Category: Slacker

Run To The Music 7

I haven’t shared a song since January! Really? Man, time flies.

Truthfully, I’ve wanted to post this for a few weeks but I was hoping for a real video to attach. But it looks like a lyric video is all I’m going to get. Boo.

This is one of my favorite bands and has been ever since their first single back in 2000 with Last Resort. I am reasonably positive I own everything they’ve released and they are one of the few bands whose entire catalog is always on my phone. I would love to see them in concert one day but I know they won’t be coming to our local fair- I can’t see them signing the good behavior contract. 😛 If they could be the headliner at Rock n Roll Vegas, my day would be made but I know I am not that lucky. 😛 One can dream right?

The new album seems like it might be a touch pop-ier than I would like but it has made it pretty perfect for running. So without further ado, here’s my new favorite running song-

Papa Roach- Born for Greatness

What are you listening to?

Week 14- Somewhat Normal

Upcoming Races:

Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13
Rock N Roll San Diego 13.1-June 4

This week was a little over the place. First week post merger, crazy busy and I had to spend time fighting with the IRS to prove that I was me. That was real fun. Identify theft is a never ending story. I was actually a little worried going into the appointment- the picture on my drivers license is over 15 years old, I swear it’s me! I also hit a possum and felt traumatized. 😢

All stress aside, this was a slightly more normal week running wise. Woo hoo! And I ending up buying myself the entire Fast and Furious collection so I had a couple of relaxing weekend evenings.😛

Monday- Rest I took all my gear to work but didn’t really account for the chaos of the first day post merger. Which was silly because this was not my first rodeo. Anyhow, the day was insanely busy and my boots did not cooperate with my feet at all. By the end of the day, I was done. I limped to my car and just went home.

Tuesday- 4 miles I ran from work, I just felt like it was a day for the eucalyptus grove. While I keep my pace easy for my work route I push the threshold in other ways. I often run without water and try to not use my inhaler. In a town that often has a heavy marine layer. It sounds crazy but I do it every couple of weeks as a workout of sorts for my lungs. I always have my inhaler with me if I need it but I like to try run the whole run without using it.

Wednesday- Rest– Once again, Wednesday is a black hole. I am sure I did something but I have no idea what.

Thursday- 2 runs, 2.6 miles each Grrr, I had to leave work early for my IRS appointment and had hoped I would have enough time to get in a 5 mile run before I had a tire rotation appointment. Yeah no. I squeezed in 2.6 which started sluggish and ended speedy- 8:50 pace for the .6. Then it was off the get my tires done. Once home, I managed to head out for another 2.6 in the evening. This were more evenly pace miles and I learned that the elementary school is a madhouse after 6. I was dodging cars right and left and lost track of how many times I stopped to avoid getting hit. Aaagh!!! Just get me home! 5.2 miles for the day.

Friday- Rest Oh I ate so much food! It was my 10 year anniversary at work (even with the new company) and my boss and coworkers brought me donuts and pizza!

Saturday- 10 miles I woke up with a headache and I knew there was a cycling event on my running route so I decided to go back to sleep. The rain that came through on Friday kept the temps down so I headed out for my long run around 4. Oh man, the wind was nuts at some points. I felt like I was being blown backwards. My legs felt fine for this run and I didn’t really feel tired but I couldn’t ever really get my head in the game. My stomach started to cramp around mile 7 but considering what I had eaten over the past few days, I really couldn’t blame it. It wasn’t a bad run by any means, it was just meh. It did reinforce my opinion that I hate running west across the bridge. East- no problem, west? Yuck.

Sunday- Rest Well, crap, my calves were sore. The PureFlow’s seem to be working out but I forgot how long it took me to transition to a 4mm drop. Oops.

19.2 miles for the week. That missing .8 kind of bothers me but hey it’s 7 more miles than last week. I was super tired this week but finally figured when I am not going to be? Might as well just run. 😛

How was your week?

Anyone race this weekend?

Watch any movies lately?

Rambling On 7

Happy Friday!!

First week post merger is almost done! Woo hoo! I didn’t mess up answering the phones as bad as I thought. 😛 Only a few times.

Rain is coming back, boo. While I am over the rain and dealing with it, it’s kind of shocking how quickly all the lush green started to go brown in the last 2 weeks. Anyways, it’s only supposed to be for a few days.

Oh, speaking of the new company- they treated us to lunch on Monday. Since I always have a late lunch I am weird about what food I will order since it has to wait a couple hours. I ordered the grilled cheese. Holy crap, this was the most amazing thing ever. I ate part of it when it arrived and reheated the rest at lunch. Seriously, it was awesome. Oh yeah, the fries were damn good too.

I had to go to an IRS office to prove who I was. That was fun. This was after a phone call where I spoke with an unbelievably rude representative from the IRS. Can the person who tried to fraudulently use my social security number and get a massive refund just pay my taxes this year? That would be nice, ok, thanks.

I won’t lie, I really just want to spend a day sleeping. Is that bad? If it could be on a beach in a hammock, all the better but at this point just sleep. I’m still feeling a little ragged around the edges after last week.

I totally had something else to say but just completely blanked…oops! Your turn!

What are you doing this weekend?

Week 13- Free Pass

Upcoming Races:

Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13
Rock N Roll San Diego 13.1-June 4

With so much going on this week with the merger going through, having run Livermore and still not feeling 100% I decided to give myself a free pass this week. If I wanted to run, yay, if all I wanted to was sleep then I would sleep. The only thing I had to do was get through each work day- long as they were. And damn they were long. Plus my cough was in full force so customers occasionally looked at me like I had the plague. 😛 I needed running to be a stress reliever not to add to the stress that the week might bring.

