Tag: Running

Didn’t Suck

You know those motivational images that say that no one ever regrets a workout?

So true. Seriously, never regretted a workout. You could be sore, or sorry tomorrow. You choose.

Yeah, that’s the one. Lies, all lies. I’ve regretted numerous runs. Multiple times I forced myself out there to only to have it be a truly miserable experience. The way Tuesday shaped up I had a feeling I was going to regret that run.

Lately, I look forward to my run in the mornings but by the time I get I off work I am usually exhausted and that enthusiasm wanes. Tuesday was more of the same. I so wanted to go home and sit in my comfy chair and do nothing. But I changed and headed for the river path to get in 4-5 miles. As I was driving there were so many things against this run.

Wrong shoes
Wrong socks
I forgot my headphones
I forgot my belt
My inhaler was also in my belt
My side/ stomach had hurt all day

So yeah, this was going to be awesome.

I always leave my belt in my car after running but my mom had given me a ride after Sunday’s long run and I never put it back in my car. Same story with my headphones. I have a box of spare running gear in my car but I don’t like them, that’s why their in the box. 😃 But I sucked it up, dug out my old Flipbelt and Yurbuds and attempted to run. Less than a 1/4 mile in I was reminded of why I dislike those items so much. The cord on the Yurbuds is like 4 miles long and bounces incessantly no matter how you wrap it around your belt. Then there’s the belt. I know everyone loves the Flipbelts but they just don’t work for me. I realize I wear my belt super low, I mean low, so it’s partly my fault. That just doesn’t work with the Flipbelt. It ends up being more like the poor man’s version of a butt lift. 😄 Plus it tends to move around.

My stomach hurt so there were plenty of walk breaks and a few complete stops along the way. I ran 2 miles completely and the rest was a mish mash of running and walking. I was hoping I would at least hit 4 miles but my stomach hurt and then I got a little emotional so I called it at 3.74. To get to 4 I would have had to run past my car and back and I just wasn’t up for that.

As if I didn’t already know, this run helped prove why people say runners are crazy. Or slightly masochistic. For all that this run had against it, it didn’t suck. It was far from amazing but it was also far from horrible. Oddly my form felt better than it has in weeks. Actually, those 2 miles I managed to fully run were in the low 9’s. So yeah, it didn’t suck. I needed that.

How was your week?

Ever have a run that didn’t go as poorly as you thought?

Happy Friday!!

Bye July/ Week 8 Recap

First up, let’s talk about July. July did not see the mileage increase that I was hoping. Between a week of feeling meh some achy legs and well life, the number didn’t grow. Instead, my mileage held steady. Which for right now, I am calling a win.

Miles- 64.30
Races- Shoreline Half

So let’s move on to last week’s training!Monday- 4 Miles

This run sucked. There are no other words for how much I hated this run. There was some reason I was running on Monday instead of a rest day like usual. Except even then, I couldn’t remember why. Maybe it was a combo of all the fair walking on Saturday plus the speed work on Sunday but my legs would not work. I knew I was tired and was aiming for a nice easy run at recovery pace. Instead I got a jumbled mess- 14:09, 10:51, 10:08, 9:43. Even walking felt funny at the beginning so I walked more. Then I ran too fast when I did run. But even that felt like I was slogging through peanut butter while running. Tuesday- Rest

Awesome. Plus I enjoyed Monday’s usual pizza night just a day late. I said 80/20 paleo right? But even more shocking- I left the building! Haha. But seriously, I can count on 2 hands the number of times I’ve left the building during work for the last 2+ years. I had to get my book swap package in the mail so I decided to walk on down to the post office. It was farther than I thought in heels- oops!

Wednesday-

Seriously, is Wednesday a black hole? Why can I never remember it?Thursday- 4.26 miles

Same route as Monday but a better run overall. My mom met me there so I ended up walking the first mile with her. 15:01, 10:08, 9:41, 9:09. Seriously, what is with this route and the progression miles? One of these days I will get my weekday runs back up in miles. One day. I meant to run slower due to achy legs but nothing seemed labored so why not?

Friday- Rest

I survived cookie day unscathed! Woo hoo!! Plus grocery shopping for all the veggies. 🙂

Saturday- Rest

Walked around SLO most of the day and did a little shopping. I really mean little- I bought one shirt. But I got my steps in so yay! I also woke up to an email regarding the HP swap I signed up for that had me scrambling all day. Let’s just say I am starting over…only 2 weeks from ship date. Well crap. Is it odd that I think the time crunch pressure might be fun? I ended the evening at movies. We saw Mission Impossible. Not my choice but I was outvoted. It wasn’t bad. I also ate way too much popcorn.

