeine in it. I feel like my asthma cranky lungs appreciate it sometimes. I had a medium headache.

I am still cycling through these options. I bought multiples so I could try each one on multiple runs in hopes of finding the golden ticket. But a new contender has entered the ring too.

Thanks to Bibrave, I get to try the Beachbody Performance line. I’ve heard great things about their Hydrate product so yay! One of these has to solve the long run headaches, right?

How do you hydrate?

Fuel?

Week 8 Recap- Sleepy Time

Training for:

Livermore 13.1 -March 26
Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13

This was a blink and you missed it week but it wasn’t without its own headaches. That said it wasn’t a bad week it was just odd. Well unless you count me finding out that someone has already filed a tax return using my social. 😒

Monday- Nada– I had big plans to run but it was cold and windy and I just couldn’t make myself get out the door. I usually love having Mondays off so I can get in a good run but the cold front rolling in just made me a big baby. My toes have been so damn cold!

Tuesday- Rest- The work day was straight chaos. With the power issues last Friday and this being the first day back after a 3 day weekend, things were nuts. I wore a pair of old faithful boots but by the end of the day my feet hurt so bad that I wanted to cry. My shoes turned on me!

Wednesday- 2.7 miles- I headed out for my usual post work route run. Except I hadn’t taken into account the cold and the wind. I wasn’t dressed right with just capris and a long sleeve. The winds were in excess of 20 mph and they almost took my Buff off my head twice. My wool Buff that I recently accidentally dried. I hit the spot where I take the sunset pics and decided it was too cold and turned around to head for the car.

Funny moment on the way back- if I am coming up on an intersection the same time as a vehicle or two and don’t want to play the “no you go, no you go” game, I stop before and stretch or fake tie my shoe. This time one of those cars was a cop car and I guess they thought I looked shady. I got the stink eye for a moment when I straightened back up. 😛 Nothing to see here, move along. Even though when I damn near had an asthma attack 2 blocks later on a street corner I was wishing they could come back.

Thursday- 5 miles. Blood work test fail #1. Doctor said that I did not need to fast for a glucose test. He even wrote it on the work order. I took time off work in the afternoon and headed back to home town for the testing. He was wrong, the lab refused to do the testing. Grrr. Now what? I went running! I dressed a little smarter this time but could have used another layer. I’ve determined that as long as we have rain in the forecast, speed is not likely because my lungs just can’t handle the moisture in the air. No sooner do I accept that than Strava informs me that I broke my previous record for 400m and wasn’t even trying…

Friday- Rest Glucose test fail #2. And then success. I tried to get the process started in work town before work but was unable to, the line was insane. Luckily my boss is awesome so once everyone got to work I went back to the lab and got the process started. And then went back and forth for the next 3+ hours. I didn’t finish the glucose testing until 1:30. By then I was hangry and already bruising. My lunch was around 2 and I went through a drive thru intending to treat myself to some french fries but I ended up being lured by a picture of giant burger so I ordered that and some fries. Instead of feeling stuffed after eating it, I still felt oddly empty. It was very odd. I was so hungry all day.

Saturday- Rest. I crashed hard the night before around 9:30 which is odd for me. Normally I am up late reading and catching up on tv on Friday nights. I slept for 12 hours! It wasn’t un-interrupted but that’s a little ridiculous! Even when I did get up and get going I had zero energy. After doing a few errands I ended up taking a long nap. I had planned on running both Saturday and Sunday but decided that my body was trying to tell me something.

Sunday- Rest Yeah, this was just a total lack of motivation on my part. I kept telling myself to change and get out the door for 10 miles but I couldn’t actually do it. It was cold and my toes were frozen in my slippers in my house and no matter how much I berated myself I couldn’t make myself run. I just kept pushing it back later and later. #longrunfail

7.7 miles for the week. I’m not going to say ouch because missing my long run was entirely up to me. Was a case of the blah’s worthy of missing a long run? Maybe, maybe not. Only time will tell. I do know I am over the cold weather. Timehop keeps showing me pics from last year and I was running in shorts and a tank. I miss those days. This weird cold front and crazy wind, rain just needs to take a break. I’m not saying it’s entirely responsible for my lagging motivation but it’s part of it.

How was your week?

Do you have warm weather? Wanna share?

Rambling On 4

Happy Friday!

This is not the post I had planned or started earlier this week…oops. I have a post half done about fuel but that can go up next week. I feel like I blinked and suddenly it was Friday. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love Fridays but where did the week go? On Thursday I thought it was Tuesday. How does that work?

