Going Downhill

When you hear someone say "Its all downhill from here." As a runner, its a good thing. Well in the literal sense it is, but not figuratively. As a runner or any athlete for that matter, there are gong to be times where you fall short of a certain goal. Maybe it was just a bad day, maybe your body and mind were not on the same page, or maybe you had an unexpected injury. None of us want to think about something like this happening, but the reality of the situation is that it happens to the best of us. Recently, one of my friends had a bad experience happen to her during a marathon. She was ready and excited for the race. This was not her first marathon, so she was no stranger to what it takes to prepare for one. The race started off well at first, but halfway into the marathon, she felt a twitch in her quad and it became painful. She had to slow her pace down and by mile 21, she was holding back tears. Despite falling short of her goal time, she finished the race! I admire her determination. It took a lot for her to fight through the pain and cross that finish line, but she did it! As expected, she was hard on herself for not finishing in the time she expected, but even I would feel the same if I were in her situation. Despite this, she lives to run another day and there will be another marathon in her future. When things like this happen, you can not let it bring you down mentally. I know its easier said than done but when we have a downhill experience, we should use it as motivation to come back stronger and redeem ourselves. I could sit here and tell you to be prepared for situations like this, but there is only so much that you can prepare for. Mentally you have to accept that you wont be at your best every single day. The best thing that you can do is give as much as you can and live to fight another day. Also, do not make excuses for yourself. Doing that can only hurt you and you wont be able to learn from what went wrong. We are all human, and we are all going to be tested mentally in different ways. I still find that I get down on myself if I fall short in my training runs or races. I have gotten better about not doing this, but I am still human. Just know this, when things go downhill, its going to be an uphill battle to come back from it. It takes perseverance and determination to overcome it. But I promise you this, when you reach the crest, its going to be all worth it!

Training Update And Random Thoughts

Ever since I have ran my first marathon, I have not been putting pressure on myself to put in 50+ mile weeks. Largely in part to the fact that I have no marathons lined up in the near future. But I do have a 5k lined up for May 9th and my 3rd half marathon (which will be all trail) lined up for May 30th. After this half marathon, I may have a team race that will consist of three members. Each team member will have to run 20 or more miles (all trail) separately. The first member would start at 7 am and the second would start at 7 pm with the last member starting at 7 am the next day. As far as my training is going, I have been making great progress with my pace. Last week I was forced to do some pretty quick runs due to isolated storms occurring each day. I took advantage of gaps in the storms to get my runs in. I ended up running a lot of tempo miles and found that my average pace had dropped to a sub 6 minute mile! Of course holding this pace is really taxing on my body. With more training at this pace, my body will adapt to it and I will be able to put in more miles at that speed. I ran today at a slower and more comfortable speed and did not put any pressure on myself to maintain any sort of average pace per mile. I am excited to see how much I have progressed when I tackle the 5k on May 9th. My current 5k race PR is 20:50. I set that PR back in October of last year. I also had the opportunity to watch part of the Boston Marathon on Monday. I have to admit, Its crazy to see those elite runners tackle a mile at 4 minutes and 39 seconds in a marathon! Very impressive! And a huge congratulations to Lelisa Desisa for winning in the time of 2:09:17! I also had my eyes on Meb Keflezighi who crossed the finish line holding hands with Hilary Dionne who is an elite Boston area runner who he had never met, until then. The event was inspiring and motivating to me! I can not wait for the day that I get to run in Boston! It is definitely on my list of running goals! But until then, I will continue to train hard, take one day at a time, and enjoy the journey that is layed out in front of me!

Running Through My Veins

It's a Sunday morning as I type this and I find my self itching to go out for a run. This is nothing new of course as I am always thinking about running. But as I sit here thinking, my thoughts go back to when I was a younger. I remember going outside and just running around. Usually it would be in the front or backyard of our house. I remember how much I enjoyed doing it and it really help clear my head and let my imagination run wild. Of course at the time I was not aware of the health benefits of physical activity and I really was not doing it to stay in shape. But I loved the feeling I got from it and I continued to do this up to my teen years. If you read my first blog post, you will see that I just recently discovered my passion for running. But maybe it's been there the entire time and I only just recently became conscious of it. Looking back, I believe this to be true. I would find an excuse to go outside and just run around. I was not the type to sit in front of the television or play video games all day. I was very active and enjoyed being outside. Shortly after I got into high school, I started focusing more on weight training and my running slowly dwindled down. As I entered adulthood, this passion for running got tucked away somewhere. And it was not until after I had lost motivation all together and gained weight that I started picking up on running again. This ultimately led me to finding that passion for running that was hidden away. And now that it's reignited, I feel whole again. To some, this may sound crazy, but to me, it makes perfect sense. You could spend your whole life not doing what makes you happy or you could find your passion and look forward to each new day doing what you love.  For me, my happiness is running. Because running is in my blood.

