Tag: Training

Week 3 Recap- All Wet

For a person who chose the word Challenge as a guiding principle for the year, January is doing a great job of laughing at me. I’m chalking it up to job stress and hoping that learning way or the other in the next week or so will help some of the stress go away. Maybe, hopefully…oh who knows.

In other news, it is still dumping buckets here in CA. Which would be awesome if I could stay at home under a blanket with my cats all day. But I can’t so yeah. I miss my night runs, who knew I would ever say that?? My boss and I were supposed to attend a Chamber function after work on Friday night but the storms and wind were so bad that we both agreed it was smarted to just go home. Somehow there was a break in the weather that lasted right until I got off the freeway in home town- best idea ever!

I had troubles keeping my blood sugar regulated this week as well. If you’ve been following this blog since the beginning (if you have, thank you!) you know I had this problem a few years ago. It’s been a long time since I bottomed out like that so that was fun. It happened Thursday and Friday…what gives?! Last week ended up being more Slacker-ish then I would have liked.

Monday- Rest– Haha, I wasn’t this sore after my marathon. This is what happens when you run 13.1 miles under trained. 😛

Tuesday- 4.5 miles I had a vacation day from work so I was able to enjoy a longer run in the middle of the afternoon. I really do love those. My shins were a little sore but I ran it off within a mile or two. I enjoyed being back on the river path for the first time in months. Come on spring and time change, where are you??

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday- Rest. Yeah, that wasn’t planned but that’s what happened. I actually did some pushups and a plank all of those days but I am not sure those count. I packed my bag and while it actually left my car but I never changed into my running gear. Grrr.

Saturday- 7.65 miles Reality moment run. We had a break from the rain but it was still cold so I thought an afternoon long run sounded good. I planned 8 miles where I left my house, ran across town, ending at the high school and hitching a ride with my mother at the end of tennis practice. I don’t know where I went wrong. I swear I left my house with plenty of time. I felt like I was running a steady pace, the bridge mile faster like always. I was stopped at traffic lights but it didn’t seem like an inordinate amount of time. I did get distracted on the river trail. Water!!!! In all the time I’ve been running that path, there has never been water in the river let alone moving water; I had to stop and admire it for a moment. Or 2. Climbing the last big hill I got a text message from my mom asking where I was. Then I saw the time. What the hell?!! Not only was I not going to get in a leisurely 8 miles, I was still well over a 1.5 miles from the school and would have to haul ass just to get there and still be late. So I tried. I did…but there was no haul in my legs. I literally felt like I was running with a stick up my butt. TMI? I don’t know if it was because I was cold and my legs felt frozen, maybe I was tired, whatever, I could not move faster. With 1/2 miles to go I get another text. “Where are you”. Again my response is trying. Her answer is “meet us in front”. Oh great, so now I get to share my red face, huffing, out of breath, out of shape self who didn’t hit 8 miles with her AND whichever tennis players needed a ride home. Oh boy. 😞 They caught me at the streetlight. Yeah, reality check moment.

Sunday- Rest I woke to the power being out. Yay. I was hesitant to run because I wasn’t sure my water heater was 100% gas and the idea of cold run followed by a cold shower followed by a cold house… yeah, umm no. So I ran some errands then took a nap. I kept pushing my run back hoping the power would come back on. Then PG&E called and said that it wouldn’t be back on until Monday. What?!? So then it was hitting the store to find flashlights and ice for the freezer while wishing that I hadn’t gone food shopping on Saturday. Not that I buy much but still. All this to get close to my house to find the traffic lights back on…ummmm? So, power was back! I guess it could have been worse- my neighbors rented a hotel room and had just left to check in when the power came back.

Miles 12.1 Ouch, that’s sad. That’s like one good long run. That said, I am on track with the mileage target I set for January so I feel decent with starting training for Livermore and Santa Barbara Wine Country on the 30th. Also hopefully by then the rain will calm down and I may have an answer on the job front, fingers crossed. If low numbers get me through January while I face all its other Challenges, so be it.

How was your week?

Anyone else totally unprepared for power outages?

Weekly Recap 2- Of stress and rain

Yikes, last week was a little rough. I still can’t pinpoint exactly why but if you read my last post you know I was feeling massively out of sorts last week. The feeling only went away when I ran. Or tried to nap but that was rare. I started the week with a migraine and my stomach was being its asshat self. I also admit that my food choices were less than stellar. Boo.

