calamity – Slacker Runner

Upcoming Races-

SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

This was an odd one.

I ran but not enough. I lifted but not enough. I had an odd headache on Wednesday, my side pain became a little worse and then my back started hurting towards the end of the week. Really?? I can’t blame the lifting because I barely did it this week.

I also stupidly dropped a migraine pill down the side of my recliner on Thursday evening and spent 3 days tearing the chair apart, vacuuming sides trying to find the damn thing. Meanwhile my cat was confused as to why she wasn’t allowed in my room for 3 days. Surprisingly the chair still holds together after I put it back together- although I feel a little crooked.

This training week called for a step back week and a 5K race. However that didn’t fit my not running life schedule. Plus I have a 5k scheduled for the following week. So I decided to flip weeks 6 and 7. Except somehow I still screwed it up.

The week should have played out like this- a 6 mile run, 5 mile run and a 9 mile long run. 4 Liift4 workouts sprinkled around for cross training.

And reality?

Monday-Liift4
I had planned on running after work but we got out really late. Combine that with who beats who game I play with the cleaners and that I had already seen their truck pull in and I just decided to push the run to Tuesday. Then I ended up stuck in traffic on the way home. However I stuck to the lifting plan.

Tuesday-Rest
I had plans for running and plans for Liift4 but my side pain which is mostly tolerable these days was intense. Something I did that day must have angered it but I don’t know what. But considering I am 8 months in without a diagnosis who knows???

Wednesday-1.2 miles
Epic fail! I headed to the lake path for a 4 miler but all of my gear was in the wrong places in my car. As I was getting my pepper spray from my gym bag as opposed to my pack, I put my car key down on the front seat. Can you guess what comes next? Yep. Locked my key in my car. Tried all my doors and pushing the windows down. Nope. I talked my parents into getting my spare and driving it to me on the caveat that I take them to dinner after. 😛 I then squeezed in a lap of the lake while waiting for them. In all honesty, I may have called it at a lap anyways as there were 2 total creeper cars on the backside of the lake.

Thursday-5 miles -tempo intervals
Not gonna lie, after the previous days’ fiasco and the last week of rough running, I was not feeling this run. And for some reason, I thought I had a 40 minute tempo on the plan. We were under an air quality warning the latter half of the week so I broke the tempo into intervals- it was supposed to 15-15-10 but it was more like 12-12-6. I ran a completely different route than normal and there was a hellacious headwind that damn near shoved me backwards in the last interval. I made up for it in the cool down though when I inadvertently hit an 8:30 pace for 1/2 mile thanks to The Big Gigantic. Oops, not how to cool down. Then the chair drama started.

Friday-Liift4
More chair drama. I searched for hours and tore the thing apart to no luck. Grrr.

Saturday-Rest
I had a work event at the homeless shelter in the morning. I was thankful for the chance to help out, I’ve missed helping out since it’s been a few years since we ran a dinner night each month. This event was a walk and I was calling on all years of race experience working the registration tables.
Afterwards I went home and performed more surgery on the chair and was finally successful. The pill was found! After that I was in a cleaning mode so I kept organizing a few things before running some errands and then being lazy.

Sunday- 8.23 miles
When my alarm went off in the morning, I kind of growled at it. I just wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t feeling like doing much of anything. I made a quick trip to SLO to the Running Warehouse to exchange the Neuro’s and then came home and took what was supposed to be a 20 minute nap. An hour later I finally decided to head out for my run. I wasn’t feeling like a long run anymore so I figured I would just run a short run and break in the new shoes instead.

And yet, I kept running. Up one hill and down the other. There’s a reason I don’t do long runs in my neighborhood. I stopped twice to BodyGlide my heels as I felt a blister forming from the new shoes. I told myself to bring a band aid but forgot. Oops. A funny moment happened around halfway when I ran past a car that had been in an accident. It looked like it had been rear ended- it still had the bumper of the other car attached- and the it had hit something else. They must have it had towed there but it still smelled like a car accident- that metal on metal on burnt plastic smell? Apparently that brings back memories for me as I kind of started to hyperventilate. 😛 I’ve been in a few accidents but until today I wouldn’t have said that smell would trigger any reaction. On the return route I went a different way.
For not wanting to run my long run, I ended up running all 8. Only to check the plan later and realize it should have been 9. Oops.

