Category: Training

JUNE JUMPED

I feel like I stood on a cliff on June 3 and jumped. Then it was July. Anyone else?

Let’s see…

Training for Santa Rosa in not where it should be. Luckily it’s early stages still but it doesn’t fill me with confidence for July and August. I ran way less miles than I had originally planned. Or even thought I did. I felt like I had a better month than the numbers show. And the numbers show next to nothing. I set up the most basic of training outlines which mostly just highlights how many miles my long run should be each week and somehow, I am already off track. Crap.

Part of the lower miles was heat related- it was over 100 for a couple of weeks. I never managed an early run as I slept like crap for about 2 weeks too. There were a couple of nights of no sleep. Even my watch was like are you ok? The first night I actually hit 7 hours in June, it gave me a congratulations. Ha! That didn’t stick around though. Boo.

I also wasn’t feeling so great in June. My chest still hurts and normally by now, my allergies start to ease up. I can’t sleep or even find a good position to lay down when my chest feels inflamed. Went for my annual chest x-ray and it shows nothing. Which is good but also annoying.

I did manage to get in some good trail miles though. A couple of which I looked like Ranger Rick for. I am trying to work out more sun coverage for the longer time on my feet days. Can’t find a good hat with decent airflow that covers my face and my ears.

On the work front my boss quit. WTH dude. Don’t worry I said that to his face, no talking behind his back. Then after a couple weeks of thought and stress, I took the jump. And now I have a promotion and a new title. Yay? Now I just need to get my ducks in a row. Thankfully I have an amazing crew, so we will make it work. July is our busiest month though so this should be interesting. Actually it’s the busiest month for the whole city so double yay?

While July is shaping up to be busy, I also have some PTO coming. Not as much as originally planned but still some. I am torn between hiding in a dark room for those days and decompressing or getting out and doing something. May depend on the weather… and the gas prices. There is also a local race I may sign up for. I am not in 10k shape but I do love this race and haven’t run it in years. Oh, and I have a birthday.

Here’s to July- Fingers crossed?

Hail!! 22/10

I live in a part of California where the weather is pretty consistent, at least appearance wise. Sunny with a few clouds. All day, most every day. I’m not talking temp, I am talking merely appearance. Temperature wise we can swing 50 degrees in just 8 hours and that’s considered normal, haha. Anyways, I am trying to explain why I was so excited for it to hail on a recent run. Hail!!!

I headed out for a run on a Saturday, thinking I would get in my long run instead of waiting until Sunday. The weather just seemed to speak long run. Mid 50’s and slightly overcast? My long run may have only been 5 miles but I still wanted to take advantage of the weather while I could. My only hesitancy was how dead tired I still felt from work the day before. That Friday had been one of the most exhausting days I can remember. So to compromise I headed to the lake path as it’s easy to shorten the run there. Plus the dirt path is always nice to run on.

I was in the middle of lap 2 when it started to sprinkle. Or so I thought. It seemed odd that I could hear the sprinkles so well. It wasn’t until I noticed something bouncing off my hat that I paid more attention. Hail!!! I may have stopped and filmed some video I was so excited. It was also kind of funny how quickly the full park and path emptied once the weather got a little wet. Not me, I was loving it so I just kept going. I finished my long run and was feeling better than I had when I started. That is something rare.

Sunday’s run was pretty decent too but the weather was back to same old blue skies. The 3.5 miles were solid though and I did manage to up my running time in my run/ walk intervals. How I used to run 2 hour half marathons is completely beyond me at this moment.

Baby steps, right?

22/9 Steady-ish

And damn it, I am a week behind again.

So let’s see. After enjoying a Monday off work (but running!) due to the holiday, it was back to work for the rest of the week. I remember the week being crazy busy and crazy cold. Again no running after work. But I did get the news that my latest biopsy was all clear so yay!

The weekend was productive though.

Saturday saw a nice 3 mile run. Actually, do I still call it a run if I am still doing run/walk intervals? Anyways, I really enjoyed this run. The weather was good, I was feeling good and having fun. Can all runs be like this? Well, maybe faster but like this?

