Tag: marathon training

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 17

Fallon @ Slacker Runner10 Comments

Just like that, it was race week.

I swear that was the quickest 17 weeks ever.  Shouldn’t it still February?

With the race being just a few days away, I was being very careful with how I planned out my runs and the week.

Monday- Rest I forgot what else I did other than work.

Tuesday- 2.5 miles This was actually supposed to be 5K but I wore different shoes and I could that my legs were not happy with that decision.  So, I decided the smarter choice was just to make the run a little shorter.   Aren’t legs supposed to feel peppy during the days leading up to race day?

Wednesday- Rest No back to back running days this week.

Thursday- Rest I thought about running but I decided to get in a few last minute errands instead.

Friday- 2 miles I took the day off work to pack and get things ready to travel the next day.  I headed out for my shakeout run in the afternoon.  I almost skipped it, I just wasn’t feeling it.  Mother Nature had brought me a lovely visitor. 😒 However I made myself get out the door and get it done and it wasn’t bad at all.  I was glad I followed through.

Saturday- Travel day!  Monterey is not that far away even if I have to take the roundabout way due to Highway 1 being blocked by a large landslide so I was able to sleep in a bit before heading that way.   Packet pick up was about the only thing that went smoothly that day.  We somehow skipped lunch and couldn’t find anywhere to eat.  Then there was the hotel.  I swear I Map Quested it and it was with in walking distance of the race morning bus pickups.  Ummm, no. It was over 4 miles away, not traversible by foot and in a sketchy part of town.   To top it off, it sounded like a herd of elephants was staying in the room upstairs. 😒

Sunday- Big Sur Marathon Did I pull it off? Can I walk now?  Recap to follow.

31.02 miles for the week.

How was your week?

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 16

Fallon @ Slacker Runner10 Comments

And with the end of week 16, there’s only 7 days to go.   And yet, I’m still waiting for the freak out.

If you were reading this blog when I was training for San Francisco then you may remember that I was hot mess for the entire month of July leading to the race.   I was breaking things, tripping, my heart rate was spiking all the time and I was having panic attacks.   So far, that hasn’t happened yet.  I am sure it will happen at one point and time.   I mean I have leg issues, doubts and oh, according to my app, I am supposed to be on my period.  Thanks Mother Nature.  😒 But until then the penny is still in the air.

So let’s get to last week.  I was still giving my leg some space so my mileage is once again super low.   I also came to an interesting theory- which may be me grasping at straws but hey plot twist- last minute shoe change!  Because that seems like a great idea right?

Monday- 1.12 miles/ PT exercises So this was not supposed to be this short but I was having a big wardrobe malfunction.  My pants kept sliding down.  I don’t mean they needed a slight adjustment, I mean they falling down and taking my underwear with them.  😛  After the 5th time in the space of a mile, I gave up.   It may be time to retire those crops.   Except when it came time to do laundry- I washed them instead of tossing them.

Tuesday- PT exercises I had a super early DR appointment so it seemed like a very long day.

Wednesday- 3.11 miles/ PT exercises I was dressed much more appropriately.   This run went pretty well.  Maybe too well as I ran too fast.   Why do I keep doing that??   I mean what business do I have running a 9 minute mile this close to race day?  This isn’t 3 years ago!  That’s now how I roll these days.  But it was kind of fun.

Thursday- PT exercises  I am sure something else happened but I can’t remember what.

Friday- PT Exercises Who am I???? But my leg was feeling better so yay!

Saturday- Nada I had planned on running in the morning as I was volunteering at a silent auction for Habitat for Humanity that evening.  However my mother and I had talked about doing an 8 mile trail on Sunday instead so I passed on the run and got a little more sleep and ran some errands before heading to the SLO Airport for my shift.  Where I proceeded to get lost trying to figure out where to park.   A couple hours into my shift, I knew boots were a very bad idea.  Bad idea.  After 6 hours of that, I was fried.  I let my mother know that the trail was no longer likely.

