So....who am I?

Recently I've been looking at other running blogs as a way of meeting other people across the country who love to run, as well as to get some ideas for how to format my blog. As I've been doing this, I've noticed that most people have a post or two that kind of let the reader know who they are. I also noticed that I didn't really say too much about myself, except for the whole running part. So, for all of you reading this that don't know me, I just finished my senior year at Michigan State but I've still got one more semester to go so I'm on track to graduate in December with a degree in kinesiology. After that is anybody's guess. I either want to go to med school and go on the path toward orthopedic surgery and all the stress that comes with it, or I want to go grad school in kinesiology with a specialty in exercise physiology and nutrition. Lately I've been leaning toward the second option because just studying for the MCAT put me under a ton of stress, and I know med school will bring that amount of stress times five. Being a runner, I'm also really fascinated with the human body and how it reacts to exercise and nutrients and stuff like that....hence the 2nd option. So we'll see what happens. The way I see it, everything tends to work out in the end, right?

Today I did my usual 4 miles that I do a couple days before a race. My calf has been feeling better, but today it felt a bit tender. Seeing as though the race on Friday isn't until 7:30pm, I have a little bit of leeway to rest and ice it to make it feel better by then. I also bought some short Brooks running shorts last week and I ran with them today just to see how they felt and so I wouldn't surprise myself on race day. I haven't worn short running shorts since I ran cross country in high school, so I almost felt naked today!

My roomate just came in and asked me if I wanted to go to a chili cook-off in Lansing on Friday...could you imagine eating chili and then running a race? Mmmmmmm.....

Story time! After I got off of work the other night, I went over to my buddy's house. He was having a party for his roomate, who is soon going to Baltimore or something for an internship. Everybody was pretty much drunk when I got there...but after two shots of whiskey (trust me, I'm a lightweight), I was in the backyard with a couple of my friends watching two guys play two girls in beer pong. Gotta love college towns! Anyway as we were shooting the shit, I overheard one of the girls say "run" and "Cooley", so I piped up and was like "You're running Cooley on Friday?!?" She said probably, and I was like "ME TOO!!!" Haha. So we talked for a little bit and it made me happy because I met a runner girl :) Not like anything will come of it, with the luck I've been having, but you never know. I met a girl at this race last year who said she was gonna run a bunch of other local races after that, but I haven't seen her since then. I bet I scared her off.

Next post won't be til after the race...we'll see how I do!

I didn't challenge Bigfoot...

If today was anything like the past 3 years, I would have been running a race this morning. Every Memorial Day there's the Bigfoot 5K/8K down in Dansville (about 30 minutes southeast of here)....it's a very small race, but the shirts are still cool - "I challenged Bigfoot in Dansville, MI". Anyway I ran the 5K each of the past 3 years and I actually won it last year with a not-so-impressive winning time of 18:29. If I had done it this year, I would have done the 8K as a new challenge, and because I want to run more long races. They have the results posted already from the race this morning, and a total of 77 combined people ran the 5K and 8K, so that tells you how small it is. The winning times were 19:41 in the 5K and 31:58 in the 8K. Those really aren't impressive winning times either, but a lot of it could be explained by the heat!

The heat....wow. I knew in advance that it's supposed to be 90 degrees today, but when I woke up it was already 78 degrees and rose to 82 by the time I got my shoes laced and got out there. Even though it felt hotter than heck with virtually no wind and no clouds in the sky, I spent a lot of the run in shade so that made things better. Plus my calf felt pretty good :) It was also a very peaceful run...not to be redundant from my last post, but there was absolutely nobody on campus today due to the holiday. It's just so nice to run along the river on a day like this.

I ended up going 5 miles for my "pseudo" long run for the week. When I got done, everything felt fine except my feet were yelling at me, but I think that's because I chose to wear cotton socks in this hot weather...oops! I also decided that I'm gonna run the Cooley 5K this Friday night, but I'm not gonna force it. I know the competitive kid inside of me will wanna push it, but mostly I just wanna use this as a nice 3 mile tempo run and then an opportunity to shoot the shit with my racing buddies after the race. It will also be nice to know that I'll have over a month to fully recover before my next race on July 8.

