Tag: Migraine

Week 19- Disconnect

Upcoming Races-

Rock n Roll San Diego 13.1

I wish I could say my migraine was all gone when I woke on Monday but no such luck. It did ease up as the week progressed but I swear migraine brain made me feel stupid. And tired. Maybe it’s all because of allergies? My car is covered in a lovely yellow powder these days.

Monday- Nothing- The migraine was still lingering so after making it through work, I just headed home to rest, well after a stop at In n Out for dinner. 😛 Oh, wait I did attempt my PT exercises.

Tuesday- 3 miles I had tried sleep, ice packs, dark rooms, food (so much food), now it was time to try running out the headache. I almost quit less than 1/4 mile in. I felt like the top of my head was going to pop off and I was just walking. Perhaps a hat, headphones and 90* temps was a bit much all at once. I ran super slow and took breaks if I felt I needed a moment to chill on the path. By the end of the 3 miles I did feel a little better.

Wednesday- Rest My head felt better but I wasn’t going to push it and do too much too soon. Instead I took my parents to dinner and almost got run over in a parking lot cross walk. Nice.

Thursday- 3.15 miles My legs and head were not talking to each other. My legs apparently wanted to move but the rest of my body not so much. I kept telling myself to slow down but it wasn’t really working. Which was weird because I also finally understood the meaning of tight hips on this run. It sucks! I stopped my watch with a 1/4 mile to go and worked on squats, walking lunges, side steps and karaokes the rest of the way before stretching out.

Friday- Rest Oh good lord, a few squats and lunges on Thursday and I think I hurt worse the next day than I did after Big Sur. 🤣

Saturday- Mother’s Day Shopping– I spent the day shopping with my mother for Mother’s Day. No running but I definitely got my step count in!

Sunday- 7.16 miles The plan was for 6-10 miles as my first long run since the marathon 2 weeks ago. Except I slept so poorly and woke with a headache. I lay in bed from 6:30 to 9:30 trying to either force myself to get up to run or go back to sleep- neither worked. My brother took us to lunch and I was hoping food would help and I could squeeze in my run before dinner. Except after lunch and a short nap, I really did not want to run at all. I was feeling very Slacker like. But I forced myself to change and headed across to town to attempt a run.

I told myself a short run was better than nothing- 3 miles and I could go home. I started out and just kept going forward. At the turn around point for a 3 mile run, I kept going, I wasn’t happy but kept going. At mile 2.5 I had to stop and lose my top layer, I was way overdressed for the temp but I kept going. Not only was I still running but once again my legs were writing checks that the rest of me wasn’t keen on paying. However, I mostly let them do their thing and took walk breaks when my lungs pointed out my foolishness. Which they did more than once…more like each mile. However, I was somehow turning out my fastest 7 miler in over 2 years and I have no idea where it came from and I was actually feeling pretty good. In an effort to be at least slightly smart I called the run at 7 miles. Less than the original plane but more than I had been feeling!

13.34 miles for the week. If I didn’t have a half in 3 weeks, I would say hell yeah to that mileage post Big Sur. But I do, so I am slightly nervous. Oh and I did more squats and lunges Friday through Sunday- can I keep it up?

How was your week?

Week 30- Goodbye July

Upcoming Races-

Salinas Valley Half Marathon

This was a calmer week at work thankfully. I’m still feeling a little ragged around the edges but I think we’re pulling it together. Have I mentioned my coworkers are rock stars?

The hours were a little more normal and I was able to get in a few more miles than week 29. Not a lot but a few. 😛

Monday- 2.5 miles. I packed all my running gear planning to run in work town after work but then work kicked my ass. I was so tired I decided to just go home. Something on the drive home made me change my mind and I changed super fast at home and ran out the door. I was able to get in a short 2.5 miles in my birthday shoes. 😀

Tuesday- Rest. I made my first #bibchat in weeks! Sweet!

