My Birthday and Why I Am Not Working

I think I forgot to mention that I have not been to work for approximately eleven days. Well, apparently I have too much vacation time at work so I keep getting these use it or lose it letters from Human Resources. I have the option of cashing the vacation out but I didn't really want to do that since I might end up signing up for a 1000 races instead of putting the money in my savings like I should. The haven't been to work since August 28th. My son started school on September 3rd so I spent the week getting him ready for junior high. I also had to attend some meetings so I figured I should just take the days off instead of trying to rush to and from work.

Initially I thought I would be spending the time off getting ready for my birthday race but that didn't happen and if you didn't see why you can read all about it HERE. I heard that the course was not the most scenic and the weather was a little warm so that makes me feel a little bit better about missing it. I will be running it a year from now so we will see how I feel about it.

I also went for a run with my friend to pay tribute to her husband who took his life a year ago. He was cremated but we went for a walk up to the spot where he took his life. The view was so beautiful and peaceful. It was a tough day for my friend and her son so I am glad that I was there with her to help her find some peace in this whole situation.

I have also been busy celebrating my birthday. I think I have been celebrating for the past two weeks. My dear friend took me out to dinner and bought me the cutest running outfit ever. She is just too good to me.

My friends also planned a little get together for me and we had a great time. These girls really know how to make me laugh. It is never a dull moment with them. I don't drink but they made sure to have a drink for me. 

My favorite part of the day was the cake. This cake from The Cheesecake Factory was big enough to feed an army. I got my workout in by just carrying it. It was rich but man was it delicious!

I also enjoyed a birthday celebration with my family. They also spoiled me with lots of gifts. They are the ones who keep me going through it all. We were so busy talking that we forgot to take a picture together..oops!

Other than that I have been taking it easy and I did run a little bit this week. I have kept my runs pretty short and the pace has been pretty darn easy too. My hip is a whole a lot better but I have been taking good care of it this week because I really need to get back into it soon. I stepped on the scale since I have not been running and I gained 1.5 pounds so I am glad that the birthday binge eating  is done and over!

I did go for a run on my birthday because I just had to and I didn't get too carried away. I ran the first 7 miles with my other half and then I did some miles alone. Please don't try to guess my age by the numbers on my Garmin.

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes on Facebook and Instagram and for all of the love and support you provided when I had to add the Ventura Marathon to the DNS list! Love you all! 

How is your training going? 

What was the highlight of your week?

Weekly Recap (8/11-8/17)

Three weeks to go and I have been leaning towards running the marathon but then this hip pain decided to make an appearance this week. Thankfully I have no goals for this race and I will just run to celebrate my birthday or else I would be pretty bummed right now. In any case, it was a disappointing week for me with very low mileage due to the left hip pain. It is VERY HARD to skip a long run but I know I am doing the right thing. In the end I know that I will thank myself for being a smart runner and playing it smart. Live and Learn!

Monday: Rest Day with some push ups, squats and exercises with the medicine ball.

Tuesday: 7 Mile Tempo @8:22/This run was really rough. The winds were super strong the first two miles and I started in 89 degree heat. You can kind of see where I am going with this one. The rest of the run was a fight to finish. I was hoping for Miles 3-6 to be under 8:00 but that was not happening on this particular day!

Wednesday: Rest Day- I woke up with some pain in my left hip so I did some stretches for my hips and took a break from running.

Thursday: My hip felt okay so I did 5 Easy Miles @10:11 pace. I met up with Megan at the crack of dawn (explains why the picture is so dark) to attend the #blogfest #funrun. We parked a mile from the Anaheim Convention Center and then ran the 3 mile fun run and then the final mile back to our cars.  I was too cheap to pay the $20 parking fee at the convention center so I forced Megan to run two extra miles with me.

Friday and Saturday: Rest Days since my hip pain returned on Friday morning! It felt better on Saturday but I didn't want to chance it and run. I did some stretches for my hip and lots of icing throughout the day.

