Category: Training

Weekly Recap 10- Hello Sun

Upcoming Races:

Livermore 13.1 -March 26
Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13

This week was a little over the place. When I think back on it, it feels more like a month than just 7 days.

Monday- Rest I woke up feeling broken. I hurt everywhere and felt exhausted. I felt like calling in sick but someone already had the night before so I knew I was going to work. I dragged myself in but just felt worse as the day went on. I made it through the day and treated myself to In N Out on the way home. One of the few times I allow myself it is when I am not feeling well.

Tuesday- Rest I was feeling a little better but still not right. I figured why chance it.

Wednesday- 2.5 miles I headed to lake path after work to get in a few miles. We have been having some crazy wind and for some reason I didn’t have my Buff. My ears were so damn cold. I admit I turn into a big baby when my ears get cold. I made it 2.5 miles before I called it. Plus I was still afraid of getting sick. With a half so close, I didn’t want to chance it. Being sick for pretty much all of December is still giving me flashbacks. Which is a bummer because my stride actually felt on point for that second mile.

Thursday- 4 miles I set out from work and told myself I was going to do an easy 3 mile run. Somehow that turned into the fastest 4 miler I’ve done in 6 months. Oops! Maybe it was the pre-workout from Beachbody I am testing? Maybe I was just feeling good? I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still way slower than I was but it’s nice to see the numbers going in the right direction. Plus the State Park was open for the first time since Lucifer so I had to run through the Eucalyptus grove.

Friday- Rest Same ol’ Friday except I started the day in a great mood which is rare. It lasted until around 3 when work kicked me in the face. Thanks.

Saturday-10 miles The plan was to run early so I could finish at the high school and meet my mom for lunch after my run and her tennis practice so I dragged myself out of bed in the morning. A mile into my run, I was rethinking things. I was stripping off my long sleeve because I was already hot. I was keeping to 3/1’s but seemed to be keeping a decent long run pace. I think- I’ve taken the pace off my watch face. I ran into an old friend and stopped to chat for a moment. I did 2 laps of a hill, I ran across the the bridge at what felt like a restrained pace considering how I usually sprint across it. Pace wise and legs wise I was feeling good- however I was just past mile 5 and I knew I was going to have a problem. I was hot, too hot. 10 in the morning and it was pushing 75. Which, don’t get me wrong is amazing but it came out of nowhere and I was not prepared. I was overheating and running out of water. I slowed to a crawl going up a hill as I tried to cool down and figure something out. I texted my mother to see if anyone was using the high school track. My original route took the long way to the high school but had no stores or working water fountains along the way. The high school is the only place in town I know the water fountains work. I finally just decided to take the shortcut to the high school, empty track or not. I couldn’t maintain the 3/1’s anymore, I was just in survival mode. I made it to the school, refilled my water bottle and was able to finish my run on the thankfully empty track. I love the sun and the warmth but I was so not ready for it on this run.

Sunday- Rest Shopping around SLO counts as active recovery right? Plus some foam rolling. And I picked up some pretty new shoes, fingers crossed they work!

16.5 miles for the week. Slowly going up. I won’t lie, I’ve been in a running funk, I’m hoping DST gives me a good kick in the pants. Plus I have a new or old mentality so we’ll see if that helps too.

How was your week?

How was your weekend weather?

Week 9 Recap-Chaperone

Upcoming Races:

Livermore 13.1 -March 26
Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13

This week was exhausting. I feel bruised all over. Man, I’m getting old. I actually crashed around 9:00 3 nights this week which is unheard of for me. This post is a day late because I just couldn’t finish it on Sunday, I was so tired. So let’s get to the recap!

Monday- 2.5 miles– I headed for the lake path after work. I had been watching the light as I drove home on previous nights and I thought I had enough time to get in 3 laps before it went full dark. I knew I had my Knuckle Lights but I wasn’t sure what the vagrant situation might be so I didn’t want to push things. Holy crap, I had never seen the lake that full! I only ended up getting in 2.5 miles. Partly because I jammed my ankle jumping a curb and couldn’t loosen it up by running it out but mostly because I was completely distracted by the sunset-I took about 30 pictures😛. The sky was amazing. My Instagram has more pics too.

