Category: Slacker

Strike 2

And another missed long run. If we are counting, I have not run long in 16 days. SLO is 20 days away. And yet, I am not freaking out.

I had great intentions with my long run this weekend but I also had great intentions with a lot of things this past weekend. What do they say about intentions? For some reason I made quite the weekend to-do list without taking some things into account. Like I worked Saturday morning. I wanted to spend 2+ hours at the movies. Easter was Sunday. Oh and I am a Slacker. I accomplished maybe half of I wanted to do this weekend. Better than nothing right?

After getting home from work on Saturday I headed out for the scheduled easy run. While the overall pace looks easy, the run was kind of erratic. I started out walking with my mom and then I would run ahead and double back. Except that didn’t always work. Every now and then I would lose her somehow and have to run like hell to catch up. I did one hill loop backwards with the hope of catching her at the bottom after that loop but no luck, she was already more than halfway up it. I’ve never run that side of the hill but I gave it my best. Halfway up I needed a short walk break before resuming running. I lost her one other time towards the end too when she switched streets on me. I ended up spotting her though an alley and again had to haul. I loved the walk breaks when I caught up with her. 🙂 So let’s call it easy meets fartlek training? 6.5 miles done.I did spend the evening at the movies. I am a sucker for the Fast and Furious movies so I dragged my mother with me to see Furious 7. Yes, it was totally over the top and borderline ridiculous but I still loved it. I only got a little teary eyed. We lucked out with fresh and hot popcorn and I disregarded all dietary rules. It’s not like I go to the movies all that often. 🙂

Sunday dawned and after a week of rough sleep, and not getting to sleep before 1 the night before, I was looking forward to sleeping in. I woke up at 8. Seriously?! I briefly thought about going for my run but really wanted to fall back asleep. I stayed in bed until 9 when I gave up on the sleeping in. Kimi was happy though, she loves when I sleep longer. So one of us was happy. 🙂

I knew we were having family dinner for Easter so I needed to run before that. The time came to get a 10-12 mile run in and I just wasn’t feeling it. I kept putting it off. First 10 minutes then 20 and so on. I finally decided that I would head out for an easy 6 and call it good for the day. But even that didn’t happen. My uncle dropped by for a surprise visit. Family trumps running, right? After that we enjoyed a yummy dinner and there was no way I was running after that. So long run fail.

But I am actually ok with it. Something in me just wasn’t feeling it this week and I decided to listen to that little voice. Yes, that re-confirms my Slacker status. That being said I cannot miss my long run this coming weekend. Plus all the stuff I didn’t get done last weekend. Oh and I have a race! First 5K in 5 months. And it’s gonna kick my ass. I am so looking forward to it!!

Happy Monday! Can that even be a thing?

What was the last movie you saw?

Ever missed 2 long runs in a row?

8 into the Wall

Ooof, it’s been a long week. And I have 2 more days of work to get through, wah. Ok, now 1 since I fell asleep before finishing this last night.

I knew going into this dietary change that the first few weeks were going to be rough. I just didn’t realize how tired I was going to feel. This is a new level of tired. In some ways the adjustment is going easier than I thought but I know it will take a few weeks to figure things out and get in the flow. I’d like to try to give it some more time before I get into more details, hopefully. I’m anxious about how it will go over for some reason.

Last week we hit the 90’s a few times and this week we have had some crazy wind going on. I left work on Wednesday and was treated to 35 mph winds. Which might be nothing to someone else but is about 16x the normal for around here. I was glad I wasn’t running until Thursday. Plus, Thursdays’ run was making me anxious so putting it off was a little bit of denial. Thursday was the rescheduling of Tuesday’s speed work. 8 miles on tap- 2 mile warm up, 4 miles at half marathon pace, 2 mile cool down. Say what?! 8 miles mid-week was the first part that made me anxious. Luckily I had a half day on Thursday, so that was kind of awesome. As for half marathon pace miles, I have never intentionally set out to run those paces in a run outside of a race. When I cut back on the speed work in March due to my hamstring issues the only workouts I missed or abbreviated were tempos or intervals. This was the first time pace miles were on the schedule. Plus being so tired and basically under-fueled made me nervous. I am all for running on an empty stomach but it’s been a very light few days- calorie wise. I wasn’t even sure I could hit those paces right now.

