Cross-Country Travels (but not the Running Kind)

This week, I have not done any running. Or really any exercising of any kind. I know that's not good, and I'm not entirely proud of it, but it has been kind of a crazy week.

The weekend ended up being a lot crazier than I expected, and though I did go with a new buddy on Sunday, the long run didn't end up being long or much of a run. I think we did around 4-4.5 miles and we walked most of the way because I kept getting crazy cramps after about 10 seconds of running. We did explore a few very pretty parts of Pasadena, though, which was exciting, and it was nice to be outside on such a beautiful day and spend some time with a friend.

Monday and Tuesday were spent up in Malibu at Junior Retreat. I brought my stuff with me, but there didn't end up being much free time for running (unless I had gotten up at 5:30am to do it, but I was too tired for that - 7am was bad enough).

The beautiful retreat center in Malibu.

I left the retreat a little after lunch on Tuesday to head straight for the airport (shoutout to my awesome chauffer, Dad!) to surprise a friend of mine who was to graduate from Navy boot camp out near Chicago the following day.

Two days, two uniforms. Dress blues on top and NSUs on bottom. And no real smiling in the military, or so I'm told.

The trip has been a whirlwind so far - I got in late Tuesday night, hung out with the graduate & family Wednesday, and did Thanksgiving things today, and we're about to head to the airport (yes, at 1 in the morning) to hang out with him overnight before his flight leaves tomorrow morning, at which point I will spend the day with my suitcase in Chicago before I fly home and do a post-Thanksgiving visit with my own family since I wasn't with them today.

Phew.

My hope is to run on Saturday and get myself back on track next week now that life will be pretty much back to normal. I have another trip planned for Christmas break, but since I'm visiting the friend I met while training for the other half marathon, I'm just going to make her go running with me while I'm there so it should work out better for my training next time. Here's hopin'...

Kind of an Off-Week

This week hasn't been my best (in terms of training anyway).

I mean, I did run the fastest I ever have on Monday, but it's been a bit of a downhill ride since then. I skipped yoga on Tuesday so I could go with our volleyball team to Palm Springs and cheer them on in CIF semifinals. I even got to be the "assistant" trainer and sit on the bench! It was pretty fun. Plus, they won!!

These aren't actually from the game on Tuesday, but it's still them, so good enough.

Then, of course, after going to and from a volleyball game with high school students 2 hours away and not getting home til almost midnight, I was not feelin' the working out Wednesday. I came home and crashed. Slept many hours. It was lovely.

On Thursday, Rachel and I went running after work, but we were both not having a good day of it. Our usual level of chit-chat was waaaaayyyy down because both of us were almost out of breath. Not sure if we were running faster than usual or were just having a really bad running day, but it even got to the point that I got a huge sideache for the first time in a long time and she could barely keep moving, so we started walking at about 2 miles and did about 2.9 mi total in 38:45.

And finally, I had all intention of going to yoga today. But I'm also on junior retreat and then Thanksgiving vacation next week so I had to get everything in order before I left, which means that I missed yoga. I can't be completely sad about it, though, because if I'd gone, I wouldn't have had such a beautiful drive home and wouldn't have seen this when I got to my front door.

Rain makes this even prettier than the Santa Anas. And it comes with cold weather, so I'm all for it!

Since the girls won on Tuesday, they have CIF finals tomorrow at 10am. I got special faculty passes from the Athletic Director for agreeing to do crowd control for our fans, who luckily for me are good about sportsmanship anyway. Yay for getting in places for free!

I'm also pretty psyched to be going with the Cappasolas and my uncle to Catching Fire in IMAX tomorrow. My juniors said it was SO great. We all know high schoolers exaggerate, but I'm still excited about it.

Of course that means I'm not running tomorrow either... But there's a football game at the Rose Bowl anyway so I'll just do my long run on Sunday. And hopefully I will have a new running buddy to tell you all about. So, until then, enjoy your weekend everybody!

Thinking ALL The Things!

Today I had to run alone.

That gave me lots of time to think of awesome things to write about in tonight's post. And I did come up with lots of things, but apparently I can't stay focused on one thing for very long when I run so I never got very far with any of them. So today's post will be a sampling of all the things I thought about writing about but never fully developed. I hope you enjoy it!

