Tag: Running

Sticking to a Plan

I am really trying to stick to my plan.  I want to go into 2015 and my spring races without feeling like I have to start from scratch after the holidays.  That said, a big part of my plan is flexibility.  So when my stomach was a butt head on Saturday, I ran 5 instead of 8.   However, I still followed through with my back to back days and did the 6 mile Cerro Alto hike.

Shorts in November?
Shorts in November?

Tuesday, I ended up getting a way later start than planned and was only able to get in 5 miles before dusk.  However, they felt pretty damn good.  They weren’t the speediest but they felt solid.  After a pretty great 5, I was eager to get running again on Wednesday.  But I was questioning if I should.  Vacation is hard, part of me wants to run all the miles but the more sensible part really wanted to stick my schedule and get comfortable with it.   I never did find a nearby turkey trot but was planning on doing a couple of miles with my mother.  Also, I knew that I would be spending Saturday or Sunday shopping so I started rearranging my running days in my head.   I started thinking I could squeeze 6 out of Thanksgiving and then run 8-10 on Friday.  With that in mind, I took Wednesday as a rest day since I know my body is not a fan of running 4 days in a row.

Oh such plans.  Thanksgiving morning rolled in and I woke with a sore throat and a headache and scratchy eyes.    I spent the day half in pajamas and half in running gear under a blanket on the couch.  I was cold and it was a balmy 75º in my neck of the woods.  My family had a very low key Thanksgiving.  We hung out and watched movies- Into the Storm, Lone Survivor, and Heaven is For Real. Interesting choices, right?  Luckily, we never really go overboard on Thanksgiving so I didn’t feel too guilty.  🙂  In fact, minor sickness aside, it was a pretty great day.

I found fall leaves!!!
I found fall leaves!!!

I don’t do the whole shop at night or at the crack of dawn thing, so I slept in on Friday.    I still felt a little off but better than Thursday.   After a small lunch and a couple of errands, I headed out for a few miles.   5 miles seem to have become my new go-to.   With just trying to complete both races in January before focusing on speed for SLO, there is no speed work built into my plan right now.  Plus, my stomach doesn’t really like it these days.   So any speed work that happens is just based on how I feel that day.  That said, I have been trying to work on a fast finish to most of my runs.   Usually by the end of races and runs, I am done, I can never kick it in to the end.  I figure my stomach should be able to handle that.

I will say it’s a lot easier on the treadmill.  Turn the speed up and just hang on.   Out on the road, I have to focus more.  All I’m aiming for is a speedy last half mile before cool down.  That’s not too long, right?  I felt like I pulled it off the last couple of runs.  My fast pace alert was vibrating my Garmin on Tuesday’s run but I never actually looked at it.   But then it just averaged in with the rest of the mile. Urgh.   So even though I was tired today, I used the lap buttons.   The last half mile comes right after hill that always kicks my butt.  I have never run it.   It’s short but steep and just makes me tired.    I hit the lap button as soon as I got to the top and started running.   Oh,man that was hard.  I felt slower than Tuesday, which made sense, and like there was no way I could maintain anything for a half mile.    I hit 5 miles, pushed the lap button and stopped the Garmin.    It wasn’t until I synced my Garmin with my phone that I figured out why it felt so hard.  I did what?!

Look at lap 6!!!!!!
Look at lap 6!!!!!!

Holy crap!  I realize that it wasn’t even a mile but still sweet!  Also not the pace I was looking for, haha!  I was aiming for the mid to high 8’s but I’ll take it!  Probably couldn’t pull it off again or maintain it for a full mile, but it’s still kind of cool.  🙂

How was your Thanksgiving?

Anyone join the crush of crazy shopping?  Any good deals?

