Category: Training

18- Farce

I am my own worst enemy and I know this.

However this knowledge doesn’t prevent me from continuing to self sabotage.

We close an hour earlier right now. So even when we are running late it’s not as late as it used to be. Is this helping me run more? It should be but instead I am at my lowest mileage in years. And this was going to be a marathon year. Now, that is highly unlikely for a variety of reasons.

I’m not having a pity party here but keep hoping that the more I acknowledge it, the sooner I might actually start to work on new habits.

However that was not last week. Last week, I only ran twice. And let’s be real, both times had more walking than running. But really any time outside moving is helpful to my mindset but I can’t seem to force myself out there.

I braved the heat for a few miles on Tuesday. I am not ready for the 90+ temps yet so kept it short and sweet with a little over 2 miles. Sluggish ones but they weren’t too bad otherwise.

Then it was a lot of telling myself to run every day after work but not following through.

Saturday rolled around and while I thought about running, I chilled with a book or 2 and took a long nap. More like coma and it included some trippy dreams too. Even running ones- I dreamed the whole bottom of my feet were blisters. It was so real, I even checked my feet when I woke up. Ha!

On Sunday, I ventured a few minutes away from my house- seriously less than 10- and hit up a trail. It has a brutal uphill-in-direct-sun beast so I was hoping it would be empty. It wasn’t but everyone maintained distance well. And I decided to go straight up the hard way. Ok, maybe I was dared, but damn my legs were shaking after that climb. The sunshine and dirt was exactly what I needed.

This is no way looks my route. It also shows my elevation gain as zero. Boo

I forgot my watch so I tried my Coros pod and app and clearly I don’t know how to work it properly.

So a little less than 5 miles for the week.

My goal is try and conquer the whole morning runner thing…. I just don’t know how.

How was your week?

15- Anxiety

I don’t have all the answers.
We’re making it up as we go.
I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve forgotten something vitally important.
I feel like I am letting everyone down.
I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I can’t shut my brain up these past few weeks. I can barely sleep Sunday and Monday nights. I need to run more than I am, not just because I am out of shape but my brain needs the cutoff. That’s one plus to being so out of running fitness, all my brain power goes to trying not break on the run.

I told myself to run everyday after work last week, but I didn’t. On Thursday I swapped the run with venturing off for groceries after work. My hope was that Thursday evening would be better than Saturday morning. It wasn’t bad but it was errily quiet too.

As an extra boost of motivation, I signed up for a few virtual races one night while staring at the tv. One of those races was the Giants Race- Sacramento 5K. Why not?

I headed out for my virtual race on Saturday afternoon. It was nice and sunny, and I figured why not? Even for a virtual race, I went way too fast out of the gate and flamed out hard by the end. I knew I was out of shape and this just kind of proved it ha! It took me 36 minutes to run a 5k! My PR is like 10 minutes faster, ha! Once I added in the warm up, I was just under for 4 miles for the day. Oh and I broke the cardinal rule of “race” day- wore something new. Oh the chafe!

I meant to run on Sunday. It was cold and cloudy and kind of perfect. But that also made it perfect to laze around under a blanket and watch tv. Can you guess which one won?

So this week, I have a new goal… try to get my head on straight. Everything else will fall in line right?

How was your week?

14- Destructo

If you’ve been around this blog for awhile, you may have cottoned on to my proclivity for inflicting injury upon myself.

For crying out loud, my last 2 concussions were self inflicted (albeit accidentally). Oh and let’s not forget the time I gave myself second degree burns with ice packs. Actually I did forget- thanks Timehop for that memory.

And yet, even I am baffled on how I broke myself this time. By making the bed and sneezing. Even writing it makes me feel like an idiot. 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I admit that changing the sheets on my bed is not the easiest- it’s up against two walls with a headboard but come on?!

So my body was contorted into a odd position messing with the fitted sheet. I felt a sneeze coming on but tried to hold it in for some reason. Not only did it not work, I felt an immediate sharp pain along my left side, heard a pop and I hit the floor. I have a pretty damn good pain tolerance but this…. Any movement made me want to scream, I damn near cried.

