Tag: heat

Fall Teaser

Seriously, how is September half over?!! Actually, I might be ok with that if it wasn’t for the heat.

I love heat, I really do. I mean I use a space heater every day at work- every day. My favorite part of winter is bundling up in cozy sweats with a big fluffy blanket. But I am done. The heat kicked my ass this year. I never adjusted to it like I used to. It never felt comfortable. Normally I love 100* temps. Grrrr. Maybe it’s because I work in a town that rarely gets above 70. Or maybe because home town can have a 30-50 degree change throughout the day? Maybe I am getting old? Who knows. Monday it rained and it was awesome. When I started Tuesday’s run I was actually cold! It was awesome! I thought the temps were finally changing. I was starting to look forward to the 12 miler I need to run this weekend. Then came the news. The temps this weekend are projected to be a cool 100*. Waah.

Ok, deep breath, moving on. 😃

I like starting the week with my easy run, so that was the plan for Tuesday. I headed to the river path for an easy 4. The cooler air must have confused my Garmin because it said I had an elevation gain of over 550 feet for a 4 mile run. Yeah, um no. It’s more like 150. Luckily everything else seemed normal, I run this route often enough to know each mile point. Which is good since this turned out to be a run to remember. 😁

I started out with my usual walking warm up, but started running earlier. It was breezy and I was kind of chilled but it felt awesome. I laughed to myself that running more hadn’t really helped my first mile split but I was feeling good so who cared. I just kept trucking along and feeling good. No need for any walk breaks. Somehow my phone ended up on random and the song choices were amusing me. A song came on that I’d never heard before, I’m not even sure how it ended up on my phone. It was a little melancholy but I really liked it. I’ve been super stressed lately (and not hiding it well here on the blog) and something about it calmed me down and kept me running.

I did have to stop for a moment around 2.5 miles in. My stomach cramped pretty badly which wasn’t surprising considering I’d been eating Starbursts and cinnamon bears for 2 days. An older woman with a huge dog was heading my way and with my track record with dogs, I just decided to stay put until they passed by. No need to anger the dog right? Instead I scared the crap out of it. The dog jumped about a foot in the air when it saw me standing on the side of the path. What would it have done if I had run by?

That pause combined with the eerily timed song earlier had made me think. My fastest mile had been completed on this route in August 2014. I clocked in at 8:05. I suddenly wanted to beat that. Why? I don’t know, but I wanted to try. So I did. As soon as my watch buzzed for mile 3, I opened it up.

I knew I had a busy intersection in the middle of the mile so I my initial pace registered in the 8:20’s. It was feeling pretty good though. My goal was to pick it up just after the intersection. There was a line of cars so I skidded to a stop and paused my watch. The first car actually saw me so I was actually still sliding when they waved me on. In like a second I had slid, paused, un-paused and ran on. Half a mile left, time to fly. Except halfway down the path a dad was walking up with his toddler and a stroller. Between all of them they took up the whole path. I debated blasting through but the toddler was wobbling all over the path. Mowing down a toddler was not on the agenda. Another sudden stop and a pause to the Garmin. Didn’t people know I was attempting something here?!

Un-pause and run on. It was hard getting back into gear. My legs and lungs were protesting now. I ignored them and pushed on. I hit the end of the concrete path and headed for the dirt river trail. I almost ate rocks for dinner as I lost traction rounding the corner of the trail head. I got my act together and pushed on; I knew I was close. That was the longest 3/10 of a mile ever. But I did it!

7:48:9?! Holy crap! Would I have done better or worse if I hadn’t had to pause twice? I don’t know but it’s still awesome. 😃 I slowed to a walk but I didn’t feel like I needed to stop. I was breathing super loudly and probably sounded creepy since I was kind of hidden in the bushes on the trail. I walked for 1/10 of a mile before running it out for a total of 4.5 miles. I felt pretty good.

kind of a smile! not quite dead but kind of a ginger, too. ha!

So, while I may never ever do it again, I can say I got pretty damn close to my fastest mile ever back in high school. I really only had PE my freshman year of school but I was always stuck doing that Presidential Fitness test. I was so horrible at those. 😉 I’ve been thinking a lot about speed and my next half marathon so it was kind of cool to pull this off. I also think the cooler weather helped. The news just announced the predicted for Sunday has risen to 102 so hopefully the high from this run will get me out of bed early enough to avoid the heat.

Are you enjoying fall yet? Or still dealing with summer temps?’

