Tag: tired

Week 53 – Goodbye December

And just like that, another week, another month and another year has come and gone. Busy 7 days!

Last week was interesting to say the least. I ran!! Some at least. However, sleep was not my friend and by the end of the week it was all I could just to get through the day. The long days. But let’s back up.

Monday- 4.5 miles A day off work means I have to run right? It’s like a rule, right? I waited until what I hoped was the warmest part of the day and headed out. The whole flu thing turned me into a big baby in the cold. 😛 Man, was I slow. But I ran!!! I thought I would feel miserable after such a lackluster month of December but other being slow, I felt pretty good. I think I was just excited to be running.

And then Monday night. Everything was normal until I tried to go to sleep and failed. I tossed and turned and paced. Covers on, covers off, sitting up, laying down, 2 pillows, 1 pillow, no pillows. I felt like my heart was racing and I could not fall asleep. I even texted my boss at 2:30 AM to let her know I may not be on time to work because of this. Don’t worry, I didn’t wake her- I know she puts her phone on do not disturb but I figured this way she would see it first thing in the morning. I was also hoping that taking that little stressor away would help me sleep. Yeah, not really. I dozed a bit between 2:30 and 4 but that was it. 90 minutes of crap sleep. Sounds like a recipe for success, right? I was up and oddly energized so off to work I went for a very busy Tuesday.

Tuesday night– more of the same. What the hell?! This was a slight improvement in that I think I managed around 3 hours of sleep. Oh yay. All right, Wednesday, let’s do this.

Wednesday night– about 4 hours of sleep. Ok now, this is getting ridiculous. By Thursday, the cumulative fatigue was adding up and I was fading. Combine a day where we down 2 people at work, a vital piece of equipment broke and we were so busy that I didn’t get to lunch until after 3:30 and I was fried. I had brought my running gear with me to go for a run but I barely had enough energy in me to just drive home after work. There was no running that night.

Friday- Rest Yeah, Thursday night saw about 5 hours of sleep and I worked open to close. That same piece of equipment was still broken 1/2 the day and we were still down 2 people, it was a much calmer day though and we all made it through. Woo hoo! From there I only had one more work shift to get through.

Saturday- Rest I wanted to run, I really did. I worked in the morning- maybe my last Saturday shift?!?!- and while I had actually slept the night before, the damage of the sleepless week had caught up to me. I was so damn tired. My New Year’s Eve was spent chillin’ in my chair watching Netflix. Party animal right? 😛

That brought my December mileage to a stellar 14.74 miles. I think that may be the lowest month since I started tracking years ago. Oops. That also brought my 2016 mileage total to 851 miles. Highest number yet!

Sunday- 5 miles My Smashrun politely told me that this was my longest run in a month. I’m trying a new strategy with my long runs and while this wasn’t exactly long I figured why not? I recently bought a book on Galloway’s Run-Walk-Run method and thought why not? So I tried intervals of 3:00 run and 1:00 walk for this run. I was still slow but I wasn’t miserable. I also noticed that I had more energy at the top of the last hill. Now, let me clear, I’ve been running for 6 years and I have never run this hill, just walking up it kicks my ass, I felt a little less tired this time though. Granted it could have been a fluke. I’m still not sold but I’m giving it a try.

9.5 miles for the week. Not great but it’s a start right? I have plans for 2017 so time to stop Slacking! Ok, well not completely. 😛

How was your New Years?

How was your week?

Can you function on little sleep?

Happy 2017!

Week 50/ Vacation Week 1 Recap

Otherwise known as Disneyland fail, the flu and a DNS. 😛

I had so many plans for this first week of vacation. They were good ones too! Since when do I have plans? It was kind of exciting. So how did those plans go? Ha ha!

I came down with the flu. I spent Friday through Sunday alternating between my bed or my comfy chair. I stopped eating on Wednesday. I know I talk about wanting to lose weight but not like this, this was miserable. My back hurt from coughing so much, stomach muscles I forgot about were aching in protest. I’ve slept too much and yet not enough. But let’s backtrack to the one fun day of the week.

With my mother’s birthday and Christmas both being in December, I thought it would a great gift and a fun way to spend a few days if we went to Disneyland. The plan was to drive down on Tuesday, check into the hotel, hit the main park all day Wednesday and then California Adventure on Thursday. Neither of us had ever been to California Adventure before.

After some nightmare traffic in La, we arrived at our hotel like planned. I had a tickle in my throat but I was trying to ignore it. I was hoping a good night’s sleep would make things all better. My throats didn’t hurt and I felt super tired in the morning but I always wake up a little rough so I put my game face on and we were at Disneyland before it opened. Yay!

I’ve always wanted to see Disneyland at Christmas and while it was just as awesome as I had hoped, I hadn’t anticipated how crowded it would be. Ouch. As crowded as it was, the wait times for the rides weren’t too bad. We were able to ride every ride we wanted to except for Indiana Jones as it was having technical difficulties throughout the day. Boo. I rode a couple of rides for the first time- Autotopia, It’s a Small World, Storybook Canal. I think I have the name wrong on that last one.

The problem was is that I was losing serious steam throughout the day. I thought I was doing a decent job of hiding it until my mom pointed out that I was walking hunched over. Oh, oops. I had some troubles in the Pirates of the Caribbean line and leaned against whatever I could. Luckily Pirates is a longer, low key ride and one of my favorites, so it was a good way to get off my feet for a bit.

