Tag: slacker

Week 5- Oops

And here it is. This past week did not go according to plan, not even close. After a good day and race on Sunday I was optimistic for this week. Or I was trying to be. In reality I was in a funk. No real reason for it, but I was feeling very woe is me this week. Like I said, not sure why. But let’s get to the training- or lack there of.

Monday- Rest

I was feeling a little sore post race so I figured a rest day was in order. Monday was also a vacation day for me and I usually love running on vacation days but thought rest was best.

Tuesday- Rest

I woke up feeling pretty rough but managed to drag myself out to the high school. My mother had a morning tennis practice and asked for my help. All I wanted to do was sleep but I lasted for a little over an hour. I never really felt better so I wasted another vacation day by resting. I told myself I still had Wednesday and Thursday after work. I did get further on my craft swap project though. And I had a few helpers even if they were breaking the rules-

Wednesday- And…rest

Last week I was smart and made sure that the day I had blood work done was a rest day. This week that common sense escaped me. I had a CT scheduled for the morning but other than the fasting I had to do on Tuesday I didn’t think anything of it. I went to work right after and felt fine. It wasn’t until3ish that things went south. I suddenly felt the opposite of fine, I thought I was going to pass out. I spent the next hour sitting in the break room feeling very off. I don’t know what caused it but it meant no running that day. On the upside- my boss got me a great birthday gift-

Thursday- 3.5 miles

I was looking forward to this run. After 3 days off, I really needed to run. I changed after work and headed for the lake path. My warm up walk ran a little longer as I missed a call from my dad. It’s odd for him to call, so I made sure to call him back. I didn’t want to wait so I just walked while I called. Once that was done, I started running. My goal was to keep an easy pace so I was obsessively watching my watch to make sure I stayed around 10:30. I’d really like to get back to running without so many walk breaks so I know I need to slow things down. However that wasn’t my biggest problem. I hurt. Specifically, my left knee, calf and ankle. My calf was so tight, it hurt so badly. I stopped after the first running mile and just tried to stretch it out. I then attempted to run another mile. More pain. Both miles I ran were at a 10:30 pace but after completing the second running mile I decided I was done. I spent more time stretching before walking back to the car. Grr.

Friday- Rest

Started work early and since we weren’t open I wore my Sayonaras until we were. I don’t run in them since they are too big but I may start wearing them more to and from work and on the weekends. I need to figure out what is up with my leg. I put them back on after work to run errands. I was looking stylish. 🙂

Saturday- Rest- sense a pattern here?

My mother was throwing a little dinner party for my birthday that evening so I knew I had to run early. Except I woke up feeling poorly and my leg ached. We had hoped to go on an 8 mile hike on Sunday, so I skipped another run. 😦 The party ended up being super small but fun. My birthday is pretty much the only time I drink alcohol and I admit I was looking forward to sleeping really well that night. Life of the party right? It’s one of the reasons I rarely drink, I get super mellow and sleepy. Mother Nature had other ideas.

We had the mother of all thunder storms roll through in the last 24 hours. I don’t think I have ever seen so much lightning before. The house rattled all night long. So much for sleep. The power was going and coming back making that lovely surge sound every time. Kimi somehow knew each time a really big batch of thunder was going to roll through and would start crying in warning.

Sunday- Rest

Running or hiking in the rain I can do. Lightning? Not so much. There were reports of it hitting cars. Power was out all over the place, lines were down and the flood damage was all over town. And more rain was coming. We received more rain in the last day than the last few years. Which is amazing and needed but the land was too dry to absorb all that water. The town is kind of v-shaped so the water flooded down to the river bed but so much mud and gunk are strewn across town now. There’s still a flood warning in effect as I type this. Grrr.

Weekly miles- 3.5

So yeah, that was less than stellar. Luckily my goal race is in October so I have some time to figure things out. I’ve also rethought my next few races but more about that in another post. More rain is expected for tomorrow but hopefully I can get back on track this week. Fingers crossed.

How was your weekend?

Do you like thunder and lightning? There are very rare here.

Best thing you did this weekend?

June Recap/ Mid Year Check In

June come back!! It should not be July right now. It just can’t be. I was in the doctor’s office yesterday and it boggled my mind that my 6 month follow-up was January…2016. Umm, wait, what? Then someone made it worse by saying that Christmas is now only 5 months away. Slow down!!!

While June felt more consistent than May, the overall mileage doesn’t show much of an improvement. I guess I embraced my Slacker-ness in May and June.

Miles-

Races-

Talley Vineyard 10K- 56:54

So yeah, more miles than May but just barely. Also disappointing because I thought I had 65 miles. I am a little neurotic on the way that I track my miles with my Garmin, and Nike+ and SmashRun. Nike+ had me at 65 on June 30 and I had no reason to doubt it. Until I uploaded my miles to SmashRun last night and it had me at 59.4. What? I pull up Garmin Connect and it agreed with Smash. Everything syncs from my Garmin so I was confused and started double checking all my runs. One uploaded twice to Nike and I didn’t catch it. Grrrr.

