Weekly Recap: July 13-19 2009

Mileage: 48.1

Time: 7 hours 19 minutes

Strength Training: 1 full body day, 1 upperbody day, 1 lowerbody day

Core: 5x

My miles were down from last week but still (I think) on the high side. I was on track for a low 40s week but stress at one of my jobs pushed me to run an extra run on Saturday. A lot of my runs were slower than usual, and they weren’t the 5am ones! I’m not sure what that says about my legs (or my mentality when running).  Overall I’m not sure how much better / rested my legs feel after the cutback week.  I also didn’t get that much sleep this past week so I’m sure that influenced my muscles in some capacity.

Hopefully my computer returns to me today and I can put some thought into typing out a weekend recap of sorts rather than a fly-by-posting on an old bad computer.

Time to buckle down (Part 1?)

With absolutely no incentive to get up early and run the past two days (sadly the humidity I’m facing now is not enough), I’ve slept in.  And potentially destroyed the early bird running adjustment that had begun. Granted, my sleeping in is 830 (which sounds about right for many of you early birds here) but still.  And I’m feeling extra tired because I didn’t fall asleep until late last night or the night before.  Wednesday night I’m sure it was overtired but last night prolly was because it was the first hot and humid night we’ve had.  Hello summer? You’re finally showing yourself now?

Running:

This week is a cutback week and as of this morning, I’m only about 2 miles under where I was last week. Problem? Maybe.  I’m cutting today’s (long) run wayyyy back, from 14 to 8, so hopefully that helps with the weekly mileage.

Yesterday (Thursday)I did a lower body and core strength routine followed by a 6-ish mile run (and I plan on creating a page that describes my routines soon, I promise!).  The run was one of those that when I got back I was pleasantly surprised at my pace.  I felt like I was running through some really heavy medium, like molasses or something but was actually running at my usual pace.  Not sure how I exactly feel about it; on one hand it was nice to see that I wasn’t as slow as I felt but OTOH the pace felt creepy crawly and the legs heavy.

Today (Friday)Like I wrote above, I cut my “long” run to 8.5.  It was HOT. But oddly enough I don’t ever really feel the heat when I’m running, basically just when I step out of my house and when I get back.  I’m glad I decided to listen to my head and stop when I did because the heat definitely wiped me out, hitting me only after I was showered. I did Week5Day3 of the pushup challenge which felt really really strong today.  Yay!

Not Running:

Took another MCAT prax test yesterday. *shakesheadandsighs*. Not where I want to be.  So today I am planning on sitting down and going through the 3 tests that I’ve done question by question and doing them all out so that I KNOW I can do it. Most of it is stupid stuff, most likely of which I won’t make the same mistake again but there are certain topics I feel shaky on. I’m also borrowing a friend’s study materials too so I can have different books / perspective on the material.  I need to buckle down! (and this post is titled part one because there might just be a part 2 somewhere in the future)

Part of the problem is that I’m also trying to write the review article, re-vamp my medical school list and send out a billion emails to the incoming freshman as part of my peer leadership “job”.  The MCAT is the most important, therefore needs the bulk of my attention. Wrote all of that BEFORE my computer crashed this afternoon.  I should have seen the signs because my laptop was on its last legs.  So now the MCAT is the only thing I can do once I leave the library today.  Lucky me? Eh, maybe. I’m just hoping that A) my computer files are all recoverable and B) the cost isn’t that much.  Oh well. Nothing I can really do about it now.

On a positive note: last night I went shopping and started picking out pieces of clothing that will make up my “professional wardrobe”. Eeek. This is a step towards real-person-dom!  I got some really nice stuff, and it didn’t *entirely* break the bank, just a sizable dent.  I don’t know what it is about shopping for (nice) clothes that makes me feel so nice especially since I’ve always been more of a tomboy at heart. Much more comfy in my running shoes than heels (and since I’m 5’11” heels aren’t fun). 

Going to wrap this up by saying have a good weekend.  With luck, I’ll get my computer back tmrw morning (I’m paying extra to have it be a rush job) and I’ll be posting over the weekend.  If I don’t, well it could be a blessing in disguise because it means no procrastination via the internet.

