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!