Tag: SLO

Week 13 Training Recap

Upcoming Races– Firehouse 5K
SLO Marathon 13.1

Focus– I forgot to pick one- oops

Week 12 was pretty good so of course this week started off rocky. One of these days the pendulum won’t swing back and forth so quickly. The whole week was wonky actually. It started odd, swung into worse and then swung back again.

Monday- Rest I had planned on riding the bike but as I was leaving work I started getting texts from my brother. He wanted to know where my dad was. Odd but ok, so I called my dad. No answer. Hmm. I called my mom, no answer. That’s odd. Now my mind goes to worst case scenarios and starts thinking that something happened. Turns out my brother’s truck had broken down in the Subway parking lot. As for my parents not answering- well, they have lives. 😛 But eventually, I picked up my mom and we ended up eating Subway for dinner while waiting for AAA to tow my brother’s truck.

Tuesday- 3.5 miles– With my brother’s truck out of commission, he needed a ride to work. His current job has him working in SLO. Not in the town I work or the town we live in. Well that makes the commuting a little tricky. It’s sad how much getting up 30 minutes earlier kicked my butt. I had running gear packed but wasn’t optimistic about getting in a run. It ended up working out, I only had to take my brother halfway and he found another ride home.

I headed to the lake path to get in a few laps. Ouch, Ouch, ouch. My calves and shins were soooo tight. I hoped they would loosen up after the first lap but no such luck. I stopped multiple times to stretch during lap 2 but it didn’t help. Lap 3 probably shouldn’t have happened but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being a big baby. It still hurt, so I called it at 3.5 miles.

Wednesday- Rest-Another earlier than normal morning and time I did take my brother all the way to SLO. That led me on a roundabout way to work but bonus- I found a new road to run on!! You know you’re a runner when you drive new roads and notice how run-able the shoulders are. I mapped it and I can run from my work location to another one and it’s around 14.5 miles. Woo hoo! Just have to figure out how to get back. 😛

Thursday- 7.5 miles– As I mentioned in Friday’s post, this run sucked. Pain, tightness, clothing issues, asthma issues, body insecurities; you name it, I had it and the run blew. I was hoping to pull off 12 but called it at 7.5. My brother took the family to pizza to thank us for the week. 🍕 Then I came home and vented about the run on the blog. I also had the beginnings of a headache so I went to bed early with an ice pack on my head.

Friday- Rest– Like all Fridays. 😀My headache had turned into a migraine. I tried drinking tons of water, caffeine, food, sugar, etc to help it but nothing worked. I even took 2 Excedrin Tension Headache pills. That was probably a mistake. I tend to have odd reactions to OTC medicines. Yeah, my pupils decided they wanted to be different sizes. I ended up going home an hour early.

Saturday- Rest– I worked in the morning and it was chaos. That seems to be the new theme for the Saturdays I work. Can it stop? Part of me wanted to run in the afternoon but I was considering another long run attempt on Sunday. I don’t usually follow the 10% rule but since 2 weeks ago saw 4.5 miles and last week 17, I decided to be smart.

Sunday -10 miles run, 3 mile walk– Holy crap people!!!! After the crappiness of this week’s runs I was not optimistic for this attempt. When my alarm went off and I saw 88% humidity for the weather, I hit snooze. I thought about blowing it off entirely, but an hour later I was heading out the door. I had zero goals for this run, I turned my watch face to the clock and then ignored it. My mother, brother and I were doing lunch so she was picking me up at the end. Erring on the side of caution, I told her to give me 2 hours.

I didn’t worry about keeping my pace slow, I didn’t worry about being fast. I ran what felt comfortable and walked when I needed to. Per usual, I picked up my pace running across the bridge, it was the only time I really felt fatigued. I kept running and was soon off road on the river path. Which turned into a running hopping dance. The path was full of stink bugs! Half a mile of watching my feet and hopping over them when needed- that added some excitement to the morning. Then it was up the hill for the river route and back down. The humidity never broke and it was still around 78% at the end of my run. I felt like a sticky, nasty mess but my lungs held up pretty well. I finished down on the river trail again and stretched out.