Listen To Your Body

We runners are crazy. We hear it all the time and we take it as a compliment. Not everyone wants to get out there and run 5, 10, or 20 miles for fun. But its what we runners find enjoyable. We also enjoy getting faster and setting new PRs in races. It feels great knowing that all those miles we put in are paying off. But most of us just do not know when to pull it back and let our body properly recover. I have been there and done that. I can not count how many times I have ran with aches and pains. Hardheaded? Maybe, but I wanted to do what I loved despite the aches. And I know a lot of runners do the same thing. Sometimes you can run with some type of nagging pain and still have a decent run, and then other times, you just need to take some time off and let your body recover. This is hard to do, especially for me since I want to continue making progress. Plus I would just feel lazy for taking time off from running. Its a hard pill to swallow but its necessary. You have to look at the bigger picture. Would you rather take a few days off and let your body recover properly or would you rather risk suffering an injury that could sideline you for weeks maybe even months? Some runners may ask "how do I know the difference between general soreness and something worse?" Soreness is something you can still run with. Usually its in the muscles and you can still work out with it. But something worse will not "feel right" at all. Its a type of pain that only gets worse and worse with more use of the particular area that it is in. Take for example my experience with shin splints, I could feel that something was not right during one of my long runs. With each heel strike, the pain in my right leg keep getting worse and it was getting to a point where no matter how much I slowed down, the pain only kept building. Finally I just had to stop completely. Even walking back home was hard as I was not trying to put much weight on my right leg. The previous day, I felt some pain in my leg that just did not feel right at all, but I kept going and finished my run. And the next day, I payed for not taking time off to recover. It was not easy for me to do this, but after taking three days off, I came back recovered and in better shape. When in doubt, listen to your body. Set aside your ego and your pursuit to keep moving forward. In my experience, it is not always easy to take more rest days than you planned. But it is truly worth it in the long run. (Pun Intended)

Boston Strong

The subject of this blog post is one of great importance to me. Everything you are about to read are from my thoughts and opinions just like the previous posts I have put into this blog. As you may have heard, the verdict came in for the person responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings. I am not going to mention his or his brother's name, they do not deserve to have the attention on them at all. The attention should go to the runners, their families, the spectators, and the city of Boston. I am not the first to say this, and I know I wont be the last, but the attention during horrible events like this is misguided. We should always know and remember the names of those who are affected. Not of the person or people who carry out these horrible acts. But that is the media for you and quite honestly I do not see the media changing its ways anytime soon. I remember where I was and what I was doing when I first heard of the bombings. I was living in a hotel room because a tree had fallen and destroyed my trailer. I felt like my situation was a bad one, but when I heard the news, I was quickly reminded that there were bigger things in the world than my situation. I felt empathy for those who were affected by the bombings and I also felt angry that someone could do this to people who worked so hard to run in prestigious marathon. Instead of enjoying a amazing moment crossing the finishing line, they experienced tragedy. These feelings I felt only got stronger as my passion grew for running. Now, I have not ran in the Boston Marathon, but it is a dream of mine to do so. And so many other runners out there like me share that dream. I cant imagine just how those runners felt when their dream turned into a nightmare. Whatever the end result the bombers had in mind, ultimately failed. The people of Boston did not curl up into balls and shake with fear. The came together and grew stronger because of it! The term Boston Strong was all over the place. This event, if anything, just made me want to run in Boston even more. Rose Kennedy once stated “It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” I agree with this quote whole heartily. We wont forget about what happened that day in Boston, but we will continue to move forward as time goes by.

The list of the Boston Marathon Victims 

Supporting A Great Cause

A week ago I registered to be a community athlete for the Wounded Warrior Project. And two days ago, I received an email confirming that my registration was accepted! For those of you who may not be familiar with the Wounded Warrior Project, it is an organization that was set up after the events of September 11th to provide support to the men and women in the armed forces as they transition from active duty service to a civilian life. The project helps those veterans with both physical wounds and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). It has many services that also include helping veterans come together and support one another.As a community athlete I will be running and raising money until my half marathon on December 13th of this year. My goal is to raise $500. This organization is very important to me, especially since I have family members and friends who are veterans. I will provide a link to the Wounded Warrior Project website at the bottom of this post so that you can learn more. I will also provide a link to my donation site at the bottom as well. If you do donate, please know that any amount is appreciated and you will be making a difference in a veteran's life. Words may not be able to express just how thankful we are for their service and sacrifice, but showing our support will do justice where words cannot. 

Wounded Warrior Project Official Site- http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

Miles For The Warriors Donation Site- https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org/individual-fundraising/MFTW/