Tag: Stomach

I Needed That

I really, really needed that.

If you’ve been along for the ride awhile, you may have heard me mention a time or a million that my stomach and I don’t get along. Also that it’s been a rough 10 months, stomach wise. That roughness carried over into my running and things slowed down. I was so gung-ho to set PR’s in 2014 and it just didn’t happen. Even though I finally accepted that and moved on, a part of me was still frustrated. Also with doctors but that’s another story.

While I have trained pretty consistently this year, I am still not where I was before my flare. Walk breaks have become a part of run, long or short, slow or fast. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with walking, heck I look forward to those breaks on most runs. But long runs stressed me out. I don’t know if I hid it well or not but I was beginning to dread long runs. I felt like I was moving so slow and that I walked too often but just couldn’t seem to pick it up.Beyond that I have a serious mental block when it comes to long runs past 10 miles. I love half marathons but double-digit slow runs by myself? Umm, not so much. I have done one 12 mile run outside of a race. One- and it took me 2.5 hours. Actually it might have been longer but I’ve blocked it out, I am pretty sure I walked the last 2 miles. So when I saw so many 12-16 milers on my training schedule, I had a mini freak out. And I haven’t run a single one. Once again I topped out at 10 for most of the runs. Which was noticeable in Wine Country when I hit a wall at 10. Did that make me go out and run 12 the next weekend? No. Then my doctor changed my diet pretty drastically and I missed 2 long runs in a row. Crap. I knew I could not miss another with SLO being so close.

While I am looking forward to my 5k race tomorrow, it is one that I know leaves me super sore. So sore that I knew banking on a 10-12 mile run with a fast finish on Sunday was probably foolish. Because work was a little crazy this week and I worked longer days on Monday and Tuesday and couldn’t leave the building on Wednesday and Friday, my boss said she was going to try and let me leave a little early on Thursday. This sparked an idea but I wasn’t fully committed. A small part of me thought I could move my long run to Thursday instead. My 5K race is not a PR race but more for fun, so I figured if I was a little tired for it that was fine. But I was still on the fence about if I even wanted to run that many miles after working all day. Or if I even could. I got off an hour early so I headed to the lake to run a few laps. My stomach was the crankiest it’s been since I started this new diet, but then I had cheated the day before. I also wasn’t dressed for a long run. I wasn’t wearing compression socks nor a 10+ mile sports bra. Yes, I have different sports bras I wear depending on the length of the run. If I did run long I was going to split it. 7-8 miles at the lake and then I was going to head to the river path for the remainder. My mother was thinking about meeting me for the second part. So, in other words, I wasn’t expecting much and anticipating another Slacker moment.

I warmed up with my usual slow first mile before picking it up. Miles 2 and 3 clocked in at 9:57 and 10:10. So not long run pace. I should have been aiming for 10:45-11:15. I went out too fast, there was no way I was maintaining. I was irritated with myself and doubting that I would even follow through with driving to the river path. Then my mother texted that she wasn’t going to make it. There went that motivation to follow through. Ok fine, I was just going to run until I was tired or my stomach rebelled, I figured 6 miles tops. Around mile 6, I noticed that I was still running. As in, I hadn’t taken a single walk break. Not one and I felt pretty good. Huh? I did stop for a bathroom break but decided to just keep running after that. Mile 7 and I was running. Mile 8 still running. Mile 9, more running. Still no walk breaks. I was starting to think I might actually pull this off. Miles 9, 10, and 11 all came in at 10:00 or under. Did you see that 11?!?! I cleared 10 miles on a long run!!!!!! I wanted to throw a party and celebrate but I was surrounded by strangers! I stopped my Garmin at 11 and walked the 3/4 of a mile back to my car.

Dudes, I ran the whole thing- no walking breaks!! Who am I? And 11 miles at that pace and not racing?! I know it’s not much by some standards but for me and the past year, I was stoked. It also reinforced that consistent training works and does pay off even if you don’t see it immediately. I was seriously beginning to doubt I could even hit double digits after the last few weeks. I was feeling rough and not confident in my running ability at all. I had chalked my last race up to being a fluke and was mentally preparing myself for a rough race in a few weeks. I didn’t know how badly I needed a long run- a good, long run. Until I pulled it off. 🙂 Bring it on SLO!

Lapping the lake so many times, I passed a few people multiple times. I was wearing a tank that says “I hate running” and that was getting a few comments. 🙂 I passed one pair of older ladies multiple times. They said something to me once but I didn’t quite catch it. Another 2 times past them and they stopped me. One asked how many I was doing because I had to be near 20. I wish! I said that I was aiming for 11 miles and only had 3/4 of a mile to go. I passed them again on the cool down walk and they said good job. 🙂

I still want to do a little happy dance when I think about yesterday’s run. Training works, who knew? I think I need to get this McMillan plan laminated for future use. Haha. Now I should probably get some sleep, I have a mountain to run up in the morning. 🙂

How do you feel about long runs?