Then I saw my watch- 10 miles at 10:27 average pace? Where the hell did that come from? I didn’t think I had seen that pace for a long run since last year’s training for SLO. Hours later and I am still not sure how I pulled that off. And I had time to stretch and walk it out before I met my mother.

When I uploaded my figures into Smash Run later, I realized just rare this run was. I thought it had been the fastest in a year, umm, it was my fastest 10 miler since January 2014. What?!?! I’m still not sure how it happened but I will take it!

My mile splits make me laugh- typical me, all over the place. But I felt good so I’m just going to call it a win.

This week was all over the place- work, life and running included. I feel like I need another day to recover. Boo. Oh well, moving on. My hope this week is to stay consistent and pull off a new to me distance this weekend. Fingers crossed!!!!

Low-carb– umm, yeah, I had Subway 4 times this week. It just kept happening! It was easy and not horrible for you. Ugh, well, Monday is a new week right?

How was your week?

Have any Easter plans?

February Recap- Realizations

Well, that didn’t go according to plan.

Miles– 59.8 run
29 Miles Stationary bike

Races– Surf City 13.1- 2:28:24

Originally I was planning to ramp up training for SLO post Surf City. Speed work was going to make its first appearance this year and I was going to force myself to be a grown up and go run on the treadmill. But, my lungs had other plans. With 5 rest days leading up to Surf City and the 6 days following it, I missed out on a lot of running time. And bike time, somehow I kind of forgot about the bike. I see it on a daily basis but I only rode it 3 times. Umm, oops?

So back to those pesky lungs. I closed out February with a follow up at my doctor. My chest x-ray came back clear. So the current theory is to blame El Nino. No, seriously. The El Nino weather systems have wreaked havoc on those with seasonal allergies. So we haven’t yet seen the buckets of rain that were promised but hay fever and other assorted issues are in overdrive for everyone. So, I have a shiny new rescue inhaler and still have to use a heavy duty, daily inhaler twice a day. My thyroid is also messed up, so I have a new medication there as well. Seriously, I am beginning to think I need one of those AM/PM pill containers just to keep it all straight. Stupid stomach, whiny lungs and a lazy thyroid? Grrr.

I also had some realizations in February. I don’t remember exactly when I started running but my first race was in September of 2010. So 5+ years of running and 16 half marathons later and I only just now realized that I suck at long runs. For once I am not referring to the pace or the number of walk breaks, I mean doing the runs themselves. If you had asked me I would have sworn up and down that I did a few 10 milers each training cycle and some 11 milers. Ha!! Remember in January when I ran what I said was my slowest 10 miler ever? Something about that statistic on Smash Run made me do some research. It claimed that it was my slowest 10 miler coming in at #13. 13? That didn’t seem right. So after Sunday’s more successful 10 miler I looked into my stats on the Garmin. Then Nike+.

Holy crap, in 5 years of running I’ve only run 15 10 milers? 2 11 milers and 2 12 mile runs. And I call myself a runner? A few years ago I know I used to split my long runs up but I really doubt they would make those numbers look any better. Well, that was a wake up call. I didn’t think I was that bad of a Slacker. #facepalm Do people still do that?

So, I am chalking February up as a learning experience. Or the clearing of the fog of denial I was living in. Moving into March I would like to work on making the run a consistent occurrence. Which is necessary as I have a 16 mile run on the training plan for the beginning of April. I conveniently ignored that box on the plan during last years SLO race prep. March also brings the start of daylight savings. Which means the lake path is back in play and speed work may actually happen on a somewhat consistent basis. We’ll see how the lungs hold up. Fingers crossed!

How was your February? Any plans for March?

Am I just a huge Slacker?

Ever faced a sad running realization?

