Holy Humidity

You're lucky that you're getting this update through an internet blogpost and is not chatting with me in person, because I'm a one sweaty mess. I don't mind sweating when I'm working out, since sweat=awesome workout. 

And Monster=giddiness. A Monster a day keeps the Starbucks away. Yes, I know this picture is sideways, but my computer was being stupid. 

But it's not fun to be all sweaty and hat haired at work. I am finally beginning to do some real work that is helpful for the company instead of just attending training. Unfortunately, this also means that I spent the entire morning out in the Louisiana heat and humidity tracing lines in the plant. Because of safety concerns, I also had to be out wearing long sleeve collared shirt, long pants, steel toed boots, hard hat, and safety gloves. 

True story, except my boss doesn't think I sleep through the day. I hope not. 

Knowing that I'll be outside walking up and down flights of stairs, when my alarm buzzed at 4:50AM, I opted for more sleep. I knew a spin class would have made me feel better, but I also thought that might kill me at work, so back to sleep it was. It's a lot easier to justify going back to sleep when you're half asleep and cozy in bed. 

Now that we got the work talk out of the way, let's talk about running. Despite this being a running blog, I haven't written about running in a while. Let's be honest, I haven't written anything in a while. The bad thing about a running blog is that you have to run in order to blog. 

Yesterday, remember how I said that I went to a Body Pump class before work? Well, after work, I actually headed out for a 3 miler. It felt like I was dying, but I got in 3 very sweaty miles at 9:47/mile pace, which is faster than I've been running outdoors. 

The only reason that I ran "so fast," was that I felt like I was going to die if I stayed outside for longer. Note to self, bring water on runs. 

Photo of me if the heat was the moose(?) Is that a moose?

Hopefully, now I'm ready to get back into running and I will soon be able to tell you about exciting things like mile splits and emergency bathroom runs track workouts. A big maybe on the track workouts, since I never really did them even when I was in the racing mode. The emergency bathroom stops will definitely come up more often than I'd like since the route that I run has zero bathrooms. I mean seriously, what do all the runners do when they need to go? The woods is not an option because it's heavily populated and right by major roads. 

You knew this picture will be in the post since it's so relevant. Here's to hoping that won't be me and there's some hidden bathrooms on the route. 

I'm also now in the process of looking for new shoes. I feel like I should break in new running shoes while my old ones are still good. To be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of the Asics that I have. Now, I don't know what brand to try. I'm thinking about a different line of Brooks or Sauconys. I really want to try out Hoka One One, which I found out about from this awesome blogger who doesn't know I'm alive. But she's cool and she swears by these shoes. Fun fact, Marshall Ulrich, ultra runner, also loves them. 

Now I'm off to trace some more lines and hydrate so that I don't faint off the unit. How did you guys find your shoes and how did you know that they were the one? Was it love at first wear or do you need to develop the relationship? 

Slushy Fun

Thank you everyone for offering me suggestions on what could be causing my knee pain. After reading all you comments, I decided:
1. To retire my Brooks
2. To roll my IT band more

To start the week off right, I went for a run despite the slushiness of my route.

It was gorgeous, but super slippery. 

I got in an easy 5 miles at a 9:59/mile pace. For a while, I freaked out, because holding the pace felt hard. But I decided to let it go and just enjoy being outside. Also, I really should be doing my easy runs slowly anyways.

Other than not being able to hold a faster pace, the run itself was good. There was no knee pain. The only bad part was stepping in a huge mud puddle and ruining my sneakers. I then made a series of bad life decisions:

1. Oh no mud! I'm going to wipe it off with snow.
2. I'm going to grab the snow with my bare hands and try to rub it on my sneakers
3. That didn't help. And now my hands are covered in mud.
4. I'm going to break a trail to the lake to break through the ice to wash my hands in it
5. Oh wait, snow's too deep for my sneakers, I'm just going to use fresh patch of snow to wipe my hands off.

All the above resulted in super frozen hands with no gloves.

It was too hard to get down to the bank through the snow. 

Luckily, the day wasn't too cold and my apartment, only a mile away. 

Not that bad. I have no idea why I freaked out and started rubbing snow all over it with bare hands. 

After the fiasco, I conveniently ran into the bf and made him take photos of me fake running. If only I had camera men waiting for me all over my running route. 

Yay! I love running! (What my pose and expression was supposed to convey) Looks more like I'm being blinded and going off the sidewalk. 

On the knee front, it didn't hurt during my run. But about an hour after, while I was lying on the bed, I noticed some pain. Enough to make me feel nervous, but not enough to take drastic measures. I think I will keep on foam rolling and not wearing the worn out shoes and see where I am at the end of the week.

On the training plan front, I am going to make a training plan soon, I swear. My friend who ran a 2:45 Boston told me that he'd virtually coach me. Well, he agreed to give me some advice, which I took to mean, "I'll totally be your coach. Please e-mail me tons of questions about everything."

All in all, life is good. 

Happy Monday! And of course, in addition to my friend, I will be relying heavily on you guys as my training progresses for advice. How are your runs going? 

Happy Friday

Making lists are fun. The only problem is that I don't make them nearly often enough. One of my non running related goals are to make more lists and become organized with things that I have to do. Not to mention, all these to-do lists in my head seem way more daunting in my brain. So I am going to try to make a list of all the things that make me happy to get in the mood for the weekend. Sort of like Ali's Thankful things post. And I'm inspired by my non internet friend, Gina, who has lists of her lists. (Hey Gina!)

Here are the things that are making me happy.

1. Double running days. 
Yup, today was the double running day. I went in the morning for a quick 4.1 miler at 9:59/mile pace in between classes. I had originally wanted to get in 5 or 6, but I didn't want to have to rush home at a non-easy pace. Even though it was an easy day and I reminded myself to run slowly, I died slowly inside as I watched the numbers on my garmin go up past 10:00/mile pace. I really need to stop being stupid and get with the program of running my easy runs slowly.

