Tag: treadmill

Week 5/ January Recap

Upcoming races- Surf City 13.1

Focus– I forgot to choose one this week. Oops.

How is it February? Seriously, how did that happen? Wasn’t is just Christmas? Or I don’t know summer? Anyways moving on. One plus about El Nino is that things have been warmer than usual but that changed this week. Brrrr.

Monday- Rest Mondays really work as rest days for me. Why do I keep trying to change that? I will say that I felt guilty for not getting in some miles on the bike though.

Tuesday- 4 miles Some very, very slow miles. I had an episode of Z Nation to get me through it. Though I do wonder if anyone can see my phone, between Z Nation and Blacklist, I feel kind of weird watching my phone at the gym.

Wednesday- 6 miles Stationary I woke feeling more sore from 4 treadmill miles than I had from my long run on Saturday. Grrr. Daylight savings, are you here yet? I ended up testing out the new Little Caesar’s on the way home so it almost ended up another rest day. But instead it was just a very late start and fewer miles.

Thursday- 10 miles I had to work this weekend so I was able to take a half day and I actually made it out of work by 1. With a storm predicted for the weekend I had planned on trying to get my long run in early. After last week’s successful though slow 12 milers, I was looking forward to it. I almost quit in the first 2 miles. Everything felt off, I was still sore, I felt uncomfortable in shorts, my throat had an alligator instead of a frog in it. Every time I started to run I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. What the hell?! Was I embarrassed to be seen in shorts or something?

I got to the top of the hill and just stopped. I stretched, had a conversation with myself and scrolled Instagram. Anything to get my mind off of my panic issue. I didn’t feel like anything was actually really wrong and I didn’t want to miss the chance to complete my long run so I reassessed. Pace meant nothing so I turned on the run/ walk interval on my watch and set off again. Slowly. At mile 5 I assessed again, felt ok so I continued on. Between walking and running my pace was holding around 11:30. Since I was moving slower than planned I ended up having to run through the traffic when the high school let out. Cuz I wasn’t feeling fluffy enough?!

When the run was finally done, I joked on Instagram that it was my slowest 10 miler ever. Except it turns out it wasn’t a joke- it really was my slowest 10 miles ever. It took me 2 hours to run 10 miles plus another 20 minutes of stopping for head games and a chafing concern. But you know what? I ran 10 miles. Trying to think on the shiny side here. ☺

Friday- Rest Woo hoo!!!

Saturday- 11 miles Stationary It was cold and the storm was looming when I got home after work. I had planned on getting in a run after I finished my errands but just couldn’t bring myself to go back out. Cross training and the comfy chair won.

Sunday- 4 miles The storm was predicted to clear by the afternoon so I was going to run then. While the rain did clear, it was freakin’ cold! I still feel oddly achy and sore, so I kept it slow and easy for 4 miles.

And that wraps up my last full week before Surf City. Since I am treating it like a very large, friendly long run I normally wouldn’t taper. But the treadmill and I need to break up and this soreness needs to go away so this may be a heavy cross training week. We’ll see. And that brings us to the end of January-

Double what December was and that was with 6 days off due to the flu. I am calling this a good base building month. I will probably continue to build into February. I’m currently trying to mash 2 training plans together. Excel is giving me a headache trying to merge the 2 books. Ugh. I get the feeling I may just have to start over.

How was your January?

Anyone have any Excel tips?

Week 4 Training Recap

Upcoming Races- Surf City 13.1

Focus this week- Long Run

4 weeks in and I already lost count. Oops. But I was just doing the numbers and this week was intense for a Slacker. 😃

Monday- 4 Miles Ugly, ugly run. It was the kind of run of that makes me feel like an imposter. I could not get it together. My head and body were in 2 entirely different worlds. I felt the beginnings of one of those weird asthma/ panic attacks. Maybe it’s a Monday thing? There’s a reason I usually take Mondays off. The last 2 weeks had rough Monday runs but how can I pass on running on a day off?

Tuesday- 11 miles Stationary bike- A recent obsession with Z Nation has been making these bike miles fly by. Who knew zombies would help me cross train?😀

Wednesday- Rest I had packed my gear to hit the gym and run but things went weird partway through the day. I just odd, just very not right for lack of a better description. I’m transitioning back to a lower carb diet and trying a new medication for my stomach issues. I think things just combined in a less than great way on Wednesday.

