Category: Run!

Weekly Recap 2- Of stress and rain

Yikes, last week was a little rough. I still can’t pinpoint exactly why but if you read my last post you know I was feeling massively out of sorts last week. The feeling only went away when I ran. Or tried to nap but that was rare. I started the week with a migraine and my stomach was being its asshat self. I also admit that my food choices were less than stellar. Boo.

Anyways, let’s get to the workouts! Or what resembled working out. 😛

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday- ~~Stress~~– Rest In all seriousness, I foam rolled and stretched every one of these nights. Between all the rain and the longer commute, job stress and just life, I was freaking out. I knew I was only running one evening during the week due to my weekend running plans so I kept pushing it back due to the weather. I really needed to run.

Thursday- 3 miles Oh thank goodness, a break from the rain and I ran. I was planning on running at home but knew that the longer drive home zaps my energy and willpower. I changed into my running clothes after work and made the last minute decision to run from work as I was walking out the door. I always treated my work route as off limits in the dark but I decided to chance it. It was just what I needed. It was slow but also oddly the fastest 3 miler I’ve done in months. Considering I was dodging branches, I’ll take it! The smell of the eucalyptus trees and the sun setting on the ocean was just what I needed. For a blissful few moments, my brain was quiet for the first time all week.

Friday- Rest Jacked up my back again while getting ready for work, it hurt just to move. So I spent the day deciding how crazy I was. Which also probably contributed to my stress level this week.

Saturday- Road trip! Up early on the road heading towards Carlsbad. My back was super sore but not outright painful. Guess I am crazy. Bonus to this trip was that my uncle recently moved to that area- so added perks were staying with family and no hotel fees! Even if the grounds of his new house made me feel like I am doing something wrong with my life.

And the fact that I typed grounds, it’s not big but still. I went to bed early and just tried to get a decent night’s sleep.

Sunday- Carlsbad Half Marathon. I only ran 14 miles in December, what was I thinking?! But more on that next time. 😛

16.2 miles for the week. I kept my work week miles low as I knew what was coming in Sunday. I may be a little crazy but I have been trying to up my weekly mileage in a sane way. But still, doesn’t everyone jump their long runs from 7 to 13? Looking to this week, I am hoping to be a little calmer. Rain is still coming and my road is still closed, man I miss it, but I’m hoping that I will deal with it better this week. Fingers crossed!

How was your week?

Share something random!

Water, Water Everywhere

I’ve been a little radio silent this week which is odd because I can’t shut my brain up or calm the hell down.

I don’t know if it’s the rain, the longer commute now that my usual road is closed, the fact that I have a race this weekend that I woefully under trained for, or that we were supposed to learn more about the merger this week. Whatever it is, I have been freaking out all week. Giant ball of stress over here.

The extra drive might not be so bad if wasn’t for the rain. The rain is ridiculous. One way means I have to go 15 miles further south before turning back north to get to work via another highway. You know the rain is intense when everyone is voluntarily driving 30 where they usually do 80 with no honking horns or tailgating. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve hydroplaned. So I took another way on Wednesday. Still longer and how I would get to work on Saturdays. Yeah, no. I can’t do that road in the dark. Something about knowing there’s a 2000 ft drop to my right just freaks me out, throw in rain and fog and I don’t think I could grip the steering wheel any tighter. I realize this is nuts as my normal commute is through a canyon prone to landslides on one side with a steep drop on the other but I’ve driven that road for the last 4 years.

This rain is intense. We’ve lost 2 more roads- they’ve washed away. New verdict is my road won’t re-open until mid February. 😢 I need to get over this driving stress soon.

Thursday I actually googled the differences between the symptoms of panic attacks and heart attacks. Hypochondriac, much? I’ve been freaking out at the oddest times. Feeling like my pulse is racing and oddly nauseous. What is wrong with me?!?!?!? I keep checking my heart rate on my Fitbit constantly. There were other reasons I looked it up let’s just leave it at that.

Finally, I had enough and with a break in the weather, I bolted and ran. For 35 blissful minutes, my brain was calm. All I could think about was not falling on my face in the dark- dodge the branches. Well that and how loud I was huffing and puffing at the end of a little 3 miler. I just told myself it was because mile 3 gains 100+ feet. Let me lie to myself ok?

I just need to chill. I need to be more like the guy who saw the streets were too flooded to drive and thought- “well, I’ll just ride my surfboard”.

How do you get to that level of Chill?

Any tips?

