Tag: SLO Marathon

Training Week 9 Recap

Upcoming Races- Wine Country 13.1?
SLO Marathon 13.1

Focus– Just like last week- Just keep running, just keep running.

This week felt insane but I am not sure why. Work was a little crazy, trying to get all the month end stuff done, giving reviews, etc but I’ve had worse. It just seemed to take a lot out of me this week. I swear I had trouble finishing sentences. I feel like I need a vacation but I’ve booked most of my vacation time this year around races. So yay but boo at the same time?

Monday- Rest For some reason, I can’t remember much about Monday. I even just checked my food log to see if there was something exciting. Nope.

Tuesday- 3.5 miles The original plan was to work a half day as I work on Saturday. However, one of the employees was feeling poorly so they went home and I stayed. Luckily my gym bag is double prepared so I had clothes to run in work town after getting off. While the marine layer stayed back, a definite haze had rolled in. My lungs did not appreciate it at all. I tried to keep the pace super easy but I was still wheezing by the end. But I was able to enjoy that sunset so score! I also had an irrational moment of tsunami panic but I got over it. We’d had an earthquake earlier in the day, the tide was farther out than I had ever seen it and not a single bird or sea lion was making a peep of noise. Like I said, irrational moment.

Wednesday- Rest day. Pizza day- woot woot!

Thursday- 5.5 mile “run”/ 7 mile stationary bike Miserable, straight up miserable. I took my rescheduled half day and I was hoping to get in my long run so I could just focus on a short run over the weekend. I like to move things around when I work on Saturday. I changed at work and drove back to home town. I had an 11 mile route mapped out and was looking forward to running. But it sucked from the get go. I couldn’t seem to get started and when I did, all I did was wheeze. I couldn’t keep any sort of pace. 2 miles in I switched to run/walk intervals. Except I couldn’t even maintain a run for 4:30. So another mile in, I changed it a 3:00 run. Nope, still couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t decide if I should call it or just keep pushing and stop being a baby. Where is the line between pushing and giving up? I told myself to just get to the next big corner and I could take a seat on the bench there and figure things out. Except there was no bench when I got there. It was too much, I plopped my ass in grass on the corner and damn near cried. I was done. I sat there for 15 minutes before finally mustering up the will power to shuffle- run the mile+ back to my car. I couldn’t even maintain a run going downhill. My feet hurt, my knees hurt, I couldn’t breathe, my legs were rubbing together uncomfortably and my shorts were riding up. I was 1/2 mile-ish shy of my car when I hit 5.5 and that was it. I turned off my Garmin and stood there for a bit. Then I took off my shoes and jogged the remainder in my socks because why not? I was hot (it was 80), tired and cranky. This was one of those runs that made wonder what I was even doing. I went home, and jumped on the bike for some miles to try and ride out the cranky-ness.

Friday- Rest Glorious. I was still frustrated after the previous day.

Saturday- Rest I think this was second most chaotic Saturday that I have worked. I was literally turning people away because I could not help them, we were so busy. I considered attempting my long run again in the afternoon but passed instead. I ran my errands, ate dinner with the family and then took my mom to the movies. We were leaning towards seeing Race but I was also trying not to think about running. We saw Deadpool. And it shows my demented sense of humor that I thought it awesome and hilarious. I can’t remember the last time I laughed like that at a movie.

Sunday- 10 miles Long run attempt 2. The plan was to head out in the morning and meet up with my mother around mile 6. That way if it sucked again I had a large walk break to look forward to. I had also stashed my Brooks in her car so I could change into them if the Nike’s were giving me grief. I slept a little longer than planned so I was rushing to get out the door. I considered putting it off until the afternoon but the more I thought about the long run, the more it stressed me out. I also realized I probably wasn’t going to pull off 6 before I met up with my mother.

I took a slightly longer walk warm up and then just tried to run easy. I turned off the run/walk intervals and changed the Garmin screen to just the clock. I took walk breaks when I felt like I needed them and just kept going. I cut the first part of the run to 5.5 miles so I could make sure I was at the meeting point in time. I also lost 5 minutes at 3 stoplights. The only split I really saw was right after I ran the bridge- 9:15. Typical, I hate running the bridge and tend speed up when I run it.

