Tag: heat

Training Win?

You know summer has arrived and it’s hot outside when you are the only person outside. I don’t just mean outside running, last week on a few of my runs I was the only person outside period. No one in their front yards, no one in backyards and no kids playing. And with the town/ state on water restriction, no lovely sprinklers to cool off with. I know hotter temps are coming so I figure I may as well get used to it. I love the heat but I am not adjusting as well this year. Maybe I’m getting older? 😬. Or three years working in a town that averages 30-40 degrees cooler a day is just confusing my system. Who knows, but I did complete my first week of training last week.

Monday–

Rest day. I wanted to run but the plan said rest. Still I packed my running stuff for after work. My stomach is usually a little iffy on Mondays (too many carbs on the weekend) and this day was no different. Since I needed to pick up a prescription after work and there was no way I could run then make it to the pharmacy, I decided to take the rest day. Halfway there it dawned on me that I could have changed at work, picked up the prescription then run in home town. Duh. I briefly considered changing in the Target bathroom but hell no, I’ve seen porta-a-potties cleaner than that place.

Tuesday-

This was supposed to be a 40 minute workout with pace intervals in the middle. The first kink in the plans was that Community BBQ nights started at the lake park where I like to do my speed work. Everywhere else is hilly or on busy streets. I avoid the park during the BBQ nights, no need to run around 100+ people having a party. I headed towards hometown knowing it was hot. It was 94 when I parked my car and that was with a pretty good wind. I reassessed the pace workout to an easy 40 min. I felt like I was crawling. I’ve noticed that it’s taking me longer to warm up during these hot runs. I usually walk for 5 minutes, the last few runs have been 10 minute walks. Shouldn’t it be the opposite? Ugh. 3.55 miles in 40 minutes.

Wednesday–

Yeah, short- hot panic fest. But we’ve talked about that already. 2.31 miles in 30 minutes.

Thursday-

I was supposed to have a meeting about a race so it was a planned rest day. The meeting was at the high school and my mother had tennis practice so we planned to meet for dinner after. However, the other party did not show up so after walking around the school wondering if I had the wrong meeting place, I waited for her in the front of the school in the shade. A nice janitor told me I shouldn’t have waited that long. 🙂 I told him I was now waiting for my mother and at least the shade was cooler than sitting in my car. But yes I was the one sitting out front like a sad puppy. Oh, high school- I don’t miss you. I mostly typed last Thursday’s blog post on my phone and took a cranky selfie. So it was moderately productive. Then I drowned my irritation in Mexican food. #sorryatkins

Friday-

I got to come in later than my new normal of 7:30 and I briefly considered running with that extra hour of sleep but nah, I hit snooze. Work was a usual crazy Friday and once off I headed home. I was tired, it had been a long week but for some reason that “motivational” quote popped into my head.

I made it home by 7, changed and was out the door 20 minutes later. Say what?! My stomach was cranky, partially due to the previous nights indulgence and the cookies on Friday, and I had been in high-heeled boots all day and I knew it was going to be less than pretty. But even with all that it was awesome. It was a good way to end the week and I was glad to see that there wasn’t any residual issues from Wednesday. 3.75 miles – 40 minutes.

Saturday-

Turns out running the previous night was a good thing. Saturday started with work followed by the usual errands. I try to do all my shopping on Saturday. Then the family headed down to SLO for an early Father’s Day Dinner at Olive Garden. I mean early, we were there by 4. I may have indulged in too many bread sticks. Oops, #sorryatkinsagain. It’s been 3 months since I’ve eaten pasta and I really don’t miss it. Luckily my usual go-to at Olive Garden is their Garlic Rosemary Chicken. So yummy. Dinner was followed up with frozen yogurt for desert. My poor stomach but it was all so yummy. 🙂 I pushed my long run to Sunday.

Sunday-

The plan called for a 50 minute long run. Ummm, that’s not long. I realize it’s only week 1 of 17 and most half marathon plans are 12 weeks but still. I wanted some structure to my summer runs so I picked 17 weeks. But, yeah, those 50 minutes kicked my ass. I actually headed out around 10am since I knew it was going to be hot. It was already in the 80’s. I huffed and puffed my way through 5 miles in 56 minutes. Yes miles 1 and 2 had times where I met up with my mom and the puppy and walked more but what was with the other 3? I have to figure out this heat thing or I am never breaking 2. I did like having the run done earlier though.

