Tag: Training

Week 41: Monterey Bay Half Prep

Upcoming Races-

City to the Sea 13.1-10/14- maybe
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you BibRave!)- 11/12

This week was an odd duck.

I was so sore post San Jose, it was ridiculous. I started the week planning a few recovery days but it kind of snowballed from there.

Then Wednesday arrived and a baby deer and my car collided on my way to work. I managed to mostly swerve but the deer bounced off my door panel. I pulled over and took a few moments to breathe. The deer managed to get up and run away so I choose to believe all good things. However my brother was not so lucky on the way to work that morning. His was a big deer on the freeway and they collided in a major way. Wednesday was just off.

I supposed to run a race on Sunday- City to the Sea- one of my favorite races. But I kind of never registered for it. Oops. Maybe it was meant to be? Or to not be?

I didn’t really have a plan this week, just wanted to get in some running and some cross training.

Monday-Liift4
I was so sore after Sunday’s race. Seriously, flat is not my friend. I was less sore after 26 miles of Big Sur hills. I didn’t run but I did manage to complete week 2/ day 1 of Liift4. Very, very slowly.

Tuesday-Nothing
I really meant to do something after work but just didn’t. I knew I wasn’t running, I wanted to give my legs and back another day to rest but I had intended to at least do a workout when got off work but I didn’t. Oops.

Wednesday- 1.14 miles, Liift4
Deer day. Then the day was just odd. I changed into my running gear after work but everything felt off. I went to the river path but even the air felt off. Ever have one of those days? I walked/ jogged a short loop back to the car and called it. I didn’t regret it but one of the local sub elites came flying past me I did groan and shake my head. Of course, I was walking at that point.

Thursday- Mes de Mas legs
Haha, I am so uncoordinated. I lost count of how many times I fell over.

Friday- Nothing
It was an open to close kind of day. As I was driving home I suddenly wished I had my running gear because the sun setting on the beach looked amazing and it was warm outside. I totally would have gone for a run on the beach.

Saturday-Nothing
More nothing. I thought about running all day but that is as far as it got. Instead I just kind of lazed about.

Sunday-5 miles
Since I wasn’t running the race anymore, I slept in. I ran some errands before heading out for an easy run. It turned into a progression run thanks to a little pass by homeless person incident at the start. My legs felt good but then why wouldn’t they, they had all week off.

6.2 miles for the week. I think I took more of a recovery week post San Jose than I did post Big Sur. 😛

How was your week?

Week 40:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 12

Upcoming Races-

Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14- maybe
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you BibRave!)- 11/12

Welcome to funk town. I’m in a funk. I need out.

On the work front, things are getting interesting. We had an employee give notice which was sad because we had a great team in place. We were super lucky and managed to hire someone quickly so we were only short staffed last week but another employee turned in notice last week. Aaargh…what is in the water?!? And both of the them were afraid to tell me because they didn’t want to disappoint me so I was always the last person to “officially” know. Thanks, I think?

So workouts- the plan called for a 3 mile run, 4 mile run and the race. I also hoped to fit 3-4 cross training work outs in.

Monday- Liift4 week 1/day 1, Mes de Mas day 1
With my leg feeling cranky from the hot mess fail of a long run on Sunday, I decided not to run and just restart Liift4. It felt harder this time around. Hmmmm. I was feeling like doing more though so I pushed play on the Mes de Mas workout after. A workout for body and brain as the instructions are in Spanish. I’ve been looking forward to this one becoming available and it was fun.

Tuesday- 3 miles/ Liift4
I kept the miles nice and easy and just tried to focus on my form and stride. Nothing hurt but my leg didn’t feel marvelous either. I did another round of cross training once home.

Wednesday- Rest
Something pissed off my stomach in major way. It was enough just to make it through the work day. It also rained so I tried to just see it as good timing to feel crappy.

Thursday- Rest
My stomach was still angry. It’s been a while since I had bad flare up so I guess I was due for one. Race week timing was not great though.

Friday- Nothing
I meant to run a couple miles. I took the day off work in order to get a few things done and checked off my to-do list but only managed to check off a few things. Grrr.

Saturday- Road trip to San Jose
Road trip! I was on the road around 9 for the drive up to San Jose. Luckily San Jose is only about 3 hours away so the drive wasn’t bad. Getting to the expo was the easy part. Bib pick up was a breeze. Getting around town after was ridiculous. It was like Apple maps and Siri just refused to work. We got lost multiple times- on foot and by car. Grrrr. Thankfully I nailed the hotel choice- within walking distance of the start/finish- and it was within walking distance of a Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Though I came to regret that. Then I tried to get a decent nights sleep. Fail.

Sunday- Rock n Roll San Jose Half Marathon
Race recap to come.

16.2 miles for the week.

How was your week?

Week 39:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 11

Upcoming Races-

Rock n Roll San Jose 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)-10/8
City to the Sea 13.1-10/14- maybe
Rock n Roll Los Angeles 13.1 (Thank you BibRave!)- 10/29
Monterey Bay Half Marathon (Thank you BibRave!)- 11/12

Peek weak redux? More like epic fail.

Like I said in Friday’s post this week was less than stellar. I was in a funk with no real reason as to why. I started the week out sick and things just kind of went down hill from there. We had an employee with a last day on Friday and it’s always sad when the team changes. On the upside, I finally have a hotel for my work trip coming up in October so I won’t be sleeping in my car, haha.

