When I last posted, I hinted that Sunday may have not gone according to plan. Without further ado, here is my simple guide to fail a long run.
Just follow these fool proof, slacker tested steps-
Enjoy a rest day prior to the planned run. Along with this indulge in some movie watching and popcorn eating
Consume your body weight in popcorn, or at least come close.
End up spending most of the night reading a book. Why? Because so much popcorn made you ill and at least the book is a productive use of time when you can’t sleep.
Oversleep due to being ill as well as finishing previously mentioned book.
Put off run until later in the afternoon. Start run when it’s 93 outside but due to your over tired self, it feels like 105.
Try anyways- walk a lot- only finish 6 miles.
Congratulations, you’ve successfully failed a long run. #longrunfail
That hill is evil
After my failed attempt on Friday, I was planning to run the 10 miles on Sunday. Other than work and foam rolling, I stayed off my feet as much as possible on Saturday. Too much popcorn was an epic fail which resulted in a long night followed by sleeping in. Truthfully I kind of did not want to run at all. I finally forced myself out the door after 2:00. And I knew that if I didn’t go then, I wasn’t going at all.
Such pretty splits, ha!
I warmed up slowly but never really got into it. I met up with my mom a little after mile 3, that combined with a hill meant I walked most of that mile. It was awesome. Then it was more running, oh and some more walking. I knew 10 was so not happening, so it was another 6 miles in the book. I took a 16 oz bottle of water which is more than I usually take and I drank the whole thing. Ugh. This was just not my week for a long run. I’ll try again next week. 🙂
What about you guys?
Ever bail on a long run? How about eat too much popcorn?
I start a new class in a little less than 2 weeks and unfortunately it falls on Wednesday nights. Boo! So last week NikeC and I moved gym nights to Thursdays. We were hoping that it might be a little less busy but instead it looked like everyone was trying to get in one last workout before the weekend. We weren’t able to warm up on the ARC Trainers so we tried the stationary bikes. We used the recumbent ones, so I was wondering how much of a workout it would be. I was sweating within 8 minutes- ok maybe a bit of a workout. 20 minute warm-up- 4 miles-done. Then it was onto the circuit room, which was busy. There was even 2 grunters in the circuit room, using the machines in very odd ways. For the most part, everyone was using the room right, woo hoo! After a good work out there, we moved onto to the ab room. I admit I have zero skill there and always do my crunches wrong, so I hung out on the ab roller. It’s kind of fun and I could totally feel my abs (sore!) the next day. I also posted my very first throwback Thursday pic- and got the hashtag wrong. #fail But anyways, I finally found a pic of my very first race-I worked this Saturday, so I was able to go in later on Friday. I was super excited about this because I wanted to get my 10 miler done in the morning, that way I could have a lazy weekend of a rest day and a 6 miler. I slept until a little after 7 before getting up. I was feeling off but told myself I was just trying to be lazy. After getting ready, I knew it was a little more than that, so I ended up crawling back in bed. Now if you knew me really well, you would know that I have a few idiosyncrasies, or neurotic tendencies as my mother likes to call them. One of those is to only get in bed after a shower, even if it’s 3 in the morning and I am dead tired, I take a shower first. Even the few times I have come home sick from work, I take a shower first. My mother tells me I am going to be single forever. 🙂 I say it’s a holdover from all those Taco Bell years and coming home smelling like a burrito. The fact that I crawled into bed full of sunblock; I probably should have skipped the run. But after a little more sleep, I dragged myself out the door. I was under fueled and under hydrated, so I brought along some Gatorade and made sure to keep it slow. For once I had zero trouble following through with a longer warm up. 🙂 It was warmer than I would have liked for 9 in the morning, but it was not a horrible run. All in all, 10K done and I was still glad I made myself get out the door.
And the Garmin had issues tracking again.
Even though my long run failed, I still treated Saturday as a rest day. My left leg has been a little more sore than usual, so rest sounded good. Plus after getting off work and running the usual errands, I decided to go see Guardians of the Galaxy. Have I mentioned I am serious nerd for the Marvel movies? seriously that Disneyland Avengers Half would awesome but I would need to sell a kidney for it. 🙂 Anyhow, the movie was really good and I indulged in too much popcorn. Yummy. And I still had Sunday for that 10 miler. Well, that was the plan…
After getting back to running long(er) on Sunday, I wanted to take it a little easy on Monday. I was feeling a little sore so I figured 3 laps of the lake path would do. My mom met up with me and we did the usual warm up walk, which yes I included in my mileage for the day, before separating. In good news, the bridge is now fixed! I thought they were taking the bumpy boards out and replacing them with smooth ones, but they put back newer bumpy boards. Except now I don’t know where these bumps are so I used that as a reason to walk the bridge. It’s super short anyways so it’s not like it hurt my pace any. I also tested out the new inserts I had purchased on Saturday. They were a little awkward, I felt like my shoes were super loose in the heel area. Even after 3.5 miles, I felt like my right foot kind of liked them but my left foot hated them.
