After a day relaxing on Sunday, I was ready to run on Monday. I had planned on meeting M at the lake for a few laps. I was looking forward to taking it a little easy; my stomach was still a little wobbly from Saturday.
She was running late so I ran a lap before she got there. She arrived, got Baby G situated in her stroller and we were off. Seriously that baby is adorable! We kept a decent pace around the lake, her mostly pushing the stroller, sometimes I did. I have to say, why don’t jogging strollers have handles like an elliptical? It would make things feel so much more natural.
And mile 3, carrying Baby G 🙂 All in all 3.5 miles
Next lap around, baby G was kind of fussy, so we slowed and M carried her while I pushed the empty stroller. After about half a mile, we traded off again, she took the stroller and I took G the rest of the way. That baby has the best hearing, she heard things coming about behind us before I did. Again, so cute! Does carrying a 17 lb. baby for a half mile count as strength training? I joked that she now weighs as much as my cat… yeah he’s a beast.
Heli ( the Beast) in front, Kimi in the back
So today I planned on a rest day or a bike day, it was still in flux this morning, I was very undecided. Driving south on the freeway, I realized I felt naked… I had forgotten my fuel band!!! I have worn it every day since Christmas, how the hell did I forget to put it on? I almost turned around but that would have made me late. Ugh!
Naked wrist vs normal wrist 🙂
So I finally get home after work and my fuel band says a sad little 0. If I rest I won’t meet my goal and if I ride the bike, I won’t meet my goal either. So nothing else to do, I changed real fast, threw on my shoes and was down the driveway for a run. I figured 2.5 miles would make me meet my goal for the day. It would be short and quick but still good. Turns out I don’t know where the halfway point is for 2.5 miles from my house, oops, so I hit 3 at the bottom of my driveway. Oh well, 3 is better anyways, right? On the walk up my freaky driveway hill, I checked my fuel band… I was still 900 under my goal. WTH?! So I guess I don’t sit on my but as much as I thought I did at work. I usually hit my goal around the time I get off work. So I did some fake jump roping to get more points. I am sure I looked ridiculous, but I made my goal. And on the upside, I had dang good pace for an unplanned run, yippiee!
Tomorrow I have work and the first day of work school. So my day will be split between 2 towns before returning back to my home town to get a run in. And then…Vacation!!!! Only 2 days but hey, that makes a 4 day weekend 🙂 Woo hoo!!
Anyone else ever forget something that made them feel naked?
So the planned easy 6 for Saturday turned into 4 miles of hell. I put it off until late Saturday afternoon and I really did not want to go. But there was this little voice in my head nagging me into going. So I put on my shoes and headed out the door.
Mile 1 was slow and cranky; mile 2 was a little better. By mile 3, I was in trouble. Ever have a moment when your stomach just completely wigs out on you? Yeah, that happened. The last ½ of mile 3 and all 4 turned in a walk. I really needed to run but that was so not gonna happen. Ugh.
Today, I was just over it and decided not to run at all. So I went shopping instead. A little retail therapy never hurt’s right? Other than maybe your pocketbook. 🙂
I would like a new running belt so I decided to check out the options. I hit Dick’s, Sports Authority and The Running Warehouse… no luck. I currently have a Fuel belt, but it drives me bonkers. It bounces up and down while I run, no matter what I do. I have tried to wear with the bottles on the front, or with the bottles on the back, usually I end up wearing it with them on my side. I swear if I had any sewing skills and it wouldn’t hinder my movement, I would sew a leg strap to it, Tomb Raider style.
I have run my last 2 long runs and just carried a water bottle. I am debating if I just want to do that for my half marathon, but not sure. I need to figure it out though, I have less than 5 weeks to go. Eek!!
On the upshot, I did pick up some Nuunto try and I replaced the headband I lost around mile 11 of last half marathon.
New Toys!
I also found the best part of the season already for sale-
Yum!! Sugar and Carbs 🙂
Yeah for race fuel!!!!! And yes, I really use candy corn for my half marathons.
Ever have one of those runs that make you wonder why you started running in the first place? Yeah, Monday was one of those days. I like to call those runs Elephant runs.
To me, an elephant run is a day when your legs don’t seem to work. They feel like stone, and like they just fling in any which way. Except the way you want them to go. It also feels like your feet are louder than usual, like they hit the ground harder, but not in a good way. It’s all you can hear. This run wasn’t quite that bad but it was damn close.
After the race on Saturday, I had a company picnic on Sunday. Between the bus ride there and the event itself, that was pretty much my Sunday. As it was my only morning to get a little more sleep, I chose to take the day off. Figured it would just make me more rested for Monday. Ha!
