Tag: race

Run!, Stomach, Training

Week 27- Ha Ha Ha

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

Upcoming Races-

  • Rock to the Pier 10K?
  • Salinas Valley Half Marathon

So yeah.  This week was kind of a wash.  I was prepared for July to be busy.  I planned this week of workouts out accordingly.  It was a good plan, like I said I was prepared.  Until reality showed me otherwise.  Life just laughed at me.

Work was busier than I expected.  I wasn’t sleeping well, 5 hours a night if I was lucky. Then I got sick or exhausted, something like that.   Summer has fully arrived after a late start and temps have been above 100 in home town most of the week.    That brought power outages and way too many damn fires with it.

Monday- Rest I knew work was going to be crazy busy so I didn’t even bring my running clothes.  I was not wrong.   By the time I made it home, my brain was fried.  For it only being Monday, that should have been a sign.

Tuesday- Rest/Sick  The start of the downhill slide.  I was supposed to go hiking with my dad at a new trail but my stomach was a giant ass hat all day.  Nothing active happened.  I did enjoy some lovely 4th of July hot dogs with my family though.


Wednesday- Rest  This was partially planned.  I knew work was going to be insane after the 4th so the original plan was to rest.  I took running gear though since I had failed to run or hike on the 4th.   However my stomach was still being an asshat so running did not happen.  It was also 100+ at home when I got off work.


Thursday- 3.1 miles  I woke up with a sore throat and major headache.  Oh hell, no, I don’t have time to be sick.   It was a calmer day at work and I was hoping that a few easy miles would help run out the oncoming head cold.   I ran in work town as it was like 103 in home town.  I kept the miles easy- well they felt easy-ish but they were too fast.  I didn’t feel worse after the run but I didn’t feel better either.

Friday- Rest With my boss on vacation- I’m open to close on Friday’s so no working out.    Plus home town was 107.  And the air conditioner died.


Saturday- Rest I woke up feeling like I’d been hit by a truck.  Combine that with the 105 temps and the heavy smoke from the 3 huge fires burning in the county and I was not even attempting a run.  Instead I lazed around.  Did spend some time looking at refrigerators as a power surge on Thursday half killed the refrigerator.  Yay.  By evening’s end 3 more fires had started.

Sunday- 12 miles Rest I set everything out for a long run but when my alarm went off after the first decent nights sleep I have had in weeks, I just couldn’t do it.  I still didn’t feel great and I know the next 2 weeks are going to be crazy at work.  Being in sick is not an option.     Plus the sky was so thick with smoke, I had a hard time telling that it was actually blue.

3.1 miles for the week.  Ouch but it is what it is.  Moving on I need to be a little more flexible during the next 2 weeks as we move through this system conversion at work.    I am now a little hesitant about my 10K next weekend.   I knew July was going to be interesting so now to see what this week throws at me.😀

How was your week?

How do you handle setback weeks?

 

BibRave, Run!

Summer Racing

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

Disclaimer: I received an entry into Salinas Valley Half Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

Summer running- happened so fast, summer runnin’- had me an asthma attack.

Haha, couldn’t help myself.  😛

Every summer for the past few years, I’ve run a half marathon in July.  Always near the beach, sometimes on the beach.  Last year the heavy marine layer and my asthma conspired together to make me want to swear that off.  😛   Combine that with what is shaping up to be a crazy busy July and it seemed like a good idea to pass on running a half next month.

Instead, I’m taking it inland.   I’ll be running the Salinas Valley Half Marathon on August 5.  Salinas isn’t that far away so it will an early morning drive up to run the race before driving back home.  This is actually a race that has been on my radar for a few years.   The course is through vineyards and crop fields which is my favorite and it seems to be the perfect size crowd for me.    Last year’s race was actually canceled due to the smoke from the Soberanes fire, we were on fire for what seemed like forever last summer.   😢

Ok back to some fun stuff-

  13.1-mile course along the agricultural fields and vineyards of Salinas Valley

  • –       Begins at historic Soledad Mission, ends at Pessagno Winery

    –       Travels along River Road Wine Trail, passing several wineries and tasting rooms

    –       Post-race wine tasting, music, awards, bbq lunch and more

    –       This is in the heart of “Steinbeck County” where many of Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck set his novels and short stories.  (A humorous sign placed at one of the hills calls it “Beast of Eden;” a play on words to Steinbeck’s novel, East of Eden.)

