Promising to call friends back…Swearing that you are going to start eating better as soon as you finish cramming the rest of that doughnut in your mouth…Buying all of the fancy footwear in preparation for when you eventually get the courage to go for a run in public…

It’s incredible how many of us are good at making promises that we can’t seem to keep (myself included). For example, for the past few months, I kept telling myself how I was going to post more on this blog, but then I didn’t make the time to do it. However, I have been making the time to consume more organic foods; and a recent investment in a juicing machine has helped to make this a little easier. The following is a simple juice recipe that I made today. Enjoy!

Apple, Carrot, Ginger Juice Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2-3 apples
• 3 carrots
• 1 small piece of ginger

In high school, I was much faster than I am today, but throughout my life experiences, related to running or not, I have come to realize it’s not about the time or your place in the race, but the journey that takes you to get to that finish line. -Danica Kooiman, the Chic Runner

A few weeks ago, my hamstring had started feeling really tight, and then sure enough- it eventually caught up with me. Now, for the past week or so, I haven’t really been running at all because I wound up doing something to my hamstring, which in turn did something to my hip flexor. Bottom line? It hurt. Just over a week later, however, I’m feeling much better and am really looking forward to getting back out there and running.

It’s always when things seem like they’re finally starting to go well that the unexpected happens. It can be extremely frustrating to say the least. I’ve been trying to do other types of exercises, but that’s been somewhat difficult too because a lot of the exercises involve using your lower body. It’s funny how you fail to realize just how important one part of your body (however insignificant it might seem) can be once you aren’t able to use it the same way.

Lesson learned. Now, if I could only figure out what caused my hamstring to become so tight out of nowhere….I blame it on the fact that most of us are born with one leg longer than the other….

Running is the classical road to self-consciousness, self-awareness and self-reliance. Independence is the outstanding characteristic of a runner. He learns the harsh reality of his physical and spiritual limitations when he runs. He learns that personal commitment, sacrifice and determination are his only means to betterment. Runners get promoted only through self-conquest. -Noel Coward

It’s been a while, but so far my track workouts are improving (I think). Just the other day, the guys were running 5X 1600 meters at 6 minute mile pace. However, I don’t have quite the stamina built up for that yet, so I altered the workout and chose to do 5X800 meters. It was a good workout, and I ended up negative splitting each time. 

Today, I am meeting up to go for another tempo run. Last week, we went on an 8 mile tempo at Umstead Park over what was mostly an uphill climb. It was a little chilly, and I really wanted to stay with them as long as I could because I knew that they would be pushing the pace. I actually ended up staying with them for almost the entire run, with the exception of the very last mile in which they sort of took off and my tired body just couldn’t push anymore. 

The best feeling came during the run when I asked one of the guys what pace we were running (He had one of those fancy watches that tells you the pace). You see, I’m pretty good at guessing what pace is being run because I’ve been running the vast majority of my runs at right around 7-minute mile pace. However, due to the fact that we started off the run kinda’ fast AND the fact that I was tired, I wasn’t sure what the pace was because it simply felt fast. So, that being said, you could imagine how pleased I was when I was informed that we had been running sub 7-minute mile pace the entire time and were currently running around 6:37 pace!

Never Underestimate Yourself

It seems like there a million reasons that I could have chosen not to run with those guys last week for that tempo run. First of all, I knew it was going to be a tempo run (and I have always loathed tempos), then there was the fact that I was exhausted and it was cold outside. However, there’s something to be said for the fact that I had already dedicated to meet up with these gentlemen and once with them, I was determined not to let them drop me (at least not for the vast majority of the run). I’ve looked at it pretty realistically: I’m not completely out of shape, but I wouldn’t say that I’m in the greatest shape of my life right now either. Additionally, I know that these guys are better than me at the distance stuff- heck, they’re marathoners! I wouldn’t jump up to say that any one of them is a better runner than me; it’s that they’ve been training for something totally outside of anything I’ve done. 

All of that aside though, I am willing to learn from them, and by training with people who are better than you, you will (usually) become better as well.

To become the runner you are, you can’t dwell on the runner you’re not. Start with what you’ve got – whether it’s mental, physical or just the support of your family – and then just run.  There really aren’t any rules about what your running should be – you don’t have to run “fast”, need to run “long”, sign up for races, run on a treadmill or run at all unless you really want to. Deciding on the runner you want to be is the most important thing of all. -Amy Hunold-VanGundy

This week marks my second week running with a group of marathoners-something I’m really excited about (because it means that I have people to train with). However, I had to force myself to back out of a track workout at the last minute today due to my recent problems with sleep and lack of it.

It’s not uncommon to come across athletes who push themselves beyond their limits all because they feel that they cannot afford to miss a day of training. This is especially true if you’ve found yourself in a situation where you haven’t been sleeping well but still want to train. I often find myself pondering as to whether or not I should just push through the exhaustion and get a “good workout” in for fear of being perceived as lazy or the unreasonable thought of somehow getting out of shape.

Get the sleep.

This is a hard pill for many of us to swallow. For someone who always tries to keep busy, having to slow down and sleep is not only frustrating; it feels like a waste of time. In the long run, however, getting sufficient sleep will help you because it’s a great preventative measure against injuries-not to mention that it assists us in maintaining a healthy weight and overall better mental clarity.

I find that I often need to remind myself of the importance that sufficient sleep plays in my life. After all, I wouldn’t have much of one without it!

The bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret; we make up our minds every night to leave it early, but we make up our bodies every morning to keep it late. ~Charles Caleb Colton

Well, it took me a couple of years, but I finally managed to get back on a track and really do a workout. Equally as difficult was finding some people to run with as well as a track. You see, down here in North Carolina, the public schools aren’t as open to strangers running on their tracks (even though we’re taxpayers). In any case, I digress. The workout was as follows:

3 X 2000 meters w/ 1 lap recovery inbetween each
1 mile w/ 1 lap recovery
1 mile (jogging the turns and sprinting the straightaways)

Overall, this was a really good track re-introduction for me. I was running the first part of my workout with all men who are active marathoners. I also ended up modifying the workout a little because they were doing between 4-5 X2000 meters (which was a bit much for me to start back with). We were on pace to run each successive 2000m a little faster than the one before. So, for example, we ran the first mile split at 6:21, the second at 6:17 and the third one was around 6:13.

Overall, I’m really pleased that I was able to keep up with these guys. The pace that they were trying to run wasn’t anything blistering, but it was a good start for someone who hasn’t done any sort of speed work in a while (ahem, ahem). I’m not sure that I’ll ever run a marathon, but if I can keep up with these guys, you never know!

If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win. -Carl Lewis