I was just exhausted on Sunday; I was so tired that by the evening, I swear I regressed into a cranky toddler. Not good. Plus I still felt a little ill. Monday was actually a pretty good day at work. I didn’t feel a hundred percent, but then does anyone ever really? I left work ready to run.
The plan was to do around 3.5 miles at the lake. I was aiming for a mile warm up, 2 miles of speed work and a half mile cool down. Since I was at the lake and not the track, I knew that the speed drills were not going to be exact, but why should they only been done on a track? It’s not like the races I do are run on the track.
I was hoping for 4 sprints per mile during the 2 miles. From the second I started running, it was horrible. Just crappy. I felt like my legs were made of lead. Ever seen that e-card about running though peanut butter?
Yeah, I felt like that. I wanted to quit a half mile in. I pushed through but felt like I was crawling. The 4 sprints in mile 2 turned into 3 and the 4 in mile 3 turned into 2. Plus it was more like the sprints were just running and the cool down in between was almost walking. I felt completely off, it made me so frustrated! I took a picture of the lake because I thought it looked like I felt-totally drained.
An empty tank
24 hours later, I am still frustrated with how it felt but I have gained a tiny bit of perspective. The pace of the miles actually didn’t suck. Monday I was so cranky, I barely looked at the Nike app. Looking at it today made me feel a little better. I am still a little nervous about my next run. Plus this week is a little busy, so I am trying to figure out how to fit in a 4-miler before the weekend. Today probably would have been the best day but after yesterday that was not gonna happen. I took the day off. Call it a mental health day. Those are important to training too, right?
If anyone has ever had runs like this, I am sorry, but I feel your pain.
Thursday and Friday were planned rest days, even if Thursday was far from restful. Work was crazy and I had my first class that night. I got good news at work but I was too tired to muster up much enthusiasm. Thankfully, Friday was better. I finished the day with some lovely carb heavy French toast and getting my things together for today’s race. I was excited!
So yummy!!!!
I woke this morning with my usual nervous stomach. Since my goal today was to just have fun, what did I have to be nervous about? Nothing but try telling that to my tummy. I have trouble eating food before any race, even my half marathons; I tried a Belvita cracker today. Not a lot but it was still better than usual, I ate 2! Since my race photographer (aka mom) has been complaining that I run every race in all black, she claims it makes it hard to find me in a crowd, I picked out some of the brightest clothes I own.
Can you see me now?
The race was about 45 minutes away, so I set out with enough time to meet up with my friends about 30 minutes to the starting whistle. Yea for race buddies!!!! My friend, C and her husband are the ones that have run the most races with in the past but it’s been since a Turkey Trot debacle last November that we have made our schedules work. Hopefully we are back on track now!
Buddies!!
This race claimed to be in its 25th year but it need some better organization. The starting line was a chalk line and there was no electronic timing. Yea for the Nike+ app! When picking up your race bib, you were told to fill out the bottom portion. Not being told why, I figured it was for a raffle and didn’t bother since I never win anyways. There were no race shirts or finishing medals. About 15 minutes to go time, my friends and I were catching up when a very perky announcer and friends held an impromptu jazzercise class as a race warm-up! Definitely a race first for me.
a little step ball change
The horn sounded and we were off! I wore the wrong belt so the Nike app had 13 seconds on it before the race officially started, oops. Told myself to remember to subtract that off later. We started out on the street headed for the beach and the boardwalk. About 2/3 a mile in, we cut across a parking lot to get to the boardwalk. I saw some painted arrows on the outside of the lot so I followed those while everyone else cut across. I was thinking that everyone was trying to cut a little mileage off along the way, but nope, think I followed the 10k line. Both races merged at the boardwalk so I was back on track. Just in time for Nike to say my mile 1 stats. Mile 1- 8:38, hell yeah, a new mile record for me!
woo hoo!
Running the boardwalk my music crapped out. I think I am done with particular music app. I debated if I wanted to fix it or just run without but eventually slowed down to start another playlist and snap a picture or two. Like I said, today’s goal was to have fun. Still I felt I was maintaining a decent pace. That all ended when we hit the dunes.
Run more, snap less photos
Running on hard pack sand at the ocean line is kind of nice. Running on soft loose dune sand? That sucks, literally and figuratively. I felt like every time I tried to lift my foot, the sand pulled it back. Plus the trail narrowed to single file and it was almost impossible to pass anyone. It turned into a bottleneck, not fun. Once out of the dunes, we had to cross more soft sand to get to the hard pack. Once there the 5k runners went right and the 10k went left to the pier. I went right across the beach to the next left which brought us to more soft sand. Once we crossed that, we went up the ramp and were then back on the street. I felt like I had 2 pounds of sand in my shoes.
