Ten miles!

Ok, 9.7. Close enough!

My planned route fell through due to flooding by the river, so I detoured, but then I ran out of interesting roads (definitely not the worst problem, mind you!) so I turned another way, bought and chugged a Vietnamese coffee around mile 8, which hit my GI tract kind of hard shortly before mile 9. That surprised me because I've been having Korean coffees before long runs, including this one, without issue. Both have milk, both have 30-odd grams of sugar and at least some caffeine. Maybe it was a cumulative effect. At any rate, I'm finding it hard to eat much supper afterwards, but fortunately I also bought this lychee coconut drink and that's going down fine. Lesson learned!

asdfjkl;

 Typing from my new keyboard! yeah, I finally installed it. Did you know that there are 51 screws securing it into place? I found out today!

But it all rocks because because I have the day off!!! I got comped for working on holidays. So instead of working, I was at home dropping screws inside my laptop.

And outside running too. Only 3 miles today, but I did 8 on Tuesday and I'm hoping to attempt 9 or 10 tomorrow, weather permitting.  And maybe another decent run on Sunday.

 Props: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAHtxNVOXZI

! It's back!

Amazing, I have time for sleeping, eating, studying for that 14?16? hour exam in about a week, and this...and running too.

I've actually had a decent normal humane schedule this whole month, plus I've been on vacation this week.  So I've been running again! Not much, but almost every day. Today, I ran 5 km and it went really well. I'm even feeling exercised-induced endorphins for the first time in a while.

Maybe I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel? Can I keep this up?

edit: I hadn't realized I haven't posted since last July! I've been jogging on and off throughout...some months have been too rough though. 

:)

This past month has been a bit rough, and not entirely in a constructive way.  

Pro: I've learned a LOT. 

Con: I've been glutened. Mix in stress-induced nausea = eating has been hit or miss.

Pro: I've dropped approx 10 pounds of extra weight, and so running this morning felt almost like old times again. 5 easy miles. EASY! 

I have tomorrow off too and will see what happens!

!!

I'm still barely running these days: a few short runs a week, and usually one or two 15-20 min tempo runs per week too. Long run tho...hahaha.

It is what it is, right? I'm just forcing myself out there these days, but sometimes running is like this.

!

 Happy New Year!

Amid everything that went down this year, I've resumed recovery jogs and tempo runs: I've found a decent route without hills by our new place. It's not the most convenient option because it crosses a busy road, and so it took me a few months to find it, but flat terrain really makes a difference. I jogged it yesterday, and actually felt that it was restorative, not just easy.

Meanwhile, my stamina has been crap so I've put one particularly long hill to use too: I've also found a short tempo route that goes up and down it twice (and more if I repeat the loop but I'm not quite there yet). It's also mentally easier to get to the top of the hill if I run it clockwise; it's brutal counterclockwise. Funny how that works. It doesn't seem that visually misleading. Anyway, I've been doing this at least once a week for a month and I think I'm starting to feel less out of shape. It's been a long haul, and I can't be too hard on myself because I've still been running fairly regularly, but it would be nice to enjoy it more sometimes. And have "long" runs that are longer than 5-6 miles.

On the plus side, I ran 5.5 miles two days ago and have NOT gotten sick since.  I'm thrilled, knock wood. After my last "long" run a month ago, I got a cough and slight fever and other symptoms. It was probably just allergies again, but this year is special. I subsequently missed half of my clinic make up time (for a rotation that went online thanks to COVID), felt q-tips probe the depths of what I presume was my sphenoid sinus (seriously, it goes way back), and quarantined myself as best as I could with a small child whom I also kept from school until my results were negative, yay. And I had to re-remake up that clinic time during my holiday, super yay. 

Here's hoping for a better 2021 for everyone!

what

back in the groove

After posting about my insouciance over the uncertainty of my future runs, I've been running regularly. Old news by this point, actually.

However, yesterday, my legs were not sore during my run, which made me realize that they are (almost) always sore and/or heavy.  It's been like this for so long, maybe since my son was born, I don't even really notice it except as a barrier to push through to get to endorphins. I remember better runs in the past, but it seems like they happened to a different person.

Yesterday, though, my legs felt fresh, even after I pushed the pace and my breathing picked up. 

Naturally, I'm now analyzing this, particularly since my run this morning was back to crappy. Yesterday I ran in the afternoon because it was only 25 C. I almost never run in the afternoon, but perhaps lower humidity was a major player. I'd strolled for a couple of hours with my family earlier that day, but my legs weren't tired from that despite my expectation. Perhaps the key is diminished hope!

It really felt amazing at any rate.

*and I scored well on my board exam thankfully, but COVID-19 cancelled the rotation I'm supposed to be on right now--this year has been a ride.