Oh and June saw my 2 year Blog-versary!

Mid Year Check In

Already!? Ok, brief goal recap. For 2015, I wanted to –

Run 1000 miles– Hmmm, at the end of June, I was at 423 miles. Only about 80 miles short of where I needed to be. I don’t want to give up on this goal but I would have to average 97 miles a month for the rest of year to hit 1000. Honestly, I don’t know if I can do that. Would I love to- hell yes, but I need to be smart about what I can accomplish.

Break 2:00 in a half- I managed a 2:06:08 at Wine Country which was thisclose to my PR. I was optimistic for SLO but between my stomach issues and my fall, that was off the table. Which is fine because I am still damn proud of how I managed to finish that race. 🙂 Even though I am currently training to break 2 in October, I still just want to have fun with running.

Non-Running- Read 15 books- I was behind on this until yesterday. 🙂 I started a book in the waiting room of my doctor’s office and since I waited a while, I got through 100 pages. I had intended for this post to go up yesterday but when I sat down to type, I just wanted to read. So I finished that book. It was book 2 of 3 so I decided to just start the third. Then I finished that one. Yeah it was a late night. So 7 books finished so far. Man, I remember when that number would have been much bigger.

Blog Redesign– partially done. I am still working out a few kinks. And I still can’t figure out Dropbox, ugh.

So moving forward? Right now my goals are to keep running, reading and living! Oh and did I mention I am running (not racing) a half marathon in 10 days?! On my birthday. 🙂

Did you make goals for 2015/ June? How are you doing so far?

Read any good books lately? I need a new one now. 🙂

Finally

Is Sunday already over? Boo. Weekends need to be 3 days long, they really do. EDIT- read this as if I posted Sunday evening- I was having internet issues- and then WordPress erased half of it- grrrr.

I finished the week out with a short 4 mile run on Sunday afternoon. I think I am finally ready for this lackadaisical approach to training to go away. Getting ready for City to the Sea starts tomorrow. I will probably stick to the 3x a week plan until mid July. By then we should be fully staffed and my hours can get a little shorter. Fingers crossed. But going forward I plan to have my runs be something of substance rather than just phoning it in. Speaking of substance, I had hoped that Sunday’s run would be between 6-8 miles but I held off too long. I headed out late afternoon when it was close to 90. Oops. I also didn’t have enough time as I had Sunday dinner to get to. Another reason I have been trying to rearrange my long run days. The run was warm but not too bad. I walked the first 10 minutes though, it took awhile to get my head and legs into it. 😬. After that I averaged a 10:30 pace which for the temp and it only being my second run in that warmth, I say is pretty good. Heat and slow pace aside, this run felt good. I was dripping in sweat by the end but smiling. It was the first run in a month where I was just happy to be running. Yay! And these might have helped too- I decided to buy another pair of 17’s. I know they are being phased out but I figured it made more sense than running in shoes that made my feet cranky. Yes, I still felt the odd little niggles but overall they felt like slippers on my feet. 😃 Truthfully, I didn’t even try them on the store, I just told them my size and paid. The Warehouse did let me know that they have about 100 in my size so I might be able to get another pair in a few months. If only I had unlimited funds and a place to store them, I would seriously stock up right now!! Orange wasn’t my first choice but it grew on me. I think I was obnoxiously bright when I ran today- In non running news- Friday was a sad day at work. My fish died!! I always greet him in the morning and my greeting turned into a shriek! I was sad and didn’t know what to do. 😢 Customers asked where he was throughout the day and we had to tell them the sad news. He had been a little under the weather for awhile but I was hoping he would pull through.

Saturday saw a family tradition when we went to see Jurassic World. I really liked it, my brother was meh about it. My mother liked it even though she made fun of parts of it too. This also meant I decimated a movie popcorn but I was ok with that. I also realized that I can no longer tolerate candy. I was on such a sugar high, I felt ill. Score one for Atkins. I also had a similar revelation to pizza last week, boo.

I am finally eager to get back to training. I really would like to break 2:00 in a half this year. In order to do that, I have to put the work in first. This also means that I am reconsidering my July race. I keep going back and forth about what to do. But that’s for another post. I may need your help. 🙂 I also misplaced my training so I am trying an app this time.

How was your weekend?

What are you training for? Do you train during the summer or just run?

Ever had a fish? How do you take care of them?!

Lack of Umph

You know that saying about the difference between try and triumph is a little “umph”? Or something like that? I’ve lost my umph. Where did it go? Can you help me find it?

I’ve been feeling adrift since SLO. I thought having no training plan would feel liberating. I mean I am a Slacker after all, I was looking forward to it, thinking it would be awesome. Yet it hasn’t been. My last few posts have talked of my lack of motivation and each one said the same thing- I need to get back on track. Obviously saying it means absolutely nothing. Want to know how many miles I’ve run in May? 26. Seriously!?? Ouch.

