Tag: stomach issues

Week 35- Way Back

How is it September?? Seriously?

The 106* temps aren’t helping me adjust. On one hand, I am anxuiusoly awaiting Fall temps but I am not looking forward to it getting dark sooner. Also, I am not looking forward to the Pumpkin Spice- everywhere. Sorry but it’s true.

Last week was both good in ways and rough in ways. Running was better but I find myself in a funk I am having trouble swinging my way out of. People’s new penchant for making fun of my name isn’t helping.

I also had an appointment with my gastro last week. Which was good because I received a med change as well an appointment for an endoscopy. He also finally addressed the elephant in the room that is my weight. Do we have a direction to go? Not really but the fact that I’ve put on 40+ pounds in a not long period of time is finally ringing someone else’s bell than just mine.

I am still running plan- less as I prepare for all my October races. Which I was fine with because I somehow convinced myself I had plenty of time. Only to have the realization last week that I actually only have 5 weeks until my next half. What?!?

40 minutes of slogging and we drop 3 degrees

Monday- 3.1 miles
I was a little concerned how this was going to feel after essentially 2 weeks off but it felt pretty ok. Granted, I backed off on pace a lot as it was still 100 degrees by the time I ran and this idiot packed pants. Really?

Tuesday- 3.6 ish miles
I had new shorts to try out from Athleta and I was hoping they would be a good fit as they were cute. I was also feeling like running so I set out for my 5 mile route. Instead around 2.5 miles in, I was trying to map a shortcut in my head. The shorts and I were not getting along. I even tried Vaseline lip gloss as a substitute body glide but I feel like it just made things worse. The last mile was probably more bowlegged hobble than a run.

Wednesday- Recovery
The wounds of Tuesday needed time to recover. Plus this was my doctor’s appointment day.

Thursday- 3.1 miles
This was a kind of stressful day and I just wanted to turn my brain off. I went back to basics and ran the route I ran back when I was first starting out years ago. I just wanted to turn off my brain and run. And I maybe should have carried water- 95 felt hotter than I thought it would.

Friday- Nada
The beauty of no training plan is that I no longer have to lie to myself about running on a Friday. I don’t even attempt to plan it anymore.

Saturday- oops
I set an alarm to run but then didn’t get up. I also didn’t make it out in the afternoon as even I’m not stupid enough to run in 106*.

Sunday- 2.94 miles
See above and repeat. I did drag myself out after dinner for a few miles but as it was literally 10 minutes after eating, this was a walk. But something is better than nothing right?

12.9 sluggish miles for the week. Still an improvement on the previous 2 weeks. Small victories, right?

How was your week?

Week 28- Of Birthdays and Dirt

This week was a little all over the place.

Also I didn’t mean to only post one blog post last week, the week flew by oddly fast.

I only worked 2 days before starting my first real vacation of the year. It was also my birthday so a few more indulgences may have occurred than normal. My stomach chose to remind me of it’s asshat ways on a few occasions and I also had a fun migraine try to join the birthday party.

I also may have gotten a little creative with my training plan. First by liberally rearranging things and then taking some creativity with certain runs. Then came the heat advisory. Hey, when life gives you lemons, right?

Monday- 2 miles up/down, 4x 800 at 5k pace/ Nailed it
Speedwork on a Monday is a little different. I headed to the lake so I didn’t have intersections to worry about. Why haven’t I done this before? For once it was nice to nail the pace for all of the 800’s. Could I have run faster? Yes, but maintaining it was not likely.

Tuesday- 1.5 miles/ 1.5 miles
Easy, not so breezy miles.

Wednesday- 1.5 miles/ 4ish mile trail run
First day of vacation and my rearranged week was already taking hits. Instead of my long run, I headed down to SLO for some shopping and ended the day by hitting a trail. Have absolutely no complaints about time spent in the dirt with ocean views.

Thursday -10 miles/ sick
I started to get sick on Wednesday evening and it was downhill from there. Unless a
2.5 hour naps counts as training, I did nothing.

Friday- .5 mile warmup, 6 mile tempo/ 5.5 ish meltdown
Birthday!! I admit I slept in a bit- it was my birthday, why not? It was still early my standards but it wasn’t enough. I managed 1 mile at tempo pace before I spectacularly blew up. It was 80* with 50% humidity and I was not handling it. At all. I all but crawled the next few miles and cut the run short by a mile.

