Recovery Miles and Strength

March 24, 2010
5 miles on cliffs and DM neighborhoods in the morning. Definitely tired from working out the night before, but starting to get excited about getting into racing shape!

March 25, 2010
Gym session this morning. With daylight savings I can now hit up the gym in the morning and go for my run after work. While this could easily be flipped during the winter, let's just say my motivation to go to the gym after work was often lacking, whereas my motivation to hit up some miles in the daylight is definitely high.

Planning on running 5 after work at Lake Miramar. With track workouts now part of my routine and the pain being gone from the achilles, it's easy to take up the mileage too high without even realizing it. Gotta keep the recovery runs as recovery and not squeeze in too much mileage before the body is ready.

Slacking

Sun - 5 mi and Gym
Mon - Yoga
Tues - 5 mi and Gym
Wed - Off

Behind on the blog...So this is a quick summary. Felt great again on Sunday. Tuesday...eh...not so great. Things felt tight...no pain, but kinda like the precursor to pain. I referenced my blog from last time i hit five miles and I got about five runs in before things went to hell. I've only had 3 runs at five so far. Then again, i felt tight and was freaking out before moving up to three miles and then things ended up being okay.

I'm massively overanalyzing, I know. Welcome to my head. I'm just so close to being able to run like a normal person again. This is so important to me and I'm terrified that everything is going to crash down again.

I guess we'll see how tomorrow's run feels.

Happy Birthday JILANE!

Tues - AM 4 mi PM Yoga and modified gym routine
Wed - OFF
Thurs - 4.5 and Gym

I cheated. I have a running plan and I'm supposed to stick with it, but I cheated this morning. I ran 4.5. Only 4 minutes shy of a real run. It was fabulous. Oh and I played around with mapmyrun.com and now have verification that I'm running faster than 8 min pace. Which means my mileage count has been a little low but...close enough.


BUT most importantly HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ms. Jilane!!! Hope you are out having fun tonight :)

Juicy?

Sun - 4 mi and Gym

Weekly Mileage - 14 mi

Felt kinda tight today. Two days in a row of the increased mileage could be having a bit of an effect. No pain really, just feelin' tight and a little aggravated on both knees. Intense rolling session so that could be it too. Day off completely tomorrow. See how things feel. I'm about to hit a point where things could go downhill really fast and sudden if I don't listen to my body. I'm mere weeks away from decent mileage. It's not time to screw it up now.

So time for a little of my non-running related commentary. I was at the mall today and as I was in line at Starbucks I noticed a woman walk by in a full on juicy sweatsuit. First, don't even get me stared on spending that much money on a SWEATSUIT, but my main pet peeve is those damn pants. It's not specifically juicy either, but ANY pants, shorts, or bottom covering clothing that has words on the ass. There's almost always a little wedge action going on with sweatpants, and normally that's not such a huge deal. But it does become a big deal when the words JUICY are on your butt, and spectators can only see JUCY. When your ass swallows whole letters, it becomes a problem. And specifically to Juicy, I just don't think that word should be anywhere near a butt. I just don't think it's a good combination. Who wants to define their butt as juicy. I don't see that as being sexy. I kinda see it as being, woah, maybe lay off the bean burritos.

Apologies for excessive use of ass and butt in this post.

Nostalgia

Tuesday - 3 mi and Gym
Wednesday - Swim
Thursday - 3 mi and Gym

Ok my entries have been kind of pathetic lately. I was about to write the same thing as I've been writing the last week or so. Foam Roller, will I or won't I get better, blah blah blah. I'll spare you for today.

For the Brown folks (and KT if she ever manages to navigate the world wide web and find my blog), I got to hang out with KT for a bit this past saturday. It was quite fabulous. We went to my fav breakfast joint and chatted it up. I got all the gossip from NY and she got no gossip from me because I am not that exciting. :-P Anyhoo, it always brightens my day to talk to and especially to SEE one of my '05 ladies :) and despite the fact that I had to work that afternoon, I was in quite the good mood.

