Tag: tired

Week 32:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 4

Upcoming Races-

SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

I was fussy, cranky and tired this week. I had a few too many balls in the air at work at one point. Home town was in the middle of an almost 20 day streak of over 100* weather and I was sleeping poorly.

I like to sleep with the window open during the summer which is odd because I am also one of those people who tends to over react at every sound. Unfortunately this week, some creature decided to come visit the yard every night a little after midnight. And it was not a small creature. I tried to tell myself it was a family of deer. Which is likely was but I worry about the bigger felines. I digress…it was every single night. So eventually I would end closing the window but then it would feel super stuffy and sleep would still be crappy. Grrr.

Ok, training. This week called for a 5 mile run, 4 mile run, 7 mile long run and 4 Liift4 work outs.

So how did I do?

Monday- Liift4
I planned on running after work but work ran long and I was feeling cranky so I decided to push my run to Tuesday. Then while I was driving home I was feeling guilty for doing that only to arrive in run town and then home town to realize they were both completely socked in with smoke from fires. Combine that with the 3 digit temps and somehow my lazy choice was the smart choice.

Tuesday- 3.78 miles
Another hot day, it was around 95 when I started running and there was still a ton of smoke in the air. I decided to stick to the run/walk intervals I had programmed since I had also forgotten any way to carry water on my run. Short and easy miles, that was the plan. My legs had other plans and those running intervals were some of the fastest paces I’ve seen in years. Oops. I did keep it relatively short though.

Wednesday-Liift4
I am sure I did something else but I can’t remember what it was.

Thursday-3.5 miles
I had woken with a gnarly Charlie horse around 1:30 that morning and it never really went away. That said, I still wanted to attempt a run. Oh, my gawd, I was melting. I don’t know why. It was 93, so this was coolest run I had had in weeks. Or it should have been. It was so muggy at the lake path though. I had 3 decent, consistent miles and even though I was able to stop at my car for water, I could tell I was overheating. My leg also hadn’t loosened up at all so I finished 3 laps of the lake and called it. If the lake wasn’t so nasty I may have jumped in.

Friday- Rest
My tiredness and crankiness caught up to me. Could the animal outside at night just stop?! I told myself I was going to work out when I got home from work but I didn’t. I just zoned out watching Netflix’s Insatiable. That show is on crack, people.

Saturday- Liift4
I meant to do my long run. I laid out my clothes and charged my Aftershokz. I set my alarm- 5 of them. I slept through all of them. Grrrr. I thought about running my 8 miles (I also had the number of miles wrong) in the afternoon/ evening but although we finally break the streak of over 100* days it was still hot. Also, ended up taking the cat to the vet so that took up some of the afternoon.

Sunday-7.4 miles
My mother was planning on cleaning her tennis courts in the morning so I figured that would be good incentive to actually get my butt out of bed and run to the high school to meet her. 75* should have felt amazing after the last few weeks but it was more humid than I would have liked and I felt a little wilted.

Pace wise, I was doing fine for a long run but by mile 5 I was feeling hot. My mother was also feeling it on her end as she called me around that point saying she was done at the courts- it was too warm. I convinced her to wait for me in the shade instead of coming to get me and I tried to pick up the pace to the school. I am hoped for 8 to make for the run I shorted on Tuesday but 7 is just fine with me.

14.69 miles for the week. Much better than last week and almost all the miles the plan called for. So close!!

Now if the damn creature in the yard could just go away.

How was your week?

It All Adds Up

As some of you may know, I recently decided to try and get a little more serious with a few things.

I picked a training plan, I started a 4 day a week lifting workout.

I’m making better food choices. I no longer eat McDonald’s for breakfast every morning (yeah, I did that). I haven’t had Burger King in weeks. I’m eating less pizza and more fruit in my smoothies. Working on the veggies.

I’ve doubled my weights. Only missed 1 liift workout. I’m 4 weeks in.

And yet…

The scale hasn’t moved. Nor has the measuring tape. I know, I’ve checked.

I wasn’t expecting miracles here, but come on- give me something here- a pound, an inch. Give me something!

I was feeling discouraged.

