Further, Farther

September 16, 2019September 15, 2019 Fallon @ Slacker Runner3 Comments

Disclaimer: I received Gatorade Endurance products to use as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

I started the year with one BIG goal.

However I never shared that goal.

Then I spent the first few months of the year more sick than not and things got put on the back burner. Well, the race dropping my distance and changing locations and dates didn’t help either but that’s another story.

Then I circled back around. Why not? Let’s do this.

And that is a 50K.

Some of you are possibly saying hell yeah! While others are saying, yeah no, you just need to stop.

Don’t get me wrong- I am not aiming to run this thing tomorrow, or even next month. I realize this is going to take some time. I need time on my feet, miles under my belt, mountains to climb.

I also need to practice my fueling. Because well, I don’t. I may have been able to skate through 2 marathons that way but that won’t work if my aim is for dirty trails and steep climbs.

I will have time to practice my fueling over the next few months. As I have more than a few races planned that I’ve not yet mentioned.😆

At this point I am tossing around 50k races happening early 2020. Typing that year was kind of scary. Makes the race seem less frightening, ha! However that means I have a few months to get my act together. Which is good as some my options are BEASTS.

So, tell me your thoughts! Am I crazy? Any tips?

BibRave · Run! · Training

2017- The Shiny and The Dull

January 5, 2018January 5, 2018 Fallon @ Slacker Runner6 Comments

It’s that time again- time to recap the Shiny and the Dull of 2017.

Let’s get the Dull out of the way first.

So yeah, remember that post 12 months ago where I said I hated goals, that I considered them 4 letter words so I wasn’t making any? No? Well, here it is if you’re feeling really bored. I was going to make 2017 the year of Challenge. Ha! More like the year of complacency.

Instead of running all the miles in 2017, I didn’t even clear 650.

Did I find my old pace? Yeah, no.

I was turned down for 2 jobs I applied for.

Should we even mention the weight I put on? I’m less irritated about the number and more irritated about how uncomfortable I feel in my skin.

Had migraine issues, thyroid issues, leg issues, back issues, bed issues. Maybe I’m the issue?

Ok, enough with the dull.

Shiny!!!!!!

I ran 10 races, 8 13.1’s, one 5 miler and one 5K. If I had to pick a top 3, they would be –

Las Vegas! I went to Vegas! I ran a half and a 5K in one weekend. I finally met Kate in real life! We ran her first half together. I met Helly! I hung with Mai and other BibRave Pros! There were lights and miles and good times and it was awesome. Tiring but awesome. And I am a bad blogger because I don’t have the pictures.
Rock N Roll San Diego 13.1– My first Rock n Roll race and it was great one. I loved the course and the whole experience. I met Mai and Emily and made the We Run Social photo on race morning. And I met Chelsea! It was also my fastest race in a few years. Until…
City to Sea– Home town love. Yeah, I consider the entire county my home town. 5th time running this race and I still love it. Somehow pulled off my fastest race of the year too. Still don’t know where that came from.

Honorable mentions- Salinas Valley Half Marathon, SLO Ultra 5 Miler

I had the opportunity to work with BibRave again in 2017 and it is a great group of people. Plus I tested some pretty awesome products. I’d have even fewer miles if BibRave hadn’t pointed me in the direction of my Ultra Boost X’s. My running store doesn’t sell them so I wouldn’t have found them on my own. I’m on pair 2 now.

I was also given the chance to be an ambassador for Miles and Pace. If you’ve been around this blog for the last few years, you may have noticed that I am pretty attached to my Miles and Pace trucker hats so I was stoked. My current hat count is 4.

As for work, I have a Rock star crew, so can’t complain about that.

So 2017 did not go like I hoped but then again I maybe got a little too comfy in the comfy chair and rationalized my way into being a little too Slacker like. I mentioned on Twitter the other night that I have a tendency to get in my own way.

As for 2018? Time to Sound the Alarm.

Recap · Run!

2016- Shiny and Dull

December 29, 2016December 28, 2016 Fallon @ Slacker Runner14 Comments

It’s that time of year again- time for the Slacker’s recap of the Shiny and the Dull for the year.