14.52 miles for the week. How did I ever come close to 1000 miles in a year once?

How was your week?

Upcoming Races-

Rock n Roll San Diego 13.1- race week!!!!

Short weeks always seem to be just a little bit harder than they should be. Short weeks right before you go on vacation and you’re trying to make sure you get everything off your checklist done so no one else has do it? Just that much harder. However I had the prizes of both a race trip to San Diego and vacation at the end so I just buckled down.

I think. I feel like I forgot something.

Monday- Rest (Memorial Day) I hate wasting a non work day with rest, I usually love getting more miles in but I also needed to get a few things done first. One of those things was cleaning out the inside of my car as it was long overdue and I managed to overheat while doing so. I mean, yes it was 95, but still that is kind of sad. It took me super long to cool down and by then I just decided to make up the miles sometime during the week.

Tuesday- Rest The day back after a 3 day week is usually super busy so I prepared for that and did not take running gear.

Wednesday- 4.1 miles I headed to the river path for a few miles. I have a training app that told me to do intervals and the Squadrunner app that had a mission of 6K but I was feeling fussy and not sure what I was going to do or what my glute/hip was going to let me do. So I just let my legs do what they wanted. It turns that was a 4.1 mile progression run. Who knew? My hip/glute felt super tight for the first 2 miles, I warmed up with my usual 1/2 mile walk but also did a few lunges and some other stretches at that point. It eventually loosened up and I felt ok by the end of the run. Sitting; later was a different story.

Thursday- Rest I took my running gear to work but I needed to get some things at the store before the weekend’s race trip so I decided to do that instead. I planned to start packing as well but I all I really did was pull together part of my race day outfit.

Friday- Packing– Holy crap, work was so damn busy. I drove home feeling fried. If I run this race next year, I am taking the Friday before off. I was scrambling to pack and now wondering why I put it off and had the feeling I was going to forget something. It was damn near my sports bra. I packed everything and had finally sat down for a moment to relax when I suddenly realized I hadn’t packed one! How did I forget that?

Saturday- Travel day Oh for crying out loud, it took us 7+ hours to get to San Diego. I didn’t get to the expo until after 3. Thankfully picking up my bib and shirt was a breeze. I almost forgot to get my shuttle band but remembered at the last minute. The Brooks booth had a lot of cute merchandise but I told myself I didn’t need anything at the expo but then lost that resolve at the Sparkle Skirts booth when I bought my first one. Then it was off to check into the hotel before meeting Kate for dinner!

Our hotels were near each other so we met at a Claim Jumpers that was nearby. I had never eaten there before. The food was so-so, the service interesting but the company was excellent! Seriously- the waitress like forgot Kate’s dessert and when confronted about it they had no reason for it. Then when she was taking away the dishes, she dropped one the sharp knives but in a way that it came right for my stomach. Yikes! But it was great catching with Kate and making our game plan for race morning. Then it was back to the hotel to relax a bit and get to sleep.

However I realized what I forgot to pack- the soft flasks for hydration that go with my pack. So, how was I going to carry water?

Sunday- Rock n Roll San Diego -13.1 miles Race recap to come.

17.2 miles for the week. Considering I only ran twice, that’s not horrible. And now I am on vacation- woo hoo!

*Oh and the title of the post? When we were leaving San Diego on Sunday, we turned up a street and it was really confusing but due to traffic and lights, we got stuck on the wrong side of the boom barriers for the railroad track- we couldn’t go forward and we couldn’t go back and there was the coaster coming. Eeeek!!!!! Runners just leaving the event in the park assured us we were far enough back- which we all hoped so as they were standing level with us! The train went through fine, barriers raised, lights went green and we went on our way but I thought that was a fitting title for the post.

How was your week?