Tag: races

So Far…

Hi, it’s me. I’m the problem.

At this point I am so behind on post I planned that it just stresses me out every time I think about it. So I try to ignore it and move on, but then I think. of something I want to say, plan it out in my head but then get stuck when it comes actually putting fingers to keyboard keys. So instead of stressing about the missed posts, I am writing a short recap of 2023 so far.

January– Chill and cold, I kept the running at steady for me but nothing to really note. I ran one race- Fort Ord Trail Run. I ran the 10k while my brother did the 50k. I remember the morning being so dark and cold that I froze but massively overheating during my race. The course was pretty and green but there was very little shade. I also somehow lost my favorite headband during the race. Boo.

February– I had a work trip for the first time since COVID. It was fun but also stressful. I had one of my massive dizzy spell days and couldn’t even work. Then I ran the Ventura Half Marathon 2 days later. Oops. It was one of my slowest races, coming in around 3:09ish. 1.5 miles in my stomach rebelled in a very bad way and the best I could do for 13 miles was power walk. There was no running unless I wanted to live in the port-a-potties, ha! My brother lapped me while running the marathon. Also I was bummed that course had no beach views. We started in Ojai and ran to Ventura.

March– Vacation! It was off to Arizona for some time in Sedona and the Grand Canyon. There was snow on the ground and I packed for the cold. Instead it was sunny and 70ish and I melted and ending up getting sick from the sun, Which all came to a head in a blow up in the Grand Canyon. Oops. Oh and then the canyon tried to kill me when my shoe caught a piece of rebar and I went down way too close to edge of the South Kaibab trail. Thanks to the kind strangers who helped me up. I did write about my Sedona days- The Subway and the Mesa Brin. Also, ran the Oakland Half Marathon in March, post here.

April– A month of no races, boo. Steady miles for me but no races. Cant remember anything else, ha.

May– Oh May. I did some great trails- went back to the Pinnacles for another round. Headed back to Henry Cowell for some time in the Redwoods. This hike also featured my 2 largest water crossings yet. I also sliced up my legs on some branches which combine with falling into a creek the following weekend brought on the leg drama I wrote about here, And I stopped.

June– The leg drama bled over into the first 2 weeks of June. The issues on my legs turned into a chemical burn from too many failed attempts trying to fix the first issues, ha! I barely ran as running just made things worse. I felt so lazy and was missing racing too. I may be slow but I was having fun running races this year. But then I went to Yosemite. OMG, so many people, so many people. Still amazing views though.

July– I greeted July with a 10k Trail race (Golden State) back up at Fort Ord. Again I roasted in direct sunlight. Did turn in my fastest Inside Trail race 10k time though. Then I had a birthday that was a not the happiest of times but that’s getting older, right? Ran another of my favorite races towards the end- Rock to Pier- which turned more obstacle course like over 6 miles of beach than I had thought. The beach has changed a lot this year from all our early year rain. We were jumping rivers and rocks and piles of seaweeds. Granted if I hadn’t cared about wet feet, the rivers would have been no big deal. But who wants wet feet first thing into a race?? I also started training for CIM. And quickly realized I chose the wrong training plan, oops.

Outside of running, I feel like parts of my life are running me over with a truck and then backing up for more so that’s cool, cool. I’ve been stuck in a funk I can’t shake and it’s made writing seem so hard. I plan things out in my head but then lose the desire to actually type or write or anything. I said that already didn’t I? I am trying to kick that though, so maybe this post is my first baby step back?

So what have I missed?

Fast

Where did January go? How is this even possible?

Hell, considering I started this post on Monday and it’s now Friday that you are reading it… where did the week go?

I did not get in the miles I had hoped in January. I ended the month with 25 ish miles. Which if we are being honest, is kind of on par with the last few months. Stupid 2020.

I really had hoped for more but the month went by stupid fast. I think I have whiplash, ha. Work got a little chaotic-like. First general busy-ness then a surprise inspection followed by a big maintenance project that I totally wanted but wasn’t ready for. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad it was done but wow was I unprepared for one day to become last week. And this week.

