Category: Slacker

Random Roundup

I could have called this mid week musings but let’s switch it up. Oh and it’s Friday.
I have a little challenge for myself in this post- no mentioning of the “M” word. I mean I have to be driving you all nuts right? 😛

I have strong feelings about long hair- I’m not the biggest fan- long story- but I suddenly miss braids. So weird. I alternate between years of super long hair and years where it’s above my shoulders. Right now, it is still a few inches above my shoulders- too long…or too short. I can’t decide!

I am so tired. I feel like life has just been a bunch of running in circles. I have 2 vacation days coming next week and I am so excited. 4 day weekend anyone?! I know at least one of those days will involve zero alarms and I swear I may sleep until 10. Or try to.

So I shared the pic of my new running shoes a few weeks ago but that wasn’t the only I bought that day. I have a serious problem- I buy all the skirts and dresses. Seriously, I could probably go a month without wearing pants and still not have to wash clothes. My sweater collection is a little ridiculous too. 😝 Did I mention I am going shopping this weekend?

My race this weekend just got a little more interesting. I already knew I had 12+ miles of beach sand to run on but then this email came-

trailsnip

Wet rocks?! Maybe I should consider a different pair of shoes? 😖

I received my first product to test from BibRave. Ultima Replenisher. The raspberry flavor and I have become besties. Seriously. I’ll post more about it later but I’ve had it every single day since the package arrived. I’d never even heard of it before.

I’m still binge watching Lost. I am now in season 3 but I am starting to fade. 4 more seasons of this? I’m still confused 🙂 Any suggestions?

What’s your clothing addiction?

Share something random!

What are your weekend plans?

Boundary Boardwalk

I’m socially awkward.

I wasn’t as a child. I was obnoxious, outgoing and a bit of a daredevil. I don’t know what happened to me. 😛

Crowds make me uncomfortable- sometimes running in public still freaks me out. I’ve mostly gotten over it in home town. Granted the bridge still stresses me out. For crying out loud, I still sprint across the damn thing. Last weeks long run saw the bridge mile clocking in at 9:14. Which doesn’t sound that speedy until you take into account my stupid shins and the fact that I walked part of that mile too.

Running in work town? Oh hell no. I do it very rarely. What if people see me? I don’t want customers to see me in a sweaty mess. And shorts? Forget it. If I run in work town, I wear capris, no matter what time of year. Throw in the fact that I only have only the one 4 mile route and I don’t run there very often. Too uncomfortable.

The week has been running around 105ish in hometown. Mid 70’s at 7 am. Yay. 😭😭 I ran in work town on Monday- tried to be invisible. Wednesday was my half day and I wanted to run but 100+ temps? Not so much. Whereas work town was a lovely 72. Decisions, decisions.

I stepped outside my comfort zone. I ran in work town. On a new path. In shorts. In the middle of the day. There were people around. It’s summer in a beach town- what was I thinking?

It freakin’ rocked.

Don’t get me wrong- those 4 miles kicked my ass. First I was cold then I was hot. The path I thought I was on turned out to be not what I thought. My shorts rode up every 5 steps and I spent most of the run trying to discreetly dig them out of my crotch and yanking them down. Cover those legs! My legs hurt, my shins ached. I was sinking in the sand. The pavement seemed too hard. I lost the cover to my new handheld Orange Mud and didn’t even notice for 1/2 a mile. How? I was breathing like I was sprinting but I so wasn’t. I walked more than I would have liked. People saw me.

But —

I ran through a tunnel of Cypress trees–

Found three stacks–

And a rock–

Like I said- this run rocked. Can’t wait to push my boundaries ( a little) again with a longer run. And maybe with different shorts. 😛

How do you push your boundaries?

On the Marathon

Slight left turn here, my weekly recap will be up next post.

I said I would never run a marathon. Never had any desire to. Vehemently shot it down every time someone asked me. Thing is, it’s not even the marathon itself that deterred me. I mean I am the queen of stupid stubbornness, I figured I could drag myself through one if I had to. It wouldn’t be fun, wouldn’t be pretty, would take 10 hours, likely break me and turn me off from running forever. Like I said, queen of stupid, I totally realize I was underestimating the thing.

What scared me was the training. Who in their right mind signs up for marathon training? The mere idea of a 4 hour long run at the ass crack of dawn on a weekend morning almost gave me hives. I mean have you looked at some of those training plans? Who has time for all that? Don’t they realize I have Netflix to watch?! Doubt’s a nasty companion no matter hard you deny hearing it.

