Tag: Training

Slight Stumbling Block

Happy Hump Day!!!! Although by the time this is posted, it may be Thursday. 🙂 Which is better right?

Monday I was set to run after work. My ankle was a bit sore Sunday evening and Monday, so I figured I would head to the gym for the softer but boring treadmill. I changed before leaving work which involved taking off my derby socks and then went to tidy up a few things. That little amount of walking around the building made me rethink things. I was more than sore, I was straight up hurting. I had an argument with myself about what to do. I was smart, urgh, and did not run. I did not run yesterday nor today. 😦 Instead I have spent time like this-

What you can’t see is the laptop open to a blank page that should be a paper and a Netflix marathon on the tv. Does that kind of marathon count? I have spent plenty of time stretching and foam rolling too.

Tomorrow is up in the air. I am optimistically taking my running clothes with me but I am not expecting much right now. The smart little voice in my head says I should just take the 5 week days off. The cranky runner in me is growling at that. Grrrh. I have a half marathon in 25 days and have not done a long run since February 9. I was hoping to get to a 12 mile training run this time around but at this point I will be thrilled with a crawling 10 8 next weekend. I am supposed to racing a 5K on the 8th too, but I am not sure about that now.

Friday will probably end up to be a very long work day, like 12 hours or more, so I have absolutely no guilt about not running that day. Yesterday was a later meeting so it was easier not being able to run since I was busy. This weekend will hopefully have some decent runs (please!) but I also have a date with the Running Warehouse. My Inspire‘s have not seemed friendly lately and they only have 250 miles on them. I think it is time to be refitted for shoes. Especially when I consider that I have only been fitted once and it was before I even ran, I was 40 pounds heavier and had never been on a treadmill before. I am interested to see if things have changed since then. Also hoping that it may help my ankle issues.

Not using that word but yeah... Thanks Pinterest — Not using that word but yeah…
Thanks Pinterest

I am anxious to get back up to speed, with last’s week’s easy miles and this weeks zero, I feel like I am falling behind. I had such hopes for Wine Country and even more for the SLO Marathon. Plus I feel like I just sound like a complete cranky pants right now, sorry! I was so bored tonight, I weighed my cat, which also meant I weighed myself, ugh. She’s 15 pounds by the way, she doesn’t look that big, but maybe she needs a treadmill too.

As I type this, I can hear it pouring outside, yay- rain!!!!! Driving home not so much fun but the rain is awesome. Keep it coming!

Who’s racing this weekend?

How has everyone’s week been going?

Running with a Jiggle

Want to know a good way to find what areas you need to tone? Fall at work, get bruised and then go for a run. A similar thing happened a few years ago after I was attacked by a dog while out ~~running~~ walking. I was left with a giant bruise and puncture marks on my backside. First time I tried to walk/ run, I could no longer deny that my butt jiggled. Seriously it hurt. Damaged my ego a bit too. 🙂

Friday was a little crazy at work and I had a late lunch. I was sitting in the back at the table eating when the phone rang. Getting up to answer is where the trouble started. I had one foot propped on the chair across from me and one wrapped under mine. Somehow I tangled my chair in the chair next to me when getting up, slammed the second chair into the inside of my left leg and face slammed into the door. I say slammed because my co-workers informed me you can only call it a face plant if you hit the ground. Good to know.

I worked Saturday morning so I didn’t head out for a run until that afternoon. Saturday’s work has a shiny new building and I was so excited that I got to stand and work the whole shift. I didn’t sit down once. I had a little bruise on my leg but it didn’t bother me at all while working. I headed out for an easy run later that afternoon and was greeted by pain. So apparently I need to work on toning my legs more. 🙂 So much for running doing that for me! I had planned on my usual 4.2-4.5 route but I ran into my mom and Zoey along the way. I walked with them for a bit. While it helped me slow down and take it easy, it added some distance and then I ran a little more to round it up. Finished the run at 6 miles.

Today was the only day I have for awhile to sleep in, so I totally took advantage of that. It was so nice. I also managed to make myself get back on the bike. Soooo boring. I forced myself to do 4 miles but wasn’t paying attention, so ended up at 4.5. Or so I think. Miles on the bike always seem to go so quickly; boring but quick. I think my bike needs to be serviced but who has time for that?

After, I got the puppy and went for a puppy jog. She did so good today!!! Only barked at 2 cars and laid down twice. She may never be a solid runner but she’s great for fartlek training! Super speedy sprints followed by walking breaks. 🙂 She made it a full 5k today! She played nice with a little girl and was overly excited when a small terrier wanted to play with her. She only had one odd moment when we passed a particular house. Now this house is on my usual running route and while interesting looking with an even odder looking trailer in the front yard, I have never been concerned by it. Today however, Zoey was spooked. She actually growled at the house and barked a few times. She was completely fine as soon as it was out of sight. Great, thanks Zoey, now I am going to be spooked the next time I run by it.

