The calendar tells me that fall officially starts this weekend but I think it lies. We may not be hitting 100* days at the moment but it is still hot out there.
Yet the heat didn’t make me any less lazier. If I was given the option to run in the morning when it was a little cooler or in the afternoon when I would melt, I usually chose the stupider option. That said, I made it through a summer of stupid, hot running with no hydration issues and no headaches due to running in the heat.
I give credit to my watermelon Gatorade Endurance Formula and Endurance Energy Gels. It’s been a few months, I’m calling it a committed relationship. I am still in love. I don’t know how I ran without it. I now have a tub of the Endurance Formula powder at home and one at work. I tried a little travel size tupperware thing for a while but that just didn’t work for me. Then for awhile I was just carrying the one back and forth. 🤦♀️ No worries, just get another canister!
Now- you may be thinking- do you really need an Endurance Formula for a 4 mile run? When it’s 90+ outside, yes I do! I also dilute it- so a little less powder in the scoop and a little more water.👍
I admit that long run fueling is still a work in progress. I am getting better at it- the ease at which the Mango Gels go down helps- but I seriously need to a set a reminder for myself. ⏲ Every run where I actually fuel usually ends on a better note than when I don’t but I struggle with the actual remembering to do it.
I’ve also actually branched out to trying actual mango things which I never had before. I always assumed I disliked mangoes. But now I can’t remember why. So, thanks for broadening my horizons Gatorade!
Do you have a fueling plan in place or do you struggle like I do?
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
This week was ruled by sunburns, migraines and then peeling. Oh yay!
That said, it surprisingly wasn’t a complete wash on the workout front. I was feeling a little adrift after the Liift4 challenge was done so I joined another challenge group but this one is less focused and you pick your own workout so I was a little slacker-like in that respect.
The plan called for a 4 mile run, 30 minute pace run and a 10K race. It was kind of a step back week. There weren’t any 10k’s locally so my original hope was to sub in a 10 miler.
Monday-Rest
The sunburn from hell kept me from doing anything too active. I wore one of my loosest dresses but even that made me cringe anytime I moved at work.
Tuesday-4.2 ish miles
I headed for the river path to get in a few miles. I really wasn’t feeling it but I told myself to just get started and see what happened. I felt better once I got started and even threw in some tempo bits. I guess I should say fartleks. I was glad I didn’t bail and followed through with my run like planned.
Wednesday- 21 day Fix- upper fix
What the hell? After 8 weeks of Liift4, I figured 21 Day Fix would be a walk in the park. People, I was sweating in the 2 minute warm up. 10 minutes in, I was like what the hell is this????? I finished but need to reassess my fitness level.
Thursday- 3.6 miles
The plan called for a 30 minute pace run. The migraine that rolled in had other plans. I still headed to the lake path for a few miles but I wasn’t optimistic. The pace run didn’t happen but I did get a few easy miles around the lake. Took a few walk breaks whenever I felt like I needed and just kept putting one foot in front of the other.
Friday- Nothing
I meant to do another 21 day fix but the migraine was still hanging around and by the time I got home after 7, I was done.
Saturday- 21 day Lower fix
I was supposed to do my long run. I was supposed to go to my boss’s boss retirement party. Instead I didn’t get out of bed until 10 AM and I took a 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon. Damn migraine, you can leave anytime now. I did manage to complete another workout in the evening though.
Sunday- 7.2 miles
I woke early to run but my head was still fuzzy and I admit when I saw the temp was 42*, I wimped out. Where did the cold come from?? So like an idiot, I put it off until the afternoon. Where I rode the struggle bus. I had hoped for 10 miles but yeah no. My headphones died just past mile 2. My stomach cramped horribly around mile 4. Cramped like I started walking a lot- there were no bathrooms on my route. I had the driest mouth ever- even though I was chugging all the Gatorade. I called it at 7 miles.
15 milesfor the week and 2 cross training workouts. Considering how I felt for most of it, I am calling that a quasi-win right now.
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
Fried. That’s how I would describe this week.
I knew it was going to be a hectic one and I thought I planned accordingly. But well, life.
The week was already short due to the holiday and then I was off Friday to chaperone a multi-day tennis trip for my mother’s team. I tried to cram all I could in at work in 3 short days as well as get in all my workouts before we left.
The plan called for a 6 mile run, 50 minute tempo, 9 mile long run and the last 4 Liift4 workouts.