2015 City to the Sea 13.1 Recap

Sunday morning saw the completion of half marathon #14. If I am doing my counting right that is. 😃

Pre-race

I headed down to SLO for packet pickup on Saturday. Pickup was in the Running Warehouse parking lot and super easy. I spent the day wandering around SLO and probably spent too much time on my feet. I actually cleared my step goal that day without running. Oops. I had a general idea of what I was wearing for the race and had created a new playlist on Thursday. Plenty of Shinedown, Linkin Park, AFI, Papa Roach with some Kip Moore thrown in. My mother heard it being played in my car and asked if I had made an angry playlist. 😜I laid everything out for the next morning and set my alarm. I made an effort to be in bed before 11. Which was a moot point as I tossed and turned all night long. If I got 2 hours of sleep I would be surprised. I could not fall asleep. My head hurt, my neck hurt, my arms felt kind of tingly. What the hell? It’s not like this was my first race, why was I having such issues? I was so tired by 1 AM, I even considered a DNS. But eventually I dozed off.

Race Day-

I was up, prepped and on the road by 6. Where I proceeded to have some road-rage-aholic tailgate me on an empty freeway flashing his brights because I wasn’t driving fast enough. Dude, seriously? Once in SLO, I stopped at the same Chevron station I have in years past to use the bathroom. Nice, bright, clean and not a port-a-pottie? Score. I parked 2 blocks from the start line and got ready. This is when I realized that while I made a nice and shiny new playlist, I never actually put it on my phone. #slackerfail

We’ve been in the middle of a heatwave and I knew it was going to warm up fast but I was actually chilled at the start line. I have a habit of going out too fast, so I deliberately put myself behind the 2:15 pacer. I was aiming for 2:10 or faster and didn’t even want to see the 2:00 pacer, I knew I would want to try to catch them.

Miles 1-3 9:13, 9:03, 9:02

These were an eventful 3 miles. I was feeling pretty good but I was also confused. I was running a sub 9:30 pace and the 2:15 pacer was still in front of me. Ummm, what gives? Dude, you should be behind me now. Then there was butt cheeks. I admit I sometimes people watch while racing as a way to distract myself and help me keep my pace. Plus I can check out race shirts and look for new races to run. 😄 But I noticed this girl whose shorts were so short, seriously I have underwear that covers more. Maggie Vessey’s racing outfits cover more. Then I started to feel bad because I could see other people noticing and making comments about her shorts. But then I recognized a pair of socks in front of me- it was Heather of @sloluckystyle. I pulled up along side to say hi. Granted it was 1.5 miles into a 13 mile race but it was nice getting to meet someone I interact with on social media in real life.

Miles 4-6: 9:06, 9:23, 9:24

I was still feeling pretty good and I was pleased with the numbers I saw on my watch. Mile 6 was the first uphill and I held onto a 9:24. That number made me smile because I knew a 9:23 average pace would be a PR of 2:03. I wasn’t banking on that though as I knew I had a big hill at mile 10 and another new hill around mile 12. I was just focusing on how I felt and enjoying the scenery of a good race. I also knew I was about to hit the course change.

Miles 7-9: 10:45, 9:23, 10:02

Right after those good thoughts, I had an inhaler moment. I still haven’t mastered running and using my inhaler so it required a walk break. That’s something that’s hard to practice since I only want to use my inhaler as a last resort. The temp was rising and so was the humidity but I was still feeling ok. I knew I had lost a PR but I was fine with that as it hadn’t been my primary goal of the day. There was also a little more of an incline in mile 7 than I had anticipated. Followed by a dead skunk which made things real fragrant for half a mile. 😖 Mile 8-9 brought us onto the Bob Jones trail which is very nice. Well paved and surrounded by trees which meant shade!!! The irksome part to these 3 miles was the guy shouting out that we only had 5 miles to go…at the 10K mark. Grrrr.

