Tag: asthma

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!

Week 37 Training Recap

Training for:

City to the Sea 13.1
Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

A week of shoe issues, calf issues, wardrobe malfunctions and a long run attempt that knocked me flat. Yay?

Monday- 2.0 miles. Yeah, another run testing the new Brooks. I also wore the wrong shorts. This was a hot mess from the start and I could tell it just wasn’t going to get better.

Tuesday- Rest I was sore from the baby run. 😩

Wednesday-Rest Pizza night!! 🍕🍕

Thursday- 3.8 miles I was optimistically hoping for 5-6 miles. Fail. Everything hurt. Ankles, shins, calves. Which led to whiny thoughts then deep thoughts. Which prompted my last post and my concerns that my weight gain was affecting my shoes.

Friday- Rest I’ve closed the last 4 Fridays and I admit it’s making me tired. Crossing the street on my way back to my car, I felt twinges in my left shin. I was also feeling a little off so I decided right then that my planned 14 miler was going to be broken into 2 runs over the weekend. I was trying to be smart for once. I failed.

Saturday-8 miles The first run of the weekend. I overslept and was feeling a little weird but if I didn’t run every time I felt a little off, I would never run. I headed out around 9:30 but as the high of the day was only supposed to be 91 so I figured I would be fine. If only I had known how wrong I was.

The run started off ok. I was sticking to my 5/2 run walk intervals, wearing my Nike’s and compression socks and my shins/ ankles were feeling pretty good. Since I was only running 8 miles I decided to throw in some hill repeats. What was I thinking? I was huffing and puffing but I kept running. I did 2 hill repeats before running to the turn around point then back for another 2 hill repeats. I felt fine though mile 6 then things went bad.

My 24oz water bottle was almost empty and I was slowing down significantly. My town doesn’t believe in water fountains. They are either turned off or locked up. A little over a mile from house I passed an elementary school. The gates weren’t locked!!! Hallelujah! I felt like a creeper opening the gates but I really needed water. I was loosing steam though. I barely made it up the last hill- I had to stop halfway up, I couldn’t catch my breath. I normally love running the downhill and the flat on the way back to my driveway. I couldn’t do it. I hit 8 miles about 1/4 mile from my driveway and just quit. I crawled back. Once confronted with my driveway, I almost just gave up. I was seriously thisclose to just sitting down partway up and hoping someone drove by.

That wasn’t the end. Once I made it inside, I started overheating. I was still sweating so I wasn’t freaking out about heat stroke but something was not right. I tried taking a cold shower, chugging water and I had my brother bring me food. Then I tried napping. Every time I tried to stand up, everything kind of went black and tunnel like. I kept going back to bed. I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon sleeping. I knew I had the Avocado Margarita Festival to volunteer at in the evening. I finally managed to get up without the world spinning and I headed towards work town. I treated myself to In n Out hoping it would make me feel better. Not really. Boo. I left work town around 8 and was glad to see my bed when I got home.

I don’t know if it was too hot- only in the 80’s, not hot at all- or if it was the fact that I did hill repeats for the first time in months. Or if I actually had a touch of something. I later found out a coworker had similar issues on Saturday as well and they didn’t run. They ended up doing nothing but sleeping after their festival shift.

Sunday- 10 miles bike This time I listened to the off feeling I still had. I had woken up at 7 with a pounding headache so I rolled over and went back to sleep. I woke up at 10:30! feeling a little more human. After running some errands I decided my 6 mile run was not a good idea and decided to just ride the bike.

13.9 run miles for the week. Ouch. Let’s just chalk it up to a rough week and move on. I wish I knew what set off Saturday’s issues because I never want to feel like that again.

Have you had a recent wardrobe malfunction?

Would you eat an avocado Popsicle? Yes, it does exist.

Week 35 Recap

Training for: City to the Sea 13.1
Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

Yikes, that’s the first time I’ve typed that all out. And it doesn’t include the HOB Fun Run and I may throw a couple more 5K’s in there. Yes, I may be a little crazy. It’ll be fun right?

Going forward, I think I am going to change up the way I post these training recaps. I will still have a weekly one but I am thinking they will be shorter. I miss posting more often and trying to cram everything into one post makes for a lot of words. Who wants to read that??😛 That said, this one might be lengthy.

Monday- 4 miles In an effort to mitigate the smoky air intake, I decided to run at work. Marine layer- why not? I always forgot how much I love the middle portion of this route. Ocean! Eucalyptus trees, dirt! I just wish this section was longer. Smoke and marine layer aside, this was actually a remarkably steady paced run for me- 11:32, 11:31, 11:50, 10:46. The run 5, walk 2 is kind of working out post marathon. Miles 1 and 2 are all downhill while 3 and 4 are uphill. 4 is the steepest but mile 3 is usually the slowest as I hit a section of super slippery dirt in the eucalyptus grove. I really should run this route more often.

Tuesday- Rest day, pizza day!