Sunday: 6 Easy Miles @10:09/My hip felt much better and I had zero pain while running. I never felt any pain at all when I was running but the pain seems to appear a few hours after running or the next morning.

Total Miles: 18 (BOO!)

It was a pretty crappy week in terms of mileage since I skipped my long run which was supposed to be 20 miles. I hope I can run it next week or else I might have to finalize my plans for Ventura and just run the half which I am totally fine with since I have Long Beach coming up really soon. 

How was your week? Any races coming up?

Marathon Training (8/4-8/10)

Can you believe that the Ventura Marathon is just four weeks away? I am really starting to get nervous about it! The hot weather was really scaring me at first but it is comforting to know that the weather in Ventura, CA has been much better than what I have been experiencing!

Weather in Ventura, CA

Weather  in My City versus

I took advantage of the small drop in the temperatures this past week because I have heard that the heat will be back this week. I haven't ran on the treadmill in over a week because I was really getting burned out and felt like I need to log more road miles. 

Here is what I did this week:

Monday: Rest Day from running but did some push-ups, squats and other strength training with my medicine ball.

Tuesday: 8.5 Mile Tempo Run/8:00 avg./I finally had a decent run and it felt good to hit some sub 8:00 miles out on the road. By the end of the day, my legs were pretty sore. I am sure it was from the squats the day before and not from the run.

Wednesday: Rest Day from running but did some core work. My legs were still a little sore so I knew I needed to take a day off from running to recover for my next run.

Thursday: 6.2 Miles @8:16 avg. pace/We have been going to the local bike trail versus the gym lately. It was 80 degrees and a bit windy so it wasn't that bad. The first two miles (8:46, 8:47) were a little tough since they were slightly uphill with a head wind. The last 4.2 miles were much better and I felt pretty good so I pushed it a little bit (8:13, 8:22, 7:59, 7:40.)

Friday: Rest Day from running but did some strength training. I took my grandma to visit my grandpa's grave since it was his birthday. He would have been 78 years old.

Saturday: 15 Miles@9.44 avg. pace. I ran my long run with my friend Maritza since her and I will be running the Long Beach Marathon together. It was nice to have someone to run with because long runs are painful when you run them alone. 

Sunday: 6.3 Mile Recovery Run @9:34 pace/ I ran the first 4 miles with my other half and the last 2 alone. This is his second week of training for his half marathon in November and he is doing pretty good. This run really made me see the benefit of keeping the pace easy on the long runs. My legs felt great and I could have gone further than 6 miles. It is not often that I feel this way the day after my long run but perhaps it was due to the easy pace I kept on this run.

We also celebrated my Grandma's 87th birthday on Sunday. My grandparents birthdays are two days apart but my grandma is nine years older than my grandpa. We took her out to lunch and we had a really good time. She was happy. She always gets sad for my grandpa on special occasions but today she did pretty good.

Total Miles: 36 which puts me at 60 miles for the month of August. This was also the last week of the Summer Run Challenge which really kept me accountable to my weekly miles.

Next week calls for a 20 mile long run which always make me nervous. I might take a trip out to the actual course and run my long run out in Ventura just to get a feel for it. The course is supposed to be a flat, out and back course but I have heard that you catch a head wind on the way back. I am not sure if this will boost or kill my confidence. Sometimes it is better not to know, right?

Does part of your marathon training include running parts of the actual course?

July Miles and My Workouts for 7/28-8/3

July was a good month. My goal was to run 150 miles and I met my goal!

My legs feel great but I am being faithful about foam rolling and I am always open to skipping a run if my body is telling me to take a break. I don't want to get too focused on hitting a certain amount of mileage for the month but more on being able to make my runs count. August is going to be a big month since I am reaching long runs of 18 miles plus so I need to stay focused and plan carefully around the hot weather. I am also having to take my long runs a little slower than planned but heat is my worst enemy and in order to survive it is what I have to do. I am good with that or else I end up wimping out and cutting my long runs short and I can't do that.

