Category: Slacker

Week 16?- Blah

I really have to go back over these posts, I think I am a week off somewhere. I shouldn’t be on week 16 until next Sunday. Hmmm, maybe I can’t count?

If you read Thursday’s post, you know I got a little emotional last week. I’m still feeling a out of sorts but I’m going to just keep smiling and fake it til I make it. Thank you to everyone who commented. 🙂

Monday- Rest

Harvest Marathon meeting. Where did the time go? Race day is only a month away? Well, crap that’s soon. Unfortunately numbers are down. I’ve noticed that at a lot of races this year. I run a lot of the same races and they all seem smaller this year. Has anyone else noticed that?

Tuesday- 3.8 miles

I really wasn’t feeling a run. I couldn’t really pinpoint why so I made myself change into my running gear. I headed to the river path for an easy run. My mother texted me as I parked and I was hopeful she wanted to meet for dinner and I could ignore the run. I was half right. She did want to meet for dinner but was still at a tennis match. So I went running. Despite my weird funk it was a pretty solid run. It started out slow with a nice progression to a faster finish. I fit in 3.8 miles before I went to meet her.

Wednesday- 11.5 miles bike

Today was rough. I think the bad news about the potential job was the final push and I got a little emotional. At least I made the right choice that night and turned to exercise instead of food. My legs felt a little rubbery when I was done with those miles. 😄

Thursday- 4.77 miles

Once again, I just wasn’t feeling my run. The plan called for speed work but I was having troubles talking myself into even running 2 miles. I headed back to the river path and just figured I would run whatever my head wanted to. I kept it easy and tried to just shut my brain up. I don’t know how well it worked but I feel like it was a solid set of miles. While our temps have been very un-fall like- we have had some amazing sunsets. It’s hard to be mad when you see this-

Friday- Rest

More like chaos. Due to some scheduling issues and a late summer illness, there was only myself and 2 other people at work. Being down 50% of your crew is painful. I knew we could do it, but there were some logistical issues that had me concerned. We did get a some help from other locations for portions of the day and thankfully it was a slightly slower than normal Friday. We got through the day and I have never been so glad to close the doors. 😖 But hey a customer told me I had an amazing attitude so score!

Saturday- Rest

I planned to ride the bike but I was so damn tired I chose a nap instead. Wish it could have been longer. I also worked the registration table for my favorite race of the year. HOB Fun Run! This was the first race I’d ever run. And it turns out it was 5 years ago Saturday and this showed up on my Timehop-
Sunday- 10K and 5K

I love this event but it does stress me out. It’s a race where I am guaranteed to know a ton of people. Performance anxiety!!!! Plus the last two years we’ve had a running team with matching shirts. You can’t hide when you’re wearing matching clothes. 😉 Race recap will be up Wednesday.

Oddly enough, for a week when running was the last thing I felt like doing, I turned in one of my highest mileage weeks in months. Which is partially cool and partially sad because I would love to see a higher number. But it is what it is. Despite my funk, I feel like they were all solid miles and solid miles help build a stronger runner. Right? Can’t complain about solid miles.

Paleo– Oh hell, I don’t even want to grade myself. Lunch and breakfast were still good but other choices were not. Let’s just say donuts and pizza happened. Way more often than they should have. Oddly enough it was my nice healthy salads that made me feel sick. I’ve been experimenting with various types of lettuce and some are not winners. But now I know I can add kale to the list of things I can’t eat. I’d never eaten it before so luckily it’s not something I’ll miss.

So yes, last week was rough but I am going to try to look on the bright side. I got all my miles in plus a solid cross training workout. I had a fun (busy) weekend and got to see a bunch of people. Oh and I dyed my hair again. 😏 My boss is back this week- woo hoo!- and I am looking forward to a weekend of nothing. And then taper! Or am I in taper now? How did I mess up my damn race plan so much?

How was your weekend?

What’s your favorite race?

Is taper the week before race week of the week of the race for a half? My brain has turned off.

State of My Head

I feel all over the place this week. Truthfully probably for longer than that. * I started this yesterday but zoned out in front of a Law and Order episode. I don’t even like Law and Order.

I feel like I am falling short pretty much everywhere. I feel like I am over promising and under delivering on a daily basis. I feel inadequate.

