Tag: funk

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 7

Oh boy was I in a funk last week. I was cranky and moody and just kind of blah.

I kind of crawled into a hole and became an antisocial whiner. Which is probably better than inflicting my crankiness on all of you but either way it wasn’t a great week. The odd thing was that I didn’t have a solid reason for the crankiness, I just was in a funk and had to ride it out. I was hoping I could run out some of that moodiness but that didn’t exactly happen during the week either. Dude, someone give me a pizza.

I had an ultrasound and chest x-ray on Wednesday to see if that can help figure what is going on with the weird side pain I’ve been having. Now to wait for the results.

Monday- Rest I wanted to run but I also thought it might be best to my legs a rest after the weekend of running. The only thing that’s keeping me from freaking out about my lower mileage this training cycle is that I am stacking my longest runs on Saturdays and Sundays, which outside of my Hanson’s attempt last marathon training cycle is not something I do. I also haven’t been doing my PT exercises as they aggravate the side/flank pain so I figured rest would be best.

Tuesday- Rest Should have run but the sudden drop in temp and the 20+ mph winds turned me into a big baby. Where the hell did that come from? The funk was also beginning to settle in.

Wednesday- 2 miles This was supposed to be 4. I mentally needed 4 because I was just super cranky for no reason at all. I changed and headed out after work and immediately felt like a vice was wrapped around my left leg right above the knee. Grrrr. By a mile in, it hadn’t loosened up at all and actually felt tighter so I turned around and headed back for the car. That was not the head clearing run I was hoping for and now I had another reason to be moody.

Thursday- Rest The day before had kind of scared me. Should I run or shouldn’t I?

Friday- Rest Overslept, was running late but made it to work on time. My side/flank was hurting more than it had all week so that wasn’t cool.

Saturday- 6.2 miles I headed out late in the afternoon for 6-7 miles hoping that my leg and my side would cooperate. Surprisingly they both did. My leg felt tight in the beginning but loosened up fairly quickly. The temp was pretty perfect and I was feeling pretty good and I ended up negative splitting the run. If I hadn’t waited so long I may have tried to turn this into my long run but I ran into dusk and I had no lights and very little reflective gear with me.

I could tell that my hips and back really needed help though so I decided to try my PT exercises that night.

Sunday-13.1 miles Maybe it was the PT, maybe it was something else, but my side hurt the most it has in weeks. I pushed my run back into the afternoon. My plan called for 15 but I knew I was going to be slow and I was doubting I would even clear 6. I started out and kept to my run/walk intervals figuring that was the best idea for this run. Mentally, I wanted to quit at mile 2 but there was no physical reason to so I just kept trucking on. I had to make a bathroom stop around mile 8, seriously, an aside to my city- what the hell?!?!! I would imagine prisons have better bathrooms! There is one park that has open bathrooms and they are creepy and disgusting, I even used the ones at the front of the park instead of the back this time and they are still gross. But hey at least the stalls had doors this time!

Once leaving the bathrooms, I decided it was time for music and turned on my headphones. However even with the added motivation, I knew I wasn’t going to hit 15. Between the slower pace, the bathroom break, the stop lights and the pause to take off my outer layer then stash it, almost getting hit by a car not looking when they turned right, I’d been out there almost 3 hours! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much non-moving time on my Garmin before. 😛 I called it at 13.1. Far better than I thought I was going to get.

21.36 miles for the week. Pretty similar to last week and at least my long run went up. I really need to work on building back up the weekly miles again.

How was your week?

Week 41 Training Recap

Training for:

City to the Sea 13.1 ✅
Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

I wish I could I could be all sunshine and daisy’s about last week but I can’t. I am looking really hard for the shiny because I know it’s there somewhere. It has to be.

Work has been stressful, we are still down an employee and haven’t been able to replace them yet. Also, the shift back to being an hourly employee is affecting me more than I thought it would but I’ll keep trucking along.

My sleep is still crap. I used to be the type person who while being a night owl, once asleep I was dead to the world. Seriously, you could throw things at me and I would sleep through it. I would fall asleep in one position and stay that way all night. Lately I can’t fall asleep and when I do I wake up repeatedly and I toss and turn. Toss and turn to the point that my quilt and top sheet are usually on the floor in the morning. 😞 This weekend I went shopping for new pillows and I’ve ordered some essential oils to see if they help. Fingers crossed!

