IM GOING TO SCHOOL

This whole summer has been wrought with anxiety and working to be able to afford to pay for my 14k$ tuition bill for my last semester at Georgia Tech.

Well it's all over and everything is golden. And I could not be happier.
Stressful summer with a lack of running but a whole lot of fun and memories.


Currently I am dealing with a very bad sprained ankle and will probably be out of running for a few more weeks.
But that's ok.
Why?

BECAUSE I'M GOING TO GRADUATE IN DECEMBER!!!

I hope everyone has a glorious day and can find something that puts them in as equally a good mood as I am currently in.
Run happy everyone!

The Bad Times

Today's Running World Quote was:

"It takes faith and the courage to risk failure in order to realize one's destiny. Having had my share of failures throughout my career I know that it is well worth the risk." - Ryan Hall, American long distance runner and winner of the 2008 United States Olympic Marathon Trials

I love this quote. It really hit home after the past few weeks I have had. 

This explains a lot of my lack of posting. 

"Drama" is exactly how I'd characterize what's been going on. I'd love to divulge everything (not) but it involves tears, yelling, alcohol and honestly a little loss of dignity on my part every once in a while.  

Don't worry, you can just go watch an ABC-no-so-Family show and it will be about the same. 

Anyway the drama has caused some sidetrackedness in my focus on training. I'm still doing it but it's been more of a mind numbing get-away-from-everything thing, causing me to not want to post about it. 

On top of my 'drama' I had one of the worst runs of life on Sunday.  I had skipped my long run last weekend due to, surprise, drama and drinking, and so I was excited to get back to a 10 miler on Sunday.  I had eaten breakfast with some friends early in the morning and headed out around 2pm so I could have plenty of time to digest my food.  I felt perfectly fine when I left. Excited to run, had on new clothes, it was a beautiful day in Atlanta at a high 60's low 70's temp with some wind. 

Well I got to about mile 2.5 and realized something wasn't quite right. My legs weren't shaking that dead feeling. I chalked it up to a few days of not running and they were just stiff but I couldn't get rid of it. By mile 4.5 I was in the Virginia Highlands and had stopped. I was sitting on a bench with absolutely dead legs and a stomach ache just to add to it. My lungs were on fire and everything felt like it was falling apart.  I knew I wasn't going to make 10 miles that day, I was praying just for 8 at the rate I was going. I texted my roommate with a warning text of "this isn't going so hot" just in cased I needed her to come get me.

Yeah, I felt THAT bad. 

So I kept going, forced myself at least, slowly, and told myself that if I could just keep going and walk some/rest I'd make it through. 

The next 3.5 miles were the worst miles ever. 

I've never thrown up from working out but I was pretty damn close, and I actually WANTED to. I wanted to throw up so bad thinking it would make me feel better. Anything to make me feel better. I kept waiting for a second wind but no. And of course when you're in the middle of Atlanta you're smack in the middle of a MILLION and one hills. Steep, long hills. 

I somehow made it back to campus and when my Garmin watch hit 8 miles I just stopped. And I walked home. Walked. I've never done that in my life. It was miserable. I was miserable. I felt like such a  failure. And the half is only 3 weeks away! I was supposed to be throwin out 8 miles like nothin. 

My legs just did not want it. And I had to listen on Sunday. 

Maybe it's been the alcohol, which honestly hasn't been much because if any of y'all knew me you knew I can get a hangover from 2 beers and be hammered in 1. Maybe it's all this drama, or school, or the stress I've been putting on myself lately but it's just been a rough few weeks of training. My Monday run was sucky as well. Legs hadn't recovered yet but I knew I needed to get the miles in. 

Anyway back to the applicable quote for the day. I guess this is all of my failures right now. I keep fighting the failure feeling. I have to shake it because I start taper in 8 days and then it's race time. I've been working way too hard to let this feeling take me down.

So it's time to push the personal shit out of my mind and get it all done and get back to running happy instead of this moody gloomy running.

Doing it all

Last semester was the first semester I really felt like everything CLICKED. Well, at least in the past few months it's felt like that.

I had a rough spot from about last New Years till August/September. 

Wow that's a long rough spot looking back.

Anyway, I had a bad relationship, I lost my car before I even saw it, I had lots of health problems and friend drama all thrown in.  By July/August I'd started to get my feet back underneath me. By October I was sprinting. My grades were out of this world good, was working 20 hours a week and was training for my first Half Marathon. I was happy. 

Very happy.

