Tag: beach

oops!, Run!

Call Me Calamity

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

What do you do when a Sig alert comes across your phone saying that your route home is currently blocked due to a string a fires?

Well, first you stare dumbly at the phone.  Then you check the CHP website, followed by the local news sites, no one hurt- fires mostly contained but freeway blocked.  Hmmm, now what?  You adapt.    Running gear still in car from a failed attempt at running on Monday?   All right, time for a Tuesday run.

Running on Tuesday’s is odd.   Smashrun told me that only 7% of my runs are on Tuesdays.😛   I’d had a day where I was surprised I didn’t break something.  Slammed my fingers into things so many times I lost count, dropped things,  knocked my elbow, kicked things and popped my toes out of joint at one point.   That said I was looking forward to my first run since last Thursday.


I headed out for a run in work town.   The humidity was higher than I would like but there was no smoke so bonus points there!   It didn’t feel like a walk in the park after 4 days off but it felt so good to be out running.

That is until I hit a root on the path and went pinwheeling.

Seriously, my thoughts alternated between- “pull up!, pull up!” and ” I’m going down!”.

I swear I pinwheeled half running, half falling, arms swinging for almost 50 feet before I somehow pulled myself out of it somehow.    Then I came to complete stop, gasping for air- mostly out of shock- damn that jarred my whole body!   Geez- what else could I do to myself?  Shouldn’t have asked- I was only 2 miles into the run.  😂😂


I ran on to the turn around point and then made my way back towards my car.   Around  mile 3, I looked down at my watch once I got to a sidewalk. Only to look back up and immediately dance right. Holy sh**, phone pole in the face!!  No pausing this time, just running on to avoid embarrassment of both the pole face and some colorful language that escaped as now people were around.

Apparently I needed to be put in a protective suit on Tuesday.   😛  I finished 4 miles and drove home on mostly clear roads and tried to just not further injure myself.    Then I realized that it was my last run at that particular age so maybe I really wanted it to be memorable?  Ha! Or maybe I was saying goodbye to a hazardous year?  Who knows?

Ever have a hazardous run?

 

Run!, Slacker

Boundary Boardwalk

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

I’m socially awkward.

I wasn’t as a child.  I was obnoxious, outgoing and a bit of a daredevil.  I don’t know what happened to me.  😛

Crowds make me uncomfortable- sometimes running in public still freaks me out.    I’ve mostly gotten over it in home town.  Granted the bridge still stresses me out.  For crying out loud, I still sprint across the damn thing.  Last weeks long run saw the bridge mile clocking in at 9:14.  Which doesn’t sound that speedy until you take into account my stupid shins and the fact that I walked part of that mile too.

Running in work town?  Oh hell no.  I do it very rarely.   What if people see me?  I don’t want customers to see me in a sweaty mess.    And shorts?  Forget it.  If I run in work town, I wear capris, no matter what time of year.   Throw in the fact that I only have only the one 4 mile route and I don’t run there very often.   Too uncomfortable.

The week has been running around 105ish in hometown.   Mid 70’s at 7 am. Yay. 😭😭  I ran in work town on Monday- tried to be invisible.   Wednesday was my half day and I wanted to run but 100+ temps?  Not so much.  Whereas work town was a lovely 72.  Decisions, decisions.

I stepped outside my comfort zone.  I ran in work town.  On a new path.  In shorts.  In the middle of the day.  There were people around.  It’s summer in a beach town-  what was I thinking?

It freakin’ rocked.

Don’t get me wrong- those 4 miles kicked my ass.  First I was cold then I was hot.  The path I thought I was on turned out to be not what I thought.  My shorts rode up every 5 steps and I spent most of the run trying to discreetly dig them out of my crotch and yanking them down.  Cover those legs! My legs hurt, my shins ached.  I was sinking in the sand.  The pavement seemed too hard.  I lost the cover to my new handheld Orange Mud and didn’t even notice for 1/2 a mile. How?   I was breathing like I was sprinting but I so wasn’t.   I walked more than I would have liked.  People saw me.

But —

I ran through a tunnel of Cypress trees–


Found three stacks–


And a rock–


Like I said- this run rocked.  Can’t wait to push my boundaries ( a little) again with a longer run.   And maybe with different shorts.  😛

How do you push your boundaries?

 

 

Race Day, Recap, Run!

