Category: Training

Week 23- Derail

Oh this week was fun.

Sense the sarcasm. It started ok but when a little wonky towards the end. Ok, a lot wonky. Normal June temps came back with a vengeance, power outages, broken toilets- oh it was fun.

Oh and I decided to start the week off with a 3 day refresh where I wasn’t eating a whole lot of solid food and drinking mostly smoothies. In some ways it was good and others it was a mess.

Monday 1.5 miles/ 1.5 miles
I thought about take a rest day post race but I was feeling ok so I headed out for my planned run. I was slow moving and sluggish but it didn’t feel to bad.

Tuesday 2.5 miles with 4 strides/ 2.5 miles with 4 strides
I flipped Tuesday and Thursday’s workouts as I figured I needed a little more recovery time. I am glad I did as this run was a slow going. While I did the strides they may have been the slowest strides I’ve done since starting this training plan.

Wednesday 1.5 miles/ 1.5 miles
The temps have finally swung to the hot side. This was a rough run. I still felt like I had lingering asthma issues from the race. I told myself it was the sudden temp change that made this run so hard.

Thursday 1.5 up/ down, 1.5 mile repeats x2/ Nada
I was exhausted. I don’t know when I have ever felt that tired. It showed at work too as everyone told me to stay away from them thinking I was sick. I wasn’t, just dog tired. I went home and just rested instead.

Friday 1.5 miles/ Nada
I had the late shift and I totally took advantage of that extra 45 minutes and slept. I meant to run after work, I was feeling a little better and I even had grand delusions of moving my long run to Friday evening. I mean it was graduation night but surely I could find clear roads, right? Then there was a power outage back home and it took out the tv’s. Apparently I’m the only one in the house who could fix them. So home I went- except after over an hour of trying I learn the issue was on Directv’s side and there was nothing I could do.

Saturday 7 miles/ 5.4 mile crap fest
I worked a Saturday shift but I set a very early alarm. Except when the alarm went off it was dark and cold and I was tired. I went back to sleep for a bit. Which meant I headed out 10 hours later with temps at 92. And it kicked my ass. I was melting. I overheated so bad, mine hands started swelling. I started with multiple walk breaks which turned to all out walking with multiple stops to hide in the shade. It was miserable.

Sunday Rest/ Rest–
I thought about making up some of my missed miles. But instead I took a 2 hour nap. So when it comes to rest- nailed it!

10.9 miles for the week. Ouch. Fingers crossed this week swings back the other way.

How was your week?

Week 22- That Stings

20.6 miles for the week. If you looks strictly at the number of miles run vs the plan- I nailed it . The details reveal a much different story.

Last week so up and down. Actually more down. I dealt with a possible leg issue, my sleep doesn’t seem to be getting any better, splinters in butt and then an ant attack. Oh and asthma issues. I’ve joke I should be called Calamity Runner instead of Slacker and last week it really fit.

Planned vs Actual

Monday- 1.5 miles / 1.5 miles
Easy running on Monday. It felt odd doing so few miles on a day off work but I was keen on sticking to the plan. The odd part was the twinge in my left ankle that started about 40 minutes after my run.

Tuesday- 1 up/down, 3.5 mile tempo/ 3.5 blow up
I headed back to the lake path figuring the flat, friendly, sandy trail would help me focus on my pace. Big dreams. I couldn’t have been more wrong. My left foot and ankle were pissed. I couldn’t get my breathing under control and I was nowhere near hitting my paces.

I had 2 failed tempo miles before I called it and walked it in. Then to add insult to injury I sat on a wooden bench to at least enjoy the sunshine and wound up with splinters in my butt. 😂

Wednesday- 1.5 miles/ 2.2 miles
I kept it super easy and honestly probably walked half of it. My ankle was angry but not as pissed as the day before. I was still very nervous about any running especially since I had a race only a few days away.

Thursday- 4 miles/ Zero
I decided rest was best and resigned myself to the red dot in Final Surge. I was supposed to go to a networking event after work but this was when the ant attack happened. I went to get gas as my car was on empty. As I was filling the tank, I decided to wash my windshield. Partway through I felt stings on my right foot. Look down to my right foot, ankle and shoe are covered in ants. I scream and kick the shoe across the gas station lot, I throw the squeegee too. Then I am hopping around on one foot trying to brush the ants off while the stinging turns to pain and of course my dress decides now is time to do a Marilyn Monroe impression. I flash all the workers in the auto bay. I finally got them all off, jumped in the car and drove straight home. I jumped directly into the shower but my foot was bright red with bites and swelled. Yay. I’ll spare you the pic I took- my toes are ugly. 😒

Friday- 1.5 miles/ more rest
Rest, rinse, repeat. Except today I felt like things were crawling on me. 🐜

Saturday-7 miles/ Road trip!
I knew my long run would be Rock N Roll San Diego this week which meant long run on Sunday and not Saturday. It was also a very long drive down. But I made it to the expo around 3:30. Picked up my stuff, did a little shopping- I forgot my water flask and Gatorade Endurance at home. Doh! I tried to turn in early to get as much sleep as I could. Haha!

