Tag: lazy

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-

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!!!

Horrible to Harmony

This week was rough. Which was shown partly in my lack of posting.

The Horrible-

So in an effort to not whine too much, here’s a brief recap. Monday was a typical Monday except that my stomach graduated from asshat to bastard level and that continued through Wednesday. Good thing I don’t run on Monday’s right? Tuesday I was all set to run but my dad had a phone emergency (he’s on my plan). There was no way for me to run and go to AT&T and still eat dinner at a time that wouldn’t piss off my digestive system further. So no run. Wednesday- usual rest day but I needed and wanted to run after missing the day before. After finishing up at work I headed to the lake path hoping I had enough time to get in 3.5 miles before it got too dark. It was a horrible, miserable run. It wasn’t even because of my achy legs or hamstrings. Those felt fine. My stomach was horrible, my toes hurt and my head was not happy. I called it at 2.5 miles.

Waking on Thursday, I found that the headache that had been playing peak-a-boo for days had turned into a full on migraine. Stupid hormones. I thought about calling in but I am covering another location while their manager is out and knew I couldn’t do that. One plus, is that it’s a shorter commute. Never having worked in this location before I kind of felt like I was putting out fires all day and I didn’t know where the fire extinguisher was. The day ran late and by then my head hurt so bad and I was so nauseated that I didn’t even attempt to run. Friday was more of the same head wise, work was a little calmer though. My head hurt so bad that I actually took 2 Aleve for it Thursday. One thing I’ve never mentioned here is that I dislike taking pills. Maybe because I have so many prescriptions as it is but I rarely to the point of never take something for pain. My go to is an icepack for pretty much everything. I didn’t realize how shocking it would be for me to take something though. I had some interesting reactions when I mentioned it to some people. It was useless anyways, they didn’t help. Oddly the only thing that helped was food. Not only food but greasy food. I ate In n Out 2 days in a row for lunch. The pain actually eased for a few hours. But I was so ready for the weekend by the time work was over. Harmony-

Saturday I was super tired and though my headache had eased, it was still lingering. I slept in before heading to SLO with my mom. It’s kind of a monthly thing. We had both taken running gear so we could potentially go on an easy hike. I wasn’t sure I would be up to it but I felt like a sloth. Particularly after 2 days of fast food. 😦 After a good day of shopping we headed to the Harmony Headlands. It’s short, 4 miles out and back, easy, not technical at all, and has a gorgeous turn around. Let’s be clear, this was not a run, it was supposed to be an easy hike. Which for the most part it was, but damn my mom walks fast. It was hard to keep up sometimes. I know I had an off week but come on. But that’s ok, the scenery made up for it. Plus the weather was awesome. I had some phone problems so I didn’t get a lot of pics from the start of the trail but I figured it out by the end.

All in all, it was a great way to end the day. My legs were happy and my head was good too. And we may have seen whales!!! Well just the spouts, still cool though.

How was your week/ weekend?

Ever had a headache that wanted food? Or am I just weird?

How to Fail a Long Run…Again

When I last posted, I hinted that Sunday may have not gone according to plan. Without further ado, here is my simple guide to fail a long run.

Just follow these fool proof, slacker tested steps-

Enjoy a rest day prior to the planned run. Along with this indulge in some movie watching and popcorn eating
Consume your body weight in popcorn, or at least come close.
End up spending most of the night reading a book. Why? Because so much popcorn made you ill and at least the book is a productive use of time when you can’t sleep.
Oversleep due to being ill as well as finishing previously mentioned book.
Put off run until later in the afternoon. Start run when it’s 93 outside but due to your over tired self, it feels like 105.
Try anyways- walk a lot- only finish 6 miles.

Congratulations, you’ve successfully failed a long run. #longrunfail

After my failed attempt on Friday, I was planning to run the 10 miles on Sunday. Other than work and foam rolling, I stayed off my feet as much as possible on Saturday. Too much popcorn was an epic fail which resulted in a long night followed by sleeping in. Truthfully I kind of did not want to run at all. I finally forced myself out the door after 2:00. And I knew that if I didn’t go then, I wasn’t going at all.

I warmed up slowly but never really got into it. I met up with my mom a little after mile 3, that combined with a hill meant I walked most of that mile. It was awesome. Then it was more running, oh and some more walking. I knew 10 was so not happening, so it was another 6 miles in the book. I took a 16 oz bottle of water which is more than I usually take and I drank the whole thing. Ugh. This was just not my week for a long run. I’ll try again next week. 🙂

What about you guys?

Ever bail on a long run? How about eat too much popcorn?

Hope you all had a good Monday!!

An Abbreviated Long Run

I start a new class in a little less than 2 weeks and unfortunately it falls on Wednesday nights. Boo! So last week NikeC and I moved gym nights to Thursdays. We were hoping that it might be a little less busy but instead it looked like everyone was trying to get in one last workout before the weekend. We weren’t able to warm up on the ARC Trainers so we tried the stationary bikes. We used the recumbent ones, so I was wondering how much of a workout it would be. I was sweating within 8 minutes- ok maybe a bit of a workout. 20 minute warm-up- 4 miles-done. Then it was onto the circuit room, which was busy. There was even 2 grunters in the circuit room, using the machines in very odd ways. For the most part, everyone was using the room right, woo hoo! After a good work out there, we moved onto to the ab room. I admit I have zero skill there and always do my crunches wrong, so I hung out on the ab roller. It’s kind of fun and I could totally feel my abs (sore!) the next day. I also posted my very first throwback Thursday pic- and got the hashtag wrong. #fail But anyways, I finally found a pic of my very first race-I worked this Saturday, so I was able to go in later on Friday. I was super excited about this because I wanted to get my 10 miler done in the morning, that way I could have a lazy weekend of a rest day and a 6 miler. I slept until a little after 7 before getting up. I was feeling off but told myself I was just trying to be lazy. After getting ready, I knew it was a little more than that, so I ended up crawling back in bed. Now if you knew me really well, you would know that I have a few idiosyncrasies, or neurotic tendencies as my mother likes to call them. One of those is to only get in bed after a shower, even if it’s 3 in the morning and I am dead tired, I take a shower first. Even the few times I have come home sick from work, I take a shower first. My mother tells me I am going to be single forever. 🙂 I say it’s a holdover from all those Taco Bell years and coming home smelling like a burrito. The fact that I crawled into bed full of sunblock; I probably should have skipped the run. But after a little more sleep, I dragged myself out the door. I was under fueled and under hydrated, so I brought along some Gatorade and made sure to keep it slow. For once I had zero trouble following through with a longer warm up. 🙂 It was warmer than I would have liked for 9 in the morning, but it was not a horrible run. All in all, 10K done and I was still glad I made myself get out the door.

And the Garmin had issues tracking again.

Even though my long run failed, I still treated Saturday as a rest day. My left leg has been a little more sore than usual, so rest sounded good. Plus after getting off work and running the usual errands, I decided to go see Guardians of the Galaxy. Have I mentioned I am serious nerd for the Marvel movies? seriously that Disneyland Avengers Half would awesome but I would need to sell a kidney for it. 🙂 Anyhow, the movie was really good and I indulged in too much popcorn. Yummy. And I still had Sunday for that 10 miler. Well, that was the plan…

Anyone have any odd idiosyncrasies out there?

Anyone else seen Guardians? Thoughts?

How was your weekend?

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?