Tag: asthma

Training Week 8 Recap

Upcoming race– SLO 13.1- May 1

Focus– Just keep running, just keep running.

This week was an improvement over last week. Since ignoring my little lung issue for pretty much all of January, I am trying to pay more attention to how I am feeling and actually listen this time. I am also refocusing on eating a low carb diet but more on that later.

Monday- Rest I had the day off and I usually like to run on those days but instead I rested. I had my doctor’s appointment followed by a chest x-ray. Yay for the labs being open on a holiday.

Tuesday- 3.4 miles The fallen tree run. 🙂 Another day avoiding the treadmill and running from work.

Wednesday- Rest It was also my cheat day for pizza. Sadly, it wasn’t as good as it usually is. Boo.

Thursday- 3.1 miles I had a meeting at the end of the day but on the upside it was in home town! I was able to make it home before 5, sweet! I planned on changing quickly and heading out for a run. However the dog had other plans. She went nuts over someone in the neighbors yard. It took me 15 minutes to corral her. Once running, I realized I had overestimated how much time I had until the sun set. Oops. And because I had been frazzled by the dog I had left my flashlight behind. Double oops. Even though the run was shorter than I had hoped it was a pretty good one. Again, I tried to keep my pace slow and easy. It’s kind of sad that mile 3 was around 10:00 min. pace and it felt like it was at tempo pace.

Friday- Rest Work was stressful and I was so glad to see the end of the day.

Saturday- 10.93 miles With Heather! Heather, Ashley and I have been trying to meet up and we made it work on Saturday. Ashley couldn’t join us for the run but we met up with her later. I met up with Heather early on Saturday morning to run one of her routes. I apologized from the start that I was going to be slow and wasn’t sure how far my lungs were going to let me get. I was hoping for 10. We set out at a comfortable pace and just kept trucking. I don’t usually run with people so I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to talk and run at the same time. I don’t think I did too bad! The route was nice, we ran along parts of hwy 1 and streets in Pismo. Running past the cinnamon roll store was brutal- it smelled so good!! My lungs held up well on the way out but got fussy on the way back. I had to take more than a few walk breaks, boo. My legs and my body felt fine but every now and then I just had to slow down, it became too difficult to get in air. I kept apologizing for slowing down. But we finished! Back to the cars at 10.93 miles. I laughed over the mileage.

From there we cleaned up a bit before heading over to meet Ashley for brunch. We met at Custom House and I had heard really good things about their churro style french toast. So even though it broke all the diet rules, I had to try it right? Sadly, I wasn’t blown away. The bacon was amazing though. Know what else was amazing? Lunch with friends! We caught up on what’s been going on and planned some fun race trips for the future.

Sunday- Rest Ummm, I took a 2 hour nap. Can’t decide if it was an oops or awesome.

So other than I seemed to forget all about the bike this week, it was a pretty solid week. I was able to get in some decent miles that didn’t leave me hating either myself or running after. Looking to this week, the plan is to keep running easy and just take each run as it comes. I also need to get back on the bike and get in some miles there as well.

Food– I stopped talking about my diet for a while because let’s be honest- I wasn’t low carb or paleo at all. However in the hope of keeping myself accountable, I am going to start sharing a little recap on these posts. I am working on transitioning back to a lower carb lifestyle. With pizza thrown in once a week of course. This week was pretty good- I would say I was around 55/45%. Which doesn’t sound great but it’s epically better than I was previously. I also had a donut last week. When one of the company presidents makes a special trip to bring your location donuts- you eat them!

How was your week?

The Jury’s Still Out

Before I get to the boring medical stuff, how’s this for a roadblock-

That thing is huge!   And was standing 2 weeks ago.   Wonder when that came down.

Why do I hope for answers from a doctors appointment when those have been so rare in the past? Particularly from this doctor. The only time I have ever seen him show any kind of emotion or urgency was when I was attacked by a dog a few years ago. Anyways, after a scheduling headache last week, I was able to see my doctor on Monday. He ordered a chest x-ray and some blood work and gave me a snazzy new inhaler to try. Instead of a rescue inhaler, it’s a daily use inhaler. Boo, I’m so over medications. My medicine drawer is looking a little crowded. But, I would like to run without gasping for air. Also, a rush at work shouldn’t leave me feeling winded. So hopefully these tests will shine at least a little light on what’s been going on.

