Tag: Running

Week 32:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 5

Upcoming Races-

SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

If I had one word to describe this week, it would be- pain.

I think I watched more stupid movies than ever before. Netflix shamed me with “are you still watching” a few times. 😛I kind of buried myself in a dark hole, I was barely even paying attention to those movies, I just needed background noise (there were some good ones though).

The plan for this week was 3 runs- 4 miles, 40 min tempo, 8 mile long run- and 4 Liift4 workouts. Reality, however-

Monday- 2.5 miles
I was looking forward to my run after work. I thought I had 5 miles on the plan -oops – but I was on board with that. The bottom half of me apparently was not. Right from my first few steps, things felt off. My legs hurt- not just sore but hurt. I walked the first half mile hoping they would loosen up but no luck. I tried running and it felt like the pain was deep in my bones. WTH? A little over a mile in, I stopped to try and stretch it out and almost screamed. It hurt from my hips to my knees but in the bones. I turned around and hobbled back to the car. I didn’t know what was going on but it wasn’t worth risking an injury.

Tuesday- Liift4
My legs were still not right so I focused on my form and modified anything that required any jumping. I kind of do that anyway as I know my limitations but I really did it now.

Wednesday- Liift4
I drove to the lake path to run. I had changed, I had my pack in my lap but I wasn’t feeling it. Like deep down, really NOT feeling it. I’m not a believer in there are no bad runs. Yes, there are. The times in the past that I have forced myself to run when I feel that against it I have either hurt myself or broken a piece of running gear. I drove away without running but I wasn’t completely lazy.

Thursday- Migraine
Bring on the pain. I woke up to the oncoming pain but hoped it would ease up. Both because I had an early morning meeting and because I wanted to run after work. I finally admitted defeat around 11:30 and did something I rarely do- I went home sick. Then I spent the rest of the day napping, watching movies and alternating between being too hot or too cold.

Friday-Liift4 ish
I still had a migraine but I made it through work. I attempted Liift4 in the evening but I only pulled off the lifting portion. When it transitioned to the HIIT work, I tried one move and was like, umm, not happening.

Saturday-8 miles
Maybe it was the migraine that was still around but this was the hottest 8 miles of my life. In hindsight, I maybe shouldn’t have tried for my long run after 2 days of pain. I started my run around 9:15 and while that is early for me; it was already hot. Miles 1 and 2 were good and I was optimistic. I slowed during mile 3 but I was also entering the section I lovingly call the “surface of the sun” so that was to be expected. However mile 4 went south. It got super warm, I was too hot, I was feeling dehydrated and I almost threw up. I was almost out of water and I was only 4 miles in. I rerouted back to my car but I had slowed to a shuffle. I refilled at my car and sat there a bit as it was fully in the shade. By then I needed less than 2 miles so I dumped my pack thinking running without it would be cooler and just shoved my phone in a pocket and carried a water bottle and my pepper spray. I then looped the river trail and the neighborhood until I hit 8. This route needs some shade!

Sunday- Rest
I may have gotten in my long run but I was kind of broken the rest of the weekend. Not only did the migraine not go away, it was a little pissed at me after those 8 miles. The most strenuous thing I did on Sunday was clean my car. Except it was so dirty, that really was a workout.

10.5 miles for the week. I couldn’t have 2 good weeks in a row, could I. Shake it off.

How was your week?

Rambling On 38

Happy Friday. Right?

Running has been more miss than hit this week. I felt a little off all week and actually went home sick on Thursday. Say what? Who am I???

On the upshot, my boss is back so I was actually able to go home when I finally made that choice. Is it sad that one of the things holding me back from going home was that then I would have to admit that I wasn’t running that evening?😂

We had a few days break in the triple digit weather and they were all the days I didn’t run due to feeling poorly. Meanwhile this weekend will start another above 100 trend. I have to laugh, right??

Maybe it’s time to go the movies?? Is anything showing? I won’t tell you the quality of TV I’ve watched this past week.🙃

Or that my food choices haven’t been the greatest this week.

Moving on, onward and upward, right?

What are you up to this weekend?

