Tag: interval

Feeling Like a Slacker

Wouldn’t it be nice if weekends were 3 days long? That would be awesome. I would totally work 4 10’s. I say that now, but wouldn’t that make it harder to run? This weekend actually turned into 3 days for me but it wasn’t a good thing. Friday actually turned out to the be roughest I’ve felt in the last 2 months. I only made it about an hour and a half at work before heading home. I hate leaving sick or calling in, there’s a reason I have almost 150 hours of sick time accumulated. I particularly felt guilty because someone had to drive out to cover me. 😦 I tried calling my Gastro but they can’t see me any sooner and I am “managing” ok. Ugh!!!!! I slept for most of the day.

Kind of nerdy and maybe slightly narcissistic.

This ending up effecting my weekend. 😦 I had plans for an 8 mile run and a 4 mile over the weekend. Plus a little shopping and good food on Saturday. Instead, Saturday was spent doing laundry (so much running stuff!) and catching up on scrap booking my bib numbers. I felt like I needed to do something, so I headed to the gym for the treadmill; easier to quit if I felt sick. The treadmill sorely tested my new found appreciation for the warmup. It was sooo boring. I made it about .6 of a mile before picking it up.

I used this as a reason to break in the new pair of Wave Riders that I picked up in May. So much color! My feet really wanted to move, every now and again I would run into the front of the treadmill. Oops. But I was trying to be smart and ran a .9/ .1 interval. .9 of a mile at 6.00 and the .1 was a walk at 4.00. I felt ok, so I decided to do 6 miles. The only problem came in when I was nearing an hour. With the first warmup mile around 13 and each following mile at 10:30, I was running into the machine cut off. The last half mile was a race with the cool down setting on the treadmill. It would automatically lower it and I would raise it back up, this time to 6.5 just to get it done. Finally done, 6 miles in 1 hour and 5 minutes. Not bad for an off day and I made it through the whole thing! Plus the shoes were awesome. I like that this pair seems to have shorter laces than my white/purple Wave Riders– those laces were ridiculously long and I was just too lazy to change them. Slacker!

As of right now, I have still not made it out the door for a run. It’s hot and I am tired but I am telling myself to get off my butt. I have a feeling that I may end up completing the yoga DVD instead. It’s been a week or two and I should get back into it. Or maybe when the temps fall below 96, I will feel inspired to get in some miles this evening. My next half is only 6 weeks away and it’s not going to run itself. Plus I still need to finish yesterdays scrapbook project. My new computer and my printer don’t like to get along.

Congrats to everyone who ran San Francisco this morning, I am sure you rocked it!

How was your weekend?

What do you do with your bibs?

Slacker Reboot -Training to SLO (and beyond)

Back in February, I had a few issues with my legs not feeling so good. I figured it was caused by overuse as the training plan that I had been following was a little overeager. The mileage that it was calling for was a little intimidating. 40 mile weeks are great for some people and in theory I like them, but come on, Slacker over here. Weeks 2-5 hitting 40 was yowza! I never actually hit that mileage but I was running more than I was used too. After the ugliness that was the Heart & Soles 10K, I took a week off resting my ankle, Achilles and basically my left leg and started fresh with a new plan. A Slacker Plan. I tried using it leading up to my half in March and I am planning on continuing with it through SLO and for the beach half I want to run in May (doh!).

I thought about what worked for me before 3 days a week and then I considered the fact that I want to run more races this year and continue to improve my times ( sub 2 please?!). Plus there was my goal of hitting 750 miles this year. So I decided on 4 days a week and decided to call it 4-5-6-SLR.And either 1 long run (L), or a track workout (S) or a race (R) on the weekend. Why does it need a name? Because I like names. Why so many letters? When I figured out the SLR almost looked like Slacker, I tried really hard to come up with a word for C or K, but no luck yet. 😦 Maybe someday I can graduate to 5-7-9 🙂 Kind of random, but does anyone else remember that store?

There are no set days and I can switch of the mileage and work out when I want. Plus, with 3 different towns and a treadmill to choose from, I have a lot of flexibility. And I don’t get frustrated when I miss a Track Tuesday or hill interval Wednesday because I can do them on whatever day I feel like it. Now I don’t feel guilty for never running on Fridays. 🙂 I would like to get to the point where a weekend long run is at least 10 miles; every week. I’m not there but I’m working on it.

