Recovering From The Weekend. A Case of the Too-Much.

Happy Monday y’all! Hope your weekend was as great as mine: too much running, dancing, drinking, eating and having fun 🙂

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, both here and FB.  Yesterday was definitely the best birthday I’ve EVER had.

After I hit publish yesterday I got an amazing birthday run in.  The temps were ultimate fall and the sun was shining.  My legs even felt surprisingly springy considering the weekend’s activities of long runs and celebrating the day I blessed the world with my presence.

I ended up running while the sun was low in the sky, not quite dusk but it felt way late.  In reality it was only 13 or 1400 but it felt way later.  Definitely different from watching the sun RISE every other day.

It was an interesting run because I had been driven home by my friends from Boston and lots of coffee was drunk along the ride.  It’s not even that far of a drive! So while the run was great, it was frequented by a couple of stops.  I can now tell you the friendliest and unfriendliest places to ask to use the restroom now.  Which is never an useless thing I suppose.

After the run my roomie took me out to dinner at Red Stripe which is an American/French restaurant in Providence.  I ate the Red Stripe Grilled Cheese and it was amazing. I’m going to pretend, however, that massive amounts of butter are actually GOOD for your arteries when it’s your birthday.  I’m definitely not shy with my butter usage but my fancy grilled cheese was quite buttery.  And amazing. Sadly there are no leftovers for lunch today.

It was a lot of fun to dress up for another night and go out to dinner.  On a VISTA budget I never go out to eat.  No pictures because, well, I’m not a food blogger so I never carry my camera around like that.  Normally I wouldn’t even mention going out to dinner on the blog but it was just the ultimate way to end my birthday: A nice relaxing good meal.

As was the fact that the Patriots won.

Thanks Boston Globe Sports

❤ my Pats

My Monday started with my alarm going off at 0500 (funny tangent: 0500 was the time I went to bed Saturd well I guess it was Sunday morning at this point, and my thought was “Gee this is what time I’m waking up on Monday.  Oops”) and, well, let’s just say that I ate A LOT of dinner the night before.  AK A I’m typing this at noon and have yet to actually be hungry today. No GI distress or anything (surprisingly) but it was weird to be running while still full.  Normally I’m decently hungry when I get up in the mornings.

In any case all the running and dancing from this weekend took its toll on my legs and this morning I was feeling a bit achy. It was a pretty intense weekend after all. And my body in general was tired, as when my alarm went off I kept hitting snooze.  Although when it went off I woke up with a start and had no idea where I was.

I tried to get an easy run in but, even after cutting the planned distance short before leaving my apartment, I also cut it short once I started.  My pace was so slow, even taking into account the achyness that I figured it wasn’t worth it to keep going. So I still got a run in just not as far as I wanted.

At this point I’m beginning the taper process I guess. I still don’t know what that means as this is only my third marathon and my last marathon I was injured so my last 4 weeks of training/tapering were all screwy.  And I’m still weighing the pros vs cons of taking this week as hard/intense.  I definitely think this past week will be my highest mileage week but I’m still at a loss of what workouts to do this week and beyond.  I’m thinking:

• Tuesday: tempo of ~5.5 miles @ 7-7:15 pace (I’ve given up targeting GMP)
• Thursday: lr of 17-18 miles
• Saturday: yasso 800s

Then the following week (which will be T-2 weeks!) I’ll do:

• Two tempo/GMP runs
• Long run of 15

Then it’ll be race week.  And that will be maybe a fartlek or something just to get turnover. Thoughts on my taper plan? My mindset is always GO GO GO so it may be too much.

Hmmmm musings this morning while I was running and foam rolling as I also used some of my usual running time to get in some roller love. My hips and glutes are the most achy and it felt good to get in there and mash up my muscles and tendons.  An actual massage would have been nice (even better from a hot male) but I’ll take what I can get.

Now I’m just hoping to make it through Monday without getting sore.  But, after having a really good weekend (seriously really really great) today isn’t that bad.  I even treated myself to DD this morning.  Simple pleasures.