Then it was time for a cold shower and off to birthday lunch.

Saturday- 10 miles redux/ migraine city
A migraine moved in Friday and took up residence. I tried my best to deal with it in my usual ways but ending up taking one of the heavy duty pain pills in the evening. My neurologist will be so proud. It did level my vision so yay!

Sunday- How many times can I type 10 miles?/ 8+ mile trail run
Still in the midst of a heat advisory, I figured heading south would be my best bet for the run. I had my mom and S along for the ride- I love this trail but it has given me some creepy vibes in the past. This way they could hike and I could run and at least they would only be few miles behind me. I underestimated the heat. By mile 4 I was feeling it. I don’t think I’ve ever been so sweaty in my life, it was gross and it was hard. So hard. I relished the break I got at the top while I waited for them to catch up. I was so looking forward to the run down but the heat had gotten to me, the return down was more of a jog/walk and a lament as to where all the shade had gone.

So 23.83 miles for the week. Plan called for 26.5, oops. Still, it could be worse and I can’t complain about any week where I get to run on the trails twice.

How was your week?

Week 27- Panic

This week was up and down and topsy turvy and that was before the earthquakes.

Yeah, Cali’s been moving around this week. On one hand the former wanna be geologist in me is excited by earthquakes. On the other, my town suffered a lot in the last big quake about 15 years ago. Downtown was leveled, a sulfur spring ruptured and numerous other buildings were condemned. And for some reason it took almost 10 years to cap that damn spring. Downtown was rebuilt but we had a giant hole blocked off in the library parking lot for years. A stinky one at that.

In other news, going back to work the day after the 4th of July was hard. It was like the Monday of Fridays. Anyone else not have a long weekend?

But only took a pic of the old Library

And then I played tourist in my town on Saturday and ventured out to the Lavender Festival.

Plan vs Reality

Monday- 1.5 miles/ 1.5 miles
I don’t recall much about this run other than I got it done. I didn’t even post about it to social media, ha! But I took a pic so I guess it really happened.😛

Tuesday- 2 mile up/down, 3x 1 mile repeats at 5K pace / 1.5 up/down, 3 miles of pain- yoga
I’ve been beginning to realize that I may over overstepped with the training paces on my training plan. Reality hammered that home with this run. Not only did I tank the paces prescribed, I ended with a possible injury. I knew I should have quit during the second repeat attempt but I am stupid. So stupid. I limped back to my car hence the shorter cool down.

Wednesday- 1.5 miles/ Nada
I limped around the office all day, that was fun. My stomach also decided to hate me so that was fun.

Thursday- July 4Th! 4 mile fartlek/ MM100
I thought about trying for at least an easy run but decided to be smart instead. Boo. I did attempt a very slow workout video.

Friday- 1.5 miles/ Nada
My leg felt better until the end of the day but I was just fried and didn’t run. I really need to figure out how to run in the morning. Especially when I work open to close.

Saturday- 9 miles/ 9 miles
I actually got up early for this! Except nasty humidity rolled in so I actually think it was hotter than my last 2 long runs in the afternoon heat. Oh and I got fried. So much for sunblock. I also think it was the slowest 9 miles I’ve ever run. I had a freakin’ panic attack around mile 3. I started noticing the symptoms just before crossing the bridge. Which could have been partly fueled by the previous nights tremor. I’m not a big fan of bridges, at least not being on them, so why I chose today of all days to run across it for the first time in months, I have no idea. I refused to let the panic attack win and just slowed way down anytime I felt the usual symptoms. I also explored a side path off one street in an effort to distract myself.

Sunday- Rest/ Rest
I thought about trying to make up some of the 7 miles I missed throughout the week but ended up napping instead. Oh and I started Stranger Things 3.

15.3 miles out of 22.5 for the week. My leg is still not right so I am holding out optimism for the week to come. Plus I went in and adjusted the paces zones in my training plan so now they should at least be achievable.

How was your week? Have a good 4th of July?

Week 4- Not Too Bright

  • 2019 Race Schedule (so far):
  • 3/24 Oakland Running Festival (more to come)
  • 4/28 SLO Half Marathon
  • 5-4 Wildflower (Thanks BibRave)  Canceled
  • 8-11 Oaktown Half (Thanks BibRave)

You know what they say about best laid plans?