Wednesday morning’s commute! Double rainbow!

So with that being said, after Monday’s crazy rain and a Tuesday rest, I headed out Wednesday for a quick 4 miles. I wasn’t feeling the run for some reason so I wanted it done quickly. I was aiming for as close to 5k race pace as possible. I had missed my Wave Rider’s so I ran in them that night. Maybe it’s all in my head, but I am faster in those shoes. My first mile included a little warm up and then I was off. Miles 1-3 felt good, I hardly felt like I was pushing. When my Garmin chimed at mile 3, I saw a chance to push. If I pushed- hard- I could pull off 4 miles in what was my very first official 5K time- 35:44. So I pushed. 4 Miles- 35:35-holy crap. This left me on the backside of the lake so it gave me plenty of time to walk it out and breath after. I was super stoked.

Thursday called for 5 easy miles. The first 2 miles were pretty good, but by starting my 3rd lap, I knew I wasn’t completing 5. My ears were freezing. I can’t stand cold ears, they hurt, so I figured one more lap would bring me to 3.5 miles and I would be done for the night. Which I was ok with because there were a few border collies out for an evening walk. They looked well-behaved, but then I never expected to be attacked by one in the first place a few years ago. I admit I never took my eyes off of them when I ran past and my hand may have strayed to my pepper spray. I had a 1/4 mile left to complete when I got to add a new animal to my animal encounter list-

Yep, these guys are actually pretty scary when they charge you and then try to follow you. Great for a strong burst of speed at the end but freaky. Then I realized they were between me and my car. Boo.

My weekend looks pretty clear. No complaints, I would love to sleep in. I need to get in a long run and an easy run at some point but other than that, nothing. I can’t even begin to say how much I am looking forward to that. 🙂
Anyone else have an aggressive goose (or any animal) encounter?
How was your week? Anyone racing this weekend?

Intervals and a Big Oops

Hooray, it’s Friday!!!!

Who’s racing this weekend?

Today was a pretty good day. I worked the early shift at work and was even able to get off a little early. I have an awesome boss. I mean I really do, yesterday, while parallel parking I bumped her car. Like our bumpers were kissing. I swear I checked before turning off my car. I never felt a bump, apparently I am just that skillful at backing up. Ha! No damage at all but it was a momentary panic attack. Did I mention it’s review time?! Part of today was spent doing battle with my usual Friday temptation-one day I will resist, I will be strong. It just wasn’t today.

I have however been strong on the no soda during the week. 🙂 I have not had any soda since I randomly quit at 10:00 AM Tuesday morning. No headaches to speak of, but I have been draggggggging. With that being said, I did make it to the gym on Thursday night for an easy interval run.

Normally I manually change the speed anytime I want but I decided to try the interval option instead. First question it asked was what my weight was? Nosy much? Why does my weight affect the speed settings on a treadmill? And why do they call it jogging speed? For the sake of all of our delicate egos they should call it something like “fast” and “lightening fast” not “jogging” and “running”. Ok, mini rant over. Having to push the button just once to change speeds was nice though.

My intervals looked something like this-

Length (miles)	Speed
1.25	5.8
.75	6.3
.25	5.8
.75	6.3
.5	5.8
1.00	6.3
.50	5.8

Total- 5 miles not counting warmup or cool down.

(glad to hear I’m not the only one turns off the watch for those!!)

I admit to taking it slightly easy. Even with having a cup of coffee in the morning, I am seriously missing the caffeine. While driving to the gym that night, I told myself I only had to run 4 not the 5 that I planned. Once I was running though, I figured I could run 5 and thankfully there was nothing freaky on the tv’s. Whoever is changing the channels needs to stop, Wednesday night, the tv had Devour-Return of the Man Eating Snake on. I thought I was going to have nightmares about albino pythons eating crocodiles. Yuck!

All in all it was a good run, it felt like productive miles not just filler miles. There were some runs in January that felt like mostly filler. Today was like most Fridays- a rest day. After leaving work, I fought the Friday crowd at Trader Joe’s- not a good idea- before heading home. The mail delivered presents!!!!!