Favorite part of fall?

Does pausing count?

Week 12 Recap- Crash

Last week I jokingly said that the week felt like a truck had hit me. Be careful what you say- this week a truck literally did hit me. But more on that fun morning a little bit later. So let’s get to it! I started the week with a fun doctor’s appointment where I got to swallow what looked like plastic toys and get x-rays taken. I would return later in the week for more x-rays.

Monday- 3.5 miles

Slog fest. After having a few days with no running I was really looking forward to this run. I had a seminar on Tuesday evening so I had to push the run up a day. Monday was the start of a heat wave but it was only in the low 90’s when I got to the lake after work so I thought it would be fine. I don’t know if it was the heat or if I was still feeling poorly but this run was rough. I felt like I never even got started. I wanted 4 miles but the idea of running past my car only to turn around was not appealing. I called it when I hit my car.

Tuesday- Rest

So yeah, that run was apparently too hot. I felt a heat headache coming on Monday night and tried to head it off by sleeping with an ice pack. No such luck. By the time I got off work Tuesday-late- I felt like my head was going to crack open. I had no idea how I was going to handle a seminar. Thankfully my mother wasn’t feeling well either. Since I was getting into the seminar with her when she decided to not go I was thankful. We went to pizza instead. Comfort food for the win. #paleofail

Wednesday- Rest

The week’s speed work was on tap. However the events of the drive home changed that. I was just a little too shaky after. So comfort food again- a yummy quesadilla. #paleofailagain

Thursday- 6.61 miles -Intervals 😃😄🎆

Predicted temps were 105* so I knew I was headed to the gym. I knew I was going to have to make some adjustments to the workout due to my stomach but I was hoping to get as close to the plan as possible. I took my warm up super easy. Partly because it takes me forever to find my groove on the treadmill and partly because I was trying to ignore the fact that nature was calling. I have to drink less after 4 pm, seriously. Finally I just got over myself and used the restrooms before starting the intervals. Might as well take advantage of the gym right? The plan called for 3 minute intervals at 10K pace. I have no idea what my 10K pace should be- my PR is over a year old. So I figured I’d wing it. I set the treadmill to 7 which computed out to 8:57 a mile. Ok not bad, I figured I would see how I did. The first 3 intervals went well so I stepped the next 3 up to 7.1. Which according to the treadmill is an 8:37 pace. My math doesn’t agree with that but oh well. The 3 intervals were going well but I could tell I was tiring by the 6th one. So I did one last interval at 7.2. Boom. Just kidding, couldn’t help myself. 😃 I only managed a 13 minute cool down as my stomach cramped pretty badly. But it let me complete the majority of the work out so I’m still calling it a win. This was pretty awesome run. I felt strong for the first time in months. Now if only that feeling could stick around.

Friday- Rest

I had my last set of x-rays that morning so I was taking care of that before work. Apparently life decided I hadn’t had enough excitement during the week and I was in an accident getting off the freeway. I stopped at the red light at the end of the off ramp and the truck behind me didn’t. 😂 Seriously?! I was in disbelief for a moment- did that really just happen? It did- we pulled off the road and did the exchange of information bit. He was super apologetic but I was kind of still in disbelief. The irony of the timing of my previous post going up was not lost on me. His all metal truck was fine and my car was drivable so we went our separate ways.

I headed to the doctor for my x-rays. I also called work and let them I was going to be later then planned. I then took my car to my dad to have him check it out before I headed to work. I know he couldn’t see everything but as a former mechanic I knew he would know if there were any trouble spots. My bumper is pushed forward, as well as a hole in it and my trunk is jacked up. Other things sound odd but I am thinking optimistically. I then started a claim with my insurance just in case before I finally headed to work. I’m not sure how much use I was though. 😐

Saturday- 5.5 miles bike

I spent most of the night before sick due to too many comfort food meals (pizza again Friday) and I woke up super sore. I had really wanted to do my long run that morning but there was no way. I tried to ride out some of the stiffness on the bike but no luck. My stomach didn’t appreciate it either so I just decided on a rest day.Sunday- 7.1 miles

I slept like crap again, so I was late getting out the door. I was still sore but thought I could run it out. Ha! Plus while the temp started in the 60’s it jumped drastically by the halfway point. Like 20 degrees. Really, I would call this more of a walk. I averaged a 13:00 minute pace. I was thisclose to calling my mom to come give me a ride. Since I say a long run is anything over 7 it’s not a complete fail but I am not sure if it was helpful. Slow mile better than no mile right?

