Tag: shopping

The SF Marathon Week 16 Training

I just had to look up what week I was in, it’s all starting to blur. 😛

The head games have multiplied…the race is so close and unfortunately my last few weeks of running have not been confidence building. More like the exact opposite. I felt pretty damn good after my 20 miler a few weeks ago. I haven’t since. I’m trying to tell myself that it’s all part of training but I hurt and I am tired and I just… I don’t know.

Monday- Rest. I had a few vacation days from work and it was so nice to have no alarm to set. I really wanted to sleep in but I woke up a little before 8. Grr. However, I must have slept soundly- I woke up with a dead arm. Guess I hadn’t moved from the first position I fell asleep in.

Tuesday- 7.12 miles. Birthday miles!!! Another day off too. I was torn what to run today. I know some people like to run their birthday but let’s be real, there was no way I was running 35 miles or kilometers. 35 minutes seemed too short and 3.5 miles seemed like a cop out. So instead I ran the day. It slow and hot but it was fun. I ran to the high school where my mother was having tennis practice. I then dragged her along to a local burger place to get my free burger!!! The little things excite me.

Wednesday- Rest. Back to work. They bought me donuts!

Thursday- 3.75 miles. Talk about slow! I think all the over indulging of the past few days caught up with me, I did not feel well. Plus, I decided that until the marathon, I should probably wear flats. I forgot how sore that would make me. Ouch!

Friday- Rest. I still felt off, I think I found my sugar intake limit. Rough. A new toy came in the mail though.

Saturday- Rest. Sensing a pattern here? After feeling poorly for 2 days, I chose sleep over running. After a few errands, I just had a low key evening. Plus, I was sucked into streaming Stranger Things on Netflix. So good.

Sunday- 13.1 miles. Dress rehearsal. My last long run of training. Plan ( what plan) called for 12, I wanted 16. Yes, I know that’s stupid. I was also testing a few things out this run. When I was shopping in Santa Barbara last weekend, I picked up a new Lululemon skirt for race day. I also recently ordered a new hydration vest as well. I’ve never been a huge fan of them but I need to be able to carry more water than just my handheld. So this long run was a test of all that.

Good lord, it was rough. It took my legs 4.5 miles to warm up. My lungs wanted no part in running. I probably should have tested the hose on the hydration pack before running. I choked twice. My new skirt rode up in very uncomfortable ways and yet also migrated down. That shouldn’t be possible?! I just kept moving forward. I hit 13.1 and called it for the day. Called my mom for a pick up as I was 4 miles from home and went for Chipotle. I really need to stop eating when I’m stressed.

24 miles for the week. Bring on taper. Even though part of me is excited for no long run next week, I feel like I haven’t done enough to prepare. The voices in my head are getting louder. But, this is the best week to quiet them. It’s fair time!!!!! It’s time for my yearly indulgence in a funnel cake. Hopefully, I’ve detoxed enough from birthday cake/ donuts to enjoy it. I look forward to a funnel cake and pretzel all year long until fair time. 😛

So here’s to week 17- another week in flats, even fewer miles and a funnel cake at the end.

How was your week? Do anything fun?

Do you have a dress rehearsal run?

What’s your favorite fair food?

The SF Marathon Training Week 15

I have no witty opening for this one. That’s also assuming anything I’ve ever opened with before was witty. Hmmm, maybe that was a reach.

Like I said in my Friday post last week, I am tired. Just tired. Running wise, the week was actually pretty good. Work wise, I think my brain went into vacation mode way too early. Oops. That wasn’t great considering my boss was on vacation Thursday and Friday. I needed to be firing on all cylinders. I believe I completed most of my piles but I can’t shake the feeling that I forgot something.

Monday- 6.7 miles. 4th of July!! I met with Ashley and Heather for a very patriotic themed run down at Avila Beach. The plan was to do 8 miles but it was my third day of running in a row and my shins and knee were pissed. I ended up falling behind taking walk breaks but I eventually just sat on a bench 2 miles from the beach and waited for them to come back my way. Truthfully, I wanted to swing on the swings while I waited but they were occupied by children. Once they were back, I was able to run the whole back with them. I was fine with fewer miles. Then we went for a super yummy breakfast – churro french toast for the win! It was a great way to spend the morning.

Tuesday- Rest. Yeah, there was no way I was running a 4th day in a row. Rest was awesome. Plus work is always insane the day after a 3 day weekend so it was nice being able to just go home and crash. I think I did something else but I can’t remember.

Wednesday-2.3 miles. My legs still felt wonky. Seriously one 20 miler less than 2 weeks ago and I’m broken for days. I did 2 laps of the lake and called it. They were a slow, crawling 2 laps but that’s better than no miles right?

Thursday- 3.75 miles. Uh oh, 2 days in a row again? However, this was the day that finally felt more normal. I kept it short and sweet though as I didn’t want to push it. Not only is the marathon super close but I had a half marathon on Saturday. But I really wanted to try out my new shorts.

