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.

Shorter Post

Run - 2.5 mi

Feelin' good. Decided not to swim because I'm a little worried that swimming could possibly aggravate things and I really want to see how running effects things without any other factors.

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.

KY

Tues – OFF
Wed – AM 2 mi/Gym – PM Yoga
Thurs – OFF

Not much to report with two off days in the last three days. No worries though, nothing traumatic. Monday night I was just feeling run down and decided to skip the pool and sleep in. Felt good actually and ended up working late that night so the extra rest really helped me through the evening.

Wednesday was a good day being both BUSY at work, which makes me happy, and also getting to do a short jog (things felt good running and throughout the day). Still had some work to do around 7 last night but cut out of the office to hit up Yoga since I was denied the day before. After a long day in the office it felt good to just clear my mind and really just stretch things out and feel my body move. I got home and booted up the laptop at my kitchen counter to finish up my work for the day, only to feel like I got hit by a bus about an hour later. Even a slice of greasy pizza (one of those slices that was old enough that I really probably should have chucked it, but decided to live dangerously instead and devour it) couldn't revitalize me and I decided to call it like it was and head to bed at 10. Had already written off a swim workout as I needed to get to work a little earlier than swimming would allow (and I stand by my decision of not getting up before 6) so today was another off day, and I found myself in the office at the time when I'd usually be sucking in large quantities of chlorine water. 4 cups of coffee later and I'm just about ready to call it a day.

My entire lower body is feeling stronger, which I am quite pleased about. There's still aggravation and some inflammation, but I feel like that area is more protected now and running or other actions are now having less of an effect. Hopefully the inflammation will start to fade now as I get stronger. Patience patience patience.

Confessions of a Dirty Mind: Was heading into the gym the other day and saw this license plate that said "KY Bred" and I was like, wow, that seems a little inappropriate. And it's like who really wants that visual? I mean, if that's what it took to get you into this world, ya know, okay, but I kinda wonder how you got that little tidbit of info in the first place. As I walked through the door a little light sprang in my head. oh. oh, right. KENTUCKY. Gotcha.

Playing catch up...

Sat - Gym - Pool 50 mins
Sun - Pool 45 mins - 3min Elliptical - Yoga
Mon - Gym - Run 2mi

The current downpour outside has inspired me to not leave the apartment all day, except perchance to run out to the grocery store so i can cook dinner tonight. It's rare to take a day and just sit and read and watch movies and pretty much just hang out. I figured I'd take this time to catch up a little on the good ole blog.

Sunday was my third day in a row of swimming, and I def was feeling pretty beat. Part of it may have been the fact that I was up till ONE in the morning both friday and saturday. I know. I'm so proud. The swim was just one of those workouts where you're like, okay, I showed up, I'm gonna do this, but it ain't gonna be pretty.

Decided to go back to Yoga with Lyndsey later that evening. Rocked a solid 3 min on the elliptical as a warm up and then bounced off to Yoga class. This is my third class now, and I bought a mat, so i figure that makes me pretty committed. Once you buy the gear there's no turning back. Maybe I'll even get cool Yoga clothes like Lyndsey that have weird lettering that no one can read.

So I guess that brings us to today. It's absolutely pouring out right now, and unfortunately I didn't beat the rain on my run. It wasn't as bad as it is now, but it was def windy with consistent moisture coming from the sky. I was pretty soaked by the time I was done and as I trudged back into the gym the guy behind the desk looks at me in shock. "Did you run in the rain???" "Uh, yes." "Wow, that's CRAZY!" It cracks me up how used to good weather we are. When I was back east, more often than not my run was either when it was below freezing, snowing, raining, slushing, or just plain miserable out. The worst day in San Diego just can't even compare. And I'm a pretty big wimp when it comes to weather.

Pes didn't feel great, which was surprising to me after almost a full week of no running. Gonna ice and stretch today and see how it feels. The cold rainy weather might not have been the best for it, in retrospect, and its possible things just tightened up and never really got a chance to loosen.

Since I didn't post this weekend, here's a late Happy Valentines Day to everyone. I always find it to be a funny holiday. Single girls hate it, girls in relationships pretend to hate it, and I'm pretty sure you'll be hard pressed to find a guy anywhere who really cares one way or the other. But as I was walking into a movie chatting with my mom on saturday, I couldn't help but to reflect on all the wonderful people I have in my life, and it was just nice to think about those people on a day that is supposed to be a celebration of love. I consider myself pretty lucky to have such amazing friends, and while its sad that so many are spread out all over the country, it's still wonderful to know they are there, just a phone call away. So Happy V-day to all of you and thanks for being a part of my life.