Sunday- 7.3 mile long run

My mother was going to clean/ organize the tennis courts so my plan was to run early and meet her there then she would give me a ride home. I was feeling rough that morning so I set out a little behind schedule. I then walked the first 10 minutes just to make sure I was even ready to run. Other than that first mile I maintained a 10:30 pace for the rest of the run. I am completely ok with that pace for a long run right now. It was just under 5 miles to the school and I finished the rest on the track. Mile 4 makes me laugh. I hate running the bridge across town and tend to pick up the pace there. As much as I can with 4 stop lights that is. Then a hill hits you in the face so you slow down. 😐 Outside of the obnoxious humidity (68%!) I liked this run. I felt pretty good afterwards. 😃 Oh, and I meal prepped salads for lunches for the week. Who am I?

All in all, an average week. I felt tired all week so I passed on my speed work. I am sure smoothies for lunch and cutting back on soda added to the tiredness but I anticipated that so I planned to take it easier this week. My mileage stayed pretty consistent to previous week so that’s a plus at least. Going into this week, I have some scheduling issues but I would like to see the miles increase. Pace will depend on how I feel with my stupid stomach and new (goal) eating habits. Fingers crossed! As for August? Keep on keeping on. 😄

How is your training going?

Any streets/ bridges you dislike running?

Seen any good movies lately?

What are you looking forward to in August?

Not Ok

When your doctor sounds completely bewildered by your test results it means one of two things. Either it’s time to find a new doctor or you’re just extra special. I haven’t quite decided which one to think yet. Maybe both.

If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ve heard me whine, moan, complain about my stupid stomach. Actually I usually call it something much more colorful, it has a few nicknames. Speaking officially, it’s gastroparesis with a side of GERD. Or is that the other way round? GERD was diagnosed about 12 years ago, and gastroparesis about 5. It was all handled pretty well until June 2014. Things since then have been one giant flare. Which has brought on numerous tests, multiple medicines and some more dietary restrictions. Yay. I’ve run too many medicated races in the last year+. Not ok.

I’ve tried to not complain too much on the blog in the past couple of months but I think I failed. I have been quiet about how rough things have become. My left side pretty much aches all the time. I’ve been retaining water, air, something- who knows- to the point that I look puffy and swollen most of the time. And people have started to comment on it. I’ve been waiting for someone to ask when I am due since half the time I look pregnant. Trust me, I’m not. But my new stretch marks say differently. Any pictures you’ve seen recently have all been taken from very odd angles to try to hide it. I am once again living in dresses. And my running shorts have turned almost scandalously short. Not ok.

It also finally clicked that my side is affecting my sleep. I may be a night owl but normally when I do fall asleep, it’s next to impossible to wake me up and I always stayed in the same position. Curled up on my left side, always. I’ve tried to sleep in other positions but always ended up back on my left side. I haven’t been able to sleep on my left side in months. Grrr. Oh and my side talks. Seriously everyone at work has heard it. Sometimes it sounds like a whale. At least that’s what a coworker used to say. Other times a plane. And not in the I’m hungry, let’s growl way. It moves too. Yay me.

So when the doctor ordered another CT scan, I was torn about it. As much as you want answers, you also don’t want anything to be really wrong. It’s kind of a catch-22. I’ll also say that the results could have been so much worse. But words like collapsed and mass are not things you want to read on a medical report. Or hear from the doctor who sounds completely confused. So now I wait while they are requesting yet another test to try and figure out what is going on. But I can’t just wait.

I haven’t had the best luck with Atkins. Partly because it was a little tricky and partly because I cheated too often. It was an interesting 3+ months. I also didn’t like that a lot of the options that were “low-carb” had an ingredient list 5 miles long. And most of them were words I couldn’t even pronounce. Also, I can not get into Quest bars, I don’t understand the fascination with them. That consistency is just odd. It was a little too easy to eat crappy food as long as it fit within my carb limits for the day. If you ask my mother, Atkins made me worse. My side’s hurt longer than that so not true. She also questions if I should be running at all. Doc didn’t say to stop but I also didn’t ask. I figured I would stick with 3 days running and slow down my easy runs. That’s not a lot.

