Never say die

Wow, I didn’t know I could do this. But this run was amazing. I started off just at 9:30min/mi and ran at that pace for about 10 minutes. Then, I pushed it up to 8:00mi/mile for about 5-10 minutes. The last 10 minutes, I ran sub 8 minutes, and for the last 5 minutes of the run, I had my pace up to 6:30min/mi. I didn’t know I had that in me but it felt so good!

Again I feel a little silly for getting so excited about a run that would have been just my warm up just a half a year ago, but I’m recovering from surgery so every little step is a victory.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 02/09/2010
• Time: 09:11:06
• Total Time: 00:30:00.00
• Calories: 383
• Distance: 3.8 miles
• Average Pace: 7:53.68/mile
• Max Pace: 6:30.88/mile

So here’s what it is. Here’s the big secret to being in shape and healthy and this is how you do it:

Eat right
Sleep right

I feel SO much better now that I’ve cut high fructose corn syrup out of my diet (yeah, that’s right. It seemed impossible at first, but I eat nothing with high fructose corn syrup in it now!) and I’ve started eating less and less processed food. My breads are sprouted whole grain. I’m a vegetarian, so there’s no fatty meat with hormones. I’m eating right.

But at the beginning of this week, I was feeling a bit crappy. School’s just started up and I’ve been running around doing work and school and work and school and it’s just been chaotic. But last night I made sure to get to bed at a good time and I let myself sleep in this morning for the first time in ages and now I feel just amazing. I felt like I could run a good 6 miles this morning. But I’m not there, yet, but now my goals seem so much more achievable and I feel like I’m on my way to a full recovery.

Speaking of which, here are my goals:

to run a 5K on April 18th at a 7:40min/mi pace or faster

to run a 10K by August

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 02/06/2010
• Time: 13:54:30
• Total Time: 00:32:00.00
• Calories: 327
• Distance: 3.31 miles
• Average Pace: 9:39.71/mile

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 02/03/2010
• Time: 22:51:27
• Total Time: 00:20:00.00
• Calories: 184
• Distance: 1.95 miles
• Average Pace: 10:15.38/mile

I feel so pathetic recording these one mile runs… That would have been half of a warm up a year ago. Oh how I hate injuries… But still, I will take every mile I can get.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 01/29/2010
• Time: 20:31:13
• Total Time: 00:10:00.00
• Calories: 102
• Distance: 1.05 miles
• Average Pace: 9:31.43/mile

I’m addicted. I have a highly addictive personality, and fortunately I understood that about myself in high school and I stayed away from drugs and alcohol, and instead immersed myself in sports. When I took up running, that became my drug of choice, because there is absolutely nothing in life like that high you get after a run.

Well after almost a full year of fighting an injury, I’m on the rebound. I’ve spent at least an hour at the gym every day for 3+ weeks, kicking it on the stationary bike or pushing myself on the elliptical.

Last night, I made a random trip home (from Southern California to Northern California) and found myself sleeping in my childhood bed again. When I woke up this morning, I realized I didn’t have a gym to go to, so I went outside in the rain to take a walk. At one point, I jogged across a street to avoid a car, and when I hit that sidewalk on the other side, I just kept running. That is a freaking amazing feeling, let me tell you. There is nothing in the world like it. I was running in the cold rain with this huge silly grin on my face because I felt good . It all just came naturally. I immediately headed straight for the same route I always used to run, every single morning for the entire fall of cross country season. It felt so right and so absolutely amazing. I think it was the surge of adrenaline that made me run it at a 7:40 mile pace without even breaking a sweat. The only reason I stopped was for fear of my knee. It felt so good. I’m addicted. I shot up when I laced up, and I’m hitting a familiar high that I haven’t felt in ages. I can’t wait until the next time I hit the streets…

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 01/23/2010
• Time: 09:21:21
• Total Time: 00:12:55.00
• Calories: 165
• Distance: 1.67 miles
• Average Pace: 7:43.92/mile

I RAN a 10min mile this morning. Granted, that time is horrible and painful to announce, but the fact that I did it after half a year of pain, surgery, and recovery, I’m proud of that 10 minutes. I hurt through the entire time but what’s growth and strength worth if there isn’t a little pain in the journey to gaining them? Meanwhile, I’m completely ecstatic that I got through it. I started off slow, at a 12min/mi pace, but that went against the competitive nature in me, so by the end of the mile I was running at sub 8min/mi pace and could have kept going easily, but I was concerned for my knee. Right now I feel fine though. So I’ll ice, monitor it, and try again tomorrow.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 01/12/2010
• Time: 09:38:06
• Total Time: 00:10:00.00
• Calories: 102
• Distance: 1 miles
• Average Pace: 10:00/mile

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 02/21/2009
• Total Time: 00:30:45.00
• Calories: 365
• Distance: 3.68 miles
• Average Pace: 8:21.39/mile

Ugg. I was a mile into the race when suddenly this pain shot through the inside of my leg and upper calf like lightning. At the next intersection, I tried stretching it out. The stopping only made it hurt worse when I started running again. The next chance I got, I did some extensive stretching. It didn’t feel like it hurt any less, but I hoped it would go away. So I started up an overpass, and suddenly the pain was totally gone. So of course I started bounding up the little hill, feeling much better, then BAM! Write when I started going downhill my whole leg felt like my muscles were bunching and knotting and tearing. I limp-jogged to the bottom of the hill, where I called for a ride, then sat on a curb and stretched until the ride got there. :/ Good thing I brought my phone with me today. I almost didn’t.
This is mostly depressing because of 2 things. Today it was raining super hard. So I had pulled on swishy sweats that made me look like I was wearing a huge trash bag, and yanked on a Nike cap and hit the streets. It was an amazing feeling, splashing through puddles and dodging raindrops. This injury just ruined it.

Oh, and the 2nd thing. My next meet is Friday. Gotta be better by then!!

So I’m ice-ice-icing. I don’t know what I did but it feels like a really bad strain.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 02/11/2009
• Time: 18:04:08
• Total Time: 00:21:32.00
• Calories: 270
• Distance: 2.7 miles
• Average Pace: 7:58.72/mile

12 x 300s with 100m jogs
Avg split time: 1:15

Wasn’t really feeling it today, but everyone has those days.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 02/10/2009
• Time: 09:20:26
• Total Time: 00:21:50.00
• Calories: 300
• Distance: 3 miles
• Average Pace: 7:16.89/mile

Wasn’t sore at all today. Which means I either didn’t put enough into the race yesterday, or I’m in really good shape. Or maybe a mixture of the two. But anyways, all through the run I was going through my race in my head. My next meet is this coming Friday and I’m doing the 1500 and 3000. My coach thinks I’m ready. So my time might not go down so much for the 3000 as I’d like, but we will see how this goes. Here are my goals for this meet:

Go out steady - I’m not going to jump off the starting line, but I’m also not going to put myself behind everyone. I’ll find a comfortable pace (1:45/400m probably) and go with that.

Work at negative splits - I did a good job at yesterdays meet slowly getting faster, but I can do a better job of it next time, I think.

Working at the competition dynamics - What I mean by this is if the girl I’m pacing myself with is going too slow, I’ll immediately move on to another girl in front of me, etc.

Have a fun learning experience - I’m just going to enjoy running!

Also, this next week I want to reach 40 miles/week. My knees doing pretty good so I’m just going to go for it!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 02/08/2009
• Time: 13:20:20
• Total Time: 00:46:31.00
• Calories: 560
• Distance: 5.64 miles
• Average Pace: 8:15.19/mile