Motivated to Succeed

10:00 AM - Starting off September on a good note. Temps in the mid to upper 70s. Sunny. Blue skies. Went to the track tbut someone was in my lane, so I went to lane 4 today.  Just wanted to do a couple miles. Ended up with 3 miles in 26:25. Felt great. Stretched and headed home. What a beautiful day!

Total Time: 26:25 Total Distance: 3 mi Average Pace: 8:48/ mi

11:45 AM - Finally finished my homework. Emmy and I decided to go for a walk. She said we should try doing Monument Mountain today, a nice hike in Berkshire County. Located in Great Barrington, MA. We had a blast. Very steep on the way up. Started sweating. Sunny and temps in the 80s. Took one of my shirts off and wrapped it around my head and looked like a desert prophet I suspect. Total distance was 3 miles round trip in just under an hour including a 10-15 min enjoyment at the top of the views. What a blast. Emmy is going to come up here to NY this weekend and before work on Sunday both of us and my family are going to go up north to hike Black Mountain in the southern Adirondacks. I can't wait! I love these breaks from all the grad school work!

8:40 AM - Went to the track after my  brothers left for their first day back at school. Temp was nice only about 70, a little humid, sunny. Stretched and started jogging, and felt really great! Ended up doing 3.6 miles total in 30:32 including a brief 50- 100 m pickup towards the end at about 7:00-7:15 pace. No pain. Eased into a jog and coasted home, then stretched. All in all a great day. Now to get cracking on all this work. Sigh.

Total Time: 30:32 Total Distance: 3.6 miles Average Pace: 8:29 / mi

6:00 PM - Went running after work; sunny. Humid and temps in the mid 80s. Yuck. Went slowly. Felt pretty good. Really wish I could move forward progress wise though. I have to remember slow, steady progress. Hopefully I can shoot for a 5 or 6 miler next week. Did a nice bit of stretching after my jog and walked back to the car. Ended up with 3.25 miles total. Not a bad jog. Is it safe to say I'm a runner again? Or at least a jogger?

Total Time: 30:03 Total Distance: 3.25 mi Average Pace: 9:15/ mi

8:00 AM - Drove up to Lake George today and went to the Northeast side. Jonn, Harry, Mom and Emma came with me. We decided to hike Black Mountain today. With a total elevation of 2665' and a difficulty of 3 of 5 via an Adirondack guide book, it was a nice hike, with a lot of easy walking, and then some monster rocky passes. Was a fun day though, and the view was absolutely spectacular. Felt good to get out in the open air! What a blast! 5 miles total of good hard hiking.

7:45 AM - Sunny, temp in the mid 40s. First night of frost for the year last night. I got on a long sleeve shirt and went out the door. Didn't know what to expect, what with not being on the bike in about 2 weeks. I am officially overworked and overtired with school and work. Ended up having a really good ride. A bit chilly outside today though. Should really try to invest in some proper fall biking gear, huh? Went the usual Jockey Street route into Charlton and back. Didn't want to do too long of a ride in case the legs weren't feeling it. Looking at my speed.. I think the legs still got it!

Total Time: 1:27:30 Total Distance: 26 mi Average Speed: 17.83 mph

"Like a lot of runners, I am an introvert by nature. Running naturally appeals to introverts because it's a solitary activity, unless you go out of your way to make it otherwise, and it has a way of dampening external stimuli, bringing your feelings and thoughts to the fore." - Dean Karnazes from his new book 50:50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days - and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance!

9:30 AM - Went to Spa Park with Jonn today. He wanted to do a recovery run after a tough 2.7 miler xc race yesterday. He did awesome and ran for 28th place in the varsity race! We started off nice and slow, and did a .6 mile warmup in 5:59. Eased into the 5k course that he will have to run for sectionals, and then followed up with 2 loops of the golf course. On the last loop he left me in the dust and wanted to shake out his legs and opened up into probably like a 7 minute pace or so. I am on top of the world right now. The only pain I felt was the last .5 miles as I was coming in to the car under two of my toes on my right foot. I suspect it was a slightly pinched nerve from a rock that had been lodged there during the run. My splits were as follows:

• Mile 1 - 10:19
• Mile 2 -  9:35
• Mile 3 -  9:47
• Mile 4 - 9:44
• Mile 5 - 9:32
• Mile 6 - 9:47
• Mile 7 - 9:52

I still can't believe today's run. I know it's a reflection of how hard I've trained this summer and how I have kept faith in my abilities to overcome this setback. I think my goals for the week will be 2 or 3 3-milers and then to try a similar run next weekend. I truly needed this after having a horrible week with work and school.

