Tag: funk

Ramblin’ On

I seem to like to ramble in the middle of the week. 34 days into the year and I am in a funk.

Minus the 6 day sick streak in January, I have been hitting the workouts I set for myself each week. January was a solid start to regaining my base. I started cross training more often, you could even call it consistent now. 🙂 Then this week. I have yet to run this week. I just can’t seem to get motivated.

Kimi is unimpressed by my lack of motivation

Maybe it’s taper crazies? Not that I really needed to taper but I have had some phantoms pains too. Maybe it’s that the last week or so of runs have been ugly and rough. I am not expecting them to be all sunshine and daisies but an 11:00 minute pace was kicking my ass last Sunday. That doesn’t bode well for Sunday’s race.

Maybe it’s that work has been all Mondays for the last week? Which is odd because even though we are running short handed, our crew is small but mighty. However, I feel like I am forgetting some huge important detail. I hate that feeling. Maybe it will come to me during the race on Sunday. 🙂

I need to snap out of this. I started this post on Tuesday night but deleted it- it sounded way too whiny and pissy. But some venting does help. And there is #shiny still. Like I said, the crew at work right now is awesome. I have a fun weekend planned with 20,000 other crazies like me. Besides the race festivities on Saturday and Sunday, I have some other fun things in the works for this weekend that I am looking forward to sharing with you.

So tell me- is it taper crazies or am I just cranky?

A Little Truth Time

Truth– I didn’t run for 7 days. It made me twitchy in the beginning, feeling like I should get out and run, but the last few days the laziness felt easier.

Truth– I’m in a funk. Work funk, life funk, running funk. Can’t quite decide the best way out of the funk. I’ve considered going back to school–well, I’d have to finish it first.

Truth– Food and I have a very dysfunctional relationship. And it’s not working out anymore. It’s not like I can break up with it. For once, I’m not referring to my stomach issues. I’ve debated writing a longer post on this but haven’t figured out how.

Truth– Green tea is growing on me. Some brands taste like lemon pledge but some are pretty good.

Truth-I am trying to learn to like the treadmill. It’s a necessary training tool and if I want to run better I need to train better. Which means actually getting to the gym to run. So tonight, I laced up and ran a very slow 5k. But nothing ached for once- new for a treadmill run- so I’m calling it a win.

Truth-I love the cheesy holiday movies that are on every channel these days. My DVR is getting quite the work out these days. But-please, don’t hate me now- I am not a fan of Elf.

Truth– Tuesday was our company holiday party and I indulged with a Diet Coke- they all got wine and I had a Diet Coke. 😋

Truth– I just got distracted while typing this with one those previously mentioned Christmas movies.

Truth– I purchased a new toy- a Jawbone Up. Standing is not moving. I have a stand up desk but sadly I’ve been averaging 3500 steps a day- ouch!!

Truth– Everything said above is trivial in the grand scheme of things.

Truth– My commute took an hour and a half this morning, twice as long. But as I drove past the horrific wreck that was reason for the delay, I thought that we all just need to slow down. We all need to complain a little less and be grateful for what we have. Not only during the holidays- all of the days.

What’s your truth today?

Week 16?- Blah

I really have to go back over these posts, I think I am a week off somewhere. I shouldn’t be on week 16 until next Sunday. Hmmm, maybe I can’t count?

If you read Thursday’s post, you know I got a little emotional last week. I’m still feeling a out of sorts but I’m going to just keep smiling and fake it til I make it. Thank you to everyone who commented. 🙂

Monday- Rest

Harvest Marathon meeting. Where did the time go? Race day is only a month away? Well, crap that’s soon. Unfortunately numbers are down. I’ve noticed that at a lot of races this year. I run a lot of the same races and they all seem smaller this year. Has anyone else noticed that?

Tuesday- 3.8 miles

I really wasn’t feeling a run. I couldn’t really pinpoint why so I made myself change into my running gear. I headed to the river path for an easy run. My mother texted me as I parked and I was hopeful she wanted to meet for dinner and I could ignore the run. I was half right. She did want to meet for dinner but was still at a tennis match. So I went running. Despite my weird funk it was a pretty solid run. It started out slow with a nice progression to a faster finish. I fit in 3.8 miles before I went to meet her.

