Tag: asthma

Week 13 Training Recap

Upcoming Races– Firehouse 5K
SLO Marathon 13.1

Focus– I forgot to pick one- oops

Week 12 was pretty good so of course this week started off rocky. One of these days the pendulum won’t swing back and forth so quickly. The whole week was wonky actually. It started odd, swung into worse and then swung back again.

Monday- Rest I had planned on riding the bike but as I was leaving work I started getting texts from my brother. He wanted to know where my dad was. Odd but ok, so I called my dad. No answer. Hmm. I called my mom, no answer. That’s odd. Now my mind goes to worst case scenarios and starts thinking that something happened. Turns out my brother’s truck had broken down in the Subway parking lot. As for my parents not answering- well, they have lives. 😛 But eventually, I picked up my mom and we ended up eating Subway for dinner while waiting for AAA to tow my brother’s truck.

Tuesday- 3.5 miles– With my brother’s truck out of commission, he needed a ride to work. His current job has him working in SLO. Not in the town I work or the town we live in. Well that makes the commuting a little tricky. It’s sad how much getting up 30 minutes earlier kicked my butt. I had running gear packed but wasn’t optimistic about getting in a run. It ended up working out, I only had to take my brother halfway and he found another ride home.

I headed to the lake path to get in a few laps. Ouch, Ouch, ouch. My calves and shins were soooo tight. I hoped they would loosen up after the first lap but no such luck. I stopped multiple times to stretch during lap 2 but it didn’t help. Lap 3 probably shouldn’t have happened but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being a big baby. It still hurt, so I called it at 3.5 miles.

Wednesday- Rest-Another earlier than normal morning and time I did take my brother all the way to SLO. That led me on a roundabout way to work but bonus- I found a new road to run on!! You know you’re a runner when you drive new roads and notice how run-able the shoulders are. I mapped it and I can run from my work location to another one and it’s around 14.5 miles. Woo hoo! Just have to figure out how to get back. 😛

Thursday- 7.5 miles– As I mentioned in Friday’s post, this run sucked. Pain, tightness, clothing issues, asthma issues, body insecurities; you name it, I had it and the run blew. I was hoping to pull off 12 but called it at 7.5. My brother took the family to pizza to thank us for the week. 🍕 Then I came home and vented about the run on the blog. I also had the beginnings of a headache so I went to bed early with an ice pack on my head.

Friday- Rest– Like all Fridays. 😀My headache had turned into a migraine. I tried drinking tons of water, caffeine, food, sugar, etc to help it but nothing worked. I even took 2 Excedrin Tension Headache pills. That was probably a mistake. I tend to have odd reactions to OTC medicines. Yeah, my pupils decided they wanted to be different sizes. I ended up going home an hour early.

Saturday- Rest– I worked in the morning and it was chaos. That seems to be the new theme for the Saturdays I work. Can it stop? Part of me wanted to run in the afternoon but I was considering another long run attempt on Sunday. I don’t usually follow the 10% rule but since 2 weeks ago saw 4.5 miles and last week 17, I decided to be smart.

Sunday -10 miles run, 3 mile walk– Holy crap people!!!! After the crappiness of this week’s runs I was not optimistic for this attempt. When my alarm went off and I saw 88% humidity for the weather, I hit snooze. I thought about blowing it off entirely, but an hour later I was heading out the door. I had zero goals for this run, I turned my watch face to the clock and then ignored it. My mother, brother and I were doing lunch so she was picking me up at the end. Erring on the side of caution, I told her to give me 2 hours.

I didn’t worry about keeping my pace slow, I didn’t worry about being fast. I ran what felt comfortable and walked when I needed to. Per usual, I picked up my pace running across the bridge, it was the only time I really felt fatigued. I kept running and was soon off road on the river path. Which turned into a running hopping dance. The path was full of stink bugs! Half a mile of watching my feet and hopping over them when needed- that added some excitement to the morning. Then it was up the hill for the river route and back down. The humidity never broke and it was still around 78% at the end of my run. I felt like a sticky, nasty mess but my lungs held up pretty well. I finished down on the river trail again and stretched out.

Then I saw my watch- 10 miles at 10:27 average pace? Where the hell did that come from? I didn’t think I had seen that pace for a long run since last year’s training for SLO. Hours later and I am still not sure how I pulled that off. And I had time to stretch and walk it out before I met my mother.

