Tag: vacation

35-Countdown

I ran!! Kind of.

Anyways, lets back up. Most of the week was spent low key wheezing, trying to catch up on work. The winds had shifted again which brought back some back but I was focused on keeping my head down and checking things off my list.

My first PTO in over 9 months was coming up and I was focused. I have been so tired and while I love my job, I knew I needed a break. Granted my plans have changed drastically due to COVID- bye marathon- but I was looking forward to a break.

So Monday through Friday was just work and hoping I didn’t forget anything. I feel like I did but I set my out of office on Friday and I won’t be back until after Labor Day. Now if I could just tell myself to not check my work cell for email.

Not gonna lie, I slept in on Saturday and it was awesome. Then I just kind of felt lazy all day. I was going to run and then I wasn’t. But then I jumped up from a nap and changed in like 2 minutes and was out the door. It was a hard, hot slog but really what did I expect after 20 days off? It actually wasn’t as horrible as it could have been and I managed 3 miles.

Sunday, I headed for somewhere different. My mother had never been to the Bob Jones trail, so we headed that way and just it a brisk walk. The ‘trail’ is a paved path of sorts that runs from one city to another south of it. Well, mostly. There were moments where there was no one on the trail and moments that there were too many people. And no one seemed to understand any form of trail ettiquette. Granted these bikers were more of the beach cruiser type but still. We also got a little sidetracked going off the trail but we made it back to where I had parked. 5ish miles for the day.

Then we went for a truly decadent slice of cake at the Madonna Inn. We also witnessed what could have been a horrible pileup on the freeway yet turned into a miraculous recovery. For reference, we can’t eat in restaurants in CA but dining is allowed in parking lots or street side. The Inn has a great lot but if you’ve been there, the 101 is right next to it. Which I used to my advantage that time I jumped out of the car on the freeway and hopped the fence to get to the race start years ago. But this also gave diners a front seat to a car spinning out into a 360, fishtailing into the center divider but somehow pulling out before wrecking and getting back in a lane. How they saved it, I have no idea. How no other driver hit them, I have no idea. Scary.

How was your week?

Week 51- Disney

Another reason I was so paranoid about running last weekend is because I had big plans for the week ahead.

I was going to Disneyland!

It’s kind of becoming and annual tradition for my mother and I. Unfortunately, part of that tradition includes me being sick… every single time. So when I felt a sore throat coming on, I hibernated in hopes of kicking it to the curb. Not so much but I was able to get through 2 days of Disneyland and California adventure and 2 mall stops. Whew.

Disneyland was awesome, we hit all of our favorite rides. Made it into Star Wars land which looked amazing but the ride was kind of a snooze. I had higher hopes.

California Adventure was awesome- it was the first time I had been there. Riding the River Ride at 9:30 in the morning might not have been a good idea but oh well. I managed to ride the Incredicoaster without running away screaming. However, I literally screamed my way through the Guardians of the Galaxy ride. Like the entire time. A nice woman next to me warned me that I needed to stow my purse much better before we started and then laughed while I screamed. Holy crap, that thing needs a better warning.

If characters are your thing, this trip was so much better than the last too. Last year, we saw no characters but this year- Chip and Dale, Stormtroopers, Rey, Woody, Jessie, Groot, Captain America, Lightnig McQueen and Mater. I feel like I am forgetting someone too. Oh- Chewie!

Then I made it home in time on Thursday for a later showing of Star Wars with my brother- another kind of tradition.

Friday rolled around and I told myself to go run but this introvert was tired. I kind of just hibernated again and recharged.

I did make it out for some miles on Saturday and crossed 5K off my list. I overdressed since I still wasn’t feeling great and alterated between being to warm and freezing. Probably not a good sign,

Sunday brought the pouring rain and an intensified cough. So instead of risking making things worse and running in the rain, I kept my workout indoors. I did 10 miles on the stationary bike and a few minutes with the kettlebell. It is sad how 6 minutes with a kettlebell exhausted me.

Is it sadder that I want to count all the days of walking around Disneyland as training for Napa? Oh, and I still need to tell you about Napa. Oops.

How was your week?

Week 29- Return

Ok, reentry to work was a little rough.

Monday and Tuesday were the last of my vacation days. They were hot ones. Not gonna lie, I was pretty lazy these days. I did finish a book so maybe not too lazy. Then it was back to work.

My body felt out of whack from sitting in my chair at work. I had a headache by the end of the day on Wednesday, Thursday and FRiday. Oh no, am I getting old?? I really do like my job, I just felt a little achy last week. 🙂

I got a little too flexible with the drag and drop feature of my training app. I had big visions of how the week was going to go. I really should just stick to the plan. I was also supposed to run a race on Saturday but that didn’t happen.

