Tag: half marathon

Week 36 Training Recap

Training for:

City to the Sea 13.1
Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

I said these training recaps were going to be shorter starting this week but I may have misspoke. Last week ran me over like a truck…which then backed up. So most of my posting plans were ignored in favor of sanity. I did get most of my planned running in but the bike was ignored in favor of sleep and/or staring at the TV trying to decompress while binging on Netflix. I’ve now started season 8 of Bones. It’s a 😛

So long story short- I walked into work on Monday and was greeted by a flood. Ok, deep breath in and go! Only a few rooms were flooded but we were literally sinking into the carpet. Ok then. Figured out it was the water heater and a plumber came out and fixed that. We put up some normal fans while waiting for the restoration crew. One fan damn near grenaded as I was running to wall to get it unplugged. The restoration crew finally showed up and I thought that meant things were looking up. Yeah, no. 5 high power industrial drying fans had to run 24/7. All week long. By Thursday, I thought I was going to lose my mind. On Friday I partially did. I started giggling at something an employee said- that wasn’t funny- and couldn’t stop. Then I started crying. I had no idea that sound could affect me that much.

Monday- 2.7 miles Can’t blame the shortness on the flood this time. I decided to break in my new shoes and knew by 1.5 miles in that I was going to have problems. 2.7 was when I decided I wasn’t going to make it back to my car without becoming bloody. I turned off my watch and took off my right shoe and sock. I stretched and walked back to my car half barefoot. Grrrr.

Tuesday- Rest Day

Wednesday- Rest Day I wanted to run but was feeling funky and decided it wasn’t worth it just to make August’s mileage look a little better.

Thursday- 4 miles Ouch, ouch. My calves were so damn tight and my brain was on the fritz. It was day 4 of the fan drama and I really wanted to just run out all the stress but it didn’t work. My legs were sore and my calves would not loosen up. I lost count of how many times I stopped to stretch it out.

Friday- Day from hell. Work was so busy, the fans almost broke me and I didn’t get home until 8. I started crying on the way home. Why?!?!

Saturday- Rest I had made plans to run with Heather and Ashley but on Friday I knew that wasn’t going to happen. As much as I wanted to run with them, I was fried. So instead I did something I rarely do- nothing. I slept in (that part’s not rare😛) but did nothing. I sat out on the deck for most of the afternoon and just chilled. I caught on some reading- Runner’s World and I finished a book. I also listened to some music. Turns out my calming music is Lifehouse- ha! That said, it was kind of nice. And it was so needed after the week of noise.

Sunday- 11 miles. Oof. My plan for my long run this weekend was 12. The fact that I made it to 11 is victory enough. I dragged my feet getting out of bed but did make it out the door before 9. I was achy and tired and it never went away. I was done by mile 3 but I told myself it would get better. Plus I was meeting my mom at the halfway point so she could walk and I had to keep running to get to the meet up point. I was so slow, I was taking walking breaks right and left; my pace was all over the place. I just kept slowing down, I decided I was done at 11. 11 brought me back to the car right as my mother was finishing her walk. I took it as a sign that 11 was good enough. 😛 I was toast.

17.7 miles for the week. Not great but not horrible. At least I held steady from the previous week. That’s a plus right?

Looking to this week, I would like to figure what is causing all the achiness. However, I am not setting any definite plans as I know the fans are still running now. Right now, my only hope is that they will go away on Tuesday. Fingers crossed!! The earlier the better.

How was your week? Have a good Labor Day?

Ever had a pipe break?

Thanks for sticking through another long post!

Adieu August

Recovery month, baby!

I admit I was hoping for more miles but it is what is, right? Plus, considering I was afraid I would come off the marathon and never want to run again, I should count this as a win right?

I managed to pull off one 10 miler- double digits!!!- and one speed work session. I had some decent weeks and a very small, little 4 miler week. Considering the amount of smoke in the air from all the fires close by, my mileage was pretty consistent.

I ran zero races. Which made me super envious of all the cool pictures and recaps I saw online. 😛. So I compensated by taking lots of scenery pictures.

Work got a little crazy but I think I need to realize that it always will be. That said, this week kicked my ass. 2 rooms flooded and we’ve been working with industrial blower fans running all day, every day. I think the constant noise is making my brain liquefy. I really wanted to hit at least 50 miles for the month but after an abbreviated run on Monday- hello blisters- my last chance to fit in miles was Wednesday. By the end of the day, I felt fried, even the idea of changing into my running gear was exhausting. In the end I decided hitting an arbitrary number wasn’t worth it, all I wanted to do was hide in a dark and quiet corner. So I did and 44.14 was it for August.

Which brings us to September. I am partially excited and partially in denial. Excited because I haves races coming up! First one isn’t until the end of September but it’s one of my favorite races and I am looking forward to it. That being said, how the hell is it September?!?!?! That is just ridiculous. Seriously, wasn’t it just March? Why is time moving so fast? I can’t keep up! Then today, my Instagram feed was full of Pumpkin Spice Lattes- slow your roll people!

How was your August?

Any plans for September?

What are you looking forward to ?

Week 35 Recap

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?

Last Marathon Thoughts & Moving On

Did I really run a marathon 2 weeks ago?! It’s been over a week and I am still not sure how I pulled it off. How did I go from the year of no goals to running a marathon?

I mean, there is a reason I call this blog “Slacker Runner”. I am lazy. Sleeping in on weekends and sitting in my comfy chair binge watching Netflix are kind of my things. I’m good at those things. But training for a marathon? Running that marathon? And not hating life during it? That’s not me.

