Tag: sore

Run!, Training

Week 18- Step Back

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

Upcoming Races:

  • Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13
  • Rock N Roll San Diego 13.1-June 4

The beginning of this week was full of late work meetings so with the lingering effects of SLO being felt, I figured it was a good reason to use the time to rest.  Otherwise I probably would have tried to run too soon.    My left ankle was very sore and achy so taking Monday through Wednesday off was probably the smartest thing to do.   But it was hard, I still packed running gear and took it to work every day.  😛

There was also the lack of sleep.  What I didn’t mention was that pre-SLO, I only slept for about an hour.  I generally sleep poorly before races but rarely that bad, I didn’t feel like it affected my race performance though.  I was looking forward to sleeping on Sunday night… except I couldn’t.  I managed less then 5 hours.   Grrr.  Monday night was more of the same as was Tuesday.  By Wednesday I was running on fumes but it didn’t really hit me until Thursday when I was driving home from work.  I started to get sleepy.    Like so sleepy I had to change my running plans because I wasn’t going to make the whole drive home.

That’s not to say it was a bad week, it wasn’t at all- it was a good week.   I just had some speed bumps.    I ate some super yummy food this week and that’s never a bad thing, right?   I did start a Random Friday post but dozed off part way through. Oops!

Monday- Rest  Day 1 of the planned 3 days.  I had a meeting after work so I knew running was very unlikely.  Which was good because damn my ankle was sore.

Tuesday- Rest Day 2 but like I said I carried my running gear with me every day.  Optimistic or in denial?  My ankle was still achy.  I stretched and foam rolled and planked that night.


Wednesday- Rest Day 3  Car show sponsor dinner.  I learned last year that this would be a late night so there was no way running would be happening.  But with an awesome dinner, who can complain?


Thursday- 3.5 miles  I ran!  But I damn near fell asleep on the drive there.  I planned on running in home time but halfway there I realized I wasn’t going to make it.  So I made an emergency right at the lake path and hoped the fresh air and a few miles would wake me up.     Thankfully it did.   As for the miles, I was sluggish and a little sore to start but once I got going things loosened up.  I still made sure to foam roll and stretch really well that night.  I also iced, just for GP.

Friday- Rest  I worked open to close so I knew it was going to a long day.  We were treated to breakfast which was yummy Acai bowls which almost turned bad.  I took a bite of mine and it tasted off.  I took another bite, nope- it still tastes wrong, tastes like nuts.  Turns out they messed up my order and gave me the wrong base, which wouldn’t be so bad except the 2 main ingredients were peanut butter and almond milk.  Umm, I’m allergic to nuts.   I was just going to say whatever and have a cookie because you don’t complain about free food but a coworker took it back and the store corrected it to my original order.  She’s awesome.  (I can’t leave- I swear I’m not just lazy 😛)


Saturday- 6.2 miles  My overall fatigue level for the week never really improved so I made the decision on Friday that I was not running long this weekend.  I was doing 2 6 milers and I was comfortable with that.  Rest is important too.  A cold front came in so I was able to sleep longer and head out for an afternoon run.   Running wise, it was awesome.  Smashrun says it was my fastest run in 6 months.    However it was freakin’ chaos- it was moments of running calmly interspersed with moments of running for my life along with some walking.    It started out normally but went weird soon.   I noticed that a tiny house I’d been watching had recently sold and the new owner had a dog.  I wondered if the dog was nice because dogs like to eat me.  1/2 mile later I was running past a couple of parked cars when 4 pit bulls tied in a truck bed decided I looked like a good snack.  I freaked out and jumped into the middle of the street.  The owner said nothing and just looked me.  Asshat.    2 miles later on my way back I stopped at an intersection because I realized I don’t really know a 6 mile route from my house and was wondering if my mileage was going to work out when I heard a loud BANG! It sounded like a gunshot and it was right near me.  What the hell?!   I know it wasn’t a gunshot because that is actually not an abnormal sound on my longer runs (rural area) but I bolted like a bat out of hell.     I’m running neighborhoods, what is going on?  Then is started raining on me.  Seriously, just get me home.

Sunday- 6 miles Rest  It was raining in the morning so I planned on running in the afternoon.  At least that was the plan.     I ended up super dizzy and nauseous in early afternoon and it lingered into the evening.     I kept trying to force myself to get out and run but I am clumsy on a good day, who knows what damage I could do to myself if I tried to run while dizzy?

9.7 miles for the week.  Perhaps more of a step back week then I planned post SLO but maybe my body was trying to tell me something.   With a race next week, I chose to listen for once.  Who knew?

I did go and see Guardians of the Galaxy 2- Freakin’ awesome!

Oh- who watched Breaking 2?   What did you think?  Kipchoge was so close!

How was your week?

What was the last movie you saw?

