Disclaimer: I received an entry to 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!
Going back to RnR San Diego that is!
I am so excited. I love this race, really do. It was my first Rock n Roll race ever back in 2017 and I couldn’t have picked a better way to introduce myself to Rock n Roll.
The course is great, has the right amount of hills and flat. The city neighborhoods really come out for the runners. I mean, there’s a full bar at mile 4! I love the crowds and know that once I hit the Big Guitar guy in the park at mile 10, there’s a lot of downhill to the finish. And on clear days- planes!! You can see airplanes flying overhead as they a head for San Diego Airport. I still need a picture of that.
I had fun at the expo, enjoyed a few sights in San Diego and met up with some other BibRave Pro’s. I ran a pretty good race too. I went back in 2018 for another round. Same awesome course, same amazing crowd support AND I talked Kate into coming out from Texas. Downside was the crazy humidity we dealt with on race day.
Can I tempt you with bling??
I am looking forward to round 3 on June 2. Maybe with a little less humidity. I was planning on set a big goal for this race but certain things are changing for me in a big way and I am not sure how it will effect my running but more on that later.
So right now, I am just planning on enjoying the party.
Want to party with me? Use code 19RNRBRP16 to save $16 on the half or full. Or code 19RNRBRP6 for $6 off the 5K.
Disclaimer: I received an entry into Rock n Roll Los Angeles 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!
Going into LA, I knew it was going to be less race and morning training run. With the last few weeks of work kicking my tush, I knew it might turn into a stroll around LA instead.
The parking situation from the day before had me super stressed and then I realized that my hotel was further away then I thought so I set a very early alarm for Sunday. I used Siri and Waze and still ran into road closures but found a spot in a parking garage near the start before 5AM. I hung out in my car for a bit then headed out to find the start. There was a short line at the potties so I took advantage, I then headed off to the #werunsocial meetup.
I jumped in corral 9 after the National Anthem and just stayed there. I didn’t feel like shoving my way up to my corral and I knew I wasn’t going to be fast.
Miles 1-4 9:47, 10:31, 11:11, 11:27
We were off and headed out on the first out and back. I was actually feeling pretty good which was surprising considering the dense fog and poor air quality warning I had woken up to. I took a walk break in mile 3 for water and the pavement seemed more slippery than usual at the water stations. Mile 4 I felt a little fatigued so I went to my run/ walk intervals, it also had the biggest climb on the course. I like hills but after a week of crap sleep in a hotel- yeah I walked.
Miles 5-6 10:55, 14:19
My little reset mile helped so I picked up the pace for mile 5. I was feeling good, we were running down Wilshire (?) BLVD and things were going my way. Then they weren’t. At 4.8- 1/2 mile past an aid station, my stomach cramped- hard. I came to a complete stop. What the hell?? I walked until about 5.4 trying to calm my stomach. Then it was a slow jog while I prayed for an aid station and a port-a-pottie. Just before mile 6 there was and thankfully there was no line.
Miles 7-10 10:51, 12:03, 12:10, 11:48
My stomach was ok but not great. From then on, it was run/ walk. I was actually running a decent pace but when I walked I was so slow. Normally I power walk pretty well but my stomach was either run or crawl. I tried to just enjoy some of the buildings around me, the other runners in costume and major shout out to the Korea Town Running club- their cheering section was awesome. Oh and zombies on stilts?
Miles 11-13 12:13, 13:07, 11:39
We were on our way back of the biggest out and back. My stomach was starting to really act up again and trying to ignore it was making me tired. This was also the first time I’ve seen a sweeper car on a race damn near on top of the last runners. Kind of a drawback to courses with such long out and backs. I walked most of mile 12 and 13 before I finally told my stomach it just had to shut up for 1/2 mile and I ran it in.
Finish-2:34:43
Considering I walked 45% and spent 3 minutes in a bathroom mid run- that ain’t bad. In fact, if my stomach had not been an asshat, this probably would have ended up being my fastest half of the year, instead it was my slowest, haha. And that is perfectly fine considering how the last 2 weeks went. Not my best, not my worst, either way I have no problem entering my time into Athlinks while I wait for the official results.
While I did like the course- good hills and buildings- and Rock N Roll always puts on a great race, the parking and the traffic were nuts. Too many things going on in a small area and I just don’t deal well.
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you BibRave!)- 11/12
Oakland Turkey Trot- (Thank you BibRave!) 11/22
Haha, I think I underestimated just how this week was going to go.