While the idea of lapping the lake numerous times didn’t thrill me, I headed to the lake path after work to get in the miles. I parked on the backside so I could have easy access to my car. I treated it like an aid station. I left my water in the car and had some string cheese in case I needed a snack. Mile 1 felt tough but manageable but I was still thinking of only doing an easy 5. I was feeling better in mile 2 so I decided to stick to the original plan. Mile 3 felt hard but not too bad, 9:13 wasn’t where I needed to be but it was pretty damn close. I was trying to not look at my watch while running and just judge by how I felt. Mile 4 felt similar to 3 but clocked in faster at 8:56. I was feeling pretty good but had to detour to the restrooms. Another plus about running at the lake.Starting mile 5, I was still feeling pretty good and starting to think I was going to pull this off. Seeing 9:05 when it buzzed was pretty cool. I was still only looking at my watch when it buzzed the lap splits. Mile 6 was a whole other story. I have no idea what happened. I felt like I was putting out the same effort and running the same pace but I happened to glance at my watch and I saw a 10:00 lap pace. What?!

I had walked slightly more in the beginning of the mile because I had to dodge around a large crowd of people in the park. No matter what I did, I just could not get the lap pace down. I felt like I was running through sand and my legs just wanted to stop moving. Then as I neared my car again, I noticed a truck parked length wise behind it blocking it in. What the hell? I stopped a bit away to see what was going on and instead of hitting pause, I hit the damn lap button. Ugh. Turns out the truck was just a city worker replacing the doggie bags in the dispenser. I then ran on, trying to hit my pace for what I thought was left in that mile. Didn’t happen.

Pace miles done, all I had left was the cool down. The rest of mile 7 still felt hard and sluggish. Mile 8 felt much better. I had a delusional moment during 8 where I briefly considered trying to run my 12 miler right then. Luckily sanity kicked in and I finished with 8. Miles 6 and 7 kicked my ass and I was considering more? I walked back to my car using the fitness equipment along the way to stretch.

So, I hit pace for 3 of the 4 HMP miles. Not too bad. I really wish I would have hit the 4th mile as well but I am still calling it a win. Now I just have to figure out how to get through a 12 miler this weekend without running into the same wall. I think I may slow my pace to a crawl to get through it. Make my goal time on my feet, so even if I have to walk part of it, that’s fine. But we’ll see how it goes.

What about your weekend? Long run or race in the plans?

12 mile crawl or solid 8-10?

How is your weather?

March is Marchin’

March being over already feels like an April Fool’s joke. It cannot be time for a monthly recap yet!

But it is, so here we go!

Miles- 83.1

Races- Wine Country Half

Highest mileage moth of the year so far even if it’s not quite where I had hoped it would be at the beginning of the month. Had I hit my weekend long run like planned, I would have been closer to 95. Which is so close to 100!! But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Did anyone else grow up with that expression? I never understood the point. I mean I do but why say it?

Anyways, moving on. This was still a damn good month. I stuck to my training plan fairly well considering I started the month with some crazy tightness and hamstring issues. March also saw me run a pretty great race , for me, so yay! I survived a work inspection and filled in at another location. My stomach was its’ asshat self but I tried to not let it disrupt training too much. I managed to some mile paces that I haven’t seen in months. I can’t hold them for very long yet, but even just seeing low 9’s and mid 8’s on my watch is kind of awesome! Now to work on maintaining them.

That means continuing to stick to my training as closely as I can. SLO is now less than 30 days away and I am looking forward to race weekend. A little vacation time, hanging out with runners and running an awesome race. There’s a local 5K I want to run the weekend after next. Firehouse 5K, it kicks my butt every year, but it’s such a fun race. I usually hurt for the following week so I am glad that it falls a little sooner this year. 🙂 All that said, I am glad that I already decided to make SLO a fun race as opposed to a goal race. At last week’s appointment with my gastro, we decided that the most recent prescription changes were not working. So I have a shiny new diet to follow. More on the specifics later, but I had to say goodbye to a lot of things for the next few months. So very many things. I am still figuring things out, so right now all I know is that the last few days have been some hungry, tired days.