Wednesday- 11.5 miles bike

Today was rough. I think the bad news about the potential job was the final push and I got a little emotional. At least I made the right choice that night and turned to exercise instead of food. My legs felt a little rubbery when I was done with those miles. 😄

Thursday- 4.77 miles

Once again, I just wasn’t feeling my run. The plan called for speed work but I was having troubles talking myself into even running 2 miles. I headed back to the river path and just figured I would run whatever my head wanted to. I kept it easy and tried to just shut my brain up. I don’t know how well it worked but I feel like it was a solid set of miles. While our temps have been very un-fall like- we have had some amazing sunsets. It’s hard to be mad when you see this-

Friday- Rest

More like chaos. Due to some scheduling issues and a late summer illness, there was only myself and 2 other people at work. Being down 50% of your crew is painful. I knew we could do it, but there were some logistical issues that had me concerned. We did get a some help from other locations for portions of the day and thankfully it was a slightly slower than normal Friday. We got through the day and I have never been so glad to close the doors. 😖 But hey a customer told me I had an amazing attitude so score!

Saturday- Rest

I planned to ride the bike but I was so damn tired I chose a nap instead. Wish it could have been longer. I also worked the registration table for my favorite race of the year. HOB Fun Run! This was the first race I’d ever run. And it turns out it was 5 years ago Saturday and this showed up on my Timehop-
Sunday- 10K and 5K

I love this event but it does stress me out. It’s a race where I am guaranteed to know a ton of people. Performance anxiety!!!! Plus the last two years we’ve had a running team with matching shirts. You can’t hide when you’re wearing matching clothes. 😉 Race recap will be up Wednesday.

Oddly enough, for a week when running was the last thing I felt like doing, I turned in one of my highest mileage weeks in months. Which is partially cool and partially sad because I would love to see a higher number. But it is what it is. Despite my funk, I feel like they were all solid miles and solid miles help build a stronger runner. Right? Can’t complain about solid miles.

Paleo– Oh hell, I don’t even want to grade myself. Lunch and breakfast were still good but other choices were not. Let’s just say donuts and pizza happened. Way more often than they should have. Oddly enough it was my nice healthy salads that made me feel sick. I’ve been experimenting with various types of lettuce and some are not winners. But now I know I can add kale to the list of things I can’t eat. I’d never eaten it before so luckily it’s not something I’ll miss.

So yes, last week was rough but I am going to try to look on the bright side. I got all my miles in plus a solid cross training workout. I had a fun (busy) weekend and got to see a bunch of people. Oh and I dyed my hair again. 😏 My boss is back this week- woo hoo!- and I am looking forward to a weekend of nothing. And then taper! Or am I in taper now? How did I mess up my damn race plan so much?

How was your weekend?

What’s your favorite race?

Is taper the week before race week of the week of the race for a half? My brain has turned off.

This is how we do

My new boss recently told me how impressed she was by my dedication. I didn’t know what to say. Partially because I am socially awkward and partially because I don’t feel very dedicated these days. I have been hitting my 3 days of running but cutting back on speed and mileage has often left me feeling a little low. A little uninspired. Running’s always hard but sometimes it’s so hard you wonder what the hell you keep doing it for.

Running motivation quote gift for runner by JenniferDareDesigns, $10.00 — source

Why do we put ourselves through it? Why do we commit to the craziness? Some get up at the crack of dawn to get in a run. Others run at night in the dark. Runner’s run tired and injured and cranky and mad and sad and hungry. We run when it’s freezing cold outside, or when it feels like the side of the sun. Running in the rain can be fun until you fall on your ass. Running puts you at risk of crazies, inattentive drivers or animal attacks. You could run on a treadmill but sometimes you wind up feeling like a hamster on a wheel. Squeak, squeak.

And your body? Something usually aches. It could be a hip or a knee. Your ankle or crappy shins. Tight calves or hamstrings. Black toenails, no toenails, hide those feet! In my case, a crappy stomach. But we keep running. What person voluntarily chooses a sport that has a side effect called “runner’s trots”? I think we’re all slightly masochistic or just a little crazy. What does Einstein say about insanity?