So, week one done. Bring on week 2. And maybe some speed? *sorry about the random picture sizes, I am having troubles figuring out Dropbox. 😦

How was your weekend? And Father’s Day?

How long do you usually train for a half marathon?

What do you consider a long run?

No Need To Panic

I consider myself a fairly calm person in emergency situations. This has also been tested a few times and been proven mostly true. Earthquakes, car accidents, electrical panels catching on fire, customers trying to beat up employees, etc, I stay calm. Even my first car accident when I was young and dumb, I stayed mostly calm. I calmly came to, assessed the damage ( I hit a wall) and tried to turn the car off and take the keys out of the ignition to cut the power. Too bad I wasn’t thinking about the fact that the car had to be in park to accomplish all that. 🙂 I was also calm when I saw my passenger lying on the ground. I knew he had to have gotten there on his own and he had. He got out and went and laid down. No, none of us had been drinking. I stayed fairly calm through all this but lost it when I called my mom- so mostly calm. That big earthquake that damaged town years ago? I was working when it rolled through, I told everyone to take cover and I went to turn off the large open gas range. We then evacuated, still calm. My point to all this is that I am not one who panics easily. So imagine my shock when I ran myself into a panic attack a couple years ago.

I did a good majority of my runs on the high school track that summer. I would run in the evenings after work. The football team was usually practicing but they never said I couldn’t be there so I would just run in the outside lane minding my own business. The track used to be my happy place and favorite place to run. I headed there one evening for an easy 5 mile run. The team was there as usual and my mother was as well, she was going walk laps while I ran. It was hot but no hotter than any other day. I remember feeling pretty good and keeping a good pace. 2 miles in I started to freak out. For no reason. First, I had trouble breathing. I knew it wasn’t an asthma attack but I could not catch my breath or calm myself down. Then I started crying, I mean full on sobs, again for no known reason. I had plenty of water and didn’t feel dehydrated. In fact my body felt fine other than the emotional freak out. I had no idea what was going on and it was scary but I could not calm down. But I’m wasn’t very smart, so I finished my run, thinking it would help calm me down. I hadn’t discovered the online running community yet so I did the only thing I could think of when I got home. Google. I read stories of people having similar experiences but no clues as to why it happened. I was nervous to run for a while but it never happened again so I put it out of my mind. Until Wednesday’s run.

Summer has definitely arrived and temps in home town have been in the high 90’s to 100 range. While I am loving it, I have been taking things a little slower. Wednesday was day 3 of my training plan and my second run. The plan called for a 30 minute easy run but I was aiming for 40. My weather app said that the temp at the lake was 81 so I headed there to run. It lied. It was more like 91. Still, I was fine with that, I had had 90 oz of water at work and had a full bottle for my run. I used plenty of sunblock and wore my hat, I felt good and ready to go. I walked my usual little warm up and started to run. Then stopped 20 yards later. Walked some more, then tried running again. Only to stop again. Repeat numerous times over the next mile and a half. My head was totally in the game but I could not get my body to do what I wanted it to do. It was like it was refusing to run. The more I tried to push, the more it pushed back. At mile 1.5, I felt it again. My breathing was becoming erratic and it wasn’t from exertion. Maybe it was because it happened before but this time I recognized that I was about to have a panic attack. For no reason, again. I knew I had plenty of water, wasn’t dehydrated and was still sweating so I don’t think the heat had anything to do with it. It hadn’t been a stressful day and my stomach has been feeling better lately. Then, trying to force myself to calm down was just making things worse. Being smarter now (just a little) I just walked back to the car and stayed in the shade while I got everything under control. What the hell?!

Once again, I have no idea what caused it. I didn’t feel like it was too hot, but maybe my run the day before was too hot? I always clear a minimum of 120 oz of water a day, so it’s not like I was dehydrated. Yes, work has been stressful but no more than usual. Sleep is the same as always so it couldn’t have been that. Grrrrr. Granted, it’s only happened twice but it’s still freaky. It doesn’t make sense. And now I am nervous for my next run. Grrrr.

Ever have a panic attack? Running or not?

Favorite place to run?

How much water do you drink on average?

Finally

Is Sunday already over? Boo. Weekends need to be 3 days long, they really do. EDIT- read this as if I posted Sunday evening- I was having internet issues- and then WordPress erased half of it- grrrr.

