Tag: Training

You Never Know

Monday’s run was short and turned odd. Not just because of my achy calves and silly shoes. Remember my rule?

I headed to lake path after work on Monday with the hopes of doing a few laps in the new Brooks. I am still having troubles breaking them in and my legs are giving me fits. I was optimistic though. I stopped once to retie my shoes- again. Skipping the arches and using every lace hole near the ankle. What are those called?

Anyways, my first lap was ok so I was hopeful to get in a few more miles. On the second lap I noticed a woman with 3 dogs coming my way. That in itself wasn’t odd, I see her and the dogs every time I run that path. What’s odd is that she is usually with an older gentleman. I didn’t see him that night. I did see another man a few yards behind her though. He caught up to her and I could see them talking. Well, him talking and her walking. He dropped back and she continued on but I heard her ask what color dog he was looking for. I noticed that she waited until she was farther from him before saying something. Hmmm. I continued heading the way I had been running.

Hold up, the man had turned around and caught up to me on a walking break. He started asking me if I had always been heading in that direction. I was thankful that I could hear him even with my headphones (Aftershokz for the win!) but I made a big show of pausing the music. I had no idea who this guy was, I didn’t want him to know I had heard his previous conversation. He said that he couldn’t find his son. That maybe he had run ahead. Wait, what? You just asked the other women about a missing dog?!?!?! He also didn’t sound overly concerned either.

Ok, once again, another creepy run at the lake. Time to get the heck out of dodge. I picked up the pace and ran ahead. I was keeping an eye out for a kid running though, just in case my paranoia was running in overdrive. Around the corner, across the bridge and no kid. Down a side street, half a mile later and almost back to the parking lot. No kid. Last curve to my usual stretching station and wait, what do I see? What looks like a 12 year old boy… walking a dog. Hmmm. So I slowed and asked him if he had been looking for his dad. He gave me the side eye.

Great, now I am the creeper. He said yes so I told him that I thought he was about 1/2 mile back. My calf had been twinging the last 1/2 mile so I decided to just call it a night.

So it turned out to be nothing creepy but it’s sad that you just never know. And because of that you can never take things at face value. My rule of thumb for running alone is that everyone is a creeper and needs to be treated as such until proven otherwise. Does it potentially help keep you safer when alone? Maybe? But it also leaves a foul taste in your mouth when you mistrust honest situations.

Does this mean I am going to be less cautious on future runs? Not likely.

Do you run alone?

Ever encounter a creepy situation?

Week 37 Training Recap

Training for:

City to the Sea 13.1
Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

A week of shoe issues, calf issues, wardrobe malfunctions and a long run attempt that knocked me flat. Yay?

Monday- 2.0 miles. Yeah, another run testing the new Brooks. I also wore the wrong shorts. This was a hot mess from the start and I could tell it just wasn’t going to get better.

Tuesday- Rest I was sore from the baby run. 😩

Wednesday-Rest Pizza night!! 🍕🍕

Thursday- 3.8 miles I was optimistically hoping for 5-6 miles. Fail. Everything hurt. Ankles, shins, calves. Which led to whiny thoughts then deep thoughts. Which prompted my last post and my concerns that my weight gain was affecting my shoes.

Friday- Rest I’ve closed the last 4 Fridays and I admit it’s making me tired. Crossing the street on my way back to my car, I felt twinges in my left shin. I was also feeling a little off so I decided right then that my planned 14 miler was going to be broken into 2 runs over the weekend. I was trying to be smart for once. I failed.

Saturday-8 miles The first run of the weekend. I overslept and was feeling a little weird but if I didn’t run every time I felt a little off, I would never run. I headed out around 9:30 but as the high of the day was only supposed to be 91 so I figured I would be fine. If only I had known how wrong I was.

The run started off ok. I was sticking to my 5/2 run walk intervals, wearing my Nike’s and compression socks and my shins/ ankles were feeling pretty good. Since I was only running 8 miles I decided to throw in some hill repeats. What was I thinking? I was huffing and puffing but I kept running. I did 2 hill repeats before running to the turn around point then back for another 2 hill repeats. I felt fine though mile 6 then things went bad.

My 24oz water bottle was almost empty and I was slowing down significantly. My town doesn’t believe in water fountains. They are either turned off or locked up. A little over a mile from house I passed an elementary school. The gates weren’t locked!!! Hallelujah! I felt like a creeper opening the gates but I really needed water. I was loosing steam though. I barely made it up the last hill- I had to stop halfway up, I couldn’t catch my breath. I normally love running the downhill and the flat on the way back to my driveway. I couldn’t do it. I hit 8 miles about 1/4 mile from my driveway and just quit. I crawled back. Once confronted with my driveway, I almost just gave up. I was seriously thisclose to just sitting down partway up and hoping someone drove by.