So for plan b (or is it plan f now?) I am wading into the Paleo waters. I’ve mentioned it in passing before but never followed through. Now I am really going to give it a try. Baby steps, but I am going to try. The plan was to start this week but if you read my last post, you know I cheated more than few times last week. Instead I started this week with the Slacker version of a reboot. Starting Sunday, breakfast and lunch were all fruits and veggies via smoothies. Dinner was usually more veggies. It was surprisingly easy. Except for Wednesday night, I had a serious case of the munchies. All I wanted was cake or ice cream. Seriously, if the fair wasn’t in town and making traffic crazy I might have headed to the donut shop. Thankfully, it passed. I wasn’t expecting miracles but I don’t feel worse, maybe just a little more even. So, I’m calling it a win. My mother told me I looked less puffy today. 😉

On another note, since last week I’ve cut my Diet Coke intake in half. Slacker say what?! Normal for me was 2 a day. Now those 2 were 32 oz. One in the morning and one around 2:30. I only drink soda at work or when I’m eating out. I don’t even buy it for home. Combine those sodas with my usual over indulgence in water and I drink a lot of liquid throughout the day. 😃 I still commute so I added black coffee in the morning to keep me alert. Baby steps, right? I don’t think I will ever give soda up completely. It’s my one vice. Seriously, it tastes amazing after a race.

Now my challenge is to get through the weekend without backsliding too much. I also need to double check my list for my first paleo grocery trip this weekend. I can do this right? Can I get through cookie Friday?! Will this help? I have no idea but at least I am doing something while I wait. I’m not even aiming high, I would like to follow the 80/20 rule with this new plan. Mostly because pizza, and the previously mentioned Diet Coke.

Thanks for listening to me whine.

Any Paleo tips?

What’s your vice? What one food could you not give up?

Week 6 Recap- Really?

I know I picked a longer training cycle but how is week 6 over already? Picking a longer cycle seems to have been a good choice so far with work being crazy, my odd leg issues and other various issues popping up. The plan is detailed enough to give me guidance but flexible enough I can move things around. And things moved this week.

Monday- Rest

Ahh, glorious Monday Rest day. Coincidentally also Monday Pizza night. 😉🍕

Tuesday- 4 miles easy.

Like I mentioned in my last post, this run made me nervous. While my leg ached it didn’t outright hurt. I tried to focus on my form and make sure that my left leg was actually coming around and not just shuffling along. I pulled off a nice negative split for the run but gravity helped that along. 🙂

Wednesday- Rest

I have to start writing these recaps as the week progresses. I can’t even remember what I did other than work on Wednesday. I think pizza may have been involved. Oh, I got my CT results. Yeah, more on that next post.

Thursday- 7 miles long-ish run

I love half days. Granted, they mean working on a Saturday but those extra few hours on weekday rock. I decided to try and get my long run out of the way. With my leg still being achy, I had already decided that instead of the 10 that had been on the plan I was aiming for 7-8 miles. I headed to the lake path, while running multiple loops can be boring I would be near my car if my leg started hurting. It was warm but not too bad. There was one section of the lake that resembled the surface of the sun and I felt like I slowed in that section every time. I completed the first 5 miles by taking a .10 mile walk break after each mile to shake out my calf area. I noticed that walking wasn’t helping so for miles 6 & 7, I tried something different. I stopped my Garmin and started a new run. Instead of walking, I took a short 20-30 second pause if I needed to stretch. My running pace dropped by 20 seconds and overall it only added 2 minutes to my run vs the 5 minutes walking. Overall, I am not sure if I learned anything but it was an interesting experiment. 😏

Friday- Rest day

I lost the battle with the cookies.

Saturday- Active Rest day

The morning started with a drive out to Saturday work town. I headed home after work as my mom and I had plans to head to the fair for the afternoon. The fair comes once a year and runs almost 2 weeks. The town goes a little insane but it’s fun. I can usually hear the concerts out my window too, so bonus! I’m not huge on crowds so I generally only go once. I have to get my funnel cake and pretzel, it’s a fair tradition. 😄 We enjoyed our yummy fair food and took in all the sights. I will never ride a fair ride but I love taking pictures of them.

She’s real!!

I always try to go on a night where I wouldn’t mind hearing the concert a little better, too. This year that was supposed to be Alice Cooper and Motley Crue. Except they had plane issues so the concert was pushed back. From what I could hear from home- Alice Cooper started playing after 10 and Motley Crue around midnight. I wonder how many people stayed. I wore my Fitbit to the fair and we walked well over 5 miles. Plus that thing is notoriously short on steps. I feel zero guilt for that yummy fair food. Maybe for the purse I bought.

Sunday- 5.5 miles Speed work

Somehow I was up early for me and made it to the track by 10. I wanted to try to complete the speed work I had skipped by running long on Thursday. The plan called for a 30 minute warm and 8x 1:00 @10K pace with 1:00 recovery and then a 15 minute cool down for 1:10:00. As I type this I noticed 2 things- 1) that math does not add up at all and 2) I thought it was 10x repeats so I did 10, ugh. The 30 minute warm up turned into 35 and I rode the struggle bus the entire way. I could not get my legs moving and my lungs weren’t much better. I checked the temp during a water break and noticed the 65% humidity. Ok, I get the complaining lungs now. I really wanted to blow off the repeats but I figured I would at least start them and see how it went. Since I didn’t want to see 500 splits with an odd overall average pace I ended my first run after the warm up and started a new one. Honestly, I have no idea what my 10K pace should be but according to my PR 16 months ago it was around 9:00. Didn’t think I had a shot in hell of hitting that.

