Tag: miles

Week 35 Recap

Training for:   City to the Sea 13.1
Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

Yikes, that’s the first time I’ve typed that all out.  And it doesn’t include the HOB Fun Run and I may throw a couple more 5K’s in there.  Yes, I may be a little crazy.     It’ll be fun right?

Going forward, I think I am going to change up the way I post these training recaps.  I will still have a weekly one but I am thinking they will be shorter.  I miss posting more often and trying to cram everything into one post makes for a lot of words.   Who wants to read that??😛  That said, this one might be lengthy.


Monday- 4 miles  In an effort to mitigate the smoky air intake, I decided to run at work.   Marine layer- why not?   I always forgot how much I love the middle portion of this route.   Ocean!  Eucalyptus trees, dirt!   I just wish this section was longer. Smoke and marine layer aside, this was actually a remarkably steady paced run for me- 11:32, 11:31, 11:50, 10:46.    The run 5, walk 2 is kind of working out post marathon.   Miles 1 and 2 are all downhill while 3 and 4 are uphill.  4 is the steepest but mile 3 is usually the slowest as I hit a section of super slippery dirt in the eucalyptus grove.   I really should run this route more often.

Tuesday- Rest day, pizza day!


Wednesday- 3.8 miles  Baby speed work session- woo hoo!  My legs felt pretty good after that.   I also started my new-ish (reverted) posting as I posted all about that run here.

Thursday- Rest  I really wanted to run but I figured that would probably be stupid.  I want to work back up to a 4 day a week running schedule but the last few weeks were very lacking.  I figured a 3 day week first would be a better step.    I took a late half day for working Saturday 2 weeks ago.  I figured I would get on the bike once I got home but instead it was one of those days where time just seemed to fly and hardly anything I planned was completed.

Friday- Rest Day  I work the late shift a few weeks in a row and nothing really happens outside of work.    An employee also left so we are back in that pattern of waiting to hire and running short while the interviews take place.   Busy days!     I also found out that I am no longer exempt- I had to clock in and out for the first time in years.   I am still not sure how I feel about that.


Saturday- 10 miles  Double digits, woo hoo!!   The temp wasn’t supposed to be too warm and I was feeling tired after a crazy work week so I planned on running a little later but I hadn’t planned on waking up to an almost dead phone.  For some reason it hadn’t charged overnight.  Grrr.  I headed out the door around 9:30.  Oops.    I wanted to run 10 but had a a variety of ways to shorten it if I just wasn’t feeling it.  School is back in session and my mother was having a tennis practice so my plan was to run there and then we would go to lunch.

I was feeling a little sluggish starting out but not horrible so I just kept going.   I did welcome each stop light break though.   Per usual, I booked it across the bridge and that was my fastest mile- 9:18.  Oops.    From then on it was into mountain lion sighting territory.  Yikes!!    I kept my pepper spray in my hand while I was running through the river bed section.  Which is silly as the cat was spotted up by the neighborhoods.     There were a surprising number of people out for a run or walk at that time.   I wondered if the mountain lion issue had everyone out running later then normal.  I even ran into NikeC!  It was nice chatting with her for a bit.   My pace was surprisingly consistent.  If you’ve been around this blog for a while- you know pace consistency is not my thing.    I finished my run with an average pace of 11:00.  Who am I?  I am usually way slower than that on long runs.  Hell, Monday’s run was slower than that.  I never really felt like I was pushing and I took walk breaks anytime I needed a moment.  I was kind of stoked when I saw my splits later.  😃

Sunday- 7 miles bike   I had some errands that took me to SLO for the day. New glasses!!!    I hit my daily step total which is rare and then finished up with some cross training.

So 4 days of exercise, 17.8 miles run, much better than the previous 3.   One of these days I will do more than just think about strength training.  😛

In other news, I ate less pizza and watched a ton of Bones last week.  Seriously people, I just started season 6!  I may need an intervention!  In sad news, my car hit 100,000 miles- boo.

How was your week?

What are you watching now?

 

Wobbly Wednesday

That was hard.