When I uploaded my figures into Smash Run later, I realized just rare this run was. I thought it had been the fastest in a year, umm, it was my fastest 10 miler since January 2014. What?!?! I’m still not sure how it happened but I will take it!

My mile splits make me laugh- typical me, all over the place. But I felt good so I’m just going to call it a win.

This week was all over the place- work, life and running included. I feel like I need another day to recover. Boo. Oh well, moving on. My hope this week is to stay consistent and pull off a new to me distance this weekend. Fingers crossed!!!!

Low-carb– umm, yeah, I had Subway 4 times this week. It just kept happening! It was easy and not horrible for you. Ugh, well, Monday is a new week right?

How was your week?

Have any Easter plans?

Training Week 12 Recap

Upcoming Races– SLO Marathon 13.1

Focus this week– Getting back on track after a sickly week.

After a less than stellar week 11 and being truthful, week 10, I was eager to get back on track. Coming clean about San Francisco also provided a good kick in the pants as well. Eagerness aside, I also knew that 2 crappy weeks didn’t mean I should go all crazy this week. So, that meant I needed a measured improvement. Umm, what does that mean?

We had a full crew at work last week for the first time in a long time. We actually had more people behind the counter than we had stools. I was actually looking forward to it, I need to sit less and what better chance?

Monday- 4 miles stationary bike– Had I realized it was going to be a short ride I would have stopped at 3.14 for PI day. But I did not. I planned on riding longer but then my mom texted me and asked if I wanted to go to Subway for dinner. For some reason, it sounded amazing so it didn’t take much to convince me.

Tuesday- 3.5 miles– I love Daylight Savings, I really do. I headed for the lake path after work. I missed it. This also means that speed work is about to make a reappearance in my life, just not today. I was taking the Launch’s for their second spin and was aiming for between 3-5 miles. My left calf was freakishly tight so it ended up being 3.5 miles. I kept a fairly easy pace but had to stop to stretch more than a few times. My back was also hurting and my stomach muscles were super sore. It’s sad how badly 2 days of standing kicked my ass.

Wednesday- Rest– Pizza night!! Also, I was still so damn sore, that I sat for most of the day. Luckily, Wednesday is a usual day off for one employee so M and I weren’t fighting for the chair. 🙂

Thursday- 4.34 miles– I finally figured out the best way to run easy- run with friends!! They say your easy pace should be a pace you can have a conversation at but it’s not like you can run and have a conversation with yourself, right? NikeC and I made plans to meet up for a run and we stuck to it! It was so great catching up!! Plus I was finally able to give her her baby shower gift! Only 4 months late.

Friday- Rest day– My boss was on vacation all week and while the week wasn’t crazy busy, there were some fires to put out. By Friday, I was feeling frazzled and needed a new fire extinguisher. Grrr. Plus my left knee started hurting towards the end of the day, pretty badly and I couldn’t figure it out. I had played catch with a 40lb box- it had started to fall so I caught it, then lost it and caught it again. Probably shouldn’t have done that.

Saturday- 9 mile long run– I am trying to switch my long runs to Saturday mornings but it’s been hit or miss the last few months. When I woke up and saw that there was heavy fog and my weather app said the humidity level was 98%, I was thisclose to saying F* it. My lungs maybe doing better but they would not appreciate that at all. They just might revolt. I had all weekend right? Then marathon training creeped into my thoughts. Other than its hills, San Francisco is known for fog. So after a few more moments of denial, I dragged myself out of my warm, cozy bed and went for my run.

I had originally hoped for 10 miles but I wasn’t sure I had enough time. The plan had been to run then meet my mom and S after tennis practice for lunch. So I was running from home across town. Which meant 7 stop lights and an unspecified amount of time spent standing still. 😛 Combine that with a slower pace due to the moisture in the air aggravating my lungs and I finished 9 miles.

Once again, my goal was to just run as easy and steady as possible. I knew I would need walk breaks and was fine with that. Overall I didn’t take as many as I thought I would. Other than the bridge miles, I kept a pretty steady 11:00 min pace, which is actually on the fast side of my current pace guidelines. The bridge mile saw a 9:41. Typical, I hate running the bridge. The mile following was also faster, coming in at 10:00. I have a serious issue running in the busy areas of town. I tend to speed up. I slowed down again by mile 6 and kept it steady until the end. I almost ate asphalt around mile 8 though. I was coming up on a stop light and was crossing through the dirt to punch the signal button. I didn’t notice the cover for the power lines and caught it with my left foot. I stumbled hard and almost went down. Luckily, flailing my arms about seemed to help me stay upright. Un-luckily, this is one of the 5 busiest intersections in town. Doh!! I recovered and finished my run. It might have been slower than my pride would like but it was where it should be right now. And it was done before lunch on a Saturday! I celebrated my getting a much needed haircut.