Total Time: 1:08:51 Total Distance: 7.02 mi Average Pace: 9:48/ mile

6:30 AM - Running in the darkish morning hours. Really needed a jog to clear my head. About to lose it with grad classes. And can't find a placement to do observation hours. If I can't find something soon I'll be in serious trouble as it's an automatic F if I don't complete them. Grr. Anyways, went to the track and was surprised to find three other people already there. Ended up doing 30 minutes pain free. A friend suggested the Galloway method. I am really considering it. It includes 2 x 30 minute jogs during the week, an easy walk on Friday, and then longer runs every other week on Sunday alternating with 3 or 4 milers on the "off" weeks. At least this would allow me to slowly build up mileage and attempt a longer run, which is what I really miss. Hopefully things go as planned. And hopefully I get the chance to blog more, if I can ever get things in my life under control.

Total Time: 30:00 Total Distance: 3.19 mi Average Pace: 9:24/ mi

6:30 PM - After a long day at work, went jogging at the track. Temp was in the mid 50s. No wind. Ideal running weather. After a couple laps I was nice and toasty. Funny part was at the end when I was stretching, I was making fun of how I look like a freight engine locomotive with all the steam coming off my body. :) No pain today. Just tired.

Total Time: 30:00 Total Distance: 3.12 miles Average Pace: 9:37/ mi

As per the numerous "Kellies" posts I saw a link to hundredpushups.com; I checked it out and it's a new goal of mine. I did a 'test' and did 30 pushups comfortably. This is a good place to start. Let's see how long I can keep it up!

6:00 PM - Good run, too bad I'm too stressed to feel relaxed out there. Have had more than I can handle on my plate right now with school. I spent about 12 hours on homework today alone.  Ended up forcing myself to go out there, and I jogged for 30 minutes, but it was hard to feel relaxed and comfortable because I am stressing on everything that is due in the next couple days. Plus I start observing on Wednesday, so that's one more thing to worry about. Oiii. Splits today were: 9:39, 9:36, and 9:17. Good thing I guess is that I was able to do a familiar 5k road loop I used to run daily, without any pain, granted it was significantly slower than it used to take me. I wish I could find something to make me less stressed and less moody. I just want to forget about grad school. It just makes me unhappy.

Total Time: 30:00 Total Distance: 3.16 mi Average Pace: 9:30/mi

6:00 PM - Long day at work. Already dark when I got home tonight. Fun. Luckily my wind trainer came earlier this week so I spent about 20 mins assembling it and connected one of the old bikes to it. Went and hopped on and did 45 minutes hard. I don't think I've sweat that much before. Not even in the marathons! Felt oh so good. Now back to the drudgery of homework. It's killing me. I swear it is. Drop the hammer FRBloggers!

11:45 AM - Overcast to partly sunny. Temp around 70. Somewhat humid. Ran with Jonn this morning, at least part way. We talked about his really strong race yesterday, and then he took off at about 3 miles in. I kept him in my sights until about 1.5 miles to go where he kicked it into overdrive. Overall I felt really great. No pain. Just a little tightness in my right calf the last mile. Cramped up a bit because didn't have water out there. Biking has spoiled me with water always at hand.! A full mile farther than my last long run. Longest run since January! Really needed this to start the week off right. Now back to homework!

Total Time: 1:11:48 Total Distance: 8.02 miles  Average Pace: 8:57/ mi

Hard morning ride on the wind trainer. Will be hard to work up to doing several hours on this beast. You get such a workout going in high gear since you have to constantly pedal! Phew!