Don’t get me wrong, things are going well at work but we are so much busier and a little more stressed than I figured we would be. Running and working out fell by the wayside as I was often so tired I was falling asleep on the couch way earlier than normal. Also, I won’t lie, it’s very hard to motivate myself to run on a treadmill.
Monday/ Tuesday– Nada
Didn’t get off work until almost 7 and then it was getting back to the hotel. Sometimes I’d pickup food on the way, other times it was EZ Mac.
Wednesday–Dizzy
This was the latest night all week but I was still going to try and run when I got back to the hotel. However, I was starting to have a little vertigo issue. It actually stayed around the rest of the week but that day was the worst.
Thursday– 2.3 miles
I squeezed in a few treadmill miles while I was doing a load of laundry in the hotel washing machine. I had learned that I was staying in San Diego for another week and I did not pack for that. Laundry time it is!
Friday– Nada
I worked. Then I spent my time getting organized for the drive up to LA for the race on Sunday.
Saturday– Drive
I lost my shit. So the race expo is at the LA Convention Center. Sounded easy enough. Except nowhere in the race information did it say that it was also the weekend of LA Comic Con. The traffic was nuts and I circled for 30-40 minutes trying to find a place to park. The stress of the week caught up to me and I was the emotional crying driver and I may have punched my steering wheel every time a convention center employee gave me wrong information again. I finally found a spot in a garage and made my way down to the expo for my bib. Then I went and hid at the hotel for the rest of night. I also possibly made a poor choice for dinner.
Sunday- Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1
Such an early morning! Race recap to come soon
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14- maybe
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you BibRave!)- 11/12
Peek weak redux? More like epic fail.
Like I said in Friday’s post this week was less than stellar. I was in a funk with no real reason as to why. I started the week out sick and things just kind of went down hill from there. We had an employee with a last day on Friday and it’s always sad when the team changes. On the upside, I finally have a hotel for my work trip coming up in October so I won’t be sleeping in my car, haha.
The plan called for a 6 mile run, 6 mile pace run, 10 mile long run and 3-4 cross training workouts.
Monday- Sick
I felt fine in the morning and had my running gear with me at work. However things went south around 4:00pm when I suddenly felt nauseous, clammy and like I was running a fever. I went home and just curled up under a blanket. It was still hot outside so it was a sign that I really wasn’t feeling well.
Tuesday- Liift4
I still wasn’t feeling well. I couldn’t focus and everything took so much more effort. I ran into my uncle during the day and he took one look at me and asked why the hell I went to work. I’m stupid?? I felt like a total sloth so I dragged my way through a Liift4 workout in the late evening. I did feel a little better after.
Wednesday-1.2 miles
Not what I intended. I planned to attempt 5-6 pace-ish miles around the lake path but the path had other plans. Creeper alert! Both could have been false alarms but my #1 rule is Be Paranoid. The first creeper was a windowless van parked on the path. Ummm, why? Next up was a gold Ford Fusion that slowed as it passed me, then drove in front of me. When it came back for a second, slower pass, I was done -I’m out. I’ll run another day.
Thursday- 3 miles
My leg was hurting. I was stupid and sat in my chair this week- why do I keep doing that- and it aggravates my right leg in a bad way. I toughed out 3 miles but managed to find a decent, easy pace actually. I knew more would probably be stupid judging by how the leg felt though.
Friday- Nothing
I just wanted to stay in bed all day but I went to work. I did bring back the desk chair instead of my stool though.
She had the right idea
Saturday-Nothing
And I mean nothing. I set my alarm to get in my long run but when it came time to run I was so not feeling it. In fact I was feeling like being a sloth. So I did. The upcoming month of October is looking to be crazy busy and this was my last weekend before things get crazy. So, I did the bare minimum. I ran 2 errands and I napped.
Sunday- 6.35 miles
I should have napped more. I kept putting off this run because I really didn’t want to run. I wanted to be lazy but I told myself that was stupid. So I headed out for a run. Why? It was miserable. It was too warm, I wasn’t into it and my leg started to hurt towards the end. I walked a lot. I was done. I just looped and headed back to the car. I should have just skipped it. My pace wasn’t completely horrible- it was actually near marathon long run pace so I guess I have made some improvements in the last few weeks if I tanked that badly but it doesn’t look like it.