Wednesday- 3.8 miles Baby speed work session- woo hoo! My legs felt pretty good after that. I also started my new-ish (reverted) posting as I posted all about that run here.

Thursday- Rest I really wanted to run but I figured that would probably be stupid. I want to work back up to a 4 day a week running schedule but the last few weeks were very lacking. I figured a 3 day week first would be a better step. I took a late half day for working Saturday 2 weeks ago. I figured I would get on the bike once I got home but instead it was one of those days where time just seemed to fly and hardly anything I planned was completed.

Friday- Rest Day I work the late shift a few weeks in a row and nothing really happens outside of work. An employee also left so we are back in that pattern of waiting to hire and running short while the interviews take place. Busy days! I also found out that I am no longer exempt- I had to clock in and out for the first time in years. I am still not sure how I feel about that.

Saturday- 10 miles Double digits, woo hoo!! The temp wasn’t supposed to be too warm and I was feeling tired after a crazy work week so I planned on running a little later but I hadn’t planned on waking up to an almost dead phone. For some reason it hadn’t charged overnight. Grrr. I headed out the door around 9:30. Oops. I wanted to run 10 but had a a variety of ways to shorten it if I just wasn’t feeling it. School is back in session and my mother was having a tennis practice so my plan was to run there and then we would go to lunch.

I was feeling a little sluggish starting out but not horrible so I just kept going. I did welcome each stop light break though. Per usual, I booked it across the bridge and that was my fastest mile- 9:18. Oops. From then on it was into mountain lion sighting territory. Yikes!! I kept my pepper spray in my hand while I was running through the river bed section. Which is silly as the cat was spotted up by the neighborhoods. There were a surprising number of people out for a run or walk at that time. I wondered if the mountain lion issue had everyone out running later then normal. I even ran into NikeC! It was nice chatting with her for a bit. My pace was surprisingly consistent. If you’ve been around this blog for a while- you know pace consistency is not my thing. I finished my run with an average pace of 11:00. Who am I? I am usually way slower than that on long runs. Hell, Monday’s run was slower than that. I never really felt like I was pushing and I took walk breaks anytime I needed a moment. I was kind of stoked when I saw my splits later. 😃

Sunday- 7 miles bike I had some errands that took me to SLO for the day. New glasses!!! I hit my daily step total which is rare and then finished up with some cross training.

So 4 days of exercise, 17.8 miles run, much better than the previous 3. One of these days I will do more than just think about strength training. 😛

In other news, I ate less pizza and watched a ton of Bones last week. Seriously people, I just started season 6! I may need an intervention! In sad news, my car hit 100,000 miles- boo.

How was your week?

What are you watching now?

Wobbly Wednesday

That was hard.

With having so many halves close together, I have big hopes for one of them. The marathon gave me a little (giant) kick in the ass. With that being said, I need to get said ass in gear and that means training. Training means speed work. So I busted out my Nike’s and waded into the shallow end tonight.

I headed to the lake path after work, I can’t even remember the last time I ran there. I know I am still feeling a little sluggish and with mountains of smoke in the air, I knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. I still have all my Hanson’s workouts saved in my watch so I figured I would just use the one for 400 repeats. I knew there was no way I was doing 12 of them like programmed but that’s what the lap button’s for right? I was hoping for between 4-8 repeats.

It was my first time wearing my Nike’s since May, I stopped doing speed work once my shins went to hell. I kept my warm up of 1.25 miles nice and easy, plenty of walking. 😛 Now, I haven’t raced a 5K since September 2015 so I have no idea what an accurate pace should be so I was optimistically aiming for an 8:45 average for the repeats.

#1- woah, this awkward, my legs are confused. How do you run this fast? How the hell long is 400m anyways? Oh good, the watch buzzed. Recovery time.

Full disclosure- I walked all the recoveries. My lungs were a little pissed I was making them work this hard with all the smoke in the air. My watch buzzed for my next run and wait what? It said cool down mile and repeated 12 times. WTH? So I stopped my watch and started a new run. From there on I ran by watching my watch and trying not to fall on my face at the same time.

#2- all right, feeling pretty good, maybe I can do 8

#3- Ok, this is getting harder, that last thought was a pipe dream. Can I quit now?

#4- Yeah, smoke sucks. Damn my legs are tired, how long is 400m again? This is my last one. Let’s not go crazy right?

All in all, 3.76 miles. And the intervals?

Distance	Elapsed Time	Average Pace
.25	2:04	8:23
.25	2:10	8:48
.25	2:01	8:01
.25	2:03	8:07

I think I am more surprised that I kept the last 3 intervals at .25. How did I do that? And the intervals are too fast which might explain why I was huffing and puffing so much. Also, I don’t get the variance in pace between interval 1 and 4. They are only 1 second different. Is my watch crazy?

It wasn’t a lot but it felt pretty good. Now hopefully I can move on Thursday. 😛

And the county is on fire, the air is full of smoke, the lake is almost dry and yet I rounded a curve to see more green than I have in months. What gives?

Is my watch crazy?

How is your weather?