Sock tans

Beautiful day today! It's supposed to get up to 79 on Saturday so it should be nice weather for the half :) might be a little chilly starting at 8am but we'll see. I'm getting excited for it. 

8:48 average

It's so nice outside I wanted to go longer, but I also wanted my legs to feel good tomorrow so I held back. Gave directions to a nice lady, though thinking back I'm not sure I was all that helpful. Hope she found her way

plot twist: I stepped on a tiny piece of glass barefoot. I got most of it out but there's still some in there. I can't seem to get it out. Hopefully this doesn't disrupt things too much. 

It was cold when we started, enough that I wondered if I should've worn a long sleeve. I was in a tank top and shorts. It seemed I was the only one until getting to the starting line, a couple others trickled in with tank tops. Later I was glad I wore a tank.

The first 5 miles were mostly uphill. We started on the frontage road that's by the Mountain Dell golf course and went out on Highway 65. Before connecting with Emigration canyon we did a mini out and back. Then down all the way to the mouth of the canyon by Hogle zoo. 

Around mile 7 a guy began to pass me but I decided to match him. For the next 3 miles we ran together side by side. I was grateful, it helped it go by quicker. I miss running with people. We settled running 7:40s. After mile 10 he started surging on the uphills and I matched the first time, but the second I let him go. I was getting tired. There was a water station at Ruth's diner that I stopped at (well I stopped at all 3), that was when I felt how worn my legs were. Probably from the downhill. Starting up was a little rough, but I got back into the groove. The last mile was hard. I was struggling but pushed through.

Overall it was fun and I'd do it again given the chance :) 

Oh and I hardly felt the glass in my foot. Maybe it's embedded in a callous. I only feel it sometimes. 

My legs are SO. SORE. It hurt to walk yesterday. I still walk painfully today, though I feel a little better than yesterday. Not sure if I'll be running today. I'm a little surprised it took so much out of me, but I hear downhill running is hard on your muscles.

My uncles are doing the St. George marathon and invited me to run it with them. I've decided to sign up :) 

Any marathon training tips would be appreciated!

I think the highest I'll go is 70 miles a week and 21-22 miles as my longest run leading up to the marathon. I plan to start training with one speed/tempo workout a week and one long run. I plan to start tapering 3 weeks before the marathon as per a quick google search of how to taper for a marathon. I put my goal as 3:55 because I have no idea how fast I can run a marathon- this will be my first one.

I ended up doing a small loop today. Once I got started it wasn't that bad, but I was running really slow. 9:30 average. 

3 miles easy. Legs are still sore but significantly better than yesterday. I'm hoping that by this weekend they'll feel good enough to run Wasatch extended loop one last time before moving on Sunday.

Later I did another mile at 7:33 with Millie and Tessa around our circle. Millie broke off halfway through and grabbed a scooter lol

My legs felt really heavy today. Still sore but not terribly so.

8:43 average.

I was feeling up for some 400s today so I went to the East High track and said nevermind. High schoolers were covering the home stretch of the track. So I made a loop instead continuing down to 1300 E. 

I make the big move on Sunday. I sent some of my stuff over there with my dad this evening (my younger sisters wanted a play date with my cousin- my aunt, uncle, and cousin who live in Georgia are staying with my grandparents this week hence why I don't move in until Sunday). 

I'll be helping my grandma take care of my grandpa. He had a stroke a couple years ago. He's fallen a couple of times and my grandma was unable to lift him so she's had to call 911. Hopefully with me there, there won't be a need to call 911. This is also to allow my parents to remodel the basement- can't exactly do that while I'm living down there. To get me back and used to paying rent again now that my medical bills are paid off, as a step towards living on my own again I'll be essentially paying rent to my grandparents, who will put the money in a savings account for me to access later when I'm ready to move out or buy a new car or whatever my next step in life is. They're very kind to help me out.  

This is the first week I've run every day since the last week of July 2020. First week of marathon training down, 25 weeks to go.

I'm starting out easy- I don't want to go get myself injured. So I'm going to run 2 weeks around 25 miles a week, then start building mileage from there.

I found out my old neighbor/high school teammate Natalie Shields Connolly will be running the St. George marathon as well! A couple of my friends are running the Deseret News Marathon on July 24 and one of my college teammates Ashley is running the virtual Ogden marathon the week of May 9-May 16. So I have a couple of people to run with every so often if I want to :)

I'm calling this one Redwood loop. Pretty much a box loop that included Redwood Rd. This 6 mile loop went down to 11400 S. Not sure if I'll make a loop along Redwood that's longer than that, but we'll see I guess.

To be honest, I was frustrated that I was running as slow as I was today. I averaged 8:41. I felt like the effort was there, but my legs didn't feel relaxed at all and by the end the lower part of my quads were hurting. I don't know what's up but I hope running feels more smooth soon. 

