Tag: new shoes

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?!

Call it Craos

Tomorrow is Friday!!!! Woo hoo!!!

Lately, I have been so tired and stressed, I have troubles putting words together. Or maybe it’s the blonde coming through, I don’t know. But I have made my co-workers laugh so then it’s ok right? The first moment was few weeks ago when I was trying say one of their names. Instead I stumbled over all 3 of them and somehow combined them all into “Renini”. 3 names into 1 just makes things easier right? Then since we have been borrowing people from other locations while we work on hiring, we have had people who are surprised by how quickly we can go from calm to crazy busy. I was trying to say welcome to the crazy but accidentally combined it with chaos. So craos. Hmm, that one kind of works- change approved. 🙂 But today was the real winner. I noticed that 2 of my coworkers were wearing similar skirts and looked nice. I said I felt left out since I missed the skirt memo as the 3 of them were wearing skirts and I was wearing pants. They all just stared at me for a moment or two. Not only was employee 3 wearing pants but I was wearing a dress! Wow.

I have lost my mind ... Thanks Pinterest.

After Sunday’s race, I was pumped to run this week. I packed my gym bag every night and took it to work. Monday went off track though. Not only did Monday show more crazy CA weather, I hurt myself. Home town hit 105 and work town only made it to 59. That’s a 46º difference. Now work may be 45 minutes away by car but it’s actually less than 30 miles. What the frak?! Ugh, I wasn’t sure where to run. I’ve been feeling some odd left foot pain since I tried the Inspires. It hasn’t gone away with the new Riders. It doesn’t happen all the time but I have been trying to figure it out. I wasn’t sure if the new shoes started/ contributed to it or not. I had also picked up some store-bought insoles for the boots I wear most frequently, so maybe that was part of it. Monday I had the bright idea to take the left one out…but not the right one. Maybe that aggravated what happened later or it was when I lifted a heavy bag I shouldn’t have been lifting. But by the end of the day, I felt like my neck and shoulders were tingling and there was a band of pressure on the back of my head at the top of my spine. I felt off, not quite dizzy but not normal. It was odd. Between that and the heat, I decided to rest instead. Which worked out since my mother needed a ride from tennis practice as her car died on Sunday. 😦Tuesday turned into another rest day as I woke up feeling like I had pinched or pulled something in my neck. Grrr. Wednesday it felt a little better so I was hoping for a short easy run. Cue the crazy weather again. Work town was sunny but with high humidity. Then we find out that home town is under a thunder/ lightning storm warning and there was hail. Then the emergency broadcast system broke in and said that people in my home town should take cover. What?! It cleared up by the time I was off so I headed to run town hoping that the storm hadn’t moved south. The temp was nice in the low 70’s but the humidity level matched. Ugh. The air felt stale and stagnant. Kind of like the way the little remaining lake water looks. I struggled through 3.5 miles but was just glad to be out running. Today I took next week’s half day. I had been looking forward to running early but was feeling rough. I indulged in pizza last night for the first time in 3 weeks and my system was not happy with that many carbs. I decided to head home to rest a bit first. Arrived home to 94º. Don’t get me wrong, I love the warmth, I just haven’t adjusted yet. I decided to read some blogs as inspiration to get out the door, I fell asleep instead. Once I woke up, the last thing I wanted to do was run, but it’s become too easy to bail so I forced myself out the door. I knew it was going to be a slow, warm slog and I was ok with that. A little over 4 miles later and I was done. It was slow, it was rough but I was glad I had done it. 🙂

And now it sounds like the Army base up the road is playing war games and the house is shaking, so bring on more craos!! Also, I do realize that I have been freakishly tired lately and will be making a doctor’s appointment to see about that. But tomorrow is Friday, so woo hoo! I am picking up bagels on the way to thank everyone for their hard work, hopefully I don’t eat too many…that would be bad.

What do you think? Does Craos need an “h”?

How was your week? What’s your weather like?

Have any weekend plans?

Radio silence

Long time no share. I think that was the longest posting break I have taken since I started this blog almost 3 years ago. I try to stick to a schedule of posting 3x a week so my one post last week was very lonely. 😞

I wanted to post but just didn’t feel like I was in the right head space there for a while. I ended up taking Wednesday through Saturday off of running as well. So attempt 1 of changing my weekly schedule didn’t work out. A migraine rolled in on Wednesday evening and didn’t leave until Saturday. Sometimes I run through them but this time I just decided to embrace the Slacker and rest. The migraine was probably partially hormonal and partially due to stress so rest sounded great. 😃 I watched some tv, read some fanfic online (yes I am that nerdy) and maybe ate some things that I shouldn’t have. I have zero regrets about that donut- I needed it for my mental health. 🙂

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. Albert Einstein — Just keep moving…. Thanks Pinterest

Work is in the process of getting a little crazier so I decided that I just needed some quiet time. I work in a location with a smaller staff, only about 6, and 3 have given notice. All are for different life reasons but the timing still makes me doubt myself as a manager. There are some things that I have no control over and I know this but still that little voice in my head starts whispering. Ugh. Plus with 3 leaving, things are about to get really interesting. I see some very long days in the future… Very soon. I am ~~trying~~ going to stay optimistic and it is what is and we will get through it. Where did the cynical Slacker go?

I am hopeful that I can stick to my usual running of 4x a week throughout the coming weeks but if I have to drop a day I will. We’ll see. Also I need to get back on that schedule, I haven’t hit 4 days a week since the week before SLO. oops!!

