Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Petition for 36 hours in a day

I'm surprisngly busy this semester.
I'm busy every semester, not like a working 9-5 busy, or even grad school busy, I'm just...busy. I have more HW than I've ever had since I've been at tech, I'm trying to keep up reading in my textbooks as we go through the semester and I swear that hours of my day are sneaking off to hide somewhere. 

To be fair, I can't complain about this while I'm blogging, because this is where those hours could be hiding. Hah, found you!

Since my last post I've ran 3 times for a total of...
ah quick, math
4.5 + 3 + 4 = 11.5.
Why did that seem so hard?
Anyways, the short run was fully outside and reminded me just how much I wish I lived somewhere flat. I don't know why but I have yet to concur the campus pi mile/loop.  It's deceivingly hard with its long hills and sudden changes in incline.
Plus, there's freshman hill, and no one likes that.

Right now I'm hurting.  I ran 3 miles sunday afternoon, I swam last night (yes, I got in a pool and didn't sink), and ran this morning at 6:30.
Let me repeat: I hurt.
I felt like such a baby last night. I swam just under a 2000yd practice and my arms were jello.  It felt good afterward, and I was proud for going, but when at my peak I could do 4500yd practices...
Like I said, baby.

So here's the goal:
Monday night I'll swim at night with the team, Tuesday morning: run/abs, Wednesday morning: lift, Thursday morning: run, Friday morning: lift again.

To do these early morning practices however I'm going to need a little more time in my day.  I'll just have to submit that maintenence request to God.
Hey God, seriously, throw me a few hours a day? Not sure if I can stay on top of reading, HW, and get up that early everyday. Just gotta try it out first I guess.

For now I'm going to read and do homework so that tonight I can fully celebrate my roommates 21st!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Motivation

Welcome! to the almost end of August. God I cannot wait for this month to end. 
This morning I set out for a nice long run after a horrible Monday with an extremely bad headache. I woke up at 6 and was, miraculously, out the door by 6:15. (I may or may not be a diva before I run and usually take 30 minutes) As I stepped outside I felt a very very missed feeling. It was kind of cool out...
THATS RIGHT! 
I felt fall. Right there on my front stoop at 6:15AM. No fog, no humidity, probably below 70 degrees. I felt fall. And now that I've had a taste, I need my fix. 
So it may be another month before I really get that, but it's good to know the mornings should slowly start cooling down. 
The fall feeling got me extra excited to get a much needed good run in. They are few and far between and I have found myself drifting away from my ever-craving-working-out self. The two week break between summer and fall killed my mojo, and made me feel a litttle extra jiggly from all the sweets I was indulging in. 
So, by 7:45 when I rolled back into my apt I had logged around 5.2 miles! 
FANTASTIC!
And it felt good, my knees hurt some, my shins are little blah, but other than that I'm happy. It felt good, I did some ab exercises and called it a day.  

So here we go again, starting my fall semester I'm finding my motivation. I've laid out my schedule, I'm working 20 hours a week, taking class for 14 and running at least four times a week. It's a goal and It's going to happen.

This is the first semester I've had without a single fluff-ish class. Everything is ME this and ME that. It makes me want to be even better than I've ever been. Do better in every class, and sign up for some races!!

Oh and of course, there's football, which always gets me in the mood to do something epic. 

So here's to the new semester. Fall weather, I await your loving embrace. I can't wait for the mornings with a few goosebumps. Bring it on fall. I dare you.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Ok August, you win.

I ran twice while I was at home.
TWICE in a WEEK.
I am a failure. One was 4.15 miles and the other was 3 miles exactly. This month has been kicking my ass.

It's so hot, and so humid all the time and I can't seem to slow myself down enough.
Take this morning as a great example, and one that was recent enough I can still remember it.
Plan: wake up at 7 am, out the door by 7:30 for a light jog around campus with a goal of ehhh 4 miles or so.
Actuallity: woke up at 9am, out the door at 9:30.  Temperature was 89 degrees with a humidity of 97%. NINETY-SEVEN! I feel like that close to 100% it might as well be raining. That or you should just go swimming instead, because that's what this morning felt like.  I was wheezing after .3 of a mile. Hard core wheezing too, the kind where people look at you funny. I could not find any oxygen in the air, it was like breathing hot water. I think I did about 3 miles but it was painful. My legs felt dead halfway through and I'm not sure why. 

