Category: Training

Wheezy

Last week, I learned that I could laugh myself into an asthma attack. That was new.

Friday rolled around and we were all little stressed, tired and slaphappy at work. I had been going back and forth with someone at another office, trying to get a document right and each version came back worse. I finally lost it laughing hysterically. Then the wheezing; followed by the struggle. My boss actually figured it out first and went for my purse. Which, surprisingly had my inhaler in it. I admit I rarely carry it in my purse. I have one in every running pack but I rarely need it at work. Oops. But like I said, I luckily had it that day.

Last week wasn’t horrible in the training department. Well, not sure if I can call it training yet.

I rode the spin bike one day and decide to keep my Peleton membership now that the 2 month trial has ended. I don’t have a Peleton bike nor does my bike even have an onboard computer but I do like not thinking. The instructor on the app tells me what to do and I do it. Not thinking is great.

I also made it out for a run after work! Which is kind of shocking as it is only the second time I have run after work since transferring to this office. 9 Months ago. Ouch. But I did it! I made it out for 3 miles on Wednesday. I also said goodbye to a favorite pair of crops that night as the mirror in the work bathroom let me know they no longer pass the see through test. Oops. I ran with a quarter zip tied around my waist. Ha!

On Saturday I was going to head to the high school to help my mother swap out a tennis net or 2 as they are finally starting high school sports. Then I was going to run my Napa Valley virtual mile on the track. Except the track was full of people. So I headed out for a short run from the school. Except I got trapped in the school and ended up having to jump a fence to get out. Didn’t break my face but my mile turned into a 15 minute joke. Whatever, I’m going with it. 🙂

Sunday was another adventure at the state park. We didn’t get lost but my new shoes failed the test. After getting lost a few weeks ago, I knew the Topo’s weren’t for me so I did some research and ordered a pair of Altra Timps. They were fine going uphill. Once we turned around, I damn near took them off and ran barefoot. It likely would have hurt less. Between the surprising February heat and the dumb shoes, we didn’t meet our original goal. The plan was to do Oats Peak which is 10.8 miles round trip trail. We turned at the last trail break at 3 and headed back. I changed my shoes in the lot and we did another mile-ish on the Bluff Trail. Also found a cool little hidden cove I had never seen before. It ended up being just under 8 miles for the day.

So not a complete waste of the week.

37/38 Wheeze

I have attempted 2 runs in the last two weeks. Two.

The smoke rolled in pretty heavy around Labor Day weekend and then just stayed.

I headed out for an attempt the Thursday after Labor Day. The skies looked horrible but the local news insisted the AQI was beloe 100 as the smoke was high up in the atmosphere. That being said, I told myself to take it super easy. So easy, I forgot to take off my earrings, ha! Anyways, I was wheezing after 30 minutes of walking. And then low-key wheezed for another 3 days. Boo.

The weekend was a smoky mess. Actually right now, I can’t remember what I did. Oops.

Last week started with smoke. I decided I wasn’t going to attempt running until I make it through the night with the window open without waking up wheezing. Yeah, that was Friday. And I don’t mean wide open, it was open less than 3 inches. I usually ended up closing the window 30 or say minutes after trying to go to sleep.

The smoke had cleared by Friday but the migraine I had been fighting since Wednesday was taking me out. Not gonna lie, I slept most of Saturday. Both by sleeping in and taking a nap. Also, I just bought black out curtains and oh they are amazing. Amazing.

Finally on Sunday, I headed out for a run. Haha! The smoke was gone but I was still on the struggle bus. Such a struggle, I ended up walking all of it. And not even power walking, more like leisurely walking. It felt damn hot which is sad as it was only 91. Two weeks of smoke filled skies and I lost any fitness gains I may have made on my vacation week. Boo.

How was your week?

36-Vacation

I spent the last week sleeping in, not doing my hair, not wearing eyeliner. No alarms, no phone calls, no emails. Ok, that’s a lie, I checked my emails a few times.

I also ran/ walked more miles in the last 10 days than I did in July and August combined. That said, it was still less than I had hoped.

The original vacation plan was the 2 race weekends but COVID. The second plan was to road trip and visit some National Parks. I even ordered new trail shoes and a fancy new pack from Orange Mud. Not that I really needed an extra reason to buy those. But other things put those plans on hold. Reality was a staycation with a little shopping and a little adventuring. And a lot of melting… but we’ll get to that.

The vacation fun started with the previous weekend’s runs. I had planned on a run on Monday, but my stomach decided to remind me that it was an asshat. Boo.

Tuesday, I wanted to break in the new trail shoes but was still feeling a little off. So I headed for the lake path. I think it’s been more than a year since I ran there? I miss it but it’s no longer on my way home from work. Boo. I did 4ish laps of the lake, switching directions while testing my shoes. The lake looked good, I have to say that it had more water than I had expected. I really need to get back there more often. 4.88 miles. And yes, I could have run back and forth until I hit 5 but nah.