The plan called for a 6 mile run, 6 mile pace run, 10 mile long run and 3-4 cross training workouts.

Monday- Sick
I felt fine in the morning and had my running gear with me at work. However things went south around 4:00pm when I suddenly felt nauseous, clammy and like I was running a fever. I went home and just curled up under a blanket. It was still hot outside so it was a sign that I really wasn’t feeling well.

Tuesday- Liift4
I still wasn’t feeling well. I couldn’t focus and everything took so much more effort. I ran into my uncle during the day and he took one look at me and asked why the hell I went to work. I’m stupid?? I felt like a total sloth so I dragged my way through a Liift4 workout in the late evening. I did feel a little better after.

Wednesday-1.2 miles
Not what I intended. I planned to attempt 5-6 pace-ish miles around the lake path but the path had other plans. Creeper alert! Both could have been false alarms but my #1 rule is Be Paranoid. The first creeper was a windowless van parked on the path. Ummm, why? Next up was a gold Ford Fusion that slowed as it passed me, then drove in front of me. When it came back for a second, slower pass, I was done -I’m out. I’ll run another day.

Thursday- 3 miles
My leg was hurting. I was stupid and sat in my chair this week- why do I keep doing that- and it aggravates my right leg in a bad way. I toughed out 3 miles but managed to find a decent, easy pace actually. I knew more would probably be stupid judging by how the leg felt though.

Friday- Nothing
I just wanted to stay in bed all day but I went to work. I did bring back the desk chair instead of my stool though.

Saturday-Nothing
And I mean nothing. I set my alarm to get in my long run but when it came time to run I was so not feeling it. In fact I was feeling like being a sloth. So I did. The upcoming month of October is looking to be crazy busy and this was my last weekend before things get crazy. So, I did the bare minimum. I ran 2 errands and I napped.

Sunday- 6.35 miles
I should have napped more. I kept putting off this run because I really didn’t want to run. I wanted to be lazy but I told myself that was stupid. So I headed out for a run. Why? It was miserable. It was too warm, I wasn’t into it and my leg started to hurt towards the end. I walked a lot. I was done. I just looped and headed back to the car. I should have just skipped it. My pace wasn’t completely horrible- it was actually near marathon long run pace so I guess I have made some improvements in the last few weeks if I tanked that badly but it doesn’t look like it.

10.56 miles for the week. Yay. And with that it’s race week.

How was your week?

Week 38:Upcoming Races-Rock n Roll San Jose Training Week 10

Upcoming Races-

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

Welcome to peak week. Or at least I think it was peak week.

Part of me feels like this week was a hot mess and the other part feels like it was a moderate success. I thought about trying to combine those terms in a catchy way and it just sounded inappropriate so, oops.

I feel like there is something I needed to tell you about work but I can’t remember what it was so we’ll push pause on that.

The plan called for two 6 mile runs, a 10 mile long run, and 3 cross training work outs of some sort.

Monday-3 miles
My legs generally aren’t fans of running the day after a long run but this was what fit the schedule. That said I knew I wasn’t going to get the 6 miles the training plan called for. Especially since work ran a little later due to being short staffed that day. I kept the pace nice and easy and my legs actually weren’t as cranky as they could have been.

Tuesday- Nada
I was feeling lazy after doing what I needed to do. Oops.

Wednesday- 6 miles bike/ 21 day Upper Fix
I planned on running however realized I had a problem when I changed into my running clothes after work. My crops which had been with me for so many miles over the years had given up the ghost. 😂 No running was going to happen that night. I knew I should have packed an extra pair of shorts.

Thursday- 5 miles
All right, let’s try this again. I was feeling blah but I changed and headed to the river path after work to get in a few miles. I told myself to at least get started. I left my water in the car because I had a feeling I would be back soon. Except at the 5k turn around point, I went left instead and kept running. My brain was exactly on board but my legs were so I let them do all the talking.

Friday- Rest
I was lazy again. Uh oh…the Slacker may be coming back more than I would like.

Saturday- Shopping
Yeah, I know not really exercise but I defenitlty put in my steps while getting some things done. I thought about trying for my long run that evening but it was still above 90 until the evening so I passed.

Sunday- 8.5 miles
I ran in the morning! I actually got up! Granted a little later than I planned but still. I headed out for my planned 10 miles. The plan was to run 10 miles to a certain point- have my mother pick me up then go to lunch with her and my brother. I had stashed a shirt change with her the day before in case I followed through with running in the morning.

About 1.5 miles in I heard my name being shouted- huh? Oh hey, I know you! I ran into a friend watching her son play soccer so I stopped and chatted for a bit. Between that conversion and a couple of lengthy stoplights as I made my way across town I was only able to fit 8.5 miles before the rendezvous time. That said the miles I did fit in were surprisingly strong considering the struggle bus I’ve been riding lately. I considered going out for another 2 later but once again it was 96. Ummmm, Fall where are you?

16.5 miles for the week. A not great peak week but not a bad one either. Only 2 weeks to go to San Jose!

How was your week?

Still Loving It

Disclaimer: I received Watermelon Gatorade Endurance and Mango Energy Gels to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

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!

Gatorade

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?