Category: Slacker

2022-Delayed

It’s on brand for me to post a 2022 review almost 25 29 days into 2023, right?

Honestly, how am I wrapping up 2022? In my head it is still 2019. So let’s see.

January– Started decent, had 1 race planned- Castle to Coast again. Ended the month with a DNS and COVID.

February– I dragged all month still feeling tired. Postponed my planned vacation to Arizona and just tried to get back into things

March– Randomly went on on vacation to Sedona but wasn’t able to do all the hikes I had planned. Soldier’s Pass was awesome and I still owe you a post about Cathedral Rock too. I also ran-er- jogged my first race of the year- Oakland Marathon 10K. I had been registered for the half but knew I was not ready for that.

April– Sure I did something but it didn’t leave an impression. Well other than having to admit that my hair was falling out. Still not sure what caused it but over the next 8 months, I probably lost about 50% of my hair. I cut it shorter because I couldn’t put it up anymore with it pulling out on the hair tie.

May– Yosemite! I finally ran my first Vacation Races race with the Yosemite Half marathon. Also Kate flew out and we ran it together! The trip was fun and the race was great! So great, I am signed up for 2023 too. Then a week later, I was supposed to run my first timed race- 6 hours at Silver Moon Race but knew that was stupid. I still need to get better about looking at a calendar before I jump into things. So I dropped to the 10K. Which proved to be smart as it was over 90 degrees at race start. Yikes. Oh and another skin biopsy right before the races.

June– Nothing huge just a lot or hikes and trail runs.

July– I had a birthday that depressed me and accepted a promotion at work. Still question that, haha. Ran a local race- Rock to Pier 10K. Oops, still owe the race recap on that one. Ate some yummy food and hit some more trails.

August– So funny story. My brother decided to start running. His first race was going to be one with me in October. Then he got a wild hair to run the Santa Rosa half marathon with me. Then that wild hair grew again and he added a trail half up in Santa Cruz. This race was the day before Santa Rosa. Ummm, what? So we did it. I wandered the 10K while he somehow ran a 2 hour half for his first trail race. Then he threw down a 1:41 the next day at Santa Rosa. What?!??!!

September– More trails and some miles for me. Ran a race up in Berkeley- Berkeley Trail Adventure. 10K for me and 30K for the brother. 2022 was the years of trails and 10K’s for me. Also had another skin biopsy.

October– Biopsy came back bad, so I was scheduled for another surgical excision and the more of the waiting game as we waited for the results. Ran Space Rock Trail Race while I still had stitches but I needed the distraction and I think I felt best I had in years at a race. Found out the margins were clear the following week, got my stitches out and headed north for another race. This time, Oakland Hills. And yes, there were hills.

November– Deferred my registration for Joshua Tree half because I just wasn’t feeling it. The past few months had caught up to me. So I hit some more local trails, ran some miles and put my Christmas tree ridiculously early.

December– Took a staycation as my plans for Arizona were snowed out. Hit up the local Christmas light exhibit for the first time. Showed up for Woodside Ramble- 50K for my brother, my mother’s first 10K. I did the 10K too but was having some health issues so I ended up just walking it. Which was actually kind of fun because these trails were awesome. Also, never did the race recap for that one either, oops.

So yeah, 2022 was a mixed bag in all ways. Some good and some not so good. I ran more races than I thought I would and found more awesome trails to explore all over the state. I ran more miles than in 2020 and 2021- granted that wasn’t too hard to do. I thought I would have some quippy thing to say here but I can’t think of anything, ha!

Oh, yeah- I read 100 books! Not sure where how that happened.

Ghosted

Oops. Didn’t mean to disappear. My last post was about Santa Rosa. That was August. Oops.

Running or power hiking has been decent since then. I have three trail races to recap and tell you all about. Those will hopefully be up soon.

I had a great trail day at the beginning of October where I went out with the plan of getting lost. I did pretty well. 😄. And I don’t mean really, rally lost. I didn’t want to follow any sort of plan and just changed course each a time a trail intersection looked interesting. I was in a funk mentally and hoped a choose your own adventure kind of day would knock me out of it. I’m also not completely stupid so my adventure was only around 9 miles when it could have been much longer.🤣 Also I kind loved that it was so foggy for most of the day.

Work has been stressful so let’s just leave it at that.

My quarterly strip search- dermatology appointment- prompted another biopsy. Which came back bad and necessitated another cancer excision. I’m getting pretty good at dealing with stitches. Learned I was allergic to paper tape as well as bandaids though. Seriously? On a gamble I tried KT tape. Success!! Expensive as a tape option but worth not trying to claw my skin off due to the itching.