Wednesday- Fair!! I took all my running gear to work but realized I had left my pack and inhaler in my garage after Monday’s run. Womp womp. So sudden change of plans- my mother and I hit up the fair after work. Funnel cake for the win.😀

Thursday- migraine from hell. By the end of work, I could barely see straight. I thought about running to see if it helped but I was also concerned it would make it worse. Combine that with the insane traffic I was fearing I would face going home and I just decided to head home. Why insane traffic? Garth Brooks. He performed at our little fair- 2 concerts in a row- and getting home was a little tricky.

Friday- Rest The headache was still lingering plus with working open to close, I was just exhausted. I haven’t been sleeping well this month.

Saturday- 10 miles Despite how tired I was, I forced myself out of bed on Saturday morning to get in my long run. Well, I did hit snooze when the alarm went off at 7. I knew I wasn’t going to be setting any speed records so a little bit warmer wouldn’t be horrible. It actually ended up being my slowest 10 miler ever, there was a lot of walking the last 3.5 miles. Ok, mostly walking. But this run was just meant to be time on my feet and not to worry about pace. I think I accomplished that. 😛 Then I spent the rest of the day trying to relax. I randomly went and saw Spiderman in the evening…not bad.

Sunday- Rest. So not the plan. I planned on sleeping in, running some errands, doing some chores and then braving the heat for a few miles. Everything was going according to plan right up to the laundry. I went to grab the first load out of the dryer and noticed a funny smell. It smelled like burnt plastic. And everything I had just washed and dried stunk of it. Did I mention the washer was full of freshly washed sheets? So then I spent the afternoon trying to line dry everything without a line. Lay it on something, point a fan at it, come back in 20 minutes and rotate. Everything that had been washed had to be rewashed. Yay. That was fun. It felt like a workout but it wasn’t running. 3 loads of laundry dried by 2 fans.

12.5 miles for the week. Like I said, not a huge improvement over last week but a step in the right direction.

How was your weekend?

Had any appliance issues lately?

Last movie you saw?

Week 9 Recap-Chaperone

Upcoming Races:

Livermore 13.1 -March 26
Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13

This week was exhausting. I feel bruised all over. Man, I’m getting old. I actually crashed around 9:00 3 nights this week which is unheard of for me. This post is a day late because I just couldn’t finish it on Sunday, I was so tired. So let’s get to the recap!

Monday- 2.5 miles– I headed for the lake path after work. I had been watching the light as I drove home on previous nights and I thought I had enough time to get in 3 laps before it went full dark. I knew I had my Knuckle Lights but I wasn’t sure what the vagrant situation might be so I didn’t want to push things. Holy crap, I had never seen the lake that full! I only ended up getting in 2.5 miles. Partly because I jammed my ankle jumping a curb and couldn’t loosen it up by running it out but mostly because I was completely distracted by the sunset-I took about 30 pictures😛. The sky was amazing. My Instagram has more pics too.

Tuesday- Rest Gave my sore ankle a break.

Wednesday-Rest– Same as above. But it felt better so I figured I would be ok to run the next day.

Thursday- 3.5 miles. Mother of migraine. I felt horrible all day. I was torn between running and going home and sleeping. I damn near called in sick to work. I decided to try a few miles to see if it would help the pain and nausea at all. I headed to the lake again figuring it would be easy to bail if it turned out to be a horrible choice. I wasn’t breaking any speed records but for 40 minutes, my head actually felt ok. Then I stopped running and the pain came back, boo.

Friday/ Saturday- California Tennis Classic Long days. My mom’s tennis team was in a tournament up in Clovis and I agreed to be her chaperone/driver. Did I mention I still had a migraine on Friday? Ouch. 2 days with teenage boys and rap music? I did pack running gear with the hope getting in a 10 miler if the court location was in a good area on Saturday but this Slacker forgot her shoes. How! Which was a bummer because the area around the school was awesome, I could have totally gone for a run. What was less awesome was the serious lack of sportsmanship I observed by some of the teams. I seriously thought 2 of the teams were going to come to blows. It started with the players and then moved up to the coaches. Yikes! Then again, if I hadn’t been there as a chaperone I might have responded in kind when one got in my face because I didn’t respond fast enough. Ugh, that condescending tone of voice gets under my skin. The boys did well though, they ending winning their bracket. 🙂