I wasn’t feeling horrible but it wasn’t all sunshine and daisies so the 1/2 mile walk break with my mom was kind of awesome. Then I picked up the pace to finish my run before meeting my mother back at her car for lunch. I just kept trying to run easy and walked when I needed to. And I tried to not think about the fact that I was now running the same route where I have had 2 blow ups on long runs in the past month. I finished down on the river path and was glad to be done. I was glad I had followed through and made myself get out of bed for my run. And it didn’t suck!! It did not feel easy but I stayed calm and watched my breathing and just kept running. 7 out of the 10 miles were all in the 10 min range which for me is very consistent. Yes, I consider all 60 seconds in that range to be consistent. Long run success!

Low carb– I would say I was around 65/35%. Not too bad. I did feel better for most of the week, so I need to keep on cutting back on the carbs. Cookies got the best of me last week. Oops.

This week was a little all over the place. Work was crazy and I think I went a little crazy as well. Hopefully I can keep my head on straight this week. Fingers crossed!!!

How was your week?

At what point do you decide a run is not worth it?

Training Week 8 Recap

Upcoming race– SLO 13.1- May 1

Focus– Just keep running, just keep running.

This week was an improvement over last week. Since ignoring my little lung issue for pretty much all of January, I am trying to pay more attention to how I am feeling and actually listen this time. I am also refocusing on eating a low carb diet but more on that later.

Monday- Rest I had the day off and I usually like to run on those days but instead I rested. I had my doctor’s appointment followed by a chest x-ray. Yay for the labs being open on a holiday.

Tuesday- 3.4 miles The fallen tree run. 🙂 Another day avoiding the treadmill and running from work.

Wednesday- Rest It was also my cheat day for pizza. Sadly, it wasn’t as good as it usually is. Boo.

Thursday- 3.1 miles I had a meeting at the end of the day but on the upside it was in home town! I was able to make it home before 5, sweet! I planned on changing quickly and heading out for a run. However the dog had other plans. She went nuts over someone in the neighbors yard. It took me 15 minutes to corral her. Once running, I realized I had overestimated how much time I had until the sun set. Oops. And because I had been frazzled by the dog I had left my flashlight behind. Double oops. Even though the run was shorter than I had hoped it was a pretty good one. Again, I tried to keep my pace slow and easy. It’s kind of sad that mile 3 was around 10:00 min. pace and it felt like it was at tempo pace.

Friday- Rest Work was stressful and I was so glad to see the end of the day.

Saturday- 10.93 miles With Heather! Heather, Ashley and I have been trying to meet up and we made it work on Saturday. Ashley couldn’t join us for the run but we met up with her later. I met up with Heather early on Saturday morning to run one of her routes. I apologized from the start that I was going to be slow and wasn’t sure how far my lungs were going to let me get. I was hoping for 10. We set out at a comfortable pace and just kept trucking. I don’t usually run with people so I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to talk and run at the same time. I don’t think I did too bad! The route was nice, we ran along parts of hwy 1 and streets in Pismo. Running past the cinnamon roll store was brutal- it smelled so good!! My lungs held up well on the way out but got fussy on the way back. I had to take more than a few walk breaks, boo. My legs and my body felt fine but every now and then I just had to slow down, it became too difficult to get in air. I kept apologizing for slowing down. But we finished! Back to the cars at 10.93 miles. I laughed over the mileage.

From there we cleaned up a bit before heading over to meet Ashley for brunch. We met at Custom House and I had heard really good things about their churro style french toast. So even though it broke all the diet rules, I had to try it right? Sadly, I wasn’t blown away. The bacon was amazing though. Know what else was amazing? Lunch with friends! We caught up on what’s been going on and planned some fun race trips for the future.

Sunday- Rest Ummm, I took a 2 hour nap. Can’t decide if it was an oops or awesome.

So other than I seemed to forget all about the bike this week, it was a pretty solid week. I was able to get in some decent miles that didn’t leave me hating either myself or running after. Looking to this week, the plan is to keep running easy and just take each run as it comes. I also need to get back on the bike and get in some miles there as well.