Friday- Rest. My boss is on vacation so it was an open to close kind of day. I did manage to sneak away for 10 minutes and grab my packet for Saturday’s race. And a Diet Coke because by that time I needed one. 😛

Saturday- 13.1 miles. Rock’n Around the Pier Half. My hope was to run the race in the morning and do another 7 in the evening to complete a disjointed 20. Yeah, that didn’t happen. The race was rough and I had some problems, but more on that next post. I did however get in a few miles of walking around SLO with some post race shopping.

Sunday- Rest. Unless miles of walking around Santa Barbara shopping count as exercise. 😛 My mom, S and I headed to Santa Barbara for a day of birthday shopping, S has hers on Monday and mine is Tuesday. It was fun but it made me realize how much I prefer SLO. However I am jealous they have a PizzaRev, that place was awesome. It was a long and tiring day and my legs/feet were fried by the end. By the time I was home I was too tired to even finish this post in time for it go up on Monday. On the upshot- I may have found my marathon outfit. Priorities right?

Overall, it was a good running week, I was just exhausted. I know that time frame wise I am at the point in training that I should be exhausted but I don’t feel like I’ve really trained enough for that. Life has been a little crazy for a few months as well but it doesn’t usually affect me like this. Maybe my upcoming birthday is just making me moody? That’s a thing right?

Going forward, this week would start a traditional taper period for the marathon. However I feel like the past few months have been a taper. So we will see. I know I still need to figure out water. My handheld is not enough and my pack is crap. Hey I rhymed! Non running life- I have 2 vacation days!! Happy dance, happy dance. 😃😃 I have nothing planned- it sounds awesome.

How as your weekend?

When was you last vacation? What did you do?

Random Roundup

I could have called this mid week musings but let’s switch it up. Oh and it’s Friday.
I have a little challenge for myself in this post- no mentioning of the “M” word. I mean I have to be driving you all nuts right? 😛

I have strong feelings about long hair- I’m not the biggest fan- long story- but I suddenly miss braids. So weird. I alternate between years of super long hair and years where it’s above my shoulders. Right now, it is still a few inches above my shoulders- too long…or too short. I can’t decide!

I am so tired. I feel like life has just been a bunch of running in circles. I have 2 vacation days coming next week and I am so excited. 4 day weekend anyone?! I know at least one of those days will involve zero alarms and I swear I may sleep until 10. Or try to.

So I shared the pic of my new running shoes a few weeks ago but that wasn’t the only I bought that day. I have a serious problem- I buy all the skirts and dresses. Seriously, I could probably go a month without wearing pants and still not have to wash clothes. My sweater collection is a little ridiculous too. 😝 Did I mention I am going shopping this weekend?

My race this weekend just got a little more interesting. I already knew I had 12+ miles of beach sand to run on but then this email came-

trailsnip

Wet rocks?! Maybe I should consider a different pair of shoes? 😖

I received my first product to test from BibRave. Ultima Replenisher. The raspberry flavor and I have become besties. Seriously. I’ll post more about it later but I’ve had it every single day since the package arrived. I’d never even heard of it before.

I’m still binge watching Lost. I am now in season 3 but I am starting to fade. 4 more seasons of this? I’m still confused 🙂 Any suggestions?

What’s your clothing addiction?

Share something random!

What are your weekend plans?

San Francisco Marathon Training Week 12

Seriously, that’s a long title. Oof.

How is it week 12 already? My little countdown app is telling me I only have 41 days to go. Holy crap!

I admit I struggled hard with motivation this week. Everything seemed hard. I thought my boss coming back from vacation would make things easier but I just felt fried. At one point on Friday, I had so many pots in the fire I couldn’t even tell which way was up. I was just waiting for one of them to blow up in my face. Which may still happen this week, who knows. All week long, I kind of just wanted to curl up in the corner and hide under a blanket.

This spilled into running. I had serious trouble getting myself to run on Monday and then Wednesday turned into a rest day too. Convinced myself that my shins needed more time anyways. Week 12 is not the time to be getting lazy but I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Monday- 3.5 miles My legs were feeling rough for this run. I haven’t run a Monday since I first hurt my shins. Taking the day off after my long run seemed to help but I knew I couldn’t run on Tuesday this week. I headed to the lake path and planned to take it nice and easy. Even slow running with walking intervals was rough. My shins protested. I called it when lap 3 put me back at my car. 3.5 miles was not a great way to start the week.

Tuesday- Rest A mandatory conference call had been scheduled for after normal work hours. This was why I had to move my run up to Monday.

Wednesday- Rest I had planned on running, even took my stuff to work. I tell myself I took the day off because my shins hurt. While that is partially accurate, I didn’t even take my gym bag out of the car in the morning. So yeah, I enjoyed pizza night instead.