So a LONG time ago I had a convo with Jilane about how work was getting in the way of my life. And hanging out with KT and mulling over that conversation made me really miss college. I spent so much of it worrying about one thing or another and I realize now how much i had it made. College was absolutely wonderful. I ran, I learned, I hung out with friends, and I got free coffee for working for BUDS. Ok I get free coffee now but I have to work all day to earn it so it doesn't count. I miss having theme parties every weekend. I miss going to the ratty in anticipation of what crap they were going to serve that night. I miss the fact that every weekend something absolutely ridiculous happened and spending sunday morning's run gossiping about it. I miss going to the library right after dinner and then chatting with the team instead of studying, then going to Jo's to eat a whole bunch of crap before going to the dorm to watch a whole bunch of crap on TV. I miss spending hours in the training room rolling and icing, I miss away meets in NY and Boston, I miss per diem, I miss all the inside jokes, I miss bitching for an entire run about being cold and yes, i even kinda miss the bun huggers ;)

Ok, that's all I got for now.

Playing catch up...again

Wednesday - Yoga
Thursday - Gym and 2.5 mi
Friday - Off
Saturday - Gym and 3 mi

This week started off just...awful. It revolved mostly around work, as we had layoffs this week (which I avoided for now) creating a stressed out environment at work and an uneasy feeling as to when the next round will occur. I'm not a fan of things I can't control, and I have little control on how much work comes in to the office. I felt stressed out with every breath from Tuesday to Friday, and I don't know at what point I turned things around. Working until one a.m. on thursday actually helped first because it was good to be getting the work, and second, working a 16 hour day like that mimics that point of exhaustion I get from a long run. And while I'd much rather go for a two hour run then do a 16 hour work day, it was almost nice to come home and just crash in bed out of exhaustion.

My mood improved mostly because I had a consistent stream of work coming my way on friday. Pizza and beer also helped I swear that combination can make most anything better. My body paid the price for the long work day on thursday however, as i felt SO TIGHT. It was awful. I couldn't help panicking that once again I was hitting a flare up and was going to have to start all over again. The thought was almost overwhelming.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning feeling fabulous. I went to the gym and the fabulousness continued. I broke my rule of setting my mileage for the run the night before and took things up to 3 today. Felt great. Still feel pretty damn good honestly. I also discovered that there are two places that I can roll out with the foam roller that are really tight and everything feels so much better after I roll. I've tried a couple of different angles before, but didn't really feel much. I remember when I had tight IT bands in college that I'd roll out and it frick'n HURT. So i finally found the spots and position to roll to get to that point where I kinda feel like crying (there actually may be a little whimpering on my part in the middle of Frogs gym). Ah, the masochism of a runner.

Poll for the audience: Can I over roll? I was just thinking of doing it twice a day, but if I were to roll out 3-4 times a day on the weekend or something would that be bad? I have no idea.

Staying at 20 minutes

Mon – Yoga
Tues – Gym + 2.5 mi

Sometimes I feel like I am a juggler and my life consists of the spheres I precariously attempt to keep from falling to the ground. Some are bigger than others, and when they fly effortlessly, the others seem easier to manage. Sometimes everything goes smoothly, and I feel I can juggle it all effortlessly and endlessly. Sometimes I feel I'm lucky if I can just keep one ball in the air. They change sizes and shape as my priorities in life shift. Some even disappear entirely for periods of my life. Inevitably, running is always one of the biggest, as I feel if I have that going well I can handle almost anything else. Besides my family, Running has been the one constant passion in my life, and I sometimes wonder how a career or any of my other spheres ever has a chance to compete with that. Its difficult to be patient and hold myself back when I know that just a few more miles upon a few more miles will make the circus act of life a little more easy.

Run felt pretty good today. I'm actually more impressed with how things are feeling now as I make my periodic trips to the coffee machine. Things are definitely improving, I just have to remember that small improvements do not equal immediately being able to jack up the mileage. When I did PT work last spring in SF, I was doing strength work for months before I even was able to get through a decent length run. I believe I have more base strength to work with right now, but I can't get overzealous and risk having to start this build-up all over again. Patience Patience Patience.

