Tag: easy run

Fall Teaser

Seriously, how is September half over?!! Actually, I might be ok with that if it wasn’t for the heat.

I love heat, I really do. I mean I use a space heater every day at work- every day. My favorite part of winter is bundling up in cozy sweats with a big fluffy blanket. But I am done. The heat kicked my ass this year. I never adjusted to it like I used to. It never felt comfortable. Normally I love 100* temps. Grrrr. Maybe it’s because I work in a town that rarely gets above 70. Or maybe because home town can have a 30-50 degree change throughout the day? Maybe I am getting old? Who knows. Monday it rained and it was awesome. When I started Tuesday’s run I was actually cold! It was awesome! I thought the temps were finally changing. I was starting to look forward to the 12 miler I need to run this weekend. Then came the news. The temps this weekend are projected to be a cool 100*. Waah.

Ok, deep breath, moving on. 😃

I like starting the week with my easy run, so that was the plan for Tuesday. I headed to the river path for an easy 4. The cooler air must have confused my Garmin because it said I had an elevation gain of over 550 feet for a 4 mile run. Yeah, um no. It’s more like 150. Luckily everything else seemed normal, I run this route often enough to know each mile point. Which is good since this turned out to be a run to remember. 😁

I started out with my usual walking warm up, but started running earlier. It was breezy and I was kind of chilled but it felt awesome. I laughed to myself that running more hadn’t really helped my first mile split but I was feeling good so who cared. I just kept trucking along and feeling good. No need for any walk breaks. Somehow my phone ended up on random and the song choices were amusing me. A song came on that I’d never heard before, I’m not even sure how it ended up on my phone. It was a little melancholy but I really liked it. I’ve been super stressed lately (and not hiding it well here on the blog) and something about it calmed me down and kept me running.

I did have to stop for a moment around 2.5 miles in. My stomach cramped pretty badly which wasn’t surprising considering I’d been eating Starbursts and cinnamon bears for 2 days. An older woman with a huge dog was heading my way and with my track record with dogs, I just decided to stay put until they passed by. No need to anger the dog right? Instead I scared the crap out of it. The dog jumped about a foot in the air when it saw me standing on the side of the path. What would it have done if I had run by?

That pause combined with the eerily timed song earlier had made me think. My fastest mile had been completed on this route in August 2014. I clocked in at 8:05. I suddenly wanted to beat that. Why? I don’t know, but I wanted to try. So I did. As soon as my watch buzzed for mile 3, I opened it up.

I knew I had a busy intersection in the middle of the mile so I my initial pace registered in the 8:20’s. It was feeling pretty good though. My goal was to pick it up just after the intersection. There was a line of cars so I skidded to a stop and paused my watch. The first car actually saw me so I was actually still sliding when they waved me on. In like a second I had slid, paused, un-paused and ran on. Half a mile left, time to fly. Except halfway down the path a dad was walking up with his toddler and a stroller. Between all of them they took up the whole path. I debated blasting through but the toddler was wobbling all over the path. Mowing down a toddler was not on the agenda. Another sudden stop and a pause to the Garmin. Didn’t people know I was attempting something here?!

Un-pause and run on. It was hard getting back into gear. My legs and lungs were protesting now. I ignored them and pushed on. I hit the end of the concrete path and headed for the dirt river trail. I almost ate rocks for dinner as I lost traction rounding the corner of the trail head. I got my act together and pushed on; I knew I was close. That was the longest 3/10 of a mile ever. But I did it!

7:48:9?! Holy crap! Would I have done better or worse if I hadn’t had to pause twice? I don’t know but it’s still awesome. 😃 I slowed to a walk but I didn’t feel like I needed to stop. I was breathing super loudly and probably sounded creepy since I was kind of hidden in the bushes on the trail. I walked for 1/10 of a mile before running it out for a total of 4.5 miles. I felt pretty good.

kind of a smile! not quite dead but kind of a ginger, too. ha!

So, while I may never ever do it again, I can say I got pretty damn close to my fastest mile ever back in high school. I really only had PE my freshman year of school but I was always stuck doing that Presidential Fitness test. I was so horrible at those. 😉 I’ve been thinking a lot about speed and my next half marathon so it was kind of cool to pull this off. I also think the cooler weather helped. The news just announced the predicted for Sunday has risen to 102 so hopefully the high from this run will get me out of bed early enough to avoid the heat.