Sunday- Rock n Roll San Diego
Race recap up soon.

How was your week?

Week 21- Thunder

In more ways than one.

2019 Race Schedule (so far):
6/2 RnR San Diego (Thanks BibRave)
8/11 Oaktown Half (Thanks BibRave)
7/20 Vintners 5 Mile
10/ 6 RnR San Jose (more to come)

The weather stayed gray, cold and rainy the majority of the week. Definitely not the typical May weather. A migraine came to party on Wednesday night and didn’t really let up until Saturday. That’s not abnormal though so I just had to grin and bear it the best I could. I may have relied on a little too much caffeine. And sugar. Oops. I keep promising I will make better eating choices but then I don’t. But that’s another blog for another day.

Planned vs Reality

Monday- 1.5 miles/ 1.5 miles
Easy mile-ish on Monday. Nothing really to say other than I just went out and did it. I did run a different portion of streets though. I may end up with out and backs just because 1.5 miles in hard to plan.

Tuesday- 2 miles up/down, 4×800 at 5K pace/ Nada
Oops. I was not feeling a run. More than just feeling lazy or tired, I was not into the run at all. I’ve learned that when I feel like that- skip the run. The times I haven’t in the past I’ve either hurt myself, lost something or broke my phone. So instead I met my mother for some pizza.

Wednesday- 1.5 miles/ 2 miles up/down, 4×800 at 5K pace
I almost put off this run again. I realized it wasn’t programmed into my watch, it was starting to rain, yada yada yada. I finally told myself 1 mile in to just shut up and run. So I did. My 400’s came in at 9:07, 9:41, 8:57, 9:31. My range was 9:12-9:31 so I wasn’t horribly off. First let me say 800’s are long. I also was stupid and way underestimated the section of path I was going to run these on so they were run with traffic on the roads. Not the best idea. Still it was a decent run and I felt better for having done it.

Thursday- 3.5 miles w/ strides/ 3.5 miles w/ strides
2 workouts back to back are not a good idea but I knew these miles were 98% easy. That said it was a little rough in the beginning but it got better as I ran on. I almost forgot the strides until the last mile and a half. Oops but I still managed to throw them in.

Friday- 1.5 miles/ 1.5 miles
I went in very early to work and stayed until almost close. I should have been tired but I was overly caffeinated and overly sugared up. I changed and headed back towards home town. I forgot it was cruise night. Traffic and cars were stupid busy and I had chosen the wrong side of town to run. I had to circle for a parking spot and almost said screw it when I managed to find a spot to parallel in. Then I tried to bust out the mile and a half as safely as I could.

It was freakin’ cold but I overheated 🤷‍♀️

Saturday- 6 miles/ 7 miles- 1 up/down 6 at pace
I had a miserable Friday night between the migraine and my damn GI disorder, I was so tired on Saturday I almost pushed the run to Sunday. I eventually made it out the door but kissed my long run pace goodbye figuring I was going to riding the struggle bus. Except I didn’t. Even with 25mph winds pushing me back half the time. Once I got into it I felt surprisingly well and just kept trucking on. I did have to stop multiple times to reapply BodyGlide as my thunder thighs were taking exception to non compression shorts. Haha. All the chafe! I didn’t look at my watch or my paces until later in the evening so I was surprised to see I hit my long run pace or under for all 6 miles. Who knew??

Sunday- Rest day/ Rest day
I love Sunday’s.

17.6 miles for the week, only .5 miles short of where I should have been. That warm up/ cool down on my long run helped me add back some of the mileage I missed. And with that we are into race week for San Diego. Yikes!

How was your week?

Week 20- Hello, allergies

Maybe I am taking the Sunday rest thing a little far- I can’t seem to write my posts on time anymore.

Last week was odd. A little bit of allergies from the week before turned into a full blown allergy attack. Which I have now figured out was aggravated by whatever the plant lady sprays on the plants on work. They have all been moved very far away from me now.

I was a little better with both food and breaks last week. Well, let’s not talk about Friday.

Planned vs Reality

Monday 1.5 miles /1.5 miles
Holy allergy hell. I became super bad at work but still attempted my run. Yeah no, it’s hard to run straight let alone walk when your right eye is almost swollen shut. I walked this one in.

Why do I keep choosing hills for speed work?

Tuesday 3.5 mile Fartlek/ 3.5 mile fartlek
Generally, I love fartleks but this seemed more ladder like. I started with the longest segment first- 5 minutes- but my over eagerness and a downhill maybe contributed to me gassing out. I was glad the recovery segments could be walked as I was still an allergy mess.