I was also very organized. I knew what I wanted, when I needed things done by, how every day would go.  I had plans for just about everything. It seems kind of cyclic/boring to most but for me it worked. And the busier I was the better. Nothing could get in my way! Half marathon? So ready. Finals? Breezy. (comparitively) Yes I had a few  panic moments but otherwise, I did great! This was my best semester grade wise. I applied, and GOT, an internship with Atlanta Track Club working with kids AND now this sweet Brooks deal.  I have a wonderful boyfriend who supports me all the time and the best friends anyone could ask for. I really am doing it all right now.

I've found, after having some of the worst luck possible, that a positive outlook and a set plan really works. Yes some luck is involved, but when I set a goal I'm positive, I'm calculative and I'm persistent.  I know my limits but I also know when they should be pushed. I make sure that I wake up every morning with a positive outlook and knowing what I have planned for the day.  Maybe that's not everyone's cup of tea, but so far it's worked wonders for me!

Here's a nice little article by Active about setting goals. It's short and to the point, and if you can master all of these aspects of goal setting for running you can set goals for just about anything else in life.

http://www.active.com/running/Articles/Defining_Your_Goal.htm

I think today is a rest day for me. My butt is still in quite a bit of pain.

I hope this ice/snow goes away soon. I need to run long this weekend!

Winter

So I'm not sure if anywhere else in the country was like this, but this "fall" Atlanta has been...well...finicky. 

That's a good word for it.

One day, its perfect fall, 50+ degrees and clear. The next its 80 and hot and muggy. And miserable.

December 1st rolls around and mother nature goes "oh shit, I guess I should make it cold" and BAM we have a 30ish degree day with wind. It was pretty  miserable. And the whole time I'm wondering "how am I ever going to run in this weather.."

Either way, I went against my loved ones/friends and ran yesterday and didn't wait the 1-week-rest period after my half marathon (which I still owe pictures of my awesome medal). I just went out for 20 minutes to test the new Brooks Adrenaline GTS 11's.  I sadly had to retire my GTS 10's right after the half. Not going to lie I got a little teary-eyed. They've done me well for the past 6 months and I've thoroughly worn them out. That and I almost had to wear RED shoes. Thank god Pacers had them in blue. I can't wear the forbidden colors of U[sic]GA.

I always thought they looked pretty new, and then I put my new ones against my old ones. Many my shoes are white. Gotta get out on the trails and fix that! 

Anyway the new shoes are great so far. I want to get more miles in them before I do an official-ish review.

Speaking of miles. Mine have been too low this week.  Here's a cute video that always makes me want to run more. 

Time for some more studying/finishing up at work then maybe a short run before trivia tonight. 

Till next time, run happy y'all!

10$ Margarita Pitchers: AVOID

Friday marked a wonderful day of the beginning of a free weekend. Free of the robot I've been working on for a long time now.  My team and I, all suited up for success, only had a few more hours before we were done and I knew afterward I would most likely be finding somewhere to consume bountiful amounts of alcohol.  I also knew my usual Saturday morning long run was probably out of the question.

Murphy's Law was our name. Ultimately our downfall..

The Arenas.  They look silly right?
The colors made me feel kiddish.

I'll be the first to say I absolutely love this class but DAMN is it time consuming. It's finally a hands on ME class with coding, machining, tinkering, trash talking and presenting.

Jeeves prepared for battle

The trash talking was mostly done by the boys.  In a class with only 4 girls out of 35 of course any competitive atmosphere is going to turn into a "my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours".  Luckily I had four other teammates to let do that so I didn't have to.

My team left me to fix Jeeves.
Picture thanks to BF

Anyway, it was stressful.  Lots of technical difficulties. Lots of yelling.  No cussing though, that would be a DQ (Wow was this a hard one for me).  All in all it was good clean competitively mean fun.

Is there even is such a thing?

The BF and I went out for mexican and some margaritas at La Fonda and were pleasantly surprised by 10$ pitchers.

Oh buddy do I love margaritas.  I however 1) do not drink anymore and cannot hold my alcohol and 2) have very adverse effects to lots of sugar.  Two pitchers later I was stumbling around in my too-tall-heels and thinking "this is going to hurt tomorrow".  I didn't get out of bed until 11 and proceeded to live off of Powerade Zero and saltines for the first few hours of the day.
Obviously I didn't run that morning, or do much of anything that entire day.

My plan was to get up Sunday then and run with the BF for a long, slow, loving and recovering 6 miles. The alarm went off at 7 and we proceeded to wake up at 9. And I woke up with a headache and backache. I ended up relaxing by the pool for a few hours and read on BF's couch-ton (the couch-futon)...so this was an anti-running weekend.  Actually this was more of an anti-productivity weekend.

I ran this morning (oucchh) , I'll discuss it later after I mull over a post I've been thinking about for a while: my likes and dislikes of becoming a runner.