Tag: motivation

Run to the Music 8

Yes, I am going there.

This post is about show you how erratic my music taste it. Let’s call it eclectic.

I could blame summer. Something about the longer days, sunny beating down and warm air makes me latch onto a ridiculously bubbly song that I put on repeat forever. 2 summers ago it was a country song- Crash and Burn by Thomas Rhett. Yeah, it’s a breakup song- it’s bubbly to me. 😛

But I can’t blame this song choice on summer. I’d probably love it in the dead of winter. Why? I love this band. Yes, I am adult, in my 30’s whose last song post was about Papa Roach and I recently downloaded the new Rise Against but…. I still love Hanson.

Yes, they are still making music. They are so much more than MMMbop. 😛 And their kids are adorable.

I love the words-

Don’t need a map, I can’t be directed
I’ve got a madness, don’t need the method
My heart is a weapon and my mind’s electric
I’ll shock the world when you least expect it
Everybody’s betting on the big guy
But don’t underestimate the sting of the butterfly, oh

Now if I could just apply some of that in real life. So here’s my current obsession-

I Was Born-

What are you listening to?

Week 20- Oddly Inspired

Upcoming Races:

Rock N Roll San Diego 13.1-June 4

I planned to take it a bit easy this week post Wine Country Half but other than some soreness in my quads on Sunday and Monday, I was feeling pretty good. I’ve been fighting some achiness in my left leg though so I am trying to be smart for once with another half in a few weeks.

Work was busy last week, meetings galore and more to come this week. Thursday started an hour and a half early- damn that was a long day. Guess one plus to no longer being salary is that I actually get overtime for crazy days like that. 😛

Monday- 3 miles I had new shoes- Adidas UltraBoost X to break in so I was looking forward to my run after work. These are different than my past shoes in that they have a ton of arch support. I took these miles slow as my feet were not entirely on board with the change. I had to stop and listen the shoelaces as they felt super tight. By the end of the run my left foot was on board, my right was still protesting. I wasn’t worried about it though because it always takes me a while to break in new shoes.

Tuesday- 4 miles AMGEN rolled into work town so we closed early and got the heck out of town before the chaos got too bad. I had big plans for a Tuesday 10K at the lake but when I got there I didn’t want to run there. So I drove to home town and the river path. was still looking forward to the extra time to run but my legs were not on board. They were stiff and just felt like boards. I gave them until mile 3 to warm up. When I still had dead legs at that point I called it at 4 miles. It wasn’t happening and pushing it wasn’t likely to be beneficial.

Wednesday- Rest After the dead legs of the day before, I figured I’d listen to my legs and take a day off of running. I planned on some cross training but yeah, that didn’t happen.

Thursday- 2.6 miles I had 2 meetings at work and it ended up being a 10 hour work day. My last meeting was in home town though so I rushed home and changed super fast to get out the door for a run. It was in the 80’s but it felt ok. I wore the Adidas again but this time with thinner socks to see if made a difference. It did but it wasn’t all good. On the flats and uphills, the shoes felt great but on downhills I was sliding all over the place inside the shoes. That said, my legs felt great and I felt like I could have kept running but I forgot why I don’t run my neighborhood around 6- the elementary school is a death trap. 😕

Friday- Rest Friday brain had definitely set in. I planned to cross train after work but again, that didn’t happen.

Saturday- 3.1 miles I planned a low key weekend hoping I could catch up on the sleep I’ve been short on for 3 weeks. I knew that may mess up my long run but I was ok with that. I woke with my alarm, turned it off and went back to sleep. Oops. I headed out around 3:30 for a short, slow run. It was mid 90’s when I started so I my only plan was to take it slow and just start acclimating to the heat. And to force myself to wear my Stride shorts. 😛 My legs felt great but yeah it was warm out there. I wanted to run more but considering 70’s killed me at SLO, I forced myself to keep it short.

Sunday- 8 miles bike Did you forget I had a stationary bike? I kind of did too. Last time I was on it was December. My bad. I stayed up late reading on Saturday night which meant an early morning run did not happen. I still thought about heading out for 6 miles around 3 but it was 95. Combine that with a sudden re-occurrence of the damn achy left leg and I chose another option. However, I haven’t gotten my fan out of the shed and didn’t use the air conditioner so the room felt like a sauna while I was riding. 😛

Miles- Run 12.7 Bike 8 Ok so the miles don’t show it, but hot damn people, look at this week! I worked out 5 times! Do you know the last time that happened? Because I don’t. Surprisingly, I also feel like I caught up on a little sleep and I checked a few things off of my to do list. Say what?! I don’t know what came over me last week but I kind of like it. Will it continue or was it a one time fluke? I’ve been struggling with motivation this year and I’m kind of over it. I just want to run… and I need that feeling to last longer than this week. Oh and I wore shorts 3 out of 4 runs! It the little things right?

How was your week?

What’s your weather like?

Anyone race?

Week 42 Training Recap

Training for-

Paso Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

I am not sure what happened last week. I am not sure if it was the lack of sleep catching up with me and I kind of felt like I was fighting some bug. I was feeling down but whatever it was, I fell off the motivation train. I kind of just wanted to hide in a dark hole and sleep. But life goes on right?

Monday- Rest Rest day!! And a day off, man that was nice. I was feeling a little sore form Sunday’s race so taking it easy was fine be me. Plus I had to take my dad to an appointment so I killed time in the best way-

Tuesday- 7 miles bike. I felt crappy all day, just sluggish and worn down. Sleep was rough which didn’t help. I had packed my running gear as my coach had me scheduled for 30-45 minute recovery run. By the end of work, I knew it wasn’t happening. I headed home and did a slow 7 miles on the bike instead.