Work-I’ve been telling myself that I’m not stressed but that’s denial talking. I can’t even remember to call the doctor on my lunch. I’ve had to make an appointment with my dermatologist for the last 4 months yet I never seem to remember to do that on lunch. I fall asleep instead. I stumble over my words on a daily basis, my hand writing looks like crap. Well, it always did but now it’s worse. 🙂 Don’t get me wrong, I really like my job, I’m just a little fried. I fell like I am short changing the new hires. There is so much I want to show them I just can’t figure out how to.

A few weeks ago I applied for an open internal position. It was different from what I am doing now- more research less people interaction. Something I never thought I’d want but it sounded it so awesome that I couldn’t pass it up. So I applied and then interviewed. Then lived on tenterhooks for 3 weeks. I don’t think I realized how much I wanted the position until I didn’t get it. I started crying on my way home last night. Ugh. I really wanted to shove a pizza in my face. Instead I rode 11.5 miles on the bike and ate some gluten free granola. Then zoned out in front of the computer and ending up eating tortilla chips later.

Running– I haven’t felt like running this week. Like at all. Normally I look forward to my runs. Yes, sometimes as the day wears on I can lose some of that energy but I always start the day looking forward to a run. This week not so much. I have had zero desire to run. Yet, I’ve changed my clothes and gone running just like my plan says. Tuesday evening’s run was pretty good but I just wasn’t feeling it. I was that horrible cranky faced runner who didn’t smile at anyone I passed. And the path was full of people! It wasn’t that I wasn’t trying to smile, it’s that the smile looked more like a growl. That doesn’t bode well for a race weekend.

Let’s be Real– Speaking of races, I feel like I am woefully under trained and not ready for what’s coming. This weekend is one of my favorite races of the year but I can’t forget how badly last year went. When my mother was so pissed that I completed the 5K she walked home. On the upshot- race morning is predicted to be in the 80’s so the chance of heavy fog seems low. I’ll deal with the warmth… hopefully.

Oh and my goal race- let’s be real here. I am not breaking 2. My speed work was hit and miss and running and goal half marathon pace never really happened. Was I stoked about the paces I hit in my intervals? Yes. But hitting a pace for 3-6 minutes followed by a walk break does not bode well for a consistent 9:00 pace for 13 miles. That will be a dream to hang on to for another day.

Ok, enough dreary, I need to dig my way out of the hole I am burrowing into. I need to find my shiny. So here we go-

Work– I have a great crew. Working with them makes the day a little better.

Running– I know that I can. I know that I will. It will just take longer. And that sunset up there? I never used to notice those. Oddly enough, running has brought back the photographer in me. I’ve just moved on from wedding pictures and almond blossoms to shoe selfies and sunsets.

Falling short– Yeah, this one’s a little harder. This may take some time. One foot in front of the other right?

Thanks for listening to ~~me whine~~ the state of my head. If you made it this far. 🙂

How do you deal with stress? Any tips?

What’s an odd benefit you’ve gained from running?

Happy Friday!

Week 15 Recap- Extremes

Week 15?! My race is almost here? How did that happen? I haven’t even registered for it yet! Well, crap, I better get on that. Right after this damn heat wave leaves.

Monday- Rest

Lugging one less bag to work on Mondays is kind of nice. Think I’ll stick with this Monday rest thing. I was going to come home and ride the back but I decided to dye my hair instead. #byebyeblonde

Tuesday- 4.51 Miles

Holy speed, Batman, I ran a 7:49 mile?!?!? Awesome! I’m still kind of stoked about that. If you missed me shouting it from the rooftops, you can read about it here. 😃😄

Wednesday-Rest

Day from hell. For reasons I can’t say, the day went south real fast in the afternoon. If there was ever a day to drink, it was this day. But the only alcohol in my house is Patron and I wasn’t feeling shots. 😏 So I ate pizza instead.

Thursday- 4 Miles

It was in the low 80’s when I started my run and it was so nice. There was a nice breeze too. It later turned into a pretty strong headwind but that’s not the point. The cooler temps were amazing, this run actually felt comfortable. I wanted to keep running for a few more miles. But the downside to the cooler temps is the quicker setting sun. And the river bed is not really the place for a post twilight run. But it was a 4 solid miles. ✅

Friday- Rest

Day 10 of 11 in a row working. Stick a fork in me, I’m done. I really did think about getting on the bike when I got home but just couldn’t make myself do it. Plus the heat had come back and my house wasn’t much cooler than outside.

Saturday- 7.5 miles bike

Day 11! With a projected high of 100 I knew I wasn’t running after work. Unfortunately I am just not fast enough to pull off a long run before work on Saturday’s. Even with it being a later start, I still have to be on the road before 8. So errands, laundry and biking was it for the day.