Are you enjoying fall yet? Or still dealing with summer temps?’

Favorite part of fall?

Does pausing count?

February Flew- Recap

And just like that February is over. Blink and you missed it, I must have blinked. I feel like I was just running in Huntington Beach but in reality that was 4 weeks ago! So with that being said- here is my February recap-

Miles -78.41

Races- Surf City 13.1

February was actually a pretty consistent month for me. That said, the miles are lower than I would have liked but they’re still good. I hit every run on my training plan save 2. I missed one long run and one easy run by choice. Some aches and niggles made me think that rest days would be a better choice. Don’t they say that rest is training too? Along with that, I cut this week’s weekday runs short, only around a 5k each time. I know that those choices affected my overall mileage for the month. I would have had another 20 or so miles, maybe. I know I set a goal of 1000 miles in 2015 which breaks down to around 84 miles a month, I know I am behind. However I am not going to break myself just to meet that goal. See, I do have smart moments. 🙂

After last week’s increase in my leg issues, I was very hesitant to head out for a run on Saturday. And random note, I have run in pants more in the last week than I have all winter. Our neck of the woods got a little bit chilly. Bear in mind, I find the 40’s to be cold. Big baby over here! I finally headed out around 3 ish to test the waters. My first mile included 8 minutes of walking and clocked in at 13:00 but it didn’t suck so I kept going. Things were tight but not painful. Things loosened up a bit over the next 2 miles but I still knew things were off. I was planning on doing my short route- 3.8 miles- but when I got to split point between that and the point for 4.5 miles I was stuck. The road ahead was blocked off by fire trucks and police cars. Well crap, so 4.5 miles it was. I slowed down on the way home but didn’t feel too bad. I admit to over analyzing every twinge and every step.

I don't run through injury. That would be stupid. I simply refuse to believe that the injury exists. That's toootttallly different! I still have not decided what to do about Wine Country in 2 weeks. I want to see how I feel through out the week. I also have to figure out how to dress at work. I have heels, boots and flats. And by flats- I mean flat- zero support. I wore flats 3x last week and was aching most of the day. Heels one day and I rolled my ankle and stumbled into a cabinet- new bruises- yay! I do that all the time in those particular shoes though. I really should toss them but they are cute. And here returns the less smart moments. 🙂 Oddly, I wore taller boots on Friday and it was the best my legs felt at work all week. I may deal with the toe pinching of those boots if my hamstrings appreciate them. 🙂

Onward to March!!! Oh, that sounds odd.

How was your February?

Any shoe suggestions? Anyone else as clumsy as me?

If this is February-

I am getting a little nervous for summer. It was 80 today. Really? On one hand I love it but on the other hand- man it was warm.

I had a big work meeting on Thursday and I was a little stressed about it and figured that combined with the driving to and from and back to work, I would not be in the mood to run on Thursday evening. So I moved my 45 min easy run to Wednesday. After Tuesday’s tempo, I knew it was going to be a little rough but man it was a slog. I was just not feeling it. I hit 42 minutes but it was only 3.5 miles. I straight up walked 1 mile of it. Yeah, it was ugly.

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Thursday was my dress meltdown and the big meeting. They were presenting the President’s Award to one of the Heritage winners so part of the meeting was fun. My coworker took 1st runner up- woo hoo! My former boss and I cracked jokes that since we hired him, we could be equally excited. It was also pretty cool that when they called out the Heritage winners to the front, there were 3 from my location. 🙂 3 out of 19- sweet!

Friday was girls night and yes, we saw 50 Shades of Grey. I was proud of myself for not getting kicked out of the theater. ML and I always sit next to each other so we can whisper things but she knew I was going to be a total smart ass so she put everyone else between us. 🙂 This was the worst behaved theater I have ever been in, it was ridiculous. Some people had had way too much to drink before the movie and kept drinking the whole way through. The woman in the row behind us made a phone call during the previews because her friends had not arrived. Said friends arrived 5-10 minutes into the movie, laughing and talking about how they couldn’t find their seats in the dark. Seriously?! I think I heard 3 wine glasses break and the women in the front couldn’t go to the bathroom without going in multiples while laughing and yelling at each other as they left. At the end all the men in the theater boo’d and I laughed out loud. But other than that and the fact that the Mexican place we went to for dinner made me sick- it was an amusing and fun night.

This is my in pain grimace- why do my grimaces look more like smiles?

