Blessing in disguise?

So I felt like I was finally starting to come around...I was up to running 50-60 minutes 5-6 days a week, which is pretty good considering I'm a stay-at-home mom to a 5 month old. Then...bam...injury! Right now I feel like a detective trying to figure out what's wrong. Lucky for me, I have some great friends who are runners and physical therapists, so they're actually doing more of the investigating than I am. Mainly, we're working on ruling out a stress fracture, so hopefully I'll have good news next week. If not, I guess at least I'm now motivated to work on my imbalances and weaknesses and will hopefully come back stronger and healthier.

Good luck to all the BRC team members who are racing in the coming weeks on the track and at cross nationals!

I'm Nervous.

So it's 12 days out from this one race (USA X.C.) that I feel like I've waited for basically my whole entire 24 years of life, and I'm so nervous I feel like barfing. Well no, that sounds negative. I mean I'm way excited but really nervous--it's kind of like being really excited for Christmas but terrified of Santa at the same time...or something. That's about the best way I can describe it.

I feel like last week went well, but not great. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being magnificent, 1 being I guess I should just give up running for putt-putt) it gets a 7.5. That's a C. I did some hills last Monday where I could not decide if I did a good job and ran them really hard, or if I did a terrible job and they just hurt real bad. I hate it when when I can't figure those things out. Kevin Bacon estimated that they were about 350-ish meters long (and he's English, he knows these things), they took me about 75-78 seconds each, and I did 10. I really want to buy a measuring wheel so that I can figure these things out for myself. That, and I'm just that cool. If anyone has one they want to sell me let me know. As an aside, on #8 I almost got hit by a kid on a skateboard. Okay seriously, the road is about 25 feet wide and there were NO cars--or anything else except for me running up it for that matter--and he almost takes me out. Awesome. Then the following Thursday I did 12x60/90, for some reason those didn't feel too fantastic either, sorta couldn't get the legs turning over that fast and felt all weird and uncoordinated-like. You know, like that feeling where you feel like your head is detached from the rest of you and the legs are just sort of doing their own thing. I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking about. But it was nonetheless enjoyable and was a really surprisingly nice morning even though it was flurrying a bit, it was really quiet outside with no wind or anything. Plus I can't complain as long as I get to be out there running. Then I had a Sort Of Long Run (my Long Runs are an hour forty, and those are every other Saturday, then the Sort Of Long Runs are an hour twenty five, and those are on the alternating Saturdays) that went really well on Saturday, I got to run with the UCCS distance guys, and they help keep me honest.

So this morning I did 75 minutes with some drills and strides and such, and I have a not-too-crazy ladder workout on Wednesday before taking it easy leading up to a week from this Saturday.

But yeah I'm nervous.

Today was a beautiful day for a run:) 75 minutes of running along the river never felt so refreshing. After spending 6 hours watching little kids this morning, I was exhausted. When I got home, I sat on the couch and debated whether or not I should run or take a nap. Needless to say I put on my shoes and slowly walked out the door. I'm so glad I chose to run because I have more energy now than when I got home.

Moral of my story is...just get your butt out the door and past the first 5minutes and you'll feel so much better!!!

Better Believe It!!!!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is having a good 4th quarter winter training sessions! It's been a very strange indoor season for me so far. I had took 7 days off which had started Jan. 1st. During that, I started living a comfortable life. By comfortable, I mean having to live a "normal" life. I tell ya, when I decided to come back from those days off, I had the mindset that Indoor season was just going to be a mess, I wasn't motivated to do much. But I jumped back into training quite fast. I was doing workouts that were hard, but felt comfortable doing them. I then asked coach Martin what he thought I should do as far as the season went. He told me, "the sooner you race, the better". So i took his advice!

University of New Mexico(UNM) has been hosting plenty of races, which I have taken advantage of. My first race of the indoor season was last saturday(23rd). I jumped into the mile. I went in the race with a mentality of... just compete. Sometimes people get caught up with, "I need to run this fast halfway", or" I better slow down". I had forget all about competing. I went out there just to compete. I went out really sluggish through the 800 (2:07). The leader had a 4 second lead on me halfway, I had to put in good work to catch him. It came down to the last 50 meters. I passed him with around 30m to go. but he came back on my shoulder and just nipped me! 4:10.31 for him and 4:10.35 for me! Too close. but nonetheless it converts to 4:04-4:05. I figured it wasn't bad considering how I ran it.

I hope everybody ends up reading my whole thread being that it might be a long story!

Ok so this past weekend was also a situation where I just listened to coach Martin. I was considering running the mile at UNM being that rumors where that Rupp was going to try and run a fast mile there. That was my mindset earlier in the week. But I felt really tired and really not in the mood to race again the following week, being that I had just raced and had a very long weekend. So I go to coach and ask him... "coach, what do you think I should do this weekend? Should I compete, and if I decide to, what race"? He thought about it and told me "you should run the 3k". "They are going to pace the race to make it go fast". My first reaction was... Holy Sh!t!!!! I don't feel ready for it!! But I told him that I would do it.

Race day comes and the field was pretty solid. you had Patrick Smyth, Ben Bruce, Kyle Miller, Darren Brown, Adam Perkins, Rory Frasier, all these D1 studs. But I didn't even think about how good they are or what they have done. I thought to myself, "if they can do it, why not me"?

Off we go! I stayed around 5th for most of the race. Don't really know what we went through half, but I felt really relaxed. I covered all the moves. The only mistake was not staying close enough to the two guys in the front. Anywho, I ended up 4th overall behind Rory Frasier(UNM kid), Patrick Smyth, and Ben Bruce. 2 seconds separate the 4 of us. I ended up running 8:10.44. Which converts to 7:58.something. I thought to myself.... This season might not be a mess after all!!!! lol. I know I have more me.

I am working on getting into the Meyo Invitational mile race this following week. I should find out tomorrow if they let me in. I might have to pace the 3k but I'll do it for a shot at my first sub 4!

After that, the following week I will go to Seattle for a 3k. I know, I know, I'm quite the whore on the track! But I want to have 2 qualifiers for USA Indoor Championships. Sucks that they don't allow altitude conversions.

I will keep everyone posted to see what the deal is with my following race!

Good luck to all in your upcoming races! Stay Positive and most of all...

Enjoy what you do! Don't Force it!

random

I do most of my running on my own. I run at weird times, do a lot of treadmill work, and my easy day pace varies quite a bit. So its kind of hard to coordinate with others. But in the past year I have realized how much benefit I get from training with other people. Before the World Championships Kevin Bacon did a couple of the longer hard workouts with me. It was a lot easier to get through with someone helping me along. I could do a lot better workouts with less effort while also having more fun.
Yesterday I did a workout with Cassie and we had a blast. I had to change what was on my schedule a little bit but it was worth it. We didn't run entirely together but we were both out there encouraging each other. It worked well because she is really strong from the start of the interval while I like to push the second half. I couldn't believe how fast it went by.
I'm super happy that my plantar was able to handle the entire workout. It started hurting on the cool down and didn't feel awesome today but I'm getting there.
In other medical news the eye twitch is back. I have an appointment with an eye dr. next week. Its been on and off (mostly ON) for 3 weeks and I've had enough.