Sunday- 6 Miles AM, 3.2 Miles PM

Shot myself in the foot on this one. I needed to a run a 12 miler. Needed it for this training cycle and mentally because I have as serious mental block with a 12 mile training run. It was also predicted to be 101. My alarm was set for an early morning run, I even managed to go to bed around the 11:30 on Saturday. I was going to do this. Then my alarm went off.

So, the average hours I sleep every night run around 6. And those aren’t a good 6. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in so long I can’t even remember. Until Saturday night. When that alarm went off, I didn’t even think about it, I turned it off. I was in such a good spot sleeping, I wasn’t wasting it. I had a back up alarm an hour later anyways. Except it was turned off in the same way. The sleep was seriously awesome. I did eventually make myself get up and got ready to run. I was out the door by 9:15. It was already warm so I knew I wasn’t finishing 12. So I planned to get in as many as I could before I felt too hot and then do the remainder at the gym a little later. Not ideal but better than nothing.

I pulled off a slow, hot 6 miles before calling it. After a few more errands I was on my way to the gym. I was taking my mom to the movies later so I wasn’t sure I had the time for 6 anymore. Thanks to some stupid shorts and some horrible stomach cramps I only pulled off 3 miles. I started to feel better around 2.5 miles but the first part took so long I wasn’t getting much farther. So I called it and went home to shower for the movies. 9 miles for the day- not what I wanted but not too bad either. I don’t regret the extra sleep at all. I needed that. 😏

The movie- The Scorch Trials– was awesome and the popcorn was a yummy consolation prize. Oh and that temp? We broke records and hit 105*.

Paleo- C

Honestly, this might be a B. I was pretty behaved last week even with all the stress. I didn’t binge on chips or cookies and after Wednesday, I could have rationalized it. But I didn’t. However, I did eat pizza twice and had the popcorn and some candy at the movies. So I am sticking with the C.

Considering the chaos of last week, I am actually content with the training I got in. They were all solid miles that will only help me grow as a runner. I am thinking more long term than short term here and that’s what counts- running for a long time to come. Not just for my upcoming races. 😊 And there was that fast mile! Yeah, I’m going to hang on to that for a while.

Now this week- My boss is on vacation still so one more week with little breaks is on tap. That’s ok, I can do it. Then this weekend is my favorite race of the year! Woo hoo! I will be racing a 10K on Sunday and running a 5K right after. 😜 Oh and volunteering the day before. Love it.

How was your weekend?

Tell me all about your fall weather- I need to live vicariously right now.

Ever run double races?

Week 14- Stutter

I knew going into this week that schedule wise it was the toughest week of the month. My boss left for vacation so starting Friday I was flying solo and the weekend was the Avocado Margarita Festival and I was ~~conscripted~~ volunteering all weekend. With that in mind, I was hoping to front load my miles. Monday was Labor Day and I had Tuesday off so I was optimistic that I could pull it off.

Monday- 4 mile recovery run

I usually take the day off after any race but I was hoping to get in my easy run of the week. This was probably a bad decision. I’d waited until 6 but it was still around 90 outside. My mother was having an evening tennis practice so the plan was to run to the school, maybe do a few laps on the track and then go to dinner. It was utter crap. My legs didn’t want to work and my lower back was super sore and achy. 2 miles in and I was done. However I was 2 miles from home and 2 miles from the high school so I just headed to the school anyways. Somehow I managed to negative split the run but I have no idea how. It never felt any better. 13:11, 11:12, 10:23, 10:10.

Tuesday- Plan– Long run 10-12 miles- Real life- 3 miles

Maybe Monday was a sign or maybe I should have rested- who knows. We had a heat wave last week and Tuesday was a comfortable 103*. I just headed straight for the gym. I was hoping to get in 6-8 miles on the treadmill and then do a temp check. If it had dropped below 90 I was going to finish the run outside. Otherwise I was just going to stay on the treadmill. My back was still achy but I was hopeful it wouldn’t bother me. However, the ankle pain was unexpected. My left shin and ankle straight up hurt. Not ache but actual pain. I called it at mile 3. I’m too close to race day to chance an injury. Plus, it was only Tuesday.

Wednesday -Rest

The Wednesday black hole is back- I can’t remember what I did!