That being said, I had a pretty good run on Tuesday. I took the Nike Free RN’s for another little test spin. I set out to run super slow. I was hoping I could maintain a slow, easy pace without any walk breaks. I was running from work so I was a little concerned about the humidity but I was hoping a nice and sloooow pace would keep my breathing under control. This route is not conducive to a slow start though-

I kept my pace calm and just kept trucking. I was feeling ok and enjoying the sunset on the ocean. I was also debating if I wanted to run 3 or 4 miles. I had gotten out of work a little later so the sun was setting quickly. I had remembered my flashlight though and I had my blinky lights on my belt. I love the turn around point for the 4 mile route but thought 3 might be the better idea as the return to my car is always slower. I was feeling sluggish but ok and was going to push for 4 when the roadblock pictured up top put a stop to that. Boo. I never quite realized how damn big the trees in the eucalyptus grove were before. I’m glad I wasn’t running when it came down!

I made it back to my car just before total darkness fell. One bonus about starting so slow? I negative split this route for the first time ever! #findtheshiny right?

How has your week been going?

Ever run into a roadblock like that?

Week 7 Training Recap

Upcoming Races– SLO Marathon- Half

Focus– Recovery

This will be a quick recap. This week shaped up a little fluffier than planned. Not a lot of exercise but eating like I ran a marathon. Or 2. Oddly, I was fine during race weekend and even Disneyland. It wasn’t until Tuesday that I went off the rails. A post race week combined with hormones = #eatallthethings.

Monday- Disneyland!! According to my Up band, we walked around 7 miles that day. Not too bad. My legs held up pretty well, I didn’t really feel sore from Surf City but there were moments my mother left me in the dust. Mostly going up, walking up to Super Hero HQ was a little rough.😁

Tuesday- Rest My chest was hurting pretty badly on Tuesday. I had the day off and thought about riding the bike or going for a short run but decided to pass on it. Instead I caught up on all the laundry from the weekend and worked on some computer issues that I had been having. The computer is fixed but I want to throw my printer out the window.

Wednesday- Rest Back at work and I had a meeting a few towns south in the morning. I kind of feel like I spent the day driving all over the county, so it was a planned rest day. Plus my chest was still sore.

Thursday- 12 miles stationary I had packed my running gear and was looking to try for a short run after work. I still felt a little bruised but nothing like the past few days. However a dense marine layer rolled in around closing time so I took it as as a sign to not push my lungs. I headed home for the bike instead.

Friday- Rest Like always. 😛

Saturday- Shoes! With spring races on the horizon and big plans for the summer, I need to figure out my shoe situation. While my Pure Flow’s aren’t making me bleed anymore, they are not making my feet happy either. My left foot in particular. With that in mind, I headed down to SLO for a little bit of shopping and ended up at the Running Warehouse. Uh oh. It was busy but someone was able to help me fairly quickly. I’m horrible because I don’t remember his name! After explaining all the issues I had been having lately, he brought out 3 pairs of shoes for me to try- New Balance Vazee Pace, Saucony Kinvara 6 and the Pure Flow 5’s.

The New Balance felt great when I was sitting but horrible once I stood up and walked around. The Kinvara’s were super snug. I didn’t want to go up a size because I regret it every time I do. The newer Pure Flow’s were odd. They are firmer than they used to be. I didn’t feel any pinching in the heel and the arch support felt ok but the tongue was ridiculous! It’s harder now so it felt like a piece of plastic digging into my ankle. What is with that?! Based on what I liked and didn’t like, he then brought out a pair of Brooks Launch 3’s. They felt the best out everything but they still felt like a lot of shoe. I’ve really liked the lower heel- toe drop of the Pure Flow 4’s and the smaller foot print of the toe box. He then brought out a pair of Nike’s- the Free Run Distance. Say what?

I’ve tried on numerous pairs of Nike’s over the years and hated every single one. Which is odd since all my tennis shoes were Nike’s. I was predisposed to hate this pair, then I put it on. Holy crap, it felt like a slipper. Snug but not tight and with a 4mm drop. Now, it felt great in the store but running could be a different story. But it was the best fit and I ended up leaving with my first pair of Nike running shoes.

Oh and I had dvr’ed the marathon trials and watched them that night. How awesome was that? Shalane and Amy were amazing and the perfect example of #runningrelationshipgoals.

Sunday- 6 miles First run in a week and it was rough. I was hoping that all the extra rest would have helped my lungs but not so much. My training plan called for a 90 minute progression run but I had mentally changed that to an easy 8 since I wasn’t feeling great since the race and hadn’t run. I started out the run in my new shoes but knew I might end up looping back to the house if they didn’t work. Usually I try to break in my shoes with 3-4 mile runs. My warm up walk was a little longer than usual and felt pretty good but running was hard. I was huffing and puffing a mile in. I wasn’t wheezing, it just felt like it was harder to get in a decent amount of air. I ran slowly and took regular walk breaks. I called it at 6, I didn’t have another 2 in me today. The shoes felt pretty good. I started the run with some soreness and twinging in my left knee but that’s been there since Thursday. It actually got better by the end of the run. They held up well today but I am cautious to see how they do once I run in them more.