    –       Crops are identified along the route

Beast of Eden- how awesomely punny is that?  Plus, it starts at a Mission.  Fun fact- California has 21 Spanish Missions.  I’ve been to 3- used to sing in the choir at one actually- so this will be #4 for me.    And it will be half #27.  😛

As for that beach race in July?  I may run the 10k.  We shall see.  😛

BibRave, Race Day, Recap, Run!

Rock n Roll San Diego 13.1 Recap

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

Disclaimer: I received an entry into Rock n Roll San Diego as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

I love Rock n Roll.

This race made a liar out of me in so many ways.  Ok, maybe just changed my mind about some things.  😛

Going into this race, I wasn’t a fan of large crowded races, preferred rural views and hated humidity and flat made me cry.  But I had heard great things about the Rock n Roll races, San Diego in particular, and always wanted to run one but never made it work.   Until now.  And now?  Well I still hate humidity.


The odd thing was that going into this race I wasn’t stressed at all.  I wasn’t worried about the miles or how long it would take me.   I was mildly concerned about the humidity I knew I was coming but even at the Bibrave meet up I was just joking that I should probably run with my inhaler in my hand.    I still wasn’t sure what shoes I was going to wear and I was mostly irritated that I had to run with a portable charger because I didn’t think my phone was going to last the race.   I was also taking a race shuttle for the first time ever but I managed to sleep better than I did for my previous 2 races.

Race morning-

I woke up and knew that my food choices the day before were not going to sit well.   Well yay.  I dressed, decided on wearing the UltraBoostX, bibbed up and headed for the shuttle bus.    They were charter buses not school buses- sweet!  I checked the weather, saw 86% humidity and then tried not to think about it again.

Once at the starting line outside of Balboa Park I just followed the crowd.  We came upon about 6 port-a-potties and I was confused.  Ummm, 6?  For 30,000 runners?  As I got further in I found more scattered around in lines.  There were probably between 50-100 around.   I ended up parking myself near the solutions tent and just runner watching.  People were everywhere!  They even had a fitness warm up going on- I thought only small town races did that!  I met up with Mai and after hitting the baggage trucks we ended up sprinting across the grass to the We Run Social picture meet up by corral 3.    We just barely made it!


After meeting some more IG people in real life, listening to the National Anthem and ditching my top layer, I headed for my corral.   I was in corral 19.  Of 37.   They were releasing the corrals at a steady pace so once I found an opening in the fence I stopped and just waited for the corral to get to me.   I hopped in and pulled my phone out to take a pic only to realize it was almost dead.   Grrrr.    I plugged in my portable charger and turned off anything in the phone that was non essential.   The race announcers were doing a great job of keeping everyone pumped up and things were very organized.  I suddenly found myself at the very front of my corral on the start line and it was go time.

Miles 1-3 9:41, 10:22, 10:48

Haha, ok starting at the front apparently put wings on my feet.   Slow your roll, Slacker.  There was a guy on a megaphone shouting inspiration at us as we ran by.      It was crowded but I was ok with it, I had to dodge people sometimes but I knew I wasn’t breaking any records so it wasn’t a big deal.


The first music distraction was a DJ on a bridge or was it a band? I should have written notes!    The first aid station was well stocked with plenty of water and Gatorade and awesome volunteers.  The gloomy clouds and some of the buildings I was running by made me feel like I was more in San Francisco than San Diego but I was enjoying the sights.  And sounds- to save battery life- I hadn’t turned on my headphones.   There were college kids handing out beer around mile 2 as well.  There was a selfie/ picture station too but it may been in the next set of miles.


