I hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas! I was on the receiving end of the Garmin Forerunner 405, two large ice packs for my legs, some sweet running swag and the LA Marathon entry fee paid for, amongst other things! The watch, sadly, is a bit too big on my dainty wrists — but that means I’m going to upgrade to the brand new Forerunner 410! It was designed it to be more unisex with a smaller hard band and the touch bezel isn’t nearly as sensitive, which I heard was problematic in the 405. Plus, it matches all my attire with a nice red stripe around the bezel.
And now to enjoy the final days of this horrid year known as 2011, send it hell with a big bow and dive into 2012! Cheers!
I often hear someone say ‘I’m not a real runner.’ We are all runners, some just run faster than others. I have never met a fake runner” — Bart Yasso
// The Flu//
Christmas came early in the form that I have been sick all week. No running. No cross training. No nothing. Just a whole bunch of coughing, sneezing, achy pains and sore throats while I sit on my bum and nurse myself to health. Miles for the week: a big huge fat ZER0! Ugh.
On a positive note, Matt Barkley is returning to USC for his Senior year to win us the National Championship and the Heisman!
You better not blitz
You better not spy
You better give up I’m telling you why
Matt-a-Claus is staying in town!
He knows when you are blitzing
He knows when your corners aren’t good
Plus he has that Woods and Lee so he’s staying in the hood…HEY!
He wants to win a Natty
And of course the Heisman too
He’s announcing during Hanukkah
As a gift to the Trojan Jews…HEY!
// So this means I’m officially a runner???//
Over the past few years, I have heard stories from various persons detailing the trials and tribulations of running — injury, illness, aches, pains, “hitting a wall,” and so on. I guess since I was so green and would only do 3 miles, a few times a week, on a good week, I never had the displeasure of experiencing such things. Simply put, running used to be easy. Now… not so much.
I raced in the Dana Point Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning again this year and finished more than 10 minutes faster than last year — 54:08 official for 8:47 per mile average. That part wasn’t much of a surprise given my training regime as of late, but the sudden pain in my right arch was. Plantar Fasciitis. Lucky me. Out of nowhere, pain, again, just like in the Long Beach Half with my knee. I managed to run through it, but my time slowed down. The first mile I took off in just under 8, and came through at the 5k mark around 25 minutes, by far a PR. The second 5k I ended up around 29 minutes which is still great, but considering where I started, a major disaster. And to think, if my foot hadn’t suddenly died on me combined with the residual knee pain I could have pulled out somewhere around 50 minutes. Man, I am getting old. Now, the part where I’m really starting to feel like a runner goes as follows and welp, this is going to be slightly awkward:
A certain acquaintance of mine used to detail his stomach issues to me, and I never understood it and the need for knowing where the nearest bano is incase of an emergency. This is had never been an issue, nor did I ever forsee it being one for me. Last Tuesday changed alllll that. I went on my normal 4 mile jaunt around the neighborhood, only come mile 2 there is a rumbly in my tumbly. I try to run through it, but it just made it worse. By mile 3, I am in desperate need of rescue, and HITCH HIKED home! My first major mid run issue, which according to those I told who found it HIGHlarious (jerks)…. I’m officially a runner. Yay?
// Back in the swing of things!//
After last month’s Long Beach Half Marathon, I ended up taking about 5 weeks off from running altogether. The race itself went pretty well aside from the last 3 miles where I bonked due to quad tendinitis, and have had to slowly nurse myself back into running. I managed to maintain my fitness pretty well with yoga and cardio at the gym, despite a few additional setbacks including the flu and a concussion.
Back in September, I had signed up for the USC Marathon Team before competing in LB and was saddened that I was unable to run with them the first four weeks because of the knee injury, then illness, then head injury. I was pleasantly surprised when last Sunday I joined everyone in Manhattan Beach for the Veterans Parkway / Greenbelt Park 10-miler. I had no idea such a thing existed and it was a fantastic run — especially coming off that amazing win from Oregon. I was feeling a little worse for wear initially from celebrating the night before, but overall felt good and the brisk morning air and light mist helped perk me right up! The trail itself is soft and covered in woodchips, and every 1/4m there are markers which is great since I don’t yet possess a Garmin. I felt good the first 3m and then the knee tenderness kicked in. Nothing that was going to stop me, but it was definitely annoying, to say the least. Prior to the run, I couldn’t walk without noticing some form of tension and tightness in my knee, but it had subsided even when working out the 10 days prior, so I was bummed but not entirely surprised when I came back. I managed to pull out 10m in 1:37:25 which breaks down to 9:44 per mile — not too shabby. Given the fact I hadn’t actually laced up for a real run in weeks, I couldn’t have been more happy with the results.
run for fitnessrun for health
run for fun
run for life