So this week ended up being on the lazier side of recovery with only 2 workouts. But I am ok with that as I needed a wake up call to make me go to the doctor and Surf City was that call. My appointment is Monday and I am really hoping that it is something that can fixed fairly quickly. Fingers crossed! I am trying not to plan to far ahead into next week until I hear what he has to say.

How was your week?

Ever had to change your mind about a brand of shoes?

Did you watch the trials?

2016 Surf City Recap

Race- Surf City 13.1

Location- Huntington Beach, CA

Saturday-

After the hotel snafu of Saturday and once I accepted that I would not have a nice, leisurely race morning- after my mother and I had mapped out a long, circuitous route to the race start- I realized the even bigger mistake I had made. I hadn’t packed any water. What? How?! I had a bottle of Gatorade and my Skratch Labs but no water outside of what I had drank on the drive down. Face palm. So after a yummy dinner at Red Robin- water, lettuce wrapped burger and a few fries for me- we stopped at a Walgreen’s. Where I bought 8 bottles of water. 🙂 Then it was back to the hotel for a little downtime before I headed to bed early. And proceeded to wake up every hour on the hour. Grrr.

Race day-

Luckily, I have my pre-race ritual down, so I don’t have to get up too early. As of right now, I am still racing on an empty stomach and it has been working out. The race had a 7:45 start but I wasn’t planning on being there super early, I knew it would be a while before my corral crossed the start line. My mom was able to drop me off a few blocks from the start line a little before 7:30. Another bonus about arriving “late”? No line at the port-a-potties. Except the damn thing almost blew over with me in it!

Ok, the corrals. Serious cluster-f***. What is the point of asking a participant their projected finish time if it’s not used for corral placement? More than a few people in my corral were in a similar position. I put down a projected 2:10 finish time. The 3:30 pacers were about 2000 people ahead of me. Seriously. I considering jumping corrals but at that point it was already so late. Grrrr. My corral crossed the start line around 8:15.

Miles 1-3 10:09, 10:14, 10:09

My plan was to treat this like a well supported long run and hopefully maintain around a 10:00 min pace. Mile 1 started out ok. My legs felt good and my pace felt good. Mile 2 required more dodging. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with people walking at races- however if you are walking 6 people across in the first 2 miles of a race- we have an issue! This happened more than once. Then the first water station was a crowded mess but I had learned from last year that this was the case and just avoided it all. I also a music snafu in mile 2. I had started my playlist in the starting corrals and paused it. When I pushed start around mile 2, Christmas music started playing. What?!

Miles 4-6 10:30, 10:54, 11:08

By my standards, this course is flat, the only real hill is in mile 4. I was excited to see it as I had an ankle ache that I needed to run out. And I did but I was starting to realize that I was having troubles catching my breath. I didn’t feel like I was pushing hard but I was starting to wheeze. I took a quick walk break to try and get things under control. It didn’t really help. There was a little down hill coming up and I was hoping to make up some speed but I just kept slowing down. My inhaler wasn’t helping either. Mile 6 is where I got real. This breathing issue is not new. I have been having troubles since I was sick in January. It’s more than my usual asthma, it comes with some odd chest pain, but I was hoping that denial would make it all go away. Because that works so well, right? Yeah no. I called my mom during mile 6 and let her know I was having some issues but was going to tough out. I didn’t need her getting the real time runner alerts and wondering what the hell was going on. 🙂

Miles 7-9 11:50, 11:35, 11:37

New game plan was a run/ walk plan. 4:30 of running and 1:00 of walking. The running was slow so I was hoping that these intervals would keep me moving but not gasping for breath. I changed my watch face to just show the interval times so I had no idea what my overall time was. This was a long section of out and back so I was able to see Ashley of RatherbeRunnin’ coming back on the other side of the highway looking strong. Luckily the course is scenic so I was able to enjoy the view. I also had time to people watch. PSA here, a fabric may be black but that does not mean that it is opaque! If I can see the moles on your butt- wear underwear!! Ok, PSA over.

Mile 10- 13:04

This was a struggle. Even 4:30 seemed like way too long to run. I was wheezing and the inhaler was useless. We ran through the Cliff shot zone in mile 10 and I grabbed a citrus and a mocha one. Both have caffeine and I was hoping for a Hail Mary pass and that one would help. I walked a lot. The finish line seemed so very far away.

Miles 11-13 12:17, 11:50, 11:36

I was beginning to think this was going to be my slowest half yet. And it was getting so hot. I had been drinking water at each station but now I was dumping it down my back too. The volunteers were also having troubles keeping up with the demand for water. There were some stations out of cups. I am hoping more were on the way as there were thousands of people behind me still. I was trying to stick to my intervals but the walking sections were getting longer. It was getting more crowded on the course as well. I accidentally smacked a guy in the crotch when he came up on my right. Oops!!! Sorry! I just kept moving towards the finish line, the increased crowd support was helping. I walked the beginning of mile 13 and then ran the rest in. I crossed the finish line gasping and wheezing and promptly burst into tears.