Storm’s a brewin’ and no this is not filtered

Wednesday- 1.5 miles/ 1.5 miles
Not much to say just went out and did it.

Thursday- 3.5 miles with strides/ 3.5 miles with strides
I was super tired and so did not want to run but my legs were disagreeing with my body. They were running too damn fast. I couldn’t figure out why I was so gassed until I looked at my watch – Oh, hey sub 9 and this is not a strides segment. Crap. Slow your roll, legs! Yeah no they kept doing their own things. I was walking when my allergy tainted breathing raised it’s head.

Friday- 1.5 miles/ nada
Yeah, oops. I planned on running but knew it was likely I was working the late shift. Then computer drama happened and I never went out and got my running gear. Boo. Driving home, I told myself to get over it and just change and run when I got home. Then I was almost in 2 accidents within a mile of my house and went nah.

Saturday- 6 miles/ 6 miles
I played a game with the rain and hoped I picked the driest time to run. I think I did! It only sprinkled a little on me while I ran but poured later. I felt surprisingly good on this run. I made my pace window (mostly) and managed to negative split. Who knew? I say mostly on the pace as my first mile included a .5 mile warmup walk but I wasn’t pushing the distance with storm clouds over head. However, I finished feeling good- physically and mentally.

Sunday- Rest/ Rest!
I went for some shopping in SLO… in the pouring rain. Part of why I went was to return the Torin’s I picked up in March. I loved my first pair but this pair was not holding up. The soles were trashed after less than 100 miles. I could have gone through Altra to complain but I didn’t want another pair of Torin’s- this version felt like there was zero cushion. So after trying on multiple pairs of shoes, I came home with a pair of Launch 6. Fingers crossed!

16.1 miles for the week. 5/6 workouts. Would I still be me if I hit every single workout?

How was your week?

Week 19-Sleepy and Sneezy

Too bad those aren’t just the names of dwarves.

2019 Race Schedule (so far):
6/2 RnR San Diego (Thanks BibRave)
8-11 Oaktown Half (Thanks BibRave)

I am still adjusting to all the changes. While last week I was better with food and water at work- it wasn’t a great deal better. I never before realized how relaxing those lunch breaks in the comfy chair were! Hindsight, right?

And to help matters out (insert sarcasm) allergies are beginning to bloom. People love to look at the wildflowers but they never mention the brown mess to follow. May 1 marks D Day when it comes to “weed abatement”. The city may be slow when it comes to fixing potholes but you can be damn sure they will mow everything in sight lickety split. Between the white, fluffy pollen blowing everywhere and the dusted, dry brown weeds left behind- allergies are packing a punch.

So let’s get to the week.

Planned vs Actual

Monday- 1.5 miles / 1.65 miles
Headed for the river path after work. The weather was a bit chillier than I thought it would be so I was glad I packed a long sleeve layer. I didn’t really have time to get warm.

Tuesday- 1 up & down, 2.5 mile tempo/ .64 up, 2.5 tempo, .31 down
I haven’t run a tempo since Hanson’s broke me in 2016. I was tempted to bail. I was considering a race on Saturday- so that would count right? But instead I told myself to grow up and just do it. Did I nail tempo pace? Nope. Mile 1 was too fast and mile 2 I ran out of steam but I wasn’t horribly off. And it didn’t suck! Woo hoo!

Wednesday- 1.5 miles/ 1.5 crawl
I was feeling so tired, so very tired. I figured 1.5 would be easy… but it wasn’t. I felt like I was running through water. The run turned into a walk.

Thursday-3 miles w/ strides/ 3 miles with strides
Again, I was feeling abnormally tired. However I went out and did the damn thing. Know how to really pick up the pace in your last set of strides?? Have a snake slither across the path.

Friday- 1.5 miles/ Nada
Big fat fail. Based on how I felt Wednesday/ Thursday, I decided late Thursday evening that I was taking the day off on Friday. I still packed my gear- not sure why. I had also decided that I was not running the race on Saturday.

Saturday- 5 miles/ 5 miles
When will I learn???? I was tired so I slept in. Which meant I headed out for my run in the afternoon, which for the first time in a week was 80 some odd degrees. However, I was slightly prepared this time and walked anytime I felt warm, even if I wasn’t tired per say. I didn’t make my paces but I think if you adjusted them for the temps. At least that’s I am going to lie to myself. And while I was hot, I didn’t feel defeated like I did in last week’s long run.

Sunday- Rest/ Rest!!!!!
Keep me out of furniture stores! I was shopping with my mom for Mother’s Day and while I did get her her choice of tables- I also picked up a new end table for myself. Doh!

14.6ish miles for the week. Or something like that. 5 out of 6 workouts. I’m getting there!

How was your week?