I had a scheduling conflict today so I moved my easy run of the week to Monday. Woof, that was hard. Not sure if it was because it was a Monday, or because my side still hurt a bit or if it was the dietary changes but it was hard. So much harder than easy should feel. I was also testing out my new shoes. While I love getting new shoes, the break in period is always interesting. While I think I am going to really like them, I had unusual aches and niggles throughout the run. I stopped every mile or so to stretch out. I am not really concerned by this because it has happened every time I have broken in a new shoe style. It usually takes a week or so of alternating shoes to fully adjust. But that is one reason I bought them a month before SLO.

How long do you usually take to break in new shoes?

What is your March highlight?

What are you looking forward to in April?

Well, that wasn’t the plan

Even though the extreme pain of Thursday evening eased, I still felt sore on Friday. Sore isn’t really the right word but it’s the closest thing to describe how my left side felt on Friday. I didn’t pay much mind to it throughout the day. Partly because the day was too damn busy and chaotic and partly because I figured it would go away by the end of the day. When the text messages start coming before your alarm, you know the day is going be a little rough. But eventually it was over and I was looking forward to a weekend of running and maybe a little shopping.

Saturday morning was a fundraiser for my mom’s tennis team. They were completing a walk-a-thon and each boy had to walk or run or crawl 20 laps on the track. One boy brought a unicycle! They had a few hours in which to do this so my original plan was to run to the school and then complete my 12 miler on the track with them. When my alarm went off, I could still feel that odd soreness before even getting up. So I chose to sleep a little longer and then just head straight to the school. I figured I would get in as many laps/ miles on the track that I could. They had the track for 3 hours, I was still hoping I could get in 10-12 miles. I didn’t really think they were going to be there that long and I was right about that. However I was overly optimistic about my goal.Running hurt. I walked a few laps and tried to run one. Ouch. Walked a few more and tried running another one. Still ow. Ok, fine I get it. I walked out the remainder of laps. So 5 miles walking done. I still hoped to try and run later in the afternoon. I ran a few errands and then had the afternoon free. I could have/ should have run but instead I took a nap. Naps are training right?

I’ve been doing the math and realized that if my Wave Rider’s wear like they usually do, I will need a new pair before the SLO Marathon. Even if they did hold up through April, I would be running the race in very worn down shoes. I’ve been hoarding the gift card I got along with my Heritage award for just this purpose so today called for a trip to SLO. My mom and I headed down for a day of shopping, yummy food and hopefully a good hike to end the day.

The weather was awesome and the food was yummy as always. My stomach was not cooperative for a hike, however. This was more of the usual though and less of the odd soreness. Which is probably partially my fault. I start a new diet with lots of restrictions tomorrow so I may have indulged a little too much this weekend. Oops, but not really. I had to say goodbye. 🙂 So the hoped for hike didn’t happen. I did clear 10,000 steps on my Fitbit though and that is only the second time I have done that outside a day with a run. Yeah, I need to work on that. 🙂The highlight of the shopping was the new shoe purchase. Aren’t new running shoes always the best? I knew exactly what I wanted to try on so that made it fairly easy. Per usual, the Running Warehouse was packed on a Sunday afternoon. There were already numerous people being helped and a few waiting. I checked out all the pretty shoes while waiting. So very many colors! I guess being a familiar face is helpful because one of the employees was able to grab the shoes I wanted to try while he was getting another customers. Score! I tried the Wave Rider 18 and Wave Inspire 11. I still love Mizuno. 🙂 I had 2 pairs of Wave Inspire 9’s that I loved but just could not get behind the 10’s. I never even bought a pair they felt so off. I’ve been in the Wave Rider 17 ever since and am on pair 3. I was nervous I wouldn’t like the update for the 18. I liked the fit and feel, nothing felt too different, I just liked the feel of the Inspire’s better today. In fact the only real issues I had with both pairs was deciding which to buy and the shoelaces. The laces seem short, so I may be changing those shortly. It’ll be interesting going to back to a support shoe after being in neutral for so long but I think it may be a good thing. I picked my shoes and was in and out of there fairly quickly, double score! Now I just can’t wait to take them for a run!

