The Reports of my Death have been greatly exaggerated

AM: PT session
PM: 5 miles

New physical therapist who I LOVE.

New Orthotics.

Resuming blogging.

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.

St. Patty's Day 10K

Saturday - 10K Road Race (6.2mi)
Splits: 7:15, 7:00; 6:56; 6:51; 6:48; 6:41
Time: 42:46

So I decided to jump in a 10K this weekend despite the race being about a mile longer than anything I've run since Dirt Dog in November. I had a really good reason though. There was pizza and beer at the end. How can you pass that up?

So luckily for me my friend Andrew is training for a marathon right now and agreed to run with me during the race. The original plan was just to run our normal running pace and just kinda do the 10K as a fun run. Considering I couldn't warm up OR cool down cause the mileage would be asking a little too much of my body right now, AND considering I haven't run longer than about 4 and a half miles at this point, i figured just making it through the race would be an accomplishment. But we took off at a decent clip and were both feelin' pretty good. Andrew was great to run with and I just kinda held on as he cut down the pace to finish it up in about 6:40. I was really happy to be able to run that pace and feel so comfortable. I felt strong the whole time, and the whole experience got me super excited to start doing some workouts and to really rally for a race. I'm also so relieved that the knee felt good the entire time. Am I really going to beat this knee thing? It's almost surreal to think my running life could be normal again after 2 years of chaos. I'm giddy just thinking about it.

Anyhoo, I'm pretty exhausted now after the combination of getting up early, tempo'ing it for the first time in forever, and having a couple of beers + Greasy pizza. But it was totally worth it :)

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.

Getting Excited.

Fri - Off
Sat - 4 miles at Mission Bay

Big day today. Got to raise it up to 4 miles. This means I'm only one mile away from a "legitimate run". I also had the added bonus of running with Lyndsey (It's been so long since I've run with anyone. Kinda pointless to meet up for a 3 mile run). Once I hit the 5 mile mark it may be worth it to hit up some group runs.

I was at Mission Bay to watch the 15K at the bright and early time of 7am (mandating a 5:30 am wake up call. There's something about the difference between getting up when there is a 5 as the first digit as opposed to a 6 that just makes it so much harder.) It was great to see some of my friends have good races, and also just good to be in that runners environment. I've mentioned in blogs before how happy I am to finally be back in a running environment again. Having friends that run and can relate to my gripes and joys in running related topics is something I have been missing since college. Running took a back seat during my three years in law school, and as I slowly make the return to health and fitness I'm enjoying that running is becoming such a big factor in my life again. I also enjoy that being a runner is the norm again. In law school when I'd go for an 8 mile run people would be shocked! Awed! Amazed! Running as VERY solitary for me in law school. Every run was by myself. I didn't really talk about running to anyone and It wasn't until I got injured and lost it that I realized how important it was. So now to be talking about it on a daily basis, I feel a little more me again. I'll be honest, I often felt a little lost in law school. Wasn't really sure what I was doing, my confidence level was all over the place, and I never got too comfortable in my own skin. I really enjoyed my law school/San Francisco experience, but I think I was missing something. I had almost joined a running team up there and decided I "didn't have the time." I regret that decision now.

The point of all that rambling above is that being at that race surrounded by people that share my passion energized me. I still feel on the outskirts of it all and can hardly wait for my first race where I can step up to a starting line with confidence. I can hardly wait to hammer through those miles, pushing myself to the edge of my mental and physical strength. And I can hardly wait to finish the race and go out with my fellow runners to analyze every little neurotic detail of the course, conditions, and other runners.

I maintain my mantra of being patient, but I can't help smiling in anticipation.

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.