Still haven't made any progress in the New Year's Resolutions department. Maybe I'm putting too much pressure on myself to come up with the perfect one. I obviously want it to include a big race again. I'm thinking another half marathon. Most likely in the fall because it's easiest for me train in the summer. No idea which one though.

I'm mostly over the soreness from being overzealous at the gym the other day, except for my right hamstring. It's still bothering me. I've actually got a Thermocare on it now. (My mom suggested it after it wasn't going away.) I'm hoping it will help. I've been stretching and everything, but it's still really tight/sore. Hopefully the heat will do it some good.

As a result of the soreness, normal exercise has sort of been out of the picture, but my mom and I hit the Promenade (fancy name for the new high end outdoor shopping center that opened last year) the other day to get some fresh air and get a decent amount of walking in. (And I found two super cute sweaters on sale at New York & Company!) Really it was a win-win situation.

And yesterday we got some heavy lifting in cleaning out my closet, which hasn't happened since freshman year of high school. Bags of old clothes and shoes are heavy!

I hope everyone has a fabulous New Years with lots of fun and friends!

...the night you get home from the gym you're hobbling around because the squat and lunge sets in the Body Works class were killer and you used really light weights...

...taking two classes back to back used to be a piece of cake, now you're struggling half way through the second....

...the next day you can barely walk up the steps or get in and out of a car or changes positions of the sofa without grabbing your butt/quad/hamstring and saying, "Oh ouch, oh that hurts, oucccch!"

So needless to say, I think I might have hit it too hard in my first time back at the gym in a while. I am soooooore! So obviously I didn't do much today. Instead I went to visit my uncle in New Jersey. He's a teacher and he does a lot of the technological stuff at his school and he was showing me all these cool things you can do to your resume and all these neat Web sites that offer good tips and stuff just so I can keep my resume spruced up now that I'm in the real world.

Tomorrow I'll have to play it by ear. We'll see how I'm feeling. In the morning, my dad and I are going to the credit union to square away some things with my account before I move.

Tomorrow night is also a super exciting day because it's the day of the Maryland bowl game. As a result of our less than spectacular season we only got invited to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco where we will be playing Oregon State. Go TERPS!

And just a quick soccer follow up because I never did update that. The Terps hosted Bradley at home for the third round game after Bradley pulled a huge overtime upset against Indiana. Things were looking good for the Terps who dominated through the entire first 88 minutes, taking a 2-0 lead. But they allowed two quick goals during regulation to force overtime. The Terps played strongly through the first overtime although were unable to capitalize. In the second overtime period, Bradley scored on what was a controversial call (later review of the tape showed the goal was a handball) and the Terps lost. I, and many others, was devastated.

Bradley went on to lose to Ohio State in the next round. I believe the score was something like 4-0. Wake Forest ended up winning the National Championship, so I was glad to see an ACC team do that.

Overall though, it was a really disappointing end to my Terps' season.

First and foremost: MERRY CHRISTMAS!

So, now that I'm graduated and a real person and everything, I guess it's about time I get back to this long neglected blog. (Getting back to my workouts too wouldn't be a bad plan either.)

Graduation....it happened. I still kind of don't believe it happened. I think I still think I'm going back to College Park in January. So it's weird trying to sort through all those emotions. I'm sad that I'm leaving all my friends. Excited about and nervous about starting a job and being in the real world.

I'm trying to enjoy the last few weeks I have of being a kid.

In workout news: I meant to post the other week, but shocker ran out of time, about this great hill work out I got in....it's called sledding. Ride down a dining hall tray on your butt, run back up the hill weighed down by lots of layers and clunky snow boots. Do that for an hour or two and you will be dead tired, and as far as I'm concerned you will have gotten in your run for the day. We haven't had many great snow storms in my time at Maryland and the one a few weeks ago wasn't anything special, but it did drop us enough snow to get a decent night of sledding in.

As far as getting back to regular running, I'm worried about shin splints....so I might start off with a lot of walking blended in with the running just until I can get my running legs back.

I promise I will start catching up on everyone's blogs soon. It's good to be back!

Well bloggers...it's been a while. I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings. I know I sure it. It was great being home and seeing the family.

I was able to get some rest in, which was also definitely a plus. For the most part I'm feeling much better. No more headaches, sore throats, etc. etc. I am still feeling a little bit run down though and have been taking a decent amount of naps. I think that may be in part due to the fact that it's the end of the semester and projects and papers and tests are stressing me out. But I know some of it's my own fault.

Because I only have two weeks left of being a "kid," I've been trying to cram as much into all of my days as possible. That tends to lead to early mornings and late nights, which leave me sapped of energy and not so much up for working out.

Being realistic, I know I'm not going to be getting very many good workouts in until after graduation. I will try to squeeze in one or two here and there, but with these last few weeks, I really just want to be spending time with my friends and soaking up the last bit of college that I can.

On that note, I know my posting has been fairly sporadic lately because I've been sick, but I can't promise it will be too much better in the next two weeks because when I don't get a good workout in I feel like I don't have too much to post about.

Quick soccer note: Don't know if anyone is following the NCAA soccer tournament, but some good things happened in the Terps bracket. First off, we won our second round game against Loyola, (MD). (We were seeded 13th, so we had a first round bye.) Tied zero zero through two over time period and went into penalty kicks. We came out on top 4-2. I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest from the adrenaline. PK games are way too intense.

Because we won. we were set to play the winner of #4 Indiana and unranked Bradley. We all figured we'd be road tripping to Bloomington this weekend. But Bradley knocked IU off 5-4 in PKs, and because Bradley is unranked, they come here tomorrow night for our third round game.

Win or lose, it's going to be my last home game as a student. That makes me sad. There have been a lot of good memories from Ludwig Field. I've made some of my best friends there and I'm sad to see it come to an end.

If we win we will play the winner of UC-Santa Barbara and Ohio State, both of whom are ranked higher than us, so we will be traveling. I'm pulling for OSU because realistically we can get there. Realistically, we cannot afford to travel across the country. (knock on wood, this is dependent on us winning)

After being stuck with a seriously long illness of some mysterious origin, I think I'm finally starting to see the end of the tunnel. For the most part I can breath out my nose again. My throat has stopped hurting and my head isn't quite as congested. Although, my sinuses are definitely still back up more than they should be.

I've been taking these last few weeks off from working out because when I had tried, it'd been making me too tired and I think it was slowing down the healing process. I'm still a little leery about picking it back up again, but at the same time I'm frustrated because I know I've lost a lot of fitness ability because it's been weeks since I've been able to work out.

I'm really nervous about jumping back in though because I don't want to get sick all over again. Not with only four more weeks until I graduate. I want to be able to have without being sick all the time.

Tonight I'll be teaching yoga and FitTrek (Check out the link for more info on what exactly it is.) And then Tuesday I'm driving home for Thanksgiving! YIPPPIE! I am pumped to get home. My plan is to take it easy at home so that I can be back to full health by the time I get back to campus.

In other exciting updates: This weekend I went to the bars in Annapolis with my friends, and every time we go to Annapolis I always say, "Wouldn't it be funny if I run into my friend from high school who is in the Naval Academy?" Well in four years of going to Annapolis, I never have. But on Saturday night at like 1 a.m., my roommates and I bumped into him at Federal House. It was so random and so fun.

