Category: Running

Wow, five weeks of wrapups, at least I’m more consistent in my blogging than I am in my training! ;P

Last week started off great. Monday was my usual rest day, and I really wanted and enjoyed it after last Sunday’s bleh run.

But on Tuesday, the weather was fabulous and I started the day off 3.5 miles with my husband. I forgot my HRM (seems to happen a lot when I plan to head to work after – I think because there are so many other things I have to remember/get ready), so we just ran at an easy pace. Whether it’s 80/20 working or just the cooler weather, the run was a little faster paced than usual but felt effortless.

At Fusion class, we were finishing up a good workout with some box jump/pull ups/tire flip combos, and on one of the box jumps, I kinda, well, missed the box. I scraped my shins up pretty decently, and while I tried to finish out the workout (we only had about 8 min left), my shins were swelling up so I walked back to the office to ice them. It definitely smarted at the time, but I feel lucky that it didn’t hurt that much.

The whole incident was just one of those weird things where I was distracted by looking around and thought “what if I didn’t make a jump, that would suck” and then, in my weird brain state, jumped and didn’t make it. Totally mental and a good reminder to stay present.

My lovely coworker ended up driving me home and I spent rest of the evening on the couch doing the whole RICE thing, and definitely not mixing ibuprofen with wine. 😉

I decided to rest on Wednesday, because my shins were still tender, and not because I was hungover.

I felt like I could have run on Thursday, but my husband gave me a little side eye and I had Fusion class in the afternoon, where there was different kinds of box-jumping on the board, and I’m happy to say that while I jumped again. I shall not be intimidated by inanimate objects nor my own dumb mind!

On Friday, I felt good and was actually excited to run again. Pace was good for the zones I ran, and I was pretty happy.

Usually my long run day is on Sunday, but my husband had been having some calf pain, so he had already declared himself out on Sunday. So we woke up and went for coffee and the weather was, once again, AMAZING – actually cooler than it has been in probably 8 months at least – so I decided to go for a long run by myself around our usual short run place, a neighborhood .5 mile park trail. After 16 trips around, I declared myself a winner and headed home, where my non-running husband had homemade vegetable beef stew waiting for me. I really am a winner!

So, that’s my wrap for the week. As usual, I’m linking up with the Weekly Wrap, sponsored by Holly from HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin.

I knew going in it was going to be a low-mileage week because we had our offsite quarterly meeting for work.

On Monday, I forgot my HR so I just ran 3.5 easy miles with my husband. The weather was cool and it was fabulous. We also had work class of Fusion/Crossfit since we knew we would be out on Thursday.

On Tuesday, I remembered my HRM and did 1mi Z2, 1mi Z3, 1mi Z2. And our usual Fusion/Crossfit class. I was tired at the end of the day and so I cancelled my reserved spot for Wednesday’s 6am weightlifting. Oh, and our little espresso-machine lid died 🙁

On Wednesday we slept in, and then walked down to get coffee. I sort of meant to go for a run, but it just didn’t fall into place. I was pretty stressed about our work overnight (for no good reason, I’m just like that).

Thursday – meeeeeetings most of the day. But we did play kickball, so you know, a few sprints around the bases. 😀 And yes, I did edit the following image to just show my arm muscles – haha!

Friday – hungover, more meetings, no real activity. We got back to Austin around 5:30 and I had takeout with my husband.

On Saturday, we had some errands to run, but as soon as we left the house I started feeling blah. I told my husband I was tired and feeling puny while standing in HomeGoods, which is a pretty strong indication of how tired and puny I was feeling. So we went home and I napped while he ran.

Sunday I was still feeling a little run down. Only 6.5 miles were on the schedule, but I ended up doing run/walk intervals for 5 miles and called it a day.

The arm picture above notwithstanding, some of the pictures taken at our event made me feel super :\ about the way I look, so this week I’m going to try to stick to the schedule, get back to tracking my food, eat more protein, drink more water, all the usual blah blah blah. I do typically end up feeling motivated to start dieting in November for some reason, so I guess it’s just that season for me.

I’m linking up with the Weekly Wrap, sponsored by Holly from HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin.

It was first week of trying to follow the 80/20 Level 1 Half Marathon Plan. Being that I am basically incapable of following any plan, I did about as well as expected. But I did more running than I’ve done in a while and am feeling really good about it, so that counts as a win.

Monday – Rest Day! No run, no class!

Tuesday – Fast Finish Run. I really enjoyed this one. 5 min in Z1, 25 in Z2, and then finish with 10 in Z3.

Wednesday – made it to 6AM Strength class, then did 25 min easy – which wasn’t ~exactly what was on the schedule, but I left my HRM monitor at home, so I just winged it. I felt pretty tired after my run, but I ate some oatmeal with peanut butter and raisins which seemed to help a bit. By lunch I felt pretty much normal and that continued throughout the day – woo! Maybe my husband is right and I just need to eat more. That has just never happened to me before – heh!

Thursday – no run day, so I got to sleep in. Crossfit was pretty cardio-focused, but there were plenty of pull-ups and pushups too for some fun shoulder burn.