Thursday- 8 miles Stationary bike

Apparently I can’t tell time. Or subtract. I had a doctor’s appointment so I left work early. I had somewhere to be at 5:20 but hoped to fit in my long run or some speed work in between. I didn’t even get out of the doctor until after 3. By the time I got home, changed and was ready to head to the gym (another 103* day) it was almost 4:30. Color me confused, how did I mess up that badly? So I hopped on the bike for some intervals. 😃

Friday- rest

This day kicked my ass. It was straight chaos at work. At one point I straight sat down in the middle of floor behind my desk because I was just done. I ate cookies again to deal with the stress, oops.

Saturday- rest?

Avocado Margarita Festival day one. I slept in a bit before heading back to work town. It’s a good thing I left early because I got super lost picking up a coworker to work the first shift with me. All my fault- I assumed I knew better than Siri. I think he got his revenge though- the route to get back to where I needed to be damn near made me car sick while driving.

A little over 7 hours later and I was free! Haha. Being locked in a tiny room all day is draining. The constant hum of the generator wasn’t helpful either. I felt fried. The only exercise accomplished was walking to and from the event- about half a mile each way. My Fitbit tells me I moved way more than I thought though so who knows.

Sunday- 3.25 miles AM, 3.5 miles PM

I had a later shift at the festival so I squeezed in some errands in the morning. My alarm had gone off for a morning run but my stomach was expressing its displeasure with the previous day’s meals. I had a tiny window before I had to leave so I fit in some miles. It was warm but overall the run felt good. I wished I could have kept running but I had to make sure I could clean up in time. I mentioned the tiny room right? Had to make I didn’t stink it up smelling like I had just run. 😀. I discovered a new level of contortionist though- ever take off a sweaty sports bra just to put on another one? Crap, that was hard.

After another numbing 4 hour shift I was finally heading back to my car. Didn’t think about the fact that now I was lugging all the supplies we used back up the hill. Half a mile uphill with 40+ lbs? Sure no problem. Ha!

I headed to the lake path to get in a few more miles. I really wanted 5 or more but this run was the complete opposite of the morning run. Struggle from the get go. I was achy and stopped to stretch a few times. I also visited with lake cat quite a bit. 😃. I called it after 3 laps.

So while I didn’t pull off a long run this week like I wanted to, I still got in some time on my feet and the bike. More than I thought was going to happen by week’s end. It’s a hell of a lot more than I accomplished this week last year. 😛

Paleo- C

Honestly the week started out well. I derailed on Friday -cookies! Plus my boss put together a little care package for me while she is gone. 2 full size bags of the sweet potato chips, a big bag of pretzels and 2 bags of cinnamon bears. Covering all the cravings since I can’t leave the building. 😀. Saturday’s lunch was provided for the volunteers and I don’t complain about free food. Even if it was wheat bread. I met my parents at Olive Garden that night and had a few bread sticks. Oops. At least my chicken breast and broccoli was on point. 😋.

My goal is to not stress eat over the next two weeks. Good thing the snack bags will eventually be empty and I can’t run to the gas station to buy more. I just need to make sure I don’t have crazy dinners as a way to decompress. Why is food so comforting?!

How was your weekend?

Ever volunteer for local events?

Would you eat an Avocado Popsicle? I saw those this weekend.

Week 13 Recap- Hell Yeah

13 out of 17 done! Hmm, my math seems off, I may have to check race day again. Not that I would complain about an extra week right now, though. 🙂

Monday- 9.35 miles bike

My neck was still feeling sore and stiff from Friday’s run in so I opted to not run that day. Instead I headed home and got on the bike. I’ve been testing out the resistance workouts on the bike and so far I like them. I was also thankful that I bought a recumbent- it made things easier on my neck. 🙂

Tuesday- Rest

My stomach was a total asshat all day so I ended up taking a rest day. The night before I had indulged in some candy and while I knew I was probably going to regret it, I didn’t think it would be that bad. Did you know sour straws were made of wheat? I had no idea! While I don’t necessarily have a wheat sensitivity, my stomach has never been too fond of it. Combine that with sugar and ouch. Don’t think I will crave candy for a while though.Wednesday- 3.2 miles

This run was thisclose to not happening. After a rough run on Sunday and 2 days off, I left work looking forward to running. Somehow, I drove past the lake without realizing it. Oops. Ok, I would head to home town. I stopped at Target along the way to pick up some prescriptions. Since I was getting a later start, I bypassed the river path and figured I would run from my old work spot again. Except there was road construction everywhere. Seriously?! It was almost 7pm and a primarily resident area. I was so close to just bailing but I had said I needed to get out of my own way, right? So I ended up parking at the bottom of my driveway and squeezing in a few miles before dark. I even saw one mile in the 9 min range. Sweet.

