Tag: gym

Week 34- Kind Of

Upcoming Races-

SLO Ultra 5 Mile
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1???
Rock N Roll Las Vegas 5K
Rock N Roll Las Vegas 13.1!!!!!

With less than 80 days to go to Vegas, I figured it was about time to add it up top. 😛

While this week was better than last week, it was still very lazy, a little too Slacker like even for me. I was still taking it easy after last week’s UTI and antibiotic fiasco. Truthfully, I have no idea how long I am supposed to take it easy. ” A while” is very unspecific.

Then, I’ve been blaming all my tiredness on either the conversion or the fact that my bed is crap and I’ve only been averaging 5ish hours of sleep a night. Found out last week there’s another possibility. Thanks to some blood work ordered by my neurologist, we now know my thyroid is in the crapper. Which is not cool as I am already on a high dose thyroid medication. The call your primary now call is not a lot of fun. The blood work trip was interesting- the tech couldn’t find a vein and the man in the room next to me almost passed out. I hate needles.

So what did I actually do?

Monday- 2.3 miles I headed for the lake path after work thinking that it was nice and flat and would be a good place to try and run. My body was not on board. I struggled for 2 laps of the lake before deciding that I was dong more harm than good and called it.

Tuesday/ Wednesday – Nothing– Called it rest. My bed is starting to make my body hurt in the oddest damn ways though. Blood work on Wednesday.

Thursday- 3 miles Headed for the river path and planned to go soooo easy. Walked the first 14 minutes and then ran 1 minute, walked 1 minute, repeat. Even on the downhills. It felt so much better than Monday. Even though my legs were very confused on the downhill walking portions. 😛

Friday- Rest I had a little dizzy spell- 1 of 3 this week actually- yay hormones. So I treated myself to a very large burger at lunch. Didn’t feel guilty at all.

Saturday- Rest Tried to catch up on my sleep. Dinner the night before hadn’t agreed with me so I decided to just run errands and avoid the heat. I could do a longer run on Sunday. I went bed shopping. So many options! I have no idea what to choose and man are they expensive.

Sunday- 3.3 miles Except I hit snooze a few too many times. Then it was 103. Then 105. I was losing all motivation to run. I was tweeting about. I knew that if I waited until it cooled off I would not run. But it was too hot to run. Oh wait, I have a gym membership I never use. Seriously. Haven’t been since last November. I Hate the treadmill. But I changed and drove myself across town. I walked the entire first mile just to be sure I was going to be in massive pain like my last treadmill run. No pain, so I started running. It wasn’t horrible! Only had time to squeeze in a few miles before Sunday dinner since I procrastinated so long but it’s better than nothing!

8.6 miles for the week. Twice last week so at least they are going up. Which is good because there is a list of races up there! Here’s hoping I can get an actual long run in this week.

How was your week?

Any bed buying tips? Anyone have a memory foam bed?

Week 6- Ouch- Fail

Training for:

Livermore 13.1 -March 26
Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13

Did anyone else have an odd week last week? Did it seem freaky long and just off for no real reason? Everyone at work seemed to feel it too. I know there was a full moon on Friday but still the whole week was just odd.

Monday- Rest- Last week saw a wealth of knowledge drop on us at work- all merger related. It started today with a meeting with the new CEO. It was a good meeting but I was kind of fried by the end of the day, I can’t remember what I did when I got home. 😞

Tuesday- Gym Fail- Work was a little busy but overall the rain and the highway closure is keeping us a little slower. I changed after work and planned on heading home for some #bibchat and hitting the gym for intervals. What the hell? Traffic was ridiculous. It was raining but nothing like it has been lately but I didn’t get back to home town until almost 7. So much for #bibchat. Ok, gym time. Every single treadmill was taken. What?! I admit I gave up. I bailed. I headed home and ordered a pizza.