Overall, this week had its high points and its low. Way more drama than I would have liked. I need a vacation. The last few weeks have been hit and miss with running. If I hit a speed work out I miss the long run and vice versa. I really wanted to hit both this week. I didn’t say it in my last recap but that was a huge goal for me this week. I feel liked I missed it again. Yes, there were extenuating circumstances but I feel like I fall back on that excuse a lot. I need to get out of my own way, but more on that in another post. Now I have to figure how to structure this week as I have a 5K on Sunday. That is freaking me out a bit.

Paleo- C-

That may be aiming high considering how much “comfort food” I ate this week. My stomach did not appreciate it by week’s end either. I know what I did wrong though so it’s fixable. Lunch and breakfast is still on track.

How was your week?

Ever been rear ended? Should I just stay off the roads?

Anyone racing soon?

Mid Week Musings-3

Woo hoo, it’s Wednesday! WordPress tells me this is the third time I’ve posted with my mid-week musings, so here we go.

D.E.R- Smart Choices-

As in Don’t Even Register. I’ve never DNS’d a race because I register super late. I figure I’d rather pay $20 more than lose the whole registration fee. My post back in May laid out my summer race schedule. It listed a 25K trail race on August 1. Which I really, really want to run. But let’s be real here, I haven’t been on a trail since April. I am not in any kind of shape for a 3200’+ elevation gain. And it’s by the beach. Hello humidity. While I was struggling through the last humid miles at Shoreline, I came to the conclusion that a humid 25K just might kill me. That struggle bus was fueling some dramatic thoughts apparently. So, I decided that a 12K with 1400′ climb would be fine, a little fun with a little difficulty too. Then there was my leg and let’s be real there too, it’s been bothering me for a while now. It’s not a new thing. It’s not like I’ve never done dumb things before (i.e. Ventura half on heavy-duty antibiotics, a 5K after an asthma filled 10k -September makes me stupid) but I am trying to be smart here. So from 25K to 12K to 0. Which makes me cranky since our area has 2 trail races a year and this was the last long distance option until Fall 2016. Waah! Or so I thought. 🙂 The one I ran in January is coming back in November. 7 days after the Big Sur Half. Yup, I’m still crazy. Just not running next weekend. 🙂

That leg though-

After hiding from the lightning and thunder on Sunday, and the oppressive humidity left behind on Monday, I was ready to try running. Seriously, I’ve never seen 95% humidity in home town and work was a lovely 100% when I arrived that morning, thanks Delores. On Tuesday, I changed and headed back to home to run. I met my mom at the river path which was cool because I was actually really nervous to run so I ended up walking the first mile with her. From then on I tried to run and just keep things easy. I focused on how my leg felt and worked on my turn-over. I know my left hip drops and I need to work on my form. And now with no races in August, I can work on my form, like back to re-form school for slacker runners. Oof, that was bad. 🙂 Anyways, the run was pretty good. My leg felt achy but not in pain. I paused for a stretch break after each mile and I made sure to stretch really well after my run and later. I also iced my leg for a bit. Now, let’s see what happens.

Yeah, so not a clothing model

A Fab Choice?

Back on July 4th I finally caved to one of those Facebook ads and signed up for a Fabletic’s outfit. They were offering an outfit for as low $15 so I figured why not. After their little questionnaire, the site suggested a few outfits. I didn’t buy any of those but finally chose one on another page. Shorts, tank and visor for less than $20 after taxes. I wore the shorts and tank on Tuesday’s run. Somehow, I’ve already misplaced the visor. 😦 I sized up for both pieces which worked well with the shirt as I think my normal size would have been too small. The waistband on the shorts feels super loose so a smaller size may have worked but damn they are short in the back. The material felt slightly heavy when on and I was less than enthused with the shorts on that first mile. They kept riding up. Grrr. Somehow running made all the irritation go away. 3 miles of running and both pieces were perfectly behaved. I even forgot the shirt was new, it fit so well. The second I started walking my cool down, the shorts went back to riding up. WTH?! So, overall I am not hugely impressed but not overly disappointed either. More of a meh. Why can’t Lulu be more affordable?

Tips for correcting form issues?

Ever tried Fabletics? Thoughts?