I should actually be working on a paper right now but nah. Following that I should be getting some sleep, I have a crazy week ahead. So crazy, I am a little unsure of how I will get my runs in. I’m trying to look on the bright side and just say that the lower mileage week will help my ankle soreness. My first 1/2 of the year is exactly 4 weeks from today. Yikes!!! When did that happen?

How was everyone’s weekend?

Anyone run by any spooky places?

Awkward recovery miles with a puppy

After Saturday’s painful PR, I took it easy on Sunday. Well kind of. I figured I could go and take Zoey for a walk. That way I could test how my calf felt but not be tempted to run. My parent’s yard is always in a constant state of revision and Sunday called for moving rocks. So I helped move a few bucketful before taking the puppy out. Strength training!

Matching's not important right? — Matching’s not important right?

After a day of playing in the yard while everyone was there (puppy nirvana), she was not having any part of a walk. We made it a little over a mile before turning around. She kept just sitting on the ground and looking at me, like- nope. The final straw was running into a family. A couple was out for a walk with a baby in a stroller and their son of around 4. The little boy stops and hides behind his dad, Zoey stops and hides behind me. The dad apologizes that the son is afraid of dogs, I apologize and say that Zoey is afraid of kids. This made us all laugh. Once the little boy realized Zoey was more freaked out by him, he relaxed. Zoey and I headed back towards the house, only to be rushed by a crazy dog thing about 3 blocks later.

Now, normally I think little dogs are cute, but this, I am not even sure what it was. It was the size of a small Chihuahua, had a ton of brown fur like a poodle and a head like a monkey. It came out from under a fence and charged us. It was so small that Zoey and I just stared at it trying to figure out what it was. As it got closer, I noticed it only had teeth on the right side of it’s mouth. Ummm, no thank you. We jogged away. A guy 2 houses down was laughing at us, so I get the feeling this dog does this a lot. The pup and I chilled a little in the grass at the school before heading home. Total puppy miles- 2.2 Puppy time- 43:18.

Today, I slept in a little before running some errands. Then I headed out for a short easy run. The first mile felt weird. Nothing really hurt but everything felt off. Not sure if it was due to Saturday’s leg issue or the fact that my new shorts are a little shorter than I originally thought. 🙂 I spent the next few miles taking it slow and paying attention to my form. I made sure to take walking breaks if I felt more than a niggle from my leg. I didn’t feel really normal until the end, and I picked up the pace just a bit for the last half mile.

I actually have a crazy week at work ahead, so I am thinking of taking a step back week. Only doing short easier runs this week. I really want this stupid leg thing to be a non-issue, so if I have to rest I would rather it be now than a month from now right before my half. So I may need to spend some time on the stationary bike in the near future. 😦

Official race times were posted yesterday and my official time was 55:40. 4 seconds faster than I had, sweet! Not so sweet was the worst race picture of me that I have seen to date. Not only did I look larger than usual, I am full on grimacing. Oh, yay.

I have really loved this 4 day weekend but where did the time go? I have to go back to work tomorrow? Boo 😦

Who else had today off?

How was everyone’s weekend?

A Long Not So Slow Run

The weather man was actually right and we had a very rainy Saturday. Not complaining because we need it but it did push my long run back until today. Saturday was spent building a cabinet for my mother for her garage. Every time my pops goes out of town, I get a “honey do” list. The cabinet was one of those MDF things you buy in pieces. Some very colorful language ensued, I hurt my ankle, pinched a finger and realized that wood glue peels off your fingers just like Elmer’s did back in grade school. 🙂 But it was built and muscled into place (weighed 200 lbs!), well mostly. One door is out of whack. 😦 That counts as a workout right?

I don’t know why I tell myself I am going to run in the morning, I never follow through. It is too cold and my bed is so cozy. After a little lie in this morning, a late breakfast (or early lunch) and some errands, I headed out for my run. The rain had held all day but I dressed for it just in case. Full pants, tank and and long sleeved layer on top. All topped with an ear warmer. I was also wearing the ankle compression socks. Ankle is a misnomer, they were more like crew, they went halfway up my leg. It reminded me of when I played tennis in high school. For some reason we thought we were cool wearing crew boys socks with our skirts. Ha!

I was a little overdressed in the beginning but I forced myself to keep everything on, I knew I would be cold eventually. Plus there was some more wind today than usual. I had plans to get the puppy and take her for a walk, so I was only going to run 8. The first 4 at a steady pace, last 4 at a much slower pace. I started out ok and the first 4 went as planned. Then it got a little tricky.