And I need to get back on track with training. This was not a shiny week, it happens right?

How was your weekend? Did you race? Or run?

Shoelaces? Do you like them longer or shorter?

Running Favorites and a Rough End

Happy Thursday!!!

Tonight’s run started and stayed pretty damn good right up to the end. So before we get to that let’s do something fun! I was tagged by Charissa to participate in a running survey/ questionnaire. So here we go!

1) Location: Trail, Road, or Indoors?

Can I compromise and say dirt roads?? I run mostly on roads but love trails. However I run a little crazy on trails and that probably wouldn’t be a good idea all the time. 🙂

2) Time of Day: Morning, Noon, or Evening?

Late afternoon to early evening. It’s partly due to my work schedule and partly due the fact that I love sleep. I am so not a morning person. Even races can be rough.

3) Weather: Sunshine, Mild or Hot?

Warm! Crazy, I know but once I adjust to it, I love high 70’s-low 80’s. However for races I would prefer it to be in the 60’s. But I know the way I see the seasons going, I will be running in 90-100 sooner than later.

4) Fuel: Before, After, and sometimes during?

Runner fail. 😦 I don’t fuel before morning runs and rarely during long runs. I usually have something with me when I am doing more than 10 miles but I rarely ever use it. My stomach makes those choices and I’ve learned to listen to it. For runs over 6 miles, I run with Skratch instead of water and I take Gatorade for races. It’s odd but it works for me.

5) Accessories: Music, Watch & More?

My Garmin is a must, I love tracking those numbers. I also always have my phone, my inhaler and my pepper spray. I always listen to music but only keep one ear bud in and keep the music low. Man, that’s a lot of things.

6) Rewards: Food, Wine, or …?

Food!!! I love food. 🙂 I celebrate most races with a good burger and fries. We have a couple of great local burger places. 🙂

7) Type of run: Long, tempo, intervals, hill repeats, progression, or recovery/easy?

Progression. Tempos and intervals always seem harder and stress me out. I like how a progression can start pretty easy and pick it up along the way.

I nominate-

Single-tracked Mind They count for 2!

Everyone else!!!

Alrighty, back to today. My stomach was a little asshat today but no worse than it has been off and on since this stupid “flare”. Seriously, it’s almost been a year. Ugh. My training plan called for a 15 minute warm-up, 2×2 tempo miles with a 3 minute jog in between, followed by a 15 minute cool down. I knew that was unlikely the way my stomach was feeling so I was optimistically aiming for an easy 4. It was in the low 80’s when I got to the lake and it felt awesome. Somewhere along the line I decided to see what I could handle. After a warm up mile, I threw in a mile at tempo pace. Then to give my stomach a little break I walked .10 mile and then ran another tempo mile. And repeat. The miles felt comfortably hard and my stomach was cooperating. I made sure to take a break between all 3 tempo miles just to keep it happy. After a .75 mile cool down, I was at 5 miles and called it for the day. I felt pretty good and was stoked about the times I hit for the 3 tempo miles. I as on the back side of the lake so I figured I would walk back to my car the long way around. I would stretch along the way and I wanted a few pictures because it just looked so pretty. The ducks are coming and it was kind of fun running with them flying overhead. I took a few then I was on my way. I didn’t get very far before I was hunched over trying not to scream. I felt like someone had stabbed me in the left side. I figured I could breathe through it- nope. Tried to walk it out- I could barely stand up straight -walking was barely happening. I sat on some playground equipment to wait it out but it didn’t help. It took me more than 20 minutes to make it the 3/4 of a mile back to my car. Once there I finally did let myself moan and curse out loud. I also googled which side your appendix is on. I knew it was the right but it hurt so bad, I figured if I was wrong I was driving myself to the ER. I wasn’t wrong. So, what, the gas pains from hell?! Yeah, tmi, sorry. Now I’ve had gas pains before but this was ridiculous. I could barely walk, I was hunched over the whole walk back to my car. But now, I feel better. Not great but back to where I was before. I don’t think it was the running that did it, I felt fine, I made sure to check in with myself. I did go back to my old medication today, so maybe the switch didn’t go so well? It figures it happens the day after I see my gastro but we have a whole new plan to start next week..so yay?