1. 8:01
2. 8:13
3. 8:02
4. 8:12
5. 8:15
6. 7:55
7. 8:19
8. 8:21
9. 8:23
10. 8:21Well, that was unexpected. No lie, I walked the recoveries. I recently read another blog of someone much faster and stronger than me and they said they walked their recoveries. I swear it was like birds singing when I read that. 😊 That being said, I have no idea how I hit those paces when I was feeling so rough. I felt like a nasty, sticky mess when done so my cool down only ended up being half a mile. I was done. But all in all, it turned out to be a good run. Plus I love the track.

Over all, not a bad training week. I think I’ve finally accepted that I have some limitations right now so I am going to do what I can and see what happens. Going forward I would like to add in cross training and I think the stationary bike is the best option right now, I just need to get my lazy butt to the gym. Any bets on how long that will take me?

How was your week? Do you like the track?

Ever been to a concert that started that late? Would you have stayed?

What’s your fair food indulgence?

Mid Week Musings-3

Woo hoo, it’s Wednesday! WordPress tells me this is the third time I’ve posted with my mid-week musings, so here we go.

D.E.R- Smart Choices-

As in Don’t Even Register. I’ve never DNS’d a race because I register super late. I figure I’d rather pay $20 more than lose the whole registration fee. My post back in May laid out my summer race schedule. It listed a 25K trail race on August 1. Which I really, really want to run. But let’s be real here, I haven’t been on a trail since April. I am not in any kind of shape for a 3200’+ elevation gain. And it’s by the beach. Hello humidity. While I was struggling through the last humid miles at Shoreline, I came to the conclusion that a humid 25K just might kill me. That struggle bus was fueling some dramatic thoughts apparently. So, I decided that a 12K with 1400′ climb would be fine, a little fun with a little difficulty too. Then there was my leg and let’s be real there too, it’s been bothering me for a while now. It’s not a new thing. It’s not like I’ve never done dumb things before (i.e. Ventura half on heavy-duty antibiotics, a 5K after an asthma filled 10k -September makes me stupid) but I am trying to be smart here. So from 25K to 12K to 0. Which makes me cranky since our area has 2 trail races a year and this was the last long distance option until Fall 2016. Waah! Or so I thought. 🙂 The one I ran in January is coming back in November. 7 days after the Big Sur Half. Yup, I’m still crazy. Just not running next weekend. 🙂

That leg though-

After hiding from the lightning and thunder on Sunday, and the oppressive humidity left behind on Monday, I was ready to try running. Seriously, I’ve never seen 95% humidity in home town and work was a lovely 100% when I arrived that morning, thanks Delores. On Tuesday, I changed and headed back to home to run. I met my mom at the river path which was cool because I was actually really nervous to run so I ended up walking the first mile with her. From then on I tried to run and just keep things easy. I focused on how my leg felt and worked on my turn-over. I know my left hip drops and I need to work on my form. And now with no races in August, I can work on my form, like back to re-form school for slacker runners. Oof, that was bad. 🙂 Anyways, the run was pretty good. My leg felt achy but not in pain. I paused for a stretch break after each mile and I made sure to stretch really well after my run and later. I also iced my leg for a bit. Now, let’s see what happens.

Yeah, so not a clothing model

A Fab Choice?

Back on July 4th I finally caved to one of those Facebook ads and signed up for a Fabletic’s outfit. They were offering an outfit for as low $15 so I figured why not. After their little questionnaire, the site suggested a few outfits. I didn’t buy any of those but finally chose one on another page. Shorts, tank and visor for less than $20 after taxes. I wore the shorts and tank on Tuesday’s run. Somehow, I’ve already misplaced the visor. 😦 I sized up for both pieces which worked well with the shirt as I think my normal size would have been too small. The waistband on the shorts feels super loose so a smaller size may have worked but damn they are short in the back. The material felt slightly heavy when on and I was less than enthused with the shorts on that first mile. They kept riding up. Grrr. Somehow running made all the irritation go away. 3 miles of running and both pieces were perfectly behaved. I even forgot the shirt was new, it fit so well. The second I started walking my cool down, the shorts went back to riding up. WTH?! So, overall I am not hugely impressed but not overly disappointed either. More of a meh. Why can’t Lulu be more affordable?

Tips for correcting form issues?

Ever tried Fabletics? Thoughts?