Wednesday- 6 miles Rest Yeah, I can’t really pinpoint what happened here. I felt better but not 100%; I was tired but what else is new? My family invited me to dinner and the tri tip was calling? Whatever it was, it won and I did not run.

Thursday- 5 miles The plan was to run 3 miles a little faster than goal half marathon pace plus warm up and cool down. I was still in a funk and had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen. I did try though. I worked a partial day and headed to the river path to attempt it. Yeah, it went about as well as I expected. I could not get my legs into gear. My splits for the speed work were 9:43, 10:35, 9:32. Ha! Not even close to a sub 9. But I ran though, right?

Friday- Rest Pretty typical Friday. Work was work and I admit I caved and picked up a pizza on the way home. Well, I ordered one but Domino’s messed it up so they gave me 2. 2?! That doesn’t help the waistline. 🍕😛

Saturday- Rest I worked in the morning and enjoyed a white knuckle drive home as everyone in CA forgot how to drive in the rain. It didn’t help that the fog was so dense, you could barely see a car length in front of you. Throw in the steep drop on both sides of the highway and that was fun. I meant to be productive in the afternoon but beyond laundry and posting my Bibrave review of City to the Sea, I really wasn’t.

Sunday- 8.1 miles– I wanted 10. I could not make myself get out bed any sooner. The day called for rain and I wanted to run in the only dry part of the morning. I love the rain but figured if I was still fighting something, running in the rain wasn’t going to help. I also had to run in the morning as my family had plans in the afternoon- my little brother turned 30!!! Man, I feel old.

Anyways, back to the run. It was kind of all over the place. Kind of like the weather. First it was cold, then it was super windy, then it turned unbelievably muggy and hot before starting all over again. Every half mile was a new adventure. Kind of like my pace. Mile 4 was a 9:30- oops! There were times when I felt like I was running tall, had awesome form and could go forever. Then there times when I felt hunched over and tired, panting like a dog. Can I blame the weather changes? Whatever it was, I was glad to be done.

So to recap- 13 miles run and 7 biked. I did get a long-ish run in so that’s a plus. I’ve done some thinking about how how my next races will be run but I will save that for another post. My hope is get in a solid week of training going forward. And to sleep more. Oh- I did receive my essential oils- after a battle, the post office lost them- so I have been trying those and will share thoughts soon. It’s only been a few days so I am still on the fence. 😛

How was your week?

Would the lure of food keep your from running?

How’s your weather? Has fall really arrived?

Run to the Music

Would it be embarrassing to say that I have a marathon song or 2?

I always hesitate to share my music choices because they are all over the place. However, I have had these songs on repeat since January and I still am not over them.

I call this one my marathon song. I first heard it around the time I was debating registering for the full. I think it fits. 😛

B.I.G

This one joined in the middle of March. I admit I never knew what the band looked like until I pulled the video for this post. 😛

Uncontainable–

What makes you want to run?

Lack of Umph

You know that saying about the difference between try and triumph is a little “umph”? Or something like that? I’ve lost my umph. Where did it go? Can you help me find it?

I’ve been feeling adrift since SLO. I thought having no training plan would feel liberating. I mean I am a Slacker after all, I was looking forward to it, thinking it would be awesome. Yet it hasn’t been. My last few posts have talked of my lack of motivation and each one said the same thing- I need to get back on track. Obviously saying it means absolutely nothing. Want to know how many miles I’ve run in May? 26. Seriously!?? Ouch.

Work has officially hit crazy, and my hours got a little longer, like open to close. Friday is the biggest change, last Friday ran around 11 hours. However that should be no excuse to be lazy. Maybe I should just try to go to sleep earlier. Ok, that one made me laugh a little. What time did this post go up? I also need to work on my time management skills outside of work but that’s for another post. Anyways, time to ~~hopefully~~ actually follow through with what I say. So to that effect, I planned out a race schedule. With a goal race. So here we go.

May– Bands on the Run 10K
June– Talley Vineyard 10K
July– Rock’n around the Pier 13.1 and a possible 4th of July 5kAugust– Trail 25K
September– Central Coast Cancer Challenge 10k, HOB Fun Run 10K/ 5K
October– City to the Sea 13.1 (GOAL)
November– Big Sur Half Marathon

A race schedule seemed to work for me before, so let’s try it again. Since I really think my training plan for SLO worked, I am going to re purpose it for City to the Sea. That is also where I set my half marathon PR and I love the course…except they changed the course this year, so we will see what happens. Now, this plan is flexible, life does happen so I may adjust things if I have to. May, June, HOB and Big Sur are the only ones set right now.

Most of this was thought out after a truly lackluster weekend of running. I ended up napping on Saturday- again. Sunday did see my longest run since SLO- a slow 10K. I ran a 10:52 pace which is great for an easy run which was the goal. What was not so great was how hard it was. I was huffing and puffing the whole way, that pace felt more like race pace than easy run. Ugh. That was not confidence inspiring, but rough runs happen and we move on. But I was out there long enough to think of all the reasons I have been lazy and what I can do about it. I am 20 weeks out from City to the Sea and I am aiming for a 16 week plan. The next 4 weeks will be testing a couple of new weekly schedules out since this newest one isn’t working out so well. 🙂 Plus I need to figure out what works best with the work schedule. Running later in the evening makes it harder to sleep and now I have to get up earlier so that probably won’t work, but I will figure it out. I also need to figure out how to stop the stress eating that has been happening for 2 weeks.

What do you do when you lose your “umph”?

What’s your race schedule look like?

What do you do when you’re stressed?