Loss. I was somehow lucky enough to get this far in life without having to deal with loss often. This year has been different and last week was more bad news. I really need to work on being less of stress eater.

Monday- 2 miles This was supposed to be a rest day but with all weekend off due to my stupid leg, I wanted get in a few test miles. We got out of work late so by the time I made to home town I was racing the dying daylight. 2 miles is what I was able to fit in. I was a little achy but nothing hurt more than that.

Tuesday- Rest. Something came up and I didn’t get off work until almost 7. I didn’t even attempt to run that day.

Wednesday- Rest 2 days off in a row seemed like a good idea. Plus it fit perfectly in my training plan from Ekiden Coaching. 😛

Thursday- 3.5 miles Another chance to test the leg and see if I would be racing this weekend. The plan called for 5 x400 but I knew I wasn’t getting up to 5k pace. I stuck to the 400’s but kept them around a 9:30 pace and walked the recoveries. My calves were super tight per usual and I stopped at one point to completely re-lace both Hoka’s but other than that it was ok. I realized that I will be on the treadmill much sooner than I would like though. It is getting dark so fast!

seawinner

Friday- Rough day. But I did win my entry in City to Sea from a Facebook contest so there’s that right?! Thank you to everyone I badgered into voting for me! I registered for Sunday’s race on Friday morning.

Saturday- Rest day. Went to SLO for packet pickup and wandered around doing some shopping. Shopping and food make great distractions from life right? The race shirt was tiny, like Stitch size tiny.

Sunday- City to the Sea 13.1 To be continued…😛
How was your week?

Have any sleeping tips for me?

The SF Marathon Week 16 Training

I just had to look up what week I was in, it’s all starting to blur. 😛

The head games have multiplied…the race is so close and unfortunately my last few weeks of running have not been confidence building. More like the exact opposite. I felt pretty damn good after my 20 miler a few weeks ago. I haven’t since. I’m trying to tell myself that it’s all part of training but I hurt and I am tired and I just… I don’t know.

Monday- Rest. I had a few vacation days from work and it was so nice to have no alarm to set. I really wanted to sleep in but I woke up a little before 8. Grr. However, I must have slept soundly- I woke up with a dead arm. Guess I hadn’t moved from the first position I fell asleep in.

Tuesday- 7.12 miles. Birthday miles!!! Another day off too. I was torn what to run today. I know some people like to run their birthday but let’s be real, there was no way I was running 35 miles or kilometers. 35 minutes seemed too short and 3.5 miles seemed like a cop out. So instead I ran the day. It slow and hot but it was fun. I ran to the high school where my mother was having tennis practice. I then dragged her along to a local burger place to get my free burger!!! The little things excite me.

Wednesday- Rest. Back to work. They bought me donuts!

Thursday- 3.75 miles. Talk about slow! I think all the over indulging of the past few days caught up with me, I did not feel well. Plus, I decided that until the marathon, I should probably wear flats. I forgot how sore that would make me. Ouch!

Friday- Rest. I still felt off, I think I found my sugar intake limit. Rough. A new toy came in the mail though.

Saturday- Rest. Sensing a pattern here? After feeling poorly for 2 days, I chose sleep over running. After a few errands, I just had a low key evening. Plus, I was sucked into streaming Stranger Things on Netflix. So good.

Sunday- 13.1 miles. Dress rehearsal. My last long run of training. Plan ( what plan) called for 12, I wanted 16. Yes, I know that’s stupid. I was also testing a few things out this run. When I was shopping in Santa Barbara last weekend, I picked up a new Lululemon skirt for race day. I also recently ordered a new hydration vest as well. I’ve never been a huge fan of them but I need to be able to carry more water than just my handheld. So this long run was a test of all that.

Good lord, it was rough. It took my legs 4.5 miles to warm up. My lungs wanted no part in running. I probably should have tested the hose on the hydration pack before running. I choked twice. My new skirt rode up in very uncomfortable ways and yet also migrated down. That shouldn’t be possible?! I just kept moving forward. I hit 13.1 and called it for the day. Called my mom for a pick up as I was 4 miles from home and went for Chipotle. I really need to stop eating when I’m stressed.