With having so many halves close together, I have big hopes for one of them.  The marathon gave me a little (giant) kick in the ass.   With that being said, I need to get said ass in gear and that means training.  Training means speed work.  So I busted out my Nike’s and waded into the shallow end tonight.

I headed to the lake path after work, I can’t even remember the last time I ran there.  I know I am still feeling a little sluggish and with mountains of smoke in the air, I knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.   I still have all my Hanson’s workouts saved in my watch so I figured I would just use the one for 400 repeats.  I knew there was no way I was doing 12 of them like programmed but that’s what the lap button’s for right?    I was hoping for between 4-8 repeats.


It was my first time wearing my Nike’s since May, I stopped doing speed work once my shins went to hell.   I kept my warm up of 1.25 miles nice and easy, plenty of walking.  😛   Now, I haven’t raced a 5K since September 2015 so I have no idea what an accurate pace should be so I was optimistically aiming for an 8:45 average for the repeats.


#1- woah, this awkward, my legs are confused.   How do you run this fast?  How the hell long is 400m anyways?  Oh good, the watch buzzed.  Recovery time.

Full disclosure- I walked all the recoveries.   My lungs were a little pissed I was making them work this hard with all the smoke in the air.    My watch buzzed for my next run and wait what?  It said cool down mile and repeated 12 times.  WTH?  So I stopped my watch and started a new run.  From there on I ran by watching my watch and trying not to fall on my face at the same time.

#2- all right, feeling pretty good, maybe I can do 8

#3- Ok, this is getting harder, that last thought was a pipe dream.  Can I quit now?

#4- Yeah, smoke sucks.  Damn my legs are tired, how long is 400m again?  This is my last one.  Let’s not go crazy right?

All in all, 3.76 miles.    And the intervals?

Distance Elapsed Time Average Pace
.25 2:04 8:23
.25 2:10 8:48
.25 2:01 8:01
.25 2:03 8:07

I think I am more surprised that I kept the last 3 intervals at .25.  How did I do that?  And the intervals are too fast which might explain why I was huffing and puffing so much.   Also, I don’t get the variance in pace between interval 1 and 4.  They are only 1 second different.  Is my watch crazy?

It wasn’t a lot but it felt pretty good.   Now hopefully I can move on Thursday.  😛


And the county is on fire, the air is full of smoke, the lake is almost dry and yet I rounded a curve to see more green than I have in months.  What gives?

Is my watch crazy?

How is your weather?

 

 

The SF Marathon Training Week 15

I have no witty opening for this one.  That’s also assuming anything I’ve ever opened with before was witty.  Hmmm, maybe that was a reach.

Like I said in my Friday post last week, I am tired.  Just tired.  Running wise, the week was actually pretty good.   Work wise, I think my brain went into vacation mode way too early.    Oops.  That wasn’t great considering my boss was on vacation Thursday and Friday.   I needed to be firing on all cylinders.  I believe I completed most of my piles but I can’t shake the feeling that I forgot something.


Monday- 6.7 miles.  4th of July!! I met with Ashley and Heather for a very patriotic themed run down at Avila Beach.  The plan was to do 8 miles but it was my third day of running in a row and my shins and knee were pissed.   I ended up falling behind taking walk breaks but I eventually just sat on a bench 2 miles from the beach and waited for them to come back my way.  Truthfully, I wanted to swing on the swings while I waited but they were occupied by children.  Once they were back, I was able to run the whole back with them.  I was fine with fewer miles.  Then we went for a super yummy breakfast – churro french toast for the win!  It was a great way to spend the morning.

Tuesday- Rest.  Yeah, there was no way I was running a 4th day in a row.  Rest was awesome.   Plus work is always insane the day after a 3 day weekend so it was nice being able to just go home and crash.  I think I did something else but I can’t remember.


Wednesday-2.3 miles.  My legs still felt wonky.  Seriously one 20 miler less than 2 weeks ago and I’m broken for days.   I did 2 laps of the lake and called it.  They were a slow, crawling 2 laps but that’s better than no miles right?


