So I survived my foray into the fair. Ate too much junk food and spent too much money, but hey, it only comes once a year right? So I countrified myself up and had some fun. I wore my shitkickers (haha!) there and they served a dual purpose. I fit in better, 🙂 and they helped support my ankle or shin, still debating which. Didn’t feel a thing all night. As opposed to its loud grumbling when I took my boots off. Not cool.
So Saturdays plan for a nice run was postponed 😦 Now I am fine with being a Slacker Runner when it is being lazy of my own volition; that is just me being me. However, taking it easy because something hurts just makes me cranky. It suddenly makes me want to run more! Anyone else like that?
It happened to be a rest day for the squat challenge as well, so that worked out. I figured if I couldn’t run, or shouldn’t, I would do some cross training. I had a funnel cake to work after all. I know that I should do cross training and I have it in my training plan, but I hate it. I really do. This is how I usually end up having 3 rest (slacker) days a week. So today I made myself get back on the bike. Stationary bike that is, did 8 miles and called it done. Ugh. So hoping to get in a few miles on the track tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
On the upshot, I had this awesomeness made at the fair on Friday. Super nerdy, I know, but I love it.
After the great race on Saturday morning and the festivities later that night, I made Sunday a very lazy, slacker day. Got to say, it was very nice. 🙂 Official chip time was also announced- 57:17, hell yeah!!!!
My left ankle was fighting back on Monday so I decided to take another rest day. I figured that since I had a split volleyball schedule, I could hopefully get in at least 25 minutes of running between matches. It wouldn’t be a lot but I figured it would be an easy jaunt that would test my ankle.
In Public, no less
I have to say that I love the camaraderie of the running community. 🙂 The majority of runners I meet are good people and they are just as excited as you are when you do well at a race. I wish I could say that holds true in a women’s volleyball league. By the end of the first match I was so frustrated I was going to scream. So I lost the knee pads, changed my shoes and ran it out. Oh and I was wearing these socks-
Perhaps running when frustrated or angry is not best idea, at least not when the goal is to take it easy. I set the timer on the Nike+ app for 25 minutes and was off. My ankle protested for about half a mile and then it was quiet, woo hoo! Brought in my first mile under 9 minutes, oops. That’s not easy. Slowed down a little and kept going.
Faster than planned:)
Turns out I didn’t know the area as well I thought, got a little turned around but worked it out. Towards the end of my run, I saw a crowd a people a block ahead but thought they were just bbq’ers. Nope! It was a drug bust or probation, didn’t get close enough to read the vests. Turned around when I figured out there were about 10 cops and 3 police cars milling about. So, yeah, that’s a new one. I ended up doing shy of 3 miles in 25 minutes. So maybe running cranky is a good thing. Who knows but I’ll take it!!! And I played the next volleyball match in much better mood:)
The good thing about my training plan is the flexibility, so this week, I am adjusting my two week day runs to Tuesday and Thursday. Starting today, I am on vacation until next week, so yea for morning runs!!! Today I did a little shopping in a nearby town and came back with some new running gear. Always exciting!
I also ate my post-race reward meal this afternoon. After most every race, I go to the same restaurant and get a burger. However after Saturday’s race, scheduling made that impossible so I postponed until today. Oh so yummy 🙂
Yumminess!!!
So what about everyone else? Any post-race traditions?
So I set out for this race this morning feeling like I usually do; a little green around the gills. Seriously, I should be past the nervousness by now. I didn’t even have a huge goal set for this race. Today’s goal was just to finish. I was really nervous about the sand, having never run on the beach, I was kind of freaking out. Also they said that the race was going to be a wave start, I had never done that before.
The Rock
It didn’t help that even though we left with plenty of time we made it to the start line like 30 seconds before the gun. I wasn’t even in the chute when the starting gun went off, but luckily neither were another couple hundred people. Luckily it’s all based on your chip time, :). And as for wave starts, there were no pretty colored flags waving anywhere, so maybe next time.
The first hundred or so yards of the race were across the soft sand to get to hard pack exposed by low tide. I thought it was going to suck my shoes off, hehe. Once you got to the hard pack, it was so much easier. And a little softer than pavement, nice!! So then you just got to run along with the waves coming in at your left and making you sure you dodged clumps of seaweed or the random unattended fishing rod. Or the people who were still trying to surf through this crowd of runners.