Wednesday- 4 miles– After the previous day’s snafu, I decided to do another baby tempo at work. Except when I set out I realized I has somehow lost my inhaler the night before. For crying out loud. Ok, so no speed work. The marine layer was heavy so running without my inhaler was probably asking for trouble but I really needed to run. I kept it nice and easy but even with the slower pace, my breathing still sounded like I was sprinting, ha. The marine layer holds light pretty well so I pushed further into the state park and was able to make it to the Natural History Museum before I had to turn back. I love running though the eucalyptus grove.

Thursday- Ouch– I woke up to some not so good pain in my left leg. And not the typical shin variety pain. I took my running clothes to work but when it didn’t get better throughout the day I conceded defeat and decided to make it a rest day.

Friday- More ouch– My leg still hurt. It was isolated to the inside of my left ankle and I was starting to freak out a little. I also figured I knew what did it. While I loved running the trails through the eucalyptus grove on Wednesday, I shouldn’t have done it in my Nike’s. While I love my Nike’s for speed work, they are not big on traction, they have very smooth bottoms and the trails were pretty slick and muddy from all the rain. But I was having fun in the moment.

Saturday- More of the same– Good thing I decided it was too muddy to that run that 10k! I opted for active rest and wandered around SLO doing some shopping and consoling myself with some amazing pizza. I may have spent too much money at Lululemon. 😛 The clearance rack was just too tempting.

Sunday- 9 miles I had rested for 3 days, what was my ankle going to do??? I knew I was going to be slow and that was fine. I was stiff for the first few miles which is typical but I made sure to focus on my ankle and walk anytime I felt more than a twinge. Overall I felt ok. I picked up the pace a bit across the bridge per usual and indulged with a little river watching when I made it down to the river bed. Everything was going ok until a little past mile 6. Then things went south real fast. I was hustling to cross an intersection before a car and I suddenly felt ill. I had to pause for a breather rather than be sick and even when I got going I had to walk a lot. I felt very crappy for the last 3 miles, it was all I could to finish. If I could have bailed sooner I would have but it’s not like I was getting to the car any other way. My lungs were abnormally pissed too. They were angrier then they had been on Wednesday but I had found my inhaler so what gives? I wasn’t quite right the rest of the evening either which is why this post is a day late.

13 miles for the week. Once again, I missed workouts. Grrr. Between merger stuff, crazy rain, and my weird dizzy, nausea spells, I feel like I’ve turned into a giant flake. My lab work should be done next week but knowing my luck it won’t show anything. I’m not even sure what I should keep my fingers crossed for? This year is Challenging in me in different ways than I planned. I broke down crying in a meeting with my boss last week. Get it together!

Anyways, moving on to a shiny new week. One good thing— my road is open again!!!!! 30 less miles a day!!! It’s the little things right?

How was your week?

Ever bailed on a workout when you were in workout clothes already?

Tell me something shiny!

Week 3 Training Recap

Upcoming Races- Castle to Coast 8.2
Surf City 13.1

After a week of being sick, this was a much better week. So let’s get to it!

Monday– 3.7 miles Ah, yes bloody mile Monday. That was fun.

Tuesday. 10.65 mile Stationary bike. As I am just getting back to riding the bike I meant to keep it short and easy. Oops. It’s back in a position where I can watch tv while I ride, apparently that makes a huge difference. 😝 I zoned out while being irritated with Pretty Little Liars. Why do I keep watching?

Wednesday– Rest-Doctor’s appointment #2 of the week. I ended up home earlier than normal and seriously considered a run but there just wasn’t enough daylight left. I thought about the gym but once home I just couldn’t bring myself to change and head back out.