Short Post

Sat - Gym and 2.5 miles

Overall I had a pretty bad week workout-wise, so no more slackin' off. Part of it was actually having work this week, but lets be honest things are going to be busy at work and I gotta be able to balance my athletic endeavors with my professional endeavors or else I'll go crazy.

So anyways: Ran about 20 mins on the injury trail today and things felt really good. It's about 8 at night and things are still feeling pretty good so yay. Happy Day. It's pretty ridic how my mood pretty much hinges on whether I'm able to run or not.

Short post today.

Stay patient, positive, and focused.

Gym

I've decided to stop misleading folks and to call my injury what it really is "Pes Anserinus Bursitis" ("Pes anserinus is the anatomic term used to identify the insertion of the conjoined tendons into the anteromedial proximal tibia. From anterior to posterior, the pes anserinus is made up of the tendons of the sartorius, gracilis, and semitendinosus muscles. The tendon's name, which literally means "goose's foot," was inspired by the pes anserinus's webbed, footlike structure. The conjoined tendon lies superficial to the tibial insertion of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) of the knee") considering it really isn't the knee. So the pes was feeling pretty much the same as the other night, so I decided last night not to run in the morning. It was a smart thing to decide in the evening, because the pes usually feels pretty good after my whole gym routine, which isn't really surprising since part of the cause is tightness of the hamstrings, which obviously loosens up a bit when I'm in the gym. It was really hard not to just go for a jog with things feeling good and the sun out and shining, but I have to be careful not to let the illusion that things are feeling okay allow me to keep screwing things up. I chanted a little mantra to myself as I left the gym: "The run will still be there in the evening." So if the pes really is feeling better today, I'll take a short jog this evening. But if it follows its usual pattern of getting progressively worse throughout the day, then I obviously won't run and I saved myself some further aggravation by not running this morning. I may have to wait till Saturday and will definitely bring the mileage back to around 2.

Patience, patience, patience. The strength work needs time to kick in. Stretch more. Stay Positive. Stay Focused.

Feelin' kinda hardcore today.

Gym

Run - 2.5

Swim - 40 mins (6x100, 2x150)

Today I made up for the laziness of yesterday by working out for more consecutive time than I have in god knows how long.

I hit up the gym first thing this morning and worked through my routine. Runners World had an article this month that was essentially written for me. It was on pelvic strength and how runners tend to just do leg exercises when we really should be strengthening other parts of our bodies that might not get the attention needed just through running. The article also had some points on how to deal with injury that really helped me to read. That magazine has sometimes made me sad when it would have articles on how to stay motivated in training when all i wanted to do was run enough that I would have trouble motivating! It was nice to read an article that felt so on point with where I'm at in my running life. 

I ran twenty minutes on the injury trail today and things continued to feel quite solid. I'll admit to a slight amount of weakness creeping in, but off and on, and frankly it didn't feel like a warning weakness ("hey! it's going to start hurting soon.") but rather my body getting stronger ("hey, your not completely better but we're getting there.") And yes, my pes anserinus does speak to me (for those curious, any reference ever made to "knee" is actually referring to the "pes anserinus" which is not the knee at all).

During my run I ran into Fern, Mark, and Craig while they were running. That's one thing I love about the Encinitas-Del Mar span is that its like this little community, and if I don't run into someone at the gym I'll probably see them running along 101.  It was also nice to see some of my runner friends while I was actually running, instead of always just talking about running.  I am slowly going to prove to my friends that I am indeed a runner, despite my past gimpy status. 