Sunday- 5.29 miles The trail might have been cooler.  Instead I headed out in the afternoon and it was around 86*.  Yeah, I’m not acclimated yet.  It was a little rough.  Plus, once again I had moments where I was running too fast.  Stupid.  Trust me, the warmth got to me and I slowed way down.  Wanted more miles but I was beat.

9.53 miles for week.  I miscounted!  I really meant to at least be over 10 miles but I screwed up the math.  How do I do that with only 3 runs??  Oops.

7 days people. 7 days.

How was your week?

 

 

 

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 15

Fallon @ Slacker Runner2 Comments

I may have taken week 1 of taper a little too far.  And you know what?  I am ok with that.

At this point, cramming all the miles in isn’t going to help me come race day, in fact with this groin/leg issue, it could actually hinder me.  Maybe that’s just something I told myself as I embraced the Slacker in me but I’m still ok with it.

Work was busy in odd ways, time moved quicker than I needed it to and things didn’t always work out.  I threw my pen in the air a few times.   Bad habit, I know but I always make sure there are no customers around when I do it.  😛

I crossed some things off my to do list and went to the movies and saw Rampage.  It’s pretty good but then it’s rare that I dislike a movie with The Rock in it so I was kind of biased.

So how about the running?

Monday/ Tuesday- PT exercises & stretching I had planned on taking these 2 days off from running after my last long run.   I made sure to stretch really well and focused on my PT exercises each night.

Wednesday- Rest w/ some stretching.  I was going to run but I decided to give the leg one more day.  There was also something else but I can’t remember what it is.  Oops.

Thursday- 3.26 miles I headed to the river path after work a little nervous about my leg.  It was a little sore at the start but it loosened up and the run was pretty good.  However it was way too fast.  I told myself to keep all my miles in the 12’s this week to give my leg a break and my brain too.  Plus with how I’ve been feeling, I didn’t think that would be too hard.   However these were in the 10’s and a negative split at that.  Oops.

Friday- Nada Open to close, my brain was mentally fried and I was just done.  I picked up a pizza on the way home.

Saturday- 4.53 miles I headed out in the afternoon for a few easy miles except once again I was moving way too fast.  I obviously had no control over myself last week.  Luckily I knew my mother was out for a walk on the same roads so I had built in excuses to walk when my route met up with hers.  So my running portions may have been too fast but my overall pace looks perfectly slow.  😜

Sunday- Rest.  I’m not going to say oops.  When my alarm went off in the morning for my long run, I had a pounding migraine.  It was the throbbing kind and I can’t run through those, I slapped the phone off, pulled the covers over my head and tried to hide from everything.   The pain eased by mid afternoon and I could have headed out for my run but honestly, I didn’t want to.  My leg was sore, my head still hurt and overall I was concerned that doing the miles for the sake of the miles would actually do more harm than good.  Maybe that’s just something I told myself but I’m still good with it.   Besides I wasn’t completely lazy- I did clean my car- well the inside, and trust me that was quite the work out.

7.79 miles for the week.   I should be mad or feel guilty about that but I don’t.   Whether I regret this later remains to be seen.

How was your week?

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 14

Fallon @ Slacker Runner21 Comments

Don’t freak out, don’t freak out.

My leg is giving me grief.  My back is putting up a fight.  I feel like I am barely running any miles and I am falling apart.  What gives?!  I really should be sleeping more.   How do I become less of an night owl??

Oh my gawd, I made it to taper.  Even though my whole training cycle has been another runner’s taper, haha.   Last week was a rather pitiful peak week but it’s done.

Monday- 2.62 miles  The irony of the mileage of this run is not lost on me.  My leg was not on board.  In fact it protested something fierce.  Fierce to the point of pain and I decided that rest days after long runs were going to have to become a thing during the next few weeks of this training cycle.   I turned around fairly soon into the run and headed back to the car trying not to be alarmed.

Tuesday- Nada I could feel my leg every time I moved.  From the car to work.  Every time I got off my chair or stood still too long.  Boo.

Wednesday-More of the same.