I had my week planned -when I was going to workout, how I was going to eat healthier, be less of a Slacker, yada yada. And well… yeah.

Cold wind kept me indoors on Monday which is silly as I hate wasting a non work day. But I also really hate a really cold wind. Then my stomach turned into an asshat on Tuesday and that lingered for a few days. That’s what I get for thinking I was having a good spell. Then there’s the random tiredness. Which actually isn’t so random. This was week 2 without soda and my new migraine medication can make me groggy. Not the greatest combo… or maybe it is, who knows. I did manage to finally clean my car this weekend so that in itself should make this week a win. Ha!

Monday- Transform 20
Well, I started the week slightly according to plan. Then it was off to that doctor’s appointment I made a month ago when I was so sick. Which didn’t really get me anywhere.

Saturday- 8.4 miles
Long run Saturday. Despite the opinion of my Garmin, I actually felt pretty good this run. I kept things slow and easy and started with run/walk intervals but was able to ditch them around mile 4 and only walk occasionally. Which I thought was great considering how little running I’ve been doing but my Garmin judged me and told me I needed 3 days to recover post run. How rude!

Sunday-4 miles
I headed out for some nice and easy recovery miles. I won’t lie- even though I kept the pace slower than Saturday’s long run, there were parts that were the very opposite of easy. I kept pace and ran all but one of the hills though. Still, I wish it had felt a little better.

12.4 miles for the week and only 1 Transform 20 workout. Which means I will be restarting week 2 come Monday as I was barely hanging on as it was. I am hoping to get in 2 short-ish runs before race days so fingers crossed!

How was your week?

Week 40:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 12

Upcoming Races-

  • Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
  • City to the Sea 13.1-10/14- maybe
  • Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
  • Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you BibRave!)- 11/12

Welcome to funk town.  I’m in a funk.  I need out.

On the work front, things are getting interesting.  We had an employee give notice which was sad because we had a great team in place.  We were super lucky and managed to hire someone quickly so we were only short staffed last week but another employee turned in notice last week.  Aaargh…what is in the water?!?  And both of the them were afraid to tell me because they didn’t want to disappoint me so I was always the last person to “officially” know.  Thanks, I think?

So workouts- the plan called for a 3 mile run, 4 mile run and the race.  I also hoped to fit 3-4 cross training work outs in.

Monday- Liift4 week 1/day 1, Mes de Mas day 1
With my leg feeling cranky from the hot mess fail of a long run on Sunday, I decided not to run and just restart Liift4.  It felt harder this time around.  Hmmmm.   I was feeling like doing more though so I pushed play on the Mes de Mas workout after.  A workout for body and brain as the instructions are in Spanish.   I’ve been looking forward to this one becoming available and it was fun.

Tuesday- 3 miles/ Liift4
I kept the miles nice and easy and just tried to focus on my form and stride.   Nothing hurt but my leg didn’t feel marvelous either.   I did another round of cross training once home.

Wednesday- Rest
Something pissed off my stomach in major way.  It was enough just to make it through the work day.   It also rained so I tried to just see it as good timing to feel crappy.

Thursday- Rest
My stomach was still angry.   It’s been a while since I had bad flare up so I guess I was due for one.   Race week timing was not great though.

Friday- Nothing
I meant to run a couple miles. I took the day off work in order to get a few things done and checked off my to-do list but only managed to check off a few things.  Grrr.

Saturday- Road trip to San Jose
Road trip!  I was on the road around 9 for the drive up to San Jose.  Luckily San Jose is only about 3 hours away so the drive wasn’t bad.  Getting to the expo was the easy part.  Bib pick up was a breeze.  Getting around town after was ridiculous.  It was like Apple maps and Siri just refused to work.  We got lost multiple times- on foot and by car.  Grrrr.  Thankfully I nailed the hotel choice- within walking distance of the start/finish- and it was within walking distance of a Spaghetti Factory for dinner.   Though I came to regret that.    Then I tried to get a decent nights sleep.  Fail.

Sunday- Rock n Roll San Jose Half Marathon
Race recap to come.

16.2 miles for the week.

How was your week?