I just had sets

Mon 10/8:
Lower Arroyo. Donut run! ;P So many red lights... and we had to wait for the train. At least it meant the run wasn't too hard though haha. 7.8mi.

Tue 10/9: 12x400m @ Central Park! Didn't get exact splits, but I know the first two were 82, 80 and the last was 71, so I think I negative split by one each lap. Jk, probably like 82, 80, 79, 79, 78, 78, 77, 76, 76, 75, 74, 71. Basically, I had no idea how much speed I had so I went out kind of easy and just went by feel. Aka I felt good so I sped up ;P. 9mi.

Wed 10/10:
16min bike.
DDR @ club fair.

Thu 10/11: Owwwww groin hurting again.
35min bike (54321).

Fri 10/12:
Multi-duals! asdf mini-sprained my ankle during the warm up.

Total: 16.8mi + 40min.

Let the -games- classes begin

Sun 9/30: CARNIVAL!

Saw Anton! ;P Didn't get talk to him though. =/

Mon 10/1: Only 1 hour of class today! I love M/F.

Lower Arroyo. We started so fast... I think everybody was all hyped up from first day of classes. >100 degree weather. Ridic. 7.8mi.

Tue 10/2:

8x800 @ Garfield, every 5min. Sooooo hot, everybody was dying. 2:47, 2:46, 2:49, 2:49, 2:48, 2:48, 2:51, 2:50. After the first two, we were all like why are we going so fast... but somehow most of us managed to hold it. 9mi.
Shins starting to hurt... this sucks.

Wed 10/3: 40min bike.

Thurs 10/4:
4on/1off x 6 @ Lacy. Started off a bit slow and ran the last few with Ian. Oww shin splints are getting a lot worse. 6.5mi.

Fri 10/5: 50min elliptical. Goshdarnitshins.

Sat 10/6:
AM: Rose bowl loops! 7k in 29:39... so slow. Scott and Stan were a good 20+ sec in front of me. Will started dying so I caught up to him with a lap to go, and Jon was having a bad day so he was far back too. I think my endurance sucks right now. That's what I get for being injured during base... 7mi.
PM: DDR! Took plenty of rest between songs. Surprisingly, my shins weren't hurting.

Rotation's over! APien, Aditya, and David are Pageboys! Most everybody's in Fleming... funny how that works ;P. It's ok, we've got 4 of the top 5 on varsity!

Total: 30.3mi + 90min + DDR.
42mi equivalent.

Getting ready for the grind

Sun 9/23: Getting big in the gym. ;P

PREFROSH ARE HERE!

Mon 9/24: No more 2-a-days. Sad.
AM: Lower Arroyo. 59min, 7.8mi. (7:34 pace)
PM: Just exercises.

Tue 9/25:
AM: 15min tempo @ Lacy. ~5:49 pace. Started w/ Will/Andy and fell back a bit at the end. Knee was hurting a bit. 6.5mi.
Right hamstring tendon also started hurting a bit after whirlpool. Last meal money =/.
PM: DDR! Rocking those spins. ;P

Wed 9/26:
PM: Huntingson. Went out pretty easy and sped up a bit. 6.5mi.

Thu 9/27:
AM: *&@#^$%*&^!@$%*@&^!$%#! R groin strain... can't run. This is dumb. 3on/1off x 6 on the bike. Minimal pain. Stationary bikes suck. 40min.

Fri 9/28:
AM: At least bikes don't use the groin at all. Hopefully I can race tomorrow... Got a fancy leg sleeve thing so that should help. 35min.

Sat 9/19:
AM: Pomona-Pitzer Invitational! 5:45am... so early... At least our race was at 7:45. Started off wearing the sleeve but it felt funny, so I took it off and ended up being fine. Mile splits 5:46, 6:04, 6:13, 6:04, 6:08 aka 5:46, 11:50, 18:03, 24:07, 30:15. I was hoping to break 30, but I can't complain too much after not being able to run for 10 months. Hopefully I get fast again soon; I really want to be in last year shape. 9mi.
PM: DDR @ Page Arcade Night. Took it pretty easy.

