Tag: Running

Every Other Day

With Monday being a day off for me and my team not making the volleyball playoffs, it was the perfect day for a run. However after running on Saturday and hiking on Sunday, that would be the third day on my feet. I haven’t run back to back days in months. Since cutting back a little I have been trying to run every other day. So I wasn’t too sure how it was going to go.

Get away from the zombies!! You run!! lol — Awe, Pinterest, you rock

It was kind of warm when I headed out but better than last Thursday. Once again I as running from Zombies. Actually I noticed that I have the chase feature disabled in the app so mostly I just listen to the story. Oops! Oh well, I will save that feature for when I feel up to speed work again. Sounds like it would be good for fartleks. My legs were tired and I was a little warm so I kept it to a short 3 miles. I clocked a low 11 mile for mile 2, woo hoo!

I admit that this week’s workout were planned around washing my hair. Is that pathetic? I have an all day work trip tomorrow, and getting up around 4:30 means I want to be ready as soon as possible which means no flat iron. I have to say that running every other day has helped my hair feel a little healthier. 🙂 But that’s not the point. A ~~lazy~~ quicker Thursday morning means no workout on Wednesday. Which in turn meant running on Tuesday. 4 days in a row? That was either going to be the worst run ever or not.

Sometimes the craziness of Tuesdays after a 3 day weekend makes me wish we had worked on Monday. I was late getting out of work and there was chatter of a storm coming in. By the time I got back to town the light was fading rapidly due to clouds and the wind had picked up. The river path runs adjacent to the street, so I figured I would try to squeeze in 3 miles. With my slower pace I wasn’t sure I would have the time and I also thought I might get cold since I hadn’t packed for a temperature drop. But bonus for packing a neon colored shirt! After walking a bit, I started running but still took walk breaks when needed. I thought I was going to have a problem breathing since the humidity was 63% but all was good. Maybe I finally figured out my inhaler? When I turned around and headed back it was pretty dark. I had the aid of a slight downhill section so I booked it. My lungs and stomach held and I ended up clocking a 9:47 in mile 3. Best mile I’ve run since August, woo hoo! I’m not sure if it was the weather or feeling rushed or if it’s because my stomach has been slightly better but I’ll take it. 🙂

Now it’s off to bed for me, I have a long drive in the morning and I do not like long drives. Let alone ones followed by a day long seminar. Any tips for staying awake? I slept through almost every college class, something about enclosed places and no air. I’ve already plotted the locations of McDonald’s along the way. 🙂 Not for the food but for the cheap Diet Soda. Caffeine is a must tomorrow.

How has your week been?

Run any awesome miles lately?

Tell me I’m not the only one who washes their hair every other day?

Seriously, tips for staying awake at a seminar? Oh that’s followed by an exam?

Too Many Lightbulbs

Happy Thursday!!! This post kind of ended up as a brain dump, so join me for a random ride.

Getting Nowhere-

Yesterday was my appointment at USC. I was nervous going in. I was afraid they were going to say there was something really wrong with me. I equally afraid they were going to tell me that it was all in my head. I was concerned they might tell me stop or cut back running. What I wasn’t prepared for was a cranky older doctor with such a thick accent I asked him to repeat himself at times. He implied that my current gastro is not the brightest and disregarded my previous diagnosis and 4-5 years of symptoms and focused only on those of the last 4 months. He is sending a list of tests to my doctor for him to run. One of them is something I have been asking for so I guess that’s a win. Actually everyone there was a cranky pants. They need to work on their bedside manner.

Getting Slower-

I’m trying to adjust to the fact that 11-12 minute miles are my normal now. And that sometimes even that normal is hard. Today’s run was closer to 13. Then again, it was 95º and I have had less than 9 hours of sleep in the last 48. So I was happy to get it done and still felt good about it at the end. Forward motion right? On the downside, I ran the lake path on Tuesday and saw a sign saying they are closing the path. Effective yesterday. Boo. I though at least another month before I lost it to darkness, now it’s gone so they can clean the lake bed. But I did get one last day in the dirt to break in new toys. Still more on that later. 🙂

Zombies-

Even though I have accepted that I need run slower right now, sometimes seeing it makes me cranky. So I finally downloaded Zombies, Run as a distraction. Yes, I am about a year behind on that. It sounded silly but I thought why not. It’s amusing and I found that listening to spoken words slows me down better than when I was pacing myself. Apparently I need more brain power to process the story, ha! It doesn’t require anything more than running and the story plays out in the background. I also talk to it, oops. So the character just survived a helicopter crash and is running for their lives. But along they way they are supposed to pick up supplies. Like batteries and water and first aid kits, etc. Oh and underwear and sports bras. Did I miss the part where I stole a horse and buggy to carry all this?! The first run picked up 28 items. How would a person carry all that and still out run a mob of hungry zombies? Oh, and 4 of those items were boxes of light bulbs. Maybe the runner wrapped them in the underwear and sports bras? Otherwise how are they not just shards of glass? Ok, maybe I am thinking too much about this. 😛 But like I said, it’s a distraction.