Sunday- 8 miles. I did not want to run. At all. I was exhausted. But I couldn’t miss a longer run 2 weekends in a row. I forced myself out the door and decided to just do what I could. My shoelace came untied and I was rushed by a giant German Shepard in the first mile, I damn near said screw it and went home. Especially when the man told me “excellent choice” when I came to a dead halt. Once again, I restrained my first impulse to snap back extremely colorful words. Put your damn dog on a leash!! I kept running. At the turn around for my 4.5 I pushed on to 5, at that turn around I pushed on to 6 then the 8 mile turn around. I still had an option to shorten it if I started feeling tired. A little past mile 5 I added in a modest hill repeat so I could avoid the killer hill at the end, I just wasn’t feeling up to it. Or so I thought. Come up on 6.8 miles and I realize I really messed up my mileage. The easiest way to hit 8 miles would have to include the nasty hill. I almost started crying. I just couldn’t. I turned around and looped a neighborhood and approached my house another way. I still had a hill but instead of soul crushing I was able to run this one and not hate myself and running at the end.

14 miles for the week. Better than last week and considering how crappy I felt the last half, I’m just going to take it and move on. On the upside, it finally looks like the weather is on the on the upswing and one of my favorite days of the year is on Sunday-time change! More daylight after work hours- woo hoo!

How was your week?

Would you have your tongue about the dog?

Do you like the time change?

Week 47 Un-training Recap

Training for-

…..Nope, still nothing!

Another week of taking it easy. I don’t think I realized how run down I was feeling until I stopped moving. Granted, part of that could also be due to me deciding to cut back on caffeine, sugar and calories. All at the same time. Oh and throw in some new migraine medication we’re trying and it just seemed like a good idea to take things easy. But I wasn’t totally lazy.

Monday- 2 miles A short but sweet night run. Baby steps while I work my way into this night running thing. Baby steps. 😛😛

Tuesday- 15 minutes yoga I’m so awkward and inflexible! Then the video I was using crashed partway through so I had to start another one. Grr.

Wednesday- 4.47 miles It’s been so long since I ran a short run from my house I forgot what distance my routes were! I had an odd doctor’s appointment with a radiologist and a speech therapist of all things so I was able to get the whole run in before dark. Which was sweet but damn it was cold! We went from 80 to 50 with 20 mph wind overnight. I was wearing so many layers. And I wanted more.

Thursday- Rest Migraine from hell. This was the worst headache in weeks so I figured I would try the second new medication. Holy crap people, I couldn’t add 2 +2. The pill took about an 1.5 hours to ease the pain but for about 4 hours I was mired in a serious fog, I could barely function. It was ridiculous.

Friday- Rest That migraine usually lingers 2 days but I wasn’t taking another pill. So instead I got a big Diet Coke and a big coffee on my way into work, lesser of 2 evils right?

Saturday- Rest I worked in the morning and planned on running in the afternoon. Work ran super late and I was just exhausted. I watched a couple of cheesy Christmas movies instead.

Sunday- Rest It rained all day. I still have unhealed marks on my chest from the chafe of the Harvest Marathon. After 2 races in the rain, I think I am little leery of running in the rain right now. It may be a while before it happens again. I realize that makes me a big baby but that’s ok. I did a bit of shopping though and picked up a reflective vest for more running in the dark.

6 miles is way better than last week so I’m calling it a win. I’m realizing that I need a little more time off than I thought. That being said, I will not be turkey trotting this week. Boo. But the only trot available to me is a 10K and I don’t think I have a 10K in me right now. Plus, this will also be the first time in 4 years that I am working the week of Thanksgiving so that’s going to be odd.

How was your week?

Are you running a turkey trot?

What are your plans this week?

San Francisco Marathon Training Week 9

Holy crap, I’m halfway there!

I’ve yet to decide if that is reassuring or reason enough for a panic attack. It could go either way, it just depends on the day. 😝

After week 8’s less than stellar showing I was really hoping for a better week. What I got was a learning week. And an injury scare. Then I finished it all up with a tough 10K.