24 miles for the week. Bring on taper. Even though part of me is excited for no long run next week, I feel like I haven’t done enough to prepare. The voices in my head are getting louder. But, this is the best week to quiet them. It’s fair time!!!!! It’s time for my yearly indulgence in a funnel cake. Hopefully, I’ve detoxed enough from birthday cake/ donuts to enjoy it. I look forward to a funnel cake and pretzel all year long until fair time. 😛

So here’s to week 17- another week in flats, even fewer miles and a funnel cake at the end.

How was your week? Do anything fun?

Do you have a dress rehearsal run?

What’s your favorite fair food?

The SF Marathon Training Week 15

I have no witty opening for this one. That’s also assuming anything I’ve ever opened with before was witty. Hmmm, maybe that was a reach.

Like I said in my Friday post last week, I am tired. Just tired. Running wise, the week was actually pretty good. Work wise, I think my brain went into vacation mode way too early. Oops. That wasn’t great considering my boss was on vacation Thursday and Friday. I needed to be firing on all cylinders. I believe I completed most of my piles but I can’t shake the feeling that I forgot something.

Monday- 6.7 miles. 4th of July!! I met with Ashley and Heather for a very patriotic themed run down at Avila Beach. The plan was to do 8 miles but it was my third day of running in a row and my shins and knee were pissed. I ended up falling behind taking walk breaks but I eventually just sat on a bench 2 miles from the beach and waited for them to come back my way. Truthfully, I wanted to swing on the swings while I waited but they were occupied by children. Once they were back, I was able to run the whole back with them. I was fine with fewer miles. Then we went for a super yummy breakfast – churro french toast for the win! It was a great way to spend the morning.

Tuesday- Rest. Yeah, there was no way I was running a 4th day in a row. Rest was awesome. Plus work is always insane the day after a 3 day weekend so it was nice being able to just go home and crash. I think I did something else but I can’t remember.

Wednesday-2.3 miles. My legs still felt wonky. Seriously one 20 miler less than 2 weeks ago and I’m broken for days. I did 2 laps of the lake and called it. They were a slow, crawling 2 laps but that’s better than no miles right?

Thursday- 3.75 miles. Uh oh, 2 days in a row again? However, this was the day that finally felt more normal. I kept it short and sweet though as I didn’t want to push it. Not only is the marathon super close but I had a half marathon on Saturday. But I really wanted to try out my new shorts.

Friday- Rest. My boss is on vacation so it was an open to close kind of day. I did manage to sneak away for 10 minutes and grab my packet for Saturday’s race. And a Diet Coke because by that time I needed one. 😛

Saturday- 13.1 miles. Rock’n Around the Pier Half. My hope was to run the race in the morning and do another 7 in the evening to complete a disjointed 20. Yeah, that didn’t happen. The race was rough and I had some problems, but more on that next post. I did however get in a few miles of walking around SLO with some post race shopping.

Sunday- Rest. Unless miles of walking around Santa Barbara shopping count as exercise. 😛 My mom, S and I headed to Santa Barbara for a day of birthday shopping, S has hers on Monday and mine is Tuesday. It was fun but it made me realize how much I prefer SLO. However I am jealous they have a PizzaRev, that place was awesome. It was a long and tiring day and my legs/feet were fried by the end. By the time I was home I was too tired to even finish this post in time for it go up on Monday. On the upshot- I may have found my marathon outfit. Priorities right?

Overall, it was a good running week, I was just exhausted. I know that time frame wise I am at the point in training that I should be exhausted but I don’t feel like I’ve really trained enough for that. Life has been a little crazy for a few months as well but it doesn’t usually affect me like this. Maybe my upcoming birthday is just making me moody? That’s a thing right?

Going forward, this week would start a traditional taper period for the marathon. However I feel like the past few months have been a taper. So we will see. I know I still need to figure out water. My handheld is not enough and my pack is crap. Hey I rhymed! Non running life- I have 2 vacation days!! Happy dance, happy dance. 😃😃 I have nothing planned- it sounds awesome.

How as your weekend?

When was you last vacation? What did you do?

San Francisco Marathon Training Week 12

Seriously, that’s a long title. Oof.

How is it week 12 already? My little countdown app is telling me I only have 41 days to go. Holy crap!

I admit I struggled hard with motivation this week. Everything seemed hard. I thought my boss coming back from vacation would make things easier but I just felt fried. At one point on Friday, I had so many pots in the fire I couldn’t even tell which way was up. I was just waiting for one of them to blow up in my face. Which may still happen this week, who knows. All week long, I kind of just wanted to curl up in the corner and hide under a blanket.

