Tag: SLO

Of Running and Cats

It’s race week!!!! I hit 2 out of 3 planned workouts, that’s a good thing right?

My training plan called for actual workouts this week so that was new. Usually I embrace taper for all its worth and run lazily once or twice leading up to the race. However the plan wanted 2 easy runs and 1 interval or fartlek workout. Hmmm, ok. I headed out Tuesday and marked off my easy run. It was one of those runs that wasn’t awesome but didn’t suck so it was just meh. My one complaint was the wind. I am so over the wind. It has been windy here for two weeks- it’s never windy around here. It just makes things so much colder.

My stomach was feeling pissy, so I pushed Wednesday’s speed work to Thursday. Yay, more wind…and I ran in a tank top. I was so cold but this was also intentional. The forecast calls for rain on Saturday and wind on Sunday so I figured I may as well get used to it. Plus I was testing out a new shirt. Can’t find out where it chafes if it’s covered up. But I was the only loony out there in a tank. Everyone else was bundled up, jackets, gloves, scarves and hats. Yes, we Cali people hate the cold.

I didn’t really want to think about intervals so after a warm up, I decide to run a few fartleks. I forgot to even look at my watch for the first one so I wasn’t sure what time or mileage I started at- oops! Oddly enough, all of my fartleks ended up being of similar distance, time and pace without too much planning on my part. I called it at 3.5 miles though, I just couldn’t take the wind any longer. I may be rethinking my race day outfit to include some more layers.

The best part of Thursday’s run was the lake cat. For a lot of my runs at the lake, I often see a gray and white cat roaming the back of the lake. I am pretty sure I know which house he comes from but I have always worried that something might happen to him. Quite a few cars drive that road and don’t always pay attention. Plus there are lots of people and more than a few dogs, some dogs off the leash. The last time I saw the lake cat was that run that ended in horrible stomach pain. That was in March. I’ve been looking for him every time I have run there since but no luck. Until Thursday. I rounded a curve on the backside of the lake and there he was. I actually yelled “kitty” out loud. I had to stop and visit, so that was the end of my first fartlek. 🙂 I was so glad to see him.Which made me feel even worse when I got home to find that I had once again traumatized my cat. 😦 After I come home, I usually carry my purse, gym bag, lunch bag, shoes etc into the house to put away. Kimi would come to meet me and walk around my legs. One day I was carrying too much and dropped my boots…they landed on her. It’s been over 2 years and she still bolts if she sees me pick up a pair of boots. Other shoes are fine but boots and she bolts. Now she runs from me if I am holding her yellow food dish too. 😦

The other cat had to go on a diet, so I’ve had a bowl of the normal food for her stashed in the bedroom. The other evening, I went to get it out of a drawer and turned as she was running in. In my defense, she jumped headfirst into the bowl but now she bolts from the room and hides around the corner. Waah, I feel so bad!

I took a few days off around SLO- so today was a lovely vacation day. I planned on getting in my last run but I took a nap instead. 🙂 I tried to work on a new playlist and get this post up sooner but somehow the day ran away from me. I did meet a friend at the movies this evening. We went and saw The Longest Ride. I am not a fan of the books, but somehow we always end up going to the movies. She and I crack jokes that we are the only who can stand them. It was pretty good, not great but good, and luckily not as destructive as his movies tend to be. Which was fine by me since Grey’s Anatomy was rough enough last night. Now I should probably go to bed, I have an expo to go to tomorrow! 🙂

What do you usually run during race week?

Ever traumatize one of your pets? 😦

Did you watch Grey’s? Or see The Longest Ride?

March is Marchin’

March being over already feels like an April Fool’s joke. It cannot be time for a monthly recap yet!

But it is, so here we go!

Miles- 83.1

Races- Wine Country Half

Highest mileage moth of the year so far even if it’s not quite where I had hoped it would be at the beginning of the month. Had I hit my weekend long run like planned, I would have been closer to 95. Which is so close to 100!! But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Did anyone else grow up with that expression? I never understood the point. I mean I do but why say it?