As for a soccer update, after an embarrassing loss in the first round of the ACC tournament, the Terps obviously haven't had any games. But the bracket for the NCAA tournament will be announced tonight between 5:30 and 6 p.m. on ESPNews. Unfortunately, I will be smack in the middle of teaching a yoga class at the time. I've asked about three people to text message me with the details though so I can check it out right after class. The main reason being, I may have to plan a road trip over Thanksgiving break for the first round.

Things are really up in the air with the team's potential seeding. They could get a great seed and have a first round bye and not have to play until November 28. Or they could get a so-so seed and have a game over Thanksgiving break at Maryland. Or they could get a really crappy seed and have a game over Thanksgiving break who knows where. Obviously I'm pulling for the first round bye so I can stay home, but if that doesn't work out I at least home the game is at UMD.

Anyway, guess that's all on the updates for now. I'm hoping I can get back to working out soon, but it's going to be frustrating as hell knowing I'm going to have to basically start from square one to build it all back up again.

Still sick. It succcccks!

I'm sure I'm not doing anything to help it by doing things like driving to UNC for soccer and standing in the cold at football and then Wed. driving down to Cary, NC for the first round of the ACC soccer tournament. (We played like crap and lost 3-0 to Va. Tech....this could explain why.) Made for an extremely miserable car ride home.

Really nothing else to report on. Being sick for this long sucks. As a result, I haven't worked out in ages. I've been sleeping a ton and not reading any blogs at all.

Thanksgiving's just around the corner though and I'm looking forward to going home and getting some quality R&R.

Earlier this week I came down with a cold of some sort. Nothing too bad. I still did yoga Monday and attempted to get my run in on Tuesday (got some wicked shin splints though and ended up having to walk most of the way back home :o(

But then Wednesday, oh boy, did that cold kick in. It's a good thing I don't have class Wed. because I slept in and tried to nurse the cold, while studying for the test I had coming up Thursday morning.

If I hadn't had that test on Thursday, I wouldn't have gone to any of my Thursday classes. I woke up and my glands were swollen and I couldn't breathe out my nose. I popped some Advil for the pain and a Sudafed for decongestion, headed to class, took the test, stayed for the next class (b/c I have two classes back to back in the same room) and then came back home to sleep, skipping my last two classes of the day. I was not a pretty sight.

I ended up missing my friends 21st birthday in Annapolis on Thursday night because I was sick too.

Friday I woke up feeling like hell, but the soccer Terps were playing UNC at UNC and we had arranged a huge road trip. I was one of the drivers, I couldn't really back out. We drove down there and on the way I went through almost an entire roll of toilet paper (we didn't have tissues) because I had to blow my nose so much.

Best decision ever to go though: Terps beat UNC 2-1 with six seconds left in the second overtime period. The guys were pumped we had gone down and the coach bought us pizzas after the game because he's cool like that.

Yesterday my parents came down for the Boston College vs. Maryland football game because it was my last home game as a senior. We all tailgated it up before the game (yes I just made tailgate a verb), and then by some grace of God, the Terps upended the number 8 or 9 seeded BC. Pandemonium ensued. We rushed the field. Got high-fives from Darius Heyward-Bey and a ton of other people. Got a hug from Chris Turner, QB1. See photo gallery here.

Matt Ryan is gone from the running for a Heisman thanks in great part to our defense being all over him all night.

Oh right and I was still sick for all of that on Saturday. Now it's Sunday morning. I have zero voice. I can breathe out my nose a little bit, but my throat is killing me. But yes, it was totally worth it.

As noted in my last post, I had a lot going on this weekend, and needless to say the entire weekend was a blast.

Friday night I went out dancing with some of my friends, which is always a blast.

The entire day Saturday was dedicated to soccer. Waking up early to go buy food for the tailgate, then tailgating for 6 hours before the game, followed by the game itself. Terps win 4-1. All three seniors on the team scored, which was the perfect ending for senior night. My roommate let me borrow her camera because as well all know mine got broken a few weeks ago. I'll try to get some pictures up soon, but for now you can check out the photo gallery from the game here.

Saturday working out didn't happen so much, unless you count playing cornhole for two hours straight (my friend and I completely dominated!).

Sunday I planned to study for a test I have coming up this week, but instead I practiced the art of procrastination. I went to lunch with my friend. I posted pictures from the weekend on Facebook. When I finally cracked my notes, I got through one chapter before falling asleep for a much needed three hour nap.

I ended up sleeping through most of the Pats vs. Colts game. Caught the last two minutes when I got to the gym for demo team practice, but only one other girl showed up.

Got home and then watched the Eagles get killed by the Cowboys. My sports teams were not kind to me this weekend. Notre Dame lost to Navy for the first time in like 43 or 44 years, MD football lost to UNC, and well the Eagles. Thank goodness for soccer salvaging my weekend.

As for workouts this week, I've got Yoga and Trekking tonight and then I think I'm finally going to be able to get to Muscle Works on Tuesday (after many weeks of not going!). Wednesday I'm hoping to get a run in. I'm crossing my fingers that it will all work out.

First off thanks everyone for your really encouraging and supportive comments about the job salary/tension with my Mom issues.

I think she's sort of coming to accept the fact that I will not be making that much money as a journalist, although she does still throw in the occasional snarky comment about how I was so good at math and science, why didn't I major in a more technical field.

I have officially found someone to sublease my apartment when I move out in December. She came to visit last night and my roommates loved her (which was really important to me because they will be living with her.) So that's good news and one less thing for me to stress out about.

Now I just need to find a place to live in York. I've been following up some leads on Craigslist and there seems like there are some decent possibilities out there.

Still haven't really been having too much time to work out. I played flag football the other night with friends and that was a good time, even though we lost again. I know I'd probably be way less stressed if I fit in time for working out so I'm really going to try to make a better effort this upcoming week.

Exciting weekend line up: Party tonight with friends. Senior night at soccer tomorrow. My very last home game as a student :o( So that means tailgating all day and then the game at night. The Eagles play the Cowboys Sunday...maybe we won't get blown out!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Job search update: I accepted a job at the York Daily Record in York, Pa. I'll be working as a business lifestyle reporter, which basically means reporting on the way people spend, save and earn. It sounds like a really cool position and I'm excited about it.

My mom is freaking out about the salary. She's told me she has had about three panic attacks about my not being able to pay off things like student loans and rent and car insurance and cell phone bills and everything. And the fact that I'm not going to be making that much money has led to many a tense moment between us as of late.

I mean yes the money will most certainly be tight and I'm definitely worried about it too, but I don't know maybe I'm just in denial for now because I'm glad to have a job and I get to enjoy the last bit of my last semester.

Now I get the fun task of looking at apartments and trying to find someone to live in my CP apartment.

I've also checked out the running clubs in the York area. I figure it's a good way to meet people and learn where it is and isn't safe to run in the area.

I'm kind of all out of sorts about everything because it seems like it happened so fast. But it's exciting and fun.

And now I'm off to tidy up the apartment because potential subleasers are coming to visit tomorrow.

A really really really mean person broke my camera at our tailgate this weekend, and refuses to chip in any amount of money towards a new one...so needless to say I'm really sad and will be without a camera for a bit.

