Tag: road trip

Surf City Week 2-Christmas Lights & Sirens

I ran at night!! You guys- I went out in the dark and the cold and ran at night!! 😄😄😃😃

But before we get to that, here’s a brief recap of last week’s slacker-ness err, training.

Monday– Rest
Tuesday– Work holiday party
Wednesday– Treadmill 5K
Thursday– 2.70 miles – OUTSIDE!
Friday– Rest
Saturday-Unexpected emergency road trip
Sunday– Rest- tired, stressed and way behind

So, yeah still not awesome but that’s ok. Sometimes life rears it’s horns and you change your plans. I’m still playing catch up. But let’s talk about the exciting thing-

I ran at night! It was slow and short but it was kind of awesome. 😃😃 I had been considering attempting a night run for a while now. I’m a big baby when it comes to running in the dark. You never know what’s out there, right? But, I figured realistically I had a better shot of running at night than I did in the early mornings. One- I like my bed and sleeping until the last moment. Two-less likely to have a run in with a creature of some sort. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

I packed 2 sets of clothes- one for an outdoor run and one for the gym if I chickened out. I don’t own any night gear and I didn’t want to buy anything because what if this was a one and done? I’m not sure what I was thinking though- I had purple pants, a coral shirt, black and yellow jacket, a coral headband and mismatched gloves. Maybe I hoped the tacky-ness would be extra visible? 😜 I had reflective strips on my arms and an ancient, tiny flashlight. My jacket was supposed to be reflective- spoiler- it’s not.

I parked under a light at a local business and headed for my route. I chose one of the busier streets in town but I chose it for it’s sidewalks, uneven as they are, a few streetlights and the sea of Christmas lights. I started out slow and I was presently surprised at how much light the Christmas lights gave off. The temp was in the mid 40’s and the jacket was too much. I stopped half a mile in to tie it around my waist.

The dark is funny- I felt like I was hauling but in reality I was putting along at an 11 minute pace. I laughed out loud when my Garmin buzzed at mile 1. I don’t usually run on the sidewalk on this street, if I run this street I am in the bike lane. I knew the sidewalk was uneven but dang! I stumbled a few times and there were a few times the sidewalk disappeared entirely. Hello!

My plan was to keep it short, sweet and uneventful and it was working out to be that way. Until just shy of 2 miles. I was coming up on an intersection and heard what sounded like a school fire alarm. I stopped and tried to figure out where it was coming from. I finally pinpointed it to an older apartment building down the side street. I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t smell smoke and everything else seemed quiet. I finally took my cue from the people playing ping pong in their side yard. They didn’t seem alarmed at all, so I thought maybe this happens all the time at 6:30? I ran on down the street. I hit my planned turn around and headed back the way I came. As I came back to the siren intersection, I didn’t hear anything so I was relieved. Only to discover a fire truck now parked outside the apartment building! What?!?! Last time I trust people hanging out in their yard!

The route is short, so I was back at my car around 2.7 miles and part of that was already overlapping. So this would route would work more as a shakeout/ easy run than anything else. Plus, once the Christmas lights come down it could turn a lot darker. That said it was kind of awesome and it pushed my boundaries a little. I can’t wait to try it again. 😊 With a better flash light.

I had good intentions of running this past weekend but late night phone calls are rarely a good thing. My mom and I ended up heading down to LA for a family emergency. It wasn’t the best of days.

Sunday brought the realization of just how behind I am with Christmas shopping. And laundry. Seriously, I did 4 loads. So, like I said before- not the best training week. But again, I am ok with it. This week should be interesting as I have to head back to LA again. This time for myself though, I have another appointment at USC for my stomach. Nice timing right?

But it’s Christmas week!!! Are you ready?

Do you like running in morning dark or night dark?

Big Sur Goals?

You know that quote?

It’s better to be 10% under trained than 1% over trained when you step up to the starting line.

Whelp, how about 30% under trained? Actually that may be pretty generous. I had big plans for the weeks in between City to the Sea and Big Sur but we’ve already discussed the sloppiness of October so let’s move on. 😉😉

So what is the under trained slacker with an aching ankle thinking about for this weekend?

Big Sur is supposed to be gorgeous- If it takes me longer to run it, well then I get longer to enjoy the view.

Start will be in the low 40’s- I haven’t quite adjusted to that but at least it won’t be too hot.

Bib 3118- Corral D…out of A-L. What the hell am I doing up there? Maybe inertia will push me forward and I will run faster?

This is half marathon #6 of 2015, first time I’ve run that many 13.1’s in a year. Sweet!

Elites- Kara Goucher and Sara Kiptoo- Seriously. I will be running the same course as elites at the same time-holy crap! Actually, now that I think about it, part of the course is an out and back…I may need to keep my phone handy. 😆

Ummmm- this- I need it-

Road trip! Seriously I never went anywhere before I started running.