I also finally posted a picture to my profile...I really really like that picture, because it's the finish line of when I set my 5K PR back in April in a rainy 52 degrees. The whole picture shows more of the sidewalk and there's nobody in sight behind me, and all of that just gave me a huge boost of confidence. Now I can look at that and say "Ok, I know I can run that well, even in sloppy conditions. Just think of what I can do if train some more."

Well, time to go watch the Tigers/Yankees game...how about those Tigers ;) Have a great Memorial Day.

Feeling good, feeling great

Well...I felt really good when I went to bed last night that I had every intention of running when I got up this morning. And everything held together because I got out there! When I did my warmup around the block, the first few steps brought some pain to my calf, but it was almost like it dissolved away after those first few steps. Like sugar in water, it was the weirdest thing. But hey, I wasn't complaining. The actual run went well too, I did a good job of daydreaming so that I didn't 'make' the pain come back by thinking about it. I was gonna do 3 miles just as a precaution, but when I got to my checkpoint where I can stretch it into another mile, it was almost as if my body led me into that extra mile. Like it was telling me 'Ok, we're doing fine buddy, let's do this." So I ending up going 4 miles and felt good the whole way. Probably a lot of it had to do with the fact that nobody is on campus this weekend, so I had the whole river trail to myself, save for a couple of walkers and bikers. That's what I love about this campus, it's so peaceful and scenic, you just gotta take time to enjoy it.

It was 78 degrees and humid and I felt a bit lightheaded when I got done, and I'm taking that as a blessing in disguise. I've hydrated myself well the past few days because I know it's supposed to be hot this week, but the lightheaded-ness was another distraction away from my calf. It didn't hurt for most of the day, but I was on my feet a lot today so it's a bit aggravated now, so I'm gonna ice it before I hit the sack, and then see how it feels in the morning. Tomorrow's my rest day, so that means I ran 16 miles this week. It's not 20-25, but I'm fine with that because I don't wanna increase the mileage too fast. I think that's what got me in trouble in the first place.

The Bayshore Marathon was today....Nathan Usher won it in 2:24:09, he's a fast kid. I really feel for my friend Megan though, she's run a couple marathons before but she was really looking forward to this one because she raised a bunch of money for it. But she instant messaged me the other day and told me she separated her shoulder, so she had to withdraw. I really hope that heals up quick...she said she's gonna run either Chicago or Detroit in October too.

One more thing before I call it a night...I suscribe to a quote-a-day thing, and I got one yesterday that I really like:

"Always behave like a duck - keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath." --Jacob Braude

Like the little engine that could :) So yea. I would like to say that describes me but I feel like I've gotten away from that lately. But that's a story for another rainy day.

Wear and tear

Well, same old story I guess. Nothing new to tell you. The calf is getting better again but I still did 4 miles on the elliptical today. I think I'm able to pinpoint the pain a little better now, so I think that's helping for when I ice it. Hopefully I'll feel well enough to run outside tomorrow since it's gonna be warm and sunny. Either way, I'm gonna do something so that I can get my weekly mileage above 15 for the first time in 3 weeks.

Tomorrow is the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City, it's the marathon I probably would have done as my first if I hadn't had a loaded spring semester. I just didn't think I could make a commitment of training for that while keeping focus in classes and stuff. I hear it's a beautiful marathon in terms of the scenery and maybe I'll do it someday.

One step forward, two steps back

Just when I thought everything was going fine again, I woke up this morning and my leg was hurting again. Now it seems like the pain has moved from my calf to around my fibula, but still...I just want to be healthy again. Now I'm not so sure if I'm gonna run the Cooley 5K next Friday. I didn't feel comfortable enough to run today (I was planning on trying 5 miles if I felt ok), so I did 4 on the elliptical. I'm also gonna scrap any kind of speed work this week, so that probably won't leave me any time to do speed work before the 5K.