Sunday- 8.5 miles stationary bike– I still felt a little achy in my knee but other than that I felt pretty good. I decided to err on the side of caution though and leave my running mileage where it was at. Just shy of 17 miles was a significant improvement on the previous weeks 4.5.

Low-Carb– Ummm, oops. Monday through Thursday were great. From Friday on, not so much. And I feel puffy and gross after a few less than stellar eating days. I only have myself to blame, I should know better.

Overall, it was a pretty good week. I was feeling good about it until I realized that SLO is only 41 days away. 41 days?!?! How did that sneak up on me? I’m not ready!! Oddly, though my mileage is down from last year, my long runs have drastically improved so at least something is working. Finding the shiny, right? That said, it’s time to bring some speed work back into play. Oh crap, that sounds scary.

How was your week?

Anyone race over the weekend?

Ever almost fall in a public place?

Never say Never?

So, about that marathon thing. And how I said never.

This has been simmering for a while. A long while. January of 2015 saw my first (and only so far) 25K. 16 miles. While that is still 10 miles short of a marathon, I was out there for 5+ hours. That started me thinking. Yes, I was still 10 miles short but whatever marathon I chose wouldn’t have 3000+ ft in elevation gain or involve actual mountains. But a trail 25K was still a long way from a road marathon. The seed was planted.

Then last fall, in the middle of my running funk, I read Ultra Marathon Man by Dan Karnazes. That book will give you all sorts of crazy ideas. Plus he eats pizza while on crazy long runs- how awesome is that?! Now, a marathon was a crazy enough idea for me. I wasn’t going to running in Antarctica or any 200 mile solo runs. But even then it was still just a seedling. It was still a maybe someday, far away.

New Year’s saw me stating emphatically that this was going to be the year of no goals. After spending 2+ years chasing a sub 2 half and failing, I was burned out. Some health issues added to that as well but I was feeling fried. This was going to be the year to just enjoy running. That is still the plan. With a twist.

Running is a lot like shopping at Target... You intend to run only $30 5Ks and before you know it, you're registering for $175 marathons!!:

Back in January, in one long text message session with Ashley and Heather, we started talking about The San Francisco Marathon. Ashley loved the race and Heather and I had always thought about running it. So we made plans to all take a road trip and run one of the half marathons. San Francisco has 2- the first half and the second half. I joked that if I was going to San Francisco, I was running the Golden Gate Bridge. So we were running the 1st half. Cool, right?

Then a week or so later, they decided they wanted to run the full. Well crap. What do I do? I had 2 choices- run my first full marathon or deal with public transportation in a very large city all by myself for the first time in my life. Both were scary propositions.

I chose the marathon.

Never+say+NEVER+with+ anything++running+related...+ "Never+could+I+run+a+5k." ....+DID+IT!+ "Never+could+I+run+a+10k" ...+DID+IT! "Never+could+I+run+a+ Half-Marathon."+ ....DID+IT!+:

Here’s my thinking- it was already in the back of my mind, so why not San Francisco? I had 2 friends running it and it was a city I’ve been wanting to visit again for a long time. The potential for hills was a little intimidating but I’ve said repeatedly that I hate flat courses, right? Plus Golden Gate Bridge! And friends!

But I still wasn’t ready to commit. Remember back in January when I asked for Excel help? I was cobbling together a training plan. I affectionately call it the McHig plan. I took my customized McMillan plan from last year and worked it into a Hal Higdon Novice plan for marathon training. I started training for SF the first week of February. Surprise!

Before I would register though, I needed an escape plan. My first 16 miler falls in the beginning of April. I told myself if I completed it and hated myself or running after I would pay the change fee and drop to the half. If I pulled it off and felt ok, training would continue. Next step would be to complete a 20-22 miler in late June, early July. Same rules applied-I could drop at the race expo before the race. And lastly, if all hell breaks loose, there is a finish line at the halfway point. I could call it there and Uber myself to the finish to meet Ashley and Heather.