Monterey- Home of the aquarium. We may try and go. But, man those tickets are stupid expensive.

Community- I’m going to be surrounded by thousands of other people like me. Those who think that lining up on a cold morning to run 13.1 miles sounds like fun. 😄

Monday- Did I mention I have Monday off?

This could be my last race of the year, at least I chose a good one. I’ve been having some odd ankle pain, hello denial, can I move in?

The view- Seriously, the pictures I’ve seen make this worthy of 2 mentions. I’ve actually considered carrying my little digital camera during the run. Either that or I need a strap for my iPhone.

So instead of goals, I have only one hope. I want to cross the start line and the finish line smiling. No head games, no berating myself, just running with a few thousand strangers like me. Runner’s are crazy right?

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend! Molly, Allison, Rae, Kate, those running Revel Canyon or Wine and Dine, and everyone else I am missing!!

That otter is awesome, right?

Ventura Marathon-Half- Recap

I had a feeling this post may border on wordy which is why most of the pictures were uploaded in the last post. Now for what those photos didn’t show.

The Weekend-

I was able to get off work a couple hours early on Friday, so I headed straight home to finish packing and preparing. I felt like I was both taking too much and not enough at the same time. My mother and I headed out early Saturday morning, we planned on spending some time at the Ventura Mall before heading to packet pick up and the hotel. I haven’t been in a mall in years and well it was kind of a let down. The only upside was a Hot Topic for my inner nerd and I may have spent a little too much at Macy’s (damn Dooney!). From there it was on to the hotel.

When I booked the hotel I looked for one that advertised as being near to the pier. It didn’t occur to me to compare the addresses until 2 weeks ago. Oops. But I lucked out, the hotel was 1.2 miles from the pier on the same street and right next door to an In n Out, and I was able to get chocolate milk from the 7-11 across the street. Sweet! Dinner was at BJ’s Restaurant, where I indulged in a pretty good burger and fries. That was followed by a 3.5 mile walk down to and around the pier to get my legs moving before trying to get some sleep.

Once checking out of the hotel on Sunday, we headed back to Santa Barbara for a little more shopping. I was looking forward to a real Lululemon and just some window shopping. The weather in Santa Barbara was amazing. After that it was north to SLO for dinner and then finally home. We were tired.

The Expo-

Not much to say here. Packet pickup was a breeze, both easy and super windy. Instead of a bunch of useless samples in the bag, they had a table or 2 of samples. I only took a sample of KT tape. The website looked like there would be a lot of vendors but most seemed more like local crafts and things. Kind of like a farmer’s market minus the food. I stopped by the ProCompression booth but there was no one working it? There was live music playing and a little listening area as well. A very nice (cute) police officer took a picture for us, but my mother deleted it- so there’s a selfie instead. 🙂

The Race-

Race morning dawned and I had no need of an alarm. I hadn’t slept well the night before and had been awake off and on from about 3 on. I wasn’t feeling so great but that wasn’t too surprising to me. I had packed some candy corns for race fuel but they sounded nasty so I did not even take them. I got ready and headed out the door, I had planned on walking to starting line. While I was walking there the marathon runners were running up the other side. They looked so ready to go, to the point that 3 were bouncing basketballs while running. Seriously? It’s all I can do to run a half marathon and you are going to bounce a basketball (or 2!) while running 26.2!!!

Anywho, I made my way up to the starting line in time to jump into the first wave. A few announcements and count down and we were off! I had issues getting both my Garmin and my Nike+ app started but managed to get them going not too far from the starting line. I was aiming for a 10:00 average so when mile 1 came in at 9:50, I was ok with that. Mile 2 seemed a little tougher and fell to 10:17. I was using intervals of 8:30 run and 1:00 walk as I knew going in I wasn’t 100%. Even with this I was tiring quickly. The weather felt way warmer than I would have liked. The course went through a nice housing area before going back to the main street. It turned off towards the harbor for a quick out and back to add mileage before heading back down the main street into Oxnard and out into some fields before turning around and going back the way we came. Mile 5- I took 2 walk breaks, I was having trouble getting my breathing under control. I had already used my inhaler 3 times. Which was odd because I hadn’t used it on any run since my last half marathon in July. I kept trucking along until my next walk break at mile 6.5. Which is where I had to get real.

I only ran once in taper week leading up to the race. It was 3.5 miles and it was the hardest run I have ever done. I mentioned briefly that I had finally started my antibiotics. Between those and my lovely stomach I was thisclose to deferring Ventura. I was feeling so crappy. I told myself I was being a big baby and would be fine. In reality I had no business running a half marathon at this time. Mile 6.5 was the beginning of this epiphany (and others but more about that later).