Weekly Recap 1-Rain and Mudslides Oh My

Why is that short work weeks seem so long? Maybe it’s because we try to cram 5 days work into 4? Maybe it’s just one of those questions that will never be answered. 😛

Last week saw a better training week which is surprising considering the skies are dumping water on us and I have a fierce desire to avoid the gym the first few weeks of the year. Seriously, I know that CA is in a severe drought and that we desperately need water but we are not equipped to handle this much water at one time. Downed trees, power outages, highways are flooded, in fact as I type this I have no idea how I am getting to work on Monday. My main way to work has been closed since Friday evening due to a massive landslide. Considering I drove past 2 pretty large slides already last week and they didn’t shut the road for those, the fact that the road has been closed for 2+ days is kind of alarming.

But enough about mudslides- let’s get to the running!

Monday- 3 ish miles. That ish makes me a little crazy. My Garmin decided to go a little crazy and lose satellite for the first part of my run. Like most runners, I know the first mile from my house very, very well. My watch always beeps at one particular street sign. It didn’t. Grrr. It took another 2 blocks. It’s not like I was setting any speed records, I was feeling overly sluggish but the drop in data really aggravates the type A data nerd in me.

Tuesday/ Wednesday– Work was busy and the rain came. I carried my running gear around with me just in case there was a break in the rain.

Thursday- 2.6 miles There was a break in the rain so I changed after work and headed back home for a nice evening run. One bonus about running in the dark is that I feel zero need to push the pace. It’s one of the few times I can run easy and have it actually be easy both in feel and pace. Throw in dodging puddles and piles of dirt and debris and it really keeps things easy. The break in the rain was nice but dang that temp dropped fast. Make up your mind weather! I kept it short because my stomach chose to be an asshat on Thursday but I wouldn’t let it completely win.

Friday- Rest What else? Luckily I worked the early shift at work because the mountain decided to come down about 30 minutes after I drove through. Yikes!

Saturday- Rest I celebrated a little too early about the no more Saturday work days. It was off to work. Closer location and only for a couple of hours but it was kind of funny how quickly it came about. It was pouring rain outside all day, my stomach was still an asshat so I pushed my long run back a day.

Sunday- 7.1 miles There was a break in the rain mid-morning so I made a run for it. I layered up in preparation of the rain in case I was caught in it. I was overheating by mile 2. The Buff came off in mile 3. I used the wait at a traffic light during mile 4 to peel off my jacket. The weird thing was the damn wind. It was so windy it was pushing me backwards at times. The wind tried to take my hat off more than once. Damn near lost it when I was running over the freeway–never getting it back from there! It was extremely windy but it was a warm wind. My pace was a little erratic thanks to hills and the wind but overall it wasn’t that bad. My 3/1’s kind of fell apart thanks to some of the hills though. I need to work on that. Not bad for my longest run in months but man I feel out of shape.

12.7 miles for the week. Moving in the right direction at least! Slowly. 😛 As for this week, the rain is still here so I am not sure how my week day runs may go. Like I said, I’m not even sure how I’m getting to work. As for the weekend, I am debating how crazy or stubborn I am but more on that later.

How was your week?

How is your weather?

2017- The Year Of

It’s that time of year where social media is full of reflections on the previous year (mine is here!) and goals or resolutions for the new year to come. This is not that post.

I don’t do goals. Goals are a 4 letter word in my book, literally and figuratively. When I first joined the blogging world and Instagram, I followed along, all the cool kids were doing it- why not me? I tried, I did. 95% of the goals I set for 3 years were spectacular failures. The more I tried, the more I failed and the more I stressed. It was a vicious cycle.

The problem is that I don’t like goals. They rate up there with the word “potential”. I hate that word. 90% of the time potential is always followed by the word “but”. I’ve told employees over the years that I will never use it in their performance review and so far I never have. But I’ve gotten sidetracked.

Goals don’t work as incentive for me. They work for some people and that’s great, they’re just not my jam. Fessing up to a goal free 2016 took a lot last year, I was afraid of the reaction. That said, I think a goal free 2016 went quite well- most miles run in a year and I ran a freakin’ marathon. 😀😀 Yeah, I’m still on that.

So that brings me to 2017. I may not have goals, but I do have a word.

2017 is all about the challenge. I want to challenge myself, not just in running but in multiple ways in life. 2017 is shaping up to be an interesting year in a variety of ways but instead of letting it push me along, I want to do my best to be driving the bus not just a passenger.