Which is what this comic is.  It’s actually my favorite and I was so sad when it went to Sunday only but then my bro bought me a book of them so it was all good.  But here’s one from a few weeks ago.  It combines running AND football.  Amazing.

Birthday Round 3

Kind of. I’m actually not going to talk about it because I am very upset with my friends.  My birthday was kind of a bust with no one wanting to go out with me.  Very disappointing.

That disappointment, however, did pave the way for a good run today I guess.  I’ll always maintain that happy runs are the best to keep going and not feel bogged down while angry runs are intense but they lose momentum pretty fast.  That was the case today.

I started out really strong.  The weather was 60*, overcast, slight breeze.  Perfect conditions.  I headed out feeling emotionally heavy and I was determined to shake that feeling via the run, so I pounded it for the first half or so.  I really don’t even remember anything about the first 50% because I was just so intent in leaving behind the ickyness that I was feeling from yesterday.

The second half I lost a bit of stream, more so in the case that my pace slowed.  Definitely a good thing: after 23k (14.4 miles) yesterday my body didn’t need another beating! It was also a good thing because it meant that I had been successful in getting the angry pumping stuff out of my system.  This half of the run felt better mentally but it also let my realize how hard I have been pushing lately.  My legs felt heavy over the last few miles and my chest kind of burned in that exhausted way (I wish I could describe it better than that!) and I was pleasantly tired at the end.

It may also have to do with running lots of miles (again) this week, although the feeling wasn’t one associated with logging miles. It was the feeling that I left everything I had out there.  I haven’t totaled up my week but it’s likely going to be high again. That coupled with my longest long run for quite a while definitely explains the lead legs. And as a quick aside: I ran 8.6 miles today to bring my weekend total to 23 miles haha!

And in a much better mood than I started with.  A definitely plus as I faced a MOUNTAIN of work that I had put off all weekend.  Definitely still not all done as my Spanish drama (called  Fisica o Quimica for whoever asked last week) beckoned and who am I to deny its call?

But right now the call of my homework is getting louder.  So I guess it’s time to not ignore the French paper, French poem, independent study slides and reading for multiple other classes.  Guess I’m lucky that I’ve stopped sleeping?! Haha.

Awesome job to Jess who beasted the San Antonio marathon today.  I’ll let her tell everyone how she did but I just wanted to say that she’s amazing and I want to run as fast as her!!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday nights and hope the week gets kicked off to a nice start tmrw 🙂

Birthday Round 2

Last night was fun but in a totally different way than Thursday. I went to a bball game on campus and then hung out with my closest friends (at least the ones who decided to stay on campus – LAME).  We also went to the “pub” on campus and talked a bunch about random stuff.  It was a great recovery (although there was slight alcohol usage) from Thursday night and rest to gear up for tonight.  Still have absolutely no plans yet.  A little bummed about that but hey, I guess it’ll all work out? And no Evan there shall be no pictures posted here.  In fact, whatever happens I will not allow cameras to be in attendance 😛

A chill night last night was really nice because I wanted to do my 23k this morning.  The only bummer was the weather: Hurricane Ida is here and starting runs in the rain isn’t very fun (for me at least) and that’s what I was going to have to do.  The time I wanted to go was, however, the only time that there was a less than 60% chance of rain.  So I took the chance. And the upside was that it was actually pretty warm out: about 52* when I left my room.

The run itself was really good. As much as I complain about running in the rain it makes me feel like a bamf.  Especially when you take into account that I didn’t see a single other runner/biker/walker out there the whole 14.4 miles (yes I realize that it’s 23.175k but it’s a great route to run and I didn’t want to find a new route).  My thoughts were all over the place.  From my birthday to Hot-Spanish-TA to what the hell am I going to do tonight to I can’t wait to watch more Spanish drama!

