Come listen to my tale of woe. PFTW

The Second Annual Team Gab Virtual Race, benefiting Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation, kicked off Friday! Details HERE.

Decide what distance to run (or bike, or swim, or walk, or whatever), make you DONATION HERE, and comment to let me know and be entered in the giveaway!

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Last week:
Monday: Yoga - yoga for runners, hip opener sequence, and some foam rolling
Tuesday: Scheduled for 6 with 4 at tempo pace. I ran into some kid scheduling problems, and squeezed in 4 with 3 at tempo. It was really hard, at a pace that used to NOT be hard, but since I didn't think I'd be able to hit the right pace AT ALL, I was pleased enough.
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Scheduled for 6 easy. Again with the kid issues, so only fit in 3 easy. Lame. And they sucked.
Friday: 30 minute strength yoga for lower body. This was NO JOKE.
Saturday: 5 mile moderate hike/jog with The H (see below)
Sunday: 14 "easy" (see below again), 30 minutes stretching/rolling

This week:
Monday: Yoga/stretching/something
Tuesday: 6 miles with 10x400
Wednesday: Rest/Cross training
Thursday: 6 easy
Friday: Cross training
Saturday: 3 easy
Sunday: 16 easy

I did fit in 2 cross training sessions last week, and that was nice. But I should be less lazy and just do some strength/upper body/core work. bah.

Running is just not really going well for me lately. Although the kid scheduling issues should be over (#1 was working on a project that is now complete), my work schedule has shifted and I just have a hard time running after work now, since I'm home pretty late. Unfortunately for me, I also have a hard time getting up in the morning, because it's early and cold.

And I know these are just lame excuses, and if it's important to me, I'll make it happen. But combined with the really SUCKY time I have while I'm running, it's hard to stay motivated. Maybe if every run wasn't terrible, I'd want to make time for it?

BAH.

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Hiking used to be one of my favorite things to do. It still is, but with running, training has kind of taken over my weekends - if I'm not running long, I'm recovering, or resting.

BUT, this weekend, I decided, since running sucks anyway, to hike and suffer the consequences later (I'm sure this is completely unrelated to the terrible 14 miles the next day...).

On Saturday, we went to Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, about 10 minutes down the road from us.

We usually would hike the Laurel Canyon/Willow Canyon loop (I blogged this loop HERE), but we were late getting out, and the weather was perfect, so that lot was full. We ended up doing a loop from the Nix Nature Center, out Little Sycamore to Serrano Ridge, down Camarillo, and back on Stagecoach South. It was not too hard - only a few steep sections, but mostly rollers, and the ridge was nice (I'm a sucker for a ridge).

It certainly wasn't my favorite route (that's still El Moro and Crystal Cove), but it was nice enough, and a little challenging, and so close to my house.

The cool thing is, these trails all connect to my favorite trails, so if I were more ambitious (or less of a chicken), I could, in fact, do a long trail run RIGHT FROM MY HOUSE.

I should be less chicken.

WHAT IS THIS????? Looks ominous!

Good to know...

On Sunday, I was having an epic meltdown over the sun being in the sky (WHY), and the treadmills being used by people walking leisurely watching TV for well over the allowed 30 minutes, so I decided to head to San Juaquin Wildlife Sanctuary.

The trails are nice and flat, and there are a lot of shady areas (mostly in the northwest corner of the park). It's not a huge area, but there are a billion smallish loops. I was hoping that some mindless running and looping would just confuse my brain, but... it didn't work. It was a pretty miserable run, despite the pretty surroundings.

Pros to running here: Pretty, the trails are well groomed and easy on the legs, and not a ton of people. There's a variety of things to look at - water, ponds, wetlands, marsh, "woods".

Cons: A lot of it is exposed, and, especially in the wooded areas, it's a little creepy. I turned off my iPod in those areas.

The PR that almost was.... non-Mermaid Half Recap

Remember last week, when I was all hopped up making goals and PR attempts at my goal race on Sunday?

So I had a goal. 2:20. I felt READY - the course was totally flat, I hydrated and fueled like a pro. It was totally going to happen, I just knew it.

Saturday morning, I was supposed to go with Sarah and Pam to cheer on Skinny Runner at her first ultra, but couldn't make it work with some plans #1 made. So instead, I spent the morning chauffeuring the kid, and shopping.

I have resisted the Lulu-aide for so, so long. But everything there is like magic.

I actually walked out and didn't buy anything.

But the time is coming. I can't hold off much longer.

Anyway. Saturday, I did that stuff. And not much else. Drank tons of water. Ate tons of carbs. Went to bed super early, with an alarm set for 3:57.

Woke up. Coffee. Hung out. Dressed obnoxiously.

Drove the 90 minutes south to Mission Bay...

And getting closer, I note how overcast it is. Nice, I thought. I LOVE overcast.And then, around Del Mar, it starts pouring rain. I do NOT like running in cold, pouring rain.

Get to Mission Bay, and try to follow the directions on the Mermaid Half website - which I checked pretty obsessively, thinking I had the start time confused (note, I didn't). Driving. Circling. Huh. There's no start line.

Then I check their facebook page, thinking surely I can't be the only one confused about where to go.

And start seeing posts like,

and....