I've iced the leg five times today and I'll probably do it a 6th time before I go to bed, but it just seems so frustrating. I know I really really wanna get out there and run again, but at the same time I know I have to be patient and let this heal. I think, in the past, my downfall was getting back out there before I was back at full strength, and that just made things worse. Another good reason to skip Cooley next Friday is that my next race won't be until July 8, so that's another whole month of leeway for myself to get back into the swing of things. At any rate, let's hope this gets better quick!

Finding my way back home

To say that this weekend was uneventful would be an understatement. I was on my feet for a good 6 hours straight on Saturday and my calf held up pretty well, though it did start to bother me near the end of the day. Great, just what I didn't need to happen. I tried to rest it most of that night and all of Sunday and I think I did a pretty good job of that. Last night I got this idea to wear my winter running spandex while sleeping because that provides some compression, and I'm not sure if it's psychological or not but it seems like it worked a little bit. I felt good enough to go running outside today for the first time in 17 days, which was nice! It was sunny and about 57 degrees today but it's supposed to be sunny all week with rising temps and that makes me happy. :) My calf felt ok, I'd say it's at about 90% now. I went 4 miles today and it held up thru the whole thing and still feels good, so that's a very good sign.

Yesterday was the Capitol Bancorp 5K in Lansing, the 4th race out of 12 in the Playmakers Race Series and I missed it because I was hurt and I was out of town anyway, but the winner won it in 14:45! That's a 4:45 mile pace....that's insane. I wish I could run that fast! Anyway the next race is Friday June 2, the Cooley Law School 5K in Lansing. If all goes well, I can get one good speed session in before then but that also means I'm gonna sacrifice a long run somewhere in there. So really I'm not quite sure if I'm gonna go all out in that race, we'll see how I feel. The last two weeks I put in 12 miles each, which are both my lowest output of the year, and I wanna get back to a good base of 15-20 miles (or more preferably 20-25 miles) by the time I start training in July for the marathon. So I guess I'll just take this day by day and decide what I wanna do.

I ran!!

This is gonna be real short and sweet because I have like 2 minutes and 2 seconds to write this....but I ran today!!!! I went to bed last night thinking that I'll just see how my calf feels when I wake up, and it actually felt great. I went to IM West so I'd have the option of a treadmill or an elliptical if things hurt, so I decided to try a little warmup on the treadmill. That went well, and after a mile I kind of did a check on myself and realized that I was ok. So I went 3 more and that sure as hell made my day, even my week :) It doesn't hurt now, but I'm still gonna get some Icy Hot on it and take some ibuprofen just as a precaution because you still can never be too careful about these things. But man it feels good to run again! 14 days off doesn't seem like too much but it really is....it really puts things in perspective.

By the way, everybody should check out the music video to "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter.....I really like it.

This weather isn't helping!

The weather today was soooo nice for a while, but I couldn't get out there! My calf still hurt a bit and I didn't wanna risk anything. So I made myself go on the elliptical once again. Usually I keep my strides-per-minute around 180 but today I felt like pushing it, so I kept it around 200 strides-per-minute for 4 miles and that felt great. I'm not quite sure what I'm gonna do on Friday. I have to do an early morning workout since I'm leaving to go out of town....I don't know, we'll see how I feel. Half of me really wants to run, the other half thinks I should do one more precautionary elliptical run and then see how it feels over the weekend. Saturday I'm gonna be on my feet all day, so that's another reason I'm thinking I should play it safe.

As far as the calf goes, it was the same dull pain when I got out of bed, so all day today I bombarded it with ice, massage, Icy Hot, and anti-inflammatories. I was on my feet for most of tonight and it feels alright now, but I'm not sure if it's really better or if it's a false sense of security from the Icy Hot and ibuprofen. I'm gonna ice it one more time before I go to bed and then see how it feels in the morning. All of this running withdrawal kind of makes me relate to when people try to quit smoking!

Almost there...