But here at last are those pictures I promised. Maryland Madness, my 5K, tailgating and Halloween.

Before pictures nothing to update on workout wise. Octapulluza kind of died with midterms and the job search and all. I haven't run or been to the gym in I think a week. I think things are going to start to calm back down a bit soon. At least I'm hoping so.

Anyway here are those pictures:

Again apologies for how much I have sucked at keeping up with blogs this week. I kind of feel like my life is spiraling out of control with work and midterms and Octapolluza.

I think the last Octapolluza update I had was Thursday where I was considering whether or not dancing was going to count as my workout. Well, I'm counting it, and I'm counting it for Friday night too. Saturday was another rest day though and strength training didn't happen last week because of everything else that was going on. The days I normally do it, I was either interviewing for jobs and studying for midterms.

I also broke the no-sweets rule over the weekend because I was celebrating getting a job offer. (And I'm pretty sure that's worth an ice cream sundae and a piece of my friends delicious homemade chocolate peanut butter pie!) Whoooo job offer! (I haven't accepted yet, I still have other interviews that I'm going to. Making sure I can explore my options and see everything that's out there.) But yea it's pretty exciting none the less.

I'm back on track with the sweets though starting this morning. I mean there's only like 1o more days in October and I'm going to finish out the month strong even though I've had some deviations in the past few days.

Last night I got my workout via some intramural flag football. At midnight. My friend really needed a girl to play on his co-ed team and I needed a serious study break, soooo I thought what the heck, I'm going to play some football. But that means I didn't get back to my apartment until 1 in the morning and then I wanted to look over my notes some more because I'm not really going to have much time to do that today. Needless to say, I didn't go to bed until really late.

As far as a quick weekend update:
Terps football blew the homecoming game in the last few minutes. Final score 18-17. Terrible play calling and an unfortunate safety led to the outcome.

Terps soccer. Whooo boy. Tied 1-1 after double overtime. Last 10 seconds of the game punctuated by a bench-clearing brawl. Check out the article here. Not a fan of the way the article paints the picture that it was our teams fault. Cal State Northridge played dirty the entire game. They were tackling our guys with their spikes up. We lost one of our best players for who knows how long. He was on crutches on the sidelines before half time and then for the rest of the game. Perhaps their most classy act was spitting on fans calling them D-bags and Mother Fer's. Their coach and two of their players got red cards. It tells you something when the coach gets a red....that he has no control over his team and teaches them not to play like classy soccer players, but like a bunch of thugs.

The brawl broke out with a few seconds left. We were setting up for a corner and one of our guys was in the box jockeying for a position with their defender....who was allll over him like elbowing him in the head/neck etc etc. Now remember this is after 110 minutes of them being all over the team....next thing you know our guy has their guy in a headlock, the benches are clearly and their guys are going nuts all over our guys. Eventually the teams are pulled away from each other. Next thing you know the cops are strolling across the field. Unbelievable. This is soccer people.

I'll try to get some pictures up from the weekend soonish, and I'll try to catch up on blogs, but it's going to be another crazy week and I can't promise much.

Apologies for the delay since my last post. I'm in the thick of midterm season as well as doing job interviews, and it's just been a crazy week.

Octapolluza is going well so far this week. Monday I did two yoga classes and this new class we have called FitTrek. It's a form of nordiac walking. It was kind of cool.

Tuesday I got in a nice run. It started off not so great. My calves were tight and everything felt really labored. I started to feel things loosen up around mile 1 though. I had only planned on doing two miles because things felt so bad in the beginning, but I ended up extending it to three when things felt better.

Wednesday I took my rest day for the week because I was in York, Pa., interviewing for a job. It was an all day affair with the commute and I got back and I was just dead tired.

Today I am on the verge of breaking Octapolluza for the first time. I am just completely and totally worn down and exhausted from this week. I've been burning the candle at both ends a little too much. I didn't realize just how tired I was until I came home in between two of my classes, sat down on my bed and next thing I knew I was waking up just in time to leave for my last class of the day. I was lucky I didn't sleep through it because we had part two of our midterm.

So needless to say I haven't worked out today. I'm spending the evening relaxing. I might go out dancing at one of the bars around here with some friends tonight though, and if I do, I might count that as my work out because I definitely get a decent workout in when we go out. We'll see what happens though. I may end up just staying home and passing out. I am looking forward to tomorrow though because I can finally sleep in, something I definitely need.

Thank goodness it's the weekend!

So remember how a few posts ago, I mentioned that I registered for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Right well I didn't really remember either. I mean I knew the date was on the calendar, but I didn't specifically train for the race or anything like that.

My one and only goal for the race was to qualify for the National Half Marathon, which is in D.C. in March. In order to do that, I would have needed to complete the 5k in under 31 minutes. Frequent readers, you know I'm not the fastest and that I usually average between 11 or 12 minute miles.

Well guess what people? By some miracle/grace of God/stroke of luck I finished in something like 30:50 or 55ish. I forgot to stop my watch right away because I bumped into a friend in the finishers shoots, so my watch time read 30:57. (I'll update when the official race results are up.) Anyway, yea I totally qualified! I am pumped! So pumped that I wanted to call lots of people and tell them right away, but it was 8:30 in the morning and no college kid in their right mind is up that early. My mom was though, so I gave her a ring.

Overall, the race atmosphere rocked. There were 32,500 people either running or walking. How insane is that! They did a nice ceremony in the beginning to honor the breast cancer survivors and they had a fitness instructor from a local gym lead a warm up and stretch to get us ready and then we were off.

The first mile I started off too fast, but it was hard not too as it was downhill for a bit. Then it kicked back up hill and flattened for a little. I hit mile marker 1 at 10:11. That made me a little nervous. I didn't want to be going so fast that I bonked at the end. I tried to slow it up a little bit. I hit mile marker 2 at either 20:10 or 20:20. I can't quite remember. I was pretty pumped about that and knew that if I could keep that pace I'd be okay to finish in under 31.

But then mile three happened and it was hilly and it was mean and it seemed like it was never going to end. I kept looking frantically at my watch trying to scope out the finish line, but I wasn't seeing it anywhere. When my watch read 29 minutes, and I still couldn't see it, I was thinking qualifying wasn't going to happen.

Then I heard this mom say to her son, "The finish line's just ahead do you want to sprint?" I was like if you say so lady and I took off. My legs felt like bricks, but I was going to finish in under 31 minutes. When I finally saw the official race clock it said 30:44, and I was still a bit of a ways out. So I sprinted harder and managed to cross at something between 30:50 and 30:55.

So I'm elated that I qualified for National and I'm stoked because that's definitely a PR.

Quick Octapolluza update:
Worked out every day this week (optional rest day on Tuesday)
Strength trained once.
Continued not eating sweets.
Two weeks down. Two to go!

Well I'm half way through week two and things have been going well. This no sweets thing is strangely easier than I thought. Although my friends laugh at me...they're like you won't eat sweets because a bunch of people you never met in your life are doing some thing for October. (I'll ponder this point in more detail in second.)

I took my rest day for the week on Tuesday because I had day jammed full of class, followed by a meeting for ODK (it's an honors, leadership fraternity) to vote in new members, followed by a soccer game, which we won 2-1.