Tuesday- Rest Gave my sore ankle a break.

Wednesday-Rest– Same as above. But it felt better so I figured I would be ok to run the next day.

Thursday- 3.5 miles. Mother of migraine. I felt horrible all day. I was torn between running and going home and sleeping. I damn near called in sick to work. I decided to try a few miles to see if it would help the pain and nausea at all. I headed to the lake again figuring it would be easy to bail if it turned out to be a horrible choice. I wasn’t breaking any speed records but for 40 minutes, my head actually felt ok. Then I stopped running and the pain came back, boo.

Friday/ Saturday- California Tennis Classic Long days. My mom’s tennis team was in a tournament up in Clovis and I agreed to be her chaperone/driver. Did I mention I still had a migraine on Friday? Ouch. 2 days with teenage boys and rap music? I did pack running gear with the hope getting in a 10 miler if the court location was in a good area on Saturday but this Slacker forgot her shoes. How! Which was a bummer because the area around the school was awesome, I could have totally gone for a run. What was less awesome was the serious lack of sportsmanship I observed by some of the teams. I seriously thought 2 of the teams were going to come to blows. It started with the players and then moved up to the coaches. Yikes! Then again, if I hadn’t been there as a chaperone I might have responded in kind when one got in my face because I didn’t respond fast enough. Ugh, that condescending tone of voice gets under my skin. The boys did well though, they ending winning their bracket. 🙂

Sunday- 8 miles. I did not want to run. At all. I was exhausted. But I couldn’t miss a longer run 2 weekends in a row. I forced myself out the door and decided to just do what I could. My shoelace came untied and I was rushed by a giant German Shepard in the first mile, I damn near said screw it and went home. Especially when the man told me “excellent choice” when I came to a dead halt. Once again, I restrained my first impulse to snap back extremely colorful words. Put your damn dog on a leash!! I kept running. At the turn around for my 4.5 I pushed on to 5, at that turn around I pushed on to 6 then the 8 mile turn around. I still had an option to shorten it if I started feeling tired. A little past mile 5 I added in a modest hill repeat so I could avoid the killer hill at the end, I just wasn’t feeling up to it. Or so I thought. Come up on 6.8 miles and I realize I really messed up my mileage. The easiest way to hit 8 miles would have to include the nasty hill. I almost started crying. I just couldn’t. I turned around and looped a neighborhood and approached my house another way. I still had a hill but instead of soul crushing I was able to run this one and not hate myself and running at the end.

14 miles for the week. Better than last week and considering how crappy I felt the last half, I’m just going to take it and move on. On the upside, it finally looks like the weather is on the on the upswing and one of my favorite days of the year is on Sunday-time change! More daylight after work hours- woo hoo!

How was your week?

Would you have your tongue about the dog?

Do you like the time change?

Leaded or Unleaded

And the long run headaches are back.

I drink plenty of water so it’s not a lack of hydration. Granted I am prone to headaches and migraines so there is that. I am still loving the Ultima for shorter runs but I am wondering if my issue with longer runs is a lack of calories. I still fuel horribly…as in I don’t. I just can’t eat on my longer runs. I buy gels and gu’s and chews and never eat them. I carry them with me but they just end looking very beat up and expired. So maybe my water needs to gain some weight?

With that in mind, it was time to experiment. So I hit up The Feed.

#1 Gen Ucan Orange- I heard great things and I really liked their protein powder so I was hopeful. Out of the package, it mixed chalkier than I had expected. It kind of seemed like it didn’t dissolve. It didn’t taste powdery it just looked like that. It actually had very little taste. Very bland. Taste aside, I had a surprisingly great 8 mile run. I ran a hill I have never run in its entirety before. I even posted about it on Instagram. My mother made fun of me. My post run headache was very muted.

#2- Glukos Orange- Mixed and dissolved well and was very orange in color. It also tasted very yummy. That said, I slammed into a wall at mile 6 of a 9 mile run. I felt ok leading up to that point and then things went very south. It was the same route as before and at first I thought to blame it on the French toast that I had for breakfast but again that was the same as before too. And I had a headache.

