Tag: beach

36-Vacation

I spent the last week sleeping in, not doing my hair, not wearing eyeliner. No alarms, no phone calls, no emails. Ok, that’s a lie, I checked my emails a few times.

I also ran/ walked more miles in the last 10 days than I did in July and August combined. That said, it was still less than I had hoped.

The original vacation plan was the 2 race weekends but COVID. The second plan was to road trip and visit some National Parks. I even ordered new trail shoes and a fancy new pack from Orange Mud. Not that I really needed an extra reason to buy those. But other things put those plans on hold. Reality was a staycation with a little shopping and a little adventuring. And a lot of melting… but we’ll get to that.

The vacation fun started with the previous weekend’s runs. I had planned on a run on Monday, but my stomach decided to remind me that it was an asshat. Boo.

Tuesday, I wanted to break in the new trail shoes but was still feeling a little off. So I headed for the lake path. I think it’s been more than a year since I ran there? I miss it but it’s no longer on my way home from work. Boo. I did 4ish laps of the lake, switching directions while testing my shoes. The lake looked good, I have to say that it had more water than I had expected. I really need to get back there more often. 4.88 miles. And yes, I could have run back and forth until I hit 5 but nah.

Wednesday, I rested in prep for Thursday’s adventure. My legs were slightly sore from almost 15 miles in 4 days. That was more than I ran in July.

Thursday was The Pinnacles! I haven’t been in years, my goal was to reach the top and not get lost. I loaded my pack, my mother prepped and we were off! We got there early in the morning but it was already hot. We’re in the middle of a heatwave here in CA, yay. We started the climb and boy it just got toastier. I was feeling pretty good actually. We got slightly turned around for a moment at the top but success! The High Peaks Trail at the Pinnacles throws all sorts of fun things at you- quasi steps in the rocks, a railing so you don’t fall, and even more tiny “steps” down. The plan was to do the High Peaks and continue on to the old trail before looping around the caves. It would have been around 10ish miles. There’s one last junction which will take you back to the parking lot around mile 3 but after that there is no shortcut. Period. My mother was having a rough time- and if she reads this, she’ll be pissed I wrote that- and I convinced her we had to take the shortcut. She was bummer but hey we got to go through a tunnel! We came out around 5 miles but I know my GPS had some issues.

Oh, Friday…. I had plans to run the 5K portion of the Giant Race Lou Seal Challenge but it was 110. Oh and the air conditioner in my house died. The Friday of the hottest weekend of the year. Oh crap.

Saturday, I was up and off to the beach for the 10K portion of the Lou Seal Challenge. I straight up ran away from the heat- we hit 117. I enjoyed lovely mild beach weather for all 6.2 miles. Yay! But more about that next post. Then it was back to heat.

Sunday, I meant to run the 5K. I mean it was the actual race day after all. However my beach run had left me with some nasty blisters. On both feet. The one on my right foot was the problem. I have never had a blister that big before. What the heck?? I wore the same shoes and socks I used for all my beach runs and never had a problem before- I even kept my feet dry until the very end. Boo. Staying in my house and being lazy wasn’t awesome- it was 93* in my house. My cats are miserable. The dog can be hosed off, they can’t. Every fan possible is running in this house.

So that brought my weekly mileage to just under 16. Not marvelous but massively better that the rest of the year. I’m not calling it a comeback yet. Will my motivation last once I return to work?

How was your week?

19- Tide

I think I finally found some calm last week.

It wasn’t all sunshine and roses but the stress level decreased, I slept a little better and things were generally calmer. I am still sitting on some news before sharing it here but I was able to share it with the people who needed to know. Ok, that sounded more ominous than I meant it to.

And last week was full of creature encounters. We had a lizard get in the building at work and it took us 3 days to catch it and release it. A spider was lurking above my bed. A bat or a bird flew into my bedroom window in the middle of the night.

Anyways.

I was feeling spunky on Monday so I headed out for a few miles. I returned to the river path and while I stuck to the paved path, it was glorious. I so missed that route. I was equal parts impressed and embarrassed when an 8 year blew past me. He was on his way down the hill and I was going up. I didn’t feel any better when he blew past me when we were going the opposite directions either. Ha!! I did wonder why he was by himself though. While I loved the air and route of my run, my legs informed me that I should have rested after the previous day’s trail adventures. 3+ish miles.