Here is a recap of my week:

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: 5.15 Miles @8:42 avg pace/I was supposed to run my tempo run but my son wanted to join me so we made it a family exercise day on the bike trail. My other half started his training for the Las Vegas R&R half marathon this week so we ran two miles together and then I ran three miles alone (8:35, 8:01, 7:47.) My son rode his bike along side us since we ran on the bike trail. It was 88 degrees but with no sun and a nice breeze so I guess I can handle that.

Wednesday: I skipped out on my run and I ended up calling it a date night with my other half. I planned to run after we had dinner but I had a super bad headache and just decided to call it a day. I have to give myself the freedom to skip a run when I feel like I need it or else I get burned out. I also know that when I skip a run, my next run will be a good one.

Thursday: 5 Miles@9:43 avg. pace/I ran in the 91 degree heat and it was pretty rough. I thought I was going to pass out it was so hot!

Friday: Rest Day. I took a vacation day from work and just kind of took it easy knowing that I had an 18 mile run the following day.

Saturday: 18 Miles@8:50 avg./I ran the first half easy and the last half a little faster. These long runs are getting harder and harder with the heat. They are a little frustrating because I feel more tired than I usually do and hitting my goal paces take so much more effort.

Sunday: 5 Mile Recovery Run@9:54 with my other half. It was pretty warm when we left the house at 7:00 am and the humidity level was at 84%. We are definitely not used to this kind of weather! It actually rained over night and I was happy about that since we really needed it.

Total Miles: 33 Miles

It looks like we are going to get a small break from the heat next week. Of course the break comes on a cut back week but I will take it. I am off work on Friday so it looks like I will try to plan my long run on Friday. I must say that 63 degrees never sounded so good!

What do you prefer? Heat or Humidity?
I say neither one..

Weekly Recap: July 7-July 13

The heat has been horrible and one of my daily chores is to look at the 7-day forecast so I can plan my long run around it. My goal for the week was to get 35 miles in and I exceeded my goal! Here is a recap of my training for the week.

Monday: 8 Miles @9:09 avg pace/I took a vacation day from work on Monday and swore that I was going to get up early and run but it did not happen. I slept in an extra hour and by then it was 80 plus degrees. The good news is that I still got my run in but on the treadmill. I knew that I needed to take this one easy because I ran 15 miles the day before.

Tuesday: Rest Day from running but I did so some arm and core work. I also did some foam rolling and used my Stick because my quads were a tad bit sore. The rest day did me some good.

Wednesday: 7 Mile Tempo@7:54/I wanted to quit the entire time on this run. I was tired and it was tough. I kept telling myself to be strong and keeping pushing and I guess it worked because I finished it as planned.

Thursday: Rest Day from running but did some squats and core work.

Friday: 18 Miles@8:41 avg pace/I was up and out that door by 5:45 am. The forecast said it was going to be 62 and overcast and it was about 64 degrees when I stepped out the door. This run was a lot better than last week but I was pretty tired for the rest of the day.

Saturday: Rest Day from running but did my strength training and lots of foam rolling. I did a 4:30 plank too!

Sunday: 7 miles @8:54 avg pace/This run was not so great. My legs were sore and tired and I just wasn't feeling it. I wasn't able to get my pace under 9:00 until the last two miles of the run and I was so happy it was over!

Total Miles: 40/This was a good week for me. I am not a high mileage runner so this is pretty much where I max out.

The Summer Run Challenge is keeping me accountable because once I throw my goal out there for the week I am determined to meet it! I hope the weather is better to me next week because these long runs are getting more and more challenging in the heat. I am not sure how I will survive 20 mile runs in this heat!

What is the most miles you have ever ran in a week? 

I want to say that I have ran up to 42 miles once.