On Tuesday, I went for a run and wasn’t feeling it. It was 95*, the skies were filled with smoke from far away fires and I forgot to bring a way to carry water on the run. I told myself to keep it short and sweet, nice and easy, a slow 3. I plugged in run/walk intervals with 30 second walk breaks just so I didn’t push too hard.

And yet…

The pace of those run intervals was something I hadn’t seen in quite some time. At least not with without a serious struggle. Each interval also continued to get faster without me pushing whereas the past few years had me fading in the end. My lungs weren’t on board with the smoke in the air but that’s asthma for you.😛

I also noticed more energy at the end of the Vintners 5 Miler- I wonder what I could have done without the hurt foot. Other training runs have had more consistent moments than usual as well.

So…. maybe things aren’t obvious but it all adds up. Baby steps. Don’t give up.

However I wouldn’t complain if the scale gave a little bit.😂

It all adds up.

Week 29/ Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 1

That was a mouthful. All right, when I said things were getting serious, I wasn’t exaggerating. So let’s do this-

Upcoming Races-

Vintners 5 Mile-7/28
SLO ULTRA 5K-9/2
Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you Bibrave!)- 11/12

Still with me? Ok, that tired me out just typing that up. But I have a game plan. I really do.

Remember how I mentioned in my San Jose post that I wanted to get as close to a PR as possible? That is still my hope. So with that in mind, I know I need to change things up. Oh, so many things.

The real title of this post should be Shit Just Got Serious.

As my social handle suggests sometimes I lack motivation. In my “about” section I mention that it was a competition with my mom that got me into the best shape of my life. Well, outside of high school but we can never go back right? 🤣

So I put my money where my mouth is and joined a challenge group. Now I have a partner I don’t want to let down as well as getting my jiggly butt back into PR shape. So how did week 1 go?

*If you’re interested, I am using Hal Higdon’s H3 training plan.

Monday- AM- Liift4/ PM- 3.77 miles
Look who worked out in the morning??? 40 minutes of weights and a little bit of HIIT. Who am I?

However, I may have hydrated way too much during the after that because I kind of bottomed out right before my run. That and my run was extremely uncomfortable as I felt like I needed to pee the entire time. It was supposed to be 4 miles but I could not hold it any longer. I needed to be done and I needed a bathroom. Lesson learned- don’t consume almost 200 oz of water in 9 hours.

Tuesday- Liift 4
More weights. However I woke up with a headache so I snoozed for another hour so this workout was done after work.

Wednesday- 2.5 miles
It was a rest day from Liift4 and even though my next running day wasn’t supposed to be until Thursday but it seemed perfect to move it up so I didn’t have to double up. I didn’t feel sore and the plan only called for 3 miles so easy peasy right? Haha! My legs quickly let me know they were not on board, all the soreness I had been missing suddenly showed up. I could barely move and was just getting slower and slower. I figured I wasn’t doing myself any favors and called it at 2ish laps of the lake path.

Thursday- Liift4
I slept right through my alarm- first and second ones- so that meant my workout was pushed until after work. However, my family ended up texting me asking if I wanted to join them for dinner. I am never one to turn down free food. 😛 Instead of being my usual Slacker self, that meant I was doing a shoulder workout at 9:30 at night. But I got it done.

Friday- Liift4
Once again, I hit snooze one too many times plus I had an early morning lab appointment. So after a long day of work, some slacking in the evening, I was again completing the workout after 10PM. Part of that was also due to some animal drama outside though.

Saturday- Rest
I thought about getting my long run in. I thought about going to the fair. Did I mention the Fair is in town? It’s chaos, just chaos. In the end, I did neither. I had the beginnings of a bad headache that I really didn’t want to turn into a migraine. So got my errands done, hydrated and just tried to rest.

Sunday- 6.2 miles
My fight to stave off the migraine failed. My alarm went off to get up and run and any movement made me either want to cry or hurl. I set the alarm for another hour and hoped for the best. Nope. Another hour and repeat. Nope. Finally I gave up and decided to push my run to the evening hoping the temps would drop enough- we’re under a heat advisory for the next week.