I got over the slower pace, but the less mileage was bumming me out. As a result, when my bf decided to head out on his 6 miler at night, I tagged along. Unfortunately, my knee started hurting (not exactly painful, but uncomfortable) again. It's been happening during my runs lately. I have a few suspects in mind. So I just cut it short and ran 3.3 miles at his 10:28/mile pace.

My suspect number one is my old Brooks. They only have 335 miles on them, but the treads are worn through where I pronate.

Possible suspect? Maybe. Looking at the soles make me happy. It shows me how much hard work I put in pronating and wearing my shoes down unevenly. 

Suspect number 2 is that I've been breaking in a new type of shoes. I wanted to try a different brand, so I am currently breaking in my Asics. Maybe it is the Asics, since the treads on Brooks have been worn down since about mile 250. And I just started breaking in the Asics. 

Suspect number 3 could be increased mileage (although I had a good base from training for the half), or maybe I gained weight. It's hard to tell since I haven't weighed myself in forever. Whatever the reason, I'm taking a rest day tomorrow and coming up with a plan to narrow down the suspects. 

2. My new waterbottle

I have a really hard time drinking water. I just forget my thirst really quickly. With all this running, I know that I have to make hydrating a priority. So I preemptively rewarded myself with a new giant waterbottle. I will bring it to class and hydrate throughout the day. 

It's has obnoxious logo everywhere, but I love it. 

3. The way that light hits the clock tower near sundown. 

I was sadly in the basement working on projects, but then I came outside and saw this gorgeous view. It made me all excited about life and stuff. 

So pretty. I didn't even have to instagram it. 

4. My bf signed up for a marathon with me even even though the longest he's ever run before was 6 miles. 

After months of nagging/begging, he finally agreed to give up his weekend mornings, therefore some of his weekend nights of partying, for a marathon. 

This sadly did not involve any alcohol. We were all sober and he wore my jacket . . . while not being drunk. 

5. Human bonding class

So far, we've watched countless videos of babies interacting with their mothers. It's just one long warm and fuzzy session. 

6. Brownies that I earned from a friend

My friend bet me that if I can teach him to skate without the wall, he'd bake me brownies. I really wanted those brownies. So with threats of skate up his a** if he grabbed the wall, I turned him from this:

He's literally crawling to the wall here. To a person who can skate across the rink without the wall. I know, I'm pretty amazing. Maybe that's my calling. Threatening people so that they learn how to ice skate.

Now, tell me about your happy things. And while you're at it, if you can shed some insights or your suspicions about my knees, that would be great! Happy Friday! 

Running on a Budget

Everyone who doesn't run has always told me that running is the cheapest sport. And while it's not exorbitantly expensive, like figure skating or skiing, I found that running does get expensive. I am not the most frugal person, but I get a serious case of buyer's remorse, so I try to cut back on some of the costs. And here are some of the things that I've thought about.

1. Compression Socks. I WANT!!! However, they do run up quite the coast. At least the ones that I've found have been upwards of $30. If anyone knows of cheaper ones, please share. Additionally, when I read blogs of some serious runners, they have compression shorts for the thighs, compression shirts, compression everything! So being the cheap/poor college student, I've started wearing my tightest jeans whenever I feel that I need to recover.

Clearly this is me. Nevermind that I actually don't own a pair of skinny jeans. But I like to pretend I look like this in my jeans. 

Verdict: To be seen. I really can't give an informed verdict until I get actual compression socks. But after races, when my legs are especially sore, an Advil does do the trick.

2. Good pair of running shoes These babies can cost about $100 dollars give or take twenty dollars, which is still more than I used to spend on running shoes. I used to get the sale sneakers with the cutest color. And for me, it wasn't too bad. However, when I seriously started training, I went to a specialty running store and got fitted for a pair, because that's what everyone else was doing.

Cleaner version of my current running shoes. I totally picked it because Ghost sounded cool. 

Verdict: It wasn't a necessity for me until I got into serious training. And even then, I am not sure, because I didn't attempt to run in non specialty sneakers for 25-30miles weeks. I'd probably continue buying specialty running shoes, because that's what everyone else does. And they've been doing it longer. 

3. Sports Massage I probably will never shell out my money for a painful massage. Maybe a relaxing one next to a pool, but probably not a hardcore sports massage. I just bought a $25 foam roller to work out my sore spots. It's just as painful but much cheaper especially since I don't see it breaking anytime soon. I am not even sure if it can break unless I try to cut it in half with a saw. 

Verdict: I will stick with my foam roller. But again I haven't tried a sports massage. 

4. Races I can't imagine not running races, so I will continue to pay the fees for a bib and a shirt. Although, since it is costly, I would probably keep on running cheaper local races unless there's a special occasion (birthday). 

Look, a bib, a shirt, and free water. And spectators next to me. Totally worth the $20. 

Verdict: I refuse to give it up. 

5. Fueling I've stopped spending money on energy gel things. I found that for a distance up to the half, I don't need any.

Verdict: I don't need them. But maybe I'll run faster if I do take in some fuel during a run?  

6. Garmin A must for me. It's the most expensive item, other than my laptop, that I own in my room. But I am obsessed with the numbers. Maybe too obsessed. But it saves me time from having to map out my route beforehand and time=money. Therefore, I've paid off for my garmin by now with increased time? I'm just going to believe that because it makes me feel better about the cost of a garmin. 

Verdict: Most important thing i have. 

What are some of you guys' methods for saving money? What things are a necessity for you when you're running? 

This makes me feel totally hardcore. And it's so true.