Thursday -12 miles Stationary bike- I was feeling better but just could not stomach the idea of heading to the gym and running on the treadmill. It was the last thing I felt like doing. I knew I had big plans for my long run this weekend so I figured an extra day off of the feet wouldn’t be horrible.😛

Friday- Rest Cookie Friday also won. #lowcarbfail

Saturday -12.4 mile long run!!!! 3.8 mile puppy jog Who got up and ran 12 miles in the morning?! This Slacker did! 12 miles is like my white whale. I chase it but never hit it. I think I have run maybe 2 or 3 12 milers tops since I started running. Maybe. And they were all miserable. With Surf City 2 weeks away, I really wanted to get a 12 miler under my belt. Both for training purposes and just to say I could do it. I had mapped out a route that was incessant loops or hills the night before. The plan was to meet up with my mom halfway and she would join me for a bit. My route would then double back to where she parked and we would head to lunch. Except when I texted her at mile 3, she said wasn’t meeting me. Well, crap. I had planned on getting more water from her plus now I had to change my route mid-run. Mid-run math always make my brain hurt. I knew I had to make it home so I was either going to end up short of 12 or over but I wasn’t sure which way it was going to fall. I tried to keep my pace as steady as possible aiming for between 10:45-11:15. My overall average pace was around 11:03 but my miles were all over the place. Mile 5 saw a 9:20 and mile 7 an 11:55. Oops. Mile 5 had me running across the bridge and hate the bridge so much that I usually speed up. Mile 7 had a long slow climb and I started having odd feelings in my toes. I also knew there was no way I was going to have enough water. Grr. Mile 9 had some drama with loose dogs too. It was one of the busiest streets in town and chocolate lab and wiener dog were running lose. A lady was trying to catch so I stayed with her for a bit. She then went on to follow them in her car and I ran on. I hope she was able to help them.

Ok, total #firstworldrunnerproblem moment. I was looking forward to seeing 12 miles on my watch, I needed to see it. Except my battery started to die. Seriously?! Finally I decided I didn’t want to risk losing my data so I stopped it at 10.2 miles, saved it and then started it over. It ended up lasting the whole run and I am glad I didn’t chance but I missed seeing that 12. 10.20 and 2.2 just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Plus I still ended up half a mile from my house when I stopped my watch the second time.

Sunday- 5 miles Stationary bike– All right, first 20 mile week in a long time had me feeling sore. I chose the bike over running as I didn’t want to push my legs too hard after a 16 mile Saturday. Plus I wore the wrong shoes on the puppy jog, so I was feeling familiar aches in my knee. 5 steady miles were freakin’ hard. But better than nothing right? Oh and I took a nap. 🙂

I am kind of proud of this week turned out. Running, cross training and I only had pizza once, I’m calling it a winning week! ✅👍🏽👏🏽 Question is, can I do it again?? Luckily I am only aiming for a 10 miler next weekend so I am hoping for 3 days running and 3 cross training. Which means I will have to go to the gym and use the treadmills. Grrr. I am counting down to the time change.

How was your week?

Do anything fun this weekend?

Do you have a white whale?

Week 3 Training Recap

Upcoming Races- Castle to Coast 8.2
Surf City 13.1

After a week of being sick, this was a much better week. So let’s get to it!

Monday– 3.7 miles Ah, yes bloody mile Monday. That was fun.

Tuesday. 10.65 mile Stationary bike. As I am just getting back to riding the bike I meant to keep it short and easy. Oops. It’s back in a position where I can watch tv while I ride, apparently that makes a huge difference. 😝 I zoned out while being irritated with Pretty Little Liars. Why do I keep watching?

Wednesday– Rest-Doctor’s appointment #2 of the week. I ended up home earlier than normal and seriously considered a run but there just wasn’t enough daylight left. I thought about the gym but once home I just couldn’t bring myself to change and head back out.

Thursday– 3 miles I should have run on Wednesday. Thanks to hormones, I had had a horrible migraine all day. The last thing I wanted to do was head to the gym but I did. After everyone’s great tips on my last post, I was prepared with Vaseline, band-aids and an extra sock. The plan was to start with one and keeping trying all the options until I hopefully found one that worked. I also made my shoelaces as loose as they could be and still keep my shoes on. The Vaseline idea reminded me of something my grandmother used to do when she would go for a walk, so that is what I tried first. I kept it super slow and paused the treadmill every mile to check my ankles. Why is treadmill running so damn hard?! Other than a little twinge every now and then, the Vaseline seemed to do the job. I was concerned that I only tested it for 3 very slow miles but I also didn’t want to push my luck so close to race day. But 3 blood free miles were a win in my book.

Friday– Rest– like always. 😃 And doctor’s appointment #3.

Saturday– 8.2 miles- Castle to Coast I did about as well as I expected but more on that in my next post.