Run!, Slacker, Training

Week 6- Ouch- Fail

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

Training for:

  • Livermore 13.1 -March 26
  • Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13

Did anyone else have an odd week last week?   Did it seem freaky long and just off for no real reason?    Everyone at work seemed to feel it too.  I know there was a full moon on Friday but still the whole week was just odd.

Monday- Rest-  Last week saw a wealth of knowledge drop on us at work- all merger related.  It started today with a meeting with the new CEO.     It was a good meeting but I was kind of fried by the end of the day, I can’t remember what I did when I got home.  😞


Tuesday- Gym Fail- Work was a little busy but overall the rain and the highway closure is keeping us a little slower.  I changed after work and planned on heading home for some #bibchat and hitting the gym for intervals.  What the hell? Traffic was ridiculous.  It was raining but nothing like it has been lately but I didn’t get back to home town until almost 7.    So much for #bibchat.  Ok, gym time.  Every single treadmill was taken.  What?!  I admit I gave up.  I bailed.  I headed home and ordered a pizza.


Wednesday- 4 miles– After the previous day’s snafu, I decided to do another baby tempo at work.  Except when I set out I realized I has somehow lost my inhaler the night before.  For crying out loud.  Ok, so no speed work.  The marine layer was heavy so running without my inhaler was probably asking for trouble but I really needed to run.   I kept it nice and easy but even with the slower pace, my breathing still sounded like I was sprinting, ha.    The marine layer holds light pretty well so I pushed further into the state park and was able to make it to the Natural History Museum before I had to turn back.  I love running though the eucalyptus grove.

Thursday- Ouch–  I woke up to some not so good pain in my left leg.  And not the typical shin variety pain.  I took my running clothes to work but when it didn’t get better throughout the day I conceded defeat and decided to make it a rest day.

Friday- More ouch– My leg still hurt.  It was isolated to the inside of my left ankle and I was starting to freak out a little.   I also figured I knew what did it.   While I loved running the trails through the eucalyptus grove on Wednesday, I shouldn’t have done it in my Nike’s.   While I love my Nike’s for speed work, they are not big on traction, they have very smooth bottoms and the trails were pretty slick and muddy from all the rain.  But I was having fun in the moment.


Saturday- More of the same–    Good thing I decided it was too muddy to that run that 10k!  I opted for active rest and wandered around SLO doing some shopping and consoling myself with some amazing pizza.  I may have spent too much money at Lululemon. 😛  The clearance rack was just too tempting.


Sunday- 9 miles  I had rested for 3 days, what was my ankle going to do???   I knew I was going to be slow and that was fine.   I was stiff for the first few miles which is typical but I made sure to focus on my ankle and walk anytime I felt more than a twinge.   Overall I felt ok.  I picked up the pace a bit across the bridge per usual and indulged with a little river watching when I made it down to the river bed.   Everything was going ok until a little past mile 6.  Then things went south real fast.  I was hustling to cross an intersection before a car and I suddenly felt ill.   I had to pause for a breather rather than be sick and even when I got going I had to walk a lot.   I felt very crappy for the last 3 miles, it was all I could to finish.   If I could have bailed sooner I would have but it’s not like I was getting to the car any other way.   My lungs were abnormally pissed too.  They were angrier then they had been on Wednesday but I had found my inhaler so what gives?    I wasn’t quite right the rest of the evening either which is why this post is a day late.

13 miles for the week.   Once again, I missed workouts.  Grrr.     Between merger stuff, crazy rain, and my weird dizzy, nausea spells, I feel like I’ve turned into a giant flake.  My lab work should be done next week but knowing my luck it won’t show anything.   I’m not even sure what I should keep my fingers crossed for?    This year is Challenging in me in different ways than I planned.  I broke down crying in a meeting with my boss last week.  Get it together!

Anyways, moving on to a shiny new week.  One good thing— my road is open again!!!!!  30 less miles a day!!!  It’s the little things right?

How was your week?

Ever bailed on a workout when you were in workout clothes already?

Tell me something shiny!

 

Run!

Week 43 Training Recap

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

Training for-

  • Paso Harvest Marathon 13.1
  • Golden Gate Half

It’s the final countdown!  Come on, sing it with me!    Sorry, I think the lack of sleep is making me slap happy.  😛     I’m still not sleeping but I’m also tired of whining about it.   It is what it is so I am trying to just find the shiny and keep moving on.

I actually ran all the miles planned this week and almost pulled off some of the paces.  Who am I?!?     I started off the week by taking some rest days.  It’s how being told to rest by someone else takes some of guilt away.  I think my brain needed that after the last few weeks.

Monday- Yoga  What?!?  I used an app on my phone and did a beginners workout just to try to loosen up and relax a little.   I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before so I was dragging.