Thursday– 3 miles I should have run on Wednesday. Thanks to hormones, I had had a horrible migraine all day. The last thing I wanted to do was head to the gym but I did. After everyone’s great tips on my last post, I was prepared with Vaseline, band-aids and an extra sock. The plan was to start with one and keeping trying all the options until I hopefully found one that worked. I also made my shoelaces as loose as they could be and still keep my shoes on. The Vaseline idea reminded me of something my grandmother used to do when she would go for a walk, so that is what I tried first. I kept it super slow and paused the treadmill every mile to check my ankles. Why is treadmill running so damn hard?! Other than a little twinge every now and then, the Vaseline seemed to do the job. I was concerned that I only tested it for 3 very slow miles but I also didn’t want to push my luck so close to race day. But 3 blood free miles were a win in my book.

Friday– Rest– like always. 😃 And doctor’s appointment #3.

Saturday– 8.2 miles- Castle to Coast I did about as well as I expected but more on that in my next post.

Sunday– Food and Talking…errr Rest. Blogger meet up!! I headed down to SLO to meet up with Ashley of RatherBeRunnin’ and Heather of SLOluckyruns. We met for brunch/ late breakfast and it was kind of awesome. 😝😝 I think the restaurant might have been a little miffed though. We talked for over 3 hours! But what do you expect when you get 3 runners/ bloggers at the same place at the same time? There was so much to talk about! Then I headed back home for a bit before heading back down to SLO with the family. It was my parents 35th wedding anniversary today and the brother and I treated them to dinner. 😄

Looking at it, I am calling it a pretty solid week. I still don’t feel 100% from that stupid cold last week (fell asleep almost every time I sat down) but I worked out 4 of the 7 days. I had hoped to ride the bike today but after sleeping in and then all of the socialness, I just ran out of time. Which is perfectly fine, don’t people trump miles? Moving forward I just want to keep working on building my base back up. Which will hopefully include 3 running days and 2 bike days.

How was your week?

Did anyone race? It seemed like a very race heavy weekend. 😏

Favorite breakfast food?

There is Shiny

For a so called, introverted home body, this has been a very social week. Tuesday night, I met up with a good friend who I have not seen in way too long for dinner. It was great catching up. Then, last night, I took my mom to see Riverdance. I had won tickets at work. 😃🎉.

Growing up, I remember watching the performances on tv with my mom and grandparents, we used to love them. Every time we watched I was left wanting to both dance like them and learn to play the violin. They made violin playing look so damn cool. When I won the tickets I was stoked but also worried that they wouldn’t live up to my memories. I had nothing to be worried about, it was freakin’ awesome. Seriously the moves they can with their legs and the sounds? Amazing, if you have the chance to see them, do it. 💃

Once again, I was left wanting to dance like them. And learn to the play the violin again. 😀. But seriously, they have hip-hop inspired dance classes and Zumba- so why has there never been a Riverdance inspired fitness class?!

Social fun aside, I’ve been a serious slacker in the fitness department. I was looking forward to getting in a good run at the gym tonight but it was more of a farce.

My knee still twinges at odd times so I was planning to take it slow. I was going to try watching a show on my phone while on the treadmill. When I say watching, I really mean listening. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to see the phone comfortably without jacking up my stride. I am way behind in Grey’s Anatomy so I figured it was worth a shot. After a nice walking warm up I set the treadmill to an easy 11 minute pace and got running.

I was aiming for a super easy run as I’ve only jogged 3 miles since Big Sur. Also my leg still has moments where something feels off. I was feeling pretty good and looking forward to solid hour run. That was the time goal I set for myself and mileage didn’t matter. Listening to the show worked pretty well for 20 minutes. The the feed just died and I couldn’t get it back. Ok fine. Then 37 minutes in, my stomach cramped in a very bad way and I bailed off the treadmill.

I was ticked because my stomach has been really good the past 2 weeks. I also have barely run the past 2 weeks. I refuse to see a correlation.