Thursday- 3.75 miles.  Uh oh, 2 days in a row again?  However, this was the day that finally felt more normal.   I kept it short and sweet though as I didn’t want to push it.  Not only is the marathon super close but I had a half marathon on Saturday.  But I really wanted to try out my new shorts.


Friday- Rest.   My boss is on vacation so it was an open to close kind of day.  I did manage to sneak away for 10 minutes and grab my packet for Saturday’s race.    And a Diet Coke because by that time I needed one.  😛


Saturday- 13.1 miles.  Rock’n Around the Pier Half.   My hope was to run the race in the morning and do another 7 in the evening to complete a disjointed 20.   Yeah, that didn’t happen.  The race was rough and I had some problems, but more on that next post.    I did however get in a few miles of walking around SLO with some post race shopping.

Sunday- Rest.  Unless miles of walking around Santa Barbara shopping count as exercise.  😛   My mom, S and I headed to Santa Barbara for a day of birthday shopping, S has hers on Monday and mine is Tuesday.  It was fun but it made me realize how much I prefer SLO.  However I am jealous they have a PizzaRev, that place was awesome.  It was a long and tiring day and my legs/feet were fried by the end.    By the time I was home I was too tired to even finish this post in time for it go up on Monday.   On the upshot- I may have found my marathon outfit.  Priorities right?

Overall, it was a good running week, I was just exhausted.   I know that time frame wise I am at the point in training that I should be exhausted but I don’t feel like I’ve really trained enough for that.  Life has been a little crazy for a few months as well but it doesn’t usually affect me like this.    Maybe my upcoming birthday is just making me moody?  That’s a thing right?

Going forward, this week would start a traditional taper period for the marathon.  However I feel like the past few months have been a taper.  So we will see.  I know I still need to figure out water.   My handheld is not enough and my pack is crap.  Hey I rhymed!    Non running life- I have 2 vacation days!!  Happy dance, happy dance.  😃😃  I have nothing planned- it sounds awesome.

How as your weekend?

When was you last vacation? What did you do?

 

The SF Marathon Training Week 14

14.  14 down, only 4 more to go!

So yeah.  Week 14.   Ummmm, ouch? Week 13 was awesome- I mean, I ran 20 miles and kind of like it?  What could go wrong?  Ha Ha.

Monday- Rest.  I felt pretty good actually, my legs- shins included- felt fine all day.   Part of me wanted to run but I figured that would be silly or worse injury provoking, so I scheduled in 2 rest days.

Tuesday- Rest.   Once again my legs felt pretty good but I had a plan man, and I was sticking to it.  It made sense.    At least I thought it did.

Wednesday- Rest.  Hello freight train.  Body wise I felt ok, but I was suddenly exhausted.  I felt like I could sleep for days.   That said, I was still planning on running after work.    However my family texted and asked if I wanted to meet everyone for dinner.  I first said no- I needed to run.  They ended up convincing me.   So instead of running, I enjoyed too much food at dinner.


Thursday-6 miles.  Seriously I wish someone had filmed the first 3ish mile of this run.   I want to know if it looked as hilarious as it felt.    I had another half day at work so I was naively hopeful that I could get the weekends 10-12 miler in early.  I don’t have a route that length in work town so I headed home.   I walked my usual 5 minute warm up and then started running.  Or tried to.   My legs were not functioning as a team.  Nothing hurt but I could not level out.  I felt like one leg was going forward while the other was swinging to the side.  I felt like a newborn giraffe trying to walk. Mile 1 was 98% walking, mile 2 wasn’t much better.    The final 4 miles were all in the 12 minute range but I finally started to feel a little more normal by mile 6.  I knew I wasn’t doing any more than that though.    This run did put me over 100 miles for June though.

Friday- Rest.  I should have tried to run.   It would have been the smart thing to do.  But, yeah, I didn’t.


Saturday- 5 miles.   I wanted more but after working in the morning, running in the 80’s was kicking my ass.  When did I turn into such a baby?    Once again, I was running while limping.  Again nothing hurt, but my stride was all over the place.   Miles 4 and 5 felt better but were still so slow.   I hobbled/ ran until I hit 5 miles and called it.   My ankles and shins were pretty sore that night.  I iced and rolled.