Overtired

I don’t know all you really early birds do it day after day.  I was all perky yesterday from my early morning into late night and even this morning I jumped up to run at 510am. But I’m crashing.  Hardcore. Right now. Please bear with this post if it’s incoherent 🙂

My run was pretty good.  I mentioned that getting out of bed wasn’t that hard, and it wasn’t. It wasn’t as fast as yesterday (which surprised the heck out of me) but it was still a respectable pace that I wouldn’t mind seeing on a daytime run.  The only downside to getting up at 510 is that the sun wasn’t out and it made me a little nervous to be outside running alone.  Typically when I lock up the house I hide the key somewhere on the property but this morning I took it with me (so I could use it as a weapon if need be). On the other hand, the upside was that I actually got to see a summer sunrise, which was lovely.

The reason I got up earlier than yesterday was because I wanted to fit in a half hour of core and arm strength moves after the run.  And I’m proud to say that I killed my arms and abs.  It wasn’t anything new or different but I think I really focused on not half-assing my way through the stuff.  It’s amazing what a little mental power push can have on the outcome of a workout.  I doubt I’ll be that sore tmrw but I really really felt the burn. Which is pleasant in it’s own right.

I had a whole rest of a post typed out but I deleted it.  Because it was too whiny and I think I’m going to try and do what Sarah is doing: trying to complain less.  Suffice it to say: I am stressed over the MCAT, my G.P.A and my choices of medical schools I want to apply too.  Which all relate to one another.  So it’s three stresses for the price of one. And I’m so overtired that I’m getting frustrated by my lack of focus. Woah. Rethinking that thought: I will enjoy watching a movie until I fall asleep pass out in bed. I don’t fall asleep that often anymore after doing something that *isn’t* med school / internship related.  I WILL revel in it tonight.

On a related medical note, the day at the hospital flew by.  I got to observe more patients, but there were overall less patients in the schedule so I still got to do some research and pull some articles for the article review / lit review I’m doing. Still struggling with how it should all be organized (any ideas?).  Nothing too exciting to report, except that I get excited to go into the hospital and be surrounded by people who are what I want to be.  Plus, I drove into the city (and out) successfully today in rush hour traffic.  Yahoo! (See? Positivity baby)

Oooo and check out this birthday giveaway.  Pretty cool.

First full long day

Well I guess it hasn’t really been *that* long of a day per se I guess.  But it was my first full day and I’ve been up since 530 so I’m going to call it a long one.

My wake-up was at the aforementioned 530.  I wanted to get a run in before heading into the clinic and I’d much rather get up early than wait and do it after dinner and late.  Oddly I felt more awake at 530 than I typically do when I get up at 6.  Maybe my brain was just jarred into being awake or something because I felt like I had mental acuity than I almost never have.  It was like being hyper aware of everything.  Doubly odd because I went to bed fell asleep around midnight.

My run was pretty freaking awesome too.  I didn’t get to see the sun rise (still up too late for that) but I got to see that pretty little hue that tells you it’s freaking early. My pace was also faster than normal. Like a minute per mile faster. Maybe there’s just something to running extra early and sleep deprived. We’ll see tmrw when I get up at 5 so I can get into the city (as opposed to a hospital satellite location closer to home) on time.

And since I was running faster than I planned I had extra time to get ready, which is never a good thing because pressure leaves me no time to sit around and procrastinate.  So I ended up leaving later than I planned.  Oh well.

The first day on the job went well, I guess.  There wasn’t a whole lot of patient interaction on my part.  The doctor that I’m with didn’t have that many patients today so I got to use the hospital computer to do some research and I think I’m getting somewhere with it. I was able to print out a lot of articles to go over tonight and discuss with her (the doc) tmrw.  I also think tmrw the day will be busier patient wise so hopefully I’ll get to learn something in that respect.

Nothing really exciting to tell you. Oh wait! I forgot that there was a kid, who I never met, but I got to look at his MRI for his knee.  He hyperextended it and tore his ACL completely, his MCL partially as well as small tears in a quad muscles and ligaments.  I don’t know if it sounds impressive here but to look at the MRI and see the damage kind of made me awestruck.  I mean, the kid (and I actually don’t know if it was a boy or girl)’s ACL was so puffy that it looked painful to look at. Okay, so lame story but it was really cool if you were there, I swear!

So I’ll leave you with that.  I’m off to go over research and (hopefully) MCAT stuff. Hopefully my lack of tiredness doesn’t catch up to me!