Week 32:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 4

Upcoming Races-

SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

I was fussy, cranky and tired this week. I had a few too many balls in the air at work at one point. Home town was in the middle of an almost 20 day streak of over 100* weather and I was sleeping poorly.

I like to sleep with the window open during the summer which is odd because I am also one of those people who tends to over react at every sound. Unfortunately this week, some creature decided to come visit the yard every night a little after midnight. And it was not a small creature. I tried to tell myself it was a family of deer. Which is likely was but I worry about the bigger felines. I digress…it was every single night. So eventually I would end closing the window but then it would feel super stuffy and sleep would still be crappy. Grrr.

Ok, training. This week called for a 5 mile run, 4 mile run, 7 mile long run and 4 Liift4 work outs.

So how did I do?

Monday- Liift4
I planned on running after work but work ran long and I was feeling cranky so I decided to push my run to Tuesday. Then while I was driving home I was feeling guilty for doing that only to arrive in run town and then home town to realize they were both completely socked in with smoke from fires. Combine that with the 3 digit temps and somehow my lazy choice was the smart choice.

Tuesday- 3.78 miles
Another hot day, it was around 95 when I started running and there was still a ton of smoke in the air. I decided to stick to the run/walk intervals I had programmed since I had also forgotten any way to carry water on my run. Short and easy miles, that was the plan. My legs had other plans and those running intervals were some of the fastest paces I’ve seen in years. Oops. I did keep it relatively short though.

Wednesday-Liift4
I am sure I did something else but I can’t remember what it was.

Thursday-3.5 miles
I had woken with a gnarly Charlie horse around 1:30 that morning and it never really went away. That said, I still wanted to attempt a run. Oh, my gawd, I was melting. I don’t know why. It was 93, so this was coolest run I had had in weeks. Or it should have been. It was so muggy at the lake path though. I had 3 decent, consistent miles and even though I was able to stop at my car for water, I could tell I was overheating. My leg also hadn’t loosened up at all so I finished 3 laps of the lake and called it. If the lake wasn’t so nasty I may have jumped in.

Friday- Rest
My tiredness and crankiness caught up to me. Could the animal outside at night just stop?! I told myself I was going to work out when I got home from work but I didn’t. I just zoned out watching Netflix’s Insatiable. That show is on crack, people.

Saturday- Liift4
I meant to do my long run. I laid out my clothes and charged my Aftershokz. I set my alarm- 5 of them. I slept through all of them. Grrrr. I thought about running my 8 miles (I also had the number of miles wrong) in the afternoon/ evening but although we finally break the streak of over 100* days it was still hot. Also, ended up taking the cat to the vet so that took up some of the afternoon.

Sunday-7.4 miles
My mother was planning on cleaning her tennis courts in the morning so I figured that would be good incentive to actually get my butt out of bed and run to the high school to meet her. 75* should have felt amazing after the last few weeks but it was more humid than I would have liked and I felt a little wilted.

Pace wise, I was doing fine for a long run but by mile 5 I was feeling hot. My mother was also feeling it on her end as she called me around that point saying she was done at the courts- it was too warm. I convinced her to wait for me in the shade instead of coming to get me and I tried to pick up the pace to the school. I am hoped for 8 to make for the run I shorted on Tuesday but 7 is just fine with me.

14.69 miles for the week. Much better than last week and almost all the miles the plan called for. So close!!

Now if the damn creature in the yard could just go away.

How was your week?

It All Adds Up

As some of you may know, I recently decided to try and get a little more serious with a few things.

I picked a training plan, I started a 4 day a week lifting workout.

I’m making better food choices. I no longer eat McDonald’s for breakfast every morning (yeah, I did that). I haven’t had Burger King in weeks. I’m eating less pizza and more fruit in my smoothies. Working on the veggies.

I’ve doubled my weights. Only missed 1 liift workout. I’m 4 weeks in.

And yet…

The scale hasn’t moved. Nor has the measuring tape. I know, I’ve checked.

I wasn’t expecting miracles here, but come on- give me something here- a pound, an inch. Give me something!

I was feeling discouraged.

