And I’m sick. Boo. I tried ignoring it but the damn germs won. I even went home sick on Tuesday. Then proceeded to sleep for the next few hours. I haven’t done any sort of exercise since Sunday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for being lazy- slacker is in my name after all- but not being able to run because I am sick? Not cool.
El Nino has arrived. Or at least 2 days of it. I hydroplaned on my way to work this morning along with plenty of thunder and lightening. Trees were down all the place, including in our parking lot at work. Home town flooded pretty badly when we had a freak thunderstorm in July, I am curious how my usual running route looks. They’ve made some storm preparations but what can hay bales do?
What are those going to stop?
Have I mentioned that I am a nerd who loves my tv shows? Both Downton Abbey and Teen Wolf are back. 😏 Now I vacillate between confused/happy/sad on Sundays and Tuesdays. What is going on?!
I have a race in 10 days. How did that happen? I am so not ready. And I had the date wrong. I was convinced the race was on Sunday but an email yesterday corrected that. The race is on Saturday. I know the difference is only 1 day but for some reason it’s freaking me out. This will definitely be more a long run with people than a race. But 8.2 miles equals instant PR right?
Does constant coughing count as an ab workout? No? Bummer. I hoping to attempt a ride on the stationary bike. Coughing in my house is acceptable, coughing in the gym? Not so much. Fingers crossed I can push through a couple of miles.
I never notice how long 90 seconds is until I started drinking hot tea. That takes forever!
Upcoming races– Castle to Coast 8.2 m
Surf City Half
Focus– Finding the rails. As you saw in my mileage post, I derailed a bit in December.
I’ve been doing some thinking and with having a goal free 2016, I decided I didn’t want my recaps to be based around race training. The year has 52 weeks though right? Who wants to bet on how long it will take me to lose count? 😝 That said, I still want the upcoming bigger races highlighted so I figured I would open with those as well as what I focused on during the week. This is all new so I may be ironing out a few kinks in the next few weeks.
Monday- Rest Tuesday-4.66 miles Wednesday-Rest Thursday-Rest- crazy day at work/ New Year’s Eve Friday- 1.25 miles Saturday-Work/ Cleaning of the closet Sunday- 6.22 miles
I worked on Saturday so I had a half day on Tuesday. I was feeling optimistic and had wanted to try for a longer run around 8 miles at the river path. My stomach had it’s own plans and was an asshat Monday and Tuesday. I still wanted to try to get a few good miles though. I headed to the lake path to see how things went. If worse came to worst, I figured the laps of the lake would make it easier to get back to the car. It was actually a pretty good steady run but by 4 laps in, I knew I was done.
I really could have used a run on New Year’s Eve but my gym closes super early and there was no way I could get there before work ended. Boo.
Ok, Fridaylooks small but it was awesome in reality. A local business- Moore Sports Recovery had posted about a short New Year’s Day group run led by none other than Olympic hopeful Jordan Hasay. Hmm, really? But I don’t mingle well with strangers, I’m so awkward. Never fear- enter Heather of SloLuckyRuns and Ashley at Rather Be Runnin’. Both are bloggers that I had multiple conversations with on blogs, Twitter and Instagram but not met in person. We’d seen each other at races but never really chatted. Where do I sign up? Heather, Ashley and myself
The event was great. It gathered quite the crowd for a smaller event. Jordan started the event with a group stretch and then we all went out for the run. It turned out to be shorter than planned but that’s ok. I ran with Heather- she knows everyone!- and Ashley and it was awesome. After the run, we took a tour of the recovery area, Ashley tested out some of recovery tools and we took photos with Jordan. She was super nice and it was great meeting her. After, Heather, Ashley and I chatted so long we were there longer than anyone else. 😄 I can’t wait to hang out with these ladies again.
Jordan!!! and my eyes are closed, oops
Saturday was odd, I had planned on running after work but it just never happened. I started cleaning my closet and it just grew into this huge organizational project that ended up expanding to rearranging all the bedroom furniture.
I’ve been fighting a tickle in my throat for days and Sunday morning it reared it’s head. I’m not very surprised, people were dropping like flies last week at work. I slept a little longer and ran some errands before heading out for a run. The weather was perfect for a t-shirt and shorts (mid 50’s) but I bundled up in full pants and sleeves just to be on the safe side. I knew it was going to be a slower run and again I was fine with that. Overall, I ran 6.2 miles around an 11:00 minute pace. Some miles were faster and some were slower. I took fewer walk breaks than I thought I would need so I am calling it a win.