Week 3- Slowing Down

Week 3 done! I hit all the required durations ( and then some) but my pace took a hit. It was the first week with the new hires and I seriously underestimated what training 2 brand new people at the same time would be like. I felt like I was running laps all day. I had to change my heels for flats halfway through Monday and I wore flats the rest of the week. This made navigating the maze of chairs easier but seriously pissed off my feet and legs. Grrr, I missed my boots.

Monday- Rest

I love rest on Mondays. I had tried to change to being a Monday runner but it’s hard. Plus we didn’t get out of work until 6 and I felt like I had run 5 miles already.

Tuesday- Plan 40:00 Easy

Our area was hit with some odd monsoon weather so we had high temps and high humidity. Ugh. It was so rough my mother canceled her tennis practice. She never cancels so I knew it was ugly. I was debating going to the gym but decided for work town instead. Work town is consistently around 65* but I don’t like running there for a few reasons. 1- the humidity is always high (like 70+) and my lungs hate me. 2- I feel like I have to wear pants. I know it’s all in my head but the idea of running in shorts and having a customer spot me freaks me out. I am so weird. 3- I have one route. There are very few sidewalks and the roads have non existent shoulders.

This route is an out and back that starts with an elevation of 150′ and drops to 0 then back up again. My GPS had troubles getting a signal so mile 1 was way off. I ran with traffic for most of the out portion- that side of the street has a sidewalk. Once I hit the state park I thought I was going to have to cut my run short. There was construction in front of the Inn and I couldn’t see a way to the path that gets me to the beach. The street has no shoulders. I spotted what looked like tire tracks and bolted across to the path. Then damn near ate it on the slippery Eucalyptus leaves. Walk break!

I ran to the end of the trail this time instead of just the beach and found the best natural stairs. Seriously I did a little happy dance at the top. I love running in the dirt. Too bad the trail portion is maybe a little more than .5 mile. I took another walk break after I almost did the splits on the Eucalyptus leaves on the way back and then ran on. Mile 4 had 100 ft gain and I ran most of it with my lungs on fire but pulled off a 10:06. Which I think is the fastest I’ve run that even when I was in top shape. Sweet! 4.05 ish Miles- 42:37

Wednesday- Rest

TOM came to visit, I rested. TMI? 🙂 Plus I had a doctor’s appointment with my gastro and Atkins is here to stay. He is also ordering a new CT to see why I have had the odd, intense pains. Boo.

Thursday- Plan – Speed work

This time was a doctor’s appointment with my primary so I can have my thyroid levels checked since I take a nap damn near everyday. Sometimes on the floor. 🙂 I changed before leaving work so I could head straight to the gym after my appointment even though my stomach hated me that day. Then I saw something on Facebook that ~~pissed me off~~ hurt my feelings and the last thing I wanted to do was run. I just wanted to sulk in a corner and binge eat pizza. I went home first. Somehow I pushed myself out the door 45 minutes later. It was a slow, hot miserable run. Seriously it was a slower pace than my long run this week. And I was chased by a damn dog. If it hadn’t been on a chain, I would have been bleeding. As it was I ran into traffic which wasn’t smart. 4 Miles -47:52. Then I ate pizza. 🙂

Friday- Rest

More running around like a crazy person at work. It was so flippin’ busy. I am so jealous of everyone who had the day off.

Saturday- Rest

I wanted to run my long run in the morning but I wasn’t feeling well and had a headache. I enjoyed a calm 4th with my family and finally watched McFarland, USA. And I call myself a runner? It was really good and even more interesting when I thought I heard work town called out during their first meet. I did!!! They competed against work town! Man, that must have been a drive. Turns out the first time they went to the beach was actually 4 miles up from work town too. They changed the location in the movie. Still it was cool hearing that.

Sunday- Long Run- Plan 1:10:00

Again, I woke up feeling rough and could not get going. I kept telling myself to get out of bed but it wasn’t happening. I finally headed out for my long run around 3. I still didn’t feel great so even though I wanted 10, I was aiming for anything over 6. My mother was out on a walk so the first 4.5 miles of my route was looping around streets and meeting back up with her. Yay for walk breaks! Then she went on her way and I continued running. One of these days I will find a long run that doesn’t have over 800 ft of elevation gain. I also had my first snake sighting of the summer. I refrained from screaming like a little girl but I did run into the middle of the street again. Luckily it was a back road but I really need to work on that. Mile 7, I stopped and spoke with an older gentleman out working on his van. At that point I’d run past him 3x so I think he thought I was crazy. Somewhere along the line I got my math wrong so I hit my driveway at 10.5 miles- 1:58. Considering all the walk breaks in the beginning and a few hills towards the end and I was actually at the high-end of where McMillan says I should be? Sweet! I made it in time for Sunday dinner. Family doesn’t mind if you’re sweaty right?All in all, it was a slow but solid week. Not too bad. I also officially registered for Big Sur in November on Sunday. I booked the hotel a few months ago and followed through with the race. 🙂 Woo hoo! Now I just need to actually register for my goal race in October. Oops.