Miles 4-6 10:28, 10:31, 10:44

Oddly, I hadn’t really slowed down yet, I was walking the water stations but that was it.  The streets were still crowded, water stops were every 2 miles, live music was every few miles.  Around mile 4 we headed into more residential area but I notices that the cheering increased.  Yeah, we were near an aid station but this was too loud.   Turns out I was coming up on Harriet!  I passed her and told her she was awesome.    I mean, 94!   Geicko had a full on bar on mile 4.5.  You name it, they had it.  😛

My legs were feeling good and surprisingly so were my lungs.  I was beginning to feel optimistic.  Then at mile 5.3, my stomach cramped in a rather unpleasant way.  Oh come on!  I took a walk break and deep breaths to try and calm it down but I was a little ticked.   And I would be nauseous for the remainder of the race.


Miles 7-9 10:57, 10:35, 10:28

6 and 7 slowed me down while I tried to get myself under control.  We passed the relay exchange a little past 6 and once again I thought I really need to do a relay.   There was a man handing out tequila shots at one point saying that while we may think it was too early for tequila, he thought it was too early to be running so why not meet in the middle?   😛  We had entered Normal Heights and I thought it was an awesome name so I had to take a pic.    At mile 8.4 the marathoner’s split off from the pack and the crowd thinned up a bit.   I was still feeling nauseous but I was trying to ignore it, I wasn’t going to let my stomach win.  I was listening to the on course entertainment and truthfully some interesting conversations from the runners around me.    My legs were feeling ok but by my standards this course was flat and I knew I would eventually be sore if I didn’t get a hill somewhere.


Miles 10-11 10:58, 11:06

We were coming into Balboa Park and I could hear drums and see the big inflatable guitar guy and I knew I was almost to mile 10.    Yay!  Except, around mile 9.5 the battle my lungs had been fighting the humidity got harder.  And my lungs started to lose.  I had to walk again and use my inhaler.  Grrr,  Of course, just past mile 10 was the first real hill of the course and my lungs were being whiny.  I walked it.  I also had a moment where I thought I was going to lose my cookies and may have mentally swore off pizza.   😛  I turned on my music just to drown out my breathing.

Miles 12-13- 9:45, 11:14

So, yeah coming out of the park lead to a decent downhill and I flew.   I was still taking walk breaks due to the humidity and my lungs.  The last mile was a struggle.  I thought I had kissed a sub 2:20 goodbye and I was pissed.   I haven’t seen that in 2 years and that I had gotten so close, I almost cried.  But I sucked it up and kept going.   The crowds were cheering, runners were walking away with medals and I was still taking walk breaks.  Grrr.   The finish line was in sight and I decided enough was enough and just ran for it.

Finish- 2:19:56

I crossed the line and bent over wheezing.  Medical was on me in seconds.  Damn, you’re fast!   I felt embarrassed but said I was ok, I just needed a moment.    It wasn’t until I got a hold of myself and received my medal that I looked at my watch.  I did it!   It’s been so long since I’ve seen I’ve been below 2:20 even if it is by the skin of my teeth.


I made my way through the picture station and then the food goodies before attempting to find my mother.  It was crowded!   We met up and hung out for a bit before I realized I needed to return to the hotel.  So much for the finish line festival.  That nausea and cramping I had been fighting reared it’s head I was very glad that my hotel was 2 blocks from the finish.  I could hear Micheal Franti though and he sounded great.

Overall, this was an awesome race.  I would recommend it to anyone.    The course and the crowd support was great.  The aid stations were on point.  As was medical.  😛    Now I want to run another one.  😁

Run!, Slacker, Stomach, Training

Week 22- June?!?

