Tag: movies

Finally

Is Sunday already over? Boo. Weekends need to be 3 days long, they really do. EDIT- read this as if I posted Sunday evening- I was having internet issues- and then WordPress erased half of it- grrrr.

I finished the week out with a short 4 mile run on Sunday afternoon. I think I am finally ready for this lackadaisical approach to training to go away. Getting ready for City to the Sea starts tomorrow. I will probably stick to the 3x a week plan until mid July. By then we should be fully staffed and my hours can get a little shorter. Fingers crossed. But going forward I plan to have my runs be something of substance rather than just phoning it in. Speaking of substance, I had hoped that Sunday’s run would be between 6-8 miles but I held off too long. I headed out late afternoon when it was close to 90. Oops. I also didn’t have enough time as I had Sunday dinner to get to. Another reason I have been trying to rearrange my long run days. The run was warm but not too bad. I walked the first 10 minutes though, it took awhile to get my head and legs into it. 😬. After that I averaged a 10:30 pace which for the temp and it only being my second run in that warmth, I say is pretty good. Heat and slow pace aside, this run felt good. I was dripping in sweat by the end but smiling. It was the first run in a month where I was just happy to be running. Yay! And these might have helped too- I decided to buy another pair of 17’s. I know they are being phased out but I figured it made more sense than running in shoes that made my feet cranky. Yes, I still felt the odd little niggles but overall they felt like slippers on my feet. 😃 Truthfully, I didn’t even try them on the store, I just told them my size and paid. The Warehouse did let me know that they have about 100 in my size so I might be able to get another pair in a few months. If only I had unlimited funds and a place to store them, I would seriously stock up right now!! Orange wasn’t my first choice but it grew on me. I think I was obnoxiously bright when I ran today- In non running news- Friday was a sad day at work. My fish died!! I always greet him in the morning and my greeting turned into a shriek! I was sad and didn’t know what to do. 😢 Customers asked where he was throughout the day and we had to tell them the sad news. He had been a little under the weather for awhile but I was hoping he would pull through.

Saturday saw a family tradition when we went to see Jurassic World. I really liked it, my brother was meh about it. My mother liked it even though she made fun of parts of it too. This also meant I decimated a movie popcorn but I was ok with that. I also realized that I can no longer tolerate candy. I was on such a sugar high, I felt ill. Score one for Atkins. I also had a similar revelation to pizza last week, boo.

I am finally eager to get back to training. I really would like to break 2:00 in a half this year. In order to do that, I have to put the work in first. This also means that I am reconsidering my July race. I keep going back and forth about what to do. But that’s for another post. I may need your help. 🙂 I also misplaced my training so I am trying an app this time.

How was your weekend?

What are you training for? Do you train during the summer or just run?

Ever had a fish? How do you take care of them?!

May Miles

And just like that, May is moving on. In one way I am not ready for the year to be halfway over (almost) but I am ready for June. A new month and a clean slate. 🙂 So without further ado, here’s May-

Miles- 53.7

Races- Bands on the Run 10K

My SmashRun tells me that I ran 12 days and rested on 19. Hmm, a little uneven. So May was not my best month but I’ve already alluded to that on numerous posts so let’s just move on. 🙂 I made it out for 3 runs last week, so I am holding consistent there at least. Wednesday was a bit sad and I only ran 2.25 miles. My stomach was a big butt head at the beginning of last week so I got a late start. I wasted a perfectly good non work day on Monday by not running. I love running on holidays but I just wasn’t up to it. Thursday, I got out for a decent 4 miles followed by a .6 mile cool down. While the pace was decent, it felt hard. That could have been partly due the temperature warm up we had late this week. While the mid 70’s felt awesome, it’s been over a month since I ran in those temps. But I was so glad to warm, I didn’t even mind that it felt hard. 🙂Then Saturday’s run was in the mid 80’s. It started as a slow run, turned into a jog and then became a walk. I had planned on doing the usual run/ walk I sometimes do with my mother but 2.5 miles in I was just walking with her. It was warm and my left leg was feeling off so I decided that walking was just fine. Truthfully, my left foot and leg have felt a little off since I tried to break in those Inspires. Hmmm, I am telling myself that it is mostly in my head and just to take it easy. I still have 2 weeks before I start training for my fall half’s, so this is the best time to figure out what is making it cranky.