January saw road miles and dirt miles. 2 very different views of the Pacific Ocean, both good. Still on the fence about the trail shoes but hopefully getting there.

With my time flying realization, it also occurred to me that I have races in the next few months, I should probably get on a training plan for. Oops. I have the Napa Valley Perfect Pairing (virtual), the Oakland Marathon half (virtual) which I should downgrade to the 10K. Then a maybe IRL race- Saguaro Half Marathon out in Tucson. All in the next 8ish weeks.

Proving that I still don’t look at calendars well.

Week 9-Close

2019 Race Schedule (so far):
3/24 Oakland Running Festival (Thanks BibRave)
4/28 SLO Half Marathon
8-11 Oaktown Half (Thanks BibRave)

Last week was a mixed bag.

Some things went like I hoped and others not. My leg was angry for more days than I would have liked. I know it’s due to the stool I was using at work. Last week I switched back to the desk chair, which is only slightly ridiculous as I have a counter height desk with a Varidesk on top. It usually takes a couple weeks to unkink though. I attempted cross training but didn’t check that box as much as I hoped.

It also rained quite frequently which put a damper on some of my runs.

I did sign up for 2 more races though. I also finally got my tires rotated. Oh and I paid off my bed so there were plenty of positive things too.

Wednesday- Liift4
Haha, I was so sore after this. Starting it over may be harder than I thought.

Thursday- 2 miles
Wanted to run at the lake which meant a shorter run. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the time change. I ran a fairly easy 2 miles and called it a night.

Sunday- 8ish miles
I headed out for a long run but wasn’t really feeling it. I was aiming for between 6-10 miles and would see what happened. A car parked at the end of one my frequent roads had me rerouting so I turned down a street I’d never run on before. I did have a vague idea of where it would let me out though. However I soon realized that if I kept running the adjusted route, I would be short of 8 miles. I also failed to resume my watch after a picture break so the mileage is at least a half mile off. Grrrr. Also around mile 4, I noticed that my feet were going numb. What?? It hadn’t happened since Surf City where I blamed my old shoes. Well, I was running in newer shoes this time. So much for that theory. I walked until they felt normal and then would run on. This repeated for the next couple of miles until they felt completely normal. I finished my run and everything felt fine. What gives?

So, 10ish miles for the week. Not great but better then the beginning or middle of February.

How was your week?

Week 29/ Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 1

That was a mouthful. All right, when I said things were getting serious, I wasn’t exaggerating. So let’s do this-

Upcoming Races-

Vintners 5 Mile-7/28
SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

Still with me? Ok, that tired me out just typing that up. But I have a game plan. I really do.

Remember how I mentioned in my San Jose post that I wanted to get as close to a PR as possible? That is still my hope. So with that in mind, I know I need to change things up. Oh, so many things.

The real title of this post should be Shit Just Got Serious.

As my social handle suggests sometimes I lack motivation. In my “about” section I mention that it was a competition with my mom that got me into the best shape of my life. Well, outside of high school but we can never go back right? 🤣

So I put my money where my mouth is and joined a challenge group. Now I have a partner I don’t want to let down as well as getting my jiggly butt back into PR shape. So how did week 1 go?

*If you’re interested, I am using Hal Higdon’s H3 training plan.

Monday- AM- Liift4/ PM- 3.77 miles
Look who worked out in the morning??? 40 minutes of weights and a little bit of HIIT. Who am I?

However, I may have hydrated way too much during the after that because I kind of bottomed out right before my run. That and my run was extremely uncomfortable as I felt like I needed to pee the entire time. It was supposed to be 4 miles but I could not hold it any longer. I needed to be done and I needed a bathroom. Lesson learned- don’t consume almost 200 oz of water in 9 hours.

Tuesday- Liift 4
More weights. However I woke up with a headache so I snoozed for another hour so this workout was done after work.