Bands on the Run 10K 2016

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

I love this race but man I have a short term memory when it comes to dune sand. 😝

This is my 3rd time running the 10K portion of the event and I keep cracking jokes that I get slower every year. The race benefits a local high school music program and is very low frills. Which is fine by me, I am always impressed that they have their own designed bibs. Most smaller, local races use the free Road ID ones. They offer a 5k, 10k and a half marathon. All the races are out and backs. I considered running the half in lieu of my long run that week but decided against it. I am so glad I made that choice.

Packet pickup took less than 5 minutes on Friday and that included parking. 😃 I was able to get what is a decent nights sleep for me pre-race- 6 hours- but that was only because the race had a late start. The races started at 10. 10? This is California! I have never had a race start that late. Most half marathons start at 7 or earlier, 10K’s around 8. If you’re really lucky, a 5K may start at 9. Maybe. I have troubles fueling properly on a normal basis, how the hell do I fuel for a late 10K? I know that beach races are dictated by the tides though so this must have been the best option. It was ridiculously cold when we first got to the high school so I was optimistic it would stay that way. After a fitness warm-up, the presenting of the flag, the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem, we lined up and were off!


Miles 1-2 9:35, 10:41

Mile 1 takes you around the track out the parking lot into the cypress tunnel trail and down to the beach. Since I was running this in place of the week’s tempo, I was perfectly content with mile 1. I also don’t think I could PR this course if I tried. 😝 Just before you exit the cypress tunnel to hit the beach you run through the drum line which is always awesome. Then mile 2 starts. And I pretty much came to a standstill. I’ve run 6 races on the beach but I still have no idea how to run over soft dune sand. I just keep sinking. I swear one of these times I am just going to take my shoes off and carry them. I tried to bring my pace back down once on the hard pack but the damage was done.

Miles 3-4 9:59, 10:03

I was tiring and that was not cool. I wasn’t even halfway, what was going on? I also noticed that there were more rocks and pebbles and things on the beach, then I realized how far up the beach we were. This was not low tide. We had to cross some rocks to get to the turn around point. Little rocks but they were still wet. The half marathoners were scrambling over big rocks as they kept going. To my untrained eye, it seemed like the tide was coming in but I had to have been wrong. How were the half marathoners going to come back?! Once at the turn around, I knew I only had 3 miles left and told myself to pick up the pace. Except I couldn’t seem to find another gear. The moisture in the air was aggravating my asthma but I just tried to ignore it. I just told myself to focus on running towards the rock.

From 2014, the tide was much higher on Saturday

Miles 5-6 10:42, 10:31

Damn, I’m consistent on the dune sand. Those miles are within 1 second of each other. I hit the dune sand with a lap pace of 9:40 for mile 5. By the time I was out, I was at 10:42. I was also regretting running without my headphones as all I could hear was myself sucking wind- ha! I was hoping to pick up the pace on the last mile but I was toast. The sun had come out the last 2 miles and it felt like the temp had jumped 20 degrees. Once more through the drum line and the cypress tunnel then back around the track to the finish. I saw my mother on the sidelines and tried to muster up a smile. Some of the pictures she shot show that smile, some show some truly horrible form. 😛 My Garmin shows that I picked up the pace for the last bit but I felt like I was running in quicksand.

Finish- 1:02:38
See, slowest one yet! 😉

Now, if my intention was to treat it as a true tempo for marathon training, then I mostly succeeded. My overall pace was right where I needed it to be even with dune sand miles. In all honesty though, I was hoping for a better showing. I don’t even think it was my time that disappointed me, it was how hard it felt. This was only 6 miles, how on earth am I ever going to run a marathon?!

All that aside, I still love this race. Sore calves, sand in my shoes and all. I look forward to running it next year. Maybe a little faster? 😉

Run!, Training

San Francisco Marathon Training Week 9

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

Holy crap, I’m halfway there!

I’ve yet to decide if that is reassuring or reason enough for a panic attack.  It could go either way, it just depends on the day.  😝

After week 8’s less than stellar showing I was really hoping for a better week.  What I got was a learning week.   And an injury scare.   Then I finished it all up with a tough 10K.


Monday- 5 miles. I love seeing easy miles on the plan.  However, I ran these too fast.  I was about a minute under pace for the run.  While it felt pretty good at the time, I wonder if this added to the issues that popped up later in the week.   I also ran these miles in my Pureflow’s.  I was thinking of wearing them for my race so I wanted put a few miles on them since I hadn’t worn them since the SLO half.   My toes still feel squished but other that I remembered why I loved those shoes.