I knew the run was going to be tough not just from the weather but it’s been awhile since I ran a run over 12 miles.  And indeed my legs were tired, but more so at the beginning.  My legs also waned a bit around mile 10 but I finished the last 2 miles really strong.  I felt, like in some weird way, that it mirrored my life.  Mile 10 corresponds to 16k and ages 16-19 were a tough time period.  And the last 2-3 miles corresponds to 3-4 km and I’ve felt so great the past 3-4 years.  So that was kind of weird but very nice as I chose 23k to commemorate my 23 years of life.

And the rain was actually nice at some points and felt good as the temp was warmer than usual.  I liked that there were periods of no rain, light rain, rain and heavy rain.  Felt good and made it kind of interval like: I was never “bored” with one type of rain haha!

The rest of my day has consisted of laundry (my friend  “why would you do laundry on your birthday?” me “so that i don’t go out naked tonight”), a little bit of homework (blah!) and being bombarded with facebook notifications of ppl (most of whom I don’t really / have never hung out with, and no I’m not talking about the ppl who read this blog or blogs I read or interact with on RW.  Rather the ppl who graduated last year or I only know as acquaintances at college or high school.  Awkward.)  My favorite, though, has been from my sister who posted the Blink182 song “What’s my age again” and highlighted the lyric “Cause no one likes you when youre 23” Touche there my dear! Haha

And of course I’ve been watching my Spanish drama. Might just be the best birthday present I could give to myself haha! Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. Stay dry in youre in New England and have a great Saturday night y’all 😀

Birthday Round 1

Tequila shots were prolly a bad idea. In fact, it’s 1500 right now and I can still feel the burn in my esophagus.

But part one of the birthday celebrations went well.  It was a little lackluster but I think it’s because I had really really high expectations and of course nothing can ever compare to the “perfect” night.

My friends and I pre-gamed before going out dancing at the local (read: sketchy) bar.  I definitely had a blast dancing away!  However all the drinking definitely left me feeling a little out of it as I hadn’t drunk enough to be drunk but I definitely wasn’t sober.  I think that the fact that I A) wasn’t well hydrated (oops) and B) hadn’t eaten a lot prior to drinking (double oops) left me feeling in a lightheaded state. But I still had lots of fun 🙂

So that coupled with the fact that I could feel my legs being slow and fatigued while dancing led me to *gasp* take a rest day.  Definitely LONG overdue.  But my stupid body wouldn’t let me enjoy the extra two hours of sleep that I wanted to take advantage of.  Boo! But it did feel really nice to be able to lay in bed with my quilt wrapped around me and listen to the wind that I was NOT out in haha.

All this lack of sleep + running lots + partying lots finally caught up to me today and I was soooo out of it (I even skipped one of my classes *gasp*. The only reason I didn’t skip more was because I had to physically turn things in. Boo!)  I’m definitely not hungover (record secure!) but I’m out of it enough that my Spanish prof totally called me out on it in class today as I wasn’t able to participate with the usual enthusiasm that I give.  And of course my friend next to me goes (in Spanish) “Too much tequila last night” haha.  But with this prof it wasn’t really all that awkward.  But still slightly embarrassing to be called out.

And I was no out of it that I *almost* didn’t respond when Hot Spanish TA said hi to me in the hallway as I was waiting for one of my classes.  Nothing special but still, it was a little boost this morning 🙂

So not much running today (well none actually) but I’m gearing up for my 23k run tmrw. The weather forecast looks horrendous as Hurricane Ida will be blessing us with her presence but I think I can do it.  What better present to myself that a long run in a Nor’Easter? I’m so bamf that I’ll rock it hahaha.

Off to go privately tutor a kid in statistics.  He contacted me earlier this week and despite my school having a really good — and FREE — tutoring program (of which I am a part of in both stats and physics) he wants to pay me. So between yesterday, today and Sunday I’m tutoring him for 4 hours total and he already wrote me a $100 check for my time.  Holllllleeeerrrrrrr.  So I better go earn that cash!