Thursday- 7 miles Work was tiring and the last thing I wanted to do was run. I told myself to suck it up and change. I left work town and headed for the river path. Of course, right as I parked I suddenly felt like I needed to use the restroom. Of course- most of my routes have no bathrooms or water fountains. Whatever, I figured that would be a reason to keep the run short. I started out up the hill and just stuck to the run/ walk intervals. My legs were feeling ok so when I hit the turn around point I decided to go a little further. I made a left and headed up a street. I remember the street from my very first 10K years ago but I remembered it wrong. I thought it was flat but it was hillier than I recalled. Little rollers but they still felt like mountains. But it’s cool- I made some new friends-

On the way back, the wind had turned insane. It was pushing me backwards it was so strong, I felt like I was running in quicksand. That said, my running intervals were the fastest they’ve been since I got hurt so this run ended up being more like speed work.

Friday- Rest Work was insane. Straight up crazy. By the time I got off I was running out the door. But I didn’t have to close so yay!

Saturday- 9 miles The plan called for a 10 mile long run and 8 mile easy this weekend. I knew Sunday was going to be busy with family stuff so I was doubtful of getting a run in. With only a 10 mile long run planned, I got a little cocky- I mean what’s 10 miles? Stupid. I didn’t start my run until 8:30. Stupid. By mile 2 it was warm. NikeC was out for her run too and we started texted each other about how warm it was. I kept a comfortable pace until I hit the bridge. Even though I know it’s stupid, I still fly across the thing and then up past Walmart. Miles 4-5 saw a 9:14 and 9:44. Oops. So not long run pace for a person with wonky shins. I walked more of mile 6 than planned but still the pace was decent. Mile 7 saw a break- NikeC! Our routes crossed paths and I finally got to meet the cutest little guy ever.

We stopped and chatted for a bit before going on to finish our runs. Our chat meant I wasn’t going to be able to finish 10 but it was worth it. I was planning on ending my run at the high school and getting a ride from my mother. She’s having summer practices right now- and bonus- the school has water fountains and sometimes the bathrooms are open. Thing is her practice ended at 10:30. I picked up the pace and managed to get there right at 10:30. Those last 3 miles were most I’ve run without walk breaks in a month. Sweet!

4.5 miles walk– Knowing that Sunday was iffy, I had a second run of the day in the back of my mind. I headed out around 3 for some more miles. I wanted to run it like last week’s double but the week caught up with me so I walked it. I’m still counting it because let’s be real here- there will be walking in this marathon. I may as well get used to doing it on tired legs now instead of race day.

Sunday- rest Happy Father’s Day! I knew my mother and I had plans in SLO and then family dinner in the evening. I could have run in the morning but I was just so tired, I chose sleep instead. I still managed to get in 10,000 steps without running so that’s not too lazy. I also came home with some pretties-

So, 24 miles for the week. Could have been better, could have been worse. My shins were overly fussy in the beginning of the week but they calmed down by the end. I have big plans for this week so I am hoping they will continue to behave. Fingers crossed!! I also hope the motivation bus comes by again, I fear I will get sucked into the black hole that is binge watching Lost again and put off running. Oh and I have some awesome news share this week!

How was your week?

Bought any new gear lately?

What are you watching?

Mid Week Musings 7

Thursday can be mid-week right?

I thought about posting my food post but nah, I’m not in the mood to be cranky. So let’s clear the tracks (brain fog) instead.

Remember when I said I liked to browse websites and put things in my shopping cart but never buy? Yeah, marathon training has made it even worse. I want all the shiny new things! It’s like I’m starting over! I feel like a stalker considering how often I’ve been on the same websites. How long can you stare at a water bottle?

Handheld Hydration Pack, Black, Running Water Bottle

Wind sucks. Go away El Nino, you’re drunk. Getting used to running in humidity is one thing. Cold wind turns me into a baby though. Monday and Tuesday were crazy windy and cold. Branches and trees came down, boats were evacuated off the water. Yeah, I didn’t run. #sorrynotsorry

I ate 2 big cookies today. Low carb fail. It was in the name of research though. Ok, one was. We’ve been testing different bakeries for cookie Friday’s and how else do you know if they are good? I’m going with dang good since I ate a second one.

Where is time going? It’s almost April for crying out loud. How is the year a quarter over?

I have a long run of epic proportions that I am trying not to freak out about this weekend. And I am trying shorts on a short again tomorrow. Aaaack! Not sure which is more stressful.

I have a 5K in a week. I kind of feel like I forgot how to race. It’s been so long. Especially for a 5K. Yikes!

I ran intervals tonight. Again, it’s been so long!!!!

I had so much more to say but I seem to have forgotten most of it. Oops. That’s where my brain has been living lately.

How has your week been?

What’s on your wish list?

Research calories don’t count, right?