Tuesday- 1.25 mile w/u, 6 x 800, 1.25 mile c/d.  Since I missed week 8’s speed workout due to a head cold, I decided to do it this week instead of jumping to the 1K repeats.    800’s are hard.   The 600’s a few weeks ago had felt pretty comfortable, these did not, these were hard.    I also had technical difficulties of the hilarious kind.   I’ve been using the workout feature on my Garmin; I create the workout online and push it to my watch so I don’t have to try and track the intervals on my own.  So I programmed in what I thought were 6 intervals of 800 with 400 meter recoveries.   I felt like my first 400 m recovery was taking forever.   I kept checking my watch but it kept saying 399.9.  What?  Come to realize that I had programmed my recovery at 400 MILES not meters.  Oops!!    So from then I just tried to ballpark when to hit the lap button to end each recovery.     I underestimated each time, oops.    My recoveries ended up being around .15.


My goal time for each 800 was 4:30-4:42.  Actual times were-  4:28, 4:23, 6:38, 4:26, 4:24, 4:23.  So yeah that 3rd 800?  I had tried to see if I could fix the 400 mile recovery but not only failed, I had also started the run interval but not realized it.   I think it would have been in the line with other ones though.

Wednesday- Rest  My legs were feeling super sore.   I wore compression socks to work and changed from boots to flats.  That might not have been the best idea.  I also had an appointment with my gastroenterologist and I have a shiny new elimination diet to start this week.   During marathon training…yay?      Also pizza night was a giant fail.  Boo.


Thursday- 8 easy miles— 3.75 miles  With a 10K race on Saturday, the plan was to swap my easy run and my tempo.   My training plan advised against this as I was supposed to step up to 8 tempo miles this week but I really like this race.   I still felt sore and tired so I headed to the river path to get in an easy 8.  Ha!   My legs hurt from the get go.   My shins hurt, my ankles hurt, my arches felt off and my knees started to ache.    I gave it 2 miles to see if it was all in my head and if I was going to be able to run it out.  No dice.  I called it at 2 and hobble ran/walked back to the car.   It hurt.   I went home and stretched, rolled and put on compression socks again.   And tried really hard not to freak out.  Thank you to Heather and Ashley for putting up with all of my whining text messages.  😂

Friday- Rest  My legs were still super sore.   I was beginning to question Saturday’s 10K.


Saturday- Bands on the Run 10K  Could have gone better but I made it through it.  More on that next post though.  Why do beach races make my calves so sore?

Sunday- 15 miles- Rest  My alarm was set for an early run but when it went off, I said no.  I had started to feel the beginning of a headache Saturday night and tried to fight it off by sleeping with an ice pack.  No luck, Sunday morning it was a full on migraine.  I shut off the alarm and slept more hoping it would ease up and I could get some miles run in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, all the afternoon saw was a 2 hour long nap.   My head hurt so bad, I didn’t even complete this post in time to go up on Monday.    Once again, I slept with an ice pack that night.

Hmmm, well 4 days is better than week 8 right?  Unfortunately my overall mileage still hovered in the low 20’s.  The leg pain kind of freaked me out and I am making an adjustment to my training plan going forward.  I am swapping my Monday easy run for Wednesday’s rest day.   I knew my training plan was intense for a Slacker like me, even with dropping Friday’s run from the get go.   So now let’s see how I feel with 3 days in a row instead of 4.  Cumulative fatigue is one thing, I am freaking tired.    Plus, who knows how these dietary changes are going to go over?  Fingers crossed!   Hopefully, my legs will get me through the week. 😀

How was your week?

How many days can you comfortably run a row?

Who else raced this weekend?

 

 

 

 

Race Day, Recap, Run!

Castle to the Coast Recap

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

First race of the year is in the books!

Castle to Coast is an 8.2 mile road race that starts at WR Hearst State Beach and runs along the highway to Moonstone Beach. It’s a no frills race with scenic views.  It starts across from Hearst Castle.   Granted the Castle is way up on the hill but on a clear day you can see it.  I have wanted to run it for the past few years but they cap it around 300 runners each time and it always sold out before I registered.   This year, well last November, I literally registered at 2 minutes past midnight the day registration opened.   I was looking forward to finally running it but then slacker December happened followed by sick January.    Oh and let’s not forget the sudden blister issue.