I feel like I should have run more on Saturday as I ate way too much movie popcorn that night. We went and saw San Andreas. I admit that I have an odd fascination for earthquakes. One of my favorite subjects in college was Geology and I briefly considered taking it further. The movie was essentially a Syfy movie but since it had the Rock, it made it to the big screen. I thought it was pretty good. My mom and S laughed multiple times throughout it though. I have to admit it got a little surreal when we decided to walk across the park after the movie to get some frozen yogurt. Part of downtown was leveled by an earthquake 12 years ago and seeing the new buildings after the leaving the movie brought a lot of that back. The town suffered heavy damage and loss and it took a long time to rebuild. It brought reality back into some of the far fetched scenes in the movie.

I planned on getting in a few miles today but ended up taking a nap instead. I really got to stop doing that! 🙂 But I did do a bit of unplanned shopping and picked up some new shirts to run in. I’ve started running in my Lululemon shorts and they are a little more form-fitting than my other stuff. Apparently I feel the need to compensate with looser shirts. 🙂 Plus, I’ve worn the same shirt just in various colors for the past 2 years, it’s time to branch out. Just like I decided that saving the Lulu for a special day was kind of silly, they are super comfy.

So, onto June and getting back on track! I already know I am not running tomorrow but I am doing something running related. But more on that later. 🙂 Oh and in May I was nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award by MostlyHealthyLiving so that will be my next post. 🙂 Thank you! You should go check her out!

How was your May? Goals for June?

Shirts with words/ sayings- yay or nay?

What movie are you looking forward to?

Elephant Running

I ended up taking the weekend of from running. It wasn’t the plan but hey, the name fits. On Saturday, I worked then napped then hit the movies to see the new Avengers. Awesome! I planned on running Sunday but I started a spring cleaning project that just grew and snowballed as the day went on. Suddenly it was almost Sunday dinner time and I hadn’t run yet. Oops! In other news, I have way too many pairs of running shorts. And pants.

Monday rolled around and I was looking forward to running. I want to transition to running 3x a week, Monday through Friday as opposed to 2x. So this week is my first attempt. Monday running just seems so hard to me, I don’t know why. I did it a few times during my training cycle but it was usually only because I had other conflicts I couldn’t reschedule. Instead of feeling fresh and ready to run, my legs just felt super heavy. That actually wasn’t horrible. What really irritated me was the wind and the thousands upon thousands of gnats.

It's hard to get a picture of gnats. — It’s hard to get a picture of gnats.

We kind of skipped winter and the warmer weather (then) had brought a gazillion gnats. There are hordes of them around the lake path. I’ve mentioned it before but seriously it’s nasty. I alternate between flailing my arms around my face and blowing air out of my mouth or nose. I refuse to swallow a bug! I also think of the X-Files every single time. Anyone ever see that episode with the loggers in the forest from like first or second season? Where the creepy gnat-like bugs come out of the tree rings and web people in killing them? Blech. I think of that every single time.

Now for the elephant run. I think I’ve posted this before, but what is an elephant run? This is what I call these runs where things just feel off. Not a little off, a whole lot off. Like you feel more like a circus performer flailing about the street than anything remotely resembling a runner. It has nothing to do with pace, sometimes these runs are slow and sometimes they can be speedy. Most often I can hear my feet pounding the pavement and I sound heavy footed. Normally, you can barely hear my feet. I felt like my left ankle was dropping in, my right knee and lower leg felt all off kilter, like they were swinging out. My shorts which I have run in at least 1x a week for the last year suddenly kept trying to turn into underwear. My shirt was riding up under my long sleeved layer. I kept hitting the headphone cord and pulling them loose. I stopped every mile to fix some wardrobe malfunction or another. Oh and the wind! The last two miles were straight into a headwind. Ugh. I think winter’s cousin stopped by for a visit…in May! Temps have been in the 50’s and the wind has been ridiculous for weeks. Yes, everyone back east can shake your head an laugh at me. I have run in pants more in the last month then all winter. Which is a annoying since I just put all my “winter” stuff away. 20-30 mph winds just need to stop. I don’t even like driving in them. 😦

To further add to my elephant running, I crossed paths with another runner on my way back down the hill. I felt like an ungainly mess and was just getting irritated with everything, and here comes this shirtless Adonis running my way making it look effortless. Come on! Actually I have no idea what he looked like. I was running into the sun and he was slightly in the shade. So all I know is that he was male and shirtless. Apparently he wasn’t cold like the rest of us out there. 🙂

They weren’t pretty runs but I got them done. 🙂 That’s what counts right? I took today off since my legs felt so odd yesterday. This 3x during the week is going a little work to get used to.