Mile 10: 12:38

I slowed towards the end of mile 9 as I needed my inhaler again. We came out of the Bob Jones trails and were headed to the main drag in Avila. Which I have driven on numerous times and would have bet you money that it was downhill to the freeway. I had been looking forward to that downhill before the hill at mile 10. That downhill didn’t exist. We across a bridge and across traffic before making a left- up a hill. It looked like a freakin’ mountain. The wheels came off hard. The only thing consoling me was just how many people went to a walk on this damn hill. Then we hit the freeway and made a left for the original hill I had been worried about. And another spectator telling us it was last hill. No it’s not! Stop giving me false hope!!

Miles 11-13: 11:02, 10:54, 10:55

I never recovered from mile 10. From there on out, I was in survival mode. I walked way too much. The temp had hit the high 70’s and the humidity had jumped. I was almost out of Gatorade in my hand-held which is rare for me. I tend to run races under hydrated because I found it works for me. I carry a 10oz handheld of Gatorade and usually have half left at the end of the race. I grab water at aid stations starting around mile 5. I made myself sick drinking too much water at more than one race when I first started running. To have an almost empty bottle with 2 miles to go was not a good thing. I kept my head down and just kept trucking. I knew I was in the home stretch and the crowds were picking up. I could see the ocean and I was also starting to see people walking around with their medals and I wanted that medal. 😜

13.1- 2:12:40

The thing I forget about this race, that last .1 seems like it takes forever. I think it’s because of the way the street curves. From the mile 13 marker, you can’t even see the finish line, the road curves 2 more times. But I finally saw it and crossed the line so happy to be done. After being funneled through the shoot and receiving my medal- woo hoo, it’s seriously cool- I just wanted water and needed to find my parents. They were both coming to this finish line. For a local race, this finish area is the most congested I’ve seen. I eventually found my mom and the puppy but not my dad or water. I finally found water and refilled my water bottle then we headed for an empty space where my dad eventually found us. I was hot and sweaty and while I felt pretty good, I ended up going back for more water. We hung out a bit before we headed for their car. They were my ride back to my car. 😏

It was during the ride back to SLO that I knew I had made a rookie mistake. Those 2 bottles of water were a miscalculation. After they dropped me off at my car, I spent the next 30 minutes sitting on the curb by my car trying not to be sick. #slackerfail2

Overall, I didn’t meet either of my pace goals but realistically I am ok with that. I returned to run one of my favorite races and the course change actually made it better. I now know to be prepared for that damn hill in the future. I also have a few things I know I need to work on but we’ll leave that for another post. I do wonder how I might have fared if the temps had stayed down but it is what is. Gorgeous finish line though right?

Sunday Summit- Reservoir Canyon

A few weeks back I came across a challenge on Instagram called #PixonPeaks. Hike/run the specific peaks on the list, post it on Instagram and get a shirt. Ok, it’s a little more than that but it peaked my interest. And we runners like our shirts right?

Truthfully, I’ve been missing trails. I love trail running/ hiking but it’s been a long time. Summer heat kind of kills it and I like sleeping in. Plus, you know, rattlesnakes. Throw in a crazy schedule, training for a “goal” race and trails get ignored. Stress has been getting to me in a major way and I just wanted to get lost. I like to power hike up the mountains and then manage the fine line between running and falling down hill. It’s impossible to over think and stress about life when you are throwing yourself down a hill. 😜 Lots of fun and a great way to de-stress.

Sane runners taper 7 days before a goal half marathon but I never claimed to be normal. One of my mom’s tennis players is in a Geo class and they have to hike 10-15 miles a month outside of class so we picked her up along the way. The plan was to hike up to the top and run down, nice and easy. It should have been around 4 miles. I had never hiked Reservoir Canyon before but always wanted to. I am not sure why I thought it was going to be a walk in the park. I had heard that there was a swing along with a teepee and nice stone seating are at the top. How hard could that be? Plus I kept seeing pictures of some pink metal thing on Instagram and I wanted to find it.