As I laid out my clothes on Friday night I was feeling very “meh” about it all.  Between my blister issues and the fact that I have put on a few pounds, I knew my usual race outfit of knee high Pro Compression socks and a skirt was off the table.  With temps predicted in the high 50’s I figured a tank and capris would be fine.  Just in case, I added my arm warmers.   Race morning dawned way too early but with one last weather check, I was out the door.   I had already mentally moved this from a “race” to a very public long run.   8 miles with ocean views- piece of cake right?

  

   
Pre-race-

Rain!!! That was not in the forecast.  I kept hoping it would clear up as we drove but no luck.   It was so foggy and overcast I started to wonder if I had driven past the starting point.   Then I saw a pack of Aggies warming up along the highway- we must be close.    Once parked I headed to the epically long bathroom line and my mom headed to check me in.  Benefits of small races right?  She was back with my shirt and wristband and I still hadn’t moved forward in the bathroom line.  😂  I struck up a conversation with the women behind me.  She is my new favorite person- she said I looked 24!   I also saw Ashley before the race start.  😃   I grabbed my rain jacket from my gym bag at the last minute, it wasn’t raining hard but it was enough to get you wet and cold.   The start line was about 1/4 up the road so we all headed that way.   This is very low key event- no bibs, no timing chips, just a starter pistol at the start.  I started towards the back of pack which might not be the best idea for a gun timed race but I was just aiming for a steady run.

Miles 1-4  9:54, 10:06, 10:03, 10:08

And we were off!  We ran past the cutest little general store right at the start.  It was so overcast that the castle was completely covered up.   We went up a side street and then we were on the highway.  I should mention that the roads were not closed so we were running along the highway.  In the rain.  With cars.   My hood fell back by mile .5 and I decided to just leave it down.  I was about a mile in when I noticed something odd with my right foot.  The Vaseline was doing its job but my toes felt weird.  My shoe was full of water!  I could literally scrunch my toes and it felt like I was wringing out a towel and not my sock.  My watch was covered by my jacket sleeve so I just tried to keep what felt like a steady pace.    I started to get hot so I unzipped my jacket.  Miles 2 and 3 felt rougher than I would have liked and are kind of a blur.  I just kept my eyes forward and kept putting one foot in front of the other.   I knew there was a water station at mile 4 so seeing that meant I was halfway there.  Woo hoo!

   

 Miles 4-8-  10:15, 10:09, 10:06, 9:56

By now I was super warm and there was a small hill in sight.  I knew I was going to slow down running up it so I used that mile to take off my jacket and tie it around my waist.  Which meant I could now see my watch and my pace.   I did my best to ignore it and just kept running.   Left foot then right, then curl my toes to try and move the water around.   A little past mile 6 we turned off the highway onto a side street and headed for the finish.  This street was longer than I thought and I started to worry that my mom might not have found the finish line.  I hadn’t really given her directions and while running I realized I had given her the wrong street name.  Oops!   I was tiring and just wanted to be done.  I was so happy to see the finish line.  First race done!

Finish-  8.28 miles- 1:23:11

   

 So yeah, that was about 7 minutes slower than my last 8 mile race.  But 8.2 mile races are an automatic PR right?   Official results aren’t posted yet but I think my Garmin is pretty accurate.    I started way back in the pack and it was gun timed.    This was not the race I would have liked to run but in reality it went exactly like I expected.  I know I am out of shape right now but haven’t done a whole lot to fix it.  I think the reality of this race will give me the kick in the ass I needed.    As far as long runs go, it was a great pace.  As for race pace?  Umm, not so much.  However I am pretty impressed with the consistency of my splits.  I don’t think I’ve ever run a steadier race.   I love how you can tell the hill was in mile 5.  😝   Something else that I am happy about?  I did not take a single walk break, I ran the entire damn thing.  I can’t even tell you the last time that happened.

The finish line area was a little disorganized.  There were giveaways but I’m not sure how it was working.  I met up with my mom and then later Ashley and we chatted a bit before heading out.  Not only had my mother found the park but she beat everyone else there.  She literally parked my car next to the finish line.   😝

The ocean view was pretty in a stormy, cloudy kind of way but I wish I could have run this race in the sun.  And not just because I was soaking wet.  I may consider running it again next year but not sure.  The cost is great-$30- but I am still on the fence.  We’ll see.

Ever run on an open highway?

Race in the rain?