10.56 miles for the week. Yay. And with that it’s race week.
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
This was an odd one.
I ran but not enough. I lifted but not enough. I had an odd headache on Wednesday, my side pain became a little worse and then my back started hurting towards the end of the week. Really?? I can’t blame the lifting because I barely did it this week.
I also stupidly dropped a migraine pill down the side of my recliner on Thursday evening and spent 3 days tearing the chair apart, vacuuming sides trying to find the damn thing. Meanwhile my cat was confused as to why she wasn’t allowed in my room for 3 days. Surprisingly the chair still holds together after I put it back together- although I feel a little crooked.
This training week called for a step back week and a 5K race. However that didn’t fit my not running life schedule. Plus I have a 5k scheduled for the following week. So I decided to flip weeks 6 and 7. Except somehow I still screwed it up.
The week should have played out like this- a 6 mile run, 5 mile run and a 9 mile long run. 4 Liift4 workouts sprinkled around for cross training.
And reality?
Monday-Liift4
I had planned on running after work but we got out really late. Combine that with who beats who game I play with the cleaners and that I had already seen their truck pull in and I just decided to push the run to Tuesday. Then I ended up stuck in traffic on the way home. However I stuck to the lifting plan.
Tuesday-Rest
I had plans for running and plans for Liift4 but my side pain which is mostly tolerable these days was intense. Something I did that day must have angered it but I don’t know what. But considering I am 8 months in without a diagnosis who knows???
Wednesday-1.2 miles
Epic fail! I headed to the lake path for a 4 miler but all of my gear was in the wrong places in my car. As I was getting my pepper spray from my gym bag as opposed to my pack, I put my car key down on the front seat. Can you guess what comes next? Yep. Locked my key in my car. Tried all my doors and pushing the windows down. Nope. I talked my parents into getting my spare and driving it to me on the caveat that I take them to dinner after. 😛 I then squeezed in a lap of the lake while waiting for them. In all honesty, I may have called it at a lap anyways as there were 2 total creeper cars on the backside of the lake.
Thursday-5 miles -tempo intervals
Not gonna lie, after the previous days’ fiasco and the last week of rough running, I was not feeling this run. And for some reason, I thought I had a 40 minute tempo on the plan. We were under an air quality warning the latter half of the week so I broke the tempo into intervals- it was supposed to 15-15-10 but it was more like 12-12-6. I ran a completely different route than normal and there was a hellacious headwind that damn near shoved me backwards in the last interval. I made up for it in the cool down though when I inadvertently hit an 8:30 pace for 1/2 mile thanks to The Big Gigantic. Oops, not how to cool down. Then the chair drama started.
Friday-Liift4
More chair drama. I searched for hours and tore the thing apart to no luck. Grrr.
After she was allowed back in
Saturday-Rest
I had a work event at the homeless shelter in the morning. I was thankful for the chance to help out, I’ve missed helping out since it’s been a few years since we ran a dinner night each month. This event was a walk and I was calling on all years of race experience working the registration tables.
Afterwards I went home and performed more surgery on the chair and was finally successful. The pill was found! After that I was in a cleaning mode so I kept organizing a few things before running some errands and then being lazy.
Sunday- 8.23 miles
When my alarm went off in the morning, I kind of growled at it. I just wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t feeling like doing much of anything. I made a quick trip to SLO to the Running Warehouse to exchange the Neuro’s and then came home and took what was supposed to be a 20 minute nap. An hour later I finally decided to head out for my run. I wasn’t feeling like a long run anymore so I figured I would just run a short run and break in the new shoes instead.
And yet, I kept running. Up one hill and down the other. There’s a reason I don’t do long runs in my neighborhood. I stopped twice to BodyGlide my heels as I felt a blister forming from the new shoes. I told myself to bring a band aid but forgot. Oops. A funny moment happened around halfway when I ran past a car that had been in an accident. It looked like it had been rear ended- it still had the bumper of the other car attached- and the it had hit something else. They must have it had towed there but it still smelled like a car accident- that metal on metal on burnt plastic smell? Apparently that brings back memories for me as I kind of started to hyperventilate. 😛 I’ve been in a few accidents but until today I wouldn’t have said that smell would trigger any reaction. On the return route I went a different way.
For not wanting to run my long run, I ended up running all 8. Only to check the plan later and realize it should have been 9. Oops.
14.52 miles for the week. How did I ever come close to 1000 miles in a year once?