Yesterday I had plans to run in the morning before the career fair, but that got thrown at the window because I wanted to spend the few hours in the morning organizing my cover letter, resume and writing samples. In the end, I think it paid off.

So instead of running in the morning, I taught a yoga class at night to a group of sorority girls. It was at 9:30 p.m. though...so far past my bedtime. Well not really, but not really the time of day I'm all about working out. But either way I got the workout in.

Today the weather is finally not in the 80's or 90's in fact we're hanging out in the low 70's! Yiiipppieee! I've got one more class today, and then I'm planning on heading out for a nice, slow run. I want to take it nice and slow to see how the calves hold up and all that jazz.

Now back to the previous statement about my friends laughing at me for sticking to something because of a whole group of people I've never met. It's weird because I when I talk about all of you to my friends here, I still refer to you all as my friends. Like when I was talking about Jess and the Chicago Marathon, I was saying, "Yea...I have a friend running in that." My people here think it's weird, but I don't know, what the heck else am I supposed to call you all? "The people whose blogs I read?" That sounds so unattached. I don't know...just my random musing of the day.

I'm beginning to wonder if the serious tightness in my calves is a result of walking all around campus in my flip flops. I've been noticing some tightness from time to time as I'm walking to and from classes when I wear them. I mean they're flip flops, they obviously don't have a ton of support, but it's just been so freaking hot every day that the thought of jamming my feet into socks and sneakers has absolutely no appeal.

Yesterday was a fairly busy day, spent studying for my first mid-term in the wave of mid-terms that are about to happen and then hitting the gym and then going to Kinkos where I spent $36 making 201 copies of some of my writing samples to send out with my resume so I can get a job. (I must have killed hundreds of trees and that made me sad a little bit!)

Yesterday's gym session included an hour step class, a half hour abs class, and an hour Muscle Works class. (I wouldn't have done the abs class, but it was stuck in between the step and Muscle Works class, so I figured if I was going to be there, I may as well do it.)

That successfully takes care of my strength training for the week (although I'm going to try to work another day in if my schedule allows for it.)

In Muscle Works, I specifically didn't do the calf raises because of the problems I've been having. It doesn't seem like the best idea to tighten them up even more than they already are.

On the slate for today is teaching kickboxing class and then yoga. I'm going to try to throw in a lot of lower body stretching in yoga today, in hopes that it will help loosen up my legs.

Midterm Numero Uno is tomorrow....oh goody!

So much to say about this weekend. I promise I'll try to keep it brief.

First thing's first. Here's the workout/Octapolluza summary for week 1:
Met requirements for working out every day (except Friday when I took the optional rest day.)
Met strength training requirement.
Have been sweets free all week!

Saturday's run wasn't the greatest. My calves have been getting really tight as of late, and I'm not sure why. I've been trying to make sure I stretch plenty, but things still seem to be tight. I know some of you have mentioned some foam roller thing that supposedly helps out? What is it? Does it work? I'm thinking maybe something like that will help me out.

But even so, I was able to get in a solid 25 minute run Saturday before continuing the weekend's sporting festivities.

Which leads me to ponder the question: What is it about beer that can draw college students out of bed at 6 a.m. for kegs and eggs before a noon football game?

Personally, the idea of kegs and eggs repulses me. So while a few of my friends were tailgating in the pitch black, I got in a solid run and a shower and headed over for tailgating at 9 a.m. (but beer is still gross not matter what time of day it is....I know blasphemy...so needless to say, I was sober.)

I think the tailgate is best summed up by pictures/video:














(It was 90 degree outside, I had to leave early in the 3rd quarter because I was so sunburned. Who thinks they'll need sunscreen in October? I finished watching on TV...Maryland over Georgia Tech 28-26)

In other rocking Terps news, the soccer team beat Clemson Friday night 3-2 in overtime! It's our first win in ACC play, leaving us with an overall record of 4-4-2. It was an excellent game. Sorry I don't have pictures. It was a little too intense to be whipping out my camera, but if you click the link you can check out the photo gallery from the game too!

I promised to keep it short, so that's it for now.

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekends!

Oh man today has definitely been a busy day...and it's not over yet. I have to teach another yoga class at 8:30 tonight. I've already taught Muscle Works and one Yoga class already today. And 8:30 is just late. I'm going to fall asleep by the end of it lol.

But I did get in my strength training for the week, which was awesome.

And I faced my first no sweets for the month of October challenge. On Wed. nights the Catholic Student Center on campus has free delicious dinners and also free delicious desserts and my friends and I always go...because hey...free food. And go me...I didn't have any of the many brownies or cookies that my friends did! Whooo hooo!!!!

Tomorrow is going to be the first reallllly challenging time to get in my workout. I have class all day again and then a journalism conference at night. So my plan is to do it in the morning, and I just talked to my roommate so we could work out the shower thing so that I can run and we can still both cram in showers so neither of us are late to class...it'll be challenging, but I think we can make it work (at least I'm hopeful)

Friday I know I'm going to have to take my optional rest day for the week because I'm in the journalism conference from like 7 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon, then have to Metro home real fast and get ready for the soccer doubleheader....crazzzziness.

I'm so looking forward to this weekend so I can get a break from life haha!

Well, I'm happy to report, I've made it successfully through the first two days of Octapolluza.

Yesterday was pretty simple. I taught yoga and kickboxing, which definitely fill my workout requirement.

Today...well it was a different beast. My original plan was to run this morning before class, but when my alarm went off, it was still pitch black outside. I figured I could wait about 30 more minutes and see if it got any lighter before I was going to have to change my plans because I would be late for class.

Needless to say, it didn't get any lighter. Tuesdays and Thursdays are fairly jam packed days for me. I have class straight through from 9:30 til 2. Then I have a quick lunch break and then class until 4:45. Normally that wouldn't be much of a problem. I'd just run after class.

Butttt we have a soccer game tonight....and you all know my love of Terps soccer. So somehow I managed to jam in a quick 25 minute run right after class. It was only so so. The new shoes felt great but the calves were really tight, probably because they didn't get stretched enough after kickboxing last night. Sorry I can't update further...must jump in the shower and then run over to the soccer pitch (haha or field if you prefer).

And by He I mean the entire Terrapin soccer team. They break my heart over and over again. The most recent example: Last night's 2-0 loss to Wake Forest.

Maybe this loss wouldn't have sucked so much if I hadn't driven 6 hours to the game and then had to drive 6 hours back home. (Although to be fair, I slept on the ride home while one of my friends drove.)

Maybe it wouldn't have sucked so much if it didn't look like half the team didn't show up.

Maybe it wouldn't have sucked so much if it didn't put us to 0-3 in the ACC and 3-4-2 overall.

But it probably would have sucked just as much even if none of that was true. It just breaks my heart when we lose. We've all been spoiled the past few years. We've had solid teams, hell we were national champions two years ago. Now we have a pretty young team, but even the more senior players aren't producing like they have in the past. So it's tough. Next game is Tuesday at home against Stony Brook, which will hopefully be a chance for us to get back on a winning streak.

To quickly highlight some positives: Road trips rock. Bo Jangles was pretty delicious. (But probably only because we don't have them up here.) My friend put me on his player-guest list so I didn't have to pay for a ticket.

