Tag: taper time

The SF Marathon Week 17 Training Recap

17 down, 1 to go. I’m trying not to dwell on that.

This was the first week that I fully embraced the taper. Some might say I took it too far. 😛 I guess there really is a way to run less when training. I didn’t mean to have such an ummm- “relaxed” week it just kind of happened.

The week started off rough. I got little to no sleep on Sunday night and almost called in. good thing I didn’t as my boss wasn’t feeling well either and didn’t make it in. Then when I finally did make it into work, I was greeted by the news that my fish had died. Can you be done with the week by 8:20 on a Monday? Work was crazy from that point forward all week.

Monday- Rest. After 13 miles on Sunday and crap sleep, I was fried. Throw in the work day from hell and I was done.

Tuesday- Rest. I thought about running, I really did but I was still feeling kind of foggy. Besides, I had plenty of time during the rest of the week right?

Wednesday- ~~Run~~– Fall Out Boy!!!!! Running was the plan but when you are given the opportunity to see one of your favorite bands for the cost of only 2 drinks- you take it! So I made my trip to the fair a little sooner than planned. Both the funnel cake and the concert were amazing. 😃😃 They played all the songs I wanted them too and a few more.

Thursday- Rest. I took my gym bag to work. Even though I was still super tired I was planning on running. I really was but once again I allowed my family to text-coerce me into going to dinner with them. Yum.

Friday- 4 miles. Holy crap, I ran on a Friday! I didn’t get home until 7 but I was out the door fairly quick. After 4 days off, I was kind of worried my legs wouldn’t remember what to do. They did! It was slow and still very warm but it was nice to get moving.

Saturday- Rest. Damn, I’m really good at this rest thing aren’t I? I wasn’t completely sloth like though. I headed down to SLO and did a bit of shopping. That counts as moving the legs, right?

Sunday- 9 miles. I headed out around 8 but I should have headed out sooner. It was way hotter than I would have liked. I packed my Camelbak with more supplies than I needed and filled it with water. I knew I didn’t need all of it but I wanted to practice carrying the weight. The run was hot and slow and my neck was a little sore after it. I was a nasty, sweaty mess. Whose idea was it to train in the summer?

Shouldn’t I be feeling at least a little more fit these days? Every run just seems so damn hard. The smallest thing seems to trigger my asthma and I am freaking out. But let’s save all the drama for another post, ok?

How was your week?

Seen any good concerts lately?

Tell me something shiny!

The Slowest Mile

Happy Sunday!

I took Thursday and Friday as rest days. I had planned for a 8-10 mile run on Saturday. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Call it another rest day. Which was not so good because my lunch may have looked likethis-

Saturday night I was up late reading again, oops, so my alarm was quickly slapped in the morning. I had a BBQ to attend for work in the early afternoon. The weather was amazing and the view of the ocean from their back yard was awesome. I would have taken pictures but I felt that wasn’t cool doing that at an executives home. My ride had to be back early but even the short amount of time in the sun was too much. I guess when they put warning labels on medicine, they mean business.

I headed to the gym hoping for 8 miles but knowing that 6 was more realistic. Ha!! 4 very sluggish miles were all I could do. I warmed up with 1/2 mile walk then alternated between a 6.00 run and 3.8 walk. It was rough from the start. I never hit a groove, and it was all I could do to complete the 4. This not feeling well crap is beginning to make me cranky. I tried my Garmin again on the treadmill. I thought I turned off the GPS but apparently not. So I present to you the slowest mile, and actually it’s not even a mile-

Nice. Splits- 12:43, 10:56, 10:33, 10:41 — Nice.
Splits- 12:43, 10:56, 10:33, 10:41

So it is looking like I will end up with a 2 week taper for Ventura. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s closer to how I trained last year but I feel anxious missing that last long run.

Work has been a little stressful these last few weeks. My boss was offered a position at another location so now I have a new boss. So far it’s all good and I even took 2 full hour lunches last week, I almost didn’t know what to do with myself. Overall though, it still leaves you feeling a little wonky. I admit that I make poor food choices when stressed, so last week didn’t help that. Combine that with less running and I feel like even more of a Slacker than usual. It’s temporary and I will get back on track. Think positive right?

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Do anything fun?

Ever have a training flub this close to race day?

Only Slightly Crazy

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you were just in left field? Like the world existed on one plane and you were on some other cuckoo level? Yeah that’s where I am at this week. Welcome to my planet. Today I actually told a coworker “that I had never forgetted” something. Seriously? Did my brain take a vacation without me? *Case in point- I published this without a title and had to correct it.

Last Friday, I had the start of a headache. Combine that with all of the sun from a 2.5 hour run on Saturday afternoon and a few hours at the beach on Sunday and you get a raging headache that arrived Monday. And it’s still here. It’s my good buddy now. Ha! Monday’s run, though stressful, helped a bit. On Tuesday I set out for another run. I met my mom after work at the river path, it made for a nice warm up. I kept it pretty easy though, so just 4.5 miles with warm up and cool down. I did push it a bit for mile 4. Thanks to my lovely stomach I can only go faster than 9:30 in short bursts. Anything more than that is just not working right now. Once again the headache eased while running only to return later. It’s like a bad penny!

still turning off the Garmin for cool down, I'm so odd sometimes. — still turning off the Garmin for cool down, I’m so odd sometimes.

Wednesday was more of the same but I refused to cancel on gym night with NikeC again. Plus it’s back to Wednesday nights now since my class was canceled due to low enrollment. Boo! I crawled a mile on the treadmill for a warm up before we hit the circuit room. I used slightly lower weights than normal but at least it was something. I also did a bunch of squats because those didn’t hurt my head, and I can so feel it in my legs today. Our gym offers a boot camp type class on Saturdays and NikeC went this last Saturday. I want to go but am waiting until after the Ventura half. The trainer came up to us while we were warming up and asked me why I didn’t go. I said I didn’t want to try anything new before the half. She replied that they had never had anyone get hurt. Maybe so but I am just plain clumsy. When I informed her that I currently had a sliced foot and had managed to cut my hand that day, she decided I needed an injury/ liability waiver. Nice.Today I just marched to the beat of my own drum apparently. And the drumstick was broken. For those who are thinking why doesn’t she just take something for her headache? I usually would if a headache lingered this long but I am currently taking the lovely (multiple) antibiotics prescribed by my doctor and figured that was more than enough pills. I made myself go to sleep earlier last night and slept with an ice pack on my head. But even with all that, today was a rest day. Tomorrow likely will be too. I tried running it out, so now I’ll try waiting it out. This usually happens 2-3 times a year, so it will pass.

I have one last 8-10 miler that I would like to do this weekend and then it’s taper time!! I won’t lie, that actually sounds pretty nice right now. But right now I am looking forward to cookie Friday and a 3 day weekend!!! Which hopefully means sleeping in.

How about you? What are your plans this weekend?

Anyone racing?

Any other headache remedy suggestions?