I am most definitely in need of a boost to overcome this month.  It's been so long since my last run that just felt awesome. I can't remember it and it's becoming a little scary.  I dislike failure especially when I was doing so well just a few weeks ago.  Maybe there's a 10 week plateau/stall when you start.  Or maybe my body just doesn't feel up to it in this weather, who knows.

I do know however that I will be back out running Friday morning and hopefully getting a few treadmill miles in tomorrow or Thursday. 

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Home Sweet Home: Artery Clogging.

Long time no post.
I'm finally home, in Virginia, after a nice little 9+ hour drive with the BF. We averaged 80mph and were sans-cops the whooollle time. It was great.  Lots of chatting, dancing, generally just being happy to not be in school.

And now, I'm home. After 24 hours here I remember why I absolutely love it here but can only really be here a week.  The food is amazing, boutiful, and there's always a dessert. I just cannot help myself. I'm almost never home! 
It helps that I'm allowed to eat this much since the first thing my father said to me was "have you been eating??" as he hugged me and called me a stick figure. 

I ran before my this past Thursday, probably a little under four miles. It was...rough.
Ross talked to me last Saturday about a "shovel" on our run around Chickamunga (err?) Battlefield. We were both kinda struggling, I was cramping really bad and was at the end of my 17 mile week, and he started being all coach-y on me. Trying to relate running to swimming..
Ross: "you know those rough days, when you're in a distance practice, and you've already been swimming forever and you're not sure if you can make it.You're already in so much pain and you don't know if you can go further."
Me: *huff,puff,die* "yeah"
BF: "Well those are the days you have to pull out your shovel. You have to dig for the motivation."
Me: *glaring* "alright, I'm digging"
BF: "Some days, you dig and dig and you just don't see it, but you have to keep digging."
Me: "Can I have some water?" (he carry's my water for me, what a good BF)

Anyway, I really liked what he was saying to me. It's very true. Some days you wonder, why the hell am I doing this? And then dig a little and you find your motivation. Some days though, you dig forever and you end up digging the whole time.  This past Thursday, I think I left my shovel at home. I'm not sure if it was because I had a final that day, or because I've been trying to rest my legs so I don't get injured (lots of pain lately, not good) but I was not in it.  I didn't want to be out there, not one bit. 
I always want to go run, seriously. It could be a planned run at 6am and I usually want to go run, I love it. But the past few runs, not so much.

It sucks, but sometimes, you just have to take a break. If you don't want to run, it's not worth it. It's lazy, it's unproductive, it's just not worth the time.  When I run I want to be putting in work. 

Always carry a spare shovel. 

Eventually, you have to just get back in the groove.  It's time. So tomorrow, I'm digging the shoes out and I'm going to try and clear out some of the artery passageways that I've clogged in 24 hours at home and run around my hometown with the BF.

Happy Running!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Cake or Death?

Well no run today. I really couldn't do it. Slept till after 9 dreaming of killin' my fluids final on Thursday. I'm still pretty achey all over, feet are sore, legs and knees aren't happy.
So I've been sitting around studying and of course my roomies birthday is tomorrow and her mom brought a 3 tier cake to our apt.  The day I don't run there's cake everywhere and I have the Study-Noms.
Failure.
Still, I'm going to try to convince the BF for some ice cream tonight. I have a feeling he's going to get all "oohh nooo I want to run tomorrow" on me. 
This from the boy who ate half a gallon of blue bell cookies and cream ice cream before his first marathon.
Yeah, he's real strict with himself.

Well, tra la la off to study and eat etc.
 

Monday, August 2, 2010

Chill out.