Octapulluza starts tomorrow. When I made my guidelines, I forgot about Halloween and I forgot that October is going to be an insanely busy month. But I'm fairly confident that I can still make it work out, it's just going to take some more careful planning.

Running today just isn't going to happen. We didn't get in until late late last night, and the energy to run is just not there. I'm sad because I wanted to break in the new shoes, but there's no sense in going out for a run when the energy just isn't there.

In freaking awesome news, the Phillies won the NL East and are going to the playoffs for the first time since 1993. I was way little then and needless to say don't remember too much about it so I am PUMPED!!!

Ok, so after reading Teacherwomen's post about her Octapolluza, I've been inspired to jump on board.

These are the requirements she set for herself:

1 workout per day. That being a minimum of 2 mile run, a 10 mile bike, or 30 minute swim.

1 optional rest day each week.


1 strength training day each week.


no SODA. I like the carbonation, but it makes me feel like CRAP. I want it gone. PERIOD.

My requirements are similar, but not completely the same:

• 1 workout per day. Minimum of a 2 mile run or 1 hour class at the gym.
• 1 optional rest day per week
• Definitely one strength training day per week, ideally two though.
• And finally, no sweets for the month of October.
  

I don't drink soda, so that wouldn't have worked for me. But I eat entirely too much refined sugar from things like brownies and ice cream and stuff. The only sad part is I have a sweet tooth so it'll be tough. But whatever...it's Octapolluza haha!

In other exciting news.....check out my new fly kicks! Mizuno Wave Inspire 3's. (I found a place, Pacers, that is a specialty running store. They just opened a branch in Silver Spring, which is close to campus. The guy who sold me my shoes was super nice. We chatted about races and stuff and then he gave me this booklet that lists just about every race happening in the area up until December. It rocks!)







And now....check out my most recently retired shoes:
Clearly, they've seen better days. Looking at the new and the old side by side....haha...wow. Those are some freaking dirty shoes.


I'm super excited to get out on the road with them, but sadly I don't think that will be happening until Friday, at the absolute earliest. Tomorrow I'm in class all day and then I volunteered to sub a bunch of classes at the gym for people at night. And tomorrow is my roommate's 22nd birthday so we're having a party for her. And then Friday I'm teaching at the gym a bunch again. Wow, I just realized that depending on my schedule this weekend (gone all day and most of the night Saturday for the soccer game, back by like 4 in the morning Sunday, then seriously sleeping, then my brother's girlfriend's field hockey game and then a homework project. Then work and yoga Monday.) damn, I might not be able to get a run in until Tuesday.

Yea screw that. I'm making it happen before then. I will run Sunday on no sleep if I have to. But I really really realllllllllly want to get the run in on Friday.

Oh and update on the 5K situation. I'm not doing the one this Sunday. I won't get back from Wake Forest until reallllly early Sunday morning (we're talking three or 4 a.m. here) and there's no way I can run a 5K on about 1 hour of sleep. But I did finally register for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on October 14. SO Yay for having another race on the schedule.

Alright no more ramblings tonight...time for bed because I have to wake up early for class....boo!

Ok so here we go....

Last night I taught yoga and because it's supposed to be a power yoga class I threw in a lot more planks than I did last week. My shoulders weren't so happy with me afterwards, but whatever, they'll get over it.

Then I stuck around to take Gliding. Because I can't accurately explain it...check out here for more info on what exactly it is. But man it kicked my butt. Who would have thought sliding around on the floor on frisbee-shaped discs could be such a workout.

This morning I told my friend Virginia I would take her Athletic Conditioning class this evening. Basically this class is exactly what it sounds like. You do lots of sprints and suicides and agility stuff and then do a bit of circuit work for strength. It's pretty intense. And I figured the agility work would be good for helping me increase my speed a bit.

Afterwards I stuck around for Muscle Works because I wanted to get back into the strength training mode. So all in all I'm pretty pleased with my workouts today.

As far as the new shoes go, I found a really reputable running store that just opened up another branch about 20 minutes from me, which is awesome because otherwise I would have been driving into Virginia. I think I'm going to try to stop by tomorrow morning and then maybe get in a run later. I'm not sure about the run though because I have about 500 other things I need to do tomorrow, including but not limited too, scheduling interviews for my internship, working on a project for one of my classes, putting together my resume and cover letter and writing samples and dropping books off at the library. It's going to be a crazy busy day.

And if all that's not enough, I'm planning a road trip for this Saturday to Wake Forest to watch the Maryland vs. Wake soccer game. Now in case you're all wondering, Wake Forest is about 5.5-6 hours from here. And yes we will be driving there and back in one day....for a three hour sporting event. Crazy? Perhaps, but hell this is college..and if my friends and I don't all kill each other by the end of the day, we'll come out with some hilarious stories.

So I am super pumped for that. I love Terps soccer like I can't even explain!

Time: 33:33
Distance: 3.1

Well I didn't get to lifting class today, but I'm not too upset because I got a solid run in. I didn't really seem to have any problems with my calf while I was out there, but it's a little tight now, even though I stretched. So I'm glad that I have yoga tomorrow to help stretch it out some more.

My original plan was to go for a long slow run, but by the time I got out it was starting to get a little bit dark out and I didn't want to be out too late because College Park is skkkkkettttchy at night. So I decided on a short and fast run. (Or at least faster for me).

I didn't keep a super close eye on my splits, but I felt like I was giving a pretty consistent effort throughout the run. One of the hills was a little bit killer, but other than that it seemed to go well.

I'm thinking about running the National Half Marathon in March, but you have to qualify for it because they can only take a certain number of people because it's kind of hard to shut down the country's capitol city for a long time. In order to qualify you need to run a 5K in under 31 minutes. (Or a half-marathon in under 2:30, but I probably won't be running anymore long races like that between now and then.) So I really want to shave my 5K time so that I can qualify.

I'm most likely running a 5K this coming Sunday to get an idea of how I do in a race setting and then I think I'm going to register and train for Komen Race for a Cure in October to see if I can get the time I want then, and possibly qualify for National.

Oh and I'm definitely going to need new shoes soon. I can tell the padding in mine is pretty much shot. But I've never bought running sneakers in Maryland. So I'm panicking a little bit because I don't know where any specialty running stores are. I'm so used to my one at home. Uh-oh.

I'm thinking the calf is about back to normal again. I've been bumming because I haven't been able to work out since Monday. I'm giving myself today as my final rest day to make sure everything is good and then I'm hoping to get to lifting class tomorrow evening. I'm going to the bar though in the afternoon for football with my roomie and some friends, so it will just depend if we get back in time.

If not I'll be back on board on Monday.

Also apologies for not reading and leaving notes as much this week, I had a lot going on with classes and work, so I'm trying to catch up today.

I've also realized that there is only one week left in September and I promised myself I'd really get on with the job hunt starting in October and that is really soon, which makes me a little panicky and nervous.

Notre Dame's playing MSU now and the score is 17-7 MSU. Justin's probably happy...he's at the game. My Irish need to step it up.

Terps football on the road at Wake Forest today. Not on TV though.

And Terps soccer at Duke. We were supposed to go down but Dept. of Transportation didn't give us a bus and it's Yom Kippur so a lot of my friends who are Jewish obviously wouldn't have been able to go anyway. We need a win tonight so that we don't fall to 0-2 in the ACC.