Anyways, moving on. This was still a damn good month. I stuck to my training plan fairly well considering I started the month with some crazy tightness and hamstring issues. March also saw me run a pretty great race , for me, so yay! I survived a work inspection and filled in at another location. My stomach was its’ asshat self but I tried to not let it disrupt training too much. I managed to some mile paces that I haven’t seen in months. I can’t hold them for very long yet, but even just seeing low 9’s and mid 8’s on my watch is kind of awesome! Now to work on maintaining them.

That means continuing to stick to my training as closely as I can. SLO is now less than 30 days away and I am looking forward to race weekend. A little vacation time, hanging out with runners and running an awesome race. There’s a local 5K I want to run the weekend after next. Firehouse 5K, it kicks my butt every year, but it’s such a fun race. I usually hurt for the following week so I am glad that it falls a little sooner this year. 🙂 All that said, I am glad that I already decided to make SLO a fun race as opposed to a goal race. At last week’s appointment with my gastro, we decided that the most recent prescription changes were not working. So I have a shiny new diet to follow. More on the specifics later, but I had to say goodbye to a lot of things for the next few months. So very many things. I am still figuring things out, so right now all I know is that the last few days have been some hungry, tired days.

I had a scheduling conflict today so I moved my easy run of the week to Monday. Woof, that was hard. Not sure if it was because it was a Monday, or because my side still hurt a bit or if it was the dietary changes but it was hard. So much harder than easy should feel. I was also testing out my new shoes. While I love getting new shoes, the break in period is always interesting. While I think I am going to really like them, I had unusual aches and niggles throughout the run. I stopped every mile or so to stretch out. I am not really concerned by this because it has happened every time I have broken in a new shoe style. It usually takes a week or so of alternating shoes to fully adjust. But that is one reason I bought them a month before SLO.

How long do you usually take to break in new shoes?

What is your March highlight?

What are you looking forward to in April?

Well, that wasn’t the plan

Even though the extreme pain of Thursday evening eased, I still felt sore on Friday. Sore isn’t really the right word but it’s the closest thing to describe how my left side felt on Friday. I didn’t pay much mind to it throughout the day. Partly because the day was too damn busy and chaotic and partly because I figured it would go away by the end of the day. When the text messages start coming before your alarm, you know the day is going be a little rough. But eventually it was over and I was looking forward to a weekend of running and maybe a little shopping.

Saturday morning was a fundraiser for my mom’s tennis team. They were completing a walk-a-thon and each boy had to walk or run or crawl 20 laps on the track. One boy brought a unicycle! They had a few hours in which to do this so my original plan was to run to the school and then complete my 12 miler on the track with them. When my alarm went off, I could still feel that odd soreness before even getting up. So I chose to sleep a little longer and then just head straight to the school. I figured I would get in as many laps/ miles on the track that I could. They had the track for 3 hours, I was still hoping I could get in 10-12 miles. I didn’t really think they were going to be there that long and I was right about that. However I was overly optimistic about my goal.Running hurt. I walked a few laps and tried to run one. Ouch. Walked a few more and tried running another one. Still ow. Ok, fine I get it. I walked out the remainder of laps. So 5 miles walking done. I still hoped to try and run later in the afternoon. I ran a few errands and then had the afternoon free. I could have/ should have run but instead I took a nap. Naps are training right?

I’ve been doing the math and realized that if my Wave Rider’s wear like they usually do, I will need a new pair before the SLO Marathon. Even if they did hold up through April, I would be running the race in very worn down shoes. I’ve been hoarding the gift card I got along with my Heritage award for just this purpose so today called for a trip to SLO. My mom and I headed down for a day of shopping, yummy food and hopefully a good hike to end the day.