Sunday Summit- Cerro Alto

Since the 25k is all trail, I gave myself some wiggle room in my training plan.   I can sub a climbing hike in as one of the longer runs.  So with that in mind, my mom and I headed out early Sunday morning to hike Cerro Alto.  We had last done Cerro Alto in January of 2013 and I remember it being a climb but pretty easy.IMG_7519 IMG_7523Either my memory is seriously faulty or I am completely out of shape, that climb kicked my ass.   Maybe my legs were tired from the previous day’s 5 miles or I was just tired but man that uphill seemed to go on forever!  In reality the hike we chose was 3 miles up to the top of the mountain and 3 miles down.   According to my Garmin, we gained 1700 in elevation.  However my Garmin crapped out for a 1/4 mile on the way up and 1/4 mile on the way down, so who knows.    The trail is measured fairly well and we have done it before so I know it should come in around 5.9 miles.  I never could tell where exactly it was that my watch had troubles, I was paying more attention to where I was putting my feet but I know it was after the 1.7 mark, because it was dead on until then.IMG_7538 IMG_7554 IMG_7564My mom and I kept pace together and power walked/ hiked up.  I honestly don’t think I could have gone any faster though.  In the end we got to the top in 58 minutes.   Which we were both kind of butt hurt about.  But looking at last years time, I noticed that we were 10 minutes faster, so woo hoo!   Did I mention that my mom wants to run the 25K too?  Well, hopefully.IMG_7571 IMG_7590 IMG_7596 IMG_7603After hanging out at the top a bit- and of course taking pictures- we headed back down.   The views were amazing, and the skies were clear but the top is super windy.  You get cold really fast.  No one really spends too much time at the top, as opposed to Valencia Peak where people often eat lunch at the top before heading back down.  IMG_7659 IMG_7612 Coming down is where things got sketchy.  We were looking to increase our pace and get a good idea of what we could maintain for the 25K.   About 1/4 of a mile down, the trail narrows and gets rocky and even more uneven.  You really have to watch where you put your feet.   At some point my mother stepped wrong coming off a rock.  Not sure exactly how it happened, but she went to walk ahead, froze and let out a 4 letter word.  Uh oh.   Stretching out and shaking it out didn’t help.  Every other step down the mountain was accompanied by pain and some colorful language.  I felt bad that I couldn’t do anything to help but also bad because listening to her was kind of funny.   She later agreed that she probably sounded interesting to anyone else on the trail.   But hey, at least we weren’t the 3 college age girls stopping to crack open beers at the mile 1 marker at 11 in the morning.  Nothing wrong with the beer but get to the top first! Or better yet, get to the top and then back down first.  Every mountain we’ve hiked so far has had memorials on it.  And the news frequently has stories about hikers having to be rescued from the local mountain trails.  IMG_7619Even with my mom being in pain, we were able to get back down the mountain in about 45 minutes.   Not too bad considering she was limping.    In fact, that was the only thing marring a great hike!  Unfortunately, she couldn’t rest just yet.  She and I then moved on to SLO to do some shopping while waiting to meet my dad and brother at Olive Garden for dinner.   I was treating my parents for an early birthday dinner.  Their birthdays are only 2 days apart in December.     I told her to make sure to RICE once home and take it easy the next couple of days.

I meant to get this up Tuesday but time just got away from me.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Anyone running a Turkey Trot?  I wanted to but the nearest one is an hour away and that just won’t work on Thanksgiving.  😦

Gone on any hikes lately?

Talking about Training

Most of my online feeds are full of training talk these days.   I don’t remember reading this much last year.  Then again my only goal last November and December was to not take a long break from running like I had in previous years.  I was constantly starting over every January.   In November 2013 I ran 60 miles and 34 in December, not much but miles above previous years.   My first race was always in March so I usually felt like I had time to catch up.    Beyond that was always up in the air.

This year is ending a little different.   With a 25K the last weekend in January and a half the following weekend I need to get my butt in gear now.  Combine that with wanting to finally break 2 at SLO in April, and they seem like pretty large goals for this Slacker.    Particularly when you factor in my track record with training plans.

Sorry Hal
Sorry Hal

Up until 2014, I trained my own way.   For the most part it worked for me.  But this year I had goals and goals need plans right?   For SLO, I used a Nike+ training plan that was just too much mileage for me.   I tried Higdon’s intermediate plan for Rock’n around the Pier in July.    It didn’t work out so well.    Ventura was an effort in denial regarding my stomach and lungs.   Oh and remember this gem?  Could I have made it any harder to understand?

Really?!
Really?!

I started training 12 weeks out from my 25k.  Following Surf City, I aim to take a week off before getting back to training for SLO.  That’s 11 weeks.    With my stomach still dictating most of my pace and never having run back to back double-digit races, my goal for January is to just finish both races- no real speed or time goals.    The plan is simple- run 4 days a week, try to cross train once.  The tricky part lies in the weekends- back to back runs of at least 6 miles per day, topping out at 12.  Even just typing that made me tired.  There’s a reason I call myself a Slacker.     🙂  I would like to throw in a speed workout every other week but that will be up to my lovely stomach.