Who is racing this weekend?

What was your last great run?

About that…

On the heels of last weeks good but short speed work, I thought I would be running on Wednesday and Thursday since I couldn’t run Saturday. We were supposed to have our our work holiday party on Saturday evening and with working in the morning, I would have had little time to run. I would also be unable to attend Vine St with my family like we traditionally do. When the work party was canceled for a few reasons I was actually ok with that. I figured I could get in a6ish mile run after work and go to Vine st. Which was a doubly good plan because my stomach hated me on Wednesday so I changed it back to a rest day.

Thursday, unfortunately, dawned with more of the same. I refused to change my plan again, so I headed to the gym after work. I slogged through 3.5 slow, miserable miles before calling it quits. Which bites because NikeC was there working with the trainer and I have been wanting to tag along with them but there was just no way. But it was better than none!Thursday night- Friday was the “epic storm” in these parts- ha!! But I shouldn’t snark- between all the rain then and yesterday, streets have been flooded, power has been out and a giant boulder rolled on to the freeway last night hitting a semi- everyone is said to be ok. Saturday and Sunday were ruled by my stomach- not only was there no running involved, I almost bailed on Vine St. I tried to get my family to go ahead and then meet them. But I made it through- all the pretty lights- and did manage to complete some Christmas shopping on Sunday. This week is the stomach testweek- can we call it that?- so running will be hit and miss. After last weeks short 6 miles, that makes 2 short weeks. 😦 With Tuesday being prep day and Wednesday being the test, I had to breakmy own rule and hit the gym on a Monday if I wanted to get a run in. It actually wasn’t that busy. But then most people probably didn’t want to drive in the down pour. We Californians are babies in the rain, then again, I did hydroplane at one point so maybe they had the right idea. Another 3.5 miles in the books. 🙂

I can’t eat today and for some reason all I have wanted is pretzels. And pictures of pizza keep popping up on my Facebook and Twitter feed. Waah.

How has your week started?

What food are you craving right now?

How’s your weather?

A Week of Whine

Well, November is off to a roaring start. Please read that with the heavy sarcasm intended.

I started to feel a little under the weather last week so I took Saturday off. My stomach has decided to be a littlecrankier this week. I must have jinxed myself. Sunday’s planned 6 turned into a slower 3.5. However on the cooler side, I ran in pants and a short sleeve shirt. I couldn’t tell you the last time I did that, it was odd. But 3.5 is better than none, right?

And none is how the rest of this week has played out so far. I was looking forward to getting going on my training plan. Particularly now that I put my crazy plan out there in print. Since daylight savings means I will be treadmill running during the week I decided that Mondays would be rest days. The gym is always super busy on those days and since I would like to run trails every other weekend I figured Monday would make for a good rest day. Of course that’s the only day I felt good. Hindsight really is 20/20.

Tuesday and Wednesday were out due to my little bugger of a stomach. Today I was gung ho, the gym was going to happen. Then I got super dizzy at work, felt like I was running a fever and just felt wrong. I didn’t even want to eat, which is odd for me, because I love eating. I ended up going to lunch early and napped the entire time. Once off work, it was home bound for me. My poor gym bag has come into work everyday since Tuesday but never used. 😦 Well, I did pull out my long sleeve layer to use as a blanket while I napped but that doesn’t count.

A coworker thought this was amusing... and I had no running pictures. :( — A coworker thought this was amusing… and I had no running pictures. 😦

I am trying a whole mind over matter thing right now. Work has been crazy busy this week with the emphasis on crazy. I have never been one to believe in the “lunar effect” but the way people have been acting this week make me doubt my doubt. Driving home seeing the almost full moon yesterday was like a light bulb moment. Either that or I am grasping at straws. My boss is going on vacation so sick is not really an option. Oh and I have a 5k on Saturday. “Rested” legs are a good thing right? Oh well, at least it is for a good cause.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for listening to me whine. 🙂

Ok, how was your week?

Anyone racing this weekend?

Do you believe in the lunar effect?

Too Many Lightbulbs

Happy Thursday!!! This post kind of ended up as a brain dump, so join me for a random ride.

Getting Nowhere-

Yesterday was my appointment at USC. I was nervous going in. I was afraid they were going to say there was something really wrong with me. I equally afraid they were going to tell me that it was all in my head. I was concerned they might tell me stop or cut back running. What I wasn’t prepared for was a cranky older doctor with such a thick accent I asked him to repeat himself at times. He implied that my current gastro is not the brightest and disregarded my previous diagnosis and 4-5 years of symptoms and focused only on those of the last 4 months. He is sending a list of tests to my doctor for him to run. One of them is something I have been asking for so I guess that’s a win. Actually everyone there was a cranky pants. They need to work on their bedside manner.