Getting Back on Track and a Much Better Week

After missing my race last week, I was determined to get back on track. I keep telling myself that goals don't get met by just thinking about them. My motivation was really low the previous week and I don't even want to tell you how many times I planned to go for a run and simply did not. It was pretty sad. Roxy wasn't feeling so well last week but I am happy to say that Roxy is kind of back to normal again. She is eating and was even playing with toys the other night. I think she didn't want me to go to my race but it's all good. I am just happy that she is feeling better. I have to say that this was the best week that I have had in a long time. I needed this.

Monday: REST DAY to enjoy Memorial Day with my family.

Tuesday: I  took the day off and started my week off by going for a 9 mile run. I didn't worry about my pace at all. I just ran. I have kind of been in that mood lately. I don't want the pressure of pace every time I run. I feel a lot more at ease when I just enjoy my run. I am saving the pressure for those runs when I have a set distance and time. I am still not in love with speedwork by the way.

Wednesday: I met up with a friend for dinner but I was determined to stop at the gym, which is on the way to her house, to get a few miles in. It felt nice to do what I set my mind to do and I had a good run even if it was only 4 miles. 

Thursday: REST DAY

Friday: 6 mile tempo run on the treadmill. 

Saturday: 4 Miles with my other half. He has not been running lately and is trying to get back into it. We ran this same route together last week in 39:53 (9:53 avg) and on Saturday we ran it in 37:10 (9:17 avg.) 

Sunday: 12.5 mile run on some pretty tired legs. I rarely run consecutive days but this 12.5 miler was day three without a rest day. I am in the middle of drafting my training plan so this week I played around with different things so I can finalize my plan.

Total Miles: 35.61

Zooma Napa Valley Half Marathon is at the end of this month and I am looking forward to it. I know it is going to be a beautiful run. Hopefully the weather cooperates but if not it's okay. I am going to enjoy my race either way.

Anyone else running the Zooma Napa Valley Half Marathon?

What a Week!

Well if you follow me on Instagram then you already know that I did not run my marathon as planned. I was on the fence about running it and then as things unraveled I knew that all signs were pointing to me having to pull out. It was a tough decision but in the end I am glad that I made the decision not to run because my mind would not have been in the race. 

Roxy, my Pom with cancer, has not been doing well. Her appetite has been very poor and I really thought that I was going to have to put her down this week. My daughter refuses to let me put her down because she says that she is not ready. I agree with her but we also agreed that once she stops eating we would have give her the peace she deserves. Well, this morning Roxy starting eating again. She was back at the side of my bed at 5 am barking and asking to eat. I was more than happy to get up and feed her and now she seems to be back to normal. I guess she has her good days and bad days.

Then to top things off, my son was not feeling well and ended up throwing up last night. At that point, the race was off for sure since I am a mom before I am a runner. I did not sleep the whole night checking on my son, keeping an eye on Roxy and dwelling on the fact that I pulled out of my race. Social media can make it that much worse when you see everyone else out there racing. Don't get me wrong. I am very happy for everyone who raced this weekend but just wished that I could have been out there with them. I just kept telling myself that there will be many opportunities to run races but family (which includes my dogs) comes first. I am over it now but it was a tough day. 

Running has not been so fabulous either. I have so many things on my mind lately that sometimes I just don't have the motivation to run. I have been going on shorter runs and not really pushing myself and that is kind of unheard for me. I haven't been sleeping well either so my energy is lacking when I get home from work. It's kind of sad but I keep telling myself that I need to snap out of this and realize that life isn't always perfect. I just need to accept it and deal with it!

Sorry to sound so negative but I am just keeping it real and being honest. I am hoping for a better week which includes motivation to get back to training. I have a half marathon coming up in a month and I need to be ready for it. My friend who lost her husband is supposed to be running with me but she is still going through some tough times and might back out on me. I totally understand her and may have to rethink those plans as well. 

How do you bounce back when you are feeling unmotivated?

When Things Don't Go As Planned

I have never followed any specific training plan but tend to take bits and pieces from several that I come across and then make up my own plan. I don't like to stick to a specific training plan because I get really discouraged when I have to miss a run or cannot do as much as it demands. I try to run 3-4 times a week and that is pretty much all I can fit into my schedule. My family and my job take priority and then comes running. 