Monday- 9 miles/ Liift4
Long run on a Monday- say what?? I knew the weekend ahead was going to be super busy so with a Monday off work I thought I would get my long run out of the way. Yet, I woke up nauseaus again. I did a crazy Liift4 workout in the morning and debated skipping the run. I headed out in the late afternoon for what I was sure was going to be a 4 mile slog. Instead I somehow had the best 9 mile run that I have had in over a year. Hell, it was the best long run I’ve had in years. Who knew?
Tuesday- Liift4
This final week of workouts was kicking my ass. I don’t think I’ve ever sweat this much in my life.
Wednesday- Rest
I meant to do another Liift4 workout but my stomach was being a total asshat. So instead I picked up some last minute supplies for the weekend trip.
Thursday- 3.75 miles
This was supposed to be longer but my legs weren’t feeling it. This was actually slower paced than Monday’s long run too. Way to bring me back down to earth legs. My right hip was cranky, I really need to start doing my PT exercises again.
Friday/ Saturday- Tennis Road Trip
So tired, the days were long and stressful and so freakin’ hot! I layered on sunblock, I stayed in the shade as much as possible, I wore a hat and somehow I still ended up with my worst sunburn in years. It hurt. By the time we got home on Saturday, I was just mentally done. Teenagers are hard.
Sunday- Rest
This was not the plan. I needed another 6 miles and should have completed the leg workout for Liift4. However… the sunburn. Owwww! Everything hurt. It hurt to the touch, it hurt to move, clothing hurt- there was no way I was putting a sports bra on. Nope.
12.77 miles for the week. Stupid sunburn! Also the Liift4 challenge is complete even if I missed a few and I feel a little adrift. Oops.
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
So, I’m finally on the right week. Did anyone notice that I posted “week 32” 3 times? Haha, I really need to pay more attention when I copy and paste.
Last week was fairly uneventful outside of running which is fine by me. Plus this week is shaping up to be crazy so I needed a calm one.
This was a surprisingly solid training week. It had it’s ups and downs but when it came to sticking to the plan, it was pretty solid.
The plan called for a step back week with a 5K race instead of a long run. So it should have looked something like this- 4 mile run, 3 mile run, 5K race, maybe an extra easy run if I was feeling it and 4 Liift4 workouts.
Monday-3.1 miles
My legs do not like running the day after a long run. Not even a recovery run, my right leg and hip protest but running on Monday was fit my schedule. I kept it slow and easy and a little shorter than plan called for but I knew there was only so much my leg was going to put up with. That said, it was a decent few miles.
Tuesday- Liift4
I really meant to do this in the morning but nope. Another late night work out. We’re in the final 2 weeks of the challenge and my arms were shaking.
Wednesday- Rest
Oops. I meant to run but was easily distracted on the way home.
Thursday- 4.2 miles/ Liift4 legs
My hip was so stinkin’ sore. I’ve been trying to use my chair this week and I just can’t, it hurt my hip. Or aggravates my IT band. Whatever. By Thursday, my hip was pissed by 3 days of trying to make do. I had to stop and stretch it out various times throughout the run. I didn’t feel like things really loosened up until the middle of mile 3. By then I was done. Then at home I did the Liift4 leg workout not knowing what a sweat fest I was in for. 😛
Friday-Rest
After the brutal leg workout the day before and having a race the next day, I thought rest was the best choice. If you read Friday’s post, you know I wasn’t exactly stoked on the race but one of the upsides of the new location was that it was a 10 minute drive from work. So I hustled down on my lunch break to pick up my bib and shirt. Funny thing- a local runner I’ve met before was working packet pick up so I chatted for a moment but could tell that he had no idea who I was. Ha!
Saturday- SLO Ultra 5K
Race recap to come. I’ll just leave you with this-
Sunday- Liift4
I had hoped to add in that extra easy run but without giving away race details, I still wasn’t feeling quite right. I decided to just play by ear and see how things went and that ended up being the Liift4 workout late in the evening. I am fine with that.
10.7 miles for the week. Low but I did all the required workouts for the week. I missed a Liift4 workout but that was also deliberate- I tend to pass on the ones that are entirely HIIT because I end up breaking myself. Seriously. I cannot do a mountain climber without hurting myself- no matter how many modifications I make.
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
This was an odd one.