That wasn’t the end. Once I made it inside, I started overheating. I was still sweating so I wasn’t freaking out about heat stroke but something was not right. I tried taking a cold shower, chugging water and I had my brother bring me food. Then I tried napping. Every time I tried to stand up, everything kind of went black and tunnel like. I kept going back to bed. I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon sleeping. I knew I had the Avocado Margarita Festival to volunteer at in the evening. I finally managed to get up without the world spinning and I headed towards work town. I treated myself to In n Out hoping it would make me feel better. Not really. Boo. I left work town around 8 and was glad to see my bed when I got home.

I don’t know if it was too hot- only in the 80’s, not hot at all- or if it was the fact that I did hill repeats for the first time in months. Or if I actually had a touch of something. I later found out a coworker had similar issues on Saturday as well and they didn’t run. They ended up doing nothing but sleeping after their festival shift.

Sunday- 10 miles bike This time I listened to the off feeling I still had. I had woken up at 7 with a pounding headache so I rolled over and went back to sleep. I woke up at 10:30! feeling a little more human. After running some errands I decided my 6 mile run was not a good idea and decided to just ride the bike.

13.9 run miles for the week. Ouch. Let’s just chalk it up to a rough week and move on. I wish I knew what set off Saturday’s issues because I never want to feel like that again.

Have you had a recent wardrobe malfunction?

Would you eat an avocado Popsicle? Yes, it does exist.

The Weight on my Shoes

Thursday’s run hurt.

My calves were tight and my arches were sore and achy. I think my PureFlow 4’s are dead. Which is not cool as they only have 146 miles on them. I think… I lost most of my shoe data when Nike updated their running app. Boo. But they felt dead on my run and since is my third pair of them, I am pretty familiar with the signs of a dead shoe.

So now what? I am not hugely fond of the 5’s I have been testing. Granted, I’ve only put 5 miles total on them. The toebox feels small- which I usually like- but the ankle area feels very floppy. I tried re-lacing them on my last run in them but they still felt off. No bloody heels though, so that was a plus.

So while I was running, ok well, taking lots of walk breaks, I was thinking. I’ve dropped thoughts about my weight recently- this still isn’t that post- but what if my weight is affecting my shoes?

Am I too large for my shoes?

I am honestly wondering this not trying to stir anything up. When I was heavier I ran in support shoes. Over the years as I both ran more and lost weight, my shoes kept getting lighter and with a smaller heel toe drop. And things were mostly fine. But now, I am heavier than I want to be by a decent amount. Let’s be real, I am closer to the weight I was when I first started running than I am to when I was at peak fitness 2 years ago. Could that be affecting my shoes?

I know the weight affects my form at times. Especially if I wear the wrong pair of shorts on a run. It could have all the markings of a great run but the wrong shorts right now will turn it to a crap storm real fast. Which then throws off my stride. So why couldn’t that be happening with my shoes?

Problem is that I don’t know how to test this little theory of mine. I mean I could by another pair of shoes but all this shoe buying is getting a little expensive. I am hesitant to return the PureFlow 5’s as I’ve only put 5 miles on them. It took me 20+ to break in the teal pair of 4’s that I had but then I put another 200ish miles on them. The last pair of normal running shoes-i.e more support- I owned was well over a year ago. I actually gave them to my mother to be gardening shoes. So that’s out as an option too.

Then on Saturday, I ran 8 miles in my Nike’s and my legs felt better than they have in weeks. They have even less to them than my Brooks. But, I was also in compression socks. Is it all in my head?!?!

I would love to say I as going to lose the weight and all would return to normal. But again, let’s be real, I’ve trying that for a year and failing in numerous ways. So now what?

Help me, blog land, you’re my only hope!!!

Seriously, what are your thoughts?

Mid Week Musings 11

I know it’s Thursday but it’s the halfway point of a short week that’s midweek right?

The fans are gone! The silence is glorious, it really is. Now we don’t have hot water as they start the repairs but small victories right? 😛

I drove home on auto pilot. Which I am sure happens to all of us at some point but I drove the scenic route home. A portion of which is essentially a speed limit free roller coaster of a road you drive for 14 miles. Not the road to go on autopilot on. Instead of watching the hairpins, I was contemplating life. I’m feel like I am sliding into a funk and I can’t seem to swerve away. I have a couple posts I am sitting on but not sure about sharing yet.

The Chimney Fire is 100% contained!! Woo hoo! Thank you firefighters!!! Though I will miss seeing you all around town. 😉

I was so small! Also thoughts for another post

I thought about driving to Ventura this weekend to run a 5K. Just because I really like the medal. But I decided that wasn’t exactly fiscally responsible. Boo. Then Timehop showed me pics from the Ventura half in 2014. Just rub it in Dino.