Well, that failed
Well, that failed

If I can stick to this, I think hope that I will be starting the year with a solid base.  Hopefully that base will make me a stronger runner and I can really focus on speed for SLO.  Fingers crossed.    As for my plan- looking back I realized that my strongest half of the year was Wine Country in March.  Granted, I was also the healthiest then.  Barring an asthma issue during miles 5-7, I felt strong and ran 95% of it.   Damn stupid hill at mile 12.    And I trained my way- it was amazingly head game free- and I want to get back to that.

Pretty easy first two weeks. Next week steps up.
Pretty easy first two weeks. Next week steps up.

And how am I tracking my plan? A 90 cent student planner and pens because that is how I roll.   🙂    I’ve bought expensive logs and only used them a month.  I tried Daily Mile as a way to track and never followed through.  This fits in my purse, doesn’t take up a lot of space and I am hoping will be great incentive to keep it up! What can I say, I like filling in the purple for following through!

Happy weekend!

How do you train? Any suggestions?

What are your plans this weekend?

Call me Calamity

I feel like I have written a similar point in the past.  And I probably have.  Case in point- the nice line of bruises running up my spine from backing into the side of a door last week.  I have mad skills like that.  🙂

After getting off work on Tuesday, I headed to the gym.  I wanted to run but wasn’t looking forward to the treadmill.    I remembered my Garmin this time so I decided to see how it did tracking distance again.    I just put my phone on the treadmill screen/ display- what do you call that?   Every year it seems like it takes me a while to adjust to the treadmill.  I always feel a little sore when I first start running.  It wears off around a mile in but it’s still kind of odd.

I wasn’t feeling quite up to speed work but I decided to try to run as steady a pace as possible.  I wanted to see how far I could get before taking a walk break.    My lungs and my stomach behaved, woo hoo!   Looking at my splits later, it was kind of like a mini tempo run.  At least for what is my pace these days.  🙂  Barring a few issues, I ran 3.5 miles straight.

Little oops, but woo hoo!
Little oops, but woo hoo!

As for the calamity?  I wanted to run but I was having issues.  I kept the pace around 5.9  most of the time but kept punching the front of the treadmill.  At one point, I over balanced and had to pull myself out of a fall.  I think my arms were doing a little pin wheel at this point.   I righted myself, upped the speed a bit and kept plugging on.   Apparently my legs were feeling really good and wanted to go faster because I continued to run into the front of the treadmill.   So much so that I accidentally punched the stop button and the treadmill came to a halt.   How I didn’t smash my face against the front, I have no idea.

I managed to get the treadmill started fairly quickly and grabbed a drink of water while bringing it back up to speed.   I shouldn’t multitask.  The lid to water bottle went flying over a few treadmills and landed next to the ellipticals.  Seriously?!   I powered on for another mile before hitting what would have been mile 4 before I had to start over.  I decided to start my cool down but instead of hitting the speed button I hit the cord from my ear buds and knocked my phone down.  I watched it bounce on the treadmill and then slide offonto the ground.   Ugh.  Now I also had the attention of everyone running on the treadmills to my right.   In my efforts to slow down, I once again hit stop.  By the time I came to a stop, someone else had picked up my phone and handed it to me.  Thank you, kind stranger.

I decided I was done for the night.  I called it at 4 miles and just stretched out.  I was worried about not cooling down properly but I was taking the hint.  From everything I had seen on the machine readout and my Garmin, they pretty much matched minus my stop issue in the middle.   I didn’t look at my splits until later and when I did I was kind of happy.   I also noticed that I must have hit the split button at some point but don’t remember doing it.  All I see is that outside of my warm up, my average pace was under 10.  Woo hoo!!!  I haven’t seen that in months!

I came to find a delivery.  I’ve had a few fun mail days lately.  First I ordered a few books.  I am looking forward to reading 80/20.  IMG_7470Then I found out that my 25k in January only has one aid station.  I had to reassess the fueling situation, so I ordered myself a little something- well it’s not exactly small-IMG_7475I haven’t decided about it yet.  I really wanted pockets on the front and while I got those, I am wondering about how comfortable it will be.

How has your week been?

Ever feel achy on a treadmill?

Ever punch a treadmill?  Or worse- fall off?

Ever use a vest like this?  Thoughts?