We had 2 days of sun!!!! Insane wind came along with that but who cares the sun came out!!! I wanted to be like a cat and just find a warm (indoor) spot to lay in the sun.

My pace has been frustrating me lately. Ok for 3 years. I used to be so much faster. I just can’t seem to break the wall I’ve built in my head. Or my lungs. And then on random Thursday runs, things like this happen-

What the hell. I didn’t feel like I was running that hard.

Speaking of random Thursday runs, I wasn’t supposed to run, I was supposed to have lab work done. Except part of that of lab work was a glucose test. And it turns out it was the glucose test you need to fast for…despite my doctor and the nurses at his office telling me that I didn’t. They also wrote that on the lab slip. Aargh!!!!! I took time off work for this!

I had another sunset run this week though, so shiny. 😉

Was your week speedy?

What are you doing this weekend?

Share something random!

Week 7 Recap- Hello Lucifer

Training for:

Livermore 13.1 -March 26
Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13

So other states have winter storms with names but California never has. Mostly because we rarely get storms out here. We get earthquakes. Well, last week California got their chance at a storm with a name- Lucifer paid us a visit. Talk about over dramatic. But in all seriousness, Friday was kind of like all hell breaking loose. Flooding, landslides, sinkholes, etc. The drive to work was sketchy at best with next to zero visibility between rain and fog and that was before I encountered the crazy wind. Debris was all over the road, I really missed owning an SUV. I was rerouted in work town due to downed power lines. We ran without power for 3+ hours at work. At one point, the entire town was out of power. Trees were falling left and right, including our parking lot. Work is one building over from the police station and one block up from the the fire department- I have never seen that much non-stop activity before. One news report said that there was a new emergency call every 2 minutes. All state parks and beaches were evacuated and closed due to falling trees. Roads were closed for flooding all over the county. And this was calm compared to some of California.

Monday- Rest After the previous days long run, my legs were a little tired so I stuck to the day off in between workouts plan and rested. As I drove away from what looked like an amazing pink sunset and decent temps for once, I couldn’t help but think that I should have run.

Tuesday- 3.1 miles The slowest, most uncomfortable miles ever. My stomach was being a total asshat but I forced myself to run anyways. Or I tried… if you can call it that. I couldn’t tell you the last time I ran that slow. It was definitely not a confidence inspiring run. What I haven’t mentioned is that my stomach has been a complete asshat these past 2 weeks. Pretty much everything I eat makes me sick, boo.

Wednesday- Rest After the previous day’s farce, I wasn’t even going to attempt it.

Thursday- Rest- More asshat-ness from my stomach. Yay. This time I listened to the cues from my body and just put my running gear back in the car and drove home.

Friday- Lucifer–yeah, no running.

Saturday- 4.5 miles I had planned on running my long run but the break in the storm wasn’t as long as the weather app said. Boo. Then when I did head out, I could not get it into gear. I was so sluggish. Even downhill; I slowed down downhill- who does that? I know there’s a ton of moisture in the air which is not making my asthma happy but man I saw some numbers on the watch this week that just depressed me. So I tried not to think about it.

Sunday- 8 miles– I slept like crap the night before so when my alarm went off to get up and run, I slapped that thing off, rolled over and went back to sleep. I figured I would see how many miles I could squeeze in before the storm came back in the afternoon. I won’t lie, I kind of wanted to skip the whole thing. I told myself I could cut it short if I was absolutely miserable. I was thinking about it during mile 2 but I kept pushing on. Mile 3 picked up the pace a bit, same with mile 4. Mile 5 saw some rain, a hill and a mini wall. I slowed down but kept going. I also let myself be distracted by a cute little house for sale. Mile 6 was better but I knew mile 7 had a big hill. Oddly, mile 7 was the exact same pace as mile 5. I did an out and back loop kind of thing that put me just past 7 at the bottom of my driveway. I had a sudden burst of energy so I ran past so I could hit 8 miles. For a run I didn’t really want to do, it ended up being the best run all week!

15.5 miles for the week and actually 3 running days. Now if I could just cross train. 😛 The miles went up and in some ways it was a better week then last week. Have to look on the shiny side right??? Now if I can just keep the momentum going and not backslide. Which may be hard, I admit I am struggling with all this rain. There is still more to come. I think I can, I think I can.

How was your week?

What did you do this weekend?