Sunday dawned and the weather was my favorite kind for running so I knew an afternoon run would be perfect. My training plan called for a 5 mile run and I was still riding the previous days’ running high. But no. I decided to revisit a route I haven’t done in a long time and was enjoying the extra bits of nature that it had in it. Then, the world got wobbly. Just under 2 miles in and my blood sugar dropped. I was cursing myself for not carrying any fuel while slowing to a crawl. 1/2 mile later, I remembered there was a pack of fruit snacks shoved in my handheld. At least I hoped there was. Score!! Even with those, I never really felt right after that but I kept moving forward. The beauty of a looped route, right? So I did complete my 5 miles but there was very little running in that run.

Double digits- it was a double digit week! That might have been my first all year, actually. Small victories.

22/8 CHRAOS

Last week was just crazy chaos, so chraos. One of my favorite made up words. Sometimes my brain and my mouth are not on the same track and combined words come out. My coworkers have started keeping a list of the ones they like the best.

So yeah, chraos, lets not even talk about the weekdays, I don’t want to go back there. I was looking forward to the 3 day weekend, I had plans. Boring plans but still plans. I wanted to get in a least 2 runs and a trail. I wanted to clean my car inside and out and watch some brainless tv. Some of that was accomplished but not all of it. Boo.

Saturday was a good start. Got in some errands and managed to get out in the early afternoon for a run. I got in just over 4 miles and I ran!!! First time really running since COVID. Granted it was still run/walk intervals with a lot of walking, it was still running. Yay!! I also got stalked by a cat which made me laugh. It’s been a while since I enjoyed a run that much.

Sunday was a fail. Again started with some errands but these were farther away from home and I got tired, haha. I decided to rest a bit before heading back out for a run but never followed through. Normally I would feel guilty missing the run especially since I am just getting back into it but not this time. I am trying really hard to listen to my body since COVID not just ignore it and move on.

And it’s my blog, I’ll do what I want so let’s talk about Monday too. This time I got things done. Laundry done, nasty car cleaned and a run! Well, kind of. I headed out for a few miles in the afternoon and I was feeling it. The weather was amazing, I was wearing shorts for the first time in months, I was feeling good. Until I wasn’t. 2 miles in my stomach cramped in that way all runners know and dread. Oh crap, pun intended. From there I took the shortest route home, speed walking as fast as I could. So, that day brought me just under 3 miles, haha.

I am really trying to get back on track with these posts. And life. I used to be organized… what happened?

22/7–Unsteady

I keep telling myself I am going to get back to getting these posts up on Monday so it’s less like I am 2 weeks behinds… But, so far, no luck. Also, do my titles make any sense?

Last week was a blur of stress and tiredness. I remember being tired (seems to be new normal) as well as an evening of gnarly dizzy spells. Work was crazy and a system crash didn’t help. I kind of just wanted to nap all weekend but I am really trying to not do that as well. Plus I wanted to get some miles in as I am still not running during the week.

I admit I ventured out to SLO for some shopping on Saturday and wasn’t sure I was going to have enough energy or time to get in some miles. After eating the best pizza I have had in months, hitting some stores and buying nothing I headed home. It was late and I was taking my parents to dinner but I managed to get out the door for a few miles. Just over 2.5 miles but I felt ok. Hot as it was a freak 80+ degrees that day but and hadn’t cooled yet but still good. Can’t say the same for the dinner with the parents later though. Not going to that restaurant again for a while.

As for Sunday, I had plans for my longest outing since COVID. Hmmm, maybe of the year, actually. I headed out to MDO to hit up a trail. I call it the Jurassic Park trail because something about the first 1/2 mile makes me think of Jurassic Park. Out and back without any of the trail offshoots is just over 5 miles. I was hoping this would feel fairly easy as it is fairly flat, only around 500 ft of elevation gain. And it felt good!! Yay! Plus I love all the sights and changes in vegetation along the trail.

So 7ish miles for the week. Still small but growing. I’m trying not to think about the fact I am registered for 2 half marathons in March at the moment, ha!