Ever had an elephant run? Or something of the sort?

Has the urge to spring clean hit you yet?

Is it possible to have too many pairs of shorts? 🙂

Strike 2

And another missed long run. If we are counting, I have not run long in 16 days. SLO is 20 days away. And yet, I am not freaking out.

I had great intentions with my long run this weekend but I also had great intentions with a lot of things this past weekend. What do they say about intentions? For some reason I made quite the weekend to-do list without taking some things into account. Like I worked Saturday morning. I wanted to spend 2+ hours at the movies. Easter was Sunday. Oh and I am a Slacker. I accomplished maybe half of I wanted to do this weekend. Better than nothing right?

After getting home from work on Saturday I headed out for the scheduled easy run. While the overall pace looks easy, the run was kind of erratic. I started out walking with my mom and then I would run ahead and double back. Except that didn’t always work. Every now and then I would lose her somehow and have to run like hell to catch up. I did one hill loop backwards with the hope of catching her at the bottom after that loop but no luck, she was already more than halfway up it. I’ve never run that side of the hill but I gave it my best. Halfway up I needed a short walk break before resuming running. I lost her one other time towards the end too when she switched streets on me. I ended up spotting her though an alley and again had to haul. I loved the walk breaks when I caught up with her. 🙂 So let’s call it easy meets fartlek training? 6.5 miles done.I did spend the evening at the movies. I am a sucker for the Fast and Furious movies so I dragged my mother with me to see Furious 7. Yes, it was totally over the top and borderline ridiculous but I still loved it. I only got a little teary eyed. We lucked out with fresh and hot popcorn and I disregarded all dietary rules. It’s not like I go to the movies all that often. 🙂

Sunday dawned and after a week of rough sleep, and not getting to sleep before 1 the night before, I was looking forward to sleeping in. I woke up at 8. Seriously?! I briefly thought about going for my run but really wanted to fall back asleep. I stayed in bed until 9 when I gave up on the sleeping in. Kimi was happy though, she loves when I sleep longer. So one of us was happy. 🙂

I knew we were having family dinner for Easter so I needed to run before that. The time came to get a 10-12 mile run in and I just wasn’t feeling it. I kept putting it off. First 10 minutes then 20 and so on. I finally decided that I would head out for an easy 6 and call it good for the day. But even that didn’t happen. My uncle dropped by for a surprise visit. Family trumps running, right? After that we enjoyed a yummy dinner and there was no way I was running after that. So long run fail.

But I am actually ok with it. Something in me just wasn’t feeling it this week and I decided to listen to that little voice. Yes, that re-confirms my Slacker status. That being said I cannot miss my long run this coming weekend. Plus all the stuff I didn’t get done last weekend. Oh and I have a race! First 5K in 5 months. And it’s gonna kick my ass. I am so looking forward to it!!

Happy Monday! Can that even be a thing?

What was the last movie you saw?

Ever missed 2 long runs in a row?

If this is February-

I am getting a little nervous for summer. It was 80 today. Really? On one hand I love it but on the other hand- man it was warm.

I had a big work meeting on Thursday and I was a little stressed about it and figured that combined with the driving to and from and back to work, I would not be in the mood to run on Thursday evening. So I moved my 45 min easy run to Wednesday. After Tuesday’s tempo, I knew it was going to be a little rough but man it was a slog. I was just not feeling it. I hit 42 minutes but it was only 3.5 miles. I straight up walked 1 mile of it. Yeah, it was ugly.

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Thursday was my dress meltdown and the big meeting. They were presenting the President’s Award to one of the Heritage winners so part of the meeting was fun. My coworker took 1st runner up- woo hoo! My former boss and I cracked jokes that since we hired him, we could be equally excited. It was also pretty cool that when they called out the Heritage winners to the front, there were 3 from my location. 🙂 3 out of 19- sweet!