I worked on Saturday, so I knew I would be eating a later lunch than usual. This was also apparent when I set out for my run. The training plan called a 45-55 minute run and fairly shortly, I knew it was going to be closer to 45. My stride felt off and everything ached. I was at the top of a hill, 1/2 mile from home when I wanted to curse out loud. The outside of my right knee and the area a couple of inches up started screaming. Are you freakin’ kidding me?! My right leg never hurts, my left one is the problem child. It felt like something was about to rip. I instantly stopped and just started stretching on the side of the road. A few minutes later I decided to see how it felt, I ran home and concentrated on my form just keeping an easy pace. I felt a little tight but made it home. I walked up half of my driveway backwards and spent extra time stretching and rolling with my foam roller and stick.

Yesterday’s pain made me nervous for today’s long run. The plan called for 10-12 and yeah, 12 wasn’t happening. I headed to the lake path, thinking that flat and outside would be best. It was also easy access to my car if I needed it. I was a little worried I would get bored lapping the lake so many times but I have run 10 miles on both a treadmill and the track before so it had to be better than those. Right? I headed out around 2:00, thinking that I should take it slower and might need more time. So for the second time in 2 days, I ran too soon after lunch, for me at least. According to McMillan, my long run pace should be between 10:34-11:54. I was aiming for 11:15-11:30, I was afraid it was going to hurt and I did not want to push. My knee felt ok but my left hamstring is still sore from last week’s strength training fail. I walked my warm up as usual and then picked up the pace.

When miles 2, 3, and 4 clocked in at 10:04, 10:10, and 10:11, I was a little ticked. It didn’t feel hard but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sustain it with the way I felt and the temp being around 80. My mom had joined me today and was walking the path and I ran into her on lap 4. I took that opportunity to extend my walking break. Since the park was so busy, I walked the playground section every lap- easier to dodge the little people and their parents. 🙂 Even with that longer break, mile 5 was 10:36. 6-10, the heat was getting to me and I finally slowed down a bit. Those miles clocked in between 10:41-10:50. Except for 8, that was 11:12. I admit I almost quit after 8 miles just because I was tired and hot and irritated that I just could not control my pace. I had a conversation with myself and decided that I wasn’t hurting and should just start acclimating to the heat now since it’s only going to get hotter. So I finished my 10. 10 miles is a little more than 8 laps so the last .5 mile was me running back and forth between 2 of the exercise stations because I didn’t want to do another lap. 🙂 Plus by then my mom was waiting for me.

I am a little concerned by all the achiness that I have been feeling lately. It’s one of reasons I passed on my long run last weekend. I am hoping it’s just the treadmill. Normally I dropped to running 3x a week during winter so only one run would be on the treadmill. I run differently on the treadmill and I remember being a little achy last year but not like this. I am kicking that thing to the curb in 20 days. But for now, I am pretty sure I can get in a 30-35 minute run outside after work. I can do my easy run that way and just use the treadmill for my speed work of the week until Daylight Savings time. The work route is all hill so I could still get in hill repeats too, the workout might just be a little shorter.

How was your weekend? Who raced?

Anyone else go to the movies?

Anyone else run differently on the treadmill?

Call me Calamity

I feel like I have written a similar point in the past. And I probably have. Case in point- the nice line of bruises running up my spine from backing into the side of a door last week. I have mad skills like that. 🙂

After getting off work on Tuesday, I headed to the gym. I wanted to run but wasn’t looking forward to the treadmill. I remembered my Garmin this time so I decided to see how it did tracking distance again. I just put my phone on the treadmill screen/ display- what do you call that? Every year it seems like it takes me a while to adjust to the treadmill. I always feel a little sore when I first start running. It wears off around a mile in but it’s still kind of odd.

I wasn’t feeling quite up to speed work but I decided to try to run as steady a pace as possible. I wanted to see how far I could get before taking a walk break. My lungs and my stomach behaved, woo hoo! Looking at my splits later, it was kind of like a mini tempo run. At least for what is my pace these days. 🙂 Barring a few issues, I ran 3.5 miles straight.

As for the calamity? I wanted to run but I was having issues. I kept the pace around 5.9 most of the time but kept punching the front of the treadmill. At one point, I over balanced and had to pull myself out of a fall. I think my arms were doing a little pin wheel at this point. I righted myself, upped the speed a bit and kept plugging on. Apparently my legs were feeling really good and wanted to go faster because I continued to run into the front of the treadmill. So much so that I accidentally punched the stop button and the treadmill came to a halt. How I didn’t smash my face against the front, I have no idea.