So then, just to be uber hardcore, I hit up the pool to bust out some quick 100s before meeting up with my mom and grandma for breakfast. The weather is being stupid, so I didn't want to not be able to swim tomorrow due to the weather and go 5 days without hitting up the pool. It was a good swim day overall. I fell into a rhythm and even managed to do some 150s and feel that some 200s tomorrow are def doable. I did have two slight panic attacks. When I was sharing a lane with some guy who was way faster than me I realized two things: First, I'm going to have to learn to swim fast. I know that's a ways away but still, right now I'm essentially a jogger planning on racing a 5K. Second, I'm going to have to deal with other people. The dude kept splashing me (ok that was officially the most retarded complaint ever from someone who was in a pool) and it kinda threw me off. I realized I'm going to have people splashing me, grabbing at me, knocking in to me, and god knows what else.  I better learn to deal. 

So that was my hardcore workout for the day. Now I've managed to plop myself in my super comfy papasan chair with a book and coffee in order to reenergize myself.  I'm sure I'll get up eventually...

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.

Trifecta

Pool – 60+ minutes
Gym – going after work
Running – attempting 10 mins after work

The subtle differences between men and women continuously amuse me. I recently cut my hair, and every woman I talk to has a response in the same ball park: excited, omgosh how cute, you cut your hair!!!! etc. There is no question that they noticed and they are sure of the fact that yes, indeed, my hair is shorter than when we last encountered each other. With men, the response is completely different. The ones that do notice (or comment, to be fair, most men might notice but choose not to comment, whereas women tend to be more likely to comment) are a little unsure how to proceed. They study me for a second, trying to figure out what is different. They know something is different. Then, very slowly, with an inquisitive face, most ask the same question…"Did you…cut…your hair?" And when I inform them I did indeed cut my hair, their faces light up and I can see how proud they are that they figured it out! This whole process cracks me up. I know some people cut their hair and you don't really notice all that much of a difference. However, I just went from long straight hair to looking like a Koosh Ball. It's noticeable.

Alright back to the purpose for this little soapbox I maintain every day. Today looks to be a nice trifecta: I was in the pool this morning for a long time but it was mostly working on drills and technique as opposed to getting in a real cardio session. I'm going to hit up the gym after work today since my PT appointment was moved earlier tomorrow and I just haven't gotten to the point of getting out of bed before 6 am. Then I'm rolling out to the injury trail for 10 mins, give or take. The knee has been feeling okay since the "run" (note: must at least hit 2 miles before I can refer to it as a "run.") on Saturday. The on and off aching while at my desk has dissipated, and it seems to me as the weakness/pain is now almost solely occurring DURING activity, which is a change from before, but one I'm rather happy about as I can assess whether or not to keep running when I have immediate feedback from my knee. It doesn't do me much good when it aches 6 hours later. Great! Let me hop in my time machine and tell Past Julie that she's janking up her knee. Anyhoo, I have no idea what this all means, but I'm taking it as a good thing. If the pain is changing, then I'm doing something, and if the pain isn't getting worse, or is even getting better, then I'm probably doing something right.

And looks like today isn't nearly as long of an essay.

And I could swim 100 yds, and I could swim 100 more...

Saturday - Gym, 8 min run on trail
Sunday - Pool 60 mins

My silence on yesterday's "run" isn't completely bad news. It went ok, actually. I hit up the gym beforehand knocking out my now hour plus routine (I am so hardcore) and then went on the "injury trail" for a little jaunt. Things felt good for about 6 minutes, which was awesome in comparison to my pain and agony when trying to just jog the 20 meters to my car. Things felt weak in my right knee at that point, and I decided to cut it short at 8 mins. I wasn't expecting it to be completely without issue, given I've only been doing hip strength stuff for a week now, so I'm pretty positive. Damn, I'm a little surprised by my positive attitude on this whole thing. I can't decide if its swimming or my new short hair but something has got me out of my usual "I can't run this is the end of the world" funk.

So speaking of swimming, today was pretty great. I made a pretty big breakthrough. Up until this point I've only done a couple of 50s and they were pretty hard. But today, I managed to get in a couple of 75s and even a couple hundreds. I felt like such a goon after I finished my first hundred. I was literally leaning on the edge of the pool with this huge grin on my face. I set the goal of swimming 100 yds about a week ago and it seemed like this unattainable thing. It felt so amazing to accomplish a goal like that. During the Dirt Dog XC series I managed to hit a goal I had set for one of our races, and I had that same silly grin on my face when I got the results. I got that dumb grin for every race where I PR'd in college, or even when we'd finish a workout that I never believed I could make it through. It's this amazing feeling. Accomplishment. A week ago I was gasping after getting to one end of the pool, with a voice in the back of my head asking me what the hell I thought I was doing. Today that voice whispered to me "You might actually be able to do this."

