Long Day

Remember how I was exhausted by the end of the day yesterday? Yeah, well I’m exhausted again today.

But let’s start from the beginning. I woke up around 7:30am to get to my grandma’s neurologist appointment. Usually the guy is right on time, but this time we sat in the office for 15+ minutes. It was okay though, because while usually this guy is super brusque and not too pleasant, he was actually pretty nice today!

After that, I got home and debated going for a run today. Eventually, the gross weather combined with a sore right foot and quad convinced me to not bother. That quad worries me because when it’s been tight before, I’ve ended up with some pretty bad knee pain. And that right foot has just been annoying lately – first my ankle, then right below my ankle and now up the back of my calf. The last thing I need is problems with my achilles, I have enough other things to worry about.

All this lame ass pain led to a date with my friend Foamy:

Say hello to Foamy.

It’s sort of an abusive relationship, but it’s the good kind of pain. I hope.

It’s also been over a week since I’ve done a strength workout – oops – so that was on the cards today.

DONE. 25 minutes of oh so necessary pain.

I’m so clever, I know.

Another thing on the cards for today?

Studying! I swear, it never ends. I have so much reading to do, but fortunately I managed to polish off a few chapters today, as well as get a list of topics for my history paper.

Don’t know which one yet, but I have till Tuesday to decide so hopefully I figure it out by then.

So tired.

Despite not getting out of bed till 11am today, and really not doing all that much, I am exhausted.

I started off today with a 2 mile run. Not part of the plan I had for the week, though frankly, I’ve realized I never follow those. I give up.

Anyways. Back to my run. After yesterday’s 3 miler, which didn’t go too bad – and definitely better than most of my runs of late – I was hoping for good things this time around.

I didn’t have time for 3 miles, due to that 11am wakeup call, so I thought I would do 2 miles but do ’em fast, as in under 8:00 miles fast. Not fast for anyone else, but fast for me :)

SEE?!

NEGATIVE SPLITS. By one second, and during a 2 mile run, but still. Someone call Guiness. This run was tough, and at the end there I really had to work to stay under 8:00, but it was so worth it.

Now I supose I should show you yesterday’s run too.

PROOF.

I even took the post-run Garmin photo. Figure I should show off my fancy toy since it’s the reason I’m so broke. And 54:10 is most definitely NOT my pace. I think I could crawl faster than that. With both legs broken. Splits were 8:08, 8:58, 8:17. Not great, not horrible. At least I managed to speed up again after mile 2.

And now since I have an early – 7:30am – wakeup call tomorrow morning, I’m off to attempt to foam roll some sense into my insanely tight quads and then make friends with these guys for a couple chapters.

Friends?

Here’s to hoping I get a couple of chapters in before I pass out.

Sunday Summary: first edition!

Everyone and their mom has one of these alliteraton-y posts and I wanted one too.

So, ta-da: Sunday Summary. This is where I see how much of a slacker I’ve been look back over the week.

So the plan:

• Monday – 3 mile run, lower body
• Tuesday – upper body
• Wednesday – 3 mile run
• Thursday – 3 mile run, lower body, upper body
• Friday – beginner yoga (hopefully!)
• Saturday – 5 mile run, upper body
• Sunday – rest

The reality:

• Monday – rest
• Tuesday – rest
• Wednesday – strength
• Thursday – 3 mile run
• Friday – running from doctor’s office to doctor’s office
• Saturday – 3 mile run
• Sunday – rest
• Total miles run: 7
• Total strength workout: 1

Oops. In my defence, my ankle was really sore this week. So sore that I’m officially switched over to the 5K for my June 9 race. I don’t really know if my ankle can deal with a 10K, but I know I have at least a 26 minute 5K in me no matter how crappy I feel.

Then a week after that I have another 5K, which I’ve yet to sign up for but will. Soon. I hope. And then after that it’s time to properly rest my silly ankle and get my lazy ass to physio perhaps. I want to heal up this ankle completely since I have a couple 10K’s this summer and a half marathon on September 30.

So, with all that in mind, here’s my workout plan for this week:

Monday – 3.5 mile run, goal pace 8:25

Tuesday – 3 mile run, goal pace 8:25

Wednesday – 3 mile run, goal pace 8:25, strength workout

Thursday – rest

Friday – 3.5 mile run, goal pace 8:20

Saturday – 3 mile run, goal pace 8:20, strength workout

Sunday – rest

That’s right. Time to stop being lazy and actually hit a specific pace for these runs. I don’t wan to add much distance since my ankle is sore, but a little bit of speed won’t kill me. I hope.

And no relation to this post what-so-ever, but I saw The Avengers again last night and so:

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW :)

It’s a Loki pony! So cute it hurts.

Now off to do more painful things:

So many pages…

Blech.

Too Hot

Apparently these days I all but die in 19 degrees Celcius. That’s 67 farhenhait for you Americans. That’s pathetic, for everyone. Yeah.

You know what else is pathetic? My ankle. It still hurts. My arch was fine, despite lots of concrete running, but my ankle was still being a bitch.