I ran but not enough. I lifted but not enough. I had an odd headache on Wednesday, my side pain became a little worse and then my back started hurting towards the end of the week. Really?? I can’t blame the lifting because I barely did it this week.
I also stupidly dropped a migraine pill down the side of my recliner on Thursday evening and spent 3 days tearing the chair apart, vacuuming sides trying to find the damn thing. Meanwhile my cat was confused as to why she wasn’t allowed in my room for 3 days. Surprisingly the chair still holds together after I put it back together- although I feel a little crooked.
This training week called for a step back week and a 5K race. However that didn’t fit my not running life schedule. Plus I have a 5k scheduled for the following week. So I decided to flip weeks 6 and 7. Except somehow I still screwed it up.
The week should have played out like this- a 6 mile run, 5 mile run and a 9 mile long run. 4 Liift4 workouts sprinkled around for cross training.
And reality?
Monday-Liift4
I had planned on running after work but we got out really late. Combine that with who beats who game I play with the cleaners and that I had already seen their truck pull in and I just decided to push the run to Tuesday. Then I ended up stuck in traffic on the way home. However I stuck to the lifting plan.
Tuesday-Rest
I had plans for running and plans for Liift4 but my side pain which is mostly tolerable these days was intense. Something I did that day must have angered it but I don’t know what. But considering I am 8 months in without a diagnosis who knows???
Wednesday-1.2 miles
Epic fail! I headed to the lake path for a 4 miler but all of my gear was in the wrong places in my car. As I was getting my pepper spray from my gym bag as opposed to my pack, I put my car key down on the front seat. Can you guess what comes next? Yep. Locked my key in my car. Tried all my doors and pushing the windows down. Nope. I talked my parents into getting my spare and driving it to me on the caveat that I take them to dinner after. 😛 I then squeezed in a lap of the lake while waiting for them. In all honesty, I may have called it at a lap anyways as there were 2 total creeper cars on the backside of the lake.
Thursday-5 miles -tempo intervals
Not gonna lie, after the previous days’ fiasco and the last week of rough running, I was not feeling this run. And for some reason, I thought I had a 40 minute tempo on the plan. We were under an air quality warning the latter half of the week so I broke the tempo into intervals- it was supposed to 15-15-10 but it was more like 12-12-6. I ran a completely different route than normal and there was a hellacious headwind that damn near shoved me backwards in the last interval. I made up for it in the cool down though when I inadvertently hit an 8:30 pace for 1/2 mile thanks to The Big Gigantic. Oops, not how to cool down. Then the chair drama started.
Friday-Liift4
More chair drama. I searched for hours and tore the thing apart to no luck. Grrr.
After she was allowed back in
Saturday-Rest
I had a work event at the homeless shelter in the morning. I was thankful for the chance to help out, I’ve missed helping out since it’s been a few years since we ran a dinner night each month. This event was a walk and I was calling on all years of race experience working the registration tables.
Afterwards I went home and performed more surgery on the chair and was finally successful. The pill was found! After that I was in a cleaning mode so I kept organizing a few things before running some errands and then being lazy.
Sunday- 8.23 miles
When my alarm went off in the morning, I kind of growled at it. I just wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t feeling like doing much of anything. I made a quick trip to SLO to the Running Warehouse to exchange the Neuro’s and then came home and took what was supposed to be a 20 minute nap. An hour later I finally decided to head out for my run. I wasn’t feeling like a long run anymore so I figured I would just run a short run and break in the new shoes instead.
And yet, I kept running. Up one hill and down the other. There’s a reason I don’t do long runs in my neighborhood. I stopped twice to BodyGlide my heels as I felt a blister forming from the new shoes. I told myself to bring a band aid but forgot. Oops. A funny moment happened around halfway when I ran past a car that had been in an accident. It looked like it had been rear ended- it still had the bumper of the other car attached- and the it had hit something else. They must have it had towed there but it still smelled like a car accident- that metal on metal on burnt plastic smell? Apparently that brings back memories for me as I kind of started to hyperventilate. 😛 I’ve been in a few accidents but until today I wouldn’t have said that smell would trigger any reaction. On the return route I went a different way.
For not wanting to run my long run, I ended up running all 8. Only to check the plan later and realize it should have been 9. Oops.
14.52 miles for the week. How did I ever come close to 1000 miles in a year once?