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Albert Einstein

Oh yeah, that. Lets not even talk about the mind games we play with ourselves. Even when I don’t want to run, I want to run. How does that even make sense?Work ran late every day this week and on Thursday I had little to no desire to run. I was looking for a reason not to. I wasn’t injured and my stomach felt average for me these days. I have been in a funk and just felt meh. I just wanted to veg in a chair and catch up on my DVR. I wasn’t even hungry and didn’t want to eat. Which is very, very rare for me. But I changed into my gear anyways. Drove back to town and decided to run the river path. Daylight was fading fast but I had zero desire to run on the treadmill. That is coming soon enough. I just wanted to get it over with, if darkness cut it shorter so be it.

Running has become a chore lately and it’s been awhile since I have had good run. There have been decent miles here and there but all runs were less than stellar. It’s a big reason why I am working on getting back out on the trails. I set out for Thursday’s run not expecting or hoping for much. My warm up was little shorter due to the twilight hour. I started running waiting for the cough that would come or the stomach cramp that joins on all runs these days. My run went something like this-

1/4 mile in – oh jumping Rottweiler please don’t jump that fence and attack me. Are you on a trampoline?! 1/2 mile in- may as well start running. 1 mile in- no huffing and puffing. 1.5 miles in-still no cramp. 2 miles in -breathing still easy, no wheezing and still no cramping. Hmmm, this is nice. The weather is the perfect temp right now, and the sky looks so pretty at dusk. Oh the streetlights are on, that’s kind of cool. Can I run all of mile 3? Haven’t done that in a while, let’s try. Yay, I’m still running and I feel good. Damn this darkness, I want to run more. I feel like I could keep going for miles. Breathing is still easy, sweet. 5K mark, time to cool down, kind of dark now, oh and some interesting looking, umm, kids smoking on that bench. Run is officially over.

And that is why I keep banging my head against a wall. Sometimes the stars align and you experience a glorious run. It wasn’t long and it wasn’t fast but that wasn’t the point. The point was how I felt during and after. It was kind of awesome. Running is work, but the reward is worth it.

Thanks for listening to me ramble.

Who’s with me?

Why do you keep running?

Any quirks you want to add to the list?

Have a great weekend!

Shaking it Off

Yeah, I went there, sorry. 🙂 I actually did not like this song the first time I heard it and now I think I’m obsessed. I got through my last few runs with Theory of a Deadman and Rise Against and the last few days have been Taylor Swift on repeat. I feel like I am all over the place this week and it shows even more than usual in my music. I may have played this on repeat tonight while driving from work town to run town. There may have been a tiny bit of car dancing involved, but there are no witnesses.

The last two weeks have felt a little scattered. I’ve been a little stressed by work, a little stressed by my stomach and just life in general. How do people with kids do it? After an unplanned rest day on Tuesday and a planned one on Wednesday, my feet were feeling itchy to run. Because I had a business mixer to go to after work tonight, NikeC and I moved back gym night. I wasn’t sure what time I could get there and didn’t want to make her wait. I figured I would try to get in a quick 3 miles after the mixer if possible. I just hadn’t figured out how I would change yet. 4:45 rolls around and I just didn’t think I had the mental capacity for a mixer plus my stomach just hated me today. I was just tired, and I wanted to run. I felt mentally tired and I just wanted a few miles to quiet my head. I needed to run it off. After a discussion with a few people, we decide to bypass the mixer and attend next month’s. I was relieved and looking forward to running, I was thinking of now trying for 5-6 miles.

It was a happy thought for about 2 minutes. At 4 minutes to closing, I happened to be looking at the door as IT walked in. What the frak? If they drove all the way out, it was not going to be a quick visit. Ok, reassess, I had to stay but I would still run it would just be a little later. I changed into my clothes anyways and then just waited. I got cold, so I put my blazer back on. Running shorts and a blazer- the new business casual?

It was hard to be productive since the systems were taken down. I caught up on some blogs on my phone, checked twitter, and posted some randomness to Instagram. Then I was over that. So I got some Clorox wipes and started cleaning. I finally headed out around 6:45. Even though it’s summer, I am not a fan of running at dusk. Just seems like too much room for error there. And of course, I was wearing dark running clothes because I had really wanted to wear the new shorts that came in the mail yesterday. Flowers! But a visibility fail.I got to run town a little after 7. Just as I parked, my mom called and asked if I wanted to do a late dinner. No! I was running. I walked a half mile warm up before running. Between dusk and my stomach I only got in 2 miles but they were kind of awesome. They weren’t the fastest or the best and my ankle kind of hurt but I was just glad to be running. It was a good little reset. And tomorrow is Friday!!