Running past the last water station, I felt tired. That sand had taken a lot out of me and the weather was muggy. Because of the race the traffic was backed up on the street, but instead of the drivers yelling angrily, they were giving shout outs and encouragements to the runners! It was great, you would start to drag a little and then someone would yell out “keep going, you look awesome”! Can I hire people to do that at every race?
Can you tell when I was taking pictures?
I rounded the corner to the end and crossed the finish line at 30:03. Turns out bottom portion of my bib was needed to staple to the card that said I finished 15th. Oops, nobody told me that! After a little lecture by the lady at the finish line, they just wrote my name and age on the card and placed it in a little bin. Met up with my mom and waited for my friends to come across. They came in a few minutes behind me. 🙂 Awesome! As we were chatting, we figured I went a little too far in the beginning. Nike had me at 3.2, so I didn’t get really lost. We did a head count and C and I figured out we were some of the first women to cross the finish line. So did that mean we made age division leaders? The awards ceremony wasn’t supposed to start until 10:15, did we want to wait that long?
We also figured out that the race clock was a little off. My mom said that it had stopped working at some point while we were running, and their solution was to bang on it. Umm, ok then. So Nike had me at 30:11 for 3.2 miles. Take off the first 13 seconds and that is 29:58. Hmmm, I like that number better. Hehe, either works but oh well it was still fun.
My friends had to leave before the awards ceremony since 10:15 turned into 10:45. It was so cold waiting around. Again, the race could have been better organized. They finally started announcing the age groups. I was waiting for the 30-39. Starting with 3rd place and it was C! Luckily they let me pick up her medal. I placed 2nd for our age group. Woo hoo!!! This is an upside to smaller, local races.
2nd Place!!!! Shiny silver 🙂
My mom and I finished the day with a yummy lunch and a little shopping. I picked up 2 more pairs of bright shorts. I am really liking these Nike Dash shorts. Also, I really should not be allowed anywhere near a Dick’s, so many pretty things.
All in all would have been a great day if it wasn’t for how sick I got when I got home. I am calling it food poisoning because I do not have the time to be sick. So now that I have taken all your time with this post, I am going to curl into a ball and get some rest. I will run again Monday.
After Sunday’s long run, I decided to take Monday off. Which turned out to be a good thing, my running partner canceled and I stayed late at work. Why are Mondays always so crazy? Tuesday was a little calmer and the weather was supposed to be good, so I took the scenic route home and ran from there.
I love this tree!
I parked my car and set out with no real plan. I did remember to take water this time, woo hoo! After a little warm-up, I figured what the heck, let’s try for a tempo run. Now I realize that I am no expert and may never be super-fast, but I consider a tempo run to be comfortably hard. For me that would be a little slower than half marathon pace. Which is definitely faster than my easy runs or just average runs. Plus, when running a half marathon, you have that added adrenaline boost which helps with your pace. It’s a RACE after all!
After a short warm up, I ran for 5 miles. Nice way to start the week. I followed that lovely run up with yummy tacos at taco Tuesday 🙂 Maybe counterproductive but so tasty.
This morning I had a meeting to drive to. As I was driving down the freeway, I was checking out the half marathon route that I will be running in just over 7 weeks. I have run it before but it was a good refresher. I noticed that the first hill looks more like a gentle slope before it gets to the real hills. Can’t wait! On the downside, the meeting was held in a hotel conference room. It was sad walking across the parking lot seeing all the people in swim suits and shorts heading to the beach or pool. And me? I was in an uncomfortable pencil skirt and heels 😦 Not cool.
After the meeting I headed back to work to finish out the day. I headed to the park afterwards to get in a few miles. Today’s run was all about speed. I did 3 laps of the lake and I pushed; hard. I ended up shaving 3 seconds off of my most recent 5k PR. Not that I count it, I only count race PR’s. I figure that’s been measured by someone else and I don’t have to rely on my possibly glitchy GPS app. But still, I was excited!!! Maybe I felt like I had to live up to my shirt-
Felt like a smile, looks like a frown, oops!
Fast or Last? Because middle of the pack shirts just don’t seem to work as motivation starters!
I have a class tomorrow and Friday is my long day, so now for 2 days off. I have a race to look forward to on Saturday morning. I am excited, this race is supposed to be part hard pack sand, part road, part boardwalk and part soft sand. All that in just 3.1 miles? I have some friends running it as well, so it should be fun!!
Slacker Runner 