Tag: heatwave

36-Vacation

I spent the last week sleeping in, not doing my hair, not wearing eyeliner. No alarms, no phone calls, no emails. Ok, that’s a lie, I checked my emails a few times.

I also ran/ walked more miles in the last 10 days than I did in July and August combined. That said, it was still less than I had hoped.

The original vacation plan was the 2 race weekends but COVID. The second plan was to road trip and visit some National Parks. I even ordered new trail shoes and a fancy new pack from Orange Mud. Not that I really needed an extra reason to buy those. But other things put those plans on hold. Reality was a staycation with a little shopping and a little adventuring. And a lot of melting… but we’ll get to that.

The vacation fun started with the previous weekend’s runs. I had planned on a run on Monday, but my stomach decided to remind me that it was an asshat. Boo.

Tuesday, I wanted to break in the new trail shoes but was still feeling a little off. So I headed for the lake path. I think it’s been more than a year since I ran there? I miss it but it’s no longer on my way home from work. Boo. I did 4ish laps of the lake, switching directions while testing my shoes. The lake looked good, I have to say that it had more water than I had expected. I really need to get back there more often. 4.88 miles. And yes, I could have run back and forth until I hit 5 but nah.

Wednesday, I rested in prep for Thursday’s adventure. My legs were slightly sore from almost 15 miles in 4 days. That was more than I ran in July.

Thursday was The Pinnacles! I haven’t been in years, my goal was to reach the top and not get lost. I loaded my pack, my mother prepped and we were off! We got there early in the morning but it was already hot. We’re in the middle of a heatwave here in CA, yay. We started the climb and boy it just got toastier. I was feeling pretty good actually. We got slightly turned around for a moment at the top but success! The High Peaks Trail at the Pinnacles throws all sorts of fun things at you- quasi steps in the rocks, a railing so you don’t fall, and even more tiny “steps” down. The plan was to do the High Peaks and continue on to the old trail before looping around the caves. It would have been around 10ish miles. There’s one last junction which will take you back to the parking lot around mile 3 but after that there is no shortcut. Period. My mother was having a rough time- and if she reads this, she’ll be pissed I wrote that- and I convinced her we had to take the shortcut. She was bummer but hey we got to go through a tunnel! We came out around 5 miles but I know my GPS had some issues.

Oh, Friday…. I had plans to run the 5K portion of the Giant Race Lou Seal Challenge but it was 110. Oh and the air conditioner in my house died. The Friday of the hottest weekend of the year. Oh crap.

Saturday, I was up and off to the beach for the 10K portion of the Lou Seal Challenge. I straight up ran away from the heat- we hit 117. I enjoyed lovely mild beach weather for all 6.2 miles. Yay! But more about that next post. Then it was back to heat.

Sunday, I meant to run the 5K. I mean it was the actual race day after all. However my beach run had left me with some nasty blisters. On both feet. The one on my right foot was the problem. I have never had a blister that big before. What the heck?? I wore the same shoes and socks I used for all my beach runs and never had a problem before- I even kept my feet dry until the very end. Boo. Staying in my house and being lazy wasn’t awesome- it was 93* in my house. My cats are miserable. The dog can be hosed off, they can’t. Every fan possible is running in this house.

So that brought my weekly mileage to just under 16. Not marvelous but massively better that the rest of the year. I’m not calling it a comeback yet. Will my motivation last once I return to work?

How was your week?

33- Unsure

I am not sure how it happened.

The beginning of the week was crazy. The middle wasn’t much better.

A heatwave- all days above 100*- rolled in on Friday.

A migraine followed that for Saturday and Sunday.

I did not run at all last week. Zero. I didn’t do any workouts.

Hell, even my step counts look horrible. I work in a 2 story building with a stand up desk and I was never anywhere close to 7500. Which is the goal set by my calorie tracking app.

To add to that insult- our bathrooms broke on Wednesday at work. So that meant each time I needed the restroom, I had to go outside, cross 2 parking lots and an alley to get to the bathrooms in one of our other offices. Which I did twice. I still didn’t hit 7500.🤦‍♀️

The weekend brought more than heat and the migraine. Severe dry lightning sparked several fires around the state- 3 in my county- which brings the smoke into the county. I usually sleep with my window open a bit and my fan going full steam but after waking up choking, I won’t be opening that window anytime soon.

So here’s to hoping for an improved week to come….although the heat warning is still in effect. For at least another 7 days.

Week 28-Holiday

Oh I am glad that training for San Jose doesn’t start for another week or so.

Last week was an odd duck. Anyone else experience that? A holiday in the middle of week just really threw me for a loop. I didn’t expect that as I don’t have that problem with Thanksgiving?

I also made a medication change last week that may have wreaked a little more havoc than I had planned. I was freakin’ exhausted- like so tired if I sat down and dozed off, it became more like a coma.

For example- the weather was perfect on the 4th of July and I meant to go for a long run in the afternoon but after a short nap. Yeah, that “short” nap turned into almost 3 hours. On the floor. At one point, I apparently got up, walked into the garage, said something to someone and walked back inside only to go back to sleep. I don’t remember that.

I also slept through all my alarms over the weekend. I could not seem to make myself get up, out of bed and go for my long run. Which was not good as it was over 105* both days. So running took a backseat to sleep this week. However after a week, I think I’m finally over the odd hump and can hopefully get back to something resembling normal next week. As well as less caffeine consumption.

So what did I do?

Tuesday- 3.1 miles I was so damn tired, I almost bailed on the run. Even once I started, I didn’t think I was going to make it past a mile. I got a little more alert along the way and managed to finish 5K. Then I went home and crashed.

Thursday- 3.5 ish miles This run was odd. It started out feeling super sluggish then the last 2ish miles felt pretty good but it just brought all my recent doubts and drama out and was not head clearing at all. You can read about all those thoughts here.

So a little over 6 miles for the week. Bleh. Maybe I just needed a holiday.

Now if only the temps would drop a little at night.

How was your week?

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?

Rambling On 11

Holy crap, how is it Friday? And…I am so glad it’s Friday. 😛

I thought I was prepared for July. So far July’s been a like a steamroller. We’re only 7 days in! I’ve only run once this week, and done nothing else.

Adding insult to the fatigue of 10 hour days, I woke up on Thursday with a sore throat. Tried to tell myself it was just because I slept with the fan on. By the end of the day I was in denial that I had a head cold. I tired to run it out. Not sure yet if that was a good idea.

Apparently someone had a little too much to drink on the 4th- someone show an arrow through our back shed. An actual arrow. Are you freakin’ kidding me?!?

I plans for a 12 mile long run this weekend but with a projected temp of 107 and this damn head cold, I am feeling less than optimistic.

Well, this post turned out to be quite whiny. 😛

Any weekend plans?