So it wasn’t a super strong week but it went a long way to getting to back on track. I found the rails again! Three days of running is a good start to that. I am keeping my plans flexible for the coming week. The first heavy El Nino storms are supposed to hit so I may be spending a lot of time on the treadmill. In the gym. In the first week of January. Wish me luck!
I took 5 days off after Big Sur. 5 days in a row of intentionally not running. Say what? I figured a week would let all of my little aches and pains and funkiness heal. I don’t know if anything was actually leading towards an injury but I figured a little intentional rest wouldn’t hurt. Intentional rest is odd. Normally if I have 3-4 days off in a row, I start to feel like a lazy, guilty sloth-like creature. And I usually whine about it here. 😃
I wanted to run a few times but I told myself a week and I was sticking to it. It was kind of weird going straight home after work every day. Coworkers asked is if I was changing to run and I said no. How odd. A week turned into a work week- 5 days counts right? I headed out for a short, easy run on Saturday. To make sure I wasn’t tempted to go crazy, I took the puppy with me. It’s been a long time since I stole her for a puppy jog so I figured why not? She did really well. The only time I was concerned is when we were swarmed by vultures. But, really I was concerned about both of us too. Seriously creepy. I may not run by that house again for a while. 😞 They were still there the next day!
oh and new shoes!
So that 3 miles run plus a 7 mile bike ride on Monday trying to shake out the achiness from Big Sur was all the exercise I got in last week. Oops. Failure at the first week of the #holidaysweat. Hmmm, that timing didn’t work out so well. I wanted to run on Sunday but woke upp feeling like I was getting a chest cold. Breathing is still uncomfortable. Grrr. But I would rather feel crappy this week when I have multiple commitments after work which conflict with the gym. Then hopefully, I will feel great next week when I can run whenever I want because I’m on vacation!!!! Woo hoo!
Making Big Sur my last race was not my original plan. I had planned on running a 25k trail race at Montana de Oro to cap off the year but realistically I was not prepared in any way shape or form for that. Luckily I hadn’t registered yet; I knew it might be a long shot after Big Sur. Also it ended up raining that morning so bonus! I’d really be sick if I had run in that. I ran 13 races this year, 7 were 13.1 or longer. I’m good with that. 😄 That said, I may throw in a turkey trot on Thanksgiving because, well, it’s a turkey trot.
but we love it anyways
As for off season, I am still reading books and plans and looking for a better way to train that I know I can sustain. All these weird, crazy thoughts are in my head right now, so I am taking the time to sift through them. I am also currently reading Ultra Marathon Man by Dean Karnazes. It is not helping to temper the crazy thoughts at all. I need to figure out something soonish though as I am leaning towards running Surf City again and that is the first Sunday in February.
And this week? I have social plans! Holy crap, who am I? I am meeting friends on Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday?! I have tickets to Riverdance!!!! Total nerd moment but I am so excited. Even better- I won the tickets! Woo hoo!
Oh and I randomly decided to quit soda today. Sort of.*
How was your weekend?
Thoughts on Riverdance?
Bets on how long til I cave with the soda?*Disclaimer- I am allowing myself to have it if I eat out- but no more soda at work.
I hadn’t planned on a recovery week after City to the Sea but that’s how it worked out. But that’s ok. Contradicts my last post though right?
In brief- Monday- I thought about a shake out run but it was 94*. Seriously?! Tuesday- I was looking forward to a good run but only made it one lap of the lake. I felt…off, kind of tired and not right, a little woozy, so I called it after 1.15 miles. Wednesday- The room was shaking and I turned a little green so I ended up leaving work early and going home sick. I spent the afternoon sleeping. On a side note, I found out I have 180 hours of sick time saved up. 😃 Thursday- I still wasn’t feeling great and couldn’t figure out how to change after a work meeting in a different town. Walking around in shorts when the CEO is in the building? Um no. I didn’t count on my stomach making its whale song throughout the CEO’s presentation though. Nice. Friday- My brother’s birthday- I indulged in pasta and birthday cake. Homemade beef stroganoff and marble fudge frosting? Yes, please. Saturday– 3.85 miles. I worked in the morning and was still feeling tired but I really wanted to run. The run actually felt pretty good until my stomach turned on me around 2.7 miles in. From there it was as fast as I could slowly get home. And taking a shortcut. Sunday- Does a 3 hour nap count as training? And more birthday cake.
Did I mention there are goats in the lake?