Hard to take pictures and run:)
Other than the overcast sky, the weather was perfect, about 58. Of course, I felt cold before so started out in a long sleeve shirt over my tank. At mile 2, I wanted it gone, but it wasn’t until mile 4 that I was slowing down to walk. I shoved my water bottle in sports bra and tried to lose the shirt and get it tied around my waist as quick as possible. Still took too long, next time no long sleeves! Or maybe just my arm sleeves, easier to lose while running.
Since my goal wasn’t to push it,and with my recent ankle twinges, I just took my time and tried to maintain my pace without taking another walk break. So other than the wardrobe issue, I ran the whole race:). It was nice not stressing too much, and the change of scenery was awesome too. Seeing the pier come into view at mile 5 was a great feeling, finish lines are usually that visible from far away. That was also about the time that people running the half marathon were coming back our way. So you go from feeling like “yes I ran a race this morning!” to “oh they are running more than me, now I feel lazy”. Hehe, mood swings at mile 5.
The Pier
At the finish line, we left behind the sand dollars and crabs, and water getting into your shoes to cross another stretch of soft sand. Even harder when your shoes (and socks) are wet! Crossed the finish line at 58.21, Nike said 56:47 but it was being glitchy, so now I just have to wait for the chip time to be released. I am happy with that finish:)
hmmm, not bad!
Met up with my race photographer (my mother) at the end, where she always relays her people observations from the finish line:). It’s great having support there for you.
So now I have run my race, had a nap (slacker!), CPR done for my shoes, I think it’s time to celebrate yesterday’s birthday!!!
Ok, this was supposed to be up last night, so read it like it’s still Thursday:) Stupid power outage!
So, Thursday is here and as I previously mentioned, it is a day that I usually choose to be a Slacker:0 I am not sure if it is the fact that I have a race in 2 days (eek!) or that yesterday’s run was slow enough it should be called a walk. So this morning I packed my running gear thinking I may do an easy 2 miles after work if it went well.
Work was crazy and halfway through the day; I felt it, a little twinge in my left ankle. Umm, no thank you. I haven’t even worn heels in 2 days, ugh. I figured I would hit the park and just take it easy see how it feels and go from there. On a side note, I finally figured out how to get to the good parking lotJ
So I start with a little walk before picking up the pace. I feel twinges for the first half mile or so, and then it settles down. Woo Hoo! The plan was to do 2 laps and quit. Well, I settled for 3 and almost beating my 5k PR. Umm what? How did that happen? Feeling good now, only to see how it feels tomorrow.
As much as I like this running path, there is one section that tests me every time. It’s the 50 yard dash while holding your breathJ. There is about a 50 yard section toward the back of the lake which reeks!!!! It smells like something died and quite frankly, I don’t want to investigate. It’s a true test of your determination, you don’t want to slow down, but you really don’t want to breathe either!!!
So tomorrow will definitely be rest day, plus it’s my birthday so what better reason to be a Slacker? After work that is.
So, three days into the week and I have stuck to the plan!
Monday’s run turned out to be a little less than 3 miles:). It was over 90, yowza! So on to cross-training, hehe, of volleyball went really well. Played harder than usual, getting out of bed this morning was so hard. I was so sore; not used to that. I have played almost every Tuesday night for the last 5 years, think I would be used to it by now. I also decided to complete a one of those squat challenges for July. Its starts you out at 50 and hopefully at the end of the month, you can complete 250… ummm, what was I thinking? Oh mama, my legs are sore. And I still have another 25 to do today.
So tonight I leave work planning to meet a friend for our Wednesday run. We like to run this trail around the lake in a city park. The town is halfway between work and home for me, so perfect! Turns out we were both dragging tonight, so it was great that she brought her daughter in her jogging stroller. Got to test it out and go a little slower. Yeah, not as easy as it looks, for as much as they look so easy to push, you can totally feel the burn in your calves. They may have been way slower than normal but it was still 3.5 miles. Forward motion counts right?
One thing I like about this trail is that there are so many people. Quite a lot of them are walking dogs as well. There is the cutest Chihuahua with sunglasses that I have seen a few times too. Tonight was a new record, though. There were huskies, labs, daschunds, border colliesL, schnauzers, etc. Now most who know me, know that I tend to have interesting animal encounters when out running. I have had run-ins with possums, snakes, cats and there is a valid reason one of my friends husband calls me “ass-bite”. Tonight I got to add a new one to the list. There was a couple walking a mini-horse!!!! It was so stinking cute, way smaller that I had imagined. I so wanted a picture but the owners seemed a little stand-offish:(. Anyone else have any interesting animal encounters?
So here’s to feeling inspired enough to do a couple miles tomorrow after work, now onto 25 more squats.
Slacker Runner 