We were having fun but I was fading fast. We hoped food would help, but instead I could barely finish it. Then Space Mountain made me a little green. Once drenched by Space Mountain, we decided to find a spot to watch the parade from. The parade was great but oh so cold. We wandered through a few shops before deciding that we were both cold and tired and heading back to the hotel. So instead of staying at the park until late in the evening, we were back in the hotel by 6. 😢

The next day I was worse. So bad we checked out and headed home instead. I was so ill that I gave my mom the keys so she could drive while I hung my head out the window like a dog. The proximity to me and an open car window did my mom no favors and instead of a second fun day, I got her sick. #birthdayfail We made it home by early afternoon where I showered and then crawled into bed.

And I’ve barely moved since. I’ve put off errands and Christmas shopping. I was supposed to run with Ashley on Saturday. Wah! And Sunday? Sunday was supposed to be my last race of 2016. A 5 mile trail race out at Montana de Oro. But considering walking to the bathroom tires me out, I probably shouldn’t be running up a mountain. Wah. I love this race.

At the rate I am going, I have no idea when I am going to run. I may end up binging on too many Christmas movies. One day I’ll be hungry again. I did manage to drag myself to the DMV though-

How was your week?

Ever go to Disneyland during the holidays?

How long does the flu knock you out?

Week 44 Training Recap

Training for-

Paso Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

So I started titling my weekly recaps like this back in January but took a little break during marathon training. The weekly numbers are starting to drag on me. I need figure out another way to do this. Good thing it’s almost 2017! Ouch, did I just say that?

This week saw me back on the dreadmill and it almost broke me. I don’t know if I can do that 2 nights a week until spring. I may have to get over my mountain lion fear. Well, and the fear of what’s hiding in the dark when you run at night. To that end, I bought a new pair of reflective leggings this week and I am hunting down all my blinking lights. I think I have them stashed in odd places. My flashlight also needs new batteries. Who said running was a cheap sport? 😛

Monday-2.3 miles The plan called for an easy 30 minute recovery run. Oh man, my calves were stiff. I walked more than I would have liked which meant I barely hit 3 miles in 30 minutes. Ouch. At least I was able to enjoy the view.

Tuesday- Rest I spent some time with my foam roller but probably not enough. I can’t remember if I did anything else. 😛

Wednesday- 4 miles Son of a treadmill. The plan was for a 7 mile run- some warm up and cool down with mile repeats at half marathon pace. Ha! I hate treadmills but I was trying to be optimistic. I couldn’t even pull off one mile at pace. My calves were tight and would not loosen up. I paused the treadmill so many times to try and stretch them out. At one point, I stretched so long the damn treadmill reset itself. I finally decided that I was doing more harm than good and called it. I was still pissed though so I cranked the incline to 7 and power walked it out. Things finally loosened up. So what, all my treadmill dates this winter will power walking at an incline?

Thursday- Rest I was still feeling sore from the day before so not much happened. I planned on jumping on the bike for a few miles but I didn’t. Oops.

Friday- Rest

Saturday- Rest Oops. I was supposed to do a 20-30 minute shakeout run. This also would have worked great with the Alzheimer’s Walk that I was supposed to participate in and yet neither happened. I took my car in for some tire work and planned on doing the shakeout run then except they moved at lightning pace and I did not have time. After a few errands, I headed to pick up my packet for the Harvest Half. I was nervous. This is the first time in 4 years that I haven’t volunteered to work it and it was the first time in 6 years that I was running it again. I ran the 5k years ago. This was also my first race with BibRave so I a little anxious.

They moved the expo into town this year and livened it up with a few vendor booths, some live music and a dinner in the park. I have to give them points for effort. There were only 2 vendors- Costco and a local gym. The tri tip smelled amazing though. I headed home to eat dinner and try to get a decent night’s sleep.

Sunday- Harvest Half To be continued…but ouch.

How was your week?

Any tips on making the treadmill less miserable?

Week 40 Training Recap/ September Wrap

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?

1/4 Mile At a Time

Image result for 1/4 mile at a time memes

Or in my case I die 1/4 mile at a time. 😛

In my phone call with Coach Jenny with Ekiden last week we discussed the partial training schedule she had for me. She had intervals scheduled for this Wednesday. Sweet! I love intervals even though I know I do them wrong. Run like hell than slow jog (walk) for a bit? I’m all over that. Except I noticed the plan doesn’t say recovery. It said float.

Wait a second- what the hell is FLOAT?!

So I asked. Float is less of a recovery and more of a push. Instead of a recovery pace, you run closer to tempo pace. The logic behind it is two fold. One is that you get used to running the intervals on tired legs without a full recovery. Second is that your tempo pace should feel a little more comfortable post speedy interval. Ok, makes sense. Sounds intense but makes sense.

But could I do it?

Well, kind of. I headed to the lake path on Wednesday since I knew I would need flat and easy for this. My legs have been achy so I even had compression socks on for a shorter run. I had programmed 5 intervals into my phone but had a feeling I would only be completing 4. Yep. 😛

After a 1.25 mile warmup, I hit the first 400. 8:03 pace, yes! First float? 9:08 pace. Sweet! But I felt like was going to lose my cookies. Could I keep doing this?

Pace
Set 2- 7:50     9:16
Set 3- 7:48     10:49
Set 4- 7:50     10:37

So my speed intervals sped up but my float intervals slowed down. That crap was hard! There were a few times I came to a complete stop just panting. Granted those times were also to avoid being hit by a car or a kid on a motorized mini motorcycle thing but I milked them for all they were worth!

I cooled down with another mile but man I was toast. I felt pretty good but out of shape at the same time. It’s frustrating but it is what it is right now. It gives me something to work on, right? Or whine about. 😛

Do you like speed work?

Ever heard of a float interval?

Happy Friday!!!! What are you doing this weekend?