Work has officially hit crazy, and my hours got a little longer, like open to close. Friday is the biggest change, last Friday ran around 11 hours. However that should be no excuse to be lazy. Maybe I should just try to go to sleep earlier. Ok, that one made me laugh a little. What time did this post go up? I also need to work on my time management skills outside of work but that’s for another post. Anyways, time to ~~hopefully~~ actually follow through with what I say. So to that effect, I planned out a race schedule. With a goal race. So here we go.

May– Bands on the Run 10K
June– Talley Vineyard 10K
July– Rock’n around the Pier 13.1 and a possible 4th of July 5kAugust– Trail 25K
September– Central Coast Cancer Challenge 10k, HOB Fun Run 10K/ 5K
October– City to the Sea 13.1 (GOAL)
November– Big Sur Half Marathon

A race schedule seemed to work for me before, so let’s try it again. Since I really think my training plan for SLO worked, I am going to re purpose it for City to the Sea. That is also where I set my half marathon PR and I love the course…except they changed the course this year, so we will see what happens. Now, this plan is flexible, life does happen so I may adjust things if I have to. May, June, HOB and Big Sur are the only ones set right now.

Most of this was thought out after a truly lackluster weekend of running. I ended up napping on Saturday- again. Sunday did see my longest run since SLO- a slow 10K. I ran a 10:52 pace which is great for an easy run which was the goal. What was not so great was how hard it was. I was huffing and puffing the whole way, that pace felt more like race pace than easy run. Ugh. That was not confidence inspiring, but rough runs happen and we move on. But I was out there long enough to think of all the reasons I have been lazy and what I can do about it. I am 20 weeks out from City to the Sea and I am aiming for a 16 week plan. The next 4 weeks will be testing a couple of new weekly schedules out since this newest one isn’t working out so well. 🙂 Plus I need to figure out what works best with the work schedule. Running later in the evening makes it harder to sleep and now I have to get up earlier so that probably won’t work, but I will figure it out. I also need to figure out how to stop the stress eating that has been happening for 2 weeks.

What do you do when you lose your “umph”?

What’s your race schedule look like?

What do you do when you’re stressed?

Radio silence

Long time no share. I think that was the longest posting break I have taken since I started this blog almost 3 years ago. I try to stick to a schedule of posting 3x a week so my one post last week was very lonely. 😞

I wanted to post but just didn’t feel like I was in the right head space there for a while. I ended up taking Wednesday through Saturday off of running as well. So attempt 1 of changing my weekly schedule didn’t work out. A migraine rolled in on Wednesday evening and didn’t leave until Saturday. Sometimes I run through them but this time I just decided to embrace the Slacker and rest. The migraine was probably partially hormonal and partially due to stress so rest sounded great. 😃 I watched some tv, read some fanfic online (yes I am that nerdy) and maybe ate some things that I shouldn’t have. I have zero regrets about that donut- I needed it for my mental health. 🙂

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. Albert Einstein — Just keep moving…. Thanks Pinterest

Work is in the process of getting a little crazier so I decided that I just needed some quiet time. I work in a location with a smaller staff, only about 6, and 3 have given notice. All are for different life reasons but the timing still makes me doubt myself as a manager. There are some things that I have no control over and I know this but still that little voice in my head starts whispering. Ugh. Plus with 3 leaving, things are about to get really interesting. I see some very long days in the future… Very soon. I am ~~trying~~ going to stay optimistic and it is what is and we will get through it. Where did the cynical Slacker go?

I am hopeful that I can stick to my usual running of 4x a week throughout the coming weeks but if I have to drop a day I will. We’ll see. Also I need to get back on that schedule, I haven’t hit 4 days a week since the week before SLO. oops!!

I did get in some miles on Sunday. On Saturday, my mother and I had headed into SLO for a little shopping. One of those stops was the Running Warehouse. It broke my little Mizuno-loving heart but I exchanged my Inspire’s. I don’t know what it was but I just could not break them in. I hate exchanging shoes, I feel bad that they have to be sent back, but I do not have the room in the budget to just keep buying shoes. I swapped them out for a pair of the Wave Rider 18’s. Maybe they are what I should have gone with in the first place. Hmmm, we’ll see.Sunday was Mother’s Day (Happy belated Mother’s Day to all you mothers!) and the day started with a nice run/ walk with my mom. We did the usual walk for a bit then I would run ahead and double back. I was feeling a little tired and sluggish but after 4 days off, I wasn’t complaining. Plus it was my first run in my new shoes. 🙂 In a completely unimportant note, these shoes sure are pretty, I hope I like them.

So I am hoping to get back to the regularly scheduled programming this week. Hopefully in all areas, fingers crossed!

How was your weekend? Mother’s Day?

Ever needed a time out? What did you do?