Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Moving Hurts

All this sudden influx of activity is definitely affecting my muscles. This morning, I woke up with back soreness which I assume is from wildly flailing in front of the kinect.

But I kind of enjoy muscle soreness from a workout in a weird masochistic way? I just feel accomplished when my muscles are sore the day after a workout.

Today was a rest day from running, because I met up with my parents' friend for a tennis lesson at 7AM. Here's a small picture of me blending into the background.
Don't worry, I didn't wear the same shirt again. This picture is just from last time. 
Today's lesson started off fun but by the end, I never wanted to look at a tennis ball again. I'm not being ungrateful. I know people pay a lot of money for private tennis lessons that I'm now getting for free.

But two hours and twenty minute of a private lesson? It was a little too much and way too tiring.

Part of it was my fault. I had a little too much pride to say that I was tired. So I kept on smiling and swinging. And now it's hard to think about anything other than sleeping. And I'm rhyming.

So here's a nicer random photo that I took at the beach for you to enjoy while I sleep.
A doggy water fountain! What a fun idea. 
Happy Wednesday! 

Monday, December 19, 2011

Confession time

I have somewhat of a shameful confession to make.

I can't really drive. At 21, it's kind of shocking that I can't drive, but I am sort of afraid of it.

I got my license when I was 16, but because of how expensive the insurance was, once I got my license, I didn't get to drive at all. And then the whole college thing happened. Now, I am insured during the break, but I much prefer to walk or run. So I've only driven a few times during breaks. And since I'm only home for about 6 weeks out of the entire year, this means driving is not my friend.

But today, I think I finally sort of overcame that fear. I wanted to go get bubble tea with a friend, but the only way to get there was by driving or having my brother drive me there and then pick me up later. Thanks to my cheapness (didn't want to spend extra gas by having my brother go back and forth twice), and my love for bubble tea friend, I just did it.

I thought about it like a tempo work out. Instead of obsessing at home for hours, I just went out and drove an unfamiliar route for the first time. Considering how I never drive and I've never really driven alone, it was a big feat for me.

I did make a 15 minute drive 30 minutes by getting lost both ways, but now I know that I can drive by myself with no real problems. About time!
And we took this kind of blurry, bad quality photo. 
And played kinect games, which was hard since I'd already gotten in my workout of 5 miles at 9:38/mile pace this morning. We actually took about 10 photos and the above was the best one. Yup, the others were horrific and blurry. 
Proof  that I got all sweaty this morning. If you'd seen me in person, you would also see the dirt marks all over my white shirt as a courtesy of my dog. 
Does kinect count as cross training? Because I was sweatier than I was from my easy run.

I hope your day is going swimmingly. And does anyone know of how to get rid of tightness in calves? Mine are killing me. Rest day tomorrow!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Conquering the Long Run

I finally got a long run in. It was about time after weeks of not running.

I had originally planned on getting in 8 miles. I ended up completing 7.56 miles at 9:05/mile pace. It was awesome! I know it's not super fast or anything, but after all the stupid things that I did, the run exceeded expectations.

First of all, I was super sore from the three mile run on Friday and tennis yesterday. I feel so wimpy getting sore from a 3 mile run, but that's the sad truth these days. And tennis made me incredibly sore in weird places like my forearm.

And then I made the mistake of not eating. I didn't wake up as early as I would have liked. I usually tag along with my brother when he goes surfing. and while he surfs, I run on the bike path along the beach. I usually have cereal, but today I just didn't have time to.
A nice flat route that goes on for miles. Yay! 
So all things considered, 7.56 miles at 9:05/mile pace? It was a miracle. A Christmas miracle. 

The run itself was great. Even though I was running on empty, I felt strong and saw lots of neat things. Like this boat for sale. If only I had $2500 extra dollars and dock space. 
That baby could be all mine. 
 I also made a froggy friend that I named Albert. I liked him so much that I tried to take a self picture with him, which failed horriblly. 

You can't even tell he's a frog in this picture. If only I had super long arms. 
All in all, it was a great morning run. And I'm starting to think maybe I won't die en route to the finish line come Jan 15. I might make it out of the race alive and running. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful start to their week! And what gets rid of muscle soreness? 


Saturday, December 17, 2011

Back in California

After a hectic few days of packing and flying, I am finally back home with my family in California on winter break. Which means back to regularly scheduled programming of running and blogging.

Yesterday, to celebrate my first day of being home and because my parents insist on waking me up before 7AM on breaks, I went for a first morning run in a while.
It's hard to look happy when tired. 
I ambitiously thought I would do 4miles. But then almost immediately, I started having stomach cramps and felt super thirsty.

I also sped off at 8:07/mile pace for the first mile. My body was probably thinking "Yay flat road and sea level elevation," instead of remembering the month of little running. I stopped a few times during the rest of the run to slow the pace and to stretch out the heaviness out of my legs. In the end, I covered 3.2 miles at 8:28/mile pace which is a great pace for me. But probably not a good idea.