Finish- 2:28:24

Not my slowest!!! I collected my medal and avoided all the photographers. I heard my mom and thought I was losing it but then realized she was on the other side of the fence. I made my way through the recovery stations and then out of the chute into the crowd. I met with my mom and headed to a curb to sit. My legs felt good but I was so tired from fighting my lungs for so long. It gave me time to admire my medal though- it’s huge!!!! And was fought for. But it was also a lesson in something I should already know- you can’t ignore things and hope they go away. It doesn’t work like that. Was this race I wanted? No. But every rough race is a lesson learned, right? I still got to run with thousands of other crazies like me. 🙂 And for the record- I have a doctor’s appointment next week.

They were some things I didn’t like about the race this year but overall it is a good race. The weather is gorgeous- just bare in mind that temps hit the high 70’s. Perfect beach weather post race. 🙂

The day was finished out resting in the hotel watching the Super Bowl- yay Broncos!! I needed some time off my feet—I had big plans for Monday—-Disneyland!!!!! But I’ll save those adventures for next post. 🙂

Mid Week Musings-3

Woo hoo, it’s Wednesday! WordPress tells me this is the third time I’ve posted with my mid-week musings, so here we go.

D.E.R- Smart Choices-

As in Don’t Even Register. I’ve never DNS’d a race because I register super late. I figure I’d rather pay $20 more than lose the whole registration fee. My post back in May laid out my summer race schedule. It listed a 25K trail race on August 1. Which I really, really want to run. But let’s be real here, I haven’t been on a trail since April. I am not in any kind of shape for a 3200’+ elevation gain. And it’s by the beach. Hello humidity. While I was struggling through the last humid miles at Shoreline, I came to the conclusion that a humid 25K just might kill me. That struggle bus was fueling some dramatic thoughts apparently. So, I decided that a 12K with 1400′ climb would be fine, a little fun with a little difficulty too. Then there was my leg and let’s be real there too, it’s been bothering me for a while now. It’s not a new thing. It’s not like I’ve never done dumb things before (i.e. Ventura half on heavy-duty antibiotics, a 5K after an asthma filled 10k -September makes me stupid) but I am trying to be smart here. So from 25K to 12K to 0. Which makes me cranky since our area has 2 trail races a year and this was the last long distance option until Fall 2016. Waah! Or so I thought. 🙂 The one I ran in January is coming back in November. 7 days after the Big Sur Half. Yup, I’m still crazy. Just not running next weekend. 🙂

That leg though-

After hiding from the lightning and thunder on Sunday, and the oppressive humidity left behind on Monday, I was ready to try running. Seriously, I’ve never seen 95% humidity in home town and work was a lovely 100% when I arrived that morning, thanks Delores. On Tuesday, I changed and headed back to home to run. I met my mom at the river path which was cool because I was actually really nervous to run so I ended up walking the first mile with her. From then on I tried to run and just keep things easy. I focused on how my leg felt and worked on my turn-over. I know my left hip drops and I need to work on my form. And now with no races in August, I can work on my form, like back to re-form school for slacker runners. Oof, that was bad. 🙂 Anyways, the run was pretty good. My leg felt achy but not in pain. I paused for a stretch break after each mile and I made sure to stretch really well after my run and later. I also iced my leg for a bit. Now, let’s see what happens.

Yeah, so not a clothing model

A Fab Choice?

Back on July 4th I finally caved to one of those Facebook ads and signed up for a Fabletic’s outfit. They were offering an outfit for as low $15 so I figured why not. After their little questionnaire, the site suggested a few outfits. I didn’t buy any of those but finally chose one on another page. Shorts, tank and visor for less than $20 after taxes. I wore the shorts and tank on Tuesday’s run. Somehow, I’ve already misplaced the visor. 😦 I sized up for both pieces which worked well with the shirt as I think my normal size would have been too small. The waistband on the shorts feels super loose so a smaller size may have worked but damn they are short in the back. The material felt slightly heavy when on and I was less than enthused with the shorts on that first mile. They kept riding up. Grrr. Somehow running made all the irritation go away. 3 miles of running and both pieces were perfectly behaved. I even forgot the shirt was new, it fit so well. The second I started walking my cool down, the shorts went back to riding up. WTH?! So, overall I am not hugely impressed but not overly disappointed either. More of a meh. Why can’t Lulu be more affordable?

Tips for correcting form issues?

Ever tried Fabletics? Thoughts?