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

Upcoming Races:

  • Rock N Roll San Diego 13.1-June 4

Wait, it’s June?  And race week?  Someone really needs to slow the clock down.   Or I’ll take a Time Turner, wouldn’t it be nice if those were real?  😛

I suffered from vacation brain and just burn out this week.  Everything seemed so much harder than it should have been.  Seriously, I had troubles counting.  That’s not a good thing in my line of work.   I had to count things multiple times.    While I love 4 day work weeks, there is still 5 days worth of work to fit into those 4 days.  Years ago I had a coworker tell me she hated 3 day weekends because she spent all of Monday stressing about the increased workload on Tuesday.   I won’t complain about 3 days off but I am beginning to see her point.


I mentioned in my last post that I may have ordered myself a new Garmin.  It’s here!!  It’s so pretty, now I am just trying to figure out the bells and whistles.


Monday- 2.74 miles  Ugly.  I decide to try the Roga’s again and once again it was a bad idea.  I eventually gave up attempting to run and just walked it back to my house.  It felt a waste of the extra time off work.      I did take the dog out for a short walk later but it was super short and slow.

Tuesday- Rest With work typically being crazy busy and now being down a person ( my coworker had the baby!) I didn’t even try to run.  I thought about riding the bike when I got home but thinking is as far as it got.

Wednesday- Rest  Oh hey, I have a race in 4 days.   I started to do the math and realized that if ran today and Thursday like planned, I would have more miles than previous weeks.   That didn’t seem like the best idea.  Granted my miles have been so low that a taper seems silly but it still didn’t seem smart to suddenly increase them on race week.    Then my brother decided to take the family to dinner so I figured it all worked out, right?


Thursday- 3.22 miles   Ok dinner was a bad idea, it made me sick.  At first I thought it was just my stomach being an asshat but I later found out that my dad was kind of sick too and we ate the same thing.   There was a point I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to run at all.  Yet, I changed and headed for home town.  Once I got there I realized it was 85 degrees and I had somehow forgotten a water bottle.  Lovely.  Then somehow this run kicked ass.   I decided to keep it shorter and slower than planned due to lack of hydration and heat and managed to stick to one of those. 😛   I ended up running my fastest 5K in the last 6 months.  Still slow as I made sure to take walk breaks every 2 minutes but my legs felt great!   Where did that come from?!

Friday- Rest Total vacation brain, stress ball.  I was trying to get everything done so no one had to worry about anything while I was gone and I was stressing out.  I love vacations but the type A in me hates not being there.

📷:azsungoddess

Saturday- Road trip!!  Oh good lord, it took 7 hours to get to San Diego.   Traffic, you suck.  Once we were finally there we headed straight for the Convention Center and the Expo.  Bib pickup and shirt pick up was a cinch then it was into the crowd.  I figured we were so late most people would have already picked up their stuff…nope!  People everywhere!   I was able to meet up with Mai of Once Upon A Run and Chelsea of The Dancing Runner, which was awesome!  Then it was of to Seaport Village for a Bibrave Pro meetup with Mai and Emily of azSunGoddess.   


 Finally we checked into our hotel- literally across the street from the finish line festival- before heading out for some food.    I tried to go sleep early as I knew I had a really early wake up call but I was realizing that you really could eat too much pizza.  Food and I did not get along this week.  😭

Sunday- Rock n Roll San Diego 13.1  Recap to come.  But for the first time, I took a race shuttle to the start.  Look at me being all runner like.  😛

19.2 miles for the week.  I meant to ride the bike but it just never happened.  I wasn’t too busy I just didn’t make it a priority.  Next week.

Speaking of next week, I have the week off!! Woo hoo!  I have so many things I need and should get done but I also kind of want to spend a day or 2 doing nothing.  Which one will win?

How was your week?

Do anything fun this weekend?

What do you do on Stay-cations?

Run!, Training

Week 19- Taper?

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

Upcoming Races:

  • Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13
  • Rock N Roll San Diego 13.1-June 4

Yeah, that’s it- lets call it taper.