My running accomplishments in the last two years have been few and far between, plagued with frustration and set backs. Getting those 100 yds today reminded me of how why I've suffered through this. Even though 100 yds isn't that big of a deal in the swimming world, it was big for me. I'm excited to have a new sport in which I can achieve. And I'm excited to get better in running and feel that sense of achievement when I race my first half-marathon, my first marathon, and my first triathalon. This feeling of excitement is far better than the frustration that had been following me lately.

Time to head to sleep early tonight. My body isn't quite used to working out this much again, and its definitely been taking a toll. I find my body starting to feel heavy before 8 has even rolled around. Might have to catch up on some sleep for the next couple of nights...

TGIF

Thurs – Gym
Fri – 50 mins in pool

So I am doing a completely different routine in the gym as of about a week ago and I can totally feel the difference. I really need to work on changing up my routine every 6 weeks or so because I can get far too comfortable with the same exercises and increasing weight or reps doesn't really fire me up or create an exciting challenge. To get through my whole routine (which involves exercises geared towards strengthening me for swimming, as well as some new strength exercises to get me running again) it takes me at least an hour. And I'm pretty beat afterwards.

Rocked out at the pool this morning and am enjoying that I am getting more comfortable. It still doesn't feel natural to swim, but I can see how eventually it will be. Hopefully. But surprisingly I actually enjoy getting up in the morning and going to the pool. Part of it is that the pool is really warm (yes I swim in the old person pool and not the competition pool or whatever that cold one is called. It's 6:30 am, cut me some damn slack.) Anyhoo, I officially swam 50yds without dying. And I did it multiple times. I also did some 25's with really short recovery in between. And a lot of basically getting from one end of the pool to the other while minimizing how much of a spaz I looked like.

Also I'm in a fantabulous mood because my knee hasn’t been hurting at all for the last couple days. Now I have to qualify that because my PT beat the shit out of it so it's sore and bruised, but in terms of pain from walking around or any aching when sitting at my desk, nuthin'. And I haven't heard a peep from my other knee which was starting to give me trouble. And I think if I hadn't had this whole swimming thing keeping me busy on the mornings when I haven't gone to the gym, I probably would have tried going for a jog by now. So I'm glad that swimming has distracted me enough that I have had a couple completely pain free days without trying to run.

But patience only lasts so long. Tomorrow is the big day. I'm going for a jog. 10 mins. Test it out. See what happens. If things go well, I will be in a great mood for the rest of the weekend. If things hurt. I'm going to be pissed. However, I do have to remind myself I've only been doing some of my hip strengthening exercises for a week now and its going to take TIME and PATIENCE before the effects of those exercises take hold.
It's 5:00pm. I think its time to make my get away from the office, grab some smores makin' materials and hit up moonlight beach :)

Venting

So Friday I decided to try 4 mi before work. A mile into it I realized that I had no business attempting any more than 3 mi. I was jogging on the cliffs when I noticed the tide was ridiculously low. I rarely run on the beach but the hard packed sand and glistening water called to me. Considering I pretty knew this run wasn't going to be very worthwhile, I scaled down the cliffs where the surfers cut down to the beach. I finally managed to make it down and headed back to my place along the water. It was quite beautiful, and I would have been in wonderful spirits if not for that little spot down and to the inside of my knee reminding me that not only was I not able to make it to 5 miles today, but I def was not going to be running tomorrow.

Hit up the Gym on Saturday and am starting to like Frogs, which surprised me. I usually don't like big crowded gyms, but I got into a rhythm there and they have a nice little room with carpet and free weights in which I can do about 75% of my routine. Still getting used to the herds of fake boobs and the scary buff older women, but as long as i can get a little niche of space I should be fine.

