Sickly...

So I haven't posted about training in a while because I"ve been a bundle of sickliness. That combined with finals has led me to not blog so much.

But finals are over now so I'll give you a quick update. My feet are not too pleased with me that I'm training for a marathon again...but they're just going to have to deal with it! On advice from my amazing chiropractor I'm going to indulge in a (probably painful) super deep tissue massage to bust up the knots in my feet and calves. I'm very hopeful that this will make the foot pain, calf pain, and shin splints go away so I can keep training...I really want to be able to complete the full marathon this year and not wimp out and only do the half like last year.

Between the high pollen count and my pain I haven't been very inspired to train, so I'm taking my spring break to give myself an attitude adjustment and remember that no matter how much pain I'm in, mine is only temporary and will be gone after I complete the marathon. I am so grateful that I am training for a reason other than myself or I would never make it.

As far as a fundraising update, I'm very behind and starting to get worried. I've only raised about $400 so far and only have until May 15th to reach my minimum of $2400. I'm working on a bowling fundraiser. If you're planning on donating, but haven't gotten around to it yet, please take a few minutes to hop over to my donation page and make your donation.

Thank you so much! GO TEAM!

Hip to the Hop

WOO! So part of TNT marathon training is "cross-training." So every thursday, I do yoga, but kept trying to do swimming on Sundays but couldn't ever drag my sorry butt to the rec center at school to do it. Very happily, someone in my program used to be a dance instructor and just began a weekly Sunday hip hop class downtown for sooooooo cheap! And what's more? We work abs and legs and stretch and other good for my body things in addition to learning choreography (which apparently, my body has forgotten how to do after more than 10 years of not dancing...). Soooo awesome, though after yesterday's huge hill run, I thought my legs might give out on me...but I made it through! Hoooray!

Wow, 2 posts in 2 days...do you think someone might be procrastinating some homework????

HOLY HILL!

OK...I'm not as good as keeping up with this blog as I hoped...sorry :(

This week started off a bit rough.  The weather was amazing last week...which means the plants got very excited and bloomed...which for me means bad breathing...urg.  I was kinda asthma-y most of the week and Wednesday night track was no exception.  I was working on a homework assignment until 5:55 at home and track starts at 6...woops! So I was a bit late, but managed to drag my sorry carcass and ran.  Track seems to be about extending the limits of our muscles and lungs through sprint type exercises to give us the ooomph we'll need for the marathon.  My lungs were NOT down for that game this week.  I tried, but ended up mostly just jogging around the track.  I left feeling kind discouraged, but knew that the more running I did, the better my finicky lungs would get.  

Then I had my normal yoga on Thursday night which...boy howdy, my instructor did not go easy on us that night.  I was a bit tight from the run the night before so I was all excited to go to yoga and stretch out, but Thursday's class was more like a power/strength yoga kinda thing.  She made us SWEAT! And it was awesome...but I was pretty sore Friday.  Darn wimpy muscles!

Then came Friday, blessed day off Friday.  I was so excited to sleep in and had been looking forward to Thursday night/Friday morning all week! Between having all 8:30 am classes, the 7 am Saturdays and work, I don't get to do that too often.  I happily set my alarm for 9:30 and passed out around 11:00pm Thursday night.  Then unfortunately, my "natural" alarm clock woke me up at 7, then 8, then 8:30...though when I looked at my clock, I could've sworn it said 9:30.   I luxuriated in bed till I had to go to school do do more dreaded homework.

Now...to Saturday and the reason for the title of this post.  Today we ran for one hour.  I'm still getting used to this whole "running by time" thing instead of the "running by distance" thing we did last year.  Anyways, for those of you locals, or those who know Santa Barbara, we started our run at Hendry's Beach and ran up Las Positas and then up Modoc.  "UP" being the important word.  For those of you not from here, HOLY HILL! Las Positas from the beach is pretty much 100% hill until you turn onto Modoc.  I had some bizarre things happen during the run (ignoring the predictable lead legs and burning muscles from the hill workout).  The bottom of my left foot went numb WHILE I was running.  Yeah, talking to my chiro about that one ASAP.  I also had some burning pain in my ankles and lower calves...but I have a feeling that was the hill's fault too! The run back was much easier because almost all of it was downhill.  Then at the end of the run we had a lovely lil breakfast and got to hear from two survivors/honored teammates.  

Every TNT team has honored teammates that are currently undergoing treatment, have concluded treatment and are on remission, and sadly, but still inspirational, family members of patients who lost their battles with blood cancer.  On our team, one of our honored teammates is 3 year's old and still going through treatments.  Her dad was so excited by what he had heard about TNT that he's training and running with us.  It's really moving and a constant inspiration for us to have him running with us every week.  