Total: 29.8mi + 75min + DDRx2.
43mi equivalent.

One track mind

Sun 9/16:

PM: DDR! I told myself I wouldn't, but ohh well. My quads recovered enough to justify it. I felt better than I thought I would and managed to beat some 11s. Not complaining ;P.

Mon 9/17:
AM: Casting pond. 8.3mi.
PM: 20min elliptical.

Tue 9/18:
AM: 5x1600m @ Lacy. 6:08, :03, :05, :07, :09. Managed to run the whole workout w/ Scott and the bros. This was literally the first workout I managed to run the team for 10 months, so I'm definitely not complaining. Felt so dead the whole entire time. Quads feeling sore again... have a bad feeling about this. 7.5mi.
PM: 20min elliptical.
Got myself some new Brooks Ravennas. ;P

Wed 9/19:
AM: Garfield long way. Quads sore so couldn't keep up w/ the team. 47min, 5.7mi.
PM: 20min elliptical.

Thu 9/20:
AM: Elliptical 7on/3off x 4. Couldn't get my heart rate up. (typical elliptical). 53min total.
PM: 20min elliptical.

Fri 9/21:
AM: 12 laps around track, 20min elliptical. Slight shin splints, but I was wearing new shoes so it's understandable. 3mi.
PM: 20min elliptical.
Hamstring tendons and knee feeling a bit funky...

Sat 9/22:
AM: 10, 8, 6 @ Garfield, 5 min rest. ~3:15, 3:00, 2:53 per lap. Ran w/ Stanta on the first two, Ian on the last. Great workout, quads not as sore. Biked to/from (30min). 4.5mi.
PM: DDR. Went pretty easy.

Total: 29mi + 203min + DDRx2.
55mi equivalent.
This was the first week of doing legit workouts. I'm catching back up much better than expected. You'd imagine 9 months of injury would make you a lot slower, but I guess consistent core and elliptical keeps you in decent shape.

Back to running!

Mon 9/10
AM: 22 laps around the south field. ~7:45 pace for the bulk. Random 63sec lap for fun ;P. 5.5mi.
PM: Off

Tue 9/11
AM: Jogged in Lacy while the team did exteriors. 5.5mi.
PM: 25min bike.

Wed 9/12
AM: 22min elliptical. Quads ridiculously sore. I guess that's what I get for bumping up from 5mi a week to 5+ mi a day. Hamstrings surprisingly still alive, though.
PM: 38min elliptical.

Thu 9/13
AM: 3/2 x 6 at Lacy. Ran with the slowest guy. 7mi.
PM: 20min elliptical

Fri 9/14
AM: Lacy long way. 4mi.
PM: 16min grass. 2mi.
Finally running w/ the team! Quads still sore...

Sat 9/15
Riverside Invite! Ran trivial amounts trying to get splits.

Total: 24mi + 105min.
34.5mi equivalent.
For the first week back, that's not bad. Hopefully I'm not being stupid and causing myself more injuries.

Byebye Running

Monday, February 20th

I got my knee checked out today again. Apparently, the pain I’m feeling is not from the bursitis or any of my previous problem. It’s patellar tendonitis.

For those of you who don’t know anything about tendonitis, let me just say this: it sucks. Tendonitis is one of those things that you can actually train through, but if you do train through it and don’t let it heal it becomes chronic, aka it never goes away. Ever.

I don’t know how long this tendonitis has been there, but I’d guess it was triggered by last Tuesday’s speed workout. This means it’s still recent enough to treat, so since my season’s already guaranteed to suck we decided I should take 10 days off from running. I’ll still show up for ice, ultrasound, stretching, exercises, rolling out, and more ice. It’s sad, I spent around two hours at track every day and can’t even run. Ohh well, you’ve gotta do what you gotta do.

Finally Racing!