#3 Tailwind Raspberry Buzz- Caffeine!!!! I was heading out for what I thought I was going to be a shortened long run because I wasn’t feeling it so I admit I only mixed 1/2 the pouch. It blended well but oh man, it tasted like medicine. I wasn’t a huge fan of the taste but a I went from not wanting to run at all to bartering with myself to just run 4 to actually running a solid 8 miler that day. Hmmmm. I do like that it has caffeine in it. I feel like my asthma cranky lungs appreciate it sometimes. I had a medium headache.

I am still cycling through these options. I bought multiples so I could try each one on multiple runs in hopes of finding the golden ticket. But a new contender has entered the ring too.

Thanks to Bibrave, I get to try the Beachbody Performance line. I’ve heard great things about their Hydrate product so yay! One of these has to solve the long run headaches, right?

How do you hydrate?

Fuel?

Week 8 Recap- Sleepy Time

Training for:

Livermore 13.1 -March 26
Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13

This was a blink and you missed it week but it wasn’t without its own headaches. That said it wasn’t a bad week it was just odd. Well unless you count me finding out that someone has already filed a tax return using my social. 😒

Monday- Nada– I had big plans to run but it was cold and windy and I just couldn’t make myself get out the door. I usually love having Mondays off so I can get in a good run but the cold front rolling in just made me a big baby. My toes have been so damn cold!

Tuesday- Rest- The work day was straight chaos. With the power issues last Friday and this being the first day back after a 3 day weekend, things were nuts. I wore a pair of old faithful boots but by the end of the day my feet hurt so bad that I wanted to cry. My shoes turned on me!

Wednesday- 2.7 miles- I headed out for my usual post work route run. Except I hadn’t taken into account the cold and the wind. I wasn’t dressed right with just capris and a long sleeve. The winds were in excess of 20 mph and they almost took my Buff off my head twice. My wool Buff that I recently accidentally dried. I hit the spot where I take the sunset pics and decided it was too cold and turned around to head for the car.

Funny moment on the way back- if I am coming up on an intersection the same time as a vehicle or two and don’t want to play the “no you go, no you go” game, I stop before and stretch or fake tie my shoe. This time one of those cars was a cop car and I guess they thought I looked shady. I got the stink eye for a moment when I straightened back up. 😛 Nothing to see here, move along. Even though when I damn near had an asthma attack 2 blocks later on a street corner I was wishing they could come back.

Thursday- 5 miles. Blood work test fail #1. Doctor said that I did not need to fast for a glucose test. He even wrote it on the work order. I took time off work in the afternoon and headed back to home town for the testing. He was wrong, the lab refused to do the testing. Grrr. Now what? I went running! I dressed a little smarter this time but could have used another layer. I’ve determined that as long as we have rain in the forecast, speed is not likely because my lungs just can’t handle the moisture in the air. No sooner do I accept that than Strava informs me that I broke my previous record for 400m and wasn’t even trying…

Friday- Rest Glucose test fail #2. And then success. I tried to get the process started in work town before work but was unable to, the line was insane. Luckily my boss is awesome so once everyone got to work I went back to the lab and got the process started. And then went back and forth for the next 3+ hours. I didn’t finish the glucose testing until 1:30. By then I was hangry and already bruising. My lunch was around 2 and I went through a drive thru intending to treat myself to some french fries but I ended up being lured by a picture of giant burger so I ordered that and some fries. Instead of feeling stuffed after eating it, I still felt oddly empty. It was very odd. I was so hungry all day.

Saturday- Rest. I crashed hard the night before around 9:30 which is odd for me. Normally I am up late reading and catching up on tv on Friday nights. I slept for 12 hours! It wasn’t un-interrupted but that’s a little ridiculous! Even when I did get up and get going I had zero energy. After doing a few errands I ended up taking a long nap. I had planned on running both Saturday and Sunday but decided that my body was trying to tell me something.

Sunday- Rest Yeah, this was just a total lack of motivation on my part. I kept telling myself to change and get out the door for 10 miles but I couldn’t actually do it. It was cold and my toes were frozen in my slippers in my house and no matter how much I berated myself I couldn’t make myself run. I just kept pushing it back later and later. #longrunfail

7.7 miles for the week. I’m not going to say ouch because missing my long run was entirely up to me. Was a case of the blah’s worthy of missing a long run? Maybe, maybe not. Only time will tell. I do know I am over the cold weather. Timehop keeps showing me pics from last year and I was running in shorts and a tank. I miss those days. This weird cold front and crazy wind, rain just needs to take a break. I’m not saying it’s entirely responsible for my lagging motivation but it’s part of it.