I have kind of changed things around because of my work schedule and the fact that I pretty much end up on the treadmill twice a week since it too dark to run outside alone by the time I get home and can actually head out the door for a run. I really hate running on the treadmill and feel like I don't really get a good quality run in because I get bored and just run according to how I feel that day. To lessen the boredom and make my runs really count, I have decided to save the treadmill days for those runs where I want to hit a certain pace.

This week started out great and then kind of took a turn for the worst. I started the week out with two good runs and then my long run went south. It was super windy and I have a cough that got progressively worse during my long run. It felt kind of pointless because I had to stop so many times towards the end because of the coughing. I hardly, if ever, get sick so this kind of came at a bad time.

I am still sticking with the speedwork thing even though I have a love/hate relationship with it. It is hard but I love the way that I feel once it is over. I also find myself pushing a little harder on these days since I have a planned workout versus just running 7 miles for the day. My runs are a bit shorter but are definitely more challenging and meaningful these days. I sweat like crazy and that kind of makes me feel like I am working hard!

I also like to run my tempos on the treadmill because when I run them outdoors I hit too many signals and end up stopping way too many times. I want to be able to hit these paces and distances without those breaks in between. My hope is to be able to run these tempos without feeling so beat up in the end and then I can start increasing the pace a little bit at a time.

My longs runs will always be done on the road because there is just no way that I can last 3-4 hours on a treadmill. I prefer to run outdoors anyway and this is the one run a week that I look forward to each week. Long runs are tiring and they take a lot out of me but having something to look forward to makes it a little bit easier. I planned on 18 miles last week and only did 16. The plan for this week was 20 so I was determined to stick with the plan and ended up running only 8 miles. Yes 8...between the wind and the coughing it was not happening for me. I guess it happens and this was a first for me. I didn't let it get to me. I called it a day and enjoyed my Mother's Day.

TOTAL MILES:21

I will make a decision this week as to whether or not I will run M2B. I just need to convince myself that I can do it and even though it will not result in a PR it is fine. The only person who really cares is me. I always want to see improvement but at the same time I have to be realistic and remind myself that you only get out what you put in. I have not put in what it takes to realize a PR this time around so why should I even expect it?

 How was your Mother's Day? 

What special things did your family do for you?

Weekly Recap and The Month of April

My focus these past couple of weeks is making all of my runs count. I don't like to put too much pressure on myself when it comes to running because then it isn't fun to me anymore and it starts to feel like work. I mean it is work but I enjoy it most when I don't feel super pressured about it.

I am not sure how long my speedwork sessions are going to last because I don't really enjoy it. It's hard but I do love the feeling that I get once it is done. I feel more accomplished after a speedwork session than I do after a long run. This week I attempted to do some 800m repeats at the same pace that I did my 12 X 400m workout last week. It was tough and I thought about quitting so many times. I kept telling myself "Don't Quit" and "Stay Strong." I hope I learn to love it soon because I know it will help me become a stronger and faster runner. I finished my workout in 48:02 ( 6 Miles @ 8:00.)

I do enjoy tempo runs but they are also tough. They really challenge me and I always feel great after a nice tempo. My goal is to continue to increase the pace on these tempo runs! I finished this tempo run  in  48:48 (6 Miles@8:08.) I am also hoping that this speedwork will help me improve my 5K and 10K times.

My long run was supposed to be 18 miles this week but I had to cut it short due to the heat. I felt like a loser cutting it short but it was 82 degrees and I was pretty tired. I am happy to have made it the 16 miles that I did. I ran on a shaded trail with a decent incline for a good part of my run and picked it up the last 4 miles heading home (8:23, 8:10, 8.14, 7:46.) I was glad to be done with this one!

TOTAL MILES:28

In other news, April was a good month. It didn't run a lot of miles but at least I am running again and my weekly mileage is getting back to my average. I am still on the fence about running my upcoming marathon and have been trying to come up with a backup plan but solid nothing yet.