Monday- 5 miles. I love seeing easy miles on the plan. However, I ran these too fast. I was about a minute under pace for the run. While it felt pretty good at the time, I wonder if this added to the issues that popped up later in the week. I also ran these miles in my Pureflow’s. I was thinking of wearing them for my race so I wanted put a few miles on them since I hadn’t worn them since the SLO half. My toes still feel squished but other that I remembered why I loved those shoes.

Tuesday- 1.25 mile w/u, 6 x 800, 1.25 mile c/d. Since I missed week 8’s speed workout due to a head cold, I decided to do it this week instead of jumping to the 1K repeats. 800’s are hard. The 600’s a few weeks ago had felt pretty comfortable, these did not, these were hard. I also had technical difficulties of the hilarious kind. I’ve been using the workout feature on my Garmin; I create the workout online and push it to my watch so I don’t have to try and track the intervals on my own. So I programmed in what I thought were 6 intervals of 800 with 400 meter recoveries. I felt like my first 400 m recovery was taking forever. I kept checking my watch but it kept saying 399.9. What? Come to realize that I had programmed my recovery at 400 MILES not meters. Oops!! So from then I just tried to ballpark when to hit the lap button to end each recovery. I underestimated each time, oops. My recoveries ended up being around .15.

My goal time for each 800 was 4:30-4:42. Actual times were- 4:28, 4:23, 6:38, 4:26, 4:24, 4:23. So yeah that 3rd 800? I had tried to see if I could fix the 400 mile recovery but not only failed, I had also started the run interval but not realized it. I think it would have been in the line with other ones though.

Wednesday- Rest My legs were feeling super sore. I wore compression socks to work and changed from boots to flats. That might not have been the best idea. I also had an appointment with my gastroenterologist and I have a shiny new elimination diet to start this week. During marathon training…yay? Also pizza night was a giant fail. Boo.

Thursday- ~~8 easy miles~~— 3.75 miles With a 10K race on Saturday, the plan was to swap my easy run and my tempo. My training plan advised against this as I was supposed to step up to 8 tempo miles this week but I really like this race. I still felt sore and tired so I headed to the river path to get in an easy 8. Ha! My legs hurt from the get go. My shins hurt, my ankles hurt, my arches felt off and my knees started to ache. I gave it 2 miles to see if it was all in my head and if I was going to be able to run it out. No dice. I called it at 2 and hobble ran/walked back to the car. It hurt. I went home and stretched, rolled and put on compression socks again. And tried really hard not to freak out. Thank you to Heather and Ashley for putting up with all of my whining text messages. 😂

Friday- Rest My legs were still super sore. I was beginning to question Saturday’s 10K.

Saturday- Bands on the Run 10K Could have gone better but I made it through it. More on that next post though. Why do beach races make my calves so sore?

Sunday- 15 miles- Rest My alarm was set for an early run but when it went off, I said no. I had started to feel the beginning of a headache Saturday night and tried to fight it off by sleeping with an ice pack. No luck, Sunday morning it was a full on migraine. I shut off the alarm and slept more hoping it would ease up and I could get some miles run in the afternoon. Unfortunately, all the afternoon saw was a 2 hour long nap. My head hurt so bad, I didn’t even complete this post in time to go up on Monday. Once again, I slept with an ice pack that night.

Hmmm, well 4 days is better than week 8 right? Unfortunately my overall mileage still hovered in the low 20’s. The leg pain kind of freaked me out and I am making an adjustment to my training plan going forward. I am swapping my Monday easy run for Wednesday’s rest day. I knew my training plan was intense for a Slacker like me, even with dropping Friday’s run from the get go. So now let’s see how I feel with 3 days in a row instead of 4. Cumulative fatigue is one thing, I am freaking tired. Plus, who knows how these dietary changes are going to go over? Fingers crossed! Hopefully, my legs will get me through the week. 😀

How was your week?

How many days can you comfortably run a row?

Who else raced this weekend?