And then: Birthday Round 2 haha

To Be Overtrained or Not To Be Overtrained

Thanks for everyone who mentioned that I could be overtraining. I definitely hadn’t considered it although it does make sense. Even with my 40 mile week a few weeks ago I had been pushing for a really long time. In the back of my mind though (denial anyone?) I really don’t think that it’s the case. I’ve been overtrained before and it felt different physically. Maybe I’m just getting more in tuned with my body and am being more sensitive in detecting this stuff earlier. But on the other hand the sleep stuff usually was the last thing to crop up whereas it’s really my only symptom. Hmmmm food for thought. My hunch is that the sleep stuff is just related to me having lots of things going on and I don’t actually want to sleep because I don’t want to “miss” anything. And I guess overall I’m not too worried about it because my body is never crashing, even at night. But something to keep an eye on nonetheless.

And clearly not in the form of cutting back was my 9 mile run this morning. 9.3 to be exact and I bit the bullet and just committed to the whole distance at the get-go as it was all one route rather than a buildup of add-ons. A nice round number in the metric system of 15k. I’m starting to get my mind to thinking about things metrically: the rest of the world does! So far, so good too and I definitely like the fact that it makes me unique from most other Americans and definitely those who are around me.

But back to the run. I actually ran into my friend who was going to the gym at the same time I was leaving for my run. She mentioned that it was too cold for her. Funny because I was worried about being overdressed in my longsleeve shirt and shorts in the 42* weather haha. The sun was up, so it wasn’t dark, but the sky was overcast which was really nice. I love the feeling of c0olness just enveloping my skin like it did today. It’s almost the same feeling as being wrapped in a quilt that just hugs you. Maybe I’m weird.

So the weather set me up for a FLYING run. I had left a little later than usual so maybe that had something to do with my pace (the old “oh man I don’t want to be late but I want to get my whole run in still!”) but I noticed a quick clip right off the bat. My legs didn’t feel “springy” and I wasn’t bounding down the road but the turnover was there. A good precursor to speed. I did feel a bit of a slow down during miles 6-8 but my legs threw me a Last Mile Party (thanks Jess because I ❤ that term!) which was really nice especially when I saw that my pace was 10 seconds faster than my goal easy!! Woot!!

Since I’ve been running in a fast new way lately I’ve also been trying to look at races for Thanksgiving / early December. There are lots of options but I always have a hard time committing to this kind of stuff. Lest we not forget I signed up for the Tufts 10k two days before the actual race and my last half marathon the day of! I’m also trying to coordinate with other ppl, so if you’re in the Boston area (cough*Lacey*cough) and have a race in mind: LET ME KNOW! haha.

And it may be time to buy new shoes: as of this today I have 1637.0 miles on them.  They’re still holding strong though.  Maybe I can keep ’em til I hit 2000? That might be a tough call as they heels are starting to show signs of wear and tear.  They might rip through! Fingers crossed though because I want to be able to brag that I got 2000 miles out of these babies!

Keep ideas coming re: how to invite Hot Spanish TA out to celebrate the big two-three. I send him a fb msg last night (early this morning?) — in Spanish — saying that I’d love to borrow some Spanish music to listen too. Hopefully the grammar and vocabulary was correct heh. And hopefully this could be a gate into inviting him? And EarlyRunner: you just made my day with your comment of “well he sanctioned you being at his sangria party” hahaha!

Whoops gotta go, we physics folks are going to play with liquid nitrogen and superconductors. Oh the joys of being a science nerd 😀

Oh Wednesday. Plugging Away

First off I want to say a HUGE Happy Veterans Day to all those who have served our country and those who are doing so now.  You are heros. Every single one of you!

For me, today has been an “off” day.  Nothing bad has happened per se but I’ve just been out of it.  I have no idea what day it is or what I need to be doing. Luckily no matter what day it is I can get up and run. So life is good in that respect.

I’ve decided that until Boston training starts up I’m not going to force myself to do speedwork.  Yes it’s really important to incorporate it into a running routine but I’m not going to hold myself to doing it once a week.  I’ll just do it every 10-14 days or so.  Since the last time I did fast stuff was 2 weeks ago exactly I should be telling you that I did it this morning.  But that would be lying haha.