Saturday, February 18th

I hate getting up early (yes, 8:30am definitely counts). It has got to be the hardest thing for me to do now, second to maybe leaving the beer room. At least for track/xc meets I have motivation to get up - my 9am Ma5 attendance is embarrassing low. Now if you haven’t read much about my running during the last few weeks it would be hard to put this into perspective. I would urge you to click here and read it first, but if reading about running bores you to death, feel free to go on to the next section. Don’t worry, I won’t feel offended. ;P JK you're on my running blog you love reading about running.

I ran a 5:10 mile. (It was an actual mile, so that would convert to ~5:08 1600m). It was literally my slowest mile/1600m race (even slower than time trials) since HS junior year track season. My knee was definitely hurting a lot more than it should, so I’m going to get it checked out again on Monday. Every time I stopped running, I would have to stretch out my knee by sitting and pulling it towards my chest ~10-15 times before I could run comfortably again.

Since I haven’t had much speed work recently, I guess I was kind of bad at feeling pace. I got a solid start and went out a little fast, in 72. I was feeling ok but definitely more tired than I should have for the first lap of a mile. I decided to try to stick at around 75s for the rest of the race, despite feeling like absolute crap the whole time (darn my stubbornness). By the time I got to the last lap, my legs were absolutely dead and I could barely even pick them up for the last 100m. My friend who I planned on breaking 5 with passed me right out of that last turn and ended up running 5:05. (Yes, a 5 second gain in the last 100m; I was really dead.) The coach wrote down our splits, but I purposely didn’t want to look at them since I know they’re absolutely pathetic. In general, the race was a pretty bad experience, and immediately after crossing the line, I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t stop wheezing and coughing, which meant I could only walk a cool down.

Hopefully my body isn't totally screwed over. We'll see what happens next week.

Being Injured Sucks.

February 17th, 2012

I love running. It’s my favorite thing to do in the world, second to maybe… nothing. (You can take that either way.) I’ve been racing since 7th grade, and it’s consumed >=2 hours a day of my life ever since. I’ve never been very fast, either, but I still try to set high goals for myself which I rarely achieve, yet I’m still somehow always optimistic. This winter break, I went to Kauai. Yes, I know, be jealous. Anyway, we went hiking by the Na Pali coast (in mid-December). 2 miles in, we had to cross a river, and I slipped and my knee landed on a rock. Needless to say, the 2 miles back were extremely painful, and I couldn’t really bend my knee for the rest of winter break.

Track season started when I got back to Tech, so the trainer and I made it a priority to get back to running so I could compete on the team. My schedule looked something like this:

1/3-14: Ice, ultrasound, and quad exercises

1/16-21: Elliptical, starting at 20 minutes and adding ~5/day, plus ice/ultrasound/exercises

1/23-31: Running a few laps around the track, plus 45 minutes elliptical/ice/ultrasound/exercises

On February 1st, I was finally cleared to run with the team! The first thing I noticed was that my quads were very weak. I’d go for a run, and then any running for the next few days would be extremely painful for my quads so I would just elliptical for the next few days. This happened a few times, with me doing hard track workouts with the team and ellipticalling the easy days.

Each time I ran a workout, though, my knee and hamstring tendons (behind the knee) would also hurt pretty badly for the next day or so. I had developed hamstring tendonitis near the end of the last cross country season, so we figured my messed up knee caused my body to compromise and re-aggravate my hamstrings. Also, my knee was hurting especially badly after this Tuesday’s workout. Hopefully everything feels better soon.

Now on the bright side and the point of this post: I’M RACING TOMORROW!

I’m just running the mile, and my goal is to break 5, which I think is doable considering my workout intensity/times. Now all of you are probably thinking: why are you racing if your body is so broken? Well the truth is that I’ve actually recovered a lot in the last few weeks, and if we understand everything that’s going on in my body correctly, it seems we’ve reached some sort of equilibrium which allows me to run with frequent ice and ultrasound.

Now time to get some sleep… need to leave for the meet at 8:30am. o_O