Tuesday- Rest  This day was a Monday Redux.  Seriously, it was rough at work.  I was so glad I didn’t have to run.


Wednesday- 4 miles After a few days off, I was feeling nervous like I forgot how to run.  As you can read here– the run was freakin’ awesome!


Thursday-3.5 miles  Interval ouch.  The workout called for 6×400 with warm up and cool down.  Normally I love 400’s but I was so damn tired and I knew I would be chasing the sunset.    I had an option of rest or a light jog between the 400’s and I chose the rest.  Even with that, the intervals kicked my ass.  My paces were 7:58, 7:53, 8:41, 8:25, 7:56, 8:33.  Not sure what happened with that third one.     I was whipped at the end.  I could not have run another one if I tried.   I was proud that I finished the work out but damn that was hard.

Friday- Rest  Oh crap, I think I broke myself.  I was limping all day and my left knee and shin were pissed.  I was kind of freaking out.  I had 12 miles on the plan the next day, what do I do?!?!    Does it really hurt or am I just being a baby?  I have a mental block with 12 mile runs.  Give me 11 or 13 or 15 and I look forward to them after marathon training, but 12?  I hate them for some reason.   Was I just whining?  I texted Coach Jenny for her opinion and she agreed I should push my run back to Sunday and rest.

Saturday- Rest I attempted to catch up on sleep.  Did I mention Thursday night was another 4 hours if I was lucky?  Then I ran a few errands and read a book-Run!.  I love reading Dean Karnazes’ books.  Even if they make me think crazy thoughts.   I signed up for my first marathon 2 months after reading Ultramarathon Man.  What now?

Sunday- 12 miles  Of course, when my alarm went off I was in the most comfortable moment of sleep that I had had all week.   I hit snooze for 40 minutes before dragging myself out of bed for my run.  My plan called for 6 miles @ 12:00, 5@ 9:30 and the last @ 9:00.   My leg felt a little better but I was planning on taking it easy and keeping an eye on how it felt.  I even had my mom on alert in case I needed a pick up.


I kept it nice and easy in the beginning and just focused on my leg.   Mile 1 was super slow and I managed to keep the bridge mile at 10:00 which is fairly calm considering I usually bolt across it.   At the halfway point I was actually right on pace and I felt ok so I tried to pick up the pace a bit.   I couldn’t get to 9:30 though.  Miles 7, 8, and 9 clocked in at 10:00.  I was still pretty stoked about that though so I was hoping I could keep it up.  Then I slammed right into a wall.  Miles 10 and 11 were 11:18 and 10:57.  Oops.  I didn’t necessarily feel tired but I could not move any faster.  I took so many walk breaks.  I had already run more miles than I thought I was going to pull off so I decided not to stress about the pace.    That said, I was so glad to see my watch hit 12.   Success!

19.5 miles- an improvement over the last few weeks!  Woo hoo!   And now it’s on to race week #1!  Eeek!

How was your week?

I whined a little didn’t I? Oops.

What are you reading?

 

 

 

Run!, Training

 Week 40 Training Recap/ September Wrap

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

3/4 of the year is done!  Woah.  Already my Facebook feed is full of countdowns to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Knock it off people!!

Anyways, last week’s training started out great, maintained for most of the week then hit a big roadblock by the weekend.  One I am still trying to figure out.  Combine that with a truly craptacular week in sleeping and this one was a little rough.   Seriously, each night averaged around 6 hours.  😕

Monday- Rest– I somehow got used to running on Monday’s and now resting on those days feels odd.  However I was so abnormally sore to the point of painful after Sunday’s races that I embraced it.  Plus the temps were in the triple digits everywhere so why put myself through that?

​

Tuesday- 4.2 miles–  I was still sore so I opted for the lower end of what coach suggested.    I kept the pace nice and easy and walked whenever my leg felt odd.   To avoid most of the heat, I ran in work town.   I really wish there was more trail through the eucalyptus grove.  That said, it was a decent run and I managed to negative split, which considering it’s an out and back with the first 2 miles down hill is pretty sweet.


Wednesday- 3.75 miles.  Float like a butterfly, pant like a dog.   Speed work!


Thursday- 3.5 miles.  Recovery run.  In retrospect, maybe I should have just gotten on the bike and moved my legs that way.  I was really trying to stick to the plan though.    I crawled.  My legs were not happy even attempting to run.  I iced and rolled and stretched that night but I had a feeling it wasn’t enough.