This spilled into running. I had serious trouble getting myself to run on Monday and then Wednesday turned into a rest day too. Convinced myself that my shins needed more time anyways. Week 12 is not the time to be getting lazy but I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Monday- 3.5 miles My legs were feeling rough for this run. I haven’t run a Monday since I first hurt my shins. Taking the day off after my long run seemed to help but I knew I couldn’t run on Tuesday this week. I headed to the lake path and planned to take it nice and easy. Even slow running with walking intervals was rough. My shins protested. I called it when lap 3 put me back at my car. 3.5 miles was not a great way to start the week.

Tuesday- Rest A mandatory conference call had been scheduled for after normal work hours. This was why I had to move my run up to Monday.

Wednesday- Rest I had planned on running, even took my stuff to work. I tell myself I took the day off because my shins hurt. While that is partially accurate, I didn’t even take my gym bag out of the car in the morning. So yeah, I enjoyed pizza night instead.

Thursday- 7 miles Work was tiring and the last thing I wanted to do was run. I told myself to suck it up and change. I left work town and headed for the river path. Of course, right as I parked I suddenly felt like I needed to use the restroom. Of course- most of my routes have no bathrooms or water fountains. Whatever, I figured that would be a reason to keep the run short. I started out up the hill and just stuck to the run/ walk intervals. My legs were feeling ok so when I hit the turn around point I decided to go a little further. I made a left and headed up a street. I remember the street from my very first 10K years ago but I remembered it wrong. I thought it was flat but it was hillier than I recalled. Little rollers but they still felt like mountains. But it’s cool- I made some new friends-

On the way back, the wind had turned insane. It was pushing me backwards it was so strong, I felt like I was running in quicksand. That said, my running intervals were the fastest they’ve been since I got hurt so this run ended up being more like speed work.

Friday- Rest Work was insane. Straight up crazy. By the time I got off I was running out the door. But I didn’t have to close so yay!

Saturday- 9 miles The plan called for a 10 mile long run and 8 mile easy this weekend. I knew Sunday was going to be busy with family stuff so I was doubtful of getting a run in. With only a 10 mile long run planned, I got a little cocky- I mean what’s 10 miles? Stupid. I didn’t start my run until 8:30. Stupid. By mile 2 it was warm. NikeC was out for her run too and we started texted each other about how warm it was. I kept a comfortable pace until I hit the bridge. Even though I know it’s stupid, I still fly across the thing and then up past Walmart. Miles 4-5 saw a 9:14 and 9:44. Oops. So not long run pace for a person with wonky shins. I walked more of mile 6 than planned but still the pace was decent. Mile 7 saw a break- NikeC! Our routes crossed paths and I finally got to meet the cutest little guy ever.

We stopped and chatted for a bit before going on to finish our runs. Our chat meant I wasn’t going to be able to finish 10 but it was worth it. I was planning on ending my run at the high school and getting a ride from my mother. She’s having summer practices right now- and bonus- the school has water fountains and sometimes the bathrooms are open. Thing is her practice ended at 10:30. I picked up the pace and managed to get there right at 10:30. Those last 3 miles were most I’ve run without walk breaks in a month. Sweet!

4.5 miles walk– Knowing that Sunday was iffy, I had a second run of the day in the back of my mind. I headed out around 3 for some more miles. I wanted to run it like last week’s double but the week caught up with me so I walked it. I’m still counting it because let’s be real here- there will be walking in this marathon. I may as well get used to doing it on tired legs now instead of race day.

Sunday- rest Happy Father’s Day! I knew my mother and I had plans in SLO and then family dinner in the evening. I could have run in the morning but I was just so tired, I chose sleep instead. I still managed to get in 10,000 steps without running so that’s not too lazy. I also came home with some pretties-

So, 24 miles for the week. Could have been better, could have been worse. My shins were overly fussy in the beginning of the week but they calmed down by the end. I have big plans for this week so I am hoping they will continue to behave. Fingers crossed!! I also hope the motivation bus comes by again, I fear I will get sucked into the black hole that is binge watching Lost again and put off running. Oh and I have some awesome news share this week!

How was your week?

Bought any new gear lately?

What are you watching?