I did an easy 6 miles instead. I wasn’t feeling speedwork so I didn’t do it.  Maybe tmrw, maybe I’ll push it off another week.  With such high mileage lately I’d rather not stress my body with two variables.  And I’ve been liking running looooong lately so there you go.  The weather was absolutely perfect for this kind of running too.  Mid 40s* with some clouds in the sky.  Just the kind of morning you want to soak up rather than have it be a blur by concentrating on splits or keeping your  mind focused on what your body is doing.

I was aware, though, the my legs were fatigued.  Which then made my pace at the end very surprising as it was right where I would have wanted it to be.  So you wouldn’t have known based on my time that my legs were feeling the miles they’ve been doing lately.  When I saw my time, however, I wanted to say “screw you legs I’m running more” because I hate not taking advantage of a quick pace.  But then I had to remind myself that I’ve been running like this for 2-ish weeks so it’s not likely a fluke-y pace but rather that this pace is truly what my body thinks is easy.  One way I could tell was my HR, it’s been staying pretty low lately when my runs are finished. Very cool.

Especially when I’m getting so little sleep.  Again I was tossing and turning.  I remember having three distinct dreams too, which is annoying because that means I kept waking up during the crucial part of the sleep cycle. The wicked weird thing is that I’ve stopped being tired from it.  My body is just on go-go-go.  My doctor seems to think that my body is really sensitive to my emotions — which is why my running has been so good since I’m happy. The flip side of that is that all the “happy hormones” are being pumped out in full swing too so that’s likely why I’ve been restless at night.  Oh to think that being happy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be 🙂

And I guess I should stop complaining about my birthday.  A lot of you are telling me that 23 isn’t old.  😛

I know that but like I said yesterday I feel so much older than the ppl around me sometimes.  Maybe it’s not an age thing, I guess I’m really ready to leave school and feel so much more mature than some of my peers, but being a full year older doesn’t help matters. And to answer EarlyRunner‘s question about my gap year: I worked at an elementary school in my hometown as well as a nursery (garden center) to earn some cash before coming to my excessively expensive school.

Although the whole age thing bugs me a bit, I’m getting excited about celebrating.  Starting tmrw.  Haha, three days of (hopefully) amazingness. I have my plans mapped out for Thursday and Friday but Saturday — my actual birthday — nothing.  Haha. And to answer Lacey’s questions: no idea for dinner and ideally I’d want an ice cream cake.  But since I have yet to decide what I want to do I have no idea what’s going down. I do want to find a way to ask Hot-Spanish-TA to celebrate but I feel like, since I’m so awkward, the whole situation would be awkward. Any tips to de-awkwardize it?

Happy Hump Day! The week is almost over!!

T-4 days. Eeek.

Yes. In the back on my head I have a countdown to my bday.  I used to have it physically written out but, well, as the years passed that stopped.  As for my age? I’ll be 23.  Real person age.  It’s the age where ppl look at you differently because youre expected to have a real job, real life etc. and not be irresponsible.  Like that will ever happen haha.

Thanks to everyone who said that I’m not old (which I do know it’s just that I’m the oldest by a bit compared to my friends as I took a gap year between high school and college) and that things get better as the years go on.  I certainly hope so as I want life to improve constantly!

Re: running my age in miles. I had a meeting with my advisor earlier today and we were just chatting about life after the meeting was done and he suggested doing 23 km rather than miles. DUH! Why didn’t I think of that?! So much more do-able. I mean: A) my body is getting old heh and B) the rest of the world uses metric and so shall I.

Now that that’s settled onto the run at hand today. Unlike yesterday it was warm and cloudy.  So naturally I overdressed.  Not the biggest deal in the world but I also ended up running 10 miles so by the end I was pretty sweaty and gross (not exactly what I wanted to be going into Spanish class like). I actually had to change my clothes and open the windows when I got back to my room.  It was only about 55* but coming off of a 28* morning yesterday…well let’s just say New England is known for it’s rapidly changing weather.

