Tag: Running

May Mileage

Holy crap.

So yeah that happened. For the first time in 5ish years of running, I cleared 100 miles in a month. I used to chase that goal so hard and fall so short every time. Until this month. Thank you marathon training. The part that freaks me out is that I missed 4 runs over the month- 2 easy, 1 speed work and last weekend’s long run. That would have been another 35+ miles. Say what?!?

There were a few races too-

SLO Marathon 13.1
Bands on the Run 10K

The month started with a bang and ended with a whimper. I won’t lie; I am tired. I need to work on getting more sleep. Or better sleep, but both are easier said than done. Any tips? May also brought me some gnarly shin pain. My speed work has screeched to a halt since last week’s intervals and I am trying not to freak out about it. Lots of RICE going on around here. I would like to run 13 miles this weekend- even though the training plan only calls for a 10 mile long run- but right now I wonder if either is likely.

My first run of May was a half marathon, my last was a whimpering 3.5. I am choosing to look at the shiny of all those miles I ran and try not to think too much about my shins. My original plan for June includes a 20 miler, my current training plan says no. I am still hoping for it though. I would also like to get back to running the tempos- oddly enough, I missed it this week. Who would have thought? #stupidshins

How was your May?

Any plans for June?

Bands on the Run 10K 2016

I love this race but man I have a short term memory when it comes to dune sand. 😝

This is my 3rd time running the 10K portion of the event and I keep cracking jokes that I get slower every year. The race benefits a local high school music program and is very low frills. Which is fine by me, I am always impressed that they have their own designed bibs. Most smaller, local races use the free Road ID ones. They offer a 5k, 10k and a half marathon. All the races are out and backs. I considered running the half in lieu of my long run that week but decided against it. I am so glad I made that choice.

Packet pickup took less than 5 minutes on Friday and that included parking. 😃 I was able to get what is a decent nights sleep for me pre-race- 6 hours- but that was only because the race had a late start. The races started at 10. 10? This is California! I have never had a race start that late. Most half marathons start at 7 or earlier, 10K’s around 8. If you’re really lucky, a 5K may start at 9. Maybe. I have troubles fueling properly on a normal basis, how the hell do I fuel for a late 10K? I know that beach races are dictated by the tides though so this must have been the best option. It was ridiculously cold when we first got to the high school so I was optimistic it would stay that way. After a fitness warm-up, the presenting of the flag, the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem, we lined up and were off!

Miles 1-2 9:35, 10:41

Mile 1 takes you around the track out the parking lot into the cypress tunnel trail and down to the beach. Since I was running this in place of the week’s tempo, I was perfectly content with mile 1. I also don’t think I could PR this course if I tried. 😝 Just before you exit the cypress tunnel to hit the beach you run through the drum line which is always awesome. Then mile 2 starts. And I pretty much came to a standstill. I’ve run 6 races on the beach but I still have no idea how to run over soft dune sand. I just keep sinking. I swear one of these times I am just going to take my shoes off and carry them. I tried to bring my pace back down once on the hard pack but the damage was done.

Miles 3-4 9:59, 10:03

I was tiring and that was not cool. I wasn’t even halfway, what was going on? I also noticed that there were more rocks and pebbles and things on the beach, then I realized how far up the beach we were. This was not low tide. We had to cross some rocks to get to the turn around point. Little rocks but they were still wet. The half marathoners were scrambling over big rocks as they kept going. To my untrained eye, it seemed like the tide was coming in but I had to have been wrong. How were the half marathoners going to come back?! Once at the turn around, I knew I only had 3 miles left and told myself to pick up the pace. Except I couldn’t seem to find another gear. The moisture in the air was aggravating my asthma but I just tried to ignore it. I just told myself to focus on running towards the rock.

From 2014, the tide was much higher on Saturday

Miles 5-6 10:42, 10:31

Damn, I’m consistent on the dune sand. Those miles are within 1 second of each other. I hit the dune sand with a lap pace of 9:40 for mile 5. By the time I was out, I was at 10:42. I was also regretting running without my headphones as all I could hear was myself sucking wind- ha! I was hoping to pick up the pace on the last mile but I was toast. The sun had come out the last 2 miles and it felt like the temp had jumped 20 degrees. Once more through the drum line and the cypress tunnel then back around the track to the finish. I saw my mother on the sidelines and tried to muster up a smile. Some of the pictures she shot show that smile, some show some truly horrible form. 😛 My Garmin shows that I picked up the pace for the last bit but I felt like I was running in quicksand.