Good news was they got clean margins. Yay! The excision and stitches did mean I had to cut back on running. I tried to only walk, the stitches were high on my back and every single sports bra I own went right on top. Boo. I ended up deferring Joshua Tree half. I blamed the excision for taking away my training time but truthfully I just wasn’t feeling it.

I’m still kind of in a funk but trying to dig my way out. Think a stupid amount of Hallmark Christmas will help?? Or hurt? Maybe some online shopping?? I’m on staycation at the moment. Maybe I have too much time on my hands.😂

What’s new with you?

Racing to (Santa) Rosa

Disclaimer: I received an entry into the Santa Rosa Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

It’s race week, say what???

Not only is it race week, the weekend is upon us! That snuck up on me. Well, let’s be honest, the past few months have snuck up on me. And then dropped me like Kipchoge rounding the corner on Boylston.

At the mid point of the year I realized I was somehow behind on my miles from 2021, which is so not good. However, July and August improved as I attempted to tighten my belt and train for Santa Rosa. I felt like I needed redemption for 2021.

See, I know I am not fast. I know I’ve been walking more than running. But now I know the course- which is scenic and I really like- and my goal is to not cramp. The leg cramps from last year still color my view of the last few miles, ha! I really would like to run across the finish this year instead of hobble.

Also, somehow, Santa Rosa will my brother’s first road race! And the mountain hiker/climber that he is- he is aiming for sub 2 for his very first road half. I specify half because I still need to tell you about Saturday but that’s for another day.

All right, Santa Rosa, let’s do this!!

July Funk

July passed in a blur.

Partly because July is one of our busiest months at work and partly because I was kind of in a funk for most of the month. Ok, maybe that started in May.

I am still not sure why July was so funky for me. I mean, I know I was busy, I know I was stressed but I still couldn’t put my finger on why I was so moody. Yes, my birthday was also in July and it made me a little whiny. Ok, maybe a lot whiny. I didn’t even get the cake I wanted. Hmmm, maybe I am still whiny.

My running, while still not great, did increase compared to June. Not how it should have considering I have a half marathon at the end of August but it did increase.

I hit up some cool trails and finally got back to the top of Hazard Peak after almost a decade. Couldn’t see anything thanks to the Marine layer but I made it to the top! 🤣

I also ran a race, which I still need to recap. One of my favorite local races came back and I was so excited. My body disagreed but whatever. More about that later.

Speaking of funk, maybe it’s still here. It’s taken me 10 days to write this post. Oops. So here’s to August.

How was your July?

JUNE JUMPED

I feel like I stood on a cliff on June 3 and jumped. Then it was July. Anyone else?

Let’s see…

Training for Santa Rosa in not where it should be. Luckily it’s early stages still but it doesn’t fill me with confidence for July and August. I ran way less miles than I had originally planned. Or even thought I did. I felt like I had a better month than the numbers show. And the numbers show next to nothing. I set up the most basic of training outlines which mostly just highlights how many miles my long run should be each week and somehow, I am already off track. Crap.

Part of the lower miles was heat related- it was over 100 for a couple of weeks. I never managed an early run as I slept like crap for about 2 weeks too. There were a couple of nights of no sleep. Even my watch was like are you ok? The first night I actually hit 7 hours in June, it gave me a congratulations. Ha! That didn’t stick around though. Boo.

I also wasn’t feeling so great in June. My chest still hurts and normally by now, my allergies start to ease up. I can’t sleep or even find a good position to lay down when my chest feels inflamed. Went for my annual chest x-ray and it shows nothing. Which is good but also annoying.

I did manage to get in some good trail miles though. A couple of which I looked like Ranger Rick for. I am trying to work out more sun coverage for the longer time on my feet days. Can’t find a good hat with decent airflow that covers my face and my ears.

On the work front my boss quit. WTH dude. Don’t worry I said that to his face, no talking behind his back. Then after a couple weeks of thought and stress, I took the jump. And now I have a promotion and a new title. Yay? Now I just need to get my ducks in a row. Thankfully I have an amazing crew, so we will make it work. July is our busiest month though so this should be interesting. Actually it’s the busiest month for the whole city so double yay?

While July is shaping up to be busy, I also have some PTO coming. Not as much as originally planned but still some. I am torn between hiding in a dark room for those days and decompressing or getting out and doing something. May depend on the weather… and the gas prices. There is also a local race I may sign up for. I am not in 10k shape but I do love this race and haven’t run it in years. Oh, and I have a birthday.

Here’s to July- Fingers crossed?