Food– I stopped talking about my diet for a while because let’s be honest- I wasn’t low carb or paleo at all. However in the hope of keeping myself accountable, I am going to start sharing a little recap on these posts. I am working on transitioning back to a lower carb lifestyle. With pizza thrown in once a week of course. This week was pretty good- I would say I was around 55/45%. Which doesn’t sound great but it’s epically better than I was previously. I also had a donut last week. When one of the company presidents makes a special trip to bring your location donuts- you eat them!

How was your week?

2016 SLO Marathon

Last post I shared that I was lucky enough to be offered the chance to be an Ambassador for the SLO Marathon again. Which is freakin’ awesome and I am looking forward to not only the race but all the awesome runners I get to see again. As with most ambassadorships, it comes with some challenges along the way. The first one was dropped last week- to share our resolutions/ goals for the 2016 race. Hmmm, there’s that word again.

I’ve spent some time thinking about it for the last week. How do I share a goal but stay true to my year of being goal free? Well, I am still goal free. That said, I feel like I have unfinished business with the SLO half. Let’s recap.

In 2014 I was looking forward to running a race that I had been trying to run for years but never made it happen. It was also my first ambassadorship so I was super stoked on that. I was excited on race morning but mentally I just wasn’t there. It wasn’t my fitness level, it wasn’t the hills; it was all in my head. Mentally, I blew up around mile 8. I finished the race in 2:10:32 which wasn’t bad but I felt like my legs had more in them, I just couldn’t stop the mind games. Not sure if you can tell by my smirk/smile but I was very irritated with myself post race.

I swear I was trying to smile not smirk

The Ambassadors!!!!

2015 rolled around and I was able to train with a custom McMillan training plan. The race fell in the middle of all my stomach issues so I knew breaking 2:00 was unlikely but I felt strong and ready to go. Even though I had felt sick prior to race start, I felt great for the first 5 miles. I was beginning to entertain thoughts of a new PR. Then I went down, hard. As clumsy as I am on a daily basis, I had never fallen while running before. There’s a first time for everything right? Thanks to some helpful runners I was back on my feet quickly and running on. Maybe it was a delayed reaction from the fall or just my stupid stomach but mile 7 started with my stomach cramping in a very bad way. I pretty much walked the entire mile taking deep, slow breathes. Mile 8 saw another first for me- a port a potty stop. Despite all that, I was still mentally on point. I had reassessed that a PR wasn’t going to happen but even with all that drama I knew I could still beat the previous year’s time. But my stomach fought back and miles 11-13 were all survival mode. I was also cursing that there are no porta-potties at mile 12. Cuz who needs one with only 1 mile left?! I crossed the finish line in 2:15:06 and I was damn proud of that. It may not have been the time I was hoping for but for everything that day threw at me, I stayed strong and positive the entire race.

Half smile/ half grimace

raceSLO Ambassadors!!

So while I have no plans of setting a goal for SLO 2016, I do see it as a redemption race. Both years I felt like I had more to give and I would like to see that happen this year. I love the course- hills and all- and I can’t wait to see what I can do this year. 🙂

What about you? Do you have a race that haunts you?

Ever fallen while running?

Happy Friday!!!

Mid Week Musings 7

Maybe I should rename these mid week rambles? At least this one is actually going up mid-week and not on Thursday or Friday. 🙂

How is January almost over? Seriously I need more time!

Everyone’s posting their race schedules for the year and I’m over here like I should have bought a Powerball ticket. 😅 My race account is looking pretty sad. While I am wishing for the impossible- how about more vacation time too?

I’ve been given the opportunity to come back as a SLO Marathon ambassador for 2016! Woo hoo!!! More on that soon!

I’m not a football fan but Denver making it to the Super Bowl is making me nostalgic. Growing up we had one of those huge satellite dishes. You know the ones that had to move in order to watch a different station? Anyways, for whatever reasons we only got Denver stations. The Broncos and the Rockies were the sports teams popular in our house. Combine that with the Broncos being my grandfather’s favorite football team and I am feeling the urge to rock some blue and orange at Surf City. #nostalgicfan

Last Wednesday’s weird, sick feeling makes more sense now. My last visit with my gastro resulted in a new medication to try. New to me and him- he had never prescribed it before. I was the guinea pig. Oh boy. Other than any possible warnings about driving or sleepiness, I try to avoid reading the potential side effects of a new medication. I like to avoid any chance to think myself into a side effect and just give it a week or 2. But I have been having some issues and felt kind of off so I read all the documentation yesterday. I could check off more than a few boxes on the list. The most interesting one though? “Feeling drunk” What?! Once I made sure I read that right, some things from the last 2 weeks made a little more sense. Yeah- bye bye pills.