And yet I did it. Training didn’t go like planned but I did ok. Panic attacks leading up to race day were rampant… so was the doubt. Yet, somehow it all went away race morning. I realize that I got really lucky. Incredibly lucky- 26 miles of hills and fog, under fueled by most people’s standards but never hit a wall. I also somehow managed to avoid chafing.

I was so afraid the marathon was going to break me. I feared that I would cross the finish line ( if I made it that far) and hate running. I felt that way after my first half- I took 3- 4 months off of running. Well, I ~~raced~~ ran a 10K after and it just made things worse. But that’s another story.

Instead I went a little crazy the other way. Last week, I was like “run all the races!!!!!”. This week, I’ve calmed down a little. 😛 But that doesn’t change what I did. Yeah… I have 3 half marathons in a 5 week time frame starting in October. Oops. I really should look at a calendar more often. There should be an app that inputs all your races into a calendar that will pop up with flashing lights shouting “slow your roll”. But it is what it is.

My hope is for 2 of the races to be run for fun and one to be a challenge. I think it’s time to push myself a little. Maybe to see what happens? I also really need to get back on track with healthier eating habits. While I made it through marathon training without gaining any weight, I sure didn’t lose any. I rationalized a few too many indulgences. There’s only so many times you can tell yourself that life is short, eat the pizza. 😛❤🍕

I am still sussing out how I am going to train over the next couple of months but I am looking forward to it. And I’ll leave you with a funny-

race_2167_photo_39772647 — Walk break or picture break?

Happy Friday!!!

Have any plans?

Did I go a little crazy or am I still normal?

2016 Rock’n Around the Pier Half Recap

I love beach races and I hate them at the same time. I have learned that I personally will never set a PR on sand. Partly due to the sand and partly due to how the humidity jacks with my lungs. Either way, I seem to be a glutton for punishment as I keep signing up for them. Plus this race tends to fall around my birthday so it’s become sort of an unofficial tradition.

This was my third year running some form of this race this year, second time running the half. I didn’t have many goals going in other than complete the first part of my last big run and maybe finish quicker than 2014’s hot mess.

Yeah, neither of those were achieved. In fact, I managed to turn in my slowest half ever! That said, this recap will be a little different than my usual ones.

The morning started off interesting as I made it all the way down my driveway before realizing that I had forgotten my Garmin. Seriously? I actually debated going on without it but in the end I went back to get it. I had hoped to run a little warm up prior to the race but my stomach was feeling iffy so I headed straight to the bathroom lines after parking. Major props to clean, well stocked real bathrooms. Once that was taken care of, I walked around the Rock parking lot and tried to shake loose. Then I headed for the starting chute. For the first time, I was actually in the chute when the race started. I can’t say that for the other years. 😛

It was clear at the start and I was hopeful it would stay that way. The first 2 miles actually felt pretty good. 9:59, 10:31. My legs were cooperating and the sand wasn’t too bad. I was naively hopeful that things were going to stay that way.

Around mile 2.5, we hit the rocks at North Point. They were no joke. We bottle necked and slowed to crawl as we all tried to figure out the best way to cross them without breaking our faces. Once that was done, it was back to the beach to run on. Around mile 2 we had started to run into the marine layer. And it was dense. But I ignored it. Until I couldn’t. 11:18, 11:18, 11:31.

I could not breathe. My lungs were so tight. I was slowing down with every mile. I seriously considered quitting at the pier. When all the 10k’ers were heading to their finish line and I had to turn around and head the other way. I almost quit. Almost. But my car was at the rock, my parents were coming to the finish and San Francisco has fog right? Besides the pier was clear so I was hoping the marine layer was burning off. Mile 6-12:29

I was wrong. Half a mile later, we were back in it. And it seemed worse. I was struggling big time. I tried running .75 miles, walking .25. Couldn’t do it. Next was running .5 miles and walking .25. Another fail. Ok, how about .4 mile run, .1 mile walk. More fail. Ok, walking was fine. Walking was moving forward right? 12:55, 12:44, 12:41

Breathing was so damn hard. My throat was on fire, my lungs and chest hurt. I was beginning to wonder if you could OD on an inhaler. But there was no where to go but forward. There was only one way off the beach.

The rock patch the second time through was sketchier- by now I was mostly by myself and there was no one to follow. Plus I was tired. But I made it and knew I had less than 3 miles to go. The fog was so dense, I was beginning to worry I was going to miss the turn off to head up the beach for the loop around the park. Someone came up behind me and passed me so I just followed them. Between the rocks and sinking in the dune sand, I had slowed to a crawl but I just kept moving. 14:33, 15:59, 14:16

I was able to pick up a bit of speed on the pavement around the park but not much of anything. I suppose I could have quit at that aid station but the finish was less than 1.5 away. So back to the beach to finish out my crawl. I was a mile from the rock but I could not even see it through the marine layer. It was getting patchier so I was keeping my fingers crossed for sunshine. Half a mile from the finish and my wish was granted. Way too late but oh well. 13:13

The advantage of crawling? I was able to spot my parents and wave to the camera as I jogged in. 😛

Finish 2:46:15 New personal worst!!!

So yeah, that was fun. I actually finished with a smile on my face though. It is what is. Was it the race I wanted? No. But I listened to my body and slowed way down. Had there been anywhere to go, I may have quit but in reality there weren’t any shortcuts after the pier so I just kept going. I do wonder now if the race is prepared for emergencies though, I only saw what looked like a course monitor once. And it could have just been a cyclist in a yellow vest- who knows?

I do however know that I cannot run 26 miles like that. So now I am hoping for a clear day in San Francisco. Fingers crossed!!!!

I still really love this race. I will be back next year… but maybe just the 10k. 😛