Getting Slower-

I’m trying to adjust to the fact that 11-12 minute miles are my normal now. And that sometimes even that normal is hard. Today’s run was closer to 13. Then again, it was 95º and I have had less than 9 hours of sleep in the last 48. So I was happy to get it done and still felt good about it at the end. Forward motion right? On the downside, I ran the lake path on Tuesday and saw a sign saying they are closing the path. Effective yesterday. Boo. I though at least another month before I lost it to darkness, now it’s gone so they can clean the lake bed. But I did get one last day in the dirt to break in new toys. Still more on that later. 🙂

Zombies-

Even though I have accepted that I need run slower right now, sometimes seeing it makes me cranky. So I finally downloaded Zombies, Run as a distraction. Yes, I am about a year behind on that. It sounded silly but I thought why not. It’s amusing and I found that listening to spoken words slows me down better than when I was pacing myself. Apparently I need more brain power to process the story, ha! It doesn’t require anything more than running and the story plays out in the background. I also talk to it, oops. So the character just survived a helicopter crash and is running for their lives. But along they way they are supposed to pick up supplies. Like batteries and water and first aid kits, etc. Oh and underwear and sports bras. Did I miss the part where I stole a horse and buggy to carry all this?! The first run picked up 28 items. How would a person carry all that and still out run a mob of hungry zombies? Oh, and 4 of those items were boxes of light bulbs. Maybe the runner wrapped them in the underwear and sports bras? Otherwise how are they not just shards of glass? Ok, maybe I am thinking too much about this. 😛 But like I said, it’s a distraction.

#bakingfail-

I saw a recipe for Halloween Bark over at backatsquarezero.com. Let me preface this by saying I have no talent in the kitchen. None. But this only had 3 ingredients, I thought I could make that. Yeah, umm no. Did you know chocolate could burn? In a microwave? I didn’t. After that I had to scale back the amount I was making. I sort of stumbled through the rest. The end result- not pretty. But damn tasty! I took it to work and we ate all of it. 🙂

So what random thing did you do this week?

Ready for the weekend? Anyone racing?

Ever run with Zombies?

Have any baking tips for dummies?

Shaking it Off

Yeah, I went there, sorry. 🙂 I actually did not like this song the first time I heard it and now I think I’m obsessed. I got through my last few runs with Theory of a Deadman and Rise Against and the last few days have been Taylor Swift on repeat. I feel like I am all over the place this week and it shows even more than usual in my music. I may have played this on repeat tonight while driving from work town to run town. There may have been a tiny bit of car dancing involved, but there are no witnesses.

The last two weeks have felt a little scattered. I’ve been a little stressed by work, a little stressed by my stomach and just life in general. How do people with kids do it? After an unplanned rest day on Tuesday and a planned one on Wednesday, my feet were feeling itchy to run. Because I had a business mixer to go to after work tonight, NikeC and I moved back gym night. I wasn’t sure what time I could get there and didn’t want to make her wait. I figured I would try to get in a quick 3 miles after the mixer if possible. I just hadn’t figured out how I would change yet. 4:45 rolls around and I just didn’t think I had the mental capacity for a mixer plus my stomach just hated me today. I was just tired, and I wanted to run. I felt mentally tired and I just wanted a few miles to quiet my head. I needed to run it off. After a discussion with a few people, we decide to bypass the mixer and attend next month’s. I was relieved and looking forward to running, I was thinking of now trying for 5-6 miles.

It was a happy thought for about 2 minutes. At 4 minutes to closing, I happened to be looking at the door as IT walked in. What the frak? If they drove all the way out, it was not going to be a quick visit. Ok, reassess, I had to stay but I would still run it would just be a little later. I changed into my clothes anyways and then just waited. I got cold, so I put my blazer back on. Running shorts and a blazer- the new business casual?

It was hard to be productive since the systems were taken down. I caught up on some blogs on my phone, checked twitter, and posted some randomness to Instagram. Then I was over that. So I got some Clorox wipes and started cleaning. I finally headed out around 6:45. Even though it’s summer, I am not a fan of running at dusk. Just seems like too much room for error there. And of course, I was wearing dark running clothes because I had really wanted to wear the new shorts that came in the mail yesterday. Flowers! But a visibility fail.I got to run town a little after 7. Just as I parked, my mom called and asked if I wanted to do a late dinner. No! I was running. I walked a half mile warm up before running. Between dusk and my stomach I only got in 2 miles but they were kind of awesome. They weren’t the fastest or the best and my ankle kind of hurt but I was just glad to be running. It was a good little reset. And tomorrow is Friday!!

Ever had one of those days or weeks where you just needed to run it out?

Do you wanna rock a blazer and shorts now? Haha.

What are you doing this weekend?