Once I managed to get myself off the ground, I made it to the bed and was pretty much prone for all of Saturday afternoon/ evening. Sunday, I made it to the chair but it’s not much better. However I did make it though Sunday without meds. Saturday was not the same. I had more OTC pain pills than ever before. My neurologist would be so proud- well sort of, she gets frustrated with me that I don’t use my stronger migraine meds when I have a bad one. I don’t like pain pills. So the fact that I took multiple days how bad it hurt.

So yeah, that’s how my week ended- how about the beginning?

Monday was good and I got in a short run after work. I don’t want to drive places to run but I don’t want to just run my driveway, so I stopped at another work office about a mile from my house, parked and ran the neighborhood that way. I was not prepared for the sudden temp jump to over 70 though. Wow.

Wednesday through Friday kind of snowballed. I had my running gear at work but we have had some of the busiest days ever. Even though our hours are shorter, we stayed longer.

Saturday rolled around and thankfully I didn’t have to go to a store so I slept in and headed out for an early afternoon run. Wasn’t a bad 5k even if my stomach cramped in a bad way a little past mile 2 and I walked it home.

Then thanks to my destructo self, it was all downhill from there.

And while I was lying in bed not moving, I decided to finally cave and sign up for Disney+ except it won’t play on my tv! Grrr.

At least it poured all day Sunday so I didn’t feel pissed I wasn’t out for a short run.

So how was your week? Anyone else disaster prone?

12-Hold On

I am not even sure where to start this week. Doubt I am the only one.

This won’t cover any running as I didn’t do any last week. I debated about even posting something for the week but I do use these posts as a semi journal and who knows I may want to look back on this some day. Maybe?

My office was still open so I went to work everyday and then straight home after work. I guess I was sheltering in place before the county went on lock down. Our county went to shelter in place about 2 days before the state did. Things are chaotic and changing by the minute.

My GI disorder can be irritated by stress as are my migraines so I had a few issues last week. Can’t use that as the excuse for being lazy most of the days post work though.

On Thursday we shut down part of the building, still helping customers just less exposed for everyone. I desperately needed a run but I am still all torn about that. Aren’t I out there enough anyways? Yikes, I want to run.

On Saturday, I ventured out into the scary place of Target, I had to get a few things. It wasn’t as bad as I thought but the shelves were slim pickings. Then I was home for the rest of the day. I signed up for a free trial of Les Mils on Demand and did a yoga workout. Parts felt great and parts less so.

I had planned on getting rid of my stationary bike but hadn’t managed to donate it yet so that got cleaned off and brought back into the house on Sunday. However either the batteries are dead or the time outside killed the on board computer. So I rode for 50 minutes at unknown speed and distance. I did work up a decent sweat though.

So 2 workouts in 7 days. Could be a lot worse.

I am still trying to figure out the running part.

How are things where you are?

9-Wreck

I am not gonna lie, last week was rough. On most fronts.

My stress level may have hit peak levels. I wasn’t feeling great either.

No running on Monday as I had promised to help my dad with something.

Tuesday saw a nice, fairly relaxing run. I just enjoyed the sky and cleared my head. It was great while it lasted. 3 miles.

We don’t talk about Wednesday. Nope. Nope. Nope.

I desperately needed a good run on Thursday. However, that wish was denied. I headed out for a run after work and it hurt. My left leg was pissed and it would not loosen up. I ended up calling it and turning around to hobble back to the car.

Friday was a compression sock wearing stress ball kind of day.

Road trip!!! Saturday dawned bright and early and I was off to Napa with my mother. A little shopping along the way and then it was off to the expo. Not gonna lie, I felt a little claustrophobic in the expo. It was a snug fit in a tight space. Then we drove to find the race start and then our hotel. I suck at maps. The hotel was over 30 minutes away from the start. Oops. After the draining week, it didn’t take much for me to doze off early. Now if only I could have stayed asleep.

Sunday- Napa Valley Half Marathon
Recap to come.

18ish miles for the week. Could be worse.

How was your week?