So the first idea I had was to talk about this pattern I've started to discover in myself. Pretty much every time I start a run, this is how I feel:

This happens especially when I'm alone. I get all tired and think about how it's no fun to breathe this fast without a break and wonder how I'm ever gonna make it to the end of the run and why I ever thought it would be a good idea to run 13.1 miles all at once. Twice in the same 6 months.

But then, once I've run 2 miles -- pretty much every single run ever -- I start feeling like this instead:

It helps sometimes to know that I'll feel good in like 20 minutes, but it is a long time to wait. Luckily as soon as I started thinking about that, my mind moved on.

I saw a couple people wearing shirts from various places I associate with certain people. One guy was wearing a Los Alamitos shirt (where my dad is from and my grandparents & Godparents live, as well as where another friend of mine grew up) and one girl was wearing an Upper Arlington sweatshirt (assuming it's the one in Columbus, my friend MaryPo at least worked and maybe lived there). I also saw a couple wearing Northwestern gear (where the very same MaryPo went to grad school for journalism).

This is MaryPo. I think we may have gone running once.

I also thought about writing about various things that motivate me to run. Today, I was surprisingly tired after work. Usually when I'm tired like that I can barely keep moving, but today I was running rather faster than usual (I'll talk about that more later) because all I wanted was to be done and get home to a shower and sweatpants. I was also more willing to push myself today because it was cooler than it has been - 60s today guys! - and because a friend's grandfather died this weekend and I was offering my run for their family today. You all also helped out some. I'm glad I stole Other Colleen's blog-writing idea because no matter what is actually true about your interest in what I write, I feel obligated to be truthful and try hard so I don't disappoint you...

Then I spent some timing remembering when I first started running and the few things I learned then from my good friend Galli.

St Patrick's Day 2010. He made disgustingly green eggs.

He was the first person to take me running, back at the RecPlex at UD my senior year. He was in much better shape than I and would entertain me by telling long stories to keep my brain occupied and not focused on how out of breath I was or how much my legs hurt. He also had a somewhat obnoxious habit of telling me I needed to start running again every time I caught my breath (I still hear it in my head when I finish a run sometimes). He did teach me a few important things, however: stay as upright as possible, don't move your arms much, and keep your breathing slow - a few steps in and a few steps out. I still count how long my breaths are when I run. Usually I stick to 4 or 5 steps breathing in and 3 or 4 breathing out, which is actually how I could tell I was running so fast today - it was more like 3 in, 3 out for much of the run.

Then that made me think of pretty much the only thing I've changed since then: my stride. Lydia the trainer said that maybe my knee was hurting earlier this year because my muscles were all tight and perhaps because I was running with a heel strike instead of a mid-foot strike. So now I try to run with a mid-foot strike. My leg pain a couple weeks ago may have been part of my body getting used to running differently. Silly body.

This is what it looked like at the end of my run. The picture really doesn't do it justice. It was gorgeous.

Near the end of my run, I was wondering how fast I was actually going. I knew it was faster than I'd ever run (except maybe that one time I ran to get my energy out after what those of us on the Notre Dame MTS intramural volleyball team of Spring 2012 like to call the Valentine's Day Massacre), but I wouldn't let myself check.

**DRUMROLL PLEASE**

I ran the loop in 31:31 today, guys!!! That's almost a 10-minute mile! I know, I know. Pretty slow. A 10-minute mile is me pushing it harder than I did today. But whatever, it's the fastest I've gone yet so I'll take it. Go me!!

Parties at the Park & Training at the Beach

So I've discovered that, as a result of being a teacher, I tend to be lame on the weekends. I'm just tired all the time and don't want to do anything. So this week, to make sure I couldn't be lame and bail on people, I invited a bunch of people over to my apartment so I couldn't cancel on them. It was a good life decision.

Back in South Bend, I had a couple different circles of friends and I was always planning things involving all my friends and bringing people together. Friday night, I did that same thing here and I finally felt more like myself instead of just like the new girl in town. It was lovely and I was thinking how I should do this more often...

But then around 11, one of my neighbors came and asked that we be quieter so he and his kids could sleep. We weren't being super-crazy or anything, but 15 people having a couple different conversations can get kinda loud I guess, so since I live near a park we decided to just head down there. It was still quite fun, but now I'm wondering if I can host more such get-togethers. I'd really like to, but I don't want to be disrespectful to neighbors either. Dilemma. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Now, I suppose, to the real reason for posting -- the long run. To start off, today I finally trained with my half marathon buddy!!

