College.

Let’s see, where did I leave off? Yes, it has been awhile. I have moved, college has started, and I’m sorry to say that I haven’t accomplished any mileage goals since I moved into my dorm room.

But I did buy new shoes in July–a pair of Saucony ProGrid Guide. I also ran my farthest distance before school started–6.2 miles (10km). I accomplished my run at turtle pace, but I don’t care about that so much.

Currently, my goal is to just keep running. I don’t usually have a lot of time for long runs, and so my runs have just stayed in the 25-40 min. time range. My goal is still to run the Outer Banks Marathon in 2009. We’ll see if that happens…

Oops. I think it’s time for an update.

My monthly mileage for June didn’t come out like it should have, but I have good excuses.

The first week I took completely off from running because of my knee. The second week consisted of one slow 2.4 mile run. My cousins came for a visit, meaning that I didn’t have time, and when I did have time I was dead tired. But that doesn’t really bother me, because I knew my knee was still healing, and we were doing tons of sightseeing on the side. Visiting relatives left on the third week, meaning–freedom! I only accomplished two runs of 2.4 miles (and a short run-walk day), however, because my knee still felt “weird,” and I didn’t want to undo the healing that I had been patiently waiting for. I finished off the month with an addition 10.8 miles relatively evenly dispersed. My longest run of the month was my 3.1 miles that I accomplished yesterday, and my knee was okay. Yay!

I found quite a few supposedly good running stores in my area of NC, so I’ll be visiting one of those right away when I get there in three weeks.

For now, I’ll just be building up weekly mileage by the 10% rule and trying to create a “long” run as well.

A synopsis of the week.

Monday–I finished up my training plan with a 5K run, which went a little beyond what the plan actually called for. Yay!

Tuesday–I wanted to go running since I felt “freed” from my plan and there wasn’t anything to tell me that I couldn’t run on consecutive days, but my knee ached a little, so I decided to hold off.

Wednesday–A nice, slow run. My knee still felt a bit funny so I didn’t want to do anything that I would regret.

Friday–Unfortunately, my wisdom on Wednesday somehow left me on Friday. I ran 5K at a moderate pace despite constant “discomfort.” I won’t call it pain, because is was bearable, but it hurt. I really thought it would eventually go away mid-run like it had in the past. Well… I got home, stretched, ate breakfast, gave up on school work for the day, and took two ibuprofen which knocked me out for three hours. Yes, that last part is a little scary as I look back on it. The drowsy side effect could have been intensified my a slight lack of sleep, or maybe I now know why I usually take only one tablet (200 mg) for headaches during the day and save two tablets for nighttime.

Saturday through Sunday–I took off. I really wanted to start running four times a week this week, but I figured that recovery is more important at this point. Tomorrow, Monday, I’m going to hit the bike. And maybe the next day, and the next day… but we’ll see. Although I’m not noticing any apparent swelling, ice sure feels good.

The cause of my problem? Yes, it’s my shoes. No one needs to tell me. But, if I were to wait to start running again until after I bought new, proper shoes, I would be waiting until the end of July. (Shoes are cheaper in the US at this point, there is more variety to choose from in the US, and I don’t know enough about shoes to just order some. I need a running store.) Sorry, I just can’t wait that long. However, now I’m starting to think I might need to limit my weekly mileage until then.

Water Fun.

My family and I went to Prague for the first time Thursday and Friday. Living in Europe for nine years, you would think that we would have been there by now. Anyway, it was fun–I’m glad I can say I’ve been there now–but it’s tremendously overrated. I didn’t run on Friday while I was there (I probably should have just so I could say “I ran in Prague.”), but I’m going to count all of the walking as cross-training. : )

We arrived home around 9 p.m. Friday night to discover that a pipe under the kitchen sink had burst, and 3 inches of water now covered half of our downstairs. After calling up some friends to help us, we started moving out affected items and cleaning out the water. Besides soaked walls, wooden floor, some furniture, and some other insignificant items (like a board game and The Confidence Man, ), our greatest concern was for some photos stored in a cardboard box in the living room. So… my sister and I were awake until 2 a.m. pulling apart photos and negatives (from the pre-digital era) and spreading them out upstairs to dry. Meanwhile, my dad and friends pulled up part of our buckled wooden floor in order to save a connecting staircase (after taking pictures of the damage for insurance purposes, of course). I was rather annoyed and scared at first, but after thinking about all of the worse things that could have happened, it doesn’t seem so bad now.