Finish- 1:02:38
See, slowest one yet! 😉

Now, if my intention was to treat it as a true tempo for marathon training, then I mostly succeeded. My overall pace was right where I needed it to be even with dune sand miles. In all honesty though, I was hoping for a better showing. I don’t even think it was my time that disappointed me, it was how hard it felt. This was only 6 miles, how on earth am I ever going to run a marathon?!

All that aside, I still love this race. Sore calves, sand in my shoes and all. I look forward to running it next year. Maybe a little faster? 😉

San Francisco Marathon Training Week 9

Holy crap, I’m halfway there!

I’ve yet to decide if that is reassuring or reason enough for a panic attack. It could go either way, it just depends on the day. 😝

After week 8’s less than stellar showing I was really hoping for a better week. What I got was a learning week. And an injury scare. Then I finished it all up with a tough 10K.

Monday- 5 miles. I love seeing easy miles on the plan. However, I ran these too fast. I was about a minute under pace for the run. While it felt pretty good at the time, I wonder if this added to the issues that popped up later in the week. I also ran these miles in my Pureflow’s. I was thinking of wearing them for my race so I wanted put a few miles on them since I hadn’t worn them since the SLO half. My toes still feel squished but other that I remembered why I loved those shoes.

Tuesday- 1.25 mile w/u, 6 x 800, 1.25 mile c/d. Since I missed week 8’s speed workout due to a head cold, I decided to do it this week instead of jumping to the 1K repeats. 800’s are hard. The 600’s a few weeks ago had felt pretty comfortable, these did not, these were hard. I also had technical difficulties of the hilarious kind. I’ve been using the workout feature on my Garmin; I create the workout online and push it to my watch so I don’t have to try and track the intervals on my own. So I programmed in what I thought were 6 intervals of 800 with 400 meter recoveries. I felt like my first 400 m recovery was taking forever. I kept checking my watch but it kept saying 399.9. What? Come to realize that I had programmed my recovery at 400 MILES not meters. Oops!! So from then I just tried to ballpark when to hit the lap button to end each recovery. I underestimated each time, oops. My recoveries ended up being around .15.

My goal time for each 800 was 4:30-4:42. Actual times were- 4:28, 4:23, 6:38, 4:26, 4:24, 4:23. So yeah that 3rd 800? I had tried to see if I could fix the 400 mile recovery but not only failed, I had also started the run interval but not realized it. I think it would have been in the line with other ones though.

Wednesday- Rest My legs were feeling super sore. I wore compression socks to work and changed from boots to flats. That might not have been the best idea. I also had an appointment with my gastroenterologist and I have a shiny new elimination diet to start this week. During marathon training…yay? Also pizza night was a giant fail. Boo.

Thursday- ~~8 easy miles~~— 3.75 miles With a 10K race on Saturday, the plan was to swap my easy run and my tempo. My training plan advised against this as I was supposed to step up to 8 tempo miles this week but I really like this race. I still felt sore and tired so I headed to the river path to get in an easy 8. Ha! My legs hurt from the get go. My shins hurt, my ankles hurt, my arches felt off and my knees started to ache. I gave it 2 miles to see if it was all in my head and if I was going to be able to run it out. No dice. I called it at 2 and hobble ran/walked back to the car. It hurt. I went home and stretched, rolled and put on compression socks again. And tried really hard not to freak out. Thank you to Heather and Ashley for putting up with all of my whining text messages. 😂

Friday- Rest My legs were still super sore. I was beginning to question Saturday’s 10K.

Saturday- Bands on the Run 10K Could have gone better but I made it through it. More on that next post though. Why do beach races make my calves so sore?