Friday was girls night and yes, we saw 50 Shades of Grey. I was proud of myself for not getting kicked out of the theater. ML and I always sit next to each other so we can whisper things but she knew I was going to be a total smart ass so she put everyone else between us. 🙂 This was the worst behaved theater I have ever been in, it was ridiculous. Some people had had way too much to drink before the movie and kept drinking the whole way through. The woman in the row behind us made a phone call during the previews because her friends had not arrived. Said friends arrived 5-10 minutes into the movie, laughing and talking about how they couldn’t find their seats in the dark. Seriously?! I think I heard 3 wine glasses break and the women in the front couldn’t go to the bathroom without going in multiples while laughing and yelling at each other as they left. At the end all the men in the theater boo’d and I laughed out loud. But other than that and the fact that the Mexican place we went to for dinner made me sick- it was an amusing and fun night.

This is my in pain grimace- why do my grimaces look more like smiles?

I worked on Saturday, so I knew I would be eating a later lunch than usual. This was also apparent when I set out for my run. The training plan called a 45-55 minute run and fairly shortly, I knew it was going to be closer to 45. My stride felt off and everything ached. I was at the top of a hill, 1/2 mile from home when I wanted to curse out loud. The outside of my right knee and the area a couple of inches up started screaming. Are you freakin’ kidding me?! My right leg never hurts, my left one is the problem child. It felt like something was about to rip. I instantly stopped and just started stretching on the side of the road. A few minutes later I decided to see how it felt, I ran home and concentrated on my form just keeping an easy pace. I felt a little tight but made it home. I walked up half of my driveway backwards and spent extra time stretching and rolling with my foam roller and stick.

Yesterday’s pain made me nervous for today’s long run. The plan called for 10-12 and yeah, 12 wasn’t happening. I headed to the lake path, thinking that flat and outside would be best. It was also easy access to my car if I needed it. I was a little worried I would get bored lapping the lake so many times but I have run 10 miles on both a treadmill and the track before so it had to be better than those. Right? I headed out around 2:00, thinking that I should take it slower and might need more time. So for the second time in 2 days, I ran too soon after lunch, for me at least. According to McMillan, my long run pace should be between 10:34-11:54. I was aiming for 11:15-11:30, I was afraid it was going to hurt and I did not want to push. My knee felt ok but my left hamstring is still sore from last week’s strength training fail. I walked my warm up as usual and then picked up the pace.

When miles 2, 3, and 4 clocked in at 10:04, 10:10, and 10:11, I was a little ticked. It didn’t feel hard but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sustain it with the way I felt and the temp being around 80. My mom had joined me today and was walking the path and I ran into her on lap 4. I took that opportunity to extend my walking break. Since the park was so busy, I walked the playground section every lap- easier to dodge the little people and their parents. 🙂 Even with that longer break, mile 5 was 10:36. 6-10, the heat was getting to me and I finally slowed down a bit. Those miles clocked in between 10:41-10:50. Except for 8, that was 11:12. I admit I almost quit after 8 miles just because I was tired and hot and irritated that I just could not control my pace. I had a conversation with myself and decided that I wasn’t hurting and should just start acclimating to the heat now since it’s only going to get hotter. So I finished my 10. 10 miles is a little more than 8 laps so the last .5 mile was me running back and forth between 2 of the exercise stations because I didn’t want to do another lap. 🙂 Plus by then my mom was waiting for me.

I am a little concerned by all the achiness that I have been feeling lately. It’s one of reasons I passed on my long run last weekend. I am hoping it’s just the treadmill. Normally I dropped to running 3x a week during winter so only one run would be on the treadmill. I run differently on the treadmill and I remember being a little achy last year but not like this. I am kicking that thing to the curb in 20 days. But for now, I am pretty sure I can get in a 30-35 minute run outside after work. I can do my easy run that way and just use the treadmill for my speed work of the week until Daylight Savings time. The work route is all hill so I could still get in hill repeats too, the workout might just be a little shorter.

How was your weekend? Who raced?

Anyone else go to the movies?

Anyone else run differently on the treadmill?