Friday- Rest- Ouch.  My left leg was pissed.  I felt twinges anytime I moved.  Which  brought me to a very cranky conclusion-

Saturday- 5K race– Yeah, nope.   I had planned on running the inaugural Run the Runways out at the airport but I realized there was no way my leg was up to it.    I knew I would get out there and likely do something stupid.   I did 15 minutes on the bike though.  Work is attempting the Tone It Up challenge for October, I looked at the daily exercises but they all required more leg work then I was willing to do, so fail day 1.😢

Sunday-9-10 mile long run– 30 minutes bike  Another one bites the dust.  I woke up with a headache, tried getting up to run but no.   Figured I would go out for a few in the afternoon and slept some more.   Afternoon rolled around and my leg was not happy.  I was trying to determine if it really hurt or if I was trying to be lazy and not feel guilty about it.   I hopped on the bike for a very slow ride for 30 minutes.  Judging but how my leg felt while riding, I made the right choice not running.  Boo.

So now, I am in limbo.  I have a half marathon on Sunday and I am hesitant about it.  Plus side is that I haven’t registered for it yet.  Downside- it’s one of my favorites.   So this coming week will be interesting.


Since last week saw the end of September, I added up my mileage- 75.85.  Not too bad.  Not where I had hoped I would be but it is what it is and now it is time to focus on October.   Which hopefully means that the high 90’s and triple digit weather is gone.  Fingers crossed! 

How was your week?  September?

Any plans for October?

 

 

Run!, Training

The SF Marathon Training Week 14

Fallon @ Slacker Runner

14.  14 down, only 4 more to go!

So yeah.  Week 14.   Ummmm, ouch? Week 13 was awesome- I mean, I ran 20 miles and kind of like it?  What could go wrong?  Ha Ha.

Monday- Rest.  I felt pretty good actually, my legs- shins included- felt fine all day.   Part of me wanted to run but I figured that would be silly or worse injury provoking, so I scheduled in 2 rest days.

Tuesday- Rest.   Once again my legs felt pretty good but I had a plan man, and I was sticking to it.  It made sense.    At least I thought it did.

Wednesday- Rest.  Hello freight train.  Body wise I felt ok, but I was suddenly exhausted.  I felt like I could sleep for days.   That said, I was still planning on running after work.    However my family texted and asked if I wanted to meet everyone for dinner.  I first said no- I needed to run.  They ended up convincing me.   So instead of running, I enjoyed too much food at dinner.


Thursday-6 miles.  Seriously I wish someone had filmed the first 3ish mile of this run.   I want to know if it looked as hilarious as it felt.    I had another half day at work so I was naively hopeful that I could get the weekends 10-12 miler in early.  I don’t have a route that length in work town so I headed home.   I walked my usual 5 minute warm up and then started running.  Or tried to.   My legs were not functioning as a team.  Nothing hurt but I could not level out.  I felt like one leg was going forward while the other was swinging to the side.  I felt like a newborn giraffe trying to walk. Mile 1 was 98% walking, mile 2 wasn’t much better.    The final 4 miles were all in the 12 minute range but I finally started to feel a little more normal by mile 6.  I knew I wasn’t doing any more than that though.    This run did put me over 100 miles for June though.

Friday- Rest.  I should have tried to run.   It would have been the smart thing to do.  But, yeah, I didn’t.


Saturday- 5 miles.   I wanted more but after working in the morning, running in the 80’s was kicking my ass.  When did I turn into such a baby?    Once again, I was running while limping.  Again nothing hurt, but my stride was all over the place.   Miles 4 and 5 felt better but were still so slow.   I hobbled/ ran until I hit 5 miles and called it.   My ankles and shins were pretty sore that night.  I iced and rolled.


Sunday- 10 miles.  I was aiming for 13 but knew I was also meeting Heather and Ashley the next day for a run.  I wasn’t sure my legs were up to 3 days in a row so I dropped my mileage back to 10.  I didn’t even think I was going to finish that.  Miles 1-3 were more awkward gait running.  It takes me 3-4 miles to warm up, so I just kept going.   Once again, I hauled ass across the bridge and saw a 9:37 split- oops.  My legs were not happy.  I met up with my mother a little before mile 7.   I ended up walking all of mile 7 with her.  While I do take walk breaks, I don’t think I would have walked a whole mile by myself at that point.   But I was tired of running weirdly.    I think it helped.    The last 3 miles felt the best out of everything- part of me wanted to keep running.  😛

I was sore, bordering on pain by the end of the day though.   I foam rolled, stretched and iced.  I also “recovered” while eating lots of popcorn watching Tarzan.  😛

There’s a reason I’ve been taking a day between each run and I just got stupid this week.   Now my ice pack is my best friend again.  Grrr.    This is not how I was hoping to be feeling 4 weeks out from San Francisco.  I choosing to stay positive and not freak out.   Think happy thoughts right?  Oh, did I mention I have a half marathon in 3 days?  On the beach.  #findtheshiny  I can do it.

How was your week?

How long does it take you to warm up?  I think I am realizing why all my short runs were rough all these years. I was warming up when I was stopping.  Oops.

Seen any movies lately?