Tuesday saw me listening to my protesting calves and sore foot and resting.

I was eager to run on Wednesday but my stomach had other plans. My rule of thumb is that if I am still getting sick 30 minutes before closing, running isn’t happening.

So of course, Thursday was the hottest day of the year so far. 95 degrees. I am slow as it is these days, so I was not ashamed of any walking. I ran when I wanted to and walked when I wanted to. I did keep it short though- 2 miles.

Work things were happening on Friday and I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Saturday and I promised my mother for Mother’s Day we could try the beach for a run as long as it wasn’t crowded. Yay for clouds! She walked and I ran. I knew the humidity was going to do a number on my lungs so I told her I was only going to do 3 miles. Then I figured the pier had to be less than 2 miles from the dog beach where we started and I wanted to get to the pier. I was very wrong. The pier was 5k from the dog beach, ha! So my 3 mile run turned into 6 plus. I also have the habit of never checking the tide so I was racing the high tide. Some places I came to a crawl as I had to go over rocks. My shoes and socks were so drenched that I took them off after 5 miles and did the last bit barefoot.

As I had already cleared more miles this week than so many of the past weeks, I wasn’t stressing a run on Sunday. Instead, I finally cleaned my car. Oh boy, it needed it. And tires but that’s another story.

So just under 12 miles for the week. It’s sad that that is an improvement but it is what it is. Gotta keep moving forward.

How was your week?

Week 32- Ragged

I was so glad that I didn’t have any races to worry about this week.

With all of the conversion craziness and trying to stay somewhat ready for Salinas Valley, I was beginning to feel a little run down. As much as I want to run all the miles to get my numbers back up, I also need to not break myself. And this was my thought process before the stomach flu tore it’s way through the office. So glad I’d already decided to keep things chill this week. 😛

Monday- 3.55 miles I had taken the day off as a vacation day post Salinas with the hope of getting some rest and catching up on some things I woefully behind on. Umm, not so much. But I did make it to the new trail in run town for a few miles up and down. The trail is great, the drive to the parking lot though is ridiculous.

Tuesday- Rest Sticking to any sort of post work schedule has been difficult.

Wednesday- Rest I am sure I did something but I don’t remember what it was. 😛

Thursday- 3.1 miles I had zero desire to run after work. None. The long days were catching up to me. But I changed and started driving towards home. I ended up at the River path and told myself a mile was better than nothing. I started out walking and had a hard time convincing myself to run but eventually I started. I expected the crappiest run ever however I ended up running the smoothest, most consistent miles since marathon training last year. I stopped once when I thought I heard a stray kitten. If you follow me on IG then you might know that I spent a few moments looking for it in the bushes before thinking that this might be a good way for creepers to lure people into the bushes. 😛 Ok, the exhaustion is making me delusional.

Friday- Rest Yay, it’s Friday! It was the first time I worked the late shift without opening too in months. I couldn’t remember what time to set my alarm for, ha!

Saturday- 4 miles After spending some time shopping in SLO, I hit up a path in work town that I haven’t been on since last year. I love it but there are parts that I don’t feel comfortable by myself in the evenings. This time it was the early afternoon and I took my mother along for the ride. 😛 The route is great and very scenic but about a mile from the car my left leg did that buckling in pain thing again. WTH?! I hadn’t felt it all week and I now I felt like it was going to knock me flat. Grrr.

Sunday- Rest I was still super tired and with my leg acting all wonky, I decided not to push it. There are races I would like to run in October and I can’t do that if my leg is still giving me fits. Stupid leg. Where’s my foam roller?

10.65 miles for the week. Not great but not too bad either. I stayed upright during the stomach flu epidemic and my leg didn’t start screaming until Saturday, so I was able to get in some decent short miles. Now if I could just figure out what is going on with my leg.

How was your week?

Any tips for odd leg pain in the groin area?😛

Random thoughts on the run?

Call Me Calamity

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?

Boundary Boardwalk

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–