I did something to my right calf. I'm not sure what, but it hurts really bad and it's really painful when I flex my foot. Thus walking is a little complicated. It started to bother me a bit yesterday when I woke up and at work.

I was able to teach yoga without a problem though and even though the stretching might help it out. But today it still hurts and it forced me to skip my lifting workout and my run. Major bummer.

It kind of feels like it did back in mid-Julyish when I was having a similar problem. I mean the only thing I could do then is to rest and stretch, and I guess that's my game plan for now. I'm bummed that I had to miss my lifting class. I was doing so well with going twice a week.

If the leg feels better tomorrow I can go then, but I'm not really thinking it's going to magically heal itself over night. So I guess I've just got to bide the time until it feels better. I don't want to push it and risk getting hurt....especially with two potential 5Ks on the horizon for two weeks from now.

But what really sucked today was walking to class. Class is 1 mile (no seriously I'm not exaggerating) from my apartment. (I would pick classes that are held in the building on the complete opposite side of campus from my apartment.) So hobbling too and from this morning was not a fun time haha.

Anyway, I must go to the grocery store now because I am in desperate need of milk!

Let me sum it up real quick:

1. Terps football loses
2. ND football embarrassed (again)
3. Terps soccer drops first ACC match to Boston College.

Needless to say not the best sports weekend for me. Although hey the Phils swept the Mets this weekend, which rocks and will definitely help them as the regular season ends.

Saturday was crazy busy with errands and stuff and a run just didn't happen. But today I hit the gym for Step, Abs and Weight Lifting class. Step was a solid hour of cardio and then abs, well that's pretty self-explanatory, but it's a half hour class. And then Muscle Works is an hour. So all around it was a pretty good work out day.

My internship starts tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. I'm back at the same place I was last spring. Then I'll be teaching yoga and maybe sticking around for Gliding afterwards (see a few posts back if you missed the description of Gliding).

Eagles vs. Redskins on MNF! I'm stoked!

...even when the Terps play a crappy game. Although truth be told we didn't play a crappy game. We had crappy play calling. (We lost to WVU 31-14 on ESPN last night.) Every single play was either a run or a pass in the flat. There was no going deep until the very very end of the 4th quarter when we were too far behind to do anything anyway. I have no idea what was up with the conservative play calling, but it wasn't cool.

In other football news, Notre Dame plays at Michigan this weekend. Two of my friends are there. One actually goes to ND, thus a huge fan. The other is a friend from Maryland, who hates on ND like no other. There's the chance this might actually be a good game...because both teams currently rock at mediocrity. Either way, I'm hoping my Irish can pick up their first win of the season this weekend.

Speaking of football....the European kind...my Terps (the soccer team) play up at Boston College this weekend. It's their first ACC game of the season and will probably be a good test of how we will do against other teams in the conference.

On the workout frontier, I taught yoga class on Wed. and haven't done too much since. Wed. night was my friend's 22nd birthday and I got a whopping 1 hour of sleep before having to drag my booty to class Thursday morning. Then I skipped a class to tailgate for the aforementioned football game. (Man senior year is making me a rebel haha!)

This morning I woke up early because I had to help the journalism school with new student recruitment stuff, after which I came back home and napped until about 45 minutes ago.

My plan is to get back on board this weekend. I'm hoping to get out for a decent run tomorrow and then Sunday I'm going to the gym for some kickboxing and lifting.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Last night was the first time I'd done any kind of strength training in ages. I mean I know how important it is, but I can just never stick to it. But last night I went to my friend's Muscle Works class. It's an hour long and you hit every major muscle group during the class. I'm sore today. But in a good way. My shoulders and triceps especially.

After the class, I decided I wanted to go for a run, just a short one because it's been since the race that I've run. Unfortunately by the time class was over it was getting a little too dark to get any type of run in outside. So that meant I was stuck with the treadmill. I was trying to be all positive. Thinking it wouldn't be that bad. But man it sucked. Not the run itself, the fact that I had to do it on the treadmill.

I put it on the hills course to get a bit of a challenge and then did it for 30 minutes. My earbuds weren't staying in my ears so my iPod was rendered useless. Good thing the gym usually plays good tunes.

One thing I just don't get about treadmills is the speed thing. I programmed it for 5 miles an hour, which should average out to a 12 minute mile. When I'm outside I can do that or faster without a problem. On the treadmill though it felt like I was doing an all out sprint sometimes. Does anyone have any idea what's up with that?

Tonight I'm teaching yoga again for my boss because she's still sick, and then I think I'm going to stick around and take kickboxing because it's my favorite class ever.

It's been about a week since I've done any sort of physical activity because I had been sick. So yesterday I had planned to get in a short run before I had to teach my yoga class.

Well turns out like half of the fitness instructors on staff seemed to be sick yesterday and they were in desperate need for people to sub. Now normally I would have been all over that because I can always use the extra cash. But I still didn't have a voice. (Note to self: Must stop cheering so loudly at soccer games. Side Note: Terps beat GMU 3-0 on Sunday! WHOO!) But my boss was really desperate.

I told her I would teach Gliding. (You basically stand on frisbee-like discs and do all sorts of crazy stuff. It is one hell of a work out. If it's offered at a gym by you...I seriously recommend trying it. I'm still sore today.)

The main reason I offered to teach Gliding is because it doesn't require as much up beat yelling as kickboxing. But then she called back and said she got another girl to teach Gliding could I do kickboxing. I was like yea sure, I'll manage somehow.

Turns out I ended up teaching Kickboxing, then yoga, then Gliding...back to back...that's three straight hours of working out. And people let me tell you I am sore. I was not in yoga shape at all. My shoulders are none too happy with me today.

But that's some serious money in the bank! Tonight, I'm thinking about heading over to the gym to do some lifting. We'll see how sore I am though.

...that I put up some race pictures.

The first three are the ones I took:
Me with my mom at the finish line.

Check out the blister!

And another blister shot because I've kept you waiting so long for these pictures haha!


The rest of the pictures are the ones from the professional people. Not great, but not terrible.
Finishing up down the boardwalk.


Crossing the finish line.


Almost crossing the finish line (Yea these are in no order whatsoever!)


So very close.


This is definitely my favorite picture out of all of them....too bad my head got chopped off.

Sorry all still no pictures....this thing called class has been keeping me busy. And well last night was soccer Friday. Today's football Saturday and tomorrow's football Sunday. Haha. I promise pictures will happen eventually.





As for today....Notre Dame plays PSU....what a huge game...but if ND can't get their act together it ain't gonna be pretty.











My Terps play FIU. GO TERPS!

Tomorrow.....Eagles vs. Packers...







and then more Terps soccer vs. GMU. (Photo courtesy of The Diamondback)

I currently have no voice. But this time it's not because I'm sick. It's because I was busy screaming my head off at the soccer game last night. We lost in over time....stupid Golden Goal....it was zero zero the whole game and then literally two minutes into over time....WVU put the ball in the net...curses!!!!

Anyway.....I love sports, I'm so stoked the seasons are up and running! Whoooo!

Race report, race report....where to begin....there's so much to say......chronologically will be the only thing that makes sense I think. Here we go:

As you all know from the last post, I was not feeling my best when I was heading to Virginia Beach to run the Rock n Roll Half Marathon (which was yesterday.) My mom drove down to College Park picked me up around 11:30 and we were on the road about 11:45.