Sunday– Food and Talking…errr Rest. Blogger meet up!! I headed down to SLO to meet up with Ashley of RatherBeRunnin’ and Heather of SLOluckyruns. We met for brunch/ late breakfast and it was kind of awesome. 😝😝 I think the restaurant might have been a little miffed though. We talked for over 3 hours! But what do you expect when you get 3 runners/ bloggers at the same place at the same time? There was so much to talk about! Then I headed back home for a bit before heading back down to SLO with the family. It was my parents 35th wedding anniversary today and the brother and I treated them to dinner. 😄

Looking at it, I am calling it a pretty solid week. I still don’t feel 100% from that stupid cold last week (fell asleep almost every time I sat down) but I worked out 4 of the 7 days. I had hoped to ride the bike today but after sleeping in and then all of the socialness, I just ran out of time. Which is perfectly fine, don’t people trump miles? Moving forward I just want to keep working on building my base back up. Which will hopefully include 3 running days and 2 bike days.

How was your week?

Did anyone race? It seemed like a very race heavy weekend. 😏

Favorite breakfast food?

There is Shiny

For a so called, introverted home body, this has been a very social week. Tuesday night, I met up with a good friend who I have not seen in way too long for dinner. It was great catching up. Then, last night, I took my mom to see Riverdance. I had won tickets at work. 😃🎉.

Growing up, I remember watching the performances on tv with my mom and grandparents, we used to love them. Every time we watched I was left wanting to both dance like them and learn to play the violin. They made violin playing look so damn cool. When I won the tickets I was stoked but also worried that they wouldn’t live up to my memories. I had nothing to be worried about, it was freakin’ awesome. Seriously the moves they can with their legs and the sounds? Amazing, if you have the chance to see them, do it. 💃

Once again, I was left wanting to dance like them. And learn to the play the violin again. 😀. But seriously, they have hip-hop inspired dance classes and Zumba- so why has there never been a Riverdance inspired fitness class?!

Social fun aside, I’ve been a serious slacker in the fitness department. I was looking forward to getting in a good run at the gym tonight but it was more of a farce.

My knee still twinges at odd times so I was planning to take it slow. I was going to try watching a show on my phone while on the treadmill. When I say watching, I really mean listening. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to see the phone comfortably without jacking up my stride. I am way behind in Grey’s Anatomy so I figured it was worth a shot. After a nice walking warm up I set the treadmill to an easy 11 minute pace and got running.

I was aiming for a super easy run as I’ve only jogged 3 miles since Big Sur. Also my leg still has moments where something feels off. I was feeling pretty good and looking forward to solid hour run. That was the time goal I set for myself and mileage didn’t matter. Listening to the show worked pretty well for 20 minutes. The the feed just died and I couldn’t get it back. Ok fine. Then 37 minutes in, my stomach cramped in a very bad way and I bailed off the treadmill.

I was ticked because my stomach has been really good the past 2 weeks. I also have barely run the past 2 weeks. I refuse to see a correlation.

Once I took care of that issue, I knew more running was unlikely. I was already at the gym so I figured I would try one their stationary bikes. The first one I sat down on was dead. No amount of pushing the start button or pedaling was bringing it to life. So I moved over one. Someone had to show me how to start it. 😭 Finally I was pedaling though. Only to find that the thing was off balance and made a clanging sound with every pedal rotation. Oh and the computer didn’t really work. It said I was pedaling a consistent 11.8. No matter how fast or slow my cadence was. I made it 15 minutes before I bailed.

So yeah, tonight seems more #gymfail than win. However, I’ve been in an odd funk lately and I am actively trying to break it. So, like the title (and one of my goals for 2015) says- there is some shiny. 37 minutes on the treadmill and 15 on the bike is 50+ more minutes than yesterday. And the day before. I got to wear my new shoes-that’s always a plus. My leg only twinged a bit during those 37 minutes too. That’s a good sign right?

And while Tuesday and Wednesday were lacking workouts, they were spent having fun and making memories. Those are always shiny.😃

Oh, and I am one day away from vacation. That may be the shiniest of all. 😛

What was your “shiny” this week?

Anyone racing this weekend? Maybe an early Turkey Trot?

Week 11 Recap- Wait, what?

This was the kind of week that ran over me with a truck, backed up for more, then sped off into the night. Workout wise, the week actually started off pretty good, it was work life that was kicking me around. The I got sick and spent a lot of time sleeping. How come that is never as exciting as it sounds?

Monday- 4.3 miles

I was debating where to run when traffic made the choice for me. A fire started on the Cuesta grade Sunday and by Monday it had grown exponentially. It was heavily stressed that people find alternate routes home which sent them my way. I couldn’t even get on to the off ramp to change highways so I just took the back roads home. This was repeated for most of the week.