#bakingfail-

I saw a recipe for Halloween Bark over at backatsquarezero.com. Let me preface this by saying I have no talent in the kitchen. None. But this only had 3 ingredients, I thought I could make that. Yeah, umm no. Did you know chocolate could burn? In a microwave? I didn’t. After that I had to scale back the amount I was making. I sort of stumbled through the rest. The end result- not pretty. But damn tasty! I took it to work and we ate all of it. 🙂

So what random thing did you do this week?

Ready for the weekend? Anyone racing?

Ever run with Zombies?

Have any baking tips for dummies?

Sayonara September

September was synonymous with stress. Anyone else have that feeling? I didn’t even have to deal with the biggest stressor- back to school. Starting with the last 2 weekends of August, I had something going on every weekend since. Either work events or work, races or the festival. I call myself Slacker for a reason; I like a weekend where the only thing I need to plan is if I want to run before or after lunch. I am so looking forward to this weekend, I swear I am sleeping until after 9 on Saturday.

But all whining aside, let’s talk numbers. I said I needed to step back and have a few more rest days and I followed through. September is my lowest mileage month yet. But that’s ok because I am finally listening to my body, it only had to shout for a while. 🙂

Miles-61
Races-3

Ventura Half Marathon –
HOB Fun Run 10K
HOB Fun Run 5k Going forward into October (how is it October?!) I will continue to take it easy. Running only 3 days a week and hopefully cross training 2. I am trying to work on slowing down my paces until I figure out this asthma thing. That’s actually a lot harder than it sounds. Sometimes I feel like I am crawling but running a 9:00 minute pace, other times I feel like I am really pushing and look at my watch to see an 11:00 minute pace. Time to focus on trying to run by feel, fingers crossed.
Me these days.

I also want to have fun. Health issues aside, the 5k last weekend was fun. I wouldn’t mind a few more of those. At this moment, my race calendar is completely clear. I had wanted to run 2 half marathons in October and 1 in November, so now I am looking for fun 5k’s. I was also hoping to run a trail race in November with my mom again but it’s been pushed to January for some reason. However that actually works better. 🙂

Funny thing about my 62 miles? On Tuesday I was super tired but wanted to hit 60 miles for the month. I was at 57.5, so I told myself I only needed 3.5 miles to hit 60. See a problem there? While running I wanted to quit at mile 2.5 but my lack of math skills were still in full force. It wasn’t until I added the run into Nike+ that I realized my error. Seriously?! Basic addition and I mess it up.

Happy October! Happy Friday!

Anyone else add wrong running?

Any awesome October plans?

HOB Fun Run Recap

91/94 would be a pretty good test grade, right? It’s less awesome however when it is your race standing. But let’s backup.

I worked the packet pickup- late registration table for the race on Saturday. It went really smooth, mostly pickups for the 10k. It seemed like most of the 5k runners were going to pick up on race day. It also looked like there were more runners this year. It’s kind of cool watching things go up from the other side. And seriously how cute is this?

Race day dawned gray and early. Gray–clouds and fog–bringing humidity. Ugh. I honestly can’t think of the last time this race didn’t happen in perfect sunshine. I used my inhaler and told myself not to think about it. I was the only one of my group running the 10k so it was just me and my nerves at the starting line. Knowing so many people at this race always stresses me out, and that was before I saw the Aggie’s show up.

The Aggies are a run club based in northern California and they have some serious talent. They show up en masse, all in black and just run. They usually do multiple loops of the course outside of the races. They have zero body fat and hardly ever look winded. This course is flat and fast and used to be a USATF certified race. There used to be 2 10k’s and 5k’s, one for the Open/Masters runners and one for the rest of us. Even without the certification and extra races, the HOB fun run stills does one rare thing for small races- cash. Prize money is rewarded to the top finishers. Spoiler alert- Aggie’s won both races. Seriously fast and intimidating.