So instead of highlighting what I should have done, how about just what I did?

Monday- 2 miles
I was fried from Sunday’s trail run and anytime in the sun made me feel abnormally hot. I found a baggy race shirt, left the pack behind and made it out for a shuffled 2 mile run. T- shirts are hot! Who wears those?? Did I mention it was 100*?

Tuesday- 2 miles up/down, 6x 400 at 5K pace- 4ish miles
Still in the middle of a heat advisory, I took my sad self to the gym. I had originally hoped to run my long run on this day as it was the last day of my vacation but I knew that wasn’t happening on the treadmill. So I did Thursday’s intervals instead. The treadmill and my watch disagreed so even though the treadmill said I nailed my repeat paces, my watch had me a minute slower. Grrrr.

Wednesday- 2 miles
The temps dropped drastically so this was a breezy, cool 2 miles.

Thursday- Oops
Was planning on either my mile repeats or my long run but The Lion King called instead. And copious amounts of popcorn.

Friday- Nada
I have to start running in the morning. Even though I take my bag of gear inside every Friday, I don’t use it. By the time we close, I am just done. Especially this Friday.

Saturday- 10 miles
It was supposed to be cooler and I woke with a migraine so I pushed my run to the afternoon. It was 80 but there was a good breeze so it should have been fine. However I tried to throw my mile repeats into the workout instead of running a steady pace. Yeah, I flamed out. I finished the run but was off pace for both the 2 repeats I did and then the later “easy” miles. It was actually my second slowest 10 miles ever. ha! Thanks for that tidbit Smashrun.

Sunday- 4ish miles
I knew I was behind miles for the week and part of me planned on running twice this day. The other part won. I did run up and down a steep trail though. Ok, power hiked up and ran down but still. Again, I ran in the afternoon but it wasn’t too bad. The trail had its shady parts. Though I did kind of want to jump in the water at the end.

22.5/25 miles for the week. Still short but I am calling it good.

How was your week?

Vacation ✅

I write this on the last day of my first real vacation of the year. For someone who used to hate vacations, they sure have grown on me in recent years.

This was a staycation but I was so looking forward to it. I was feeling a little ragged. But like any good staycation, I had a to do list.

So how did I do?

I did not get my tires rotated.

I did read 2 books and almost finished my audio book.

I did not wash my car.

I did hit the trails. Twice- for 12 ish miles of awesomeness. From ocean view to mountain view.

I did not run ALL the miles. Some health issues got in the way. That sounds much heavier than it was, oops.

I did run 5 out of the 7 days though. I call that a win.

I maybe didn’t make the healthiest choices in food.

I ate all the good things. I even tried ice cream called Jack & Coke. And it tasted just like it sounds. Yum.

I did not make it to the movies to see Spiderman.

I did watch an array of disaster movies though. Why those seemed like a good idea when I was feeling poorly, not sure.

I did wind up with the gnarliest sunburn.

I did use sunblock.

I had a birthday. Part of me feels older and part of me doesn’t.

I didn’t manage to stop checking my work phone on the daily. Oops.

So, not too bad.

How do you vacation?

Week 49

  • Upcoming Races
  • Holiday Half 12/9 (Thanks Bibrave!)
Vacation- woo hoo!!! Why am I always sick on vacation?? Seriously, is it some kind of jinx? I didn’t get in as much exercise as I originally would have liked this week. I did get some nice downtime in and finally managed to get the toy shopping for work done. Oh and both parents had birthdays. 😯🎊

Monday– Does cleaning your car count as exercise? I mean it was ridiculously dirty and I did work up a sweat for the first time in weeks.  😛

Tuesday/Wednesday– The rain came to town and I hid.  Did I want to run in it? Yes.  But I was still coughing and didn’t think running in the rain would be a bright idea.

Thursday-3.3 miles I ran!  I headed to the gym to see if my legs still knew what they were doing.   They did!! I couldn’t get anything else to work properly though.  I forgot to start my Garmin, realized I never paired my headphones with my new iPhone and my footpod is out of calibration.    Whatever, it was still a good run.  

Friday– I wanted to run again but with the race this weekend I knew that would be more miles this week than I ran in the month of November.   Yeah, you read that right.  So I just spent the getting some errands done and packing for Pomona.

Saturday- Road Trip! Grrr, traffic. It felt like it took forever to get to Pomona. Once there, we checked out the race start location (not well enough) and then headed to the hotel to check in. An early dinner and then it was time to try to sleep. Ha! I think I woke up every hour on the hour. 😒

Sunday- Holiday Half Marathon– race recap to come.

16.55 miles for the week. Yes, more than I ran in November. Haha.

How was your week?