So I switched my next race from the 10K over to the 5K. Or at least I asked them to switch it. Deadline is today, so hopefully it all works out because there is no way shape or form this ankle is letting me pound on it for 6.2 miles in two weeks. Not a chance.

Besides, with the 5K I know i can do it, since I felt like shit today and look, I still did it!

PROOF.

Less than 9:00 miles. I’ll take it. I think the goal for the 5K on June 9 will be under 25 minutes. So an 8:03 pace or less. Gulp. I’m pretty sure I’ve never run that fast for 3 miles.

As shitty as my run was, at least I was well entertained?

Surprise, surprise.

That’d be cop cars, an ambulance and later a fire truck at my old high school. I am so proud to be an alumni. SO PROUD.

And now I’m done, mostly because I need to go shower and get myself looking presentable to go see Avengers with some friends. Loki, take two.

SO HAPPY

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :D

I hate my ankle.

Remember how I was so pysched to do that 3 miler? And I even planned out a nice soft route for it? Yeah, well I did the run. It was 3 miles. And it was pathetic.

My foot did not hurt at all until that last 0.5 miles that I did on a sidewalk. Win.

But guess what did hurt? My ankle. Stupid SOB. SO MUCH PAIN. I didn’t post yesterday because I was literally at the point of crying. Not from the pain – it wasn’t that bad – but from pure frustration.

I run on concrete, my foot hurts. I run on grass, my ankle hurts. Something tells me that I’ll be making good use of the treadmills at my gym from now on. And perhaps my physio.

To make it worse, I have a 10K on June 9. That’s in 2.5 weeks. My longest run to date has been 4 miles. I have no idea how I’m going to run 6.2 miles. Maybe I should see if i can switch to the 5K. At least I know I can run 3.1 miles even if both my ankle and my foot flare up. I need to make that decision soon, since the deadline to switch is this Saturday.

I probably will switch. I feel so defeated :(

And to make it even worse, I was going to run a 5K on June 15. No idea if that’ll happen now. I’m hoping I can do that, and then rehab.

Though speaking of rehabing, each physio appointment costs $60. Um yeah. I only have $500 of physio insurance, so that’s only eight appointments.

FML.

I hate to end this post on a pissy note, so I have one bit of awesome: I spent last night riding around on a motorized scooter with my best friend from grade 4. WIN.

 

Not Exactly As Planned

So maybe that 3 mile run didn’t happen today. Whatever.

The plan was to wake up at 8am, breakfast, and then set out for a quick 3 miler. I even had   a pace in my head that I wanted to hit – 8:15. And a route planned out. Oops.

However, despite that minor hiccup, today was semi-productive. I did scrub the kitchen, so there’s that. And I went to class. All three hours of it.

And, in truly unexpected news, I actually did a strength workout!

Complete with sweat.

No, I do not watch Jersey Shore. I refuse to sink quite that low.

I did the deck of cards workout I saw on Janetha’s blog. My version was hearts = squats, spades = pushups, diamonds = reverse crunches, clubs = shoulder presses. Since my ankle is still being an ass and I’m a complete wimp the pushups were knee pushups and the shoulder presses involved  five pounders. Whatever.

PROOF. Those are the suites. Not just scribbles. I promise. But it is sideways. You win some, you lose some.

I also did some balances and learned that it is ridiculously hard to stand on one foot for a minute with your eyes closed.

Then I foam rolled. Why are my muscles so tight and yet my ass is so flabby?

AVENGERS WAS AWESOME.

Even evil would-be dictators do not approve this lack of logic.

Also, I’ve decided that by the end of this summer I want to be able to do the splits. Is that even feasible? I have three months to make this happen. It may hurt.

The Productivity that Never Was

I was all set to write a post about how productive I was today.

And then today actually happened. Oops.

It started with waking up all sore and achy. And not good “I worked out and kicked ass” sore, but a “my body hates me” kind of sore. With a dose of pissed off stomach on the side.

So yeah, those 3 miles I had planned? Not so much. So now the plan is to get in the 3 miles on Tuesday before class instead. Unfortunately that means that I’ll need to get up probably around 8am (ew, and yes I know I whine too much) and I’ll need to blow dry my hair, which is a 1/2 hour process.

But, while today didn’t end up being as productive as I’d hoped, I did still enjoy myself since me and a couple guy friends met up.

Since a) it was just guys and b) I wasn’t feeling too great, this was all the effort I managed to put into my appearance.

My face…

Admittedly, in my defence, I did change into jeans. And put on boots. So I was almost sort of kind of making an effort? No? Fine. No effort.

That’s okay though, since our time together consisted of this.

I lost. Many many times.

And now I’m off to ice my poor sore foot. It better be grateful, since my 3 miles tomorrow are going to consist of running 1.5 miles south and then 1.5 miles north just so I an run on grass. I so much prefer loops when it comes to running, an out-and-back route seems really boring to me for some reason.

Do you prefer out-and-backs or loops?

Ow

Remember how I was soooooooooooooo excited that I managed to run 4 miles without stopping?