Thursday- 2.3 miles I headed for the lake path hoping the dirt path would be friendly to me and that I could get in a good 4-5 miles.   But that did not happen.  I managed 2 laps of the lake before I threw in the towel.  I may have pushed for more but with this weekend being my last chance to get in 20 miles I figured that was more important.

Friday- Rest I took a vacation day for a once again canceled tennis trip -rain, so I spent the day attempting to catch up on sleep and rest my leg.

Saturday- More of the same. Another rainy day.  I had started reorganizing my closet on Friday and it turned into the never ending project.  🤣

Sunday- 18.25 miles I overslept and started a little later than planned, oops.  I was also running in what I hoped would be my race day outfit to see how it worked out.  With my leg being fussy all week, I wanted to keep the run slow and steady and walk whenever I needed.  And things were actually good for the first 10-12 miles.  The temp was pleasant, my leg was cooperating and I wasn’t tired.  My clothing was another story.  My tank was riding up into a crop top, the shorties under my skirt kept moving around, my pack was shifting down my back, I had to put BodyGlide on at mile 6.  I don’t usually have to use BodyGlide when I wear skirts.  Grrr.   And my shoes were starting to hurt my feet.

The problem arose around mile 14- my back started to hurt.  And I slowed way down.  So much so, that I knew I was going to have a problem keeping my lunch plans with my mother.  Hence the 18.25.  My lower back was super cranky, I think part of the problem was the bladder of water in the back of my pack.  I stopped carrying water on my back due to back pain a few months back and stupidly forgot about it. Silly Slacker.  So another lesson learned- no bladder in the pack on race day- bottles in the front only.

When I mentioned how much slower I had gotten towards the end of the run during the lunch, my mother asked what the minimum pace was before being swept at Big Sur.  Thanks Mom.

23.17 miles for the week.  Not the 20 miler I was hoping for but not horrible.  I am trying to think positive… or maybe I am just in denial.

How was your week?

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 12

Fallon @ Slacker Runner12 Comments

Last week was better… of sorts.

Mother nature decided to rain fury down upon us last week and try to make up for months of doubt.  And yes I meant to spell it like that.

The storm started Tuesday and stayed until Friday morning.   There were mudslides, rocks down, trees down, flooding, too many car accidents and just chaos.  The damn river (of the river path) rose so fast overnight Wednesday that there ended up being 10 swift water rescues on Thursday. 10!  I went to work and I went home, that was it.

I am sure I did other things last week but the rain is the only thing that sticks in my mind besides the running, ha!  So let’s just get to it.

Monday- 3.1 miles I tried to get in a few miles before the storm.   I don’t recall much about the miles but I pulled some decent paces for miles 2 and 3 looking back so it had to be a decent run, right?😜

Tuesday- Thursday- Nada– See opening above.  Unless white knuckled driving counts.

Friday- Rest The sun came out so I took my gear to work to run after we closed.  At least that was the plan.   I got something in my eye and could not get it out.   I tried eye drops, taking out my contacts, nothing worked.   I finally gave up and just went straight home.

Saturday- 3.1 miles 5K shakeout, I had lots of miles planned for Sunday and I wanted to get the legs moving after so many days off.  This run actually felt pretty dang good.  In fact at one point, I felt like I was powering up a hill impressively.  Of course I couldn’t see myself, so I have no idea if that was true or not.  🤣

Sunday- Tent City Half Marathon/ 5 miles = 18 miles total  Surprise! Half marathon #30 went down on Sunday.  At the butt crack of dawn… nope pre-dawn.  In the freakin’ cold.  Race recap to come.  😀

The plan called for 19 miles so after some food and a nap I headed out in the afternoon to complete another 6 miles.  Oh my misery.  I don’t think I am built for 2 a days anymore.  I liked them during my last marathon cycle- this time not so much.  I never found a rhythm or settled into a decent pace.  I dragged ass for 5 miles and knew adding another mile would likely do more harm than good so I just headed for home knowing I would fall short.  But 18 is nothing to frown at right??

24.4 miles for the week.   Better than the last two weeks!!!

How was your week?