Anyways, let’s get to the workouts! Or what resembled working out. 😛

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday- ~~Stress~~– Rest In all seriousness, I foam rolled and stretched every one of these nights. Between all the rain and the longer commute, job stress and just life, I was freaking out. I knew I was only running one evening during the week due to my weekend running plans so I kept pushing it back due to the weather. I really needed to run.

Thursday- 3 miles Oh thank goodness, a break from the rain and I ran. I was planning on running at home but knew that the longer drive home zaps my energy and willpower. I changed into my running clothes after work and made the last minute decision to run from work as I was walking out the door. I always treated my work route as off limits in the dark but I decided to chance it. It was just what I needed. It was slow but also oddly the fastest 3 miler I’ve done in months. Considering I was dodging branches, I’ll take it! The smell of the eucalyptus trees and the sun setting on the ocean was just what I needed. For a blissful few moments, my brain was quiet for the first time all week.

Friday- Rest Jacked up my back again while getting ready for work, it hurt just to move. So I spent the day deciding how crazy I was. Which also probably contributed to my stress level this week.

Saturday- Road trip! Up early on the road heading towards Carlsbad. My back was super sore but not outright painful. Guess I am crazy. Bonus to this trip was that my uncle recently moved to that area- so added perks were staying with family and no hotel fees! Even if the grounds of his new house made me feel like I am doing something wrong with my life.

And the fact that I typed grounds, it’s not big but still. I went to bed early and just tried to get a decent night’s sleep.

Sunday- Carlsbad Half Marathon. I only ran 14 miles in December, what was I thinking?! But more on that next time. 😛

16.2 miles for the week. I kept my work week miles low as I knew what was coming in Sunday. I may be a little crazy but I have been trying to up my weekly mileage in a sane way. But still, doesn’t everyone jump their long runs from 7 to 13? Looking to this week, I am hoping to be a little calmer. Rain is still coming and my road is still closed, man I miss it, but I’m hoping that I will deal with it better this week. Fingers crossed!

How was your week?

Share something random!

Weekly Recap 1-Rain and Mudslides Oh My

Why is that short work weeks seem so long? Maybe it’s because we try to cram 5 days work into 4? Maybe it’s just one of those questions that will never be answered. 😛

Last week saw a better training week which is surprising considering the skies are dumping water on us and I have a fierce desire to avoid the gym the first few weeks of the year. Seriously, I know that CA is in a severe drought and that we desperately need water but we are not equipped to handle this much water at one time. Downed trees, power outages, highways are flooded, in fact as I type this I have no idea how I am getting to work on Monday. My main way to work has been closed since Friday evening due to a massive landslide. Considering I drove past 2 pretty large slides already last week and they didn’t shut the road for those, the fact that the road has been closed for 2+ days is kind of alarming.

But enough about mudslides- let’s get to the running!

Monday- 3 ish miles. That ish makes me a little crazy. My Garmin decided to go a little crazy and lose satellite for the first part of my run. Like most runners, I know the first mile from my house very, very well. My watch always beeps at one particular street sign. It didn’t. Grrr. It took another 2 blocks. It’s not like I was setting any speed records, I was feeling overly sluggish but the drop in data really aggravates the type A data nerd in me.

Tuesday/ Wednesday– Work was busy and the rain came. I carried my running gear around with me just in case there was a break in the rain.

Thursday- 2.6 miles There was a break in the rain so I changed after work and headed back home for a nice evening run. One bonus about running in the dark is that I feel zero need to push the pace. It’s one of the few times I can run easy and have it actually be easy both in feel and pace. Throw in dodging puddles and piles of dirt and debris and it really keeps things easy. The break in the rain was nice but dang that temp dropped fast. Make up your mind weather! I kept it short because my stomach chose to be an asshat on Thursday but I wouldn’t let it completely win.

Friday- Rest What else? Luckily I worked the early shift at work because the mountain decided to come down about 30 minutes after I drove through. Yikes!

Saturday- Rest I celebrated a little too early about the no more Saturday work days. It was off to work. Closer location and only for a couple of hours but it was kind of funny how quickly it came about. It was pouring rain outside all day, my stomach was still an asshat so I pushed my long run back a day.