Took a path that connected with the Jordan River trail, then went south until it forked into a dirt road and the paved trail. Obviously the paved trail was where the trail continued, but I was curious where the dirt road led. So I took the dirt road. It ended in a large opening and I spotted a dirt trail, so naturally I followed that. It led to a fence that overlooked the next busy street. Looked at my watch and decided it was time to head back anyways. One thing I'm curious about is if the trail continues either way, north or south. I think it goes all the way to Bluffdale, but I could be wrong. As for the northern side I don't know where it goes. I'll have to explore that. 

On the way back I was noticing that running felt off. I adjusted my form and that boosted my pace up to 7:50, but it was tiring. Maybe I need some strength training too. Then I decided to run a couple 400s based off my watch. I was frustrated at them, too. I felt like I was putting in a good amount of effort but not getting the results I wanted. I ran a 1:40 and a 1:33. Then ran home. 

Can't remember why I didn't run yesterday, I probably just didn't want to. Oh yeah because the weather was crappy. Today I didn't run because my grandma had surgery on her hand and so I was in charge of my grandpa, we had to run to St. Marks to drop off an oxygen test then the car key battery died so we were almost locked out of the car but it had just enough juice to start the car so we went over to Nissan and got a new battery for it then over to TOSH to pick up my grandma after her surgery. We were there for like 2 hours because her oxygen levels kept dropping below 90 and they kept putting her back on oxygen and she needed to stay off oxygen for 20 minutes before she could leave. But she's all good now! By the time we got back it was starting to get dark and I'm a little more hesitant to run after dark over here when I don't know where I'm going really, so no running today. 

Took the JRT over to the South Jordan trailhead then got off and went up to Temple Dr. and back home.

Until my therapy appointment today, it hadn't occurred to me that I might be hypomanic. I can easily identify depression, but I haven't quite been able to identify hypomania until someone else notices first. I could use some practice.

The red flags were not filling out my mood chart since the beginning of April and missing a dose of medication because I ran out and thought "meh I'll be fine. I'm feeling good."

I've been in a really good, happy mood (yay) but I've also been spontaneously signing up for things like, for example, the St. George marathon. I applied for a job and have a start date and everything but it was done really fast. Here I've been thinking I can manage a full-time job and a part-time job and an online class through SUU and reality check: that's too much. Hypomania is weird, it makes you feel like you can accomplish anything. So I don't know if that speaks for my decision to run a marathon, maybe I'm in over my head. But maybe not.

Anyways, I've got a few things to sort out. 

Today was day 1 of the walk to wendover, a suicide prevention walk and fundraiser for the Life's Worth Living foundation. Thanks to my Facebook followers I raised $530 for the foundation. I'm tired and sore after today but ready for round 2 tomorrow.

On my garmin (that is currently dead so I don't have a pace for them, it died around mile 10):

Leg 1- 3miles 

Leg 2- 6 miles

Leg 3- 3 miles

On my Nike run app:

Leg 4- 4 miles, 17:35 average

Leg 5- 2.67 miles, 17:23 average (short because some teenagers in our group moved the cone back over a quarter mile)

Leg 6- 3.03 miles, 17:13 average

Total: 21.7 miles

Day 2 of Walk to Wendover. I am so sore from yesterday. I honestly think running 20 miles would be easier than walking it

Leg 1- 3 miles, 17:23 average

Leg 2- 3.16 miles, 19:13 average (It hurts to go faster)

Leg 3- 5 miles, 18:30 average

Leg 4- 1 mile, 19:06.

Total: 12.16 miles

I'm on the job hunt because my COVID-19 job is only funded until the end of June. I've applied to a few, I have an interview on Thursday that I really hope goes well because it's my top pick

I'm going to run later today. 

Well, I didn't run yesterday like I said I would... but I ran today and that's a start. 

I can feel my hypomania going away... noooo

I have two job interviews tomorrow, which I'm both stoked for and secretly dreading... I hate interviewing but I want a job so see my dilemma? Jk jk

My current job just switched up what we're doing, now one of our projects is to go door to door in lower vaccinated communities to previously selected (randomly selected) houses and try to get people to take a survey about vaccine attitudes. We're trying to get a feel for reasons why people aren't getting vaccinated. Anyways so we'll be driving to Davis county, Utah county and Tooele county for this. Today was day 1/a practice round just in some neighborhoods here in Salt Lake. I have to say, this feels very reminiscent of my mission... lol

Today was a busy day. By the time I was ready and able to go running, and wanting to for a change, it was dark. Normally if I was at my parents house I'd go anyways, but I don't trust this neighborhood as much. It's unfamiliar to me and feels less safe. So I opted not to go.

I accepted a job offer tonight, so that's exciting. I'm hoping to stay with this company for at least a year, I seem to have difficulty staying in a job (as is common for those with bipolar disorder. I can't explain why, it's got to do with the impulsivity that comes from the disorder. One day you wake up deciding you hate your job and/or wanting to try something new, and up and quit. It's really not good and it's something I need to not do. I'm proud of myself though for sticking with my current job for almost 7 months. And I'm only quitting because I'll be out of work soon anyways).