Oh, wow that's pink — Oh, wow that’s pink

I just ordered them Tuesday night so the shipping was great! Have to say that these are my first pairs of compression socks. Oh the shame 🙂 Anytime my pics showed me in knee socks, they were derby socks. I am eager to test them out on my long run this weekend. The weather is calling for rain on Saturday so the timing of that run is a little up in the air. The rain wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for my proclivity for slipping. But we desperately need rain, so no complaints here. Even if it means I have to dodge rocks on the road while driving to work 🙂

Any one have big plans this weekend?

Any ideas on how I can learn to like coffee faster?

A Wave Rider Interval

As Monday was a holiday, I was able to get in a good 5 mile run outdoors instead of having to head into the gym. Prior to that I went to lunch with my mom and then helped her prune a bunch of oleanders. We do this every year and we always use a ladder in ways we shouldn’t while holding shears. This year was no different. I always crack jokes that it’s a great arm workout. Apparently a little too great, between that and puppy pulling on Sunday and Monday, my arms are so sore! Hmm, maybe I should check out the other equipment available at the gym, not just the treadmill.

My training plan called for 5 miles on Monday. I headed out early afternoon so I could get the miles in and then go get the puppy for walk attempt #2. The first part of my route takes me past a cemetery and I run if no ones there but if people are visiting close to the side, I walk. For some reason my mind thinks that more respectful. 🙂 This day someone was blowing the roads in the cemetery and next to it with a motorized golf cart looking blower thing. I ran into a dust storm! I came to a hacking, coughing halt from all the dust I aspirated in. My boss happened to call right then and I answered since I wasn’t running anyway, she thought I was dying sick again. I had to convince her it was just the dust! I ended up walking the first 1/2 mile, so I started off slow.

Even once I got going, I could tell I was tired. Both my legs and my breathing felt labored. The plan was 5 miles with 4 easy and the 5th faster. My 4th was faster than mile 5, oops. My legs felt heavy, and my stomach was telling me that lunch had been a little too big. By the end of the run, I could feel that I had a cranky toe as well. Sure enough, it was a little bloody. Ahhh, the joys of running. 🙂

I then picked up the pup and drug her down the driveway. Actually she trotted right down and halfway down the block before she realized what was going on. Then she just plopped flat on the sidewalk. With some coaxing and strong arming, we managed to walk a mile in 22 minutes. Yikes!!! I think people find us amusing. There was a man standing on his deck at one point laughing as we passed. Or as I drug her past. We then walked past a bigger version of her and she wasn’t sure how to process that; it was so funny. At the mile point, we turned around and took a slightly shorter route home. Same as the day before, the second we were headed back, she was the model of a perfect puppy behavior. We made the .84 mile back in 11 minutes. And yes, I timed it this time. 🙂

My reward for the almost 7 miles? A super yummy homemade smoothie-

Today called for a 3.75 mile interval workout. I knew it would after work and on the treadmill but I was ok with that because I still needed to actually run in my new Wave Riders! I also had a new armband to test out. I hate armbands as they usually make me bleed but I need one for the gym. Plus since switching to the iPhone 5s, all my old ones had the earphone jack in the wrong spot. I picked up a new one when I was at Sports Authority a few weeks ago.

The shoes felt amazing while driving but kind of awkward while walking. It made me a little nervous. I don’t usually run 4 days in a row, so even though I was going to follow the interval that Nike laid out, I wasn’t going to push it. Plus I wasn’t sure how the shoes would feel. I ran a mile warmup- 2 minute walk then 6.2 for the rest. Interval 1 was .75 of a mile at 6.6, then a .25 of 5.5. This was followed by a planned .75 at 6.6. I did all this then upped it to 7.1 for .25, not on the plan but I just felt like it. Then is was a cool down of .75 at 6.00. I shut Nike off at 3.75 and slowed the treadmill to 4 and walked until 4 miles or 40 minutes, whichever came first. They came at the same time, sweet!!!! The intervals were very smooth, now if I can just up the pace, I can hopefully break 2:00 this spring!

The shoes felt pretty good actually, I need to get in a few more miles to really try them out. Some street miles too. The armband held up well too. No bleeding so far, woo hoo!!! It could have fit a little snugger, though.

Tomorrow is hump day and a rest day!!!!

How is everyone’s week going so far?