Today has been a test of my determination to stay positive. I was wary about giving it another go on a run, as the knee wasn't feeling pain free yesterday and I'm really thinking I need to not run unless the previous day was a no pain day (note: definition of pain includes any inkling that there is inflammation. It does not hurt by any means, but its aggravated. Pain is just easier to type). So I decided to get a jump on some work i have to do before monday and feel things out before making a decision. Well, as the sun began warming up the day and the joggers and bikers merrily ran by my balcony, sitting at my desk and writing about legal ethics was not exactly thrilling. I made the mistake of deciding I'd at least change into running clothes and stretch things out. But it was gorgeous and it being later in the day meant I could rock a tank top and shorts. How could I not at least give it a go? I did EXTENSIVE stretching including my whole PT routine to really get things loose. I grabbed my sunglasses, laced up the shoes, and headed out. 

God it felt good. I know there are people who want to strangle me for comparing my run in a long sleeve shirt to one in a tank top as being a huge difference, but the sun on my arms and my face felt fantastic. Things felt ok for about 10 mins, but then i could feel things getting aggravated. I was only planning on going 3 mi and at one point I stopped, not because it was painful, but because i could still feel things flaring up. But I decided to just head in and ice a lot and hope I could maybe circumvent a huge flare up.

So I was pissed when I got home. Pissed because I just want to go on a long run. Pissed cause I should have had 25 mins of enjoyment and instead I was worried about my knee most of the time. And pissed cause if I don't get pissed then I'll start to get afraid. I haven't run longer than 60 mins in 2 years now, and only have run more than 30 mins within the last 5 months.  And nothing has been consistent. It's been slow build up followed by disappointment over and over again. I'm afraid I'll have another two years of struggling to do something that should be a normal natural part of my daily routine. 

So I had to control the panic that was threatening to ensue. I iced then strolled over to the beach and just sat and watched the ocean. I focused on all the things that are going good in my life and focused on the short term of getting better now and building up slow mileage now. I tried to purge my mind of 12 miles runs and fears of things that haven't even materialized. I've iced my knee a lot today, and its not aching for now. I have my PT appointment in two days where I'd like to discuss some potentially more drastic measures. And I'm calming the fuck down.

Weekend Recap

Saturday 5 mi - South to TP State Beach 

Sunday Off- Gym session at Frogs. 

So I had a good excuse for not blogging my run yesterday. I spent about 6 hours in my kitchen being the total spaz that I am trying to get everything ready for my housewarming party. Overall I was so happy with the way things turned out. None of the food turned into a disaster, I managed to make spring rolls despite several times being sure I was going to totally screw up, and I got to spend an evening with my awesome friends! :)

But back to the running. Yesterday was the first day that I ran after 7:30 since...i can't even remember. It was so nice to run when the air was actually warm! I don't like sleeping in, but I might try and push my runs back just a little later on the weekends because its so worth it to feel the warmth of the sun (plus, i really need to get some sun on my face. I fear I'm turning translucent).

Today was a day off and I was sooooo good. Seriously I deserve a pat on the back. First I was going to run to the gym and back since it's only 1 mile away, but i didn't! Today is an off day and running two miles isn't off. Go me. Then I was going to run today and take tomorrow off because it's just freaking beautiful out right now. But I resisted again. Two days on, one day off, stick to the plan, facilitate recovery of the knee. So, go me for being smart despite temptation. 

So currently I go to this little gym across from work, but I'm going to switch to something closer to my apartment cause I don't want to drive to carmel valley on the weekends and I am going to need something that is open later once I hit longer mileage and go to the gym after work. Wow. I totally forgot what  a real gym is like. I was going to count the number of women with plastic surgery and fake boobs, but it just got too hard. Plus I think some of them thought I was checking them out. Seriously tho, the gym cracks me up. I love judging people I don't know. Like first of all, half the women there were wearing pants and a sports bra. That's wierd to me. If its hot enough for JUST a sports bra, why aren't you in shorts? And, second, it's not that hot in the gym. At least wear a tank top.  The gym also makes me feel pretty inadeqate. Some of these women look like they could crush me without breaking a sweat. And I could probably use their abs to wash clothes. These women are intense. 