Yeah well my feet were less than excited. My left arch hurt like a bitch all day afterwards, even though I iced and stretched it. It’s kind of a jerk.

It’s a little better now, and I’m hoping that it’ll be okay enough for me to run 3 miles tomorrow. 3 miles that will definitely be run on trails or grass rather than concrete. Or maybe on the treadmill. Puke. Or the indoor track. Speedwork with a sore arch and an injured ankle is a  brilliant idea.

But hey, it’s the end of the week, so how did I do workout-wise?

• Monday – 3 mile run, foam roll
• Tuesday – upper body strength
• Wednesday – 3 mile run, foam roll
• Thursday – 3 mile run, upper body strength REST
• Friday – rest 2 mile run
• Saturday – 4 mile run, foam roll, upper body strength
• Sunday – rest
• TOTAL:
  • run: 12 miles
  • upper body: 2

So not quite, as I’d like to have gotten in an extra upper body workout since mine are so short (15 minutes). BUT I am impressed that I got in as much foam rolling as I did, since I foam rolled after every run. Definitely need to keep that that.

And now goals for next week:

• Monday – 3 mile run, lower body
• Tuesday – upper body
• Wednesday – 3 mile run
• Thursday – 3 mile run, lower body, upper body
• Friday – beginner yoga (hopefully!)
• Saturday – 5 mile run, upper body
• Sunday – rest

As much as I love pounding the pavement around town, I’m going to try to get most of those runs – especially the 5 miler – done on trails or grass so that I don’t hurt my arch more. I’m a little sad, because while I am lucky enough to have riverside trails, my town – unlike me –  is rich. Gorgeous houses worth over a million dollars that I get to lust over during my run. Gorgeous houses that I’ll never be abe to afford. Sniff. I’ll miss them.

Oh and on a sidenote, before you go thinking that I live in this pristine little rich person city, take a look at what was beside my bus stop this morning:

I don’t think that’s how it works…

Why yes, that is a chair on the garbage can. It’s been there for a couple of days now. Something tells me whoever did that didn’t really think their idea through.

4 miles DONE

That’s right. Distance PR right there. Also hopefully means I’ll be able to run 6.2 on June 9, yes?

But let’s not get ahead of myself. Let’s do splits.

Clearly I don’t do a “warmup” mile. Oops.

I know, I know, I am queen of negative splitting. If you look at the last two miles anyways.

All in all though, I’m pretty pleased with this run. My goal was to keep my average pace under 9:00 min/mile and according to my brand new toy, I was successful.

And yes. Let’s talk about that brand new toy.

Pretty toy…

Ain’t it nice? Garmin 210 from when Sportchek was having their Friends & family sale. I forgot to take a photo right after I run, so you don’t get Garmin screen proof. I promise I’m not lying. This is motivation to run. Sucker hurt my credit card too much not too.

Now lets talk about other things that hurt. Namely my right ankle, which I’m currently icing. Iwas a bit worried about how it would react, but I took an Advil pre-run (bad habit? yes) and it ended up not hurting too much and it’s not swollen so we’ll call that a success.

And to (hopefully) continue that success, I’m off to eat and then at some point today do this:

This may hurt. Especially that last one.

All in the name of well-rounded fitness. Ew.

 

Windy and in pain

So I didn’t run today.

My reasons? Winds gusts outside definitely didn’t help. Running is hard enough without being blown backwards. Plus I ran yesterday. 3 miles @8:51 per mile. Meh

But I have another reason.

A couple weeks ago, I went to Europe on a family vacation. Europe was AMAZING. All the cobblestones? Yeah not so much. I’m pretty sure I rolled my ankle at least ten times and hour while we where there.

Pretty canal.

The ankle deathtrap of evil. And a nice horsie.

So yeah. My ankle’s been complaining ever since.

Unfortunately for it, I have a race coming up. Soon, in fact.

The Starbucks Run for Women Vancouver 10K. Yep. June 9. At this point, my longest run was a 3.5 miler before vacation. Before my ankle decided it wasn’t a fan.

So with that in mind, here’s (hopefully!) this weeks training plan:

• Monday – 3 mile run, foam roll
• Tuesday – upper body strength
• Wednesday – 3 mile run, foam roll
• Thursday – 3 mile run, upper body strength
• Friday – rest
• Saturday – 4 mile run, foam roll, upper body strength
• Sunday – rest

Totally dependent on me actually being able to run without too much pain. Cooperate ankle, cooperate.

My other issue? Lateral knee pain on my right knee. I iced it last night, but frankly, it’s just the same today. I have a history of knee pain, so I’m REALLY hoping this doesn’t get too bad.

Not being able to run or do lower body strength is no reason to slack however.

Courtesy of my whiteboard.

 

BAM. And yes, I’m a wimp because those were knee pushups – can’t do real ones with my ankle – and the weights for the flies and bicep curls were 5lbs. Yeah. I know. My former gymnast and basketball player self is ashamed.

Now off to shower, do my hair and paint my toenails. Because the last time those got a fresh coat of paint was, oh, last year. Yeah.