The weather was awesome and the food was yummy as always. My stomach was not cooperative for a hike, however. This was more of the usual though and less of the odd soreness. Which is probably partially my fault. I start a new diet with lots of restrictions tomorrow so I may have indulged a little too much this weekend. Oops, but not really. I had to say goodbye. 🙂 So the hoped for hike didn’t happen. I did clear 10,000 steps on my Fitbit though and that is only the second time I have done that outside a day with a run. Yeah, I need to work on that. 🙂The highlight of the shopping was the new shoe purchase. Aren’t new running shoes always the best? I knew exactly what I wanted to try on so that made it fairly easy. Per usual, the Running Warehouse was packed on a Sunday afternoon. There were already numerous people being helped and a few waiting. I checked out all the pretty shoes while waiting. So very many colors! I guess being a familiar face is helpful because one of the employees was able to grab the shoes I wanted to try while he was getting another customers. Score! I tried the Wave Rider 18 and Wave Inspire 11. I still love Mizuno. 🙂 I had 2 pairs of Wave Inspire 9’s that I loved but just could not get behind the 10’s. I never even bought a pair they felt so off. I’ve been in the Wave Rider 17 ever since and am on pair 3. I was nervous I wouldn’t like the update for the 18. I liked the fit and feel, nothing felt too different, I just liked the feel of the Inspire’s better today. In fact the only real issues I had with both pairs was deciding which to buy and the shoelaces. The laces seem short, so I may be changing those shortly. It’ll be interesting going to back to a support shoe after being in neutral for so long but I think it may be a good thing. I picked my shoes and was in and out of there fairly quickly, double score! Now I just can’t wait to take them for a run!

And I need to get back on track with training. This was not a shiny week, it happens right?

How was your weekend? Did you race? Or run?

Shoelaces? Do you like them longer or shorter?

Sunday Summit- Cerro San Luis

December put a monkey wrench in my run/ hike a trail every other week plans. I feel like I blinked and it was January. I originally planned on hiking on New Year’s Day but quite frankly it was just too cold. At least for this California girl. I mean come on, I use a space heater every day, even in the summer. After working in the morning and a rough, abbreviated 5 mile run on Saturday, my mom and I headed out Sunday for Cerro San Luis.Cerro San Luis is located in SLO and otherwise known as Madonna Mountain. It overlooks the Madonna Inn and has a large M painted on the side representing Mission High School. And I think it may be my new favorite view. I just realized I took 165 pictures! The mountain has a series of interconnecting trails, so I never actually found the M. Guess that’s something for next time! We wanted to add some distance so we parked at a nearby park and headed for the mountain via a trail there. The trail wasn’t very technical and ranged from a dirt trail to a horse path. Could have done without the horse poop everywhere but it was really cool being that close to the horses. I had no idea you get that close to them on the trail. It had an elevation gain of 1160 feet. Which wasn’t that bad until the very end. There were quite a few times that the trail branched in different directions and we had to choose left or right. At one point my mother chose right and holy crap, that was hard. It was super narrow and super steep. I was about ready to start hand over footing it when a woman came down on a bike. Then I was jumping out of the way wondering if I was going to have to call for help. I was afraid she was going to crash. As she passed me she admitted that she should not have gone down that way. She did not look comfortable or confident at all. There were a ton of people out on the trail that day. Bikers, walkers, runners, families and dogs.

Look- it's Bishop's Peak! — Look- it’s Bishop’s Peak!

It was a very warm day which was great but man we felt like we were working. We finally made it to the top! Talk about an awesome view! We then did have to hand over foot some to get to the top of the rocks. I could see another trail down but we weren’t sure where it went. We could have investigated but it was way past lunch and I hadn’t eaten anything all day (stupid stomach) so we just headed back down. We took our time going down because my mom has been fighting a knee thing off and on since we hiked Cerro Alto.

This slacker forgot to charge her Garmin and it pretty much died at the top of the mountain. Oops. But it was 3 miles up and I think it was around 3 miles down but we went a slightly different way. The clouds rolled in and the wind picked up as we got back to the park- perfect timing! Oh and randomly, someone was base jumping off of one of the hills. It wasn’t that high but umm, no thank you.