Post Wednesday run
I’ve decided to use my Garmin to track pace and my Nike app for overall mileage. When it comes to races, I turn the Garmin off after the finish line anyways. Why I count my warm up for both, I have no idea, maybe I am just weird. 🙂 After finishing my 3.5 miles, I stopped my Garmin. I looked around for my mom but couldn’t see her so I jogged/ walked back the opposite way figuring I would meet up with her shortly. I hit the back parking lot and the end of the cement bridge and still no sign of her, what the frak? I waited for 5 minutes, expecting to see her coming my way but nope. I then turned back towards the other parking lot, starting to get a little nervous. Once there, I finally saw her coming the opposite way. Apparently she randomly decided to walk some of the neighborhood streets and got a little lost- not cool. 😦With running 8 on Sunday and then a few on Monday, I took Tuesday as a rest day for my legs. I think they appreciated it. 🙂 Wednesday I decided to take my new shoes for a speed work spin. I planned on a baby progression run. Mile 1 warm up, mile 2 in the low 10’s, 3 in mid-9’s and mile 4 in the high 8’s, followed by a cool down. Full disclosure- this is an out and back course with a slight incline for miles 1-2 and decline with 3-4. This time I met up my mom and the puppy. Mile 1 went according to plan. Mile 2 felt comfortably hard which I had anticipated. What I did not anticipate was my time at mile 2-9:17. Oops? I wasn’t sure I could tighten it any more to bring miles 3 and 4 faster than that, I didn’t think I had it in me, but I decided to try. Mile 3 got a little harder, I took a tiny 10 second walk break. – Clocked in at 9:07, but I was starting to get tired and winded which made me cranky. I know it’s been months a while since I’ve done speed work but come on. Mile 4 started with another tiny walk break- .05 of a mile- then I pushed hard. I was slowed by intersections so I changed up my route slightly to run the back of the path into the river trail which gave me 1/2 a mile without intersections or driveways. I focused on speed and just kept running. I took a tiny 10 second walk break towards the end before running through and when my watch buzzed 4, I was so happy to hit stop. I was breathing so hard I was panting, I actually did the whole bent-at-the-waist, hands on my knees gasping for air pose. Then I checked my watch hoping for around 8:30- holy crap I just did what?!!! Faster than last week, too! If I hadn’t taken those 2 little breaks, I would have been in the 7’s!!!!! I then walk/ jogged back up the path until I found my mom and the puppy, stopping to stretch along the way. Total miles for the day 4.7.
It’s all the shoes, or maybe my clearance Abercrombie shorts
I was never a runner in high school, in fact I managed to get out of PE most of my high school years. I had it freshman year, and dance sophomore year, got off campus early junior year, and had athletic PE senior- which outside of tennis season amounted to nothing. Not to say I wasn’t athletic, I played softball and tennis year round but running was not my thing. We had to do those stupid Presidential fitness tests every year and part of that was the mile. My fastest mile ever was 7:37, which I remember because it reminded me of a plane. I half-assed that mile, and now I wish I had tried a little harder. Who knows where I would be now, hopefully not panting like a dog at the end of 8:05 mile, haha.
Did you ever have to do those fitness tests? I still can’t do a pull up…or was is a chin-up?
Thank you all for your encouraging comments on my last post. I felt a little odd posting it. I wasn’t sure how well “re-embracing the Slacker” would go over. It does sound a little backwards 🙂
Friday was one of those days that started ok and went south real fast. So fast and south that it made me question how well I was doing my job. By the time I got off work all I wanted to do was eat a pizza. Like, the whole thing. I had had tentative plans to hit the track for some speed work with a friend but those fell through. Part of me wanted to use that as added justification for the pizza. The other part of me wanted to run. In the end I met up with my mother at the river path. We walked the first 3 miles while I ranted. Well as much as I could without going into too many details. By the end of mile 3, my feet were itching to run. So I decided to run the last mile. I felt really good on that mile; I felt like I was running out my irritation and doubt. So good in fact, I am pretty sure I threw down my fastest mile- 8:15. Sweet! I can’t find the proof to back that up though, apparently my Garmin doesn’t track single mile records?! My fastest unofficial 5k is 26:35 so I double checked the times on those miles, and yep, this was still faster. 🙂
I was told my shoes smell- ouch.