Thursday- Rest

Since I had a race on Sunday, I had a crazy idea of getting my long run done today. However, work had other plans. We were 45 minutes late getting out of work. By the time I would have changed and headed back to town, I wouldn’t have enough daylight even for 3 miles. Seriously, when did the days get shorter? I thought about the gym but Thursdays are pretty busy and I didn’t think hogging a treadmill for 2 hours would go over so well. Plus I wasn’t too fond of the idea of 2 hours on a treadmill. 😝

Friday- 10.1 Miles- Hell Yeah!

Confession- I ate a donut. 🍩 And it was awesome. Curious thing- so was my run. I worked the early shift so I was optimistic for a long run after work. Being Friday and a busy day at work though, I was doubtful of my follow through. I didn’t even think about the Labor Day traffic until I was on my way to the river path to run. Crap. I wanted 10 but decided 8 would be fine to if traffic was too crazy.I had woken the night before with a horrible charlie horse and I had felt it all day. I walked the first 3/4 of a mile just to make sure it wasn’t going to be a problem. Things felt good when I started running, better than they have in months. I told myself not to get cocky, I was only in mile 2! My goal was just run a nice comfortable pace and maintain it as long as I could. Which, let’s be honest, these days that is about 3 minutes. However, I just kept running, my legs felt good, my breathing wasn’t labored at all and things felt great! I had a lollipop route planned that I thought would put me around 8 miles when done. My math was so wrong. I figured it out around 4.5 when I hit a point in the route that I thought would have been 6.5. Oops. I had to decide if I wanted to go back up for another loop and hit 10 or head down and circle the river bed trail until I hit 8. I was still feeling good so I headed back up the hill for another loop.

I never really looked at my pace on my Garmin, I only recall seeing it once during mile 5 and it showing my ave pace in the 9’s. Slow down! Things were going well, I didn’t want to mess things up! 10 miles completed just as the sun was fading. 10 awesome miles. I ran the whole damn thing not counting the warm up and it felt awesome! I only started to feel sore for miles 9 and 10. Which was to be expected as this was my longest run in over a month but I still managed to pick up the pace a bit there too. In full disclosure- I admit that while I never walked or intentionally took a break, I did hit 5 or 6 stop lights. I was so freakin’ excited by this run. I was still smiling about it on Saturday. That one run will get me through another 2-3 months of crap runs. 😃😃

Saturday- 6 miles bike

I didn’t want to run since I had a race the next morning so I hopped on the bike. I kept things easy as I was a little sore from the previous day’s run. I also headed down to SLO to pick up my race packet so I would have one less thing to worry about on race morning. I missed the shirt deadline so this was a very small packet. I was kind of really worried about this race. I haven’t raced a 5K since July 2014 and I wasn’t sure I was even in 5K shape.Sunday- Central Coast Cancer Challenge 5K

Argh, nerves. After all you can’t have 2 good runs in a week right? Recap in next post. Spoilers on Instagram. 😃Overall, this was the best training week I’ve had in a long time. Like since April. While my mileage didn’t increase I finally feel like I put in 3 quality work outs, oh wait, I cross trained too- 5 work outs! Woo hoo!!! I also followed through with a plan and pulled off my long run before the weekend. Which for September I may have to do more often. Unfortunately, Fridays won’t be an option going forward. With my boss gone, I will be working open to close, so that will fill up most of Friday. So time to do some thinking!

Paleo- B

Overall I made better choices last week, candy and doughnut aside. I have zero guilt about that doughnut though, I give it partial credit for my run on Friday. 😊 My weakness right now is these chips-

Since I won’t be able to leave the building while my boss is gone I am hoping to use that time as a way to make me stop eating them. I still need healthier dinners though. I did enjoy my pizza cheat on Wednesday and it was awesome. 😉

This week will be tight, with work and the Avocado Margarita Festival but I am hoping to get a solid week of work outs in. The heat wave coming in is concerning. Triple digits are predicted for all week. Last week’s cooler weather was just a tease. I may have to be a little Thomas this week- ” I think I can, I think I can”.

How was your week? Is the weather cooling down in your neck of the woods?

How was your Labor Day? Anyone else race?

Do you have a snack food you just can’t stop eating?