That's her. She's awesome.

I ran from my parents' house down to the coast and along the beach for awhile, then met up with Kristy and we walked to the pier and back from where she started. It was gorgeous and not too hot (YAY OCEAN BREEZE!!!), and it was awesome to get to catch up with Kristy for awhile. She just started work as a nurse in the ICU and is super-busy. I was lucky I even got her to come out because she just finished her third night shift in a row, and this was her first stretch of nights. Shout out to Kristy for being awesome and walking with me =)

And that was our view. Also awesome.

Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what I decided to do about the length of my long run today. Well, it's funny you ask because I'm not entirely sure. I mapped it when I got home (see below) and it said 5.5 miles. But the reason I got a ride home with Kristy instead of running/walking back is because based on her calculations I had already done 6.5 or so. Our technologies disagree. What I can say for sure is that I ran for 32:28 and walked for close to an hour, maybe more. I'll have to try to be better about keeping track of distance in the future.

Not sure what to make of this whole business...

But, either way, I went outside today and did some healthy moving around. And then I made myself a breakfast of champions: scrambled eggs, a Honeycrisp apple, and an eclair my mom made for my dad's birthday party last night. I'd been up for a few hours at this point so I figured dessert was okay... right?

I can hardly believe that today is already November 17, which means we're down to 2 months and 2 days until the race. Also, this is post #10 for me. Time flies, man. Hopefully it will fly during my run tomorrow since I may not have a running buddy. Good thing I have you guys to keep me motivated!! I will do my best to think of something more interesting to write, but I make no promises...

Week 3: Nothing Too Exciting

Hello devoted readers!

I realize it's been a few days since my last post, but life just hasn't been all that exciting. I'm starting to wonder how I'm going to keep filling these posts - sometimes all I have to say about my run is that it happened...

So let's see, last I updated you I had just gone on run #2 without pain. Which was exciting.

Then, on Tuesday, I went to yoga. You may recall that my normal teacher -- whom I absolutely adore (can you name that Mary Kate & Ashley movie?) -- is out of town for 3 weeks in India. I think I like the one who's subbing on Fridays (though I didn't go today), but I don't think I like the guy who's subbing on Tuesdays. It's hard to explain, but the way he talks when he leads is kinda irritating, but more importantly I felt like we didn't do anything. I think I must've had a class like his the very first time I tried yoga because I remember not liking it because it was too much like doing nothing. It's good that I went I'm sure, but I want Carrie back.

I realized while I was watching Nikita last night that the title character kinda reminds me of my yoga teacher. Go figure.

Then, on Wednesday, I took advantage of another perk of working at a high school with a sports program: we have a weight room. Again, nothing too exciting - I got on a bike for *almost* 30 minutes and then did a plank for a minute. Also, I read what I thought was the last Percy Jackson book. I finished it later that night only to find no resolution and a cliffhanger. I felt cheated and was a little confused, so I went to the website.

Wish I'd know before I started reading. What a letdown.

Thursday was another running day. I cannot even describe to you how exhausted Rachel and I both were after school and how much we did not want to go running. But we did. We decided to walk the middle .3 miles, but we still finished our loop in 35:46, which I'd say is pretty darn good. Especially given how tired we were. And how hot it was (finally hit the 70s once the sun went down).

And then today I rested. I think my body is trying to decide whether to be sick or not, which makes sense at this point in the school year. I'm doing my best to be good and not get sick, but we shall see.

My plan as of now is to do my long run on Sunday morning at the beach. I'll be down at my parents' house for my dad's birthday this weekend, so I've got to take advantage of the lovely ocean breeze.

Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to do a little of this as well!

The original, overwhelming-to-me training schedule says 7 miles, but it also said 4 for last week and I did 6 (I suppose that's what happens if you don't look), so we shall see what actually ends up happening. I might be going with my half marathon buddy Kristy if she's up for it after first 3 night shifts in a row, or I might not - I imagine she might be even more tired than Rach and I were yesterday. I will keep you posted.

Happy weekend!

Running Without...

Today, I ran without socks.

I forgot them when I packed my bag for after work, and Rachel and I were running together today and she drove, so no chance of going back once I figured it out. It worked out okay, though. I did have these lovely little things.