So yeah, more recovery that running. I finally just decided to go with it. Work has been chaos and stressful for months now, I’ve felt like I have been fighting something for a while. At least it held off until after City to the Sea, or I was in denial until this week. It takes a lot for me to leave work early because I feel sick. Maybe I feel like I have to overcompensate for all my stomach issues? But at one point I was sitting on the ground under my desk; I felt so nauseous, I wasn’t doing any good there so I went home. I slept a lot last week and I am feeling better today. Oh and what does a sick runner do when they are resting? Register for a race of course. 😉
So, last week’s training thoughts. I think I have a plan for a new regimen, not a race training plan per se, but a plan for improving my running over all. What I can’t decide is when to start it. Part of me is eager to start this week but another part thinks it might be better to hold off. I have a half marathon in less than 3 weeks followed by a 25K trail race 7 days later (potentially). Since both of those races are more for the experience than PR’s, I am thinking it might be smarter to wait until after those 2 races. Especially since I am not 100% on the new regimen. There were some great book suggestions after my last post so I want to check a few of those out. Right now I feel torn. Grrr.
Will the real week 16 please stand up? 😉 I am not crazy, well maybe a little, I really did miss a week. I knew I couldn’t be at 16 yet so I went back and checked. It looks like I went straight from week 6 to week 8 a while back. Oops. So let’s recap week 16 and then see how September went.
Monday – Rest
After 2 races the day before, I knew this was going to be a rest day. I was also taking my car to the body shop and getting a rental so I wanted as little as possible to carry so it kind of worked out. I was so excited that the previous weekend was my last busy one that it didn’t occur to me that I had the work week to get through before the coming empty weekend. Doh! 😋
Tuesday- 3.5 miles
I was so damn tired and just not feeling running still. I headed to the lake for a few laps aiming for 4 miles. It wasn’t a fantastic run but it wasn’t bad. I visited a little too much with lake cat on the backside of the lake so I ran out of daylight. But he wouldn’t get out of the street!
Wednesday- 3.5 miles stationary
This probably shouldn’t count. I wasn’t feeling well, my neck and my head have hurt for the last month or ever since my car accident, so I was thinking a rest day. I had to get my race recap up for the HOB Fun Run so I figured I would do that. Until I hit a button and installed Windows 10. I told it to wait!! While I was waiting for the computer to be usable again I got on the bike. It was after 9 and I didn’t want to be up all night so it’s not like I was pedaling all that hard. 😐 Oh! Look what I finally registered for!
Thursday- 1.6 miles
Yeah, it says that. I was still feeling rough and all the vitamin C and Airborne I had been taking all week wasn’t helping. I headed out for a run but had to call it before I got a mile out. My chest hurt- like the kind of pain you have with a really bad chest cold. I turned around and headed back to the car. It wasn’t totally unproductive though, I felt like something moved or popped and some of the neck pain eased.
why do my grimaces look more like smiles than my smile?
Friday- Rest
Race day is too damn close to be pushing things. I would rather go into race day having missed a few workouts than get sick so close to race day. Been there, done that. Bring on the vitamin C and Airborne. I also started a new medication for my stomach which has the side effect of drowsiness. It’s no lie. I was in bed by 11 that night. For me that is freaky early.
Saturday- Rest
Sensing a pattern? No lie, I didn’t get out of bed until 10. I was feeling better but not great so I stuck close to home. I rearranged some furniture and managed to knock myself loopy. I was lying on the ground trying to move something and smacked the left side of my head into my dresser. As I rolled away in pain, I slammed my right temple into the bed frame. Yes, I am that talented. At least I didn’t give myself a concussion this time. 😞
Sunday- 7 Miles
My training plan called for a 60 minute long run with 20 minutes at pace. Smart runners follow the plan… I on the other get lost on a mountain. Truthfully, I needed to get lost and spend some time in the dirt. But more about that next post. 😄😄
Overall it wasn’t great but it wasn’t horrible and I am ok with that. I was feeling really rundown and stressing about it wasn’t helping. My mileage may not look pretty but the rest helped. That weekend with no plans was kind of awesome too.
September Wrap up!!!
Adios September- you kicked my ass. But let’s look at the numbers-
While the numbers aren’t where I want them to be, they are headed in the right direction. Yes, that .4 missing in the running mileage bugs me but it is what is. I would like to see that mileage number grow in the coming months. I looked at my calendar and noticed that October and November are equally busy months and contain 3 races so I need to stay on top of things. Hopefully laying out there will help. 😁
How was your September? Did you have a good weekend?
Is anyone else accident prone?I should be wrapped in bubble wrap.
Slacker Runner 