This is primarily a running blog so lets talk about running. In 2017, I want to Challenge myself with some speed. I have never been fast but I used to be speedier than I am now. I’m not putting a number on it, I’m not even putting a finishing time on it. One race finish does dictate speed. I let myself use my health issues as an excuse for far too long, I was too lazy to put in the work, whatever the reason was, it’s time to put in the work and see what I can do.

Right now I only have a few half marathons on the race schedule, Livermore and Destination Races Santa Barbara being the key ones. I do have the crazy desire to run another marathon but the only one that really intrigued me was Revel MT. Charleston. However, it’s April 29 and I just don’t think there’s any way that I will be ready to run it. Plus, it’s in Nevada and well, that’s a drive. 😛 So instead, it looks like I stick with my 1 half a month schedule February to summer and then reassess for a fall marathon. While I am Challenging myself this year, I don’t relish the idea of 20 milers in the CA summer heat. 😛 I’ll do it if I have to; it just doesn’t sound fun.

I want to apply Challenge to more aspects of my life as well. There are so many ways that I need to expand my horizons and step outside my comfort zone but I’m saving those thoughts for later date. The water hasn’t quite boiled yet.

So, 2017- Year of Challenge…

Let’s do this.

–Slacker

Week 53 – Goodbye December

And just like that, another week, another month and another year has come and gone. Busy 7 days!

Last week was interesting to say the least. I ran!! Some at least. However, sleep was not my friend and by the end of the week it was all I could just to get through the day. The long days. But let’s back up.

Monday- 4.5 miles A day off work means I have to run right? It’s like a rule, right? I waited until what I hoped was the warmest part of the day and headed out. The whole flu thing turned me into a big baby in the cold. 😛 Man, was I slow. But I ran!!! I thought I would feel miserable after such a lackluster month of December but other being slow, I felt pretty good. I think I was just excited to be running.

And then Monday night. Everything was normal until I tried to go to sleep and failed. I tossed and turned and paced. Covers on, covers off, sitting up, laying down, 2 pillows, 1 pillow, no pillows. I felt like my heart was racing and I could not fall asleep. I even texted my boss at 2:30 AM to let her know I may not be on time to work because of this. Don’t worry, I didn’t wake her- I know she puts her phone on do not disturb but I figured this way she would see it first thing in the morning. I was also hoping that taking that little stressor away would help me sleep. Yeah, not really. I dozed a bit between 2:30 and 4 but that was it. 90 minutes of crap sleep. Sounds like a recipe for success, right? I was up and oddly energized so off to work I went for a very busy Tuesday.

Tuesday night– more of the same. What the hell?! This was a slight improvement in that I think I managed around 3 hours of sleep. Oh yay. All right, Wednesday, let’s do this.

Wednesday night– about 4 hours of sleep. Ok now, this is getting ridiculous. By Thursday, the cumulative fatigue was adding up and I was fading. Combine a day where we down 2 people at work, a vital piece of equipment broke and we were so busy that I didn’t get to lunch until after 3:30 and I was fried. I had brought my running gear with me to go for a run but I barely had enough energy in me to just drive home after work. There was no running that night.

Friday- Rest Yeah, Thursday night saw about 5 hours of sleep and I worked open to close. That same piece of equipment was still broken 1/2 the day and we were still down 2 people, it was a much calmer day though and we all made it through. Woo hoo! From there I only had one more work shift to get through.

Saturday- Rest I wanted to run, I really did. I worked in the morning- maybe my last Saturday shift?!?!- and while I had actually slept the night before, the damage of the sleepless week had caught up to me. I was so damn tired. My New Year’s Eve was spent chillin’ in my chair watching Netflix. Party animal right? 😛

That brought my December mileage to a stellar 14.74 miles. I think that may be the lowest month since I started tracking years ago. Oops. That also brought my 2016 mileage total to 851 miles. Highest number yet!

Sunday- 5 miles My Smashrun politely told me that this was my longest run in a month. I’m trying a new strategy with my long runs and while this wasn’t exactly long I figured why not? I recently bought a book on Galloway’s Run-Walk-Run method and thought why not? So I tried intervals of 3:00 run and 1:00 walk for this run. I was still slow but I wasn’t miserable. I also noticed that I had more energy at the top of the last hill. Now, let me clear, I’ve been running for 6 years and I have never run this hill, just walking up it kicks my ass, I felt a little less tired this time though. Granted it could have been a fluke. I’m still not sold but I’m giving it a try.

9.5 miles for the week. Not great but it’s a start right? I have plans for 2017 so time to stop Slacking! Ok, well not completely. 😛

How was your New Years?

How was your week?

Can you function on little sleep?

Happy 2017!