The only bummer was that while running I determined that my white Wave Riders are pretty much done for. 300 miles and done. Poor, pitiful shoes. I have already been breaking in their replacements but it’s still sad to say goodbye to these. Normally I would try to get a few more miles out of a shoe but since I should be in a support shoe but choose to run in a neutral shoe, I have been trying to pay more attention to how the shoe wears down. On Saturday, I did some shopping and I did purchase some fancy insoles to try and see if that would help get some extra miles out of them. The verdict is still out on that one. I also purchased another belt to try out. I have a fitletic belt and a Flipbelt, but I am always open to possibilities. Sunday, I finally followed through on a longer run. I made it to the track for 8 miles. I have missed the track. I didn’t feel up to speed work and figured a long, slow run would be more beneficial anyways. My Garmin apparently had other plans. It took awhile to find the signal and by the time it did, it was almost 2/10 of mile behind. By the end of my run, it had dropped even more distance. I could not figure out was going on. Luckily, I am a little neurotic and still run with the Nike app too. It tracked well enough. Warming up was hard on the track. I had to force myself to walk 3 laps, which is huge compared to the 200 meter warmup I used to do. After that I just tried to keep an easy pace. I ran miles 2, 3, 4 and took .1 walk breaks in miles 5 and 6. After that it was all running until I hit 8. The weather was kind of weird for the run, overcast and kind of muggy but not too hot. At one point, I thought I smelled rain in the air but nothing ever happened. Boo, that would have felt great.
I stayed in lane 7 the entire time, my Garmin disagrees.
I also got to see a prodigy in the making. This family came to the track to have the little boy ride his big wheel. He was having some problems steering. However the scene stealer was his towheaded, little sister. They brought her a tricycle but she didn’t need it. She ran laps around the track, barefoot. He father was cutting across the grass trying to catch her. She was all of 3 years old and so cute. She thought it was all a great game to her. If she keeps running, I’m betting she’s gonna be fast. 🙂
After stretching out some, I tried messing around with a self timer app that I downloaded. Haha, umm no. I was either out of the shot or looked like I was tripping instead of running. I also determined that the new belt is a no-go. While the pouch didn’t move or bounce, the belt refused to stay put. Granted I wear my belts super low. So low, a woman in the SLO half grabbed my shoulder at mile 2 to tell me it was falling off. Nah, that’s normal. I could do without the bubble butt effect but it works for me. This Nike belt will not, so it’s going back.
Do you see how low that Flipbelt is?
My run felt good. It was a little harder than I would have liked but considering I had to talk myself into getting out there, I was ok with that. I tried to rationalize another weekend of shorter runs but even with my revived Slacker-ness, I knew that was a bad idea. But I admit I was glad when I was done. Then it was time for a quick shower before heading out to dinner with the family. Olive Garden, yummy.
After my rough half, I was feeling a little disenchanted with running. I like to think that everyone has those moments. Right? I played with the idea of taking a whole week off after the half because I was so irritated with myself. That resolve lasted 2 days; I was running again by Tuesday. I decided to let my feet do whatever they wanted to do and the rest of me was just along for the ride. That was supposed to last for a week but I let it linger all July. Why? Because I loved running again. If I am honest, I have been a little disappointed in how I’ve been running since April and that all came to a head in that half. I probably could have done a little better but I just gave up. Not a good reason.
So pretty, I have to show them twice
I figured that this month was going to be my lowest mileage month of the year so far and I was ok with that. Running and I were getting reacquainted. I met up with my mom for a bunch of runs, and I discovered the wonder of the warm up. #littlelatetothegame I did my yoga DVD and tried a Barre DVD. I walked around the fair and ate fair food. I tested out a new pair of Wave Riders and met up with NikeC for gym nights. And I ran. With no real plans or goals, just to run. And it was awesome. I hit some average paces that I haven’t seen in months. I somehow also pulled this off-
71.4- Hell yeah!!
I know that part of June and July’s issues were my current GI issues. I would like to say July was better than June but it wasn’t. I went home sick from work once and managed to wear pants only 2 out 31 days. I hate pants. Going forward into August, I will get this figured out. My appointment is now just weeks away, and the doctor is going to hear a lot from me. 🙂
How I used to reward myself after speed work… oh and brown hair
Running free was great for July but for August, I do need to get back into training. Long runs need to come back and I would like speed work to come back into play. I’m throwing out the other training plans. I loosely followed a Nike one for SLO and a Higdon one for Pier. All they succeeded in doing was stress me out. I hit my current PR of 2:05:57 last year by doing my own thing. I am a Slacker who is slightly dedicated and I should listen to myself a little more. When I set the goal to break 2 hours this year, I let the doubts creep in. Lot’s of thinking that other people were faster and with all these plans floating around, maybe I should follow those instead. It worked for them right? Except I am not them and should not measure myself by others (but it’s so hard not to!). I am a little odd, a little nerdy, my brain works in weird and random ways, a little lazy and a little rebellious. I am a Slacker who doesn’t like being told to run or that Monday should be 5 at goal pace with a Thursday 6 mile tempo, and extra stretching and strengthening on Tuesdays.
Now that my tantrum is over, it’s time to embrace my inner Slacker. I have another half in 5 weeks and a goal 10K (gulp-NikeC!!) in 8. Time to see what going off book can do. Fingers crossed, wish me luck!
Thank you for listening to my rambling, slightly whiny words here…If you made it this far. 🙂
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Slacker Runner 