Monday- Rest– I sort of had a vacation day. I say sort of because this was the week of all the conference calls and meetings so while I had the morning off, I had a meeting in the afternoon. I luckily could go to a closer location than normal but it was rough going from comfy clothes to slacks, heels and a blazer.

Tuesday- Rest- Work started an hour and a half early. Combine that with my commute and ouch that was an early morning. I had to use my Knuckle Lights just to open my gate! I also had a doctor’s appointment and something in the waiting room really aggravated my cough. I would cough uncontrollably, excuse myself to go outside, feel fine, go back in and it would all start over again. Finally after the fourth time, a nurse came and opened the door and something about that made the air in the room level out and I stopped coughing. I was so tired after that though so I just went home.

Wednesday- 4 miles This day was equally as long. Work also started an hour and a half early again. I was tired after work but I wanted to try and run. Good lord that first mile was hard. I was so sluggish and just tired. I sat on a bench and regrouped and changed my run/ walk intervals from 3/1’s to 2/:30’s. It helped. I actually ended up pulling off 3 progressively faster paced miles after that.

Thursday- 3.5 miles Thankfully, this day had a much more normal start time. I was still tired and the first mile was still ugly. The next 2 weren’t speedy but ended up being very consistent- like they were the exact same pace. Don’t think I could do that again. maybe I should try sometime?

Friday- Merger day! Over an 11 hour day and I was toast. And with that it’s official, after 9 years, 11 months and 20 days, I work for another company.

Saturday- Rest- I thought about my long run but that’s as far as it got. I was so damn tired. So instead I ran some errands and ended the evening by going to see Power Rangers. I actually did a journalism project on Power Rangers way back in the day (8th grade!) so it was pretty much a given that I was seeing this in the theater. 😛

Sunday- 5 miles I had planned on a 10 mile long run where I met my mom in the middle but when my alarm went off I just couldn’t. I kept telling myself to get up but I was still so tired. It finally got to the point that there was no way I could get up, get ready and run to the meeting point in time so I texted my mom and bailed. Instead I headed out in the afternoon knowing it was likely going to be a rough ride. It was over 80 so I wasn’t even going to attempt 10 but I was thinking about 8. That thought last 1.5 miles. I was hot, I was wearing shorts for the first time in 5 months and they kept trying to turn into underwear. My stomach started to cramp and my knee was hurting. I sat outside the elementary school just to take a breather. I decided 5 was a good number.

12.5 miles for the week. Not great but for merger week and still being sick at the beginning, I’ll take it! I made it through the week so woo hoo!

Now, things should calm down a bit. Work may be crazy but the hours should normalize… I hope. I am hoping to bring the miles back up this week though. The only thing I think I have planned is a dentist appointment and I need my tires rotated. Those are easy, right?

How was your week?

Share something fun!

Week 12- Under the Weather

Upcoming Races:

Livermore 13.1 -March 26!!
Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13
Rock N Roll San Diego 13.1 June 4

This will likely not be very long. 😛 Not a lot happened last week unless you count coughing and sniffling. Unfortunately I have yet to see any ab gains from all the coughing. 😛 A girl can dream right?

Monday- Sick- I called in sick. Who am I??? I got up and attempted to get ready for work but when it took me 20+ minutes to attempt to brush my teeth I conceded defeat. I spent most of the day in bed. The only movement was to move to the comfy chair when the bed got old.

Tuesday/ Wednesday- Rest/sick- I made it to work both days but I was barely hanging on. I was still coughing all the damn time and I had the worst sinus pressure building. Grrrr. I slept poorly all week as I spent most nights coughing.

Thursday- 2 miles- With Livermore 3 days away, I figured I needed to do a test run. I still felt miserable but I also needed to be realistic. I bundled up like it was 30* outside ( it was 60) and headed out for short run. Yeah, I walked the first mile and ran/ walked the second. It wasn’t miserable but it wasn’t exactly pleasant either.

Friday- Rest- My ears went funny on the way to work. I was starting to seriously consider dropping from the half marathon to the 5K. Work tired me out, how was I supposed run 13 miles? Oh and the forecast still called for rain on race day.

Saturday- Road trip! I packed and headed on up to Livermore. Mom was along for the ride like usual and she let me know exactly what she thought of me running while sick. 😛 I was still debating about a 5k drop down. After an uneventful drive up and a stop to eat for lunch at Pieology we arrived at the expo to pick up my bib. After checking into the hotel we tried to do a little shopping at a nearby outlet mall but but we literally drove around the parking lot for 20 minutes with 100 other cars looking for a parking spot. No thanks. After dinner it was back to the hotel and an attempt to get an a decent night’s sleep. Fail.

Sunday- Livermore Half? – more to come on that.

Weekly miles- 15.1. Guess that tells you what I ran. 😛

It was a long week of not doing a lot but I feel exhausted. I am really hoping to be on the upward swing of this thing. I miss sleep, I miss running, I miss what little breathing capacity I had before. Ha!

This week coming is going to be interesting. It’s merger week, so there is lots of overtime happening and some things are up in the air. It’s going to be a very play it by ear week but I am hoping to get my mileage back up. There was a trail race I was thinking about on Saturday but I can’t commit due to the up in air work schedule so I’m taking as a sign that I should probably not run up a mountain a week after a race.

How was your week?

Any plans this week?