EDIT: still changing around the theme of the blog. Hopefully that’s okay with y’all. I seem to have theme-ADD! haha

Perfect week for a cut back week

The title is a little tongue in cheek because it *is* a perfect week as last week was insane BUT running is my stress relief and…

I feel acutely stressed out, with no apparent cause.  Well, maybe the stress is from nervousness as I finally get to interact with patients tmrw at my internship.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the research that I’ve been doing (more so the actual learning rather than the tedious process of finding sources and writing a paper) but I really love meeting patients and finding out what’s wrong with them and trying to fix it.

Ok well maybe I don’t exactly do that. Yet. But it’s wicked fun being around a doctor who is doing it because she tells me why she’s doing stuff and all that jazz. So hopefully I’ll have something really exciting to tell you (within reason.  I have to sign a confidentiality form, which makes me giddy because I’m finally going to be at the hospital *doing* something!) And, as a side note, it’s funny that I find patient interaction to be my favorite thing because I am a terribly awkward person in real life which makes meeting people interesting to say the least.

I got a really good run in today.  And by good, I mean recovery and less miles than I wanted.  Very good because after inadvertantly running 58.2 miles last week I know my legs need less pounding than that this week.  I need to finish writing up a schedule for this week to stick to because without a overarching plan I tend to overdo it.  Opposite of most people in life with respect to running (or exercise in general) but I think it’s pretty common among runners.  At least those that I know.

So my workout was:

• 1.5 mile warmup
• Full body circuit / weights (including W5D1 of the pushup challenge)
• 6.5 mile run (yes I know 6.5 miles isn’t exactly short but better than the 8 or 9 I was planning before I remembered my cutback week plan)

Overall a good workout that left me tired in the I-pushed-myself way, not the my-body-needs-rest way.  Very satisfying indeed. If anyone’s interested, I was thinking of putting together a tab/link and including my lifting / circuit routine. I know I’ve talked about the routine in a past post or two but thought it might be useful to have it in a easily accessed location. Thoughts?

The rest of my day shaped up to be MCAT work mostly.  Which felt eh, I think I’m becoming better at really slowing down and understanding what I’m looking at before answering the questions but who really knows. I thought that the last prax and I failed it.  Oops. But no worries here.  I think that if I stay calm the results might just be more favorable. What a crazy and novel idea!

Off to finish organizing my gmail account.  Stupid me, I accidentally re-imported another email account of mine into the gmail one and now I get to go through all 1200 + emails that just got dumped into my account.  Grrrrrr. And then it’s The Closer, bed and an exciting day tmrw!

Weekly Recap: July 6-12 2009

Mileage: 58.2

Time spent running: 8 hours 43 minutes

Warm up/down miles: 4.2

Strength Training: 1 full body session day, 1 upperbody day, 1 lowerbody day

Core Training: 5x

As promised, the running week in review. And WOW. Mileage is WAY higher than I thought it would be.  I didn’t take a rest day this week OR an XT day which compounds it. I guess I never really ever look at the week as a whole as well and just go day by day. I thought I was in the upper 40s / low 50s! My legs aren’t feeling terrible but it definitely pinpoints the high mileage as a root of my lethargy and crankiness; there’s something to be said about my ignorance I suppose.  This upcoming week shall be a cut back week for sure.

The good with the bad

I’ve in kind of a bad mood / funk right now so I’m going to try and keep this short to minimize the complaining  haha.

I had a *terrible* night last night. First, I tried to get some studying/practice testing in for the MCAT but that didn’t go so well and I ended up staying up later than I wanted because I was super frustrated over the whole thing.  Upon reflection it’s no wonder I did poorly (or semi-poorly) because I haven’t had a good solid 8-9 hours of sleep in quite some time.

In any case I finally fell asleep and a *massive* thunderstorm rolled through and literally jolted me out of bed at some ungodly hour! Naturally I’m have an irrational fear of t-storms so falling back to sleep was tough. And when my alarm went off at 6 I was going to get up and run a bit but I figured with less than 5 hours of sleep, I’d skip it and try and make it up after work.  I’m sure the people absolutely loved me at work. I went from so tired I’m hyper to major crash and back again.   Didn’t help that every loony-toon person out there decided to shop and seek me out for advice / help!