Needless to say, I didn’t run Saturday morning as planned. I still felt like running later, so I decided to go in the evening instead. It wasn’t as excruciatingly hot as previous evening runs, but I felt like a windshield. Every so often I had to brush off little flying insects from my clothes, spit them out of my mouth, or wipe them from my eyes. Not only did the bugs irritate me, but some rather rude teenagers sitting right on the path didn’t want to move out of my way when they saw me coming. Have I mentioned how I don’t like running at that time of day?

Tomorrow is my last day of my training plan. I got a little behind schedule because I purposefully cut Saturday short, but I’m still pleased with myself.

A Week of 5K Run and a Rainy Day

I’m well again. The whole sore throat ordeal was rather peculiar. Usually two or three days after I come down with a sore throat the sore throat goes away and sniffles, and maybe a cough, takes its place. But not this time. Each morning I woke up expecting to need tissues throughout the day, but I never did. Weird, but I’m glad I’m better now. Those head colds sometimes last forever…

My initial goal for Monday was to run at an easy pace for 30 minutes. By the time 30 minutes rolled around, however, I felt great and decided to make it 5 km instead. This would happen to be the very first time in my life that I’ve accomplished running that distance without walk breaks.  Yay for me!

Today, on the other hand, was not so fun. I woke up to rain. I probably would have still run, since it was only drizzle at that point, but today I wanted to run with my dad, which I regularly do. Well, Daddy is not a fan of rain. We waited until 4 p.m., and by that time the rain had long stopped and the roads had mostly drained as well. Our goal was to run to a certain point–somewhere around 2.5 to 3 miles. I’m not sure what exactly happened, but around the 1.5 mile mark things started to hurt. First my calf felt “funny”, and then the funny feeling pain gradually made its way up to the spot around my knee that it loves to hang out at. Besides that, both my dad and I overdressed for the weather. Sure, the thermometer said 15C/60F, but it sure felt cold when we stepped outside because it was cloudy and damp. We should have went by the temperature. Whether it was a faster pace, the unusual time of day, a little less sleep, or the pinto beans I ate for lunch yesterday, I didn’t feel like I had much energy. We finally made it though, but I’m sure glad it’s over. It’s interesting how two similar runs can feel completely different.

I’ll be trying to add a bit of cross-training to my schedule in the near future. I eventually want to increase the number of days that I run. I don’t think I’m ready to do that quite yet, so I figured that if I go ahead and do something on the extra days I plan to run I will already have a habit for that time of day.

A quick update.

I wasn’t certain about running today, because I had started coughing more than I had been. But when the saying, “Running won’t kill you–you’ll pass out first.” came to mind… I ran. I felt worse than I have in a long time, but I lived through it and don’t feel any worse off as far as coughing/sore throat is concerned.

This week , with being slightly sick, I’ve tossed the two “strategies” around. If one comes down with a cold or any other mild sickness, should he or she completely recovery before running again or run regardless of health. This time I decided to try the latter option. For now I figured, if I suddenly developed a cold right before my very first 5K, I would want to know if I could really still run “sick.”

An extra run, sore throat, and heat: Not an ideal combination.

I usually run three times a week. It’s not the greatest number in the world, but that’s what my plan calls for. On Saturday, not a usual run day, I deviated from the plan and went for a second day in a row… and I did intervals (I think that’s what they would be considered as.), which I read I shouldn’t do until I increase my weekly mileage. It was a shorter run than normal, but I alternated periods of easy–very easy–running with shorter period of faster running (certainly not sprinting, but hard enough to push myself). Afterwards I felt great. Easy running for a straight 25 minutes started to seem a tad bit monotonous because I was afraid of running too fast in the beginning and not being able to keep it up for the whole 25 minutes. This put everything into perspective. And what do you know? Saturday evening I came down with a sore throat. Serves me right.