Ok, that's enough mush for now.

25 going on 45

Thurs PM – Yoga
Friday – Swim 45 mins

I had my ass handed to me in Yoga last night. I went without Lyndsey as my safety net so was a little intimidated from the get-go. I did however get to see her teaching her spin class with a cool microphone on, yelling at people. :-P The yoga experience was different from my other class, where I struggled with some more of the strength exercises. Here, the strength was hard, but I mostly struggled with just getting into the poses. I believe the phrase "I am the least flexible person on the planet" actually passed through my mind about a hundred times. It was brutal. The instructor had to keep physically forcing my body to bend into certain positions. At one time, it actually crossed from discomfort to pain, but I couldn’t say anything because I was so contorted I could barely get air into my lungs. When he released me my body snapped back so fast it was like a rubber band snapping in two. I actually had a vision at one point of my neck snapping and couldn't help but ponder the tragedy if I was the first person to ever accidentally kill themselves in yoga. The class however, just reinforced the notion that I have to work on my flexibility. And the Pes is feeling surprisingly good today but that might just be chance and the lack of running for several days now.

Last night was pretty rough as well. I can function pretty well on 6-7 hours of sleep a night, as long as I go to sleep and then wake up in the morning. Any disruptions totally mess with me. A couple of weeks ago a car alarm went off for about 15 minutes around 3am and I kept getting out of bed to make sure it wasn't my car (even though I never set my car alarm). I was out of if for the whole next day. Last night was another of those unfortunate events. Around 1:45am I heard music. At first I thought it was a passing car, because my neighbors have always been quiet and I've never heard music from my bedroom before. But it didn't go away and finally at 1:55 I got up and pushed my ear to the wall. Not from that neighbor. I figured it had to be the new guy (just my luck) that moved in last week, so I blindly stumbled into my living room, shuffled into the kitchen, and laid my ear on the cold gray wall. I could hear the music but it wasn't coming from that guy's place either. It was def louder in my living room though. "Fuck it" I muttered and went back to bed. Unfortunately I have NEVER been able to fall asleep with party music playing. It was a huge problem in college. I would have a race the next day, the guys below me would be blasting some shitty dance music and I would get so stressed out that I couldn't fall asleep and then wouldn't be able to fall asleep till their party ended bout 4 hours later. At this point, some chick was singing to the music, and the thought of getting up in 3 hours to swim was raising my stress-o-meter. When the thought "well if I don't get enough sleep I just won't swim" started running through my brain, I kinda got pissed off. It's Thursday. I have to work tomorrow. I'm too old to deal with partying in the middle of the week in my nice quiet apartment complex. Almost without thinking I was rolling/falling out of bed, grabbing fuzzy slippers and something that felt like a jacket. I stepped out into the chilly night air. The muffled sound of music floated in the atrium of the complex. Follow the music. Down the stairs. Getting louder. I stopped in front of a door. The place below me. Figures. I knock. I hear voices. No one comes. I knock again. Finally some chick who may or may not have been the girl I met who actually lives in the apartment, I couldn't really see, cracks open the door as if I was some axe murderer intent on killing her. She seriously looked terrified. Freeze Frame. At this point, let's review the general appearance of the crazy chick that just knocked on the door. I'm standing there, pink pinstripe pj pants, faded Brown t-shirt, bright red Brown XC jacket (damnit, doubled up on the university gear. If it wasn't 2:15 in the morning I would have been a total tool) large fuzzy slippers and hair literally sticking out in every direction. I've been wearing a headband every day for a reason. I haven't quite figured out how to tame my hair yet. And after a couple hours of sleep, I look a little like I just stuck my finger in an electric socket. Add to that image the black smears of mascara I missed when washing my face the night before and it's really not too strange she didn't open the door more than two inches. Resume Story. I mumble something about turning down the music a smidge (I believe I also may have mimed the action of turning down a dial. I'm not sure.) As I stumbled away I couldn't help but think, wow, I'm pretty sure she was older than me. I'm the dork that just broke up the party cause I have to get my precious sleep. I felt kinda guilty until I returned to my blissfully quiet apartment and passed out within seconds. And I was able to get up to swim.

However, it is now almost 3pm and I'm starting to feel pretty damn tired. My whole plan of staying up until midnight tonight is looking grim. Wow. When did I get so old?