On Tuesday, I went for a run and wasn’t feeling it. It was 95*, the skies were filled with smoke from far away fires and I forgot to bring a way to carry water on the run. I told myself to keep it short and sweet, nice and easy, a slow 3. I plugged in run/walk intervals with 30 second walk breaks just so I didn’t push too hard.

And yet…

The pace of those run intervals was something I hadn’t seen in quite some time. At least not with without a serious struggle. Each interval also continued to get faster without me pushing whereas the past few years had me fading in the end. My lungs weren’t on board with the smoke in the air but that’s asthma for you.😛

I also noticed more energy at the end of the Vintners 5 Miler- I wonder what I could have done without the hurt foot. Other training runs have had more consistent moments than usual as well.

So…. maybe things aren’t obvious but it all adds up. Baby steps. Don’t give up.

However I wouldn’t complain if the scale gave a little bit.😂

It all adds up.

Week 31:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 3

Upcoming Races-

SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

This week was rough. I hit a stumbling block I wasn’t anticipating but it made me glad that I picked a 12 week training plan instead of the 10 weeks. That said, my miles are kind of sad. 9 more weeks to go!

This week was one I had been thinking about for months because I put a few too many things on my calendar for Saturday and had to decide what was going to lose. There was a half marathon in Salinas I wanted to run, a concert by my favorite band in Irvine, a good friends baby shower and then a hair cut appointment. I need to pay more attention to calendars.

The plan this week was for an easy 5, 3 mile pace, and 7 mile long run plus the 4 Liift4 workouts. Yeah, well….

Monday- 4 miles
I knew my foot could be a problem so I was prepared to call the run short if it ever reached a point of pain or stupidity. In fact I walked the entire 1st mile just to see if my foot protested immediately. Then I used a 60 second run/ 30 second walk method just to ensure I wasn’t getting to crazy. As long as I followed the intervals and paid attention to my form and how I landed the run was actually ok. All the extra thought going into it tired me out though. Haha.

Tuesday- Liift4
Wanted to give my foot 2 days in between runs and not double up on workouts so I loaded up my first Liift4 workout of the week. Which actually ended up being day 2 (backs/biceps) instead of day 1 because day 1 involved a lot of floor work and I did this workout in the garage so I could wear shoes. Concrete is hard on the back so I flipped them.

Wednesday- Liift4
Ahhh, hello day 1. This time on carpet so it much easier.

Thursday- .5 miles
I was ready to run and looking forward to it. About 15 minutes from home town and the river path though I started to feel really weird. My top lip was tingling and my arms were kind of numb. I still drove to my parking spot and tried to run thinking I was just being a big baby about the 95*. However .25 miles in, I knew I was being stupid. I felt so off balance and half of me just felt numb. I turned around and slowly walked back to the car. I went home and just crashed for the night, hence no post on Friday.

Friday- Rest
I woke up feeling like complete crap. I still didn’t feel right and was having trouble regulating my body temp. I had zero desire to go to work but also knew the odds of finding another manager to come out and cover my location was unlikely so I dragged myself in. My coworkers are amazing though so we made it through the day and then I went home and crashed again.

Saturday- Rest
I was still a little off but mostly ok which was good because I had an early morning hair cut and then a baby shower in the afternoon. Something about the heat of the day- 105- felt oppressively hot so I decided another day of rest wasn’t a horrible idea. We’ve had hotter days but this just felt Rough. I was still having issues regulating my internal temp.

Sunday- Liift4/ 4 miles
I couldn’t bring myself to get out bed early on the one day of the week that I was really able to sleep in. Which was not a great idea as we’ve recently broken the local record for days in a row over 100 degrees. Yay. I made up Thursday’s missed Liift4 in the afternoon then rested a bit before heading out for my run a little after 5. Never having run that close to a weight workout, I was a little concerned how my body would feel. I should have been concerned about the heat. My 7 miler turned into 4. For once I listened to the signs of the impending heat headache and knew that even though I slowed it down, it was still 98*. I will probably acclimate about the time fall arrives. 🙂

So, what, 8.5ish miles for the week and 3/4 Liift workouts. Hopefully the weird sickness has gone away but I will be making a doctor’s appointment this week. Seems like the thing to do.

How was your week?