On my way home I clocked my distance (because I just HAD to know how far I ran!) and figured out I had run about 5 miles today...so I guess that means I ran a 12 minute mile today...which could be right because that's about the pace I ran my half at last year after I'd been training for months...so who knows, maybe I'll be able to pick up my pace AND increase my endurance...

Week 2

OK, keeping up with this blog AND training AND going to grad school may be more of a challenge than I anticipated, but I'm going to do my best!

So it's week 2 of training and I'm still trying to get used to the differences between this team and the San Jose team...I think it's just mostly due to the fact that I don't like change and I really really LOVED my team and the experience I had in San Jose.


Anyways, my favorite former roommate Charlie made me an amazing flyer (for which she conveniently made a matching blog banner!) for what was my primary fundraiser last year, and hopefully only a back-up fundraiser for this year...my bake sale:


But I'm also planning on throwing some really fun events to get my fellow students and TNT teammates out for a fun night AND raise money for LLS, all good things!

Anyways, after a long week of mid-terms and assignments and culmination of about 6 weeks of non-stop school work and stress...I didn't make it to the 7 AM run last Saturday. I know I know...but I did drag my butt to the gym and ran for 45 minutes on the eliptical to make up for the 40 minute group run I missed. And to be honest...it probably wasn't a terrible idea.

After I finished my 1/2 marathon last June I was pretty injured and not allowed to rung for 3 months. After those 3 months were up...I kinda didn't start back up again. After the beating I took last year, it probably wasn't that bad of me to take a week off of the impact of running, but still get some good exercise in to ease me back into this whole running thing.

Then this Wednesday, it was a cloudy, dreary, cold night. Yes, I live in Santa Barbara, and I have the great privilege of being here for one of the wetter, colder winters. Yay (blech!). My lungs are still a bit vengeful for the lack of sleep I've gotten over the past six weeks (stupid lingering cough!), so running was a bit...we'll say rough, but I made it.

We're still trying to settle in and find our paces so we ran 400 meters (1 lap) at a 3 mile pace (which I used to remember how that felt...but don't anymore) and then a slow lap, then 800 meters (2 laps) at a 3 mile pace. I struggled the first 2 laps but felt so much better for the last 800. I don't know if it just took me a little while longer to warm up or if maybe I found my magical pace again. I came home and made a dinner my old trainer would've been proud of (mostly). Man he hated my diet, I can't imagine why...isn't Taco Bell and Pepsi healthy? Anyways, I turned on my good ol' George Forman grill and cooked up some chicken thighs and some rice-a-roni. It was goooood. I only ate half of the dinner then finished it up at lunch today (gotta keep the protein coming!)

My metabolism is slowly beginning to speed up and my wallet is beginning to fear the amount of food we both know I will soon be consuming. Oh well...that's what student loans are for right? Food? No? Text books? Oh....right.

Anyways, that's all I have so far. I'll be missing this Saturday's 7 AM group run, but plan to make up for it on Sunday on my own (I have a good excuse, promise!).

If you're in the Santa Barbara area and hosting an event or need to bring a dessert to some sort of function, send me an email, I've got your back!

Back at the beginning again...

Well hello. I decided to try to keep a blog of my training for everyone to be able to track my progress. I'm not sure how this will progress, but hopefully you will all like it...and hopefully I'll have time to keep up with this blog when school gets kinda crazy.

Anyhoo, we had our first TNT Saturday run this past weekend. TNT is a bit different in Santa Barbara than it was in San Jose and it's going to take some getting used to. In San Jose, we ran based on mileage goals every week and didn't have to be there super early till the runs got longer; the first week in San Jose, our first run was 4-6 miles and we started I think around 8-8:30 with a nice long stretching clinic before our run. In Santa Barbara, our workouts are done by time, not mileage, so our first run is 30 minutes and we just kinda start running and turn around after 15 minutes. I'm nervous about this change just because I run slow, but I've been assured I'll be fine :)

So my run went ok. I've been fighting off this killer cold that everyone around here seems to have with a horrid hacking cough, so my asthma was a bit irked that I was running. But the weather was GORGEOUS and our trail is right along the beach. You can't beat that scenery to help you get over the humps of becoming athletic again. From the mile markings on the trail I think I got just about 3 miles in.

I was pretty sore, but I have a little more knowledge this time around about how to get my body to repair quicker and how to prevent repeat injuries, so it went away quickly enough. I'm ready to have our first track practice Wednesday night...The night before a ridiculously hard mid-term...I'll keep you posted!