It’s been a coffee and soda kind of week. This week has me like-
Tuesday for example- You know it’s going to be a rough day when you drop your brand new foundation bottle on the floor. The glass bottle. On a tile floor. I felt like I watched it in slow motion as it shattered. Yeah, that was fun.
Considering how stressed and hormonal crappy I’ve felt this week, I haven’t gone completely crazy with the food. But it’s cookie Friday and it’s the new bakery. I can’t decide if that is going to an uh-oh or a good thing.
Running has only been so so this week but I got it done. My right ankle is a little achy. Not cool. I think another pair of shoes and I need to break up. This is getting ridiculous. Odd aches aside, I’ve had some great scenery to enjoy.⬆️
I have a 5K on Saturday. I haven’t run a race in 2 months. I think I forgot how. I haven’t raced a 5k since September. I’m gonna hurt. Did I mention it’s up a mountain? And the forecast calls for rain? Rain on the mountain. Yay. Now I am glad it’s only 3 miles. But, in all honesty I love this race. This will be my 4th time running it. I need to remind myself of that when I can’t walk on Sunday. Or Monday. Maybe Tuesday.
How was your week?
Ever had the day where you should have just stayed in bed?
Thank Kate from Did that Just Happen for the inspiration. I had to play with it after that. 😛 I would like a better shoe graphic but my feet will work for now.😛
This week has been in the back of my mind for a month now. Looming and lurking all at the same time. The first real test of my crazy decision to run a marathon. The first big effort for this Slacker. Throw in some stress in my personal life and some work stress and the week had the potential to go south real fast.
Monday- Rest Attack of the crazy wind! Well, spring had been here. The temps dropped and the wind came in. How those palm trees bent so far without snapping, I have no idea.
Tuesday- Rest I had every intention of running after work, I really did. My mom started texting and wanted to move pizza night up. I said I wanted to run. Her response was that it was still crazy windy everywhere. There was truth to that as we had lost part of a tree at work but I still wanted to run. Then she dropped the kryptonite- my dad would come with us if went on Tuesday instead. All right, she won.
Wednesday- 3.81 miles Baby speed work!!! I headed to the lake path for some intervals. After a 15 minute warmup I did intervals of 1:30 at 5K pace and then 1:30 recovery. Baby intervals but you have to start somewhere right? I did 6 intervals- 8:29, 8:44, 8:34, 8:19, 8:31, 8:35 pace. Which is about 30 seconds under my 5K pace but hey they were fairly consistent right? I felt pretty good and wanted to do more but knew I had big plans for the weekend and was trying to be smart. cows!!
Thursday- 5.69 miles I met up with NikeC after work for a few miles. Ouchie McOucherson. This run hurt. I am not sure if it was because I had run the day before or because I was once again wearing shorts. It also could have been the Launch’s; I was wearing different socks than usual. Whatever it was, my shins hurt the entire run. Not enough to quit but enough to be concerned. Other than that, it was a great run. The company and conversation were great and NikeC ran us up a street I had forgotten about. It was the course for a 10k we had run years ago. The race was so miserable for me, I tried to forget everything about it, it took me 2+ years to run another 10K. However, now that I remember the route, I have more ways to add mileage with out doing incessant loops.
Friday- Rest Can I say how much of a win it was that I only ate 1 cookie on Cookie Friday? Anyways, once off work I was home by 7:30 and prepping for Saturday. I was ready to go to bed by 10:30, which is early for me but I knew I had an early wake up call the next day.
So much for good intentions, I could not sleep. I was tossing and turning and felt like my heart was racing. Either the stress of the week caught up with me or the next days’ plan was really freaking me out. Either way, I got less than 4 hours of sleep.
Saturday- 16 MILES!! Holy crap, people, I followed through! I knew the likelihood of me completing this run on my own was small so weeks ago I called in reinforcements. I met up with Ashley and Heather bright and early Saturday morning. The sun was barely up!! Not that we could see it as it was a very gray morning. Heather was running 24 so she ran to where Ashley and I were and then we ran from SLO to the Avila pier and back. That sounds like a lot when I type it.
We kept a steady pace up for the first 9ish miles and I was feeling pretty good. I had to take a few walk breaks which I knew I would but I felt bad for slowing them down. The route ran through the Bob Jones Trail which I had always heard about but never really run. A mile of it was in the City to the Sea half but I was riding the misery train and hadn’t paid that much attention to it. It’s nice, paved and scenic and full of people enjoying it. We hit the bay around 8ish miles and I had to take a break. My right knee was twinging in an odd way. I told them to go ahead so I could stretch it out. Speeding up usually helps me work out the kinks so catching up to them worked perfectly. Once at the pier we turned around and headed back towards SLO. oh, just a little fog
My lungs started protesting around mile 11. Which wasn’t surprising given how heavy the marine layer was. I started to slow down. We played leapfrog for the last few miles. We would run together until I tired, then I would walk, they would pull ahead. Then I would either catch up or they would wait for me. I didn’t hurt until mile 14. Then my knees started aching and my right toes ached. Just keep running, just keep running. At this point we lost Heather, she had a much longer run back and the sun finally came out and the temp was rising. On a side note- she’s a rock star and ran 25 miles that morning!