Last week I shared that my local pizza place knows me by name. Friday night I picked up a pizza on the way home and they told me I am their #1 customer. Ummmm, yay? I only ate pizza once last week by the way.

Another episode of Z Nation got me through a treadmill run tonight. A very slow treadmill run but it’s the miles that count right? I’ve found the only way I can run on the treadmill without any weird aches is to either run very slow or very fast. Tonight was a slow one. I felt kind of awkward watching a zombie show while running though.

Lastly, I’m sure most of you have heard about the dog that bandit-ed a half marathon but my mother made sure to share it to my Facebook feed today. With a comment that the dog is faster than me. Which is true. I still love the story though. ☺

Hit me with your random!

Are you watching the Super Bowl?

Anyone else remember those satellite dishes?

2015 SLO Marathon Recap

I ain’t even mad, bro.😀. Actually my new motto might be “just hang on”. But before we get into that, let’s talk about the expo real quick.

The Expo-

Expo haul- love the ambassador shirts this year!

Saturday dawned rainy and windy. Those running the 5k ran in the rain. The rain had cleared by the time I arrived to pick up my packet and attend the ambassador meet and greet. Picking up my packet was super easy and I wandered around the expo before heading out to the meet. I was there less than 10 minutes before I spent money at the Lorna Jane booth. Oops, but since that was the only thing I bought, I think I showed restraint!

raceSLO Ambassadors!!

The meet up was outside and it was so damn windy, I thought we were going to blow away. It was nice catching up with the repeat ambassadors from last year and meeting the new ones. A few of them I had been trying to meet since the Ventura half. It was so windy and cold that after chatting, getting our shirts and taking some pics, we all scattered to do our own thing. I headed home to rest a bit and figure out food. I had been having a mental struggle all week, going back and forth between following my new diet rules or following conventional running wisdom. Spoiler- I chose wrong.

The Race-

Sunday was supposed to dawn cold and windy, so I tried to prepare for that. I didn’t feel like I got enough sleep and my stomach was cranky but neither of those are new things on race morning so I didn’t pay too much attention. My mom was dropping me off so I didn’t have to catch the 4am bus to the start. I got to the start with 15 minutes to spare so I figured I would hit the port-a-potty line just to be sure. The lines were huge. By the time I got out of there, they had moved the corrals up to the start line, oops.

Miles 1-5- 9:25, 9:14, 9:20, 9:36, 8:31

The whistle blew and we were off- sort of. I ended up starting behind the 2:45 pacer. Rutro. My fault but the first mile and a half were spent bobbing and weaving. I dropped the 2:45, 2:30, and 2:15 pace groups when I decided I just needed to run my own race and not worry about catching the 2:00 pace group. In one way it was freeing not having to worry about keeping them in sight. It meant I had to pace myself and while I knew breaking 2:00 was unlikely, I was feeling strong and thought I could PR- sub 2:05.

We hit the first of the long hills and I still felt good going up. Last year at this time I was already sucking air and tiring out. Thanks to all the weaving I did at the start, my Garmin and the mile markers didn’t match so I just checked my total time at each of the course markers. I was feeling pretty good as we the flat section before turning up another long climb.

Miles 6-8- 9:36, 11:25, 9:29

About a 1/4 mile into 6, my stomach started to make itself known. I began to wonder if I was going to have an issue. But wasn’t even the biggest thing to happen that mile. Maybe it’s because I was focused intently on telling myself I was fine and not paying attention to much else, but the next thing I knew, I was airborne.

It’s still kind of blur but I remember hitting the ground and rolling. My water bottle ended up about 10 feet down the course. WTF?! About 5 different runners stopped their race to come help me. Some helped me up while one chased down my bottle. A bike medic was there in seconds. I was kind of in shock/ denial, so I honestly don’t remember if I thanked all of them. I posted a big shout out to them on my Facebook page but I feel bad if I didn’t say it right then. 😔 I assured the medic I was ok and kept running. It was few yards later that it all set in and then I was trying to talk myself out of hyperventilating myself into an asthma attack.