The trail started off through a wooded area and crossed a river bed. Granted we’re in the middle of a crazy drought so there was no running water. But the bridge was cool. 😄 The trees were probably as close as we are going to get to fall, so that was nice. We only gained 200 ft in the first mile so how hard could it be? I should have checked the trail sites. The trail narrowed and started climbing. There were 2 sections that were so eroded that there was no trail- you had to jump to the next section. It was awesome. And we gained 1100+ ft in the next mile and change.

Luckily, the swing and the teepee were a nice distraction part way up. How the hell did they get all that metal up there? I was starting to wonder if I was even going to make it to the top. Indulging in a little swing time was pretty awesome.

But we weren’t at the top yet! I started power hiking to the top pausing for picture breaks along the way. 1/4 of a mile from the top I thought I heard my name being yelled. I paused, heard nothing. Started up again and there it was. I texted my mom and S to see if they were ok. No response. Well crap. So I turned around and jogged down to find them. Turns out they just wanted to make sure I was ok. They could have texted- grrr. And back up I went. The dirt was super loose and rocks and roots were all over the path. I made it to the top! Then made a wrong turn and headed down a utility path that appeared instead of the actual trail. Oops. Turn around. I eventually met up with my mom and S at the seating area. My Garmin only registered 2.25 miles up so I was feeling pretty good.

I still couldn’t find the pink thing. S spotted it off in the distance so we decided to go for it. It only looked about a 1/4 of a mile away and mostly flat. All lies. Little rollers all the way out, and I mean way. It was closer to 3/4 of a mile away. Oops- but we made it!.

We hung out a bit before heading back down. I was looking forward to opening up my pace on the way down. I love flying down a mountain. Remember those rocks and roots I mentioned? After I almost tumbled off the path for the fourth time in less than 1/2 a mile, I knew running wasn’t going to happen. Plus my head hurt each time I landed hard and let’s face it, everything was a hard landing. Guess I hit my head harder than I thought. I made it back to the swing and hung out there waiting for my mom and S. My legs were literally vibrating on their own. If I stopped moving – they started shaking. Truth- this trail kicked my ass and kept kicking. It was awesome. 😝

With the doubling back, making the wrong turn and adding the pink structure I was a little past the 4 mile mark. By the time we got back to the car, my Garmin registered 7 miles. Oops. And I was hungry, I hadn’t eaten breakfast. But it was awesome. Have I said that already? Supposedly there’s a waterfall somewhere but I never saw it. Something to look for next time!

Peak 1- Done! ✅

I was looking to get lost metaphorically not literally but it’s all good. Even if I foam rolled and cried on Monday. 😅

Do you get lost on trails? On purpose or not?

Do you like running down mountains? I love it and always think of that horse scene from Snowy River.

Ever done something you shouldn’t do close to race day?

Central Coast Cancer Challenge 5K- Recap

My first time running the Central Coast Cancer Challenge was 3 or 4 years ago. It was an entirely different beast then. It was smaller and 2/3 on trails with no warning about that on the website. Actually, I am not even sure it had a website. I ended up running into a friend on race morning and we ran it together. At the time it was the closest I had ever come to running a sub 30 5K. Well, until we realized the course was short. By a lot- we all registered around 2.6 miles. Turns out some course signage had fallen over and was not corrected prior to the race start. Oops. The past few years it has been part of the RaceSLO group so I had been wanting to check it out. Schedule conflicts prevented that until this year.

The race raises money for cancer research and a local charity. Cancer survivors can race for free and get a special race shirt with “Survivor” on the back. In memory/ In honor of bibs are free and participants can write names on them and wear them while running. I love the shirts for survivors but I think there needs to be another category. There needs to be a “Fighter” category for those who are still fighting their way to be a survivor.