Sunday- 10 miles.  I was aiming for 13 but knew I was also meeting Heather and Ashley the next day for a run.  I wasn’t sure my legs were up to 3 days in a row so I dropped my mileage back to 10.  I didn’t even think I was going to finish that.  Miles 1-3 were more awkward gait running.  It takes me 3-4 miles to warm up, so I just kept going.   Once again, I hauled ass across the bridge and saw a 9:37 split- oops.  My legs were not happy.  I met up with my mother a little before mile 7.   I ended up walking all of mile 7 with her.  While I do take walk breaks, I don’t think I would have walked a whole mile by myself at that point.   But I was tired of running weirdly.    I think it helped.    The last 3 miles felt the best out of everything- part of me wanted to keep running.  😛

I was sore, bordering on pain by the end of the day though.   I foam rolled, stretched and iced.  I also “recovered” while eating lots of popcorn watching Tarzan.  😛

There’s a reason I’ve been taking a day between each run and I just got stupid this week.   Now my ice pack is my best friend again.  Grrr.    This is not how I was hoping to be feeling 4 weeks out from San Francisco.  I choosing to stay positive and not freak out.   Think happy thoughts right?  Oh, did I mention I have a half marathon in 3 days?  On the beach.  #findtheshiny  I can do it.

How was your week?

How long does it take you to warm up?  I think I am realizing why all my short runs were rough all these years. I was warming up when I was stopping.  Oops.

Seen any movies lately?

The SF Marathon Training Week 13

13 weeks in and the title got a little shorter.  😛

After my last post, this recap may be a little boring.  But I was so excited about my 20 miler that I just had to share it.   Thanks for all your thoughts!   So let’s see how the rest of week 13 went.


Monday- 4 miles.   Home town was a comfortable 106 so I sucked it up and ran in work town.  I love the views there but feel so awkward.  I don’t know why I am so concerned for customers to see me.  I kept the pace nice and easy but it took me 3 miles to warm up.  My last mile felt the best which was funny as it was all uphill.


Tuesday- Rest.  I’m somewhat sticking to a day on followed by a day off running plan as it seems to keep my shins less aggravated.   Plus a rest day meant that I could participate in BibChat- my first as a BibRave Pro!  😃 😃   I’m looking forward to learning more and participating with BibRave.


Wednesday- 4 miles.  I’m sensing a pattern here.   I got off work early since I had to work Saturday.  Home town was still an oven so I headed to a new path in work town.  It kind of rocked.  I still felt super uncomfortable but I am going to work on pushing those limits.

Thursday-Rest.   I actually wanted to try a few miles to break in my new shoes but it didn’t happen.   I had an eye appointment at the end of the day and the dilation messes with my eyes.  I already have issues with too much brightness, even sunglasses weren’t enough protection post appointment.  I stayed in a dark room until they calmed down.  It wasn’t entirely a waste though.  I spent some time working on the blog.  The SLO milestone was still there- oops.  And now I have a discount page!

Friday-  Rest day.   I worked the late shift so I tried to sleep a little later in preparation for the weekend’s plans.   Wishful thinking, right?

Saturday- Rest.  Again, seriously?  This was intentional.  I knew I was planning a huge (for me) long run on Sunday so I was hoping to rest my legs.  I worked in the morning but things went well so we were able to get out on time.   I ran a few errands, rested the remainder of the day and hydrated like it was my job.    I also probably ate all the wrong things, oops.


Sunday- 20 miles.  Hell yeah!!  I am still riding high on this one.  I actually did it, woo hoo!  You can read all about that here.

28 miles for the week.   Could have been better but could have been worse too.   This week’s focus was on the long run and I would say mission accomplished.   Now if I could just stop talking about it.  😛   Sorry!

Food wise, things have been a little rough.   I would say I am around 40/60 right now.  My nighttime snacking has gotten a little out of control.  Oops.  I really need to get a handle on that.   I say as I eat a cinnamon bear…or 3.

How’s your weather?

What candy is your weakness?