Eventually I calmed down and I was still on track to PR. Halfway through mile 6, my stomach let me know that I needed a bathroom and I needed it now. There were no bathrooms at that point. I had to start walking because it was either walk or embarrass myself. I walked the rest of 7 just taking deep breaths. I felt a little better by the turn around so I picked up the pace. I said goodbye to the PR hope but knew I could still beat last years course time even with the fall and the walking. At mile 8, I was 4 minutes ahead of a last year.

Miles 9-11- 13:01, 9:48, 9:54

Around 8.5, my stomach reared again. I was near an aid station so I looked for bathrooms. I finally found them off to side and back away and bolted for them. Not sure if I looked urgent or if he did this the whole race but there was a volunteer who directed me to which port-a-potty was open. Thank you!

After that snafu, I was back running but had slowed a bit. Shockingly enough I was still on track to beat last year’s time. I just had to stay under a 10:00 pace the last few miles. My legs felt strong; bruised and bleeding but strong. My mental game still felt on point as well. Despite the morning so far, I wasn’t defeated and I wasn’t giving up. We had a nice decline portion before we went from the roads to the railroad trail. I knew there was the suspension bridge and a few streets left before the finish line and I was still hopeful.

Miles 12-13.1- 10:37, 12:49, 2:17

Mile 12 slowed some towards the end thanks to my stomach again but I thought if I could a 9:00 for the last mile and sprint the .1, I could still pull this off. I shouldn’t have gotten cocky. My stomach threw a fit in the last mile. Why are there no bathrooms at mile 12.5?! Ha! There were 2 times I had to get myself completely off the road, out of the way and just stand still, focusing on deep breathing and calming my stomach. My fastest pace was now a jog but I was mostly walking.

It felt like more than 100 people passed me in that last mile. Including the 2:15 pace group. The last .25 mile is a paved path that goes around the pavilion at the Madonna Inn and I had been looking forward to sprinting it. I walked 90% of it before jogging across the finish line. Half marathon#12 done.

Finish- 2:15:07

Where I wanted to sprint

Once I crossed the finish line and got my medal- which I feel like I fought for!- I was looking for a bathroom. I had wanted a finishers picture but the line had about 50 people in it and that was just not going to happen. I also should have stopped at the medical tent but I had other priorities. Plus, my arm warmers had done a pretty good job of drying the blood.

My mother found me fairly quickly and we headed for the back of the pavilion where the port-a-potties and UPS trucks (bag check) were. After that, I made it as far as the grass by the trucks and just tried to calm my rolling stomach. I wanted to try to find some of the ambassadors and see how they did but was just not up to moving. I had eaten nothing and had drank very little throughout the race as I knew my stomach was just not up to it. I let myself have a bit of the chocolate strawberry protein smoothie that Jamba Juice made for the finishers. It tasted like a Frosty. 🙂 We ended up leaving not long after that, I was feeling rough again and couldn’t handle another port-a-potty, so we headed to the McDonald’s down the street. Real bathrooms and I got an ice-cold Diet Coke. Oh the magical healing properties. 🙂

Like I said at the beginning, I am not mad or even sad. There were quite a few times throughout the race where I could have said screw it and bailed or phoned it in (see Ventura) but I knew I was stronger than that. My legs were feeling fresh, tumble not withstanding, my head was in the game and I was determined. I think that’s one thing that came out of my McMillan training plan that I wasn’t anticipating- the confidence. I knew I could I do it, and I still honestly believe that if it hadn’t been for my stupid stomach, I would have PR’d, hills, fall, headwind and all. Yes, the wind had picked up and was pretty bad but by that point it was the least of my concerns. 🙂 So with everything that race morning threw at me, I am damn proud of that 2:15.I love this race. I love the course and the crowds. The expo is still my favorite and the volunteers and staff are amazing. Seriously, I think the bike medic was there before I stopped rolling. I am already looking forward to next year.

Ever fallen while running? This was my first time.

What race/ run are you really proud of?