As the race got closer I wondered what the hell I had been thinking. I haven’t raced a 5K in over a year, and my speed work has been more hit than miss and speed held for any length of time is problematic for my stupid stomach. So yeah. I had originally planned on trying to PR (current PR -27:48) this race but the closer race day got, the more I was leaning towards just holding on. If I could even break 30, I was going to throw a party. Then I saw the course and just laughed. The race has moved to the center of SLO over the past years and they shut down multiple busy streets for it. Having run some of these streets during the SLO half, I knew partially what I was in for. The course loops downtown and starts with a little less than half a mile sloped down, then you make a left and it’s pretty much uphill for the next 1.5 miles. It’s the kind of hill that you don’t notice driving but kicks your ass running. Ahh, crap. So new plan was to try pull off the following splits- moderate speed, slower speed, fast finish. Pretty simple right? 😃

Having picked up my race bib the day before may have made me too relaxed. Per usual my mom was along for the ride and we didn’t even get to the start line area until 7:45. I ended up bailing out of the car while she found a parking spot. Then I needed a restroom stop and there was a line. Another woman in line and I joked that at least races never seem to start on time. 😏 Took care of business and headed to the start. I hopped into the starting line chute at 7:54. I figured I could use the 6 minutes left until the 8:00AM start time to move my way forward in the crowd and get my Garmin situated. Maybe stretch a bit. Best laid plans right?The race whistle blew at 7:55.

5 minutes early!?!

Mile 1- 9:00

My Garmin was on but didn’t have a satellite yet. I just pushed start and figured I would deal with it later. I got hung up in a crowd crossing the starting line but managed to break free after a few blocks. A little too fast since my Garmin buzzed that I was running a 7:30 pace. Oops, slow it down there. Then we turned up the next street and that was taken care of for me. 😊 I passed the mile marker and checked my watch. I knew the mileage was going to be off but I wanted an idea of my overall time. Except the display was on some funky screen only showing the time lapsed in run/walk intervals. Ok then, guess I was running blind.

Mile 2- 9:42

This felt like the longest mile ever. I kept wanting to take a walk break but was arguing with myself that it was all in my head. I felt like we were climbing forever and it’s not even that steep! We only gained 133 ft. I felt like everyone and their brother were passing me. A woman came running up behind me pushing a stroller- uphill- looking fresh as a daisy. I instantly felt out of shape. I told myself I could walk at the water stop. But knowing that there was only one on the way up I had brought my own just in case. So I kept running. Seriously I felt like I was almost at the freeway on ramp, where the hell was the turn around? Oh there, thank you lord. My watch buzzed for it’s mile 2 a little before that and said 9:42. Ouch, definitely not PR pace. It was the only mile I had seen so I wasn’t even sure I was going to break 30. Grrr.

Mile 3- 8:17

I had hoped the downhill was going to help my pace but my stomach had started protesting around mile 1.5. I wasn’t sure how that was going to play out. I drew level with another woman and we had a little chat. She was surprised at just how much of a hill that had been. She said she hadn’t known. I said I had known but that didn’t make it any easier. 😖 We separated, I think I pulled ahead but I can’t remember! I picked up the pace and started reeling people in. I didn’t really feel like I was pushing the pace fitness wise but my stomach was telling a different story. I ran as fast as it was letting me and figured that was the best I could do right then. I could finally hear the announcer and people cheering. Yay, I was almost done! I could see the clock but it was far away and I thought it said 29:something. Then I realized it read 26:something. Holy crap- run!

Finish- 27:10 New PR!!!

Hell yeah! How I took 38 seconds off of my previous time, I have no idea. I felt like I was crawling up that hill. Now I am left thinking that if I had pushed a little harder on the hill, I could have been sub 27. Fitness wise, I didn’t feel like I gave it my all. I know part of that was due to some serious cramping in the last half but part of that was also due to my pre-race doubts. Or maybe me deciding to just hang on and not stress about the race was what got me that shiny new PR. Who knows. I do know I was happy about the race. I ran according to my plan and managed to pull off a fast time for myself. Maybe next time I will push a little harder. Now I just need another 5k. 😃

Oh and the women with the stroller was rocking the 10K. So fast!

What’s you favorite distance to race? Least favorite?