Then it was go time and we were off! My only goal for the 10K was to run a solid race. I wanted to maintain a 10:00 pace. I set my Garmin for intervals- 6:30 run and :30 walk. I felt pretty good in mile 1 so I was hopeful for the next 5. Mile 2 I was hit with the worst side stitch ever. I don’t get side stitches, I think I have had maybe 3 in 5 years of running. Those 3 were all up under my right ribcage, this one was low on my right side. It hurt so damn bad I briefly wondered if that was what an appendix bursting felt like. I am used to stomach pain but this hurt. What gives?

The pain finally eased as I hit mile 3. Before I could breathe a sigh of relief, I noticed that breathing was getting harder. Oh come on! Out came the inhaler again and the rest of the race was walking interspersed with bits of running. I was lapped by the lead runners (Aggies!!) on my first lap. Ouch. I kind of wanted to hitch on a ride on the police motorcycle leading them. As I kept trucking I decided that my new realistic goal was to just not be last, I thought I might be able to pull that off. 91 out of 94- not last! Time- 1:08:03.

doesn't everyone do this? — doesn’t everyone do this?

I crossed the finish line as a pale, shaky mess. My inhaler helps loosen my chest but my heart was racing and I could not stop shaking. I drank some gatorade and grabbed my bib for the 5k. This pissed off my mother. She wanted me to quit but I know that standing still and sitting make the shakiness worse. The more I think about it, the more anxious I get and that just makes it worse. Walking helps so I figured I would walk it out in the 5k. R hadn’t been feeling well so I figured we could walk it together. I had trouble getting the new bib on but managed just before the whistle.

I’m not completely crazy, a little over a mile in I felt a little better. We just kept walking. From mile 2.5 on, other racers are coming back on the other side of the road. R and I got to wave to C and her husband as they ran by, they broke 30! Right behind them was T and her husband. She roped him into running it at the last-minute and it was their first race. They rocked it, finishing under 30 too! I was able to take action shots of them running. 🙂 It was R’s first race as well and I felt bad for slowing her down but it was fun walking it together. Then we crossed the finish line and we were done! Time- 42:37.

Other than the requisite lingering tightness in my chest, I felt better. The walking did help. We hung and chatted a bit and took a bunch of pictures. T and R really had fun so hopefully I can get them to run more races with me in the future. Insert evil genius laugh. 🙂 I was also looking for my mother; turns out she was so mad at me that she walked home. Oops.

The kids half mile race was up after the 5K. As time was getting closer to start, more kids were coming to the start/ finish area. The DJ changed to Gangham Style and 90% of the kids started busting a move. It both hilarious and adorable at the same time. Some of those kids had moves! I actually headed out before the race began, I felt better but I knew I needed rest. No pancake breakfast for me!

Neither race went how I had hoped but I had a fun morning. Friends really can turn around a rough morning. Especially when we are all wearing the same shirt. 🙂 I was also able to catch up with another SLO ambassador who ran the race as well. This is still one of my favorite races. Next year I will conquer the Fun Run… and have fun. 🙂 But T? No tutus.

I’ll leave with my new medal model- Kimi-

A Little Predicament

My next race is now less than 5 days away. It’s actually the very first race I ran and one of my favorite races- the HOB Fun Run. Also a little nerve wracking because it’s one race where I see a lot of people I know. Performance anxiety!! This will be my fifth year running it. The first 3 years I ran the 5k and last year I was a little crazy. I ran the 10k… and then the 5k. The 10k was a PR (55:57) at the time and the 5k was run with C and her husband.

Originally my plan was to warm up for a mile, run the 10k, run the 5k. That would bring me to 10 miles and I was going to treat that as the last double digit run before the City to the Sea half. This year with my lovely GI issues (and no City to the Sea), I am torn on what to run. I want to be just as crazy as I was last year. Question is can I reign myself in, take it easy and still have fun? The way I see it I have three options-

A- Run the 10k-easy, spectate the 5k
B- Skip the 10k, run the 5k-moderatly
C- Run both and practice pacing and breathing

Thing is, the 10k has an unofficial time limit of 1:15:00. Both races have a loop course, the 5k is one loop and the 10k is two loops. The 5k starts at 9:15 and the 10k at 8:00. If I take it easy on the 10k, I am hoping that would be around 1:01-1:03 ish. Which would give me 10 minutes to stretch and hydrate. I know I can finish the miles, the question is how well and will it be fun. I have friends running the 5k as well. If I run with C and her husband, it’ll be around a 30 minute 5k- last year was 30:22- assuming I can stay with them. I also have one friend running a little slower than that, and a couple more that will be run/ walking with a stroller. So I have plenty of people to run the 5k with no matter the pace.

I am working the late registration/ packet pick up table on Saturday so I have until then to decide. So help me out!

What are your thoughts?

Ever run a race 5 years in a row?

Ever run back to back races?