I was trying to take some pictures for the blog so occasionally I would stop and pause the Garmin and Nike and take a pic or 2. Start them back up and keep going. At the last shot I didn’t pause the Garmin so time kept running. Oops. Nike had paused fine and restarted fine. Half a mile later, I noticed they were .30 miles different. The Garmin was ahead but the pace on Nike seemed right so I just kept going. The last few miles seemed hard, harder than a 10:30 should have been, which is what I thought I was running. At the end, the Garmin showed 8.32 and Nike 8.02. I must have had my Wheaties this morning, mile 8 was 8:47. Say what?!

Thinking both devices had serious issues, I Google mapped it. It showed 8.46. Well crap. Since I know the time on the Nike was accurate for time actually ran, I took that time and randomly chose 8.2 miles. That is not the pace I was trying to maintain for a long slow run but I am stoked that I held it. I later logged into Nike and was able to see where the signal drop happened. I have never had a problem there before so I’m not sure what happened 😦

I then headed for the puppy and what I thought would be a nice stroll. Except she was ready to go and wanted to run the whole way, I had to hold her back at times. Plus she still randomly likes to just plop flat on the ground and I almost trip over her. Another 2.7 miles in 38 minutes. And I was done. And cold, the temperature had dropped a bit.

I later went to dinner with my mother. This time I was wearing the full length compression socks under my jeans for recovery. So far I like them but I am going to need a few more times wearing them to decide. I must say that I thought they would be tighter. Or at least feel snugger. But then I wear knee socks or derby socks almost every day during winter and spring so maybe I’m just used to it? Who knows.

First week of the reboot plan successfully completed and I feel pretty good. I am hoping to maintain that through next week finishing with a 10K on Saturday. 🙂 I was originally supposed to be running a half marathon but with my ankle being sore, I decided to try and be smart and not push it. My first half of the year is still set for March and I will run SLO in April.

How was everyone’s weekend?

I know I need to just use 1 device but it’s so hard! Anyone else use 2?

Tiny bit of business-

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Intervals and a Big Oops

Hooray, it’s Friday!!!!

Who’s racing this weekend?

Today was a pretty good day. I worked the early shift at work and was even able to get off a little early. I have an awesome boss. I mean I really do, yesterday, while parallel parking I bumped her car. Like our bumpers were kissing. I swear I checked before turning off my car. I never felt a bump, apparently I am just that skillful at backing up. Ha! No damage at all but it was a momentary panic attack. Did I mention it’s review time?! Part of today was spent doing battle with my usual Friday temptation-one day I will resist, I will be strong. It just wasn’t today.

I have however been strong on the no soda during the week. 🙂 I have not had any soda since I randomly quit at 10:00 AM Tuesday morning. No headaches to speak of, but I have been draggggggging. With that being said, I did make it to the gym on Thursday night for an easy interval run.

Normally I manually change the speed anytime I want but I decided to try the interval option instead. First question it asked was what my weight was? Nosy much? Why does my weight affect the speed settings on a treadmill? And why do they call it jogging speed? For the sake of all of our delicate egos they should call it something like “fast” and “lightening fast” not “jogging” and “running”. Ok, mini rant over. Having to push the button just once to change speeds was nice though.

My intervals looked something like this-

Length (miles)	Speed
1.25	5.8
.75	6.3
.25	5.8
.75	6.3
.5	5.8
1.00	6.3
.50	5.8

Total- 5 miles not counting warmup or cool down.

(glad to hear I’m not the only one turns off the watch for those!!)

I admit to taking it slightly easy. Even with having a cup of coffee in the morning, I am seriously missing the caffeine. While driving to the gym that night, I told myself I only had to run 4 not the 5 that I planned. Once I was running though, I figured I could run 5 and thankfully there was nothing freaky on the tv’s. Whoever is changing the channels needs to stop, Wednesday night, the tv had Devour-Return of the Man Eating Snake on. I thought I was going to have nightmares about albino pythons eating crocodiles. Yuck!

All in all it was a good run, it felt like productive miles not just filler miles. There were some runs in January that felt like mostly filler. Today was like most Fridays- a rest day. After leaving work, I fought the Friday crowd at Trader Joe’s- not a good idea- before heading home. The mail delivered presents!!!!!

Oh, wow that's pink — Oh, wow that’s pink

I just ordered them Tuesday night so the shipping was great! Have to say that these are my first pairs of compression socks. Oh the shame 🙂 Anytime my pics showed me in knee socks, they were derby socks. I am eager to test them out on my long run this weekend. The weather is calling for rain on Saturday so the timing of that run is a little up in the air. The rain wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for my proclivity for slipping. But we desperately need rain, so no complaints here. Even if it means I have to dodge rocks on the road while driving to work 🙂

Any one have big plans this weekend?

Any ideas on how I can learn to like coffee faster?