Then my watch buzzed- 16 miles!!! I did it! And I didn’t hate myself! In fact, it kind of rocked. I have Ashley and Heather to thank for that, they were both awesome.
Funny thing- because we ran all the way to the pier, the mileage was a little off. When my watch hit 16, we were still 3 miles from the cars. I contemplated walking it, but instead we took an Uber. I’d never done that before! It was a morning of firsts.
Sunday- Rest After a much better nights’ sleep, I headed down to SLO for a little bit of shopping. I also cleared 10K steps for the day so let’s call it active rest. Stairs were the only times I noticed a little soreness from the run.
Weekly miles 25.5
Last week was a good week. I feel a little better going into future training. I know it’s going to be hard and going to kick my ass but this was the week I needed. I needed a litle reassurance to continue. I got it. Now I just need to keep running and training and taking it one week at a time. I need to work on fueling. I ran those 16 miles on an empty stomach and only ate 1/2 a package of fruit snacks along the way. I felt fine but I know that won’t always be true. My hydration was good- I had Gatorade and Skratch.
Low-carb- speaking of food, last week was kind of an odd week. I did pretty well on most days but really bad on others. It was kind of an emotional eating week but I didn’t give in anywhere near as much as I could have. I passed on In n Out for crying out loud! I am concerned that this week will be more of the same but we will see.
How was your week?
What about weather? What is it like in your neck of the woods?
Just like that March is gone. Instead of lamenting about fast it flew by, let’s talk about what happened.
66.8 Miles
March ended up being a race free month. I sat out Wine Country Half for the first time in 5 (6?) years and never replaced it with anything. I think this is the longest race free stretch that I have had in years. Part of me likes it and the other part fears I’ve forgotten all race etiquette. 😛
After February’s realization that my long run consistency over the years was all a big lie, I was hoping for a better March. In some ways it was. I had 3 good long runs and one major flame out. I missed one long run and a few easy runs due a stupid cold/ flu thing that knocked me out but other than that I stuck to my 3x a week schedule. I do wish my overall mileage was higher but you get back what you put in right?
Looking to April, it’s time to step things up. SLO is one month out and San Fransisco is 4 months out. That means increased mileage and the return of speed work. If I stick to my plan, running will increase to 4x a week. Cross training really needs to be more consistent too. It’s just so hard for me to follow through. Again, that is something I need to work on.
Let’s end on a funny story–
I headed out for a run with NikeC tonight. We explored a neighborhood I had never run in before so that was cool. On the way back to the car, a moth was flying towards us. I batted at it as it neared my face but it didn’t help. I felt like it was stuck between the frame of my sunglasses and my face. I tried swatting it away while running but it didn’t help. I ended up coming to a full stop and ripping my glasses off my face. I don’t know if it flew away then or if it was even ever really there but I noticed NikeC trying not to laugh while I swatted my face. I know I probably looked funny but it was more than that. Between coming to a stop and ripping off my glasses, I had paused my Garmin. I didn’t even realize I had done it. Apparently pausing the watch was more important than getting the moth off my face. Priorities right?
I thought about posting my food post but nah, I’m not in the mood to be cranky. So let’s clear the tracks (brain fog) instead.
Remember when I said I liked to browse websites and put things in my shopping cart but never buy? Yeah, marathon training has made it even worse. I want all the shiny new things! It’s like I’m starting over! I feel like a stalker considering how often I’ve been on the same websites. How long can you stare at a water bottle?
Wind sucks. Go away El Nino, you’re drunk. Getting used to running in humidity is one thing. Cold wind turns me into a baby though. Monday and Tuesday were crazy windy and cold. Branches and trees came down, boats were evacuated off the water. Yeah, I didn’t run. #sorrynotsorry
I ate 2 big cookies today. Low carb fail. It was in the name of research though. Ok, one was. We’ve been testing different bakeries for cookie Friday’s and how else do you know if they are good? I’m going with dang good since I ate a second one.
Where is time going? It’s almost April for crying out loud. How is the year a quarter over?
I have a long run of epic proportions that I am trying not to freak out about this weekend. And I am trying shorts on a short again tomorrow. Aaaack! Not sure which is more stressful.
I have a 5K in a week. I kind of feel like I forgot how to race. It’s been so long. Especially for a 5K. Yikes!
I ran intervals tonight. Again, it’s been so long!!!!
I had so much more to say but I seem to have forgotten most of it. Oops. That’s where my brain has been living lately.
Slacker Runner 