I am a self proclaimed slacker, laziness is my strong suit. Just ask my mother. I’d never stuck to a training plan for a half, how the hell would I stick one for a full marathon? Throw in long work days and a commute and it seemed even more unlikely and I was fine that. Until I wasn’t.

The hunt for a training plan began. It’s easy to get lost in the sheer number of them available. Some looked scary, some looked doable. How do you know what to choose? How do you know which one works for you? For me, a person who loves sleeping in on the weekends. For me, someone can find the simplest excuse to skip a run? For me- who still feels like a poser sometimes? There was one that kept jumping out at me…but it was for serious runners, not slackers like me. That would be crazy. But then I read the book and it didn’t help prevent the crazy. I’ve never shared what training plan I am using because I know all you real runners would think I lost my damn mind.

So yeah, Hansons. You know the one all about cumulative fatigue and hitting paces and no super crazy long runs? I can hear the “WTH’s” now. I blame Colby. And then Allison. ☺ Anyways, I read it cover to cover and then parts again. I stuck stickie tabs all over it. Suddenly the crazy seemed doable. The beginner plan looked like a chance I could take. So I took pen to paper and mapped everything out on calendar pages. April to race day. Then I only looked at each month at a time. April- nailed that. May- I knew this was where things got intense so I made an adjustment- I dropped Friday’s run. So, I guess this is technically no longer Hanson’s. I Slacker-ized it. But 5 days a week with 2 planned speed/ strength workouts was still such a huge step for me, I figured I would be sufficiently fatigued. 😛 My hope for June was to add in that 6th day.

Then I got hurt. And it wasn’t the mileage that did it. I only missed 4 runs in May and 3 didn’t happen until after I jacked up my shins. I think I figured out what did me in- I ended an easy Monday 5 miler with some butt kicks and high knees. Why? No real reason other than I watched a video on running form over the weekend. People- if it’s not breaking you- don’t mess with your form during training! After Tuesday’s 800 repeats, I did some more high knees and butt kicks. By Wednesday I could barely walk. That Thursday’s attempt at a tempo was laughable. Everything since then has been some odd combination of the Just Finish version of Hanson’s and rest. And I am pissed.

I was actually doing it- I was following a training plan. Yes, it was kicking my ass but in a good way. Tempo’s were growing on me and I was so stinkin’ proud that I was following through. That is what this marathon training has taught me. Doubt can shut it’s ugly trap.

There’s this tv show that I watch and there’s a character on it who says something like this-

” the souffle is not the souffle- the souffle is the recipe”

Which is finally making sense to me. The marathon is not the prize- training for it is. If I can train for a marathon and actually follow through with something, well, then I can do anything. At least that’s what it feels like.

Who knows what the next 48 days will bring? Not me, but until then I am going to #justkeeprunning.

Mid Week Musings 10

Is it 10? I think it’s 10. When is Friday? Actually, is it December yet? I need a vacation. 😛

This week has been like-

I need to ramble.

So my identity was stolen. That’s fun. I got a piece of mail congratulating me on my new Discover account. Umm, no?

I shouldn’t be around breakable things. Remember that post where I talked about shattering my foundation bottle all over the bathroom floor? Yeah, did it again. 😓 Went to work foundation-less this morning and that will likely continue until the weekend. Who needs makeup anyway? Right? #destructogirl I used to have that on a c

I have new dietary restrictions. No eggs, no dairy, no soy, no seafood, no nuts, no wheat. It’s a little harder than I thought it would be. I’ve mostly figured out breakfasts and lunches but fall apart when it comes to dinner. Tonight was pizza night- oops. It’s still a work in progress.

Speaking of food, I still haven’t figured out fueling for long runs. My 13 miler last weekend was on an empty stomach. Other than running out of water, I felt fine. But maybe it’s a good thing I haven’t figured it out yet- now I can find one that fits the new restrictions. Any suggestions?

American Ninja Warrior. I love this show. Watch it shamelessly every time it’s on. I like rooting for the contestants even while some make me shake my head in disbelief. Sometimes I think I want to try obstacle style races. Then I remember that I have a tendency to run into walls. 😛

The Rock Clock. So, I kind of the love the Rock. Think he’s pretty awesome. A admit I downloaded his app- The Rock Clock. It’s my alarm for all those early morning (for me) runs. Except last weekend I learned that it doesn’t work if your phone’s on silent- kind of overslept. Oops!