Unexpectedly my boss let me go an hour early so I was able to fit in a mind clearing 7.3 miles.  It was toasty but it felt so good just to sweat out my bad feelings and all the lingering ick I’ve been accumulating the past few days. Running is such a good detoxify-er, and in many ways: perfect cure to a hangover, bad moods, residual ick both mentally and physically. I’m really glad I was able to get that run in and be able to run as far as I wanted rather than having to be back in time to make dinner for the kidd-os, which usually occurs when I work my shift plus extra.

Well since I started off complaining I’m going to leave you with things that went well this weekend, because I have the tendancy to only talk about the bad and not enough about the good.  So:

• I had the house to myself all day Saturday as well as Sunday morning; the rest of my family was in NY at a family reunion.  While I didn’t have a raging kegger or anything I did enjoy the evening because I got to hear the *quiet* that occurs when I’m the only one around.
• Running pretty much always can lift me up and be a highlight.  My run yesterday was a spectacular recovery run, perfect pace and perfect feeling.  And as I mentioned above, the run I just got back from was much needed and provided some clarity.
• Work.  Yes, I just complained about it but I got to leave an hour early! Yahoo! Plus, yesterday at the gym I was able to draft my med school application essay and bang out some “work experiences” and prioritize them.
• Getting through another MCAT prax test. Again, I just complained but, seeing as nothing in my life is 100% bad (yes I do realize that), the mere fact that I got through it and gained exposure is a good thing.  It will only make me stronger.
• I’ve been able to sit down and enjoy a good book; really getting absorbed.

So I said I’d make this short, but I lied.  I suppose it would have been short if I just stuck to complaining haha. But recognizing the good that happened was beneficial (maybe just to me) because my funk is lifting a bit.

Ok, I’m going to try and start a weekend recap a la Jess.  Hopefully I will post that shortly, just need to do a little number crunching!

To be or not to be…pride edition

I was  so proud during my run that I did not react at all to the catcalls, whistles, horns etc. that were directed at me.  I’ve gotten so much better at *not* giving ’em the finger and saying a few choice words.  Then about a mile from being done I lost it.  Well, not really.  But at mile 12/13 of a 14 mile run in temperatures that are 15* warmer than they have been my patience isn’t at it’s peak. So when I was crossing the street and a car ignores the stop sign and almost hits me I was actually happy to say that all I did was give an evil look.  But when the driver leans out the window to tell me to “Be careful, I almost hit you” in an uppity-snooty-soccer-mom-suv-driving tone, I just had to snap back with “well why don’t you learn how to stop at an effing stop sign”. Except I didn’t saying “effing”.

But other than that the run was great.  It ended up being 14.1 miles and the pace was great! Yeah, sure it was a little fast (it was actually MP + 20 seconds! Yikes!) but it felt strong by the end and I think I could have eeked out another mile or two easily. It was an epic fail pace wise, but I’m thinking that hopefully it means my MP could be faster.  Yes, I will live in denial with that train of thought.

Other than my run, it’s been a pretty unremarkable day.  I did make a lot of calls to doctors (both my own and the ones I’m working with) AND I was able to reach every single one. On a Friday. Woot, way to tie up loose ends! I also got a prescription filled and while I was waiting I got to see a very angry woman berate all 3 pharmacists and the store manager because her prescription wasn’t filled yet. I understood her point that her son really needed the medication but if the pharmacy doesn’t have the drugs on the premises, yelling isn’t going to do any good.  Very awkward while I was waiting.  And it was very hard not to laugh out loud. My entertainment on a Friday night.

Speaking of entertainment, the fourth season of The Closer came in the mail today! I’ve already seen it but I had to watch it online because I was in school and we don’t get cable *gasp*. $50,000 a year and we don’t get cable.  Bull.  I do have to outline an essay and compile a list of relevant work experiences for my Med School app so I might put on a couple episodes and try and multitask.  I do have 6-7 hours of work at the gym tmrw which means I have 6-7 hours to do work behind the desk so I’m not too worried if I don’t get anything done but it would be nice to have some starting point.

Oh well, off to go pick up pizza. Enjoy your Friday night!

Edited to add: check out this awesome giveaway!

Summer? Where are you?

So it’s not as though I want to be running in hazy hot and humid July weather but I mean it sure would be nice if we got a seasonal weather day or two for a beach trip or something.