And unlike yesterday I didn’t fade at the end, sure my miles at the start were pretty slow but each one kept feeling stronger and stronger.  Definitely a good thing and what (to me) qualifies a run “good”. Which is why I, yet again, expanded my miles this morning. My overall pace was literally one second per mile over “goal” which is annoying because if I had run 10 seconds faster I would have hit my goal. Grrrrrrr. 😛

Another grrrrrr has been my sleeping pattern.  Lately I cannot string together a good night of sleep.  Last night I couldn’t shut my brain up until about 0100 and then I was WIDE AWAKE at 0400.  I simply laid in bed for the next couple of hours but man, does it suck hardcore.

Anyway. Another really busy day here and I’m just feeling “off”. Hopefully some productivity will change that?

Happy 200th

First off: This is my 200th post! I was going to post my weekly stats this morning but decided I didn’t want to “waste” my 200th — even though this post is not going to talk about it from this point out hahaha.

Oh man. And to think that Monday’s shouldn’t be that busy for me.  But it’s 1830. I’ve been up since 0530 (stupid insomnia!) and this is the first time I’ve had to myself.  Sheesh.

Anyway.  Like I just said I didn’t get that much sleep last night.  I was up semi-late trying to figure out what I want to do for my proposal that I mentioned yesterday.  Needless to say it was a bit frustrating and I didn’t get anything done with it.  I just kept looking at articles but nothing was clicking with me.  Grrrrrrr. So I thought that it would translate to a terrible run.

But I keep forgetting how AWESOME I am (and I say that in the most modest way I assure you).  I mean, the run wasn’t the greatest pace wise but it was much better than Mondays of the past.  Muy bueno. My one complaint was the temperature.  The high for yesterday was 68*.  The overnight low was about 28* and about 32* when I got up.  I (stupidly) did not check the weather forecast and froze my little butt off haha.  Not really but my hands and fingers were not appreciative.  I think I need to start looking into better gloves for the winter.  Although I don’t really know why I try, I’ve done the triple layering occasionally to no avail. Stupid poor circulation!

Despite the DST change last weekend the sun still continues to rise later and later.  Boo! So now I’m waking up in darkness but after doing my core routine I have sunshine.  Gosh I really do hate going into these winter months.

Either way sunshine (and not clouds) lifts my mood.  Tremendously and I was able to get through 7 miles quite effortlessly.  My HR stayed low the entire time which was nice and, once I was done, quickly went back to resting.

The run itself was great.  The first 5 miles or so felt strong — which, despite running well the past week, has rarely been the case.  Maybe I was pushing too hard, trying to burn off that frustration of the night before as well as the insomnia.  Regardless the last two miles significantly slowed down and prolly is where the slow overall pace comes in.  The annoying thing is that I could *feel* myself fading over the last couple miles.  And there really wasn’t anything I could do about it!

Overall, however, I’m happy with the run.  I look at it as a Monday run that was much better than usual.  A bonus. I’m trying to embrace things that annoy me or that I dislike.  My theory is that if you can accept this stuff then life is good.  I’m trying it out with slow runs and winter.  We’ll see if my overall mood improves.  I’ve been content so far!

Also, I’ve been getting pretty nervous about this weekend.  I’m hitting “real person age”.  It’s a bit scary. I was thinking of running my age in miles that day, as the older I get the more miles I’d have to do (duh!).  But now I’m not so sure.  See, I’ve planned a three day extravaganza of debauchery.   Well maybe only two (Thurs & Sat as I’ll likely need Friday to recover from Thurs haha).  The thing is that my body doesn’t recover like it did back in the days (haha I sound real old now).  I guess if I take it easy Friday night — and I plan to watch El Laberinto del Fauno and take it easy — maybe I can still do it? I still got a few days to decide.

Alright back to putting my nose on the Monday grindstone.  Lots and lots to do!

Also: Natalie over at NoNo2YoYo is having a giveaway, plus that post I just linked too also has sweet info about Project Feed Me which is soooo cool.  Sign up! (and tell her that I was the one you found out about this from)

AND re: Spanish TA. I’m not sure I believe the rumors and it’s literally one or two things I’ve heard from other ppl.  Definitely not giving up yet 🙂