Well today was supposed to be the day that I got back out there and resumed my routine. I had nothing scheduled for today (lucky me) so instead of just sitting around all day, I decided to go to the mall and run some errands. Everything felt fine for the most part when I was walking around, but I think I was just kind of overthinking it all because my calf sort of started to hurt a bit, but it was nothing big. What made things worse was that I sort of tweaked my left knee as I was getting into the shower yesterday....it always seems to be something new with me. Anyway it's been rainy and generally crappy lately, so I wasn't too sure if I was actually gonna get outside to run today, but when I got back from the mall it was dry. So I turned on the weather channel just to make sure it was gonna stay that way, and sure enough there was a storm that was just about to hit us. So I waited for that to pass, but then I noticed a new one forming right behind it. Dammit! So between the two storms, I did a little half mile warmup just to test things out and see where I'm at. I was a bit apprehensive about doing it but I know I needed to, and the first few steps literally felt like the best thing ever. It's one of those things that's difficult to explain, but it kind of felt like I was gliding on air. My shin splints went away and my calf and knee felt good. Then about halfway through, I felt that dull pain again in my calf....not what I wanted to feel. I had already decided to go to IM West due to the pending storm, but this made me change my decision from running on a treadmill to using the elliptical trainer yet again. Don't get me wrong, I love those things because they really work your quads and hamstrings, but it seems like it takes forever to go 4 miles. What really confuses me though is that my calf felt just fine after 4 miles on the elliptical, yet it technically makes you go through the same motions as running. Hmmm. So I think I just need to give a little bit more rest. I'm almost back to full health, I can feel it...I've really just gotta keep telling myself to be patient with this. That's one thing I think I'm good at. So we'll see if I can't get out there on Wednesday...

Patience is a virtue

Wow....so let's see how well my thoughts come out on this one....

Went on the elliptical trainer again yesterday, mostly as a precautionary measure. My shin splints are feeling a lot better now, mostly because I've been doing lots of icing, toe taps, calf raises, spelling the alphabet with my big toe....pretty much everything I should have been doing in the first place to prevent them. And I always get them too, I think it's because of my biomechanics. I land on my heel a little too much and that kind of acts as a natural "brake pedal" for the body and puts more impact and shock on the lower leg. So since last summer I've been trying to strike on the midfoot, or close to it, but it's always SO hard to change a process that you've been doing for so long. My calf does feel a lot better now too, I think Icy Hot should take a lot of credit on that one, haha. Yesterday when I woke up, the only pain was just a pretty dull pain near my ankle....it sort of felt like a sprain but I haven't done anything recently that would have made me sprain it. But anyway, even though it felt a lot better, I still didn't wanna rush it. And it was like 48 degrees and rainy all day yesterday....hell yea for Michigan weather! I'd say I was about 80% yesterday but that's still not 100% so I'm taking it easy day by day. It's also a good sign that I'm able to go up and down stairs a lot easier now.

Last night I went out to the bars and had a couple....and by a couple, I mean I got pretty messed up. :) I think I deserved it though, I had a rough semester and this week I really had nothing going on or nothing upcoming that I needed to worry about. But anyway I remember somebody in our group started running, and I really needed to catch up to them for some reason so I ran too....but I don't remember anything hurting at all. But yea....right. Anyway, I was gonna go back on the elliptical today just because I can't go tomorrow, but I've felt like crap allllll day today. That's what I get. So I'll have to be content with 12 miles this week, which I'm gonna have to make believe is a blessing in disguise because I really need to take it easy. Hopefully on Monday I can make it back outside.

And one more thing....the Big Ten track and field championships were yesterday and today at MSU, and I ran into a couple of runners from Wisconsin last night. I asked them what events they run and a couple of them said 5000 meters (5K), so I asked them what kind of times they run. Bad move. The first number I heard was 13. It didn't really matter what the second part of the time was, I was so amazed. Can you imagine that? A 4:30 mile pace gives you about a 13:57 5K and those guys were probably a little bit under that. Wow.....that's all I gotta say.

Gotta start somewhere

So here we go....my 2nd attempt at a journal/blog/whatever you wanna call it. I tried one on Xanga earlier this year and I told myself I'd write in it after each run, but that kind of fizzled out after two runs....oops! Now that it's summer and school's out, I figure I'll have a bit more free time and a little less clutter in my brain that I have to worry about, at least for a couple months. A big reason I'm giving this another shot is from a podcast I like to listen to called Phedippidations, where this middle-aged runner named Steve pretty much goes on a long distance run and talks about a different subject each time. Every now and then he talks about blogs he has found that are written by runners, and it's cool to hear about people who have similar interests. The podcast really is interesting, and it does a good job in helping me relax when I'm running. Check it out on iTunes or at www.steverunner.com.