The constant rain and t-storms have created some really nice running weather for the area.  When I went outside today I’m pretty sure the weather was 60* – if that, the ultimate running weather complete with a slightly overcast sky.

I did a 1.5 mile warmup, the pace of which was a little faster than warmup pace, followed by some leg strength and core work.  Nothing spectacular but enough to get my legs warmed up and primed for the impending run.

My run ended up being 7 miles at a pretty decent pace. My running had been feeling pretty strong lately and I attribute it to a couple of things:

• Warming up:  Today, as well as the past couple days, I’ve been warming up.  This is because I like to do my strength routing before the actual run and hate lifting/circuiting on cold muscles.  I always forget how important a warmup is.  Most of my easy runs I’m just jumping right in and try to hit my pace immediately, which leads me to feeling tired and worn down, rather than listening to my body.   But with a warmup (of any sort) my muscles are already primed and ready to go for the actual run. Definitely something I need to work on.  I do warmups for my tempo and speedwork runs but I always think “oh this is an easy run, I can just go.”

• Strength training my legs: I think a lot of runner neglect their legs when it comes to lifting because they think “I beat up my legs enough via running.” Well yeah, sure.  But lifting strengthens those legs in ways that running doesn’t and, in my opinion, complements what running does to ’em.  It helps toughen up ligaments and tendons and helps make me feel like I’m treating my legs right.  And by doing that I think I can run smarter.

• Hydration:  This is a simple one.  On days that I drink more H2O my runs feel easier.

The 7 miles I ran today just flew by and the strong feeling in my legs hasn’t yet translated into me pushing harder than I should. I’m trying to commit to taking my runs a little easier (getting out of La-La-Land) so it’s really nice to feel like I can run faster and I’m choosing not to.  Much better than the alternative.

On a nonrunning note, I was much less accomplished today than yesterday.  I managed to look at everything I had to do but I said, “Eff this” and proceeded to read a good mystery book.  Bad to-do list decision but a *very* good life one.

La-La Land

My run felt a billion times better today than yesterday.  My legs were a little tight and took about a mile or two before they loosened up.  I set out on a 7.6 mile route but I was feeling good and rebellious so I tacked on an extra .5 to make it 8.1.  My pace was slightly faster than yesterday but not by much which is a good thing.  It shows that I can be consistent and hold myself accountable to really going easy on days that I’m not going hard.  I’m trying to get myself out of La-La-Land; that pace that’s too fast to be useful but also too slow to be useful. Apparently my body loves that pace for training even though it won’t really yield anything come race time.  Except, of course, a La-La pace.

Afterward I did some arm and core.  I didn’t set out to do this but I basically did my strength routine minus the leg work.  Oops! I started out with my pushups and then wanted to do some more arm work because it felt good.  And I ❤ my corework so there was no way I was giving that up.  So before I knew it I was late for an appointment! Luckily it wasn’t anything I had to shower for but I still felt bad showing up all gross!

Today was also a day where I showed my uncanny ability to finish my runs a millisecond before a big storm hit.  It was so big that there was a tornado warning! I was no where near the actual touchdown site but my area was included in the warning.  Kind of cool, you know mother nature and all, but I’m sure it would have been a sight to see one.  Makes me feel all Wizard of Oz-y.

Seeing as how I broke out of La-La Land with my running today I decided to take the initiative and really flush out the article that I’m writing.  It’s on adhesive capsulitis (aka frozen shoulder syndrome) and diabetes.  It was a good fit between me and the doctor I’m working with, as she’s into endocrine and I’ve toyed with ortho.  I was able to finish the intro (minus the editing process).  Granted the intro is the easiest part but at least I have something to show her when I go into the clinic!

One aspect that I’m hurting in is the wallet.  I just got A) my tuition bill for the fall and  B) a partial list of the books I need for my classes.  Being a science major sucks because every book is a textbook that costs, minimum, $150.  Thank god for Amazon, even though I’m tempted to spend lots of money of things like t.v. on dvd.  I did plunk down $25 for the fourth season of The Closer.  Not too bad considering I wanted to buy the first 5 seasons of NCIS. Because I am a huge sucker for older bamfs. Someday I might share the list of my dream hollywood men.  And yes, they’re all 40+ (I’m 22 for reference). I think I’ll leave you with that eye candy.