I finished the week out with a short 4 mile run on Sunday afternoon. I think I am finally ready for this lackadaisical approach to training to go away. Getting ready for City to the Sea starts tomorrow. I will probably stick to the 3x a week plan until mid July. By then we should be fully staffed and my hours can get a little shorter. Fingers crossed. But going forward I plan to have my runs be something of substance rather than just phoning it in. Speaking of substance, I had hoped that Sunday’s run would be between 6-8 miles but I held off too long. I headed out late afternoon when it was close to 90. Oops. I also didn’t have enough time as I had Sunday dinner to get to. Another reason I have been trying to rearrange my long run days. The run was warm but not too bad. I walked the first 10 minutes though, it took awhile to get my head and legs into it. 😬. After that I averaged a 10:30 pace which for the temp and it only being my second run in that warmth, I say is pretty good. Heat and slow pace aside, this run felt good. I was dripping in sweat by the end but smiling. It was the first run in a month where I was just happy to be running. Yay! And these might have helped too- I decided to buy another pair of 17’s. I know they are being phased out but I figured it made more sense than running in shoes that made my feet cranky. Yes, I still felt the odd little niggles but overall they felt like slippers on my feet. 😃 Truthfully, I didn’t even try them on the store, I just told them my size and paid. The Warehouse did let me know that they have about 100 in my size so I might be able to get another pair in a few months. If only I had unlimited funds and a place to store them, I would seriously stock up right now!! Orange wasn’t my first choice but it grew on me. I think I was obnoxiously bright when I ran today- In non running news- Friday was a sad day at work. My fish died!! I always greet him in the morning and my greeting turned into a shriek! I was sad and didn’t know what to do. 😢 Customers asked where he was throughout the day and we had to tell them the sad news. He had been a little under the weather for awhile but I was hoping he would pull through.

Saturday saw a family tradition when we went to see Jurassic World. I really liked it, my brother was meh about it. My mother liked it even though she made fun of parts of it too. This also meant I decimated a movie popcorn but I was ok with that. I also realized that I can no longer tolerate candy. I was on such a sugar high, I felt ill. Score one for Atkins. I also had a similar revelation to pizza last week, boo.

I am finally eager to get back to training. I really would like to break 2:00 in a half this year. In order to do that, I have to put the work in first. This also means that I am reconsidering my July race. I keep going back and forth about what to do. But that’s for another post. I may need your help. 🙂 I also misplaced my training so I am trying an app this time.

How was your weekend?

What are you training for? Do you train during the summer or just run?

Ever had a fish? How do you take care of them?!

May Miles

And just like that, May is moving on. In one way I am not ready for the year to be halfway over (almost) but I am ready for June. A new month and a clean slate. 🙂 So without further ado, here’s May-

Miles- 53.7

Races- Bands on the Run 10K

My SmashRun tells me that I ran 12 days and rested on 19. Hmm, a little uneven. So May was not my best month but I’ve already alluded to that on numerous posts so let’s just move on. 🙂 I made it out for 3 runs last week, so I am holding consistent there at least. Wednesday was a bit sad and I only ran 2.25 miles. My stomach was a big butt head at the beginning of last week so I got a late start. I wasted a perfectly good non work day on Monday by not running. I love running on holidays but I just wasn’t up to it. Thursday, I got out for a decent 4 miles followed by a .6 mile cool down. While the pace was decent, it felt hard. That could have been partly due the temperature warm up we had late this week. While the mid 70’s felt awesome, it’s been over a month since I ran in those temps. But I was so glad to warm, I didn’t even mind that it felt hard. 🙂Then Saturday’s run was in the mid 80’s. It started as a slow run, turned into a jog and then became a walk. I had planned on doing the usual run/ walk I sometimes do with my mother but 2.5 miles in I was just walking with her. It was warm and my left leg was feeling off so I decided that walking was just fine. Truthfully, my left foot and leg have felt a little off since I tried to break in those Inspires. Hmmm, I am telling myself that it is mostly in my head and just to take it easy. I still have 2 weeks before I start training for my fall half’s, so this is the best time to figure out what is making it cranky.

I feel like I should have run more on Saturday as I ate way too much movie popcorn that night. We went and saw San Andreas. I admit that I have an odd fascination for earthquakes. One of my favorite subjects in college was Geology and I briefly considered taking it further. The movie was essentially a Syfy movie but since it had the Rock, it made it to the big screen. I thought it was pretty good. My mom and S laughed multiple times throughout it though. I have to admit it got a little surreal when we decided to walk across the park after the movie to get some frozen yogurt. Part of downtown was leveled by an earthquake 12 years ago and seeing the new buildings after the leaving the movie brought a lot of that back. The town suffered heavy damage and loss and it took a long time to rebuild. It brought reality back into some of the far fetched scenes in the movie.