I had a training plan, friends to run it with and an escape plan -all I had to do was register. Except when I tried to register in February, the website refused to cooperate. It wouldn’t let me use my discount code- Ashley’s an ambassador!- and it kept throwing up an error message. I missed a price deadline because of this. Finally after a few weeks of Twitter conversations and emails back and forth with the staff of the SF Marathon, I was able to complete my registration. Holy crap, I registered for my first marathon!!

I wasn’t going to tell anyone until post SLO half but I wasn’t very successful. After some Twitter convos and IG posts, I decided to come clean. I had my first panic attack after that blog post– ha!! Shit just got real. People know now- I have to follow through! Also, now my crazy shoe buying lately seems a little more understandable.

Did I bite off more than I can chew? My plan is deliberately long, I know I will miss a few runs along the way.

Ever run San Francisco?

Words of advice?!!? Please!

February Recap- Realizations

Well, that didn’t go according to plan.

Miles– 59.8 run
29 Miles Stationary bike

Races– Surf City 13.1- 2:28:24

Originally I was planning to ramp up training for SLO post Surf City. Speed work was going to make its first appearance this year and I was going to force myself to be a grown up and go run on the treadmill. But, my lungs had other plans. With 5 rest days leading up to Surf City and the 6 days following it, I missed out on a lot of running time. And bike time, somehow I kind of forgot about the bike. I see it on a daily basis but I only rode it 3 times. Umm, oops?

So back to those pesky lungs. I closed out February with a follow up at my doctor. My chest x-ray came back clear. So the current theory is to blame El Nino. No, seriously. The El Nino weather systems have wreaked havoc on those with seasonal allergies. So we haven’t yet seen the buckets of rain that were promised but hay fever and other assorted issues are in overdrive for everyone. So, I have a shiny new rescue inhaler and still have to use a heavy duty, daily inhaler twice a day. My thyroid is also messed up, so I have a new medication there as well. Seriously, I am beginning to think I need one of those AM/PM pill containers just to keep it all straight. Stupid stomach, whiny lungs and a lazy thyroid? Grrr.

I also had some realizations in February. I don’t remember exactly when I started running but my first race was in September of 2010. So 5+ years of running and 16 half marathons later and I only just now realized that I suck at long runs. For once I am not referring to the pace or the number of walk breaks, I mean doing the runs themselves. If you had asked me I would have sworn up and down that I did a few 10 milers each training cycle and some 11 milers. Ha!! Remember in January when I ran what I said was my slowest 10 miler ever? Something about that statistic on Smash Run made me do some research. It claimed that it was my slowest 10 miler coming in at #13. 13? That didn’t seem right. So after Sunday’s more successful 10 miler I looked into my stats on the Garmin. Then Nike+.

Holy crap, in 5 years of running I’ve only run 15 10 milers? 2 11 milers and 2 12 mile runs. And I call myself a runner? A few years ago I know I used to split my long runs up but I really doubt they would make those numbers look any better. Well, that was a wake up call. I didn’t think I was that bad of a Slacker. #facepalm Do people still do that?

So, I am chalking February up as a learning experience. Or the clearing of the fog of denial I was living in. Moving into March I would like to work on making the run a consistent occurrence. Which is necessary as I have a 16 mile run on the training plan for the beginning of April. I conveniently ignored that box on the plan during last years SLO race prep. March also brings the start of daylight savings. Which means the lake path is back in play and speed work may actually happen on a somewhat consistent basis. We’ll see how the lungs hold up. Fingers crossed!

How was your February? Any plans for March?

Am I just a huge Slacker?

Ever faced a sad running realization?

Training Week 9 Recap

Upcoming Races- Wine Country 13.1?
SLO Marathon 13.1

Focus– Just like last week- Just keep running, just keep running.

This week felt insane but I am not sure why. Work was a little crazy, trying to get all the month end stuff done, giving reviews, etc but I’ve had worse. It just seemed to take a lot out of me this week. I swear I had trouble finishing sentences. I feel like I need a vacation but I’ve booked most of my vacation time this year around races. So yay but boo at the same time?

Monday- Rest For some reason, I can’t remember much about Monday. I even just checked my food log to see if there was something exciting. Nope.