I thought it would be uncomfortable and a pain, but it wasn't. It was actually fine. Mostly because *knock on wood* today I also ran without pain. That's the second time now, and I did take some ibuprofen and am currently icing the Achilles/calf area of my left leg, but that's definite progress. Hopefully this continues.

Today, I ran without boredom. My lovely roommate accompanied me and we chatted on and off for our 3.1 miles (which we finished in 33:07, for those of you out there keeping track - I'm pretty sure that's somewhere around a 10:40 pace, so not bad). We also ran into part of the cross country team from the school where we teach - they were definitely running faster than we were - and saw some people playing with these little planes that make really annoying sounds.

And finally, today I ran without feeling like I was gonna die. I probably could've run faster if I really want to push myself and, by the time we finished, I felt like I probably could've kept going. And I don't feel like I'm dead for the next couple days. So this is good progress methinks.

And now I get to drink chocolate milk. CFitz for the win.

I Hurt All Over... But NOT In That One Spot!

Good news, guys -- I ran today and my leg didn't hurt!

I mean, it hurt in the normal way of being tired because you're using it, especially when you went to a yoga class yesterday that focused on legs, but not that one place that it's been really hurting for a week. So I call it a win.

There were a lot of things I noticed/thought about/realized today during my run, so this post is probably gonna be relatively piecemeal. If you like bullet pointed lists more than flowing paragraphs, this post is for you.

• I like running with people.

Natasha, my running buddy for the day. She got some compliments on her awesomely bright shirt.

When I go running with people, I feel much less like I'm exercising and much more like it's a social event. I push myself more because I want to keep up with them and I enjoy the time because I'm spending it with someone. As some of my grad school friends would point out, this is the extrovert in me coming out for sure. I have many friends who probably like running because it's an excuse to be alone...

• Saturday mornings are more interesting than weekdays at the Rose Bowl.

There were a couple hundred recruits running together and chanting as they went.

And a police car announcing them and trying to make jokes.

Lots of little kid soccer games to watch.

Horses. 'Nuff said.

There were also some UCLA kids training for triathlons. We saw them getting off their bikes and changing into running shoes, and even saw one girl kinda wipe out as she was transitioning. 

• However, I think I might like going on weekdays after work better.

And this is why.

Yes, my car had been sitting in the sun for 90 minutes, but also EIGHTY-TWO DEGREES!? It was probably a few degrees colder outside, but that's too warm. When I go after work, the sun is going down, so the second half of my run is completely in the shade and the world is cooling down anyway. Not so this morning. That might be enough to deter me from running on Saturday mornings in the future. 

• I should probably eat before I go running. And bring water with me.

In a lot of ways, I really enjoy working out first thing after I wake up. The problem is, that usually means I don't eat before I go. In some ways, that's good because I don't get sideaches from food; but also that means I haven't put any fuel into my body in many hours, which isn't necessarily ideal for running, and especially for long runs. All that to say, perhaps it would be a better choice not to run in the morning?

• Apparently my legs like my old shoes.

If you can't tell, they're the ones on the right. My poor new blue shoes must feel neglected since nobody likes them.

I don't really have a serious problem with this, but I do worry/wonder about what will happen when the red shoes get worn out. I bought the second pair so I wouldn't have to stress about finding shoes when I needed them in case I was busy or something, but now I don't know what I'll do if I can't wear the old ones anymore, since my Achilles/calf doesn't seem to like the less worn in ones. Hopefully Lydia the trainer has some suggestions...

• And finally, I'm not in awesome shape, but I'm actually not doing too bad.

And I still have some time! Today, Natasha and I ran/walked the first 3.1 miles in 37:47, then I did another 1.3 mi in 18:58 (which included stopping to say bye to Natasha and walking part of it, and then finished the whole 6.1 mi in 1:26:03 total. I probably ended up walking about half of the 6 miles, but that's pretty good considering I only really started running 2 weeks ago, I had run once in the 9 days previous, and I was trying to take it easy on my leg. I'm not 100% where I'd like to be, but I'd say I'm doing pretty well given my current situation.

And I have 10 weeks to improve. Hopefully my leg will decide to cooperate.