Instead of racing, it’s that time again- Avocado Margarita Festival!! The format has changed a bit so I am only volunteering for a few hours one day. What will I do with the rest of my time??? Well, run of course. 🙂

Someone found my blog last week by searching “gastroparesis pants”. I get that. I may not have talked about my asshat stomach in awhile but it’s still an asshat. I actually have my quarterly appointment with my gastro next week. I think I’ve run out of diets to try. Grr.

While I am looking forward to fall weather, the sun is setting so much quicker already. I will have to make the transition to the treadmill sooner than I would like if I want my runs to be longer than 4 miles. Or I need to get hella’ fast. Hmmm.

Oh- I won 25 bucks on a scratcher ticket! I’ve never done that before! I was stoked.

I am reading a book where the main character’s name is Fallon. Mind trip! It’s kind of odd.

Remember when I said I randomly gave myself bangs? Apparently I should have done it sooner- customers keep complimenting me. Which makes me wonder- did I look that bad before??!? I am also very blonde right now (summer sun!) and one customer told an employee that I look so much better au naturel and should stop dying my hair dark. Say what? You keep those thoughts to yourself! Haha, she doesn’t know I was looking at hair dye the other day. A purple shade was really speaking to me. 😛 Too bad work wouldn’t approve.

Thanks for letting me ramble!

Share something random?

Ever dye your hair? Would you have said that?

What are you reading?

Week 36 Training Recap

Training for:

City to the Sea 13.1
Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

I said these training recaps were going to be shorter starting this week but I may have misspoke. Last week ran me over like a truck…which then backed up. So most of my posting plans were ignored in favor of sanity. I did get most of my planned running in but the bike was ignored in favor of sleep and/or staring at the TV trying to decompress while binging on Netflix. I’ve now started season 8 of Bones. It’s a 😛

So long story short- I walked into work on Monday and was greeted by a flood. Ok, deep breath in and go! Only a few rooms were flooded but we were literally sinking into the carpet. Ok then. Figured out it was the water heater and a plumber came out and fixed that. We put up some normal fans while waiting for the restoration crew. One fan damn near grenaded as I was running to wall to get it unplugged. The restoration crew finally showed up and I thought that meant things were looking up. Yeah, no. 5 high power industrial drying fans had to run 24/7. All week long. By Thursday, I thought I was going to lose my mind. On Friday I partially did. I started giggling at something an employee said- that wasn’t funny- and couldn’t stop. Then I started crying. I had no idea that sound could affect me that much.

Monday- 2.7 miles Can’t blame the shortness on the flood this time. I decided to break in my new shoes and knew by 1.5 miles in that I was going to have problems. 2.7 was when I decided I wasn’t going to make it back to my car without becoming bloody. I turned off my watch and took off my right shoe and sock. I stretched and walked back to my car half barefoot. Grrrr.

Tuesday- Rest Day

Wednesday- Rest Day I wanted to run but was feeling funky and decided it wasn’t worth it just to make August’s mileage look a little better.

Thursday- 4 miles Ouch, ouch. My calves were so damn tight and my brain was on the fritz. It was day 4 of the fan drama and I really wanted to just run out all the stress but it didn’t work. My legs were sore and my calves would not loosen up. I lost count of how many times I stopped to stretch it out.

Friday- Day from hell. Work was so busy, the fans almost broke me and I didn’t get home until 8. I started crying on the way home. Why?!?!

Saturday- Rest I had made plans to run with Heather and Ashley but on Friday I knew that wasn’t going to happen. As much as I wanted to run with them, I was fried. So instead I did something I rarely do- nothing. I slept in (that part’s not rare😛) but did nothing. I sat out on the deck for most of the afternoon and just chilled. I caught on some reading- Runner’s World and I finished a book. I also listened to some music. Turns out my calming music is Lifehouse- ha! That said, it was kind of nice. And it was so needed after the week of noise.

Sunday- 11 miles. Oof. My plan for my long run this weekend was 12. The fact that I made it to 11 is victory enough. I dragged my feet getting out of bed but did make it out the door before 9. I was achy and tired and it never went away. I was done by mile 3 but I told myself it would get better. Plus I was meeting my mom at the halfway point so she could walk and I had to keep running to get to the meet up point. I was so slow, I was taking walking breaks right and left; my pace was all over the place. I just kept slowing down, I decided I was done at 11. 11 brought me back to the car right as my mother was finishing her walk. I took it as a sign that 11 was good enough. 😛 I was toast.

17.7 miles for the week. Not great but not horrible. At least I held steady from the previous week. That’s a plus right?

Looking to this week, I would like to figure what is causing all the achiness. However, I am not setting any definite plans as I know the fans are still running now. Right now, my only hope is that they will go away on Tuesday. Fingers crossed!! The earlier the better.

How was your week? Have a good Labor Day?

Ever had a pipe break?

Thanks for sticking through another long post!