Today, I was planning on running, but my parents convinced me to go get lessons from a family friend for tennis. So no morning run, but tennis was a harder work out than I thought.
Yeah, I'm wearing the same top. But it's been washed, I promise
Not as good as running, but cross training is always good, right?

I hope everyone's having a good weekend! And having less of a trouble with training. 

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Not quite back yet

Sorry I've been majorly MIA. For more than a week, I didn't post anything or even comment on anyone's post.

My google reader has 300+ unread items.

I also haven't ran in a too long of a time unless you count yesterday, when I had to bring a book to a friend and I thought I could brave the elements in shorts and flip flops in central NY. Not the best idea I've had, but I did run like a pack of wolves were chasing me.

But I am almost back to regularly scheduled running, posting, and reading other blogs. I just have one more final left. I like to conserve my energy toward possible all-nighters instead of running during finals time. Running makes me sleepy. And then I'll be back home in sunny California.
I am not actually riding a real moped. 
I am quite excited to read about everyone's adventures in about 30 hours after my last bioprocess test ever. And I will scarily be a second semester senior. Yikes!

And when I'm not studying, I've been playing with my brand new ipod touch. I just downloaded the smart coach app and nike training app. I really like the smart coach app. It tells me what run I should be doing and makes me feel guilty. It's also telling me that there's only 29 days left until my goal race, which I'm definitely not ready for. 

But since I laid down some big bucks for it, I will die or PR. 

So any good fitness apps that I should be downloading? Bonus points if it's free, because I'm a poor college student. :P I will see you all after my finals! 

Monday, December 5, 2011

I've been lazy

Once I break a habit, I find it so much harder to get back into it. Now, five miles seem daunting. Which is a problem since there's the whole birthday race thing that's coming up. 

To ease my conscience, I've tried to do at least one active thing every day.
Poor board. Totally looks like it might break. 

Long boarding is fun. 
Unfortunately long boarding isn't part of the HBBC point system. Oh well. I have a sad number of points so far. But I WILL kick it up this week. 

 But on my personal activity tracking, I decided to label long boarding as core work. It takes some sort of core strength to balance on these bad boys. So that counts, right? I'm just going to imagine everyone nodding yes. 

On the bright side, there's no more shin pain or any other running pain. So now there's no more excuse and  I'm going to kill my training from now on. 

How do you stay motivated? Do you find it hard to get back into something after a long break? 

Friday, December 2, 2011

I went for a run

It finally happened. It was about time for a short 3 miler. 

I'm weirdly stubborn about unimportant things. Technically, I was going to go for the three mile run yesterday when it was sunny and warm. I had planned on wearing shorts. Then the weird nap thing happened and the run didn't. So today I was determined to wear shorts no matter the weather. So that's how running in shorts in 30 degress weather happened. 

But I didn't just shorts it. I'm not that hardcore. From reading Ali's blog, I knew that some runners pair leg warmers with shorts. 
I pulled it all the way up, so that it looked more like compression sleeves. 
The best part? No one could tell that I've been lax on the shaving. Score! Don't worry. It's all taken care of now. 

After the run, I went and visited the bf. And found this . . . 
Yes, that's duct tape. We are classy here. 
My bf and his housemates are all engineers. Four years and $200,000 each of engineering education  later, this is what they do when the freezer door doesn't close. 

I also went to a dinner party celebrating the last day of classes. This will be my last fall semester. Freaky! 




I hope you guys had a great week. And have a great weekend! 


Thursday, December 1, 2011

I am back

It's the last week of school and finally all the projects are done. Now all there's left is to bang out three tests and wrap up my research project. Easier said than done, but yay. And I also somehow have to figure out what I want for my life and try to find a job. Yikes! Despite the fact that I always complain about tests and hw  come May, I feel like you'll have to drag me away from my little sheltered college world.
College land is pretty. That's our art museum. 
It's sort of worrying that even in this unreal world of academics, I still have a hard time fitting in running. To everyone who goes to grad school, has a job, and/or has babies and runs, kudos to you. In fact, I haven't run in more than a week. It's not even the time commitment that prevents me from running. It's that if I know that I have to stay up past 4AM, I don't want to expand more energy than is strictly necessary.
But there's always time and energy for a super Asian pose.  Always. 
But I was determined to run today. Even though I felt like the walking dead. I was lurching around moaning for brains AKA Starbucks. Thank God for seasonal flavors that I can try out. Let's just say that last night, I spent 15 hours straight, except for a 10 minute where I went out to grab dinner, in Olin Hall (chemical engineering building at my school).

However, I slept through an alarm and by the time I woke up from my nap, it was getting too dark. But dammit I was going to get some exercise tonight.

So, I went for a little night walk through campus.
A little arm work out. 

This was what I was going for. Not the wild flailing that I'm doing with my legs. 
And best of all, I got to wear matching leg warmers with my sweatshirt. I love the legwarmer poking out from the tops of boots look. Which inspired me to do a dancey pose. 
It looked better in my head.  
I am definitely running tomorrow. Happy Friday everyone and may your garmins catch signal quickly!