Let’s get the dull out of the way so we can move on to shinier things. We all need shiny right? So without further adieu, the Dull of 2016-

I lost both grandmother’s this year. While one was kind of expected, the other was a total blind side. Either way, both sucked. I don’t handle loss well. I don’t adult well in that way.
My identity was stolen. That was fun.
3 debit cards were hacked. All at different times. Separate issue from above.
My credit card was also hacked. And who the hell spends that much money at Whole Foods??!!?!
I added 10 pounds to the 10 pounds from 2015 I needed to lose. Probably from a combination of my litany of meds and my reliance on chips and pizza as comfort food. Like I said, I don’t adult well.
I officially DNS’ed my first 2 races- Rock n Roll LA and Spooner’s Cove Trail Run. Grrr.

Ok, ok, enough Dull. Bring on the Shiny!!!!!!!

I started 2016 by kicking goals to the curb. I do not regret that decision. As far as I am concerned goals can get taken out with the trash. They work for some people but they do not work for me. I did not miss them this year and I will not miss them in 2017 but, oops, spoilers. 😛 So why did my goal free year work for me?

I ran 12 races this year. 6 half marathons, 1 8 mile race, 2 10k’s, 2 5k’s and a little something else😉😉. Fewer races than previous years but I tried to approach this year differently.

As of the time this post goes up, I have run 850 miles in 2016. 100 more than my highest previous year. Woo hoo! Do I wish it was higher? Sure. Had I not had such a lackluster November and December I might have come close to that ever elusive (for me) 1000 mile mark. One day I will get there, until then I can dream right?

I had the opportunity to join Bibrave. Join a group of runners where we can talk about running and races all the time??? Sweet! I’ve also been able to meet some of them in real life except I’m fired because I now realize I’ve never taken pictures. Boo. I’ve had the opportunity to try some really great products too. Which is awesome because I use a lotof them on a daily basis now.

I road tripped to 3 races- Huntington Beach for one and San Francisco for two. I went to Disneyland twice. This from the person who used to never go anywhere. Woah there!

And that little something else race?

I TRAINED for and RAN a freakin’ marathon!! This from the Slacker who said she would never run a marathon. Not only was the distance daunting but I couldn’t imagine that I would ever stick to the training. I am not the type to voluntarily get up early and run 20 miles on my own. And yet I did and I was smiling at the end. Ok, smirking.

Even more surprising was the marathon itself. If you followed along during training, you know I was a hot mess in July leading up to San Francisco. When I left for race weekend, I was seriously considering dropping to the half, I was still thinking that when I picked up my bib. Then race morning dawned and I was cool as a cucumber. I had no doubt I was going to finish… and I did. Without hitting a wall. Who am I???? Granted I was slower than I wanted to be and went over 5 hours but you guys I ran a marathon! And somehow looked like that after 25+ miles.

2016 had a mix of the shiny and dull. I let myself get mired in the dull a little too often. It’s something I need to work on. Overall, there were some really Shiny moments in there though. As for 2017? More on that to come.

How was your 2016?

Name your Shiny?

Name your Dull?

Run! · Slacker

Run to the Music 4

November 4, 2016 Fallon @ Slacker Runner10 Comments

But this isn’t giving up no this is letting go
Out with the old dreams I’ve borrowed
The path I carve from here on out will be my own
A path to take me home

Most of my runs lately have had me thinking deep thoughts. Maybe facing some truths too. I claimed that this was the year of no goals but I let myself get swayed by the dark side, the numbers side. It’s all too easy to get caught up with social media and fall into the comparison trap. Denying it can only dig you deeper and deeper into the hole. Combine that with a bunch of crappy things happening outside of running this year and I think I’m falling apart. Not completely but I’m starting to crack.

Which means a lot of things but one of those is letting go of those pesky numbers goals that snuck back up on me. I’ve become a little too mired in pace and miles. I realized the other week that I have run more miles this year than any year previous. Right after that, I realized how close I am to actually pulling off 1000 miles in a year. In other words, 2015’s failed goal. But let’s be honest, 2 hundred mile months right now would break me. Likely make me hate running too. I don’t want that, I want to enjoy running just to run for the rest of year. Maybe next year too. Who know? I want to enjoy races for awhile.