A Week Pretty Empty of Exercise

As you may recall, last time I ran my Achilles tendon was hurting and we didn't exactly know why or how to make it better. Well, it kept hurting pretty much all week. It was sore Monday night, I couldn't even use the stairs at work on Tuesday, and it was sore on and off Wednesday and Thursday.

This morning, as we were having our usual to-carpool-or-not-to-carpool conversation, Rachel mentioned that she was going to yoga after school, so I decided I should probably do that as well. And I did.

But first, we had sophomore retreat. In a happy shift from last year, I wasn't in charge of most of the planning this time so I just got to go and lead a small group. And look at all the nice things the girls said about me during affirmation time!

Sophomore retreat affirmations from my girls.

You'd think that after essentially having a day off - not teaching and all - I'd be full of energy and not tired. Not the case. We got back to school at 2:40 and yoga wasn't until 4, so - no joke - I went up to my office and took a nap on my little couch before I got my car washed and then headed to Yoga House.

I was a little nervous after my 4 strikeouts when it came to finding a teacher I liked there, since my normal teacher is out of town for 3 weeks, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about her replacement yet, but I think it was good that I went.

And my leg doesn't hurt today, so I'm gonna try running again tomorrow. I've definitely failed at the training schedule this week (1/3 runs, 1/2 yogas), but I suppose when one is injured things have to change. Hopefully I can get through tomorrow without pain and get back on track. 

More to come...

The Grey Area

So, if you don't know this about me already, I have studied a lot of theology. During undergrad, I majored in Religious Studies and then I went of to become a Master of Theological Studies as well. There are many foci you can have when studying theology: you can focus on liturgy, doctrines, Scripture, ethics, or -- my favorite -- history, and of course within each of those concentrations there are even more foci to choose from.

That's us, the Rel Studs of UD. And I think all of us even do stuff with our degrees...

I have loved Church history since high school. Especially the early stuff. Especially heresies. I love reading the ideas of different people as they try to figure out how God can be both one and three or how Christ can be - and must be - both human and divine. I love trying to make sense of why the East and West split apart in the Middle Ages (leavened vs unleavened bread mostly, in case you were wondering) and how bishops came to be a thing.

What I don't really like too much about the study of theology -- and what I tried shamelessly to avoid as much as possible while studying theology -- is ethics (which is ironically what I teach now to high schoolers nowadays for a living). I don't like ethics. Know why? Too much grey area.

This is Lydia. She's the coolest.

Enter Lydia, the trainer at the school where I work (I highly recommend working at a school with a trainer, by the way. It's mondo convenient). As you may recall, my Thursday ended with her telling me not to run again until she saw me again on Monday. So, rather than do yoga on Friday and run (or even walk) 5 miles on Saturday -- sorry, Kristy!! -- I sat at home with my family and looked through pictures of me when I was an adorable baby. Like this one...

A ride around the dining room with Dad.

And this one...

With my uncle, who was in fact my high school Church History teacher.

And this one...

My grandparents on my dad's side.

I also wrote comments about all the students I teach to go along with their quarter grades. It was a very exciting weekend.

But back to the point. My leg no longer hurt when I went to see Lydia, who determined that the problem was definitely my Achilles tendon, but also that there was no black/white in this situation. There are many things that could be contributing to my calf muscle freaking out and many things that could make it better and/or worse. Essentially, there's lots of my favorite: grey area. I just have to keep trying different things and see what works best.

Meh.

I like knowing what to do so I can just do it and be done. Apparently, this is going to be a growth opportunity for me...

And that is how I feel about that.

In other news, I went running again today and did the Rose Bowl loop in 35:22, which is pretty good, especially considering that I wasn't going my fastest because my Achilles was hurting me. And I felt like I could've run further if I hadn't been in pain. So I'm calling that a win.

Yay me!!

And in more other news, I informed Other Colleen that her training schedule freaked me out a bit, so she's kindly working on another. So in honor of that, and of her, and of Halloween, here's a picture I stole from her blog of the two of us when I did her Pippy Longstocking hair back in college.

Oh, 232 Stonemill. How we miss thee...

We're also running a half marathon on the same day (which I'm convinced she'll finish in half the time I finish mine lol), and she really likes matching people when she runs races so we're going to try to match. I'm pretty psyched about it.

...

I still can't think of a good way to end these things. But I'm late for something so I think I'll just have to cut it off there. Ciao, y'all!!!