shorts – Slacker Runner

And just like that, May is moving on. In one way I am not ready for the year to be halfway over (almost) but I am ready for June. A new month and a clean slate. 🙂 So without further ado, here’s May-

Miles- 53.7

Races- Bands on the Run 10K

My SmashRun tells me that I ran 12 days and rested on 19. Hmm, a little uneven. So May was not my best month but I’ve already alluded to that on numerous posts so let’s just move on. 🙂 I made it out for 3 runs last week, so I am holding consistent there at least. Wednesday was a bit sad and I only ran 2.25 miles. My stomach was a big butt head at the beginning of last week so I got a late start. I wasted a perfectly good non work day on Monday by not running. I love running on holidays but I just wasn’t up to it. Thursday, I got out for a decent 4 miles followed by a .6 mile cool down. While the pace was decent, it felt hard. That could have been partly due the temperature warm up we had late this week. While the mid 70’s felt awesome, it’s been over a month since I ran in those temps. But I was so glad to warm, I didn’t even mind that it felt hard. 🙂Then Saturday’s run was in the mid 80’s. It started as a slow run, turned into a jog and then became a walk. I had planned on doing the usual run/ walk I sometimes do with my mother but 2.5 miles in I was just walking with her. It was warm and my left leg was feeling off so I decided that walking was just fine. Truthfully, my left foot and leg have felt a little off since I tried to break in those Inspires. Hmmm, I am telling myself that it is mostly in my head and just to take it easy. I still have 2 weeks before I start training for my fall half’s, so this is the best time to figure out what is making it cranky.

I feel like I should have run more on Saturday as I ate way too much movie popcorn that night. We went and saw San Andreas. I admit that I have an odd fascination for earthquakes. One of my favorite subjects in college was Geology and I briefly considered taking it further. The movie was essentially a Syfy movie but since it had the Rock, it made it to the big screen. I thought it was pretty good. My mom and S laughed multiple times throughout it though. I have to admit it got a little surreal when we decided to walk across the park after the movie to get some frozen yogurt. Part of downtown was leveled by an earthquake 12 years ago and seeing the new buildings after the leaving the movie brought a lot of that back. The town suffered heavy damage and loss and it took a long time to rebuild. It brought reality back into some of the far fetched scenes in the movie.

I planned on getting in a few miles today but ended up taking a nap instead. I really got to stop doing that! 🙂 But I did do a bit of unplanned shopping and picked up some new shirts to run in. I’ve started running in my Lululemon shorts and they are a little more form-fitting than my other stuff. Apparently I feel the need to compensate with looser shirts. 🙂 Plus, I’ve worn the same shirt just in various colors for the past 2 years, it’s time to branch out. Just like I decided that saving the Lulu for a special day was kind of silly, they are super comfy.

So, onto June and getting back on track! I already know I am not running tomorrow but I am doing something running related. But more on that later. 🙂 Oh and in May I was nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award by MostlyHealthyLiving so that will be my next post. 🙂 Thank you! You should go check her out!

How was your May? Goals for June?

Shirts with words/ sayings- yay or nay?

What movie are you looking forward to?

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.

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 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?!

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?

Slacker Runner

May Miles

Sticking to a Plan