Friday – easy recovery run. I need to work on staying in Z1. I feel like I can barely jog without going above zone. I’ll keep working at it.

Saturday – no official workout. I got in a ton of steps running errands and going for a long walk in the evening.

Sunday – long run day! I programmed the scheduled run of 5 min in Z1, 7.5 miles in Z2 and .5 miles in Z1 into my phone and I had the new albums Going Grey by The Front Bottoms and You Can’t Stay Here by Iron Chic queued up. It was humid and overcast, but the sun eventually cleared away some of the clouds and gave way to some GORGEOUS views. The first few miles were a little rough – I had some burning/discomfort in my feet and I think it is because it is time for new shoes. But eventually it settled down and I settled in and felt good. Again, I wasn’t able to keep up any sort of even slow jog and stay in Z1 – so I did some walking and some jogging and called it good enough. Then, I was feeling so good I did another 2 miles in Z2. What can I say, I’m totally a rule-follower, but not a plan follower.

After upping my food intake on Wednesday and being more mindful of my protein intake throughout the week, I didn’t experience any more fatigue, which I am totally excited about! I was worried and annoyed, but now I feel like I’m in a good place to move forward. I’m going to pay attention to the 80/20 HM schedule, but I’m also going to look at some other schedules and make my own rules so that I can get to running the number of miles I want while trying to keep up the principles of the 80/20 plan.

I’m linking up with the Weekly Wrap, sponsored by Holly from HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin.

Happy Monday, another week has come and gone already.  It was a busy, exhausting week over here.

On Tuesday, Crossfit kicked my hamstrings!  We did front squats, followed by weighted lunges, followed by a run … oof!

I woke up sore on Wednesday.  The kind of sore where even laying in bed doesn’t feel so good.  It was hot and very humid, but I made it out to the track/trail.  I did 3 miles, with the first 2 miles being primarily 30/90 second sprints and recovers and the last mile nice and slow.

On Thursday we ~finally~ close on our former house. Because of the timing, I missed crossfit and was not even sad.  After driving way across town to sign some paperwork, we came home, took a nap, and went out to a fancy dinner at Uchiko.

Here’s a few of things I poorly captured from our night out – they were delicious!

onigiri • scallion • pickled lotus root • ajitsuke tamago

japanese yellowtail • ponzu • thai chili • orange supreme

jasmine cream • cilantro granita • pineapple honey

On Friday morning, I was destined for a meeting in San Antonio with a coworker.  I planned to get up early and run, but I was still tired and sore, so I didn’t.  Whomp whomp.  But I did talk with my coworker who does crossfit with me (it’s a work sponsored thing) and he said that everyone was sore and grouchy and had actually talked to our coach.  Apparently Tuesdays and Thursdays are leg-focused days, but our coach said he could modify for us, since we are not the typical class (let’s be real, we’re all 30+ [or in some cases, 30++] year olds with desk jobs and we call ourselves the fat-kids class).  So I’m hoping a shakeup reinvigorates me.

Saturday, I napped.  Twice.  But we did a lot of walking around the neighborhood.

On Sunday, I struggled on my long run.  Even keeping my heart rate low, I just didn’t want to keep running.  I mentioned on my instagram how it went, but I ended up running 6.2 total miles and walking 5 additional miles. I ended stronger than I started, so I’m calling it a win.

With all the stress of the last few months (buying/selling/moving/changes at work/etc) that I’m just a little run down.  But I woke up this morning feeling reinvigorated and ready to jump back in.

I’ve been going over the 80/20 training plans and have decided to really commit myself to half marathon training.  I picked a date of 12/25 as a ‘race date’ and though I won’t really race on that day, it should be a good day for me to go for a nice long run and see if I can’t set a personal PR or you know, just have fun.  (I love running on holidays)

I’ll be jumping in on week 4 of the plan, but I’m doing the Level 1 plan and have a pretty solid base (this week notwithstanding), so for tomorrow I’ve got my Fast Finish 4 run programmed into my phone, we’re expecting an overnight cool front and I’m ready to enjoy this fall season!

I’m linking up with the Weekly Wrap, sponsored by Holly from HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin.

I have half-heartedly tried the 80/20 plan a few times in the past year, but never stuck with it past a few runs.  But I’m trying again, and am well into the second week.  One of Dashing in Style‘s recent posts about adjusting her running as she get older really hit home, and it was one of those things that changed my perspective on running and aging and that it all really is okay.

I have always said that I want to continue running as I get older.  But I’ve also realized that isn’t going to happen if I put so much pressure on myself that I dread getting out the door – which is exactly what was happening.   I struggle to run in the heat and humidity, but I live in Texas, so for better or worse, that is going to be something I deal with the majority of every year.  Making peace with slower runs that don’t leave me so sore and tired is going to be key in keeping going.

In addition to keeping my heart rate lower as I run, I’m starting an actual spreadsheet to track my mileage and the weather on the days I run, just so I can track if the heat and humidity really has much of an impact on my running as I think.  And also to have something to measure against next year in the heat, and hopefully prevent myself from feeling so discouraged.

And with this new blog and domain, I hope to get back to documenting it all: my running and everything else more regularly.