Wednesday, I rested in prep for Thursday’s adventure. My legs were slightly sore from almost 15 miles in 4 days. That was more than I ran in July.

Thursday was The Pinnacles! I haven’t been in years, my goal was to reach the top and not get lost. I loaded my pack, my mother prepped and we were off! We got there early in the morning but it was already hot. We’re in the middle of a heatwave here in CA, yay. We started the climb and boy it just got toastier. I was feeling pretty good actually. We got slightly turned around for a moment at the top but success! The High Peaks Trail at the Pinnacles throws all sorts of fun things at you- quasi steps in the rocks, a railing so you don’t fall, and even more tiny “steps” down. The plan was to do the High Peaks and continue on to the old trail before looping around the caves. It would have been around 10ish miles. There’s one last junction which will take you back to the parking lot around mile 3 but after that there is no shortcut. Period. My mother was having a rough time- and if she reads this, she’ll be pissed I wrote that- and I convinced her we had to take the shortcut. She was bummer but hey we got to go through a tunnel! We came out around 5 miles but I know my GPS had some issues.

Oh, Friday…. I had plans to run the 5K portion of the Giant Race Lou Seal Challenge but it was 110. Oh and the air conditioner in my house died. The Friday of the hottest weekend of the year. Oh crap.

Saturday, I was up and off to the beach for the 10K portion of the Lou Seal Challenge. I straight up ran away from the heat- we hit 117. I enjoyed lovely mild beach weather for all 6.2 miles. Yay! But more about that next post. Then it was back to heat.

Sunday, I meant to run the 5K. I mean it was the actual race day after all. However my beach run had left me with some nasty blisters. On both feet. The one on my right foot was the problem. I have never had a blister that big before. What the heck?? I wore the same shoes and socks I used for all my beach runs and never had a problem before- I even kept my feet dry until the very end. Boo. Staying in my house and being lazy wasn’t awesome- it was 93* in my house. My cats are miserable. The dog can be hosed off, they can’t. Every fan possible is running in this house.

So that brought my weekly mileage to just under 16. Not marvelous but massively better that the rest of the year. I’m not calling it a comeback yet. Will my motivation last once I return to work?

How was your week?

35-Countdown

I ran!! Kind of.

Anyways, lets back up. Most of the week was spent low key wheezing, trying to catch up on work. The winds had shifted again which brought back some back but I was focused on keeping my head down and checking things off my list.

My first PTO in over 9 months was coming up and I was focused. I have been so tired and while I love my job, I knew I needed a break. Granted my plans have changed drastically due to COVID- bye marathon- but I was looking forward to a break.

So Monday through Friday was just work and hoping I didn’t forget anything. I feel like I did but I set my out of office on Friday and I won’t be back until after Labor Day. Now if I could just tell myself to not check my work cell for email.

Not gonna lie, I slept in on Saturday and it was awesome. Then I just kind of felt lazy all day. I was going to run and then I wasn’t. But then I jumped up from a nap and changed in like 2 minutes and was out the door. It was a hard, hot slog but really what did I expect after 20 days off? It actually wasn’t as horrible as it could have been and I managed 3 miles.

Sunday, I headed for somewhere different. My mother had never been to the Bob Jones trail, so we headed that way and just it a brisk walk. The ‘trail’ is a paved path of sorts that runs from one city to another south of it. Well, mostly. There were moments where there was no one on the trail and moments that there were too many people. And no one seemed to understand any form of trail ettiquette. Granted these bikers were more of the beach cruiser type but still. We also got a little sidetracked going off the trail but we made it back to where I had parked. 5ish miles for the day.

Then we went for a truly decadent slice of cake at the Madonna Inn. We also witnessed what could have been a horrible pileup on the freeway yet turned into a miraculous recovery. For reference, we can’t eat in restaurants in CA but dining is allowed in parking lots or street side. The Inn has a great lot but if you’ve been there, the 101 is right next to it. Which I used to my advantage that time I jumped out of the car on the freeway and hopped the fence to get to the race start years ago. But this also gave diners a front seat to a car spinning out into a 360, fishtailing into the center divider but somehow pulling out before wrecking and getting back in a lane. How they saved it, I have no idea. How no other driver hit them, I have no idea. Scary.

How was your week?

34- Smoke

Last week was another lazy week. However, this was not my fault.

If you’ve read the news or watched it, you may have seen that California currently has an unprecedented number of fires. While the fires near my city and in my county have been small and put down quickly, the same cannot be said for the rest of the state.

While our fires were small, the smoke was not. Something about the way our county sits seems to make it a settling zone for the smoke from other fires. It’s happened with other fires over the years but this was a new level. Our air quality made headlines last week and not in a good way. The one site only went to 500 for AQI and we were maxed out.

I spent very little time outside all week and had the air conditioner maxed at home (with a new filter). I still ended up having asthma troubles most of the week and ended up going home sick on Thursday. Boo. So it was a very low key week.

Oh yeah, and I bought a car.

How was your week? What weather keeps you inside?