How is your week going?

Who’s one of your favorite celebrities?

San Francisco Marathon Training Week 8

Name Change!!

Let’s be real, who was I lying to? As if calling it “Week 21 Training Recap” meant I could bury my head in the sand a little longer? So, let’s rip the band-aid off. There should be an emoji for that.

If you’ve read my whiny, ranting post from Friday, you know that last week went a little sideways. After such a great week 7, I was hoping to keep the momentum going. But, well, life happens right?

Monday- Rest I had a doctor’s appointment where I had 3 excisions done. Why I thought I was going to follow through with running after that, I am not sure. One was even under my sports bra band so it’s not like I really wanted to put one on after that. Combine that with my car battery dying in the office parking lot and the day was shot. It was surprisingly hard to find a place that sold the battery to my car. My very common Nissan. Grrr.

Tuesday- Rest/ furniture moving I had what I called severe allergies start after my run on Saturday but by Tuesday, it was full blown head cold status. I could barely see out of my eyes and spent most of my time sneezing. I ended up leaving work early and went home. I treated myself to my go-to sick meal- In n Out- on the way home and then took a 3 hour nap. On the floor. 😝 Once I woke up, the rest of the evening was spent moving furniture in preparation for new carpet the next day.

Wednesday- Rest This time planned but I felt guilty. I should have been running. I still wasn’t feeling well but I made it through the full day at work before heading home to move furniture back into place. Apparently, I am not as strong as I once was. Some of that crap was hard to move!

Thursday- 3.4 miles Aborted tempo. What’s that saying about good intentions? I headed to the lake path to get in what was supposed to my last 5 mile tempo. Next week they jump to 8 miles. Holy crap! Anyways, back to this week. Let’s just say I should put my phone on Do Not Disturb when I run from now on. Of those 3.4 miles, 2 were at tempo pace. What was not cool was how hard they felt. So much harder than the week before. Had I finished my run I am not sure I could have held that for another 3 miles. That worried me. Ok, it freaked me out. Hence Friday’s post.

Friday- Rest Oddly enough, one of the excisions was really bothering me . Of course it was the one on my butt. Maybe it was just trying to make me sit less? Oh and the morning started with finding out that my debit card had been compromised. Not my main one but the one linked to my race account. Double Grrrr.

Saturday- 12 miles- I worked in the morning so I knew this would be an afternoon run. Luckily the temp was predicted for the mid 60’s so I wasn’t too worried about that. I used the timing as a training exercise, sort of. I’ve been trying to figure out what I can eat before long runs and races that my system will tolerate. I’m testing out various protein shakes as I seem to tolerate liquids better. So I had 2 pieces of sausage for breakfast and a protein shake at 11:30. The poor choice might have been the cookie I ate as well. 😝

That said, I headed out around 2 PM for my run. Overall, I kept my head down and just kept running. I was feeling ok and didn’t need any walk breaks through mile 5, I met with my mom halfway through mile 6 so I walked with her for 1/2 a mile. Then I ran on and just kept trucking. It was so windy, my hat was almost ripped off my head 3 times. My stomach cramped in bad way at mile 10. I stopped for a moment and breathed it out. I was only 2 miles from being done so I kept my break short and ran on. My stomach cramped again around mile 11.3 but this time I walked it out. Stupid stomach. I then ran on to finish my run. Other than the cramping issues, the run was pretty good. My pace was right in the middle of my long run range and it would have been even better without the the little break in the middle. Obviously I need to work on the fueling thing some more.

Sunday- 6.2 miles – The plan called for 6 but I wanted 8. Seriously, this was one of the slowest 10K’s of my life. Smash Run tells me it was my 47th slowest- yay! I don’t know what it was but I could not get it into gear. My legs felt fine but the rest of me just wasn’t out there. My pace was all over the place and by the end I was glad the plan only called for 6. I felt fine when I was done so maybe it was all in my head?

So yeah, 21.6 miles. About 15 short of where I had hoped to be. I am trying to find the shiny here and say that 21 miles is still pretty good for a Slacker right? We live and we learn and we plan for the week to come. Right? Right. #justkeeprunning I am still on the fence about Saturday’s half- partly due to indecision and partly because that account was cleaned out. Boo. I will get the money back and I will make a decision but right now I am playing it by ear. I also want to give the protein shakes another try. Any recommendations?

How was your week/ weekend?

Ever been hit by fraud? Someone had fun at a bar with mine. And tried to buy a suit. Weird.