I'm having a hard time concentrating on what I'm typing right now because I'm watching the Edmonton/San Jose hockey game and they're in sudden death overtime.....gotta love playoff hockey! If you don't know by now, you'll probably find out soon enough in future posts that I absolutely love sports.

Anyway, I'm mostly gonna use this blog to talk about running and how I'm doing...stuff like that. But I'm also gonna spend some time to just get things off my mind, just to keep you guys on your toes.

So here's some background info. I just finished my senior year in college, and since senior year of high school I had a hard time running good races. I always ended up being frustrated with how I ran or something like that. Near the end of 2005, I took a look at what I had been doing to train so far, and what I could add to make me that much better of a runner. What I added seems like it has made a world of difference...
1) Looking back at my running log of 2005, there were times where I'd run 8 miles one week, then 17 the next, then 7 the week after that. It just wasn't consistent at all, so I made a goal of running 15-20 miles over 4 days per week in 2006. After January, I felt comfortable enough to go 20-25 miles per week, and that's where I stand right now.
2) I barely did any speed work. So I decided to do one speed session per week, either intervals or a tempo run.
3) My long runs pretty much were 5 miles....maybe 6 if I felt ambitious. And I did those sporadically too. So in addition to one speed session per week, I decided to add one long run of at least 6-7 miles per week. I've done a couple days above 10 miles, and those really do feel good.
4) Flexibility. I wasn't very flexible, so I decided to stretch at least once a day, and I've only missed 4 days since the beginning of the year. I've also sort of gotten into yoga ever since Runner's World had a feature about it a couple months ago.
5) Core exercises. An efficient runner has to have a strong core, which pretty much consists of the ab muscles and the hip flexors. The more efficient someone is, the more energy they have stored at the end of a run or race. I had an alright core already, but there's always room to make it better.
6) Lift weights with the legs. I sort of half-assed my legs in the weight room in high school, and since then I really hadn't done anything with them. I normally lift about twice a week, but it's all upper body stuff, and it feels like it sort of created an imbalance. It might be the main reason I was so prone to lower body injuries in the past few years. So since the beginning of the year, I've been lifting with the legs at least once a week.
So it seems like a lot, but once I get into a routine then it's really hard to stop me. Overall I've been feeling much better and more confident with my running, and it has showed.....as witnessed by my 3 recent 5K races.

April 23 - 17:18 (new personal record)
April 30 - 17:47
May 5 - 17:28

My three previous best times before those were 17:40, 17:46, and 17:48. So now my next big goal is to break 17 minutes....fingers crossed! But anyway, when I say I've been feeling much better and more confident and stuff like that, it's a bit of a lie right now because I'm sort of bruised and broken. Shin splints have flared up on both legs and there's something going on with my right calf. Shin splints are a bitch, there's really nothing to do but ice and rest them, but this calf, I'm not totally sure what's going on. Sometimes the pain is on the lateral side of the calf and other times it feels like it's on the fibula. I've been icing that too, and slowly but surely I think it's feeling better. But I've stayed off the road since Friday and banished myself to the elliptical trainer this week. I don't have another race til June, so I have a bit of a luxury right now to rest up my body.

This is getting wayyyyy long, so one more thing about me. A big reason I wanna be serious about my rest and recovery from injury right now is that I decided to run my first marathon, the Detroit Marathon, on October 29. My sister ran it last year and qualified for Boston, which was just run about a month ago, so she has run 3 marathons (She also ran Chicago a couple years ago). So the competitive kid inside of me can't let my sister get the upper edge :) I'm gonna do the 16 week plan, so that puts my starting date around July 10. Knock on wood, but hopefully I can take care of myself until then. Well this is pretty much a ton to digest for a first post, I gotta get to bed. Adios....

Testing....

Just wanna test this out....see what happens....