Thankfully, my iPod is still on shuffle all. The perfect song came on at the right time today.

This is Letting Go– Rise Against

So this me letting go. I saying it out loud…and in print. Hopefully, you’ll see a shinier Slacker in the coming months.

Run! · Training

Week 35 Recap

August 29, 2016August 28, 2016 Fallon @ Slacker Runner8 Comments

Training for: City to the Sea 13.1
Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

Yikes, that’s the first time I’ve typed that all out. And it doesn’t include the HOB Fun Run and I may throw a couple more 5K’s in there. Yes, I may be a little crazy. It’ll be fun right?

Going forward, I think I am going to change up the way I post these training recaps. I will still have a weekly one but I am thinking they will be shorter. I miss posting more often and trying to cram everything into one post makes for a lot of words. Who wants to read that??😛 That said, this one might be lengthy.

Monday- 4 miles In an effort to mitigate the smoky air intake, I decided to run at work. Marine layer- why not? I always forgot how much I love the middle portion of this route. Ocean! Eucalyptus trees, dirt! I just wish this section was longer. Smoke and marine layer aside, this was actually a remarkably steady paced run for me- 11:32, 11:31, 11:50, 10:46. The run 5, walk 2 is kind of working out post marathon. Miles 1 and 2 are all downhill while 3 and 4 are uphill. 4 is the steepest but mile 3 is usually the slowest as I hit a section of super slippery dirt in the eucalyptus grove. I really should run this route more often.

Tuesday- Rest day, pizza day!

Wednesday- 3.8 miles Baby speed work session- woo hoo! My legs felt pretty good after that. I also started my new-ish (reverted) posting as I posted all about that run here.

Thursday- Rest I really wanted to run but I figured that would probably be stupid. I want to work back up to a 4 day a week running schedule but the last few weeks were very lacking. I figured a 3 day week first would be a better step. I took a late half day for working Saturday 2 weeks ago. I figured I would get on the bike once I got home but instead it was one of those days where time just seemed to fly and hardly anything I planned was completed.

Friday- Rest Day I work the late shift a few weeks in a row and nothing really happens outside of work. An employee also left so we are back in that pattern of waiting to hire and running short while the interviews take place. Busy days! I also found out that I am no longer exempt- I had to clock in and out for the first time in years. I am still not sure how I feel about that.

Saturday- 10 miles Double digits, woo hoo!! The temp wasn’t supposed to be too warm and I was feeling tired after a crazy work week so I planned on running a little later but I hadn’t planned on waking up to an almost dead phone. For some reason it hadn’t charged overnight. Grrr. I headed out the door around 9:30. Oops. I wanted to run 10 but had a a variety of ways to shorten it if I just wasn’t feeling it. School is back in session and my mother was having a tennis practice so my plan was to run there and then we would go to lunch.

I was feeling a little sluggish starting out but not horrible so I just kept going. I did welcome each stop light break though. Per usual, I booked it across the bridge and that was my fastest mile- 9:18. Oops. From then on it was into mountain lion sighting territory. Yikes!! I kept my pepper spray in my hand while I was running through the river bed section. Which is silly as the cat was spotted up by the neighborhoods. There were a surprising number of people out for a run or walk at that time. I wondered if the mountain lion issue had everyone out running later then normal. I even ran into NikeC! It was nice chatting with her for a bit. My pace was surprisingly consistent. If you’ve been around this blog for a while- you know pace consistency is not my thing. I finished my run with an average pace of 11:00. Who am I? I am usually way slower than that on long runs. Hell, Monday’s run was slower than that. I never really felt like I was pushing and I took walk breaks anytime I needed a moment. I was kind of stoked when I saw my splits later. 😃

Sunday- 7 miles bike I had some errands that took me to SLO for the day. New glasses!!! I hit my daily step total which is rare and then finished up with some cross training.

So 4 days of exercise, 17.8 miles run, much better than the previous 3. One of these days I will do more than just think about strength training. 😛

In other news, I ate less pizza and watched a ton of Bones last week. Seriously people, I just started season 6! I may need an intervention! In sad news, my car hit 100,000 miles- boo.

How was your week?

What are you watching now?