After sitting in insane amounts of traffic on I-95 and dealing with two accidents and a tunnel back-up resulting in a detour on I-64, we finally made it to our hotel about five to five and half hours later. And by that point I was feeling like crap. I walked into our room and started freezing, and the air conditioner wasn't even on so the room was really hot and humid. But I was shaking like crazy and dove under the covers and fell asleep for a while. My mom had gone to take a walk just to see the beach and such and when she got back she suggested we head over to an emergency care walk-in place to see what my deal was.

(Oh right I forgot to mention before I fell asleep I was crying like crazy because I thought I wasn't actually going to be able to run the race with my throat on fire and my head congestion and feeling achy and cold.)

We find a walk-in place and by some miracle there is no one else there. We were in and out in like 45 minutes...when does that ever happen at any medical facility? Anyway, turns out I had an upper respiratory bacterial infection. (Basically some throat infection that is not a strain of strep.) But ALLELUIA! it was bacterial! Which means they could give me antibiotics. So with my Z-pack in hand and a container of microwavable chicken noodle soup, my mom and I headed back to the hotel where I popped the pills and hit the sack.

Woke up Saturday still feeling like hell. But I had to go to the expo to pick up my race stuff if I wanted to have any chance to do the race. By nine when we get there, I've taken my antibiotics, some Advil, some Sudafed and gargled with Listerine to help with the throat. (Yea the medical section of my race number had quite a bit of medicine listed.)

At the Expo, I'm feeling guilty as hell when my mom buys me a nice long sleeve race shirt because I'd feel like such a fake wearing a shirt for a race I didn't actually run (and at this point, I wasn't feeling any better.)

We wandered around the Expo for a while, checked out all the cool stuff, and headed back to the hotel where I took more Advil and Sudafed. I napped, watched the Notre Dame football game (dismal), laughed a bit when Michigan got knocked off by App. State, and then my mom and I went to carbo-load at a pasta place.

By dinner I wasn't feeling great, but I wasn't feeling bad, and I figured if nothing else I could at least start the race and drop out if I felt like hell. Or maybe I'd even be able to walk the entire thing.

After dinner it was back to the hotel to sleep. (After first of course checking the Maryland football score with my friends. Terps win 31-14 over Villanova! GO TEAM!)

4:30 a.m. wake up call Sunday morning. I'm feeling better than Friday, but not great. Had it been a training run, I wouldn't have done it. But hellllo I've been training for this all summer and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to at least attempt it. Antibiotics, check. Advil, check. Sudafed, check. Lots of water, check.

I packed extra Advil and Sudafed in my running waist pack in case I needed it on the course. I also threw in a pack of Clif Shot Bloks, my camera and cell phone (so my mom and I could find each other at the end.)

Because I wasn't feeling great I had no appetite, but I knew I needed to eat to have the energy I needed. I ate a pack of Sharkies Energy Chews and forced down about 3/4 of a Clif bar. It was all I could manage, and I was a little worried it wouldn't be enough.

I was in corral 16 and my mom was in 20. It's a good thing it was a wave start because we stood in the porta-potti line for like a half hour and missed the first few corrals start. I was soooo nervous as my corral approached the starting line. I had all these negative thoughts about having to drop out, about getting sick, about not being able to finish in the amount of time they allotted. I was trying to calm myself down as my corral was about to start.

When we did start, I jogged nice and slow and steady. I didn't want to push it or risk anything. By the time we got to mile 1, my throat was so dry and scratchy and thank god not far ahead was water stop number one. Also at mile one I noticed I was running way under a 12-minute mile. I don't remember my exact split, but it was something between 11 and 11:30. I was surprised, but kept telling myself to not get overly-confident.

It was hot and sunny and the sun was strong and there were long stretches of the course without shade. I was keeping a good pace though. I got to mile two at around 22 or 23 minutes and mile three around 34 minutes. But I was tired then and stopped to walk for a bit. And I wanted some more water. I was figuring this is where I was going to have to start walking the rest of the race. But I really didn't want too. So I told myself I'd try a walk-run pattern and see how that worked. I was able to keep run five, walk two for most of the rest of the course. (I know Wes always says start walk-run from the beginning and stick with it, but being sick and all I threw all my plans right out the window lol!)

As the miles markers kept passing, I was checking my watch to see how I was doing time-wise, and I was consistently under the time for averaging 12-minute miles. I was doing a little happy-dance in my head.

Nothing too important sticks out in my mind between miles 5 and 10. I ran with a group of people for a few minutes between miles 6 and 7. They were nice to chat with, but I lost them when I started walking and didn't want to jump back into the conversation when I caught up with them when I was running again.

I ate two Shot Bloks around mile 7, washed them down with water. The sports drink of choice on this course was Accelerade. It was the nasty stuff I have ever tasted. Seriously it was gross, but I choked it down because I needed the electrolytes. I also think mile 7 is where I started taking two cups of water. One for drinking. One for dumping on my head/down my back.

Right before mile 8 some neighbors had hoses and were spraying runners down. They rocked my world at that point.

I hit mile marker 10 at 1:57:58 or something like that. Two whole minutes under two hours! I was elated. In fact, I'm pretty sure I fist pumped and said "YES!" (But kind of quietly lol!) I was also thinking "BOOO-YAAAH upper respiratory infection!"

At mile 11, we started the final stretch down the boardwalk. (To be read: There was no shade, it was the last leg of the race. It was hot and super sunny and I was tiiiiiiired!) I hit mile 11 under the time for averaging 12 minute miles, so I was pretty stoked, but I was also looking pretty desperately for the next water station. They seemed to be getting scarcer and scarcer. I was able to keep the five run, two walk until mile 12. That was the last mile I made in the time to average 12 minute miles.

I ended up walking most of the way from 12 to 13. I was just dead. I tried to keep moving fast. I was still passing a decent amount of people even though I was walking. When I could see mile marker 13 wasn't too far away I started running again and once I passed the mile marker I sprinted with everything I had left in the tank for the last tenth of a mile.

It was good enough for an official time of 2:37:49. (My watch had 2:37:58, but I don't think I stopped it right away.)

I'm okay with that. I know I could have done better if I hadn't been sick. I also know I lost at least a minute to a minute and a half at every water/Accelerade stop. A lot of the stations didn't have the cups pre-poured so they were pouring as you got there. It was a lot of wasted time. But all things considered, I still think I kicked ass.

My mom kicked ass too. She finished in 2:43:00. She would have done better too, but at mile 7 she had to stop, take off her shoe and sock and adjust her blister pad because it had come unstuck and was causing problems. She was majorly bummed out.

My one complaint about the course was that there were not enough water stations, especially towards the end of the race when the sun was strong and there was no shade coming down the boardwalk.

But over all it was a fun race. The finisher's medal is sweet. And now I so won't feel guilty wearing my race shirt. (I'm definitely wearing it to class tomorrow.) I'm not too sore, just a little tight in the hips. Oh and I have a nasssssty blister on my toe. (Don't worry I have pictures to show you haha.)