I did get in some miles on Sunday. On Saturday, my mother and I had headed into SLO for a little shopping. One of those stops was the Running Warehouse. It broke my little Mizuno-loving heart but I exchanged my Inspire’s. I don’t know what it was but I just could not break them in. I hate exchanging shoes, I feel bad that they have to be sent back, but I do not have the room in the budget to just keep buying shoes. I swapped them out for a pair of the Wave Rider 18’s. Maybe they are what I should have gone with in the first place. Hmmm, we’ll see.Sunday was Mother’s Day (Happy belated Mother’s Day to all you mothers!) and the day started with a nice run/ walk with my mom. We did the usual walk for a bit then I would run ahead and double back. I was feeling a little tired and sluggish but after 4 days off, I wasn’t complaining. Plus it was my first run in my new shoes. 🙂 In a completely unimportant note, these shoes sure are pretty, I hope I like them.

So I am hoping to get back to the regularly scheduled programming this week. Hopefully in all areas, fingers crossed!

How was your weekend? Mother’s Day?

Ever needed a time out? What did you do?

Wear and Tear

Happy hump day!!

The weather man was predicting 100% chance of rain on Tuesday and while I highly doubted it, I moved my easy run to Monday evening anyways. Tuesday did dawn rainy and it poured for a bit but just a bit. It was sunny and clear by early afternoon. Boo. We needed more rain than that.

Running on Mondays always feels harder than it should. It’s probably all in my head but I feel like I put out more effort and get less back. My mom wanted to walk so I headed to the river path to meet up with her. I walked with her for most of the first mile before running on. She had a meeting to get to so she was turning back early. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to run yet. It was also my third run in my new shoes. The run turned out to be a little too fast to be easy. Oops! I wasn’t paying much attention to my pace and took a couple of short walking breaks when I needed to. I had just finished mile 3 and noticed someone about 1/4 mile ahead who looked like my mom. Huh? I thought she had turned around long ago. Either I was moving faster than I thought or she had slowed down. Turns out, it was a little bit of both. She had done a ton of yard work that day and was feeling super sore. I slowed and chatted with her a bit before running ahead to finish out 4 miles for the day. The temp was dropping and my ears were freezing. Had it not been for that I would have run more. My ears are my weak spot, once they are a cold, I turn into a big baby.

As I stretched out, I noticed that my new shoes are already dirty. What gives?! They have less than 20 miles on them! In other thoughts, how do I kick myself right there?

Do you see that spot? Not the best picture.

I think running a 25K and 2 half marathons in the last 65 days has caught up with my feet. Oh and training for half marathon #3 of the year in 18 days added to that. I think my one toe will never be the same. It can’t decide if it wants to lose or keep a toenail, for now it has 2. The same toe on the other foot is losing it’s nail per usual as well. Yesterday I discovered a giant blister/ callus on my left heel. How did I miss that? I am trying to determine how much of it is from the consistent (for me) training and how much is from the new shoes. Urrrgh.

I am so glad it’s Thursday. How has your week been?

How do your feet fare during training?

Weekend plans?

March is Marchin’

March being over already feels like an April Fool’s joke. It cannot be time for a monthly recap yet!

But it is, so here we go!

Miles- 83.1

Races- Wine Country Half

Highest mileage moth of the year so far even if it’s not quite where I had hoped it would be at the beginning of the month. Had I hit my weekend long run like planned, I would have been closer to 95. Which is so close to 100!! But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Did anyone else grow up with that expression? I never understood the point. I mean I do but why say it?

Anyways, moving on. This was still a damn good month. I stuck to my training plan fairly well considering I started the month with some crazy tightness and hamstring issues. March also saw me run a pretty great race , for me, so yay! I survived a work inspection and filled in at another location. My stomach was its’ asshat self but I tried to not let it disrupt training too much. I managed to some mile paces that I haven’t seen in months. I can’t hold them for very long yet, but even just seeing low 9’s and mid 8’s on my watch is kind of awesome! Now to work on maintaining them.

That means continuing to stick to my training as closely as I can. SLO is now less than 30 days away and I am looking forward to race weekend. A little vacation time, hanging out with runners and running an awesome race. There’s a local 5K I want to run the weekend after next. Firehouse 5K, it kicks my butt every year, but it’s such a fun race. I usually hurt for the following week so I am glad that it falls a little sooner this year. 🙂 All that said, I am glad that I already decided to make SLO a fun race as opposed to a goal race. At last week’s appointment with my gastro, we decided that the most recent prescription changes were not working. So I have a shiny new diet to follow. More on the specifics later, but I had to say goodbye to a lot of things for the next few months. So very many things. I am still figuring things out, so right now all I know is that the last few days have been some hungry, tired days.

I had a scheduling conflict today so I moved my easy run of the week to Monday. Woof, that was hard. Not sure if it was because it was a Monday, or because my side still hurt a bit or if it was the dietary changes but it was hard. So much harder than easy should feel. I was also testing out my new shoes. While I love getting new shoes, the break in period is always interesting. While I think I am going to really like them, I had unusual aches and niggles throughout the run. I stopped every mile or so to stretch out. I am not really concerned by this because it has happened every time I have broken in a new shoe style. It usually takes a week or so of alternating shoes to fully adjust. But that is one reason I bought them a month before SLO.

How long do you usually take to break in new shoes?

What is your March highlight?

What are you looking forward to in April?