Sunday- 15 miles- Rest My alarm was set for an early run but when it went off, I said no. I had started to feel the beginning of a headache Saturday night and tried to fight it off by sleeping with an ice pack. No luck, Sunday morning it was a full on migraine. I shut off the alarm and slept more hoping it would ease up and I could get some miles run in the afternoon. Unfortunately, all the afternoon saw was a 2 hour long nap. My head hurt so bad, I didn’t even complete this post in time to go up on Monday. Once again, I slept with an ice pack that night.

Hmmm, well 4 days is better than week 8 right? Unfortunately my overall mileage still hovered in the low 20’s. The leg pain kind of freaked me out and I am making an adjustment to my training plan going forward. I am swapping my Monday easy run for Wednesday’s rest day. I knew my training plan was intense for a Slacker like me, even with dropping Friday’s run from the get go. So now let’s see how I feel with 3 days in a row instead of 4. Cumulative fatigue is one thing, I am freaking tired. Plus, who knows how these dietary changes are going to go over? Fingers crossed! Hopefully, my legs will get me through the week. 😀

How was your week?

How many days can you comfortably run a row?

Who else raced this weekend?

San Francisco Marathon Training Week 8

Name Change!!

Let’s be real, who was I lying to? As if calling it “Week 21 Training Recap” meant I could bury my head in the sand a little longer? So, let’s rip the band-aid off. There should be an emoji for that.

If you’ve read my whiny, ranting post from Friday, you know that last week went a little sideways. After such a great week 7, I was hoping to keep the momentum going. But, well, life happens right?

Monday- Rest I had a doctor’s appointment where I had 3 excisions done. Why I thought I was going to follow through with running after that, I am not sure. One was even under my sports bra band so it’s not like I really wanted to put one on after that. Combine that with my car battery dying in the office parking lot and the day was shot. It was surprisingly hard to find a place that sold the battery to my car. My very common Nissan. Grrr.

Tuesday- Rest/ furniture moving I had what I called severe allergies start after my run on Saturday but by Tuesday, it was full blown head cold status. I could barely see out of my eyes and spent most of my time sneezing. I ended up leaving work early and went home. I treated myself to my go-to sick meal- In n Out- on the way home and then took a 3 hour nap. On the floor. 😝 Once I woke up, the rest of the evening was spent moving furniture in preparation for new carpet the next day.

Wednesday- Rest This time planned but I felt guilty. I should have been running. I still wasn’t feeling well but I made it through the full day at work before heading home to move furniture back into place. Apparently, I am not as strong as I once was. Some of that crap was hard to move!

Thursday- 3.4 miles Aborted tempo. What’s that saying about good intentions? I headed to the lake path to get in what was supposed to my last 5 mile tempo. Next week they jump to 8 miles. Holy crap! Anyways, back to this week. Let’s just say I should put my phone on Do Not Disturb when I run from now on. Of those 3.4 miles, 2 were at tempo pace. What was not cool was how hard they felt. So much harder than the week before. Had I finished my run I am not sure I could have held that for another 3 miles. That worried me. Ok, it freaked me out. Hence Friday’s post.

Friday- Rest Oddly enough, one of the excisions was really bothering me . Of course it was the one on my butt. Maybe it was just trying to make me sit less? Oh and the morning started with finding out that my debit card had been compromised. Not my main one but the one linked to my race account. Double Grrrr.

Saturday- 12 miles- I worked in the morning so I knew this would be an afternoon run. Luckily the temp was predicted for the mid 60’s so I wasn’t too worried about that. I used the timing as a training exercise, sort of. I’ve been trying to figure out what I can eat before long runs and races that my system will tolerate. I’m testing out various protein shakes as I seem to tolerate liquids better. So I had 2 pieces of sausage for breakfast and a protein shake at 11:30. The poor choice might have been the cookie I ate as well. 😝

That said, I headed out around 2 PM for my run. Overall, I kept my head down and just kept running. I was feeling ok and didn’t need any walk breaks through mile 5, I met with my mom halfway through mile 6 so I walked with her for 1/2 a mile. Then I ran on and just kept trucking. It was so windy, my hat was almost ripped off my head 3 times. My stomach cramped in bad way at mile 10. I stopped for a moment and breathed it out. I was only 2 miles from being done so I kept my break short and ran on. My stomach cramped again around mile 11.3 but this time I walked it out. Stupid stomach. I then ran on to finish my run. Other than the cramping issues, the run was pretty good. My pace was right in the middle of my long run range and it would have been even better without the the little break in the middle. Obviously I need to work on the fueling thing some more.