Wednesday- 2.5 miles
It was a rest day from Liift4 and even though my next running day wasn’t supposed to be until Thursday but it seemed perfect to move it up so I didn’t have to double up. I didn’t feel sore and the plan only called for 3 miles so easy peasy right? Haha! My legs quickly let me know they were not on board, all the soreness I had been missing suddenly showed up. I could barely move and was just getting slower and slower. I figured I wasn’t doing myself any favors and called it at 2ish laps of the lake path.

Thursday- Liift4
I slept right through my alarm- first and second ones- so that meant my workout was pushed until after work. However, my family ended up texting me asking if I wanted to join them for dinner. I am never one to turn down free food. 😛 Instead of being my usual Slacker self, that meant I was doing a shoulder workout at 9:30 at night. But I got it done.

Friday- Liift4
Once again, I hit snooze one too many times plus I had an early morning lab appointment. So after a long day of work, some slacking in the evening, I was again completing the workout after 10PM. Part of that was also due to some animal drama outside though.

Saturday- Rest
I thought about getting my long run in. I thought about going to the fair. Did I mention the Fair is in town? It’s chaos, just chaos. In the end, I did neither. I had the beginnings of a bad headache that I really didn’t want to turn into a migraine. So got my errands done, hydrated and just tried to rest.

Sunday- 6.2 miles
My fight to stave off the migraine failed. My alarm went off to get up and run and any movement made me either want to cry or hurl. I set the alarm for another hour and hoped for the best. Nope. Another hour and repeat. Nope. Finally I gave up and decided to push my run to the evening hoping the temps would drop enough- we’re under a heat advisory for the next week.

I headed out a little after 5 when the temps dropped to around 90. I knew I was going to be moving slower than normal and I was ok with that. That turned out to be true and it was hot but it was actually a decent run.

12.7 miles of the 13 on the plan. All Liift4 workouts completed. My training plan starts out on the lower mileage side and I am fine with that as I incorporate cross training in for the first time in years. Only time will tell if this pans out.

How was your week?

Keeping Track

Disclaimer: I am promoting Athlinks 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!

We runner love our numbers. At least I know I do. 😁

When I first started running, I would scrapbook every bib with race dates and finish times. But let’s be real, I soon ran out of steam with that one and now that scrapbook languishes at the bottom of a hope chest in the closet.

I have pages dedicated to race times and links to recaps on the this blog (look up) but sometimes I fall behind on keeping them up to date. Then there was the time a couple months back when I accidentally deleted the entire page that listed all my races prior to 2014. Ack!!! What do I do?!

Tah dah- Athlinks!!

Athlinks works like a database and pulls all your race results together and keeps them in one place for you. At least that was what it did when I signed up years ago.

It’s so much cooler now! Yes, it still tracks all your races and it’s super easy to claim them- well as long you don’t have a common name, which I don’t 😋. Now you can follow your friends and they can follow you. Anytime you run a race with them, they become your rivals. I don’t how much of a rival I am as everyone I follow and vice versa is faster than me but it’s fun!

mission add

Another cool feature is that you can add upcoming races so those friendly rivals 😀 know what your upcoming races are. Who knows, they might be running the race with you. And if that race doesn’t immediately pop up, it’s super easy to add it. For example, my race this Saturday is on the small side and didn’t pop up when I searched. So I added it. I added all the distances- 13.1, 10 mile, 5k and then I added myself to the starting list for the 10 miler. It took less than 3 minutes. Easy, peasy.

PRS — haha, remember the hot mess 25k????

There’s even a Statistics tab that keeps track of all your PR’s for you. My 10K PR is not accurate since I set it at a super tiny race but it’s close enough and since I’ve slowed down, I can still use it as incentive to make that number drop! Also, I somehow forgot my marathon finish time. I thought I was slower than that so seeing it there is kind of awesome… and again, incentive to make that number drop. 😋

Now, I have run some super tiny races (I mean how else did I first OA female one??-tiny) , so not all of my races report times and data so Athlinks doesn’t have those. Heck, some of those races didn’t even have timing clocks or bibs but the majority of my races are available. So, I look forward to adding to my stats over time.

You can set your profile to private if you want and still take advantage of all the awesome tracking capabilities that Athlinks has. Public or private- either way it’s awesome!

Do you use Athlinks?