I headed out a little after 5 when the temps dropped to around 90. I knew I was going to be moving slower than normal and I was ok with that. That turned out to be true and it was hot but it was actually a decent run.

12.7 miles of the 13 on the plan. All Liift4 workouts completed. My training plan starts out on the lower mileage side and I am fine with that as I incorporate cross training in for the first time in years. Only time will tell if this pans out.

How was your week?

Week 28-Holiday

Oh I am glad that training for San Jose doesn’t start for another week or so.

Last week was an odd duck. Anyone else experience that? A holiday in the middle of week just really threw me for a loop. I didn’t expect that as I don’t have that problem with Thanksgiving?

I also made a medication change last week that may have wreaked a little more havoc than I had planned. I was freakin’ exhausted- like so tired if I sat down and dozed off, it became more like a coma.

For example- the weather was perfect on the 4th of July and I meant to go for a long run in the afternoon but after a short nap. Yeah, that “short” nap turned into almost 3 hours. On the floor. At one point, I apparently got up, walked into the garage, said something to someone and walked back inside only to go back to sleep. I don’t remember that.

I also slept through all my alarms over the weekend. I could not seem to make myself get up, out of bed and go for my long run. Which was not good as it was over 105* both days. So running took a backseat to sleep this week. However after a week, I think I’m finally over the odd hump and can hopefully get back to something resembling normal next week. As well as less caffeine consumption.

So what did I do?

Tuesday- 3.1 miles I was so damn tired, I almost bailed on the run. Even once I started, I didn’t think I was going to make it past a mile. I got a little more alert along the way and managed to finish 5K. Then I went home and crashed.

Thursday- 3.5 ish miles This run was odd. It started out feeling super sluggish then the last 2ish miles felt pretty good but it just brought all my recent doubts and drama out and was not head clearing at all. You can read about all those thoughts here.

So a little over 6 miles for the week. Bleh. Maybe I just needed a holiday.

Now if only the temps would drop a little at night.

How was your week?

Week 26- So Many Miles…

Just not on my feet.

Last week was the first of the big work trips and I was super nervous about it. I was driving down to San Diego on Friday and back on Saturday. I’d never driven that far by myself before. I was only freaking out a little. Ok, a fair amount.

I prepared plenty of podcasts to keep me alert- thanks Bibrave and This American Life- for some reason I can only seem to listen to podcast on long drives. But the drives went well if not tiring. As well as possible poor food choices. 😛

Monday- Yoga I wasn’t feeling too great so I passed on running after work and just headed home. I did complete a yoga video later in the evening though.

Tuesday- 4.47 miles/ yoga Haha, should have paid more attention to the GPS before I stopped my watch. I set out for a few miles and just tried to focus on how I was landing my left leg so my foot wouldn’t hurt. I ended up re-lacing my shoe twice but overall it was a pretty decent run.

Wednesday- Yoga I meant to run, it fit my schedule better but for some reason I can’t remember I didn’t.😛

Thursday- 2.25 miles I had a few things I needed to get done before the next day’s trip but I wanted to get a few miles on my legs. However my feet were so not on board. Now, both feet were hurting?! What? Even yoga sounded like a bad idea-just painful.

Friday- Drive/work I left my house around 5:45 in the morning and drove. Unlike the race trip to San Diego, I made good time and arrived around 12ish. Then we worked until after 6 and it was off to the hotel. Originally I had considered running in the hotel fitness center but I was so tired that I crashed pretty hard once I found the hotel and then ate dinner.

Saturday- Drive home This time I wasn’t so lucky and this drive took longer. I hit so much more traffic through the Burbank- Ventura area.

Sunday- 5 miles I was hoping that my feet would allow me to get a good 6-8 mile run but my lungs had other ideas. I had a freakin’ asthma attack in mile 3. I was in denial at first but soon had to admit that it was real and that I really did need my inhaler. And then again. I was toast. I tried to run again but it was just a farce. I slogged my way home and called it at 5.

11.7 miles for the week. Boo. I am so behind where I need to be for the year and I need to figure out what is going on with my feet.

How was your week?