I walked it in from there. I called my mom at mile 7.5 and told her she had more time to relax at the hotel because I wasn’t going to be near 2:10:00. I just kept walking. I was so hot, my hamstrings were cramping, and my left shin felt super angry. I took 2 cups of water at every aid station. One to drink and one to dump over my head. I alternated my Gatorade and their water to stay hydrated. I had Honey Stingers in my belt but the very idea of those made me ill. I grabbed a Cliff Shot around mile 9 and carried it for a while. I eventually ripped it open around mile 11. I had somehow managed to grab one with caffeine and I was hoping it would help the lungs. I know it didn’t have enough caffeine to do anything but one can hope right. I jogged a tiny bit each mile both to keep the pace below 14:00 and to loosen up my stiff legs. The volunteers and the crowd support was pretty awesome. Around mile 11.5, there was a little boy dressed as the Flash giving high fives. He was cool. 🙂

The last 2.5 miles or so I was keeping pace with a women who was race walking and a guy who would run ahead and then walk. I always caught him on the walking portions. I couldn’t tell if he was doing intervals or if he was as spent as I was. I never saw the 13 mile marker but did see the 26 one. I figured I could run the last .2. Ha! That was the longest .2 of my life. I thought the finish line was never going to arrive. I did leave race walker and interval guy behind. Finally there was the finish line and I was done. Half marathon #9 complete, not my best, not my slowest but probably the most walking. I won’t lie, I did get a little teary eyed at the finish. Thank goodness for sunglasses.

Since I had finished later than planned, I barely had time to limp back to the hotel to shower and check out. I hurt badly. I don’t think I have been that sore after a race since my very first half marathon. I gimped the 1.2 miles back to the hotel, stopping to stretch along the way. The chocolate milk in the mini fridge was the best thing ever. After checking out, we hit In n Out for food. I was suddenly hungry. Finding out that they still sold extra large drinks was the second best thing ever- that Diet Coke tasted amazing. I did feel bad for my mom though, she had to be seen in public with me- jean shorts, teal tank and bright purple compression socks. I was styling, ha!

So no, this race did not go according to plan but it was still a good weekend. Shopping was fun, the food was yummy. I also learned that I have serious problems tolerating humidity (74% WTH?!). I got a few compliments during the race about my use of neon and I got a shout out from a fellow SLO ambassador when she ran by me. So while I am rethinking some things, I still call this weekend a win. 🙂

How do some of you deal with humidity on a regular basis? Seriously, anything over 25% is rough for me. Maybe I am spoiled?

What’s your post race reward?

Scenes from Ventura

Things didn’t go according to plan. Recap will be up in a day or 2 but here are the bright parts-

A little unplanned rest?

So, yeah, this week has been a total mess. If my goal was to be as much of a Slacker as possible, I have succeeded. However, since that was not my goal, big fail!!!!! I have not run since Sunday. Yikes!! I swear I have this kneejerk reaction to challenges, it’s like I try to fail. It has happened twice now with both the plank challenge and the pushup challenge. As I posted before, I set myself a challenge for miles in November and the first week isn’t looking so pretty.

Monday I did not run as I was getting ready for the trip the next day. I did take my running gear with me on Tuesday, hopeful that I could get in a few miles around the area while the girls were playing their tennis match. First sign against this was the tall locked gates and fences prohibiting us from actually getting on campus, let alone to the tennis courts. Once we finally were let in, it was around the 3^rd comment from another coach there that we had to make sure to look out for “unsavories”, which made me think, umm maybe not. I sat in the van for a bit and worked on school work instead and sure enough, some kids tried a stunt until they noticed me still in it. Seriously? That was an exhausting day without running though, so maybe that was a good thing.

ok, this should have been the first clue

As for Wednesday, that was just pure Slacker-ness. I should have taken my gear with me and changed at work and then driven straight to the gym. But I did not. No, I drove all the way home with the intention of changing and then heading out. Well the road to Slacker-ness is paved with good intentions, right? Yep, day 3 with no run. 😦 Tonight was school and with the time change, I can no longer run before class. The road is too narrow to run in the dark. Ugh!!!!

A little pre- dinner road trip photo op.

I have been feeling a little under the weather the past two days but didn’t think much of it. That changed tonight when I became so ill in the class that the teacher stopped class to ask if I was ok. That was then followed by them trying to find me a ride home. The campus is about 30 miles away. Talk about embarrassing. I drove myself home but did leave early. Plans of trying to run tomorrow before work have now been scrapped. This time may be for a good reason but I feel like I have become the excuse queen this week.

I have work tomorrow and Saturday, so at this point I think I will just call this an unplanned rest week. It means I will more than likely not make the miles goal that I set for this week for the Pile on the Miles challenge. 😦 But hopefully some rest, planned or not, will just help me step it up next week and after. As for now, I am resting in my chair watching Glee.

Hope everyone else is having a good week!

Any races this weekend?