This week, my goal is actually complete my speed work and have fun at my half on Sunday. And then eat cake- Because it’s my birthday. 🙂

How was your 4th?

How do you react to snakes?

Do you live in a hilly area or flat?

Week 2 Recap- Finding the Long Run

And it’s ~~Sunday~~ Monday. That was a fast weekend. As much as I would love another day or 4 off, I am really looking forward to this week. 2 of our 3 new hires start ~~tomorrow~~ today- woo hoo!!!! The week will be crazy busy but yay!

Monday-

Rest day. I thought about running. Packed my bag just in case but stuck to the plan. My food choices this past week or so have not been the best and my system has been letting me know.

Tuesday-

The plan called for speed work but half way to home town I knew I wasn’t up to it. I was so tired I decided to move my easy run to Tuesday and do the speed work when I was feeling more alert. This easy run kicked my ass. It was only in the high 80’s so I figured I would be fine plus my usual up and back has shade throughout so I though that would help. As I was heading out I saw a suspicious situation- think drug pick up like, or at least how I would guess one of those looked- so I knew I was going to take the longer way back which is a little more public. I though that extra 1/2 mile was going to kill me. I was huffing and puffing so bad I was actually worried about an asthma attack. Easy should not do that! I didn’t look at my splits until later since I was irritated. Ok, I guess it makes a little more sense now. Oops!Wednesday-

After the previous day’s accidental progression, I thought about skipping the speed work. The plan called for a 15 minute warm up then 4 x 2:00 @ HMP with 1:00 recovery in between then cool down. That didn’t sound too bad so I figured I would try one and go from there. Since I have such trouble doing math while running, I decided that my goal half marathon pace will be 9:00. It will give me a tiny cushion to hopefully break 2 hours and the splits will be a little easier to remember while running. 🙂

I'm not the only one who sees the bad math in this right? — I’m not the only one who sees the bad math in this right?

I did my warm up and then changed my watch to current pace so I could pace the intervals. They felt harder than I would have liked but doable so I kept going. My watch flashed low battery as I was finishing the 3rd interval so I stopped to save what data I had before continuing on. I finished my last interval and then did the cool down. I checked my splits as I was stretching and noticed that my intervals were all pretty consistent… and that either I wasn’t using the current pace feature or it was really wrong. I can only dream that my half marathon pace will be 8:30 one day. What the heck?

Thursday-

Planned rest. Another meeting about a race but this time other people showed up, woo hoo! And I got happy mail!!!!! Thanks Pavement Runner!

Friday-

I was off before 6 so I thought about running a few miles but I didn’t want anything to interfere with getting in a longer run on Saturday morning so I decided to stick to the plan. Instead I did all my usual Saturday errands and shopping so that there were really #noexcuses on Saturday.

Saturday-

I planned on running by 9 but slept horribly so I gave myself an extra 30 minutes. I was out the door a little after 9:30 in an effort to avoid the heat. It wasn’t early enough. The run started in the high 70’s and ended in the high 80’s. Doing 4 hill repeats in the middle didn’t help. I won’t lie, there was way more walking than there should have been. 😦 But 8 miles and my longest run since SLO done. My #runallday shirt was so comfy to run in, a little too big but that’s my fault. 🙂 Thanks to some freaky weather we’ve been having I still ran at the hottest part of the day. The temp dropped in the afternoon and it started to rain! Really?! Miles 1-7 averaged around 11:30 and mile 8 was 9:46. Umm, ok then.

Sunday-

Thought about running but some cleaning projects ran away with the day. On the upside my car is no longer an embarrassment. 🙂 I also worked my Hogwarts swap craft and it’s not coming along like I planned.

Second week of training- complete! My mileage is finally going up- woo hoo!

What are your plans this week? One thing you’re looking forward to in July? How is it almost July?!

Ever seen something shady on a run?

Anyone else’s car look like they live in it? I think I had 6 pairs of shoes in there.