 

Did you have a good month?

Weekly Recap (11/4/13-11/10/17)

This week was a fun week since I ran Ragnar Las Vegas! Next week kicks off my first week of training for the LA Marathon and I am really excited about it!

                                             Here is a quick recap of my week:

Monday: REST

Tuesday: 7.2 Miles@ 8:20 on the treadmill (7 Miles @ BQ pace with a fast finish.) I went to the gym thinking that I was going to take it easy because I was feeling lazy but once I got going that mind set changed.

Wednesday: REST
 
Thursday: 5.14 Miles @9:39 with my other half. 

Friday: Leg 3 of Ragnar Las Vegas (5.5 Miles @7:17)

Saturday: Leg 15 of Ragnar Las Vegas (2.12 Miles @8:34) and Leg 27 of Ragnar Las Vegas (3.84 Miles @8:41). I will do a separate post of Ragnar Las Vegas because it deserves a post of it's own!!

Sunday: REST and RECOVERY from Ragnar Las Vegas!

TOTAL MILES:23.8 Miles

Next week my other half will be running his first half marathon. He told me that he is starting to get nervous. He refuses to set a goal time but based on his training, I think he can run a 9:50-10:00 pace without a problem. I don't want to push him to commit to a time since I think he will end up hating running if time is the focus. I will just let him enjoy his first half marathon.

What did you do this weekend? 

Do you have Veteran's Day off?

I do and I am looking forward to a day of rest before I head back to work on Tuesday!

My Weekly Update-8/5/13-8/11/13

The Disney Dumbo Double Dare is right around the corner. I don't even have a plan or a goal. I really need to start thinking about it. I can tell you that I will take one of the two races easy since I don't want to get injured pushing myself too hard. I always get nervous about that.

This week was decent. I feel like I am back on track and my long run was great. I wish they all went this well! Long runs never get easy but I feel that my endurance is improving and I don't finish feeling completely exhausted in the end. For me it is all mental. If I talk myself through it then it seems to go much better. 

My other half is still committed to his half marathon and is doing really well. I let him lead when we run together so that he does not feel pressured to run at any pace other than his own. I follow his pace and it helps me to start out easy and actually warm up. He improves on every single run! I am so proud of him. 

Monday: Cross Training Day: 45 minutes on the bike trainer (11 Miles). I am not too concerned about the miles when I ride my bike but I focus more on cadence.

Tuesday: REST DAY. I had dinner at my friend's house and it was good. Yes, I did finish all of my food. It was YUM! Those are chicken enchiladas buried underneath all of the that salsa verde, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes and avocados.

Wednesday: 7 Miles@8:54 pace on the treadmill. My first run of the week always seems to be the hardest. I laid down on my bed for a little nap and it was so hard to get up and head to the gym but I knew I had to.

Thursday: REST DAY

Friday: 20 Miles@8:47 pace. I ran the first 3.25 with my other half @9:42 pace and then we parted ways. I felt bad leaving him but my long run needed to be a fast finish long run today. After we parted ways, my first mile was @ 9:22 pace and my final mile was @ 7:42 pace. He ended up running 6.4 Miles@ 9:29 pace. 

I was bored with my normal route so I took a totally different route and I really liked it. It was kind of challenging for me but the time flew by and the weather was great. I felt really good and just ran without being a slave to my Garmin. I seem to run much better that way. I also like to change my routes every once in a while for safety reasons.

Saturday:  Cross Training Day: 45 minutes on the bike trainer (11.5 Miles)

Sunday: 8 Miles: 5 Miles with the family@9:39 (my son rode his bike) and the last 3 miles alone @8:23, 7:41 and 6:58.) I seem to have an amazing amount of energy when I start at a slower pace and then pick it up.

TOTAL MILES: 35 Running and 22.5 Cycling and lots of icing, foam rolling and using my Stick!

How was your week?

How often do you change your running routes? 

If you don't, please do for safety reasons.