OH.

Aaaaannnnnnd, yeah. So, the race was Saturday. NOT Sunday.

Oops.

So, that sucked.

I drove back home, through the rain, and by the time I made it back to Irvine, it was getting toasty, and the sun was out. But I was ready, so I ran 13.1 anyway.

I ran a bike path loop twice (exactly 5 miles, each loop), then a loop around my neighborhood once (just over 3.1). I decided to follow my pace strategy anyway, and see what I could pull out, and run a pretend race. Because... why not, I guess. It's not like i had any other plans for the morning....

1-2.5 - shooting for 11min pace. I think I averaged 11:15 - I was blah and not really feeling like running, and had an earphone malfunction, and walked to sort out my cords. Oh, plus this out part of the loop is a slight uphill the whole way - it's the last piece of the PCRF course in May. Rude.

2.5-5 - wheeeeee downhill. Shooting for 11-10:45ish. I think I hit this - but I haven't really looked at my Garmin data yet.

5-7.5 - mother effer up hill again. Unsure why I would do this to myself. Seriously, it's like a build-your-own-race-course, and I choose this? Dumb. Shooting for 10:40-10:30. I think I was pretty close.

7.5-10 - wheeeeee downhill again. Felt FANTASTIC. Aiming for 10:30-10:15. Did well under - mile 9 was 9:50. Felt like I could run this pace for DAYS.

10-11.5 - Shooting for 10:15-10. Mile 10 was sub-10. Mile 11 started same pace. Hit about mile 11.5, and within 20 feet it was as if I could not move another step. the 9:45 pace that felt effortless 400m ago, was immediately turned into 11:40, and HARD. Eff that.

11.5-13 - Shoulda been 10-9:45. Eeked out a 10:20-ish. Want to die. Roasting, it's a thousand degrees and sunny. Pretty sure I will not survive. Want to take advantage of auto-pause, but I feel like that's cheating, so I don't. I walk a bit. I run. I hate life. I'm miserable.

13-13.1 - 8:55. Done.

My shiny new PR*: 2:19:24.

I had a secret, back-of-my-mind goal of 2:15. Considering Mermaid is pretty pancake flat, and was in cooler, less sunny weather, I bet I would have made it.

Oh well.

Maybe next time.

Wherein I discuss my stupid risk-taking and things you shouldn't do

I snuck this into Friday's post, between discussing how many things I love, and how I registered for my first FULL marathon (Seattle RnR!).

Waaaaay back in September, before Long Beach, I had some issues with the Jerk Shin. I took two weeks off, cross-trained, iced, compressed, rested the Jerk Shin. Ran Long Beach. It kind of sucked. But the Jerk Shin was okay. It didn't hurt while I ran, at all - so I kept running. I ran a couple 5K's. I ran another half marathon. I ran some really, REALLY hard work-outs.

I still had a significant amount of pain in my shin.... but always after my runs. I attributed it to just overall achiness from running hard. I mentioned to a few people I suspected a stress fracture. I kind of did. But I kept running. I was excited about the improvements I was making, and I wasn't ready to stop.

Dumb.

I finallllly got around to seeing my doctor last Friday, and after poking, and prodding, and hitting me with that tiny hammer until I screamed, he determined...

.1% it's a bone tumor. 98% chance it's a stress fracture. Tiny chance it's just reallllly bad shin splints.

Womp, womp.

I'm going back to get some pictures of my bones on 12/1, to reassess the damage, and decide where to go from there. No running until then (which means, I got my wish to NOT run Mission Inn, thankyouveryMUCH,Karma). And when I'm allowed back into the party, I have to rebuild my mileage, sloooooowly. No Holiday Half. No Operation Jack, which was going to be my Long Beach redemption race (but I will be volunteering).

Womp. Freaking. Womp.

Mission Inn I was not sad about missing (especially after hearing about the shitfest that the half was, thanks to ChaCha). But I'm SUPER bummed about Holiday Half and Operation Jack. SUPER. BUMMED.

The H is vacillating between excited to have our weekends back, and horrified at the rage-monster I turned into when I couldn't run for just a few days. I suspect he's terrified of what will happen in the next 3 weeks.

I registered for a FULL MARATHON...

...because what else would be reasonable to do while you can't run, right? I am pretty positive I'm going to break down and hire a coach to help me build my mileage back up responsibly.

I tried shopping. The only things I bought were a megaton of cake decorating supplies. Ask me how many times I've actually "decorated" a cake?

None. But apparently I'm going to learn. I've got icing tips for daaaays.

I tried sweating it out. The stationary bike and the elliptical just don't have the same effect. I think they may even make me angrier, if that's possible.

I'm super, duper fortunate that my damn Jerk Shin didn't just snap underneath me, while I was busy ignoring all of the "STOP EFFING RUNNING" signs. I should be grateful that it's really just a few weeks off. And I am, somewhere in my brain. Except that my brain is working overtime reminding me of all the fun I'm missing while not running. Lame.

Oh well.

The moral of this very, very long, very, very pathetic post is, kids, listen to your damn body. If you feel like something is off (like, legit off, not I'm lazy and want to find an excuse to stop being sweaty off), figure it out, take the time to fix it, and run healthy.

The end.