Sunday- 7.1 miles There was a break in the rain mid-morning so I made a run for it. I layered up in preparation of the rain in case I was caught in it. I was overheating by mile 2. The Buff came off in mile 3. I used the wait at a traffic light during mile 4 to peel off my jacket. The weird thing was the damn wind. It was so windy it was pushing me backwards at times. The wind tried to take my hat off more than once. Damn near lost it when I was running over the freeway–never getting it back from there! It was extremely windy but it was a warm wind. My pace was a little erratic thanks to hills and the wind but overall it wasn’t that bad. My 3/1’s kind of fell apart thanks to some of the hills though. I need to work on that. Not bad for my longest run in months but man I feel out of shape.

12.7 miles for the week. Moving in the right direction at least! Slowly. 😛 As for this week, the rain is still here so I am not sure how my week day runs may go. Like I said, I’m not even sure how I’m getting to work. As for the weekend, I am debating how crazy or stubborn I am but more on that later.

How was your week?

How is your weather?

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!

2016- Shiny and Dull

It’s that time of year again- time for the Slacker’s recap of the Shiny and the Dull for the year.

Let’s get the dull out of the way so we can move on to shinier things. We all need shiny right? So without further adieu, the Dull of 2016-

I lost both grandmother’s this year. While one was kind of expected, the other was a total blind side. Either way, both sucked. I don’t handle loss well. I don’t adult well in that way.
My identity was stolen. That was fun.
3 debit cards were hacked. All at different times. Separate issue from above.
My credit card was also hacked. And who the hell spends that much money at Whole Foods??!!?!
I added 10 pounds to the 10 pounds from 2015 I needed to lose. Probably from a combination of my litany of meds and my reliance on chips and pizza as comfort food. Like I said, I don’t adult well.
I officially DNS’ed my first 2 races- Rock n Roll LA and Spooner’s Cove Trail Run. Grrr.

Ok, ok, enough Dull. Bring on the Shiny!!!!!!!

I started 2016 by kicking goals to the curb. I do not regret that decision. As far as I am concerned goals can get taken out with the trash. They work for some people but they do not work for me. I did not miss them this year and I will not miss them in 2017 but, oops, spoilers. 😛 So why did my goal free year work for me?

I ran 12 races this year. 6 half marathons, 1 8 mile race, 2 10k’s, 2 5k’s and a little something else😉😉. Fewer races than previous years but I tried to approach this year differently.

As of the time this post goes up, I have run 850 miles in 2016. 100 more than my highest previous year. Woo hoo! Do I wish it was higher? Sure. Had I not had such a lackluster November and December I might have come close to that ever elusive (for me) 1000 mile mark. One day I will get there, until then I can dream right?

I had the opportunity to join Bibrave. Join a group of runners where we can talk about running and races all the time??? Sweet! I’ve also been able to meet some of them in real life except I’m fired because I now realize I’ve never taken pictures. Boo. I’ve had the opportunity to try some really great products too. Which is awesome because I use a lotof them on a daily basis now.

I road tripped to 3 races- Huntington Beach for one and San Francisco for two. I went to Disneyland twice. This from the person who used to never go anywhere. Woah there!

And that little something else race?

I TRAINED for and RAN a freakin’ marathon!! This from the Slacker who said she would never run a marathon. Not only was the distance daunting but I couldn’t imagine that I would ever stick to the training. I am not the type to voluntarily get up early and run 20 miles on my own. And yet I did and I was smiling at the end. Ok, smirking.

Even more surprising was the marathon itself. If you followed along during training, you know I was a hot mess in July leading up to San Francisco. When I left for race weekend, I was seriously considering dropping to the half, I was still thinking that when I picked up my bib. Then race morning dawned and I was cool as a cucumber. I had no doubt I was going to finish… and I did. Without hitting a wall. Who am I???? Granted I was slower than I wanted to be and went over 5 hours but you guys I ran a marathon! And somehow looked like that after 25+ miles.

2016 had a mix of the shiny and dull. I let myself get mired in the dull a little too often. It’s something I need to work on. Overall, there were some really Shiny moments in there though. As for 2017? More on that to come.

How was your 2016?

Name your Shiny?

Name your Dull?