I managed to get the treadmill started fairly quickly and grabbed a drink of water while bringing it back up to speed. I shouldn’t multitask. The lid to water bottle went flying over a few treadmills and landed next to the ellipticals. Seriously?! I powered on for another mile before hitting what would have been mile 4 before I had to start over. I decided to start my cool down but instead of hitting the speed button I hit the cord from my ear buds and knocked my phone down. I watched it bounce on the treadmill and then slide offonto the ground. Ugh. Now I also had the attention of everyone running on the treadmills to my right. In my efforts to slow down, I once again hit stop. By the time I came to a stop, someone else had picked up my phone and handed it to me. Thank you, kind stranger.

I decided I was done for the night. I called it at 4 miles and just stretched out. I was worried about not cooling down properly but I was taking the hint. From everything I had seen on the machine readout and my Garmin, they pretty much matched minus my stop issue in the middle. I didn’t look at my splits until later and when I did I was kind of happy. I also noticed that I must have hit the split button at some point but don’t remember doing it. All I see is that outside of my warm up, my average pace was under 10. Woo hoo!!! I haven’t seen that in months!

I came to find a delivery. I’ve had a few fun mail days lately. First I ordered a few books. I am looking forward to reading 80/20. Then I found out that my 25k in January only has one aid station. I had to reassess the fueling situation, so I ordered myself a little something- well it’s not exactly small-I haven’t decided about it yet. I really wanted pockets on the front and while I got those, I am wondering about how comfortable it will be.

How has your week been?

Ever feel achy on a treadmill?

Ever punch a treadmill? Or worse- fall off?

Ever use a vest like this? Thoughts?

Forget-me-what?

Now, I normally pride myself on freakish memory. Particularly for numbers and things like that, sometimes I scare people. This week though, my memory has checked out. On Tuesday I was all set to run after work. I felt like I needed a run, the morning had been a little odd. I often take my clothes into work to change but leave my shoes in the car. This sometimes means I walk to my car in running clothes and flats or heels. I changed and walked to my car. When I went to throw my gym bag on the floor of the passenger seat, I notice something missing.

I forgot my damn shoes. Seriously. As I drove back to town, I was irritated and debating what to do. I could go home and get my shoes but I knew that once I was home, I was less likely to get back and run. I keep a box of shoes in my trunk with a pair of flip-flops, some flats, a pair of heels and 2 old pairs of running shoes. I like to be prepared. 🙂 So I decided to try running in one of those pairs. I put on my old Wave Riders and set out. I kept it slow and easy because I wasn’t sure how the shoes were going to feel. No lies, my feet were angry, it’s time to retire those shoes completely, they cannot be run anymore. I took a complete break at mile 3 to try to calm my feet down. Once again, I looked up and NikeC was coming my way. We chatted for a bit before I ran on and back to my car. If it wasn’t for my shoes making my feet angry, I would say that it was a pretty good run. Instead of passing each other, NikeC and I decided to just run together tonight. I made sure to pack my shoes; in fact, I packed both my current Wave Riders and Sayonaras. 🙂 But I forgot my Garmin and a decent sports bra. Ugh!!! I had one in my bag as a backup but I wasn’t sure how it would be for 5 miles. We ran one of her usual routes. Right away I just felt tired. I was having troubles catching my breath- stupid humidity! I felt bad, we would run and then I would have to take a walking break. Granted, neither of us are used to running and talking so that was probably hindering us as well. 🙂 It may have been slower than planned but it was still a good run. Plus being able to watch the sun set from different angles was cool. My Nike+ app has been crashing but it said that we did 4.87 miles while hers was closer to 5. I choose to go with the 5. 🙂 I missed my Garmin.As of right now, I am signed up for the 10K on Sunday. This may well be my last chance to run a 10K until next year. 10K’s are sparse around here. I hoping that one will pop up around Thanksgiving but no luck yet- all 5K’s and half marathons. When it comes to the 5K- well I am also signed up for that. I have yet to decide if I am running it. I will figure that out as it gets closer. Actually right now I am more concerned about chafing. I am wearing a team tank for the first time on race day, yikes! I can’t test it out because I won’t even get it until Saturday. My arms are very particular about what kind shirts they lake. Which is why I have the same tank in 11 different colors. Fingers crossed!