Once I took care of that issue, I knew more running was unlikely. I was already at the gym so I figured I would try one their stationary bikes. The first one I sat down on was dead. No amount of pushing the start button or pedaling was bringing it to life. So I moved over one. Someone had to show me how to start it. 😭 Finally I was pedaling though. Only to find that the thing was off balance and made a clanging sound with every pedal rotation. Oh and the computer didn’t really work. It said I was pedaling a consistent 11.8. No matter how fast or slow my cadence was. I made it 15 minutes before I bailed.

So yeah, tonight seems more #gymfail than win. However, I’ve been in an odd funk lately and I am actively trying to break it. So, like the title (and one of my goals for 2015) says- there is some shiny. 37 minutes on the treadmill and 15 on the bike is 50+ more minutes than yesterday. And the day before. I got to wear my new shoes-that’s always a plus. My leg only twinged a bit during those 37 minutes too. That’s a good sign right?

And while Tuesday and Wednesday were lacking workouts, they were spent having fun and making memories. Those are always shiny.😃

Oh, and I am one day away from vacation. That may be the shiniest of all. 😛

What was your “shiny” this week?

Anyone racing this weekend? Maybe an early Turkey Trot?

That’s What She Said

Anytime I have a day off during the week I like to rearrange my running schedule so I can run that day. During the winter that means one less day on the treadmill and anytime I can straight home after work is a plus. Since I have a business mixer on Thursday, I figured running Monday and Wednesday would work better anyways. At least that was the plan. However when the alarm went off the next morning, the room was spinning. I paused to notice the accompanying pounding headache and went back to bed.

It never fails, once a year in spring, usually on a long run, I get a little too much sun and feel like crap for the next 24 hours. However it usually happens in late March, early April- not February. I had a feeling I was going to regret not wearing a hat on Sunday. So instead of running, I took my usual rest day and slept some more. Then I spent the day doing a little bit of shopping in SLO. I picked up some new toys-Tuesday was supposed to be the start of running outside instead of my easy treadmill run. The sun didn’t get the memo and never came out to play. Where was the cloud cover when I was doing my long run on Sunday? Work ran over and by that time I had zero desire to head to the gym. Particularly when I knew I had a tempo on plan as my other run for the week. I’ve been trying to only look at the current week of the training plan. That way I can con myself into following it- it doesn’t seem so intimidating that way. 🙂 If I had noticed that I had a tempo two weeks in a row, I would have chosen the hill repeats last week.

It said a 15 min warm up, 3 miles at tempo followed by a 15 min cool down. Yeah, I didn’t have that kind of time. I started my new medication at the beginning of February and it has been an interesting experiment so far. One of the things I’ve figured out is that I have to eat earlier, either that or don’t go to sleep. Or skip eating dinner but that’s not a better option. So I shortened my run. I had 45 minutes so -10 minute warm up, 1 mile tempo, 60 second recovery, 1 mile tempo, 60 second recovery, .5 mile tempo, cool down. Random, right?

Holy crap, it didn’t suck!! In fact, it kind of rocked. I was able to hit my paces and keep my breathing under control. Yes, I should have skipped the little recoveries but I still maintained for 2.5 miles. That half mile was faster but I didn’t push the lap button until after I’d slowed down. If I hadn’t been pressed for time I would have completed that last full mile and my full cool down.

Oddly enough, I noticed a few things while on the treadmill this time. Walking I felt fine, no real achiness and I was walking in straight line. Hitting the tempo paces felt good as well. No aches or pains and again running in a controlled, straight line. And when I slowed down to a 10:30-12:00 pace? I was all over the damn place. Things ached and twinged, and I was bouncing off the sides again. What gives?! I tried to focus on my form throughout the whole run and I didn’t feel like anything had changed. I am curious to see what happens on the treadmill next week.

It was nice to leave the gym feeling like I accomplished something for once. I was still a nasty mess but I felt like it was a good nasty. Usually I just feel disgusting and nasty. What is it about the gym that makes me feel so gross? Is it Daylight Savings time yet?

When was the last time you were surprised by a run?

Does your form change when your pace changes?

It’s almost Thursday!!!!