Tuesday- 3.5 miles The original plan was to work a half day as I work on Saturday. However, one of the employees was feeling poorly so they went home and I stayed. Luckily my gym bag is double prepared so I had clothes to run in work town after getting off. While the marine layer stayed back, a definite haze had rolled in. My lungs did not appreciate it at all. I tried to keep the pace super easy but I was still wheezing by the end. But I was able to enjoy that sunset so score! I also had an irrational moment of tsunami panic but I got over it. We’d had an earthquake earlier in the day, the tide was farther out than I had ever seen it and not a single bird or sea lion was making a peep of noise. Like I said, irrational moment.

Wednesday- Rest day. Pizza day- woot woot!

Thursday- 5.5 mile “run”/ 7 mile stationary bike Miserable, straight up miserable. I took my rescheduled half day and I was hoping to get in my long run so I could just focus on a short run over the weekend. I like to move things around when I work on Saturday. I changed at work and drove back to home town. I had an 11 mile route mapped out and was looking forward to running. But it sucked from the get go. I couldn’t seem to get started and when I did, all I did was wheeze. I couldn’t keep any sort of pace. 2 miles in I switched to run/walk intervals. Except I couldn’t even maintain a run for 4:30. So another mile in, I changed it a 3:00 run. Nope, still couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t decide if I should call it or just keep pushing and stop being a baby. Where is the line between pushing and giving up? I told myself to just get to the next big corner and I could take a seat on the bench there and figure things out. Except there was no bench when I got there. It was too much, I plopped my ass in grass on the corner and damn near cried. I was done. I sat there for 15 minutes before finally mustering up the will power to shuffle- run the mile+ back to my car. I couldn’t even maintain a run going downhill. My feet hurt, my knees hurt, I couldn’t breathe, my legs were rubbing together uncomfortably and my shorts were riding up. I was 1/2 mile-ish shy of my car when I hit 5.5 and that was it. I turned off my Garmin and stood there for a bit. Then I took off my shoes and jogged the remainder in my socks because why not? I was hot (it was 80), tired and cranky. This was one of those runs that made wonder what I was even doing. I went home, and jumped on the bike for some miles to try and ride out the cranky-ness.

Friday- Rest Glorious. I was still frustrated after the previous day.

Saturday- Rest I think this was second most chaotic Saturday that I have worked. I was literally turning people away because I could not help them, we were so busy. I considered attempting my long run again in the afternoon but passed instead. I ran my errands, ate dinner with the family and then took my mom to the movies. We were leaning towards seeing Race but I was also trying not to think about running. We saw Deadpool. And it shows my demented sense of humor that I thought it awesome and hilarious. I can’t remember the last time I laughed like that at a movie.

Sunday- 10 miles Long run attempt 2. The plan was to head out in the morning and meet up with my mother around mile 6. That way if it sucked again I had a large walk break to look forward to. I had also stashed my Brooks in her car so I could change into them if the Nike’s were giving me grief. I slept a little longer than planned so I was rushing to get out the door. I considered putting it off until the afternoon but the more I thought about the long run, the more it stressed me out. I also realized I probably wasn’t going to pull off 6 before I met up with my mother.

I took a slightly longer walk warm up and then just tried to run easy. I turned off the run/walk intervals and changed the Garmin screen to just the clock. I took walk breaks when I felt like I needed them and just kept going. I cut the first part of the run to 5.5 miles so I could make sure I was at the meeting point in time. I also lost 5 minutes at 3 stoplights. The only split I really saw was right after I ran the bridge- 9:15. Typical, I hate running the bridge and tend speed up when I run it.

I wasn’t feeling horrible but it wasn’t all sunshine and daisies so the 1/2 mile walk break with my mom was kind of awesome. Then I picked up the pace to finish my run before meeting my mother back at her car for lunch. I just kept trying to run easy and walked when I needed to. And I tried to not think about the fact that I was now running the same route where I have had 2 blow ups on long runs in the past month. I finished down on the river path and was glad to be done. I was glad I had followed through and made myself get out of bed for my run. And it didn’t suck!! It did not feel easy but I stayed calm and watched my breathing and just kept running. 7 out of the 10 miles were all in the 10 min range which for me is very consistent. Yes, I consider all 60 seconds in that range to be consistent. Long run success!

Low carb– I would say I was around 65/35%. Not too bad. I did feel better for most of the week, so I need to keep on cutting back on the carbs. Cookies got the best of me last week. Oops.

This week was a little all over the place. Work was crazy and I think I went a little crazy as well. Hopefully I can keep my head on straight this week. Fingers crossed!!!

How was your week?

At what point do you decide a run is not worth it?