This week was good, short and odd but good.   I’m still sleeping poorly and stinkin’ tired, but that happens sometimes, right?    One thing that didn’t help was I somehow screwed up my GERD medication.  With the ownership change and insurance change at work, I tried to make sure I had all my medications stocked in case there were delays or issues yet somehow I forgot the most important one.  Then when I went to refill it, I had no refills and the doctor response was delayed.    Holy mother of heartburn people, my chest was on fire for 5 days straight.  That sure helped the lack of sleeping, ha!   Healthy eating went out the window quickly too, vegetables and fruits just made it worse.

I also got locked out of my blog on phone so I am behind on replying to comments.  I’m catching up, promise!

Anyhow, with the race being on a Saturday which is odd for me, I had a plan for the week.  Whether or not it worked remained to be seen.


Monday- 3.75 miles  Wardrobe hell.    In an effort to get over my issues and deal with the heat better, I ordered some new shorts.  I love my Fancy Stride (Oiselle) shorts but let’s be real, I’m feeling a little too fluffy to wear them comfortably right now so I figured I would go or something with a little more give.  Ha!  I ordered the Roga from Oiselle because I have never heard a bad thing about them.  Oh my freakin’ A!  I spent the next 4 miles picking them out of my crotch with every 3rd step.  I finally gave up on running and walked it back in when I realized I was running so damn oddly my knees were starting to hurt.   Back to the drawing board.

Tuesday- Rest Instead of running in some crazy wind I decided to do battle with my hair.   The brown is really hanging on!  My roots are freaky light and the bottom is dark so I’ve been trying to lighten the bottom.  I’m not winning.  😛


Wednesday- 1.15 miles  The lack of sleep over the past 2 weeks was kicking in and I was super tired.  It was about 20 degrees colder after work than I had planned for and my family started texted about all meeting up for dinner.  It didn’t take much convincing to have me only run 1 lap of the lake path.  That said, the short period of time I was running was pretty good.  Then at dinner, my dad expressed his displeasure with choice of hotel locations for this race trip- Lompoc- my mother agreed.  So at the last minute, I was changing hotels and cities for Friday night.  😛   Side note- everyone at work was happy I moved hotels too.

Thursday- Rest  I wanted 2 rest days before the race.  Plus a Saturday race meant that the road trip started on Friday so I had a few last minute things to get ready.    Thankfully, my medication was finally ready so I was able to get that after work.  Plus I had to finish packing.


Friday- Road trip!!   I took the day off work and my mother and I headed down to Santa Barbara to do a little shopping before packet pickup.     Per usual, I was able to have my carb loading pizza for lunch.  This is becoming a staple.    We shopped a bit before heading back North to Solvang for packet pickup.  Ever been to Solvang?  It’s so cute and Danish but the tourists are crazy!   People were literally standing in the middle of the street to take pictures and glaring at cars trying to drive by.   One woman kept waving me on at a stop sign and getting mad that I was messing with her picture but she was trying to wave me through 20 pedestrians, ummm no!     I had been feeling oddly nauseous at varying points throughout the day so after bib pickup it was off to the hotel to get some rest.


Saturday- Race day! And what a great surprise to wake and discover that the lovely time of the month had come calling… again.  Wait, didn’t I race like this 2 weeks ago?!?! Grrrr, so this was going to be fun.  Recap to come.  😛

Sunday- Rest  It felt weird having raced a half marathon on Saturday.  I felt like there was something I was forgetting to do.  Part of me wanted to run but I didn’t budget time wisely.    I slept in later in an effort to try and catch up on all my missed sleep.   Then there were all the usual weekend errands I didn’t do Saturday to get done before an early Mother’s Day dinner with the family.  Since my quads were feeling the hills from Saturday, I decided the rest wouldn’t hurt.

18.1 miles for the week.    Not too bad considering the measly 1ish mile run on Wednesday.     Especially when you compare it to last week.  😛

How was your week?

Ever change hotels last minute?

How was your Mother’s Day?