Sunday- 6.2 miles – The plan called for 6 but I wanted 8. Seriously, this was one of the slowest 10K’s of my life. Smash Run tells me it was my 47th slowest- yay! I don’t know what it was but I could not get it into gear. My legs felt fine but the rest of me just wasn’t out there. My pace was all over the place and by the end I was glad the plan only called for 6. I felt fine when I was done so maybe it was all in my head?

So yeah, 21.6 miles. About 15 short of where I had hoped to be. I am trying to find the shiny here and say that 21 miles is still pretty good for a Slacker right? We live and we learn and we plan for the week to come. Right? Right. #justkeeprunning I am still on the fence about Saturday’s half- partly due to indecision and partly because that account was cleaned out. Boo. I will get the money back and I will make a decision but right now I am playing it by ear. I also want to give the protein shakes another try. Any recommendations?

How was your week/ weekend?

Ever been hit by fraud? Someone had fun at a bar with mine. And tried to buy a suit. Weird.

Marathon Musings 2

It’s week like this that freak me out about marathon training.

Last week, I was riding the high of my highest mileage week ever and I was stoked. This week? Three days off… in a row. Oh crap, is the real Slacker back?

Cue freak out. The plan I am following is pretty specific. Do the work outs when and how prescribed. Be as consistent as possible. Yes life happens but try to keep the volume consistent and lower the intensity if needs be. Did that happen? No.

Poor planning and faulty equipment brought about Monday’s missed run. I had a procedure done and the odds of running afterwards were unlikely but I was holding out hope. Then my damn car died in the parking lot of the doctors office. Seriously?! I took it as a sign that I shouldn’t be running and sweating all over the new cuts I had on my body. I figured I could make up the missed miles on Friday. Maybe.

Tuesday called for 800’s and I was excited to run them. I kind of love intervals and wanted to see how I fared. Except, the worst allergy day of my life sent me home from work where I proceeded to nap for 3 hours. On the floor. Maybe it was a gnarly head cold but all I know is that it got progressively worse from Sunday until Tuesday when my right eye was almost swollen shut. What the hell.

Wednesday wasn’t much better. My eyes were open and I made it through a full day of work but still felt crappy. Running was out the question though. New carpet went in at home on Wednesday so that evening was spent furniture moving. Can I count that as a workout? I actually cleared 10,000 steps which I only do when I run. 😛

I did so good for 7 weeks but week 8 is kicking my ass. Now I am freaking out. What kind of fitness am I losing? Or not gaining? Next week’s intervals are supposed be 1K repeats. Do I stick to the plan or run the 800’s I missed? Next week also sees my tempos increase to 8 miles. I’m not ready! I need to reread the book again.

Speaking of next week- I am supposed to be running a half marathon on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. I was torn between using it as part of my long run or using it as my tempo since the miles are supposed to increase next week anyways. It’s on the beach so I figured marathon pace would be a good goal for it. Something made me double check the time. 10AM!!! What the hell!!! This is California for crying out loud. I have never had any race start that late. Not even a 5K.

I have a few concerns with this. 1- the temp. It’s in work town and the temperature is usually fairly moderate but I would be finishing after noon so who knows? 2- food. I don’t fuel before half marathons or long runs yet. But I am also used to a 7AM start for races. I think I would have to eat something before a 10AM race start. Which wouldn’t be a horrible thing since I do need to get used to fueling more. But that leads to concern 3. 3-bathrooms. Food could make me sick; my stomach has a proclivity for going wonky at the worst times. What do beach races usually not have? Bathrooms. Ok, technically, there are bathrooms at 2 points but they are off course and would add 1/4-1/2 mile if needed. Plus that would be across soft dune sand. Grrrr. I am seriously considering running the 10K instead.

So help me out…

Half marathon or 10K?

How much ~~damage~~ will this week set me back in marathon training?