It was great weather and a great hike. I look forward to going back again and exploring the other trails. I want to find the M! I like to call hiking my training and cross training all in one! It was a great way to end the weekend! The plan is to hike part of the 25K route this weekend but that also depends on how my mom’s appointment goes in regards to her knee.

How was your weekend?

Wrapping it up!!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas! We had a good day here in California even though Christmas finally brought in the cold. We’ve hit freezing the last few nights and had colder days. Yes, it has been nothing like anyone who gets actual snow but it’s cold for someone like me. I think the perfect running temp is around 73 and I almost like running in 95-100º. Crazy, I know.

Christmas was good this year and I can finally share a few things I purchased for my family. I was super excited about these gifts this year, there were others but I had fun with these-

Road ID- Ok this one is mine but I ordered a similar one for my mom and I ordered a FIXX ID for my dad for when he hikes.

My mother has been saying that she wanted something with a logo on. This is the back and the front says photographer.

My family proved just well they knew me as well-

I’ve come to realize that part of the reason I may have only run 34 miles in December 2013 was that there are so many things to be done. My mileage so far this month is not where I had hoped it would be. I had two tiny weeks in a row that put a dent in my goal. But that’s ok- people first right? I have one more commitment on Monday evening and then I think I am done! Christmas is typically a lazy day with my family and I have always looked forward to it. Last year, I ran a few miles to break in the Garmin I had received but this was a return to the norm. It was so nice. We hung out and watched Love Actually and then multiple episodes of Supernatural. While enjoying yummy food of course. 🙂

Friday was back to work and I was confused all day. It was a Friday but felt more like a Monday. Even with that, I was able to restrain myself from eating cookies (Cookie Friday) which is kind of huge for me. Saturday consisted of the usual errands and waiting around for it get a little warmer before running. I admit to having little desire to run but I knew I was short on miles and also needed to get in a longish run. 10 was on the schedule but that didn’t seem like a smart idea after 2 short weeks. So I headed out around 3, figuring I would aim for 8 but would settle for 4.5 if I still wasn’t feeling it. For my longer runs, I have decided to aim for a pace around 11:15-11:30. I really want them to feel easier and be more of a focus on time than pace. Up until Saturday, it was going well.

The run felt hard from the start and my legs felt weirdly achy. I figured the cold was aggravating my asthma because I didn’t feel like I was pushing hard. I had a route in mind but going up a hill in mile 2, I changed it up and ran that hill 3 times. That section is kind of triangular so it was run up, walk a block over and run down to repeat. From there it just a series of loops around neighborhoods but I did hit that hill again around mile 6. I paused for a moment at an elementary school to check my shoes- they felt uncomfortable and just off- and use my inhaler again. It was there I noticed my pace, aside from my first mile, every other mile was in the 10’s. Slow down fool! My legs had a mind of their own and the last 4 miles were faster than the first 4. I was literally talking out loud to myself saying “slow down” but I just couldn’t seem to make it happen. I took walk breaks in every mile just to slow down. On one hand this is kind of awesome because it’s closer to what I used to be able to do but I need more self-control. I should have been able to rein it in when I need to. So yay but ugh? 🙂

Sunday called for an easy 6 and it was the perfect time to break in some new, shiny shoes. I attribute the aches from my long run to my shoes. I had noticed my neon Wave Rider’s had gone from good to not good overnight recently but I was hoping for another 50 miles or so. All of my treadmill miles have been run in my Sayonara’s and have been relatively ache free. Granted the condition of our streets doesn’t help but I had a feeling my Wave Rider’s were just done. I bought another pair in October and just stashed them until needed. What a world of difference! Putting them on today made me realize just how bad the previous pair had been, I had arch support again! Today’s 6 miles felt good, no aches other than a little soreness from yesterday. Woo hoo!

How was your Christmas?

Ever have a pair of shoes go bad seemingly overnight?

Ready for 2015? I’m getting there- next post will be goals. 🙂