I planned on getting in a few miles today but ended up taking a nap instead. I really got to stop doing that! 🙂 But I did do a bit of unplanned shopping and picked up some new shirts to run in. I’ve started running in my Lululemon shorts and they are a little more form-fitting than my other stuff. Apparently I feel the need to compensate with looser shirts. 🙂 Plus, I’ve worn the same shirt just in various colors for the past 2 years, it’s time to branch out. Just like I decided that saving the Lulu for a special day was kind of silly, they are super comfy.

So, onto June and getting back on track! I already know I am not running tomorrow but I am doing something running related. But more on that later. 🙂 Oh and in May I was nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award by MostlyHealthyLiving so that will be my next post. 🙂 Thank you! You should go check her out!

How was your May? Goals for June?

Shirts with words/ sayings- yay or nay?

What movie are you looking forward to?

Adios April- Recap

May Day!!!! I am in total denial that tomorrow is May Day. How does this keep happening?

April, while all over the place, was a pretty dang good month. So, here we go-

Races-

Firehouse 5K

SLO Half Marathon

I wish that my miles were higher but with the dietary changes during the month, I am still pretty happy with that number. The first couple of weeks were a little rough. A full post on what changes I made… or was supposed to make will be up this weekend. I still feel proud of how I handled everything thrown at me during me SLO. I feel like using an actual training plan and following through 85% of the time gave me the confidence I needed in myself. The last half of last year kind of kicked my pride and confidence in the gut. I know I can and will break 2 and when it happens, it happens. 🙂 Plus those hills at SLO didn’t seem very big this year. 🙂

My body seems confused this week. SLO was my last big race for a while and though it’s only been a few days, I feel a little lost. I am sure the Slacker in me will kick in sooner or later and embrace the laziness but this week I just wanted to run. Monday, I was sore from the fall. My legs felt great after the race but my knees hurt and I suddenly knew how hard I had landed on my right shoulder so I rested. I had Monday and Tuesday off and I indulged by being lazy. On Tuesday, I set out for a slow recovery jog. Ha ha! 3.5 miles in 47:51. It was in the high 80’s and I loved it. I wore my new Wave Inspires since I am still trying to break them in. I just can’t, I’ve never met a pair of Mizuno’s that I didn’t like but these are leaning towards hate. They still feel huge and I can feel the insole on the inside of my right foot. I’ve tried moving it around but no luck so far. A coworker described it perfectly- it’s like when you are wearing boots and short socks and your sock keeps slipping down inside the shoe. I finally just gave up and walked most of it. I figured I didn’t make it through 4 months of training and 5 races to hurt myself on a short recovery jog. I am planning on trying the shoes one more time but I am afraid that we may have to break up. 😦

Today’s run was a farce. My head is in the game but my body is not. I did one lap of the lake. One lap. 1.2 miles. And the Garmin registered it short so it doesn’t even show as that long. My mother called part way through the lap asking if I wanted to meet her and a tennis player at Chipotle. It didn’t take too much convincing. So, that brought me to 79.3 miles for the month. Yes, a tiny part of me considered running up and down my driveway to hit 80 but I didn’t.

On to May. I have decided to pass on one of the 10k’s but I would like to up my training. I want to bring my base mileage up so that I when I start training for fall races, I feel stronger. Also with temps hitting the 90’s again, I would like to transition to running 3x a week after work and a long run on the weekends. That would mean a little less heat and sun exposure, plus an entire weekend day off. That sounds kind of nice. 🙂 Or who knows, this could be the start of me transitioning to running 5x a week. Ok, let’s not get that crazy yet… I’m still a Slacker. I also want to get back out on the trails, I miss them. I should also add cross training. Or at least try.

Oh and I finally figured out what to do with my medals!! –Non running goals for May are a little up in the air. I would like to read more, and hang out with friends. There are some movie nights coming up too. I need to focus on the diet a little more as well. And I really need to start that project for the craft swap I signed up for. Oops!! Running may also turn into stress relief because work is about get insane for a month or two.

How was your April? Goals/ plans for May?

Anyone racing this weekend?

Ever been unable to break in a pair of shoes? Any suggestions?

Happy Friday!!!