I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that I do not need to, nor should I, run tomorrow morning with the BF. He finally doesn't have work, neither of us have class. We can sleep in and make a late breakfast like most college students. But he's going to get up and run instead, and is basically demanding that I don't run tomorrow after my fiasco this morning.

We'll see how I feel in the morning...The BF won't win THAT easily.

It's totally the stars.

Weekend over, now to begin my finals week.
Er, Final week, just one.  It's just Fluids, no big. 

So in running news, Saturday morning I found myself in Ringgold Georgia and planned on running around Chickamunga (bless you?) Battlefield with the BF.  Alaram went off at 7...Not really sure what happened after that. I tried to wake him up and then I fell asleep and then I woke back up and tried to wake him up again...then I fell back asleep. 
Viscous cycle. Made me miss clocky.
Ok, only a tiny bit.  Clocky is the electronic devil.
We finally got out there around 10 and lucky for us it was overcast and not too hot.  Did a leisurely 4 miles around the park at a 9:50 pace ( I think).  Definately was a struggle for me however. Had some really bad cramps to deal with and really didn't think I had four miles in me but apparently I did.  My total for last week was at 17.35 by then.  
HOLY CRAP 17.35.  No wonder my feet hurt and my knees are starting to yell at me. Goodness gracious. 

Moving on from Saturday, it is now a NEW WEEK! And a new month.  Happy August! 
First off, I have found, and have purchased, the most amazing food contraption ever. Portable Peanut Butter. 
Heaven
I frequently struggle with trying to bring Peanut Butter and pretzels (or whatever else I feel like) to work or when I'm out all day in class.  The dilemma: If I bring the whole jar, it WILL be gone. I have a weakness for this stuff. My solution was to pack servings of PB in a little tupperware. This is just annoying in general but I do it.  And then I found these babies. These fine looking super awesome portable peanut butter packs.  God's gift to starving runners all across the world. 
Maybe just all across the US. But still.
I am one happy camper. I will be taking one of these to work today with my pretzel sticks.





  Second topic for today, my run this morning. 
Well lets just say it was...er...a run? The BF had a final at 8am this morning so I told him I'd get up at 6, wake him up, go for a run and get back in time for him to leave for his final.  Between snoozing and having to wake up, drink some powerade, eat a lil sommin sommin and stretch etc (and having to wrestle the hibernating grizzly bear out of my bed) I didn't leave the APT till about 6:40ish.  It is exceptionally UGLY here in Atlanta this morning. I stepped out to a gloomy, dark, very very humid, post rained city.  I could no longer see any sky scrapers.  It's not that it's super hot (maybe 75 degrees by now) but I felt like I was breathing water.  
To skip ahead of the story, I had wanted to run four miles this morning, but by the time I had hit 2 I was feeling a little like death warmed up. I decided to cut my 4 goal down to 3 (ugh) because not only did my feet hurt, but my left knee was bugging me, my shins were starting to hurt (oh dear) and overall I felt like crap.
Portable Peanut Butter = happy camper
Horrible run = not happy camper
Maybe the stars were aligned funny and that's why my run sucked. 
Right? 
Right.

I ended up running 3.3 miles with a 9:27 pace.  I'm pretty sure my first mile and half I was running 9 min/miles and honestly that is just way way way too fast to start a 4 mile run for me. Between that and last week being my longest running week ever I think my body is just angry at me. So now I'm recouping and hoping that I won't have to rest tomorrow.  My recoup tools this morning consist of coffee, cereal, IB Profin, and compression socks (that are kinda big for me). 
I <3 IB Profin
No worries everyone, I only took 4. Between that and the BF's compression-tube-thingies and a cup of coffee the size of my head, I'm doing better.  
Super Sexy. Please work.

Now I just have to go to work and sit for 6 hours. And study, or stare at keys all day.  We'll see how that works out.
Hopefully some recoup will allow me to run tomorrow and actually run the 4 miles I need to.

Now off to pack some snacks for work. 
You know what THAT means. 
PORTABLE PEANUT BUTTER