How was your week?

Do you have warm weather? Wanna share?

Week 6- Ouch- Fail

Training for:

Livermore 13.1 -March 26
Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13

Did anyone else have an odd week last week? Did it seem freaky long and just off for no real reason? Everyone at work seemed to feel it too. I know there was a full moon on Friday but still the whole week was just odd.

Monday- Rest- Last week saw a wealth of knowledge drop on us at work- all merger related. It started today with a meeting with the new CEO. It was a good meeting but I was kind of fried by the end of the day, I can’t remember what I did when I got home. 😞

Tuesday- Gym Fail- Work was a little busy but overall the rain and the highway closure is keeping us a little slower. I changed after work and planned on heading home for some #bibchat and hitting the gym for intervals. What the hell? Traffic was ridiculous. It was raining but nothing like it has been lately but I didn’t get back to home town until almost 7. So much for #bibchat. Ok, gym time. Every single treadmill was taken. What?! I admit I gave up. I bailed. I headed home and ordered a pizza.

Wednesday- 4 miles– After the previous day’s snafu, I decided to do another baby tempo at work. Except when I set out I realized I has somehow lost my inhaler the night before. For crying out loud. Ok, so no speed work. The marine layer was heavy so running without my inhaler was probably asking for trouble but I really needed to run. I kept it nice and easy but even with the slower pace, my breathing still sounded like I was sprinting, ha. The marine layer holds light pretty well so I pushed further into the state park and was able to make it to the Natural History Museum before I had to turn back. I love running though the eucalyptus grove.

Thursday- Ouch– I woke up to some not so good pain in my left leg. And not the typical shin variety pain. I took my running clothes to work but when it didn’t get better throughout the day I conceded defeat and decided to make it a rest day.

Friday- More ouch– My leg still hurt. It was isolated to the inside of my left ankle and I was starting to freak out a little. I also figured I knew what did it. While I loved running the trails through the eucalyptus grove on Wednesday, I shouldn’t have done it in my Nike’s. While I love my Nike’s for speed work, they are not big on traction, they have very smooth bottoms and the trails were pretty slick and muddy from all the rain. But I was having fun in the moment.

Saturday- More of the same– Good thing I decided it was too muddy to that run that 10k! I opted for active rest and wandered around SLO doing some shopping and consoling myself with some amazing pizza. I may have spent too much money at Lululemon. 😛 The clearance rack was just too tempting.

Sunday- 9 miles I had rested for 3 days, what was my ankle going to do??? I knew I was going to be slow and that was fine. I was stiff for the first few miles which is typical but I made sure to focus on my ankle and walk anytime I felt more than a twinge. Overall I felt ok. I picked up the pace a bit across the bridge per usual and indulged with a little river watching when I made it down to the river bed. Everything was going ok until a little past mile 6. Then things went south real fast. I was hustling to cross an intersection before a car and I suddenly felt ill. I had to pause for a breather rather than be sick and even when I got going I had to walk a lot. I felt very crappy for the last 3 miles, it was all I could to finish. If I could have bailed sooner I would have but it’s not like I was getting to the car any other way. My lungs were abnormally pissed too. They were angrier then they had been on Wednesday but I had found my inhaler so what gives? I wasn’t quite right the rest of the evening either which is why this post is a day late.

13 miles for the week. Once again, I missed workouts. Grrr. Between merger stuff, crazy rain, and my weird dizzy, nausea spells, I feel like I’ve turned into a giant flake. My lab work should be done next week but knowing my luck it won’t show anything. I’m not even sure what I should keep my fingers crossed for? This year is Challenging in me in different ways than I planned. I broke down crying in a meeting with my boss last week. Get it together!

Anyways, moving on to a shiny new week. One good thing— my road is open again!!!!! 30 less miles a day!!! It’s the little things right?

How was your week?

Ever bailed on a workout when you were in workout clothes already?

Tell me something shiny!