Anyhoo, that was my gym experience. On the plus side, I'm totally noticing a lot more definition in my legs from all the exercises I've been doing for my knee. It's pretty cool. 

Ok, time to go watch the Chargers. 

Gym Session + Random Thoughts

Today was an off day for running, but still was in the gym for about 45 minutes. My routine has gone from about 25 to 50+ minutes these days as I keep adding more strength for my knee. It's going to be difficult to figure out my schedule when I am back up to 6 days a week of running as I won't be able to both run and lift before work. I'll probably have to do a morning run and then an evening lift twice a week. Wow, i feel hardcore even thinking about it. (Note: 99% of time when referring to things such as "guns" or being "hardcore" or the like, please note the dry sarcasm underlying such comments. Thank you.)

I've also decided to link to all my former teammates' blogs that I follow even if I haven't spoken to some of you in forever. I figure if I'm stalking all of you on the 'net I might as well be open about it.

Injury Report - Knee is feeling fab today, despite the increase in mileage yesterday. Excited for a nice 5 miler tomorrow. Probably will journey North for a little change of scenery.

This weekend is the unveiling of my apartment. I'm having a little housewarming with some of my SD runner friends and co. so will probably be posting pics of the place soon. :)

18 hour countdown

Rocked the gym this morning (i.e. showed up and played with some mildly heavy objects for about 30 mins before realizing I was gonna be late for work) and am now icing. Knee pain present but mild today. Thinking I may have a pain free day in my near future. Keep your fingers crossed. I actually made an appointment with a PT/ART today but I don't get in until Dec. 9th. If I'm still having issues by the ninth please, someone just come out here and put me out of my misery.

Otherwise, my brain has been malfunctioning as of late, which has been awesome. The anticipation of tomorrow has rendered me essentially useless. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tomorrow. It's like the night before christmas, except you're not sure whether the jack in the box that Santa left you contains cash or armed explosives.  

Definitely not drinking for the antioxidants

Ever have those days where you just feel anxious the entire day? I had the urge to keep checking my email as if I was going to get something important and jumped every time someone walked into my office and felt nervous leaving work at 7 even tho I had been there 10 hours already and did a decent amount of work. I think it's a culmination of a couple things...First I was woken up by an small earthquake this morning...most people don't even know it happened but I'm a light sleeper.  I also didn't run this morning (tho managed some quality lifting) in my attempts to let my knee recover. I wasted some quality time at work mapping out my mileage and am worried about the balance of taking it slow and being able to run in the two half marathons I am interested in January.

Oh yea and bar results are coming out this friday. At this point there have been soooo many people that have said "oh don't worry, you will definitely pass," that if I DON'T...well that's just gonna be no fun for anyone.  So I think I may be feeling like this for the next couple of days, which is going to make for an incredibly long week.  Right now I'm trying a combination of John Mayer and red wine to calm my nerves a bit. I think I'm gonna need more wine.

Oh right, this is a running blog.

I didn't run today. 

Recovery mode...

Location: Stationary Bike

Distance: 0 mi (tho in imaginary bike land the odometer said something around 13.5 mi)

Time: 30mins

I am attempting to be good and not run for a couple days in order to avoid the cycle of running then not being able to run so taking 3 off days, then running, the off days, etc.

Hit the gym and decided to try the stationary bikes that you clip in to. Biggest bonus - much harder to fall off the stationary bike than the road bike.  Biggest negative - Soooo boring in comparison to a real bike.  I can only listen to so much crappy music on my ipod. Today my schedule saved me from too much tedious biking as I only had about 30 mins to squeeze in a workout.

I'm taking at least one more day of biking tomorrow, and then I really need to get my real bike fixed so I can go on more scenic rides. Not that I don't love staring in the mirror and analyzing the random ass pools of sweat that appear on my shirt.