15 minutes of fame.

Gym
Run – 15 mins on "injury trail"

Today's run felt fabulous. Whereas before things felt like they were kinda breaking down at the end, I felt strong for the whole 15 mins. Didn't feel anything at all in the right knee and would put the left at 90%. It took an incredible amount of will power not to take on an extra few minutes and make it a solid twenty minutes. I've been in a wonderful mood today all due to 15 short minutes of pain free running.

I've been looking into triathlons and I don't know if I've explained my reasoning in switching from Marathon to Triathlon yet. Obviously a marathon involves mass quantities of running, including at least a 16-18 mile run. Considering I'm joyous about a mere 2 miles this morning, that's a rather daunting task. If I do a Sprint tri, the running portion is only a 5K, meaning I can run mileage in the 30-40 range, which is probably a good idea. Also, I'm learning to swim anyways, and the extra activity doesn't seem to bother my knee. I have to add in biking, but I'm pretty sure even that is a better on my body as I'm trying to both build up and recover from injury. So while Tri training is typically a more intense experience (not that I know this from the million of Tris I've done (i.e. 0)) I can spread out my training between three sports, and since I'm planning on doing a Sprint Tri, that's a quarter mile swim, 9 mile bike ride, and 3.1 mile run, all manageable distances on their own. We'll see what happens when I throw 'em all together. So, if my body holds up I may give a whirl at a half marathon (possibly Seattle Rock and Roll with Mer).

The Tri I'm currently looking at is in May, so I'll have to see how my training goes to see if that's plausible or not. 3 months?

On a side note it's raining. And I realize I might not be able to swim tomorrow if its raining. And as I type that I'm sure there are people out there being like, why can't you swim? You're wet all ready! I don’t know if people swim in the rain. I guess it makes sense. I run in the rain no problem. Somehow that just seems like it would really suck. It's like the water is already trying to take me down from the depths of the pool. It doesn't seem right that I should be bludgeoned from the sky as well. Seems like a lose/lose situation to me.
Hopefully it just stops raining.

Speed, Goals, and Mocha

5 mi - Mission Bay

I got a chance to run at Mission Bay this morning since I took mom to the airport. I rarely make it over there to run but it's always a treat. It's essentially a long flat path that winds through the grass park and over to fiesta island. Also flat. This is a great place to hammer out a run. I was flying for the first 15 mins or so, then I hit a bit of a wall and had to take it down a notch. Made me realize I should consider varying the pace on my runs (B mentioned this earlier but I havne't really followed up in my training) Took the last 10 mins or so pretty strong and felt really good afterwards.  I had to go straight to PT so i sat on the hood of my car for 10 mins or so and ate my breakfast that i brought and just watched the people running and the water. It was very calming. 

Not to be a downer but my knee was a little bothersome. I'm pretty sure it was residual from yesterday, and it actually has felt better than it did last night. My PT did a lot of work on it and did that electric whatever thing to it to reduce the inflammation. He isn't too worried considering its been getting progressively better. It's sore tonight but I can tell the diff between sore from running and sore because my PT was stretching and massaging stuff.  I'm going to take tomorrow off (will probably hit up the gym) and let everything settle down. I'm actually not too concerned, unlike in the past when I'd have a minor set back and flip. 

So I'm making some New Years Resolutions this year, and have been requested to actually write them down. This might be the part where people stop reading :-P  So here we go:

Health: 

Be SMART about my knee. Take days off even if I think I can push through a little bit of discomfort. Think Big Picture.

Cook dinner at least 3 times a week. This ones not too hard but I just want to make sure I don't get lazy. Cooking = actually making something and no pouring a bowl of cereal.

Bring healthy lunch from home for work at least 3 x a week. This allows for one day of going out and one day where there's a lunch meeting. This is going to involve cooking lunches at night. 

Relationships:

Make sure to call people more often. I know I talk with different people on different time frames, but there's no reason to go more than 3-4 weeks without at least a quick phone conversation to say hi.

VISIT friends in far away place. I know I have to be dedicated to work, but I can still make plans to visit people.

Parents - Now that I've moved out its easy to accidentally go without seeing either of my parents for long periods of time. Plan dinner dates during the week.

Running:

First Marathon May 30, 2009. Recognize that there will most likely be set backs and that the most important thing is being healthy. But, get ready to rock.

First Half Marathon April 2009. Again, depending on health. But really think this might be m ideal racing distance so would absolutely love to get out and dominate this race. 

Gym - maintain strength work despite the fact that once distance increases I'm going to have to go after work. Make the necessary sacrifices to get to the gym, even if it might be more fun to get a beer. 

Life:

Get Help - I need to work on not being afraid or too proud to ask for help. It's always been a challenge for me. I need to stop being worried about looking dumb or being sure that I can do everything on my own. Sometimes I am dumb, sometimes I can't do it on my own, and sometimes I can, but don't need to, so am going to work on reaching out more. 

Mini Cooper - Ok this one is dumb but I promised that I'd write it down. At some point this year I'd like to trade in my car for a mini cooper (that will actually fit in my garage!) and do it without extra cost (all things considered). We'll see....

Ok I think there were more, but right now my doggie is visiting and she'd like some attention so we are going to go cuddle and watch West Wing. 

Breaking the Threshold

5 miles - South to TP (probably should mix up the running route soon. May go a little wild and try going North on Friday)

For some reason, hitting five miles is a threshold distance for me. Maybe its because it was the shortest distance I'd run in college that wasn't a pre-race run. I mean, I could totally go for a 5 mile run and have that be it for the day and still feel legit (note the difference between me and some of my more mileage oriented college friends who would consider 5 mi to be no more than a warm up :-P) So stopping the watch at a little over 40 mins today felt like I had just pulled myself over the first major ledge on my climb up the recovery mountain. The knee is feeling ok. It's a little bit sore but mostly to the touch and I'm going to go with the intense massage session on the area by the PT yesterday as being most of the cause. I'd really like to get out again tomorrow and rock another 5 miler, but as my new years resolution is the be SMART about recovery, i am sticking with my current plan of two days on one day off.

I think there are two camps of runners. There are the people who race because they run, and there are the people who run because they race. I'm the former. I like racing, but it's purely an offshoot from enjoying getting out and running and training. Some people need a race in order to motivate them to run. I bring this up only because I was talking about getting out for a run and the first question one of my co-workers asked was "Are you training for a marathon." And to be honest I guess the answer is yes. I'm planning on running my first Marathon at the end of May, but it's not really my motivation. Even when I bust out some 16mi + runs, it will be for the love of the sport, and not just cause I have to "train."

But, I am going to develop some more substantial racing plans soon. I've got some ideas involving a progression from 5K to 10K to half marathon to the full marathon at the end of May. Then I need to decide if I'm going to continue the focus on the running or to begin my next goal of training for my first triathalon, whenever or wherever that might be. I think I've been a little afraid to set goals recently, for fear that it would be even more disheartening if the inflammation in my knee flared up again. But I think it's time for a little positive thinking, so I may engage in little goal planning for 2009.

There's a lot to think about, but for now I am going to stay smart and healthy.