I was feeling nostalgic apparently and headed to my former work location and ran from there. Which is really just my home route backwards but it feels different for some reason. 😀 My calves were super tight for the first few miles of the run. I ended up stopping every so often to try and stretch them out. I hit a hill at the halfway point and alternated walking forwards and backwards up it. I wonder what the home owners thought when they looked out the window. 😋 Things finally felt like they popped into place a mile later. By then I was almost done. Soreness aside, my splits were good for an easy run and I felt good after the run too.

Tuesday- Rest

I didn’t get home until 8ish. I looked at the bike but nah.

Wednesday- 6 miles -intervals

I haven’t done speed work in a few weeks and I was feeling nervous. Since I couldn’t get to the lake path due to traffic, I headed to the gym. I figured the treadmill would help me maintain pace better anyways. Turns out I haven’t been to the gym in 182 days. 😁!!!!! They have a new system that tells you things like that now. Ouch.

The plan called for a warm up followed by 10 min @ HMP, 1 min recovery x3 then cool down. I knew I didn’t have that in me so I went back to a speed workout I skipped 2 weeks ago. Similar except only 8 min HMP x3. But yeah, that’s not what happened. What I did pull off was 6 min @ 9:13 pace, 2 min recovery x4 with warm up and cool down. Time wise, I hit the 24 minutes but my pace should have been 9:08. Still for my first attempt in 2+ weeks, I am calling it a win. It was also my longest run in my Pure Flow’s so far. Other than the general first mile achiness, they felt great. I always feel like it takes longer for me to find my stride on a treadmill. Anyone else have that issue?

Thursday- 7 miles stationary bike

I was feeling pretty good after Wednesday’s speed work but planned for a rest day. I was hoping I could maybe get my long run in on Friday so I wanted to stay off my feet. I started off the day feeling pretty good but things went south early in the morning. I started to feel light headed and nauseous and just exhausted. It only got worse as the day went on. I was supposed to attend a business mixer but just wasn’t feeling up to mingling. I was hoping I could sweat it out on the bike. I also figured if it made me worse, it was easy to quit since I owned the bike. 😃 I didn’t feel worse so that’s a plus right?

Friday- Rest

Or not. I still felt crappy on Friday. A coworker was feeling poorly too so we thought we were fighting a bug of some sort. I was drinking Airborne and Vitamin C but no luck. I didn’t even make it through the day at work. It takes a lot for me to leave but I just couldn’t do it. I went home and crashed, taking a 4 hour nap. Is it still a nap if it’s dark when you wake up?

Saturday- Rest

I had some errands to do in SLO and those hurt. I was so tired and just beat. Running was not happening. The furniture did finally get rearranged. Now, there should be no way I can run into the bike in the dark. I’m sure I’ll find a way though. 😃

Sunday- 5.5 miles Stationary bike

Grrr. I had a company picnic for most of the day so I needed to run in the morning. Yeah, no. The alarm went off, I checked the temp and saw 90% humidity. My lungs were having none of that. When did I become such a baby? I headed south for the company picnic. Hours of sun and sand later, and I was again exhausted. I didn’t even do anything! Watching the executives hula hoop was amusing though. It was around 100 when I got home and there was still Sunday dinner. Plus my gym closes early on the weekend so I figured a little time on the bike was better than nothing at all.

Overall, the week started pretty good and hit some speed bumps at the end. That said, it could have been worse, I still got in 4 workouts. Much better than it would have been without the bike. It seems like lately I have only been able to accomplish a long run or a speed workout during the week. One but not both, I really need to work on that.

Paleo- B-

I actually did really well until I got sick. I admit that something I always crave when sick is french fries. It’s my comfort food, something about the grease and salt make me feel better. Burger King happened on Thursday and In N Out on Friday. I do have to say that they didn’t taste as good as I remember. But that should help fight future cravings right? I got things back under control by Sunday. Tri tip and salad at the BBQ, I passed on the bread. I also really like subbing broccoli in for pasta when Sunday dinner involves pasta. Plus it’s super easy to steam and clean up so no extra work on my mom’s part since she’s in charge of Sunday dinner. 😉

This week has more testing for my current GI issues but it doesn’t seem very invasive so I am hoping to hit all my workouts. Fingers crossed! Plus I am attending an injury prevention seminar so that should be interesting. Now if people could just stop yelling at me, that would be awesome.

How was your week?

Does your company do annual BBQ’s or parties? Year’s ago we did formal ones, I kind of miss them.

Anyone else have some weird summer sickness?