Because of the sore throat, which I still have, I didn’t go running this morning. However, I felt well enough to run this afternoon. I don’t recommend consecutive runs jumping 18 degrees (F). Okay, maybe that’s drastic just to me, but I really did feel the heat suck all of the energy out of me. Of course, I dressed for the occasion–it was the first time this year that I’ve run in shorts this side of the Atlantic–but it was still brutal. As a result, I cut my run to the same distance as my interval run on Saturday. I didn’t mind because of the heat, and I am battling a sore throat. Another reason to run in the morning: there are no flying, swarming insects congregating around your head at all times!

I’ll see how my soon-to-be cold progresses. If I feel the same on Wednesday as I do today, then I will certainly run in the morning. If I feel worse… well, you know. Rest day.

WordPress.com related, I realized that there is no way to reply to an individual comment, as in, there are no thread-type functions on WordPress.com. So we are expected to browse through all of the blogs that we’ve already read and commented on? A reply notification system would be nice, so commentors could know if the blogger responded to his or her comment. Or maybe I’m just used to LiveJournal. Anyhow, would it be correct to assume that in order to reply to a comment, a proper response would be another comment on that same post? My thanks goes to everyone who has given encouraging comments so far.

Behám hocikde. — “Huh?”

Living in a country other than the US, I had the opportunity to learn a foreign language. Really, if someone lives somewhere, anywhere, he or she should at least attempt, if not learn fluently, that country’s language. So what would “Behám hocikde” mean? “I run anywhere.” It does not mean that I run to anywhere. It means that I run anywhere that I currently happen to be. Whether I am in the US or overseas, whether I am at home or at Grandma’s house–I run.

So far, since January, I have tracked times and distances of “runs.” The only problem is that I also included my five minute warm-up walk and then usually a five minute cool-down walk. That wasn’t smart. Now I want to get an accurate pace calculation, so I’m entering less mileage (the mileage that I actually run) and therefore less time into my log. Ugh. Now it doesn’t look so impressive. If just anyone happened across it, it would look like I’ve been cutting down mileage instead of building it up. Oh well. At least I know my real pace, and it’s about what I think and not what others think, right?

For two nights in a row I’ve slept 5 and a half hours. I’m not running any races anytime soon so I suppose it’s not that big of a deal, but I’m still a fan of getting 8 hours of sleep if possible. Good for the body, good for the brain, good for the nerves…

Off we go: An introduction.

I’m not new to blogging. I read them, write them, comment on them, etc. I am, however, new to WordPress. In the past I used LiveJournal, Blogspot, Xanga… and of course networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. With LiveJournal still near and dear to my heart, I’m setting off on yet another, more formal, adventure with WordPress.

This is my official running blog. If anyone is interested, I also have a less formal running blog here, over at LiveJournal. WordPress seems a little up to my needs at this point, though.

Although I will primarily write about goals, workouts, mileage, running equipment wish lists, and other running related (RR) topics, I might also share bits and pieces of my life as they relate to running. We all need some drama every once in awhile.

I started running in the fall of 2008. I thought I would join Air Force ROTC to pay for college, and I needed to start working on the physical fitness requirements, which included running at a decent pace. Well, it happened that I didn’t need to apply for the ROTC scholarship, thankfully, but I’ve kept running off an on since then. Recently, this past January, I decided that if I was ever going to consider myself a “real” runner, I would need to commit more time a determination to running. And that’s what I’ve done so far. I start college next year. Keeping up with studying and running will be a big hurtle in itself. I also think I could someday run a marathon. I won’t be ready for it anytime soon. But someday.

So, if you’re still reading by this point, I hope you’ll stick with me in my journey, wherever it may lead me.