Official Splits:
5K: 35:17
10K: 1:12:53
10 mile: 1:57:56
11 mile: 2:10:50
13.1: 2:37:49

Official Splits from Baltimore:
Half: 2:31:36
21 mile: 4:15:54
26.2: 5:26:16

This was slower than my Baltimore half split time. But if you divide my final marathon time in half, it was faster than that.

Well the title of this post says it all. My stupid sore throat won't go away and I haven't felt well enough to run all week. This leaves me realllllly well off with my half-marathon coming up on Sunday.

It sucks and I'm fed up with it and I can't believe it hasn't gone away yet. I'm frustrated and as a result not even excited about the race anymore because I don't want to run feeling like this. I'm hoping that actually getting to Va. Beach tomorrow and going to the Expo and seeing everyone else be pumped will help lift my moods.

I'm also bumming because I'm going to miss the first football game of the season (which when I registered I didn't care about, but now do)

I need a serious attitude adjustment when it comes to this race and I hope that happens down there.

I leave tomorrow morning. Be back either Sunday or Monday, but most likely the latter.

Race report to come.

To sum it up real quick, the birthday involved a party, a trip to the bar, tasting many forms of alcohol on Monday night/Tuesday morning. It wrapped up with a road trip from College Park to Philadelphia to watch the Phillies vs. Mets game last night.

The birthday was a success...in that I wasn't even a little bit hungover when I woke up Tuesday morning! Whoo!

We didn't get back from the Phillies game last night until about two in the morning....there was construction everywhere all over 95. It took us about 1.5 hours to get to Philly and it took about 3 to get back to College Park....ridiculous.

Needless to say no run this morning, but the UMD running club meets at five today, so I might try to meet up with them and squeeze in a short taper run. My throat is currently on fire though in part because I have a cold and in part because of the yelling at the game last night. So I'll see how I feel.

Anyway here's some pictures of the night:

My roommate, Emily, and me at my birthday dinner at Olive Garden.


Me in the bar sipping a pineapple and rum. (The crazy kids behind me are my friend Ryan and his girlfriend Kristen...they were the ones who bought me the drink.)


Me and my younger brother at the Phillies game. (Yea the 21st birthday tiara kind of rocked!)

Because tonight at midnight this runner turns 21!!!!!!

(And it's about freaking time!)

Here's the back story: I don't drink. Like ever. I think alcohol for the most part tastes bad. And really what college student thinks that.

So tonight, at my birthday party, my friends are all mixing up their favorite drinks and I'm trying them all in hopes of finding something that I like. Then it's most likely off to the bar because I want to hand a bouncer my ID LOL.

As a result, I'm thinking I may be hurting a bit tomorrow, and definitely not in running condition!

I'm sure I will have some hilarious pictures to post tomorrow or Wed.

Well the rains that forced me to cancel every run this week until today have left. And the nice little present they left behind was like 80-90% humidity. Makes for lovely running conditions indeed.

Needless to say today's five miles were sweaty ones. I was able to run without walk breaks for the first 2.5 miles and then my legs were feeling it and I started walking/running. I was doing run five minutes, walk one minute and using that plan I finished my five in 1:01:24. Not great, but definitely not bad either. Especially because I hadn't been able to get out to run at all this week.

I'm thinking if the weather is this hot and humid in Virginia next weekend, I will definitely be using the run five/walk one. My plan all along had been to improve on my half marathon time from last year's marathon. But I realized that might not be extremely likely because last year's race was in October. Race start temp was like45 degrees and it wasn't any higher than like 55 by the time I finished. Literally perfect running conditions.

I'm pretty sure a race at the beach at the end of August is not going to duplicate those conditions.

And as my wonderful roommate just pointed out to me as I was mourning the fact that my times probably won't be as great as I'd like, "Isn't it more about running and having fun than worrying about times?"

Indeed it is.

So that's my plan. I'm going to go down to the beach, have fun, run a solid race and if I do better than last year, great. If not, I'll deal.

Only two or three more runs left til the big day! Whooo!

...the serious downpour you get as a result of months of no rain...not so much.

So needless to say, I haven't run since my 10-miler on Friday. Saturday is a play it by ear day and my legs were way to tired even for cross training. Sunday is a rest day.

Which brings us to Monday. I was supposed to have a short run, but when my alarm went off at six it was still dark outside because it was overcast and about to rain. I was working on kind of a crunched schedule because I had to stop at the Dept. of Transportation to pick up my parking permit before I drove home. So I figured okay no morning run, I'll run when I'm back in PA.

Well then the rains came. And it's been raining nonstop ever since.

It's supposed to clear up tonight. I'm crossing my fingers so I can get something in tomorrow before I head back to Md.

...and no one is awake in my apartment yet. So I'm filling out Jess' meme. It's my first one ever on this blog (can you believe it?) So I guess I'm popping my meme cherry LOL. Enjoy.


How many teeth do you have?
24 regular teeth (I had to have four molars pulled when I was younger or else there wouldn't have been room for the rest of my teeth to come in straight) + 4 wisdom teeth (yeah mine came in and aren't getting pulled) = 28.

Have you ever had braces?
Yes. Twice. Once to fix my cross-bite and over-bite. The second time to actually straighten my teeth. Other fun things I had: headgear, retainers and because my jaw bone was too small I had to wear this thing on the roof of my mouth that had a key hole and every day I had to turn the key and it spread my jaw bone...yea it hurt the first few times.

Oh and I still have a permit retainer bar thing on my bottom teeth.

Name and tell us a bit about a pet you had as a child.
I was never allowed to have pets, but I finally got my parents to crack and let me adopt a baby hamster from my friend's who had babies. I named it Frisky after his mom and because he couldn't sit still. He was so small one time he squeezed out of the bars of the cage at night and we found him behind the refrigerator the next morning. (But I cried for a really long time because I thought he was lost forever. My parents freaked out because they thought he'd die in the walls and smell.)

Where were you born?
Allentown, PA.

How many siblings do you have?
1 brother. He's two years younger than me.

What was your high school's mascot?
The Viking. I still have crazy pride for the CCHS Vikes.

What was your favorite Halloween costume (either childhood or adulthood)?
When I was little it was the witch costume my mom made for me. I think this year's is going to be my favorite adult costume. I'm going as a CareBear. Other hilarious costumes from the college years: football player, baseball player and Catholic school girl (I found that one highly amusing because I went to Catholic school for 13 years)

What's your favorite smell?
Vanilla and coconut (although I think coconut tastes nasty)

What accomplishment are you most proud of?
Probably running my marathon last year. Maybe graduating college a semester early (but that won't actually happen until December)

Do you put the TP on the roll so that it feeds from the bottom or the top?
Top.

Have you ever broken anything?
My nose.

If you could travel anywhere, and the budget was not a factor, where would you go?
Italy or the Carribean Islands

What is your dream job?
Something that pays? LoL thinking about jobs has made me a little panicky of late with that whole graduation thing happening soon. But I'd love a job in the D.C. area writing lifestyle, trend and health stories. (Anyone got connections???)

What is your most embarrassing moment?
I'm in college. I've done a lot of embarrassing things.

What is your worst fear?
That'd be failure. Or not being the best at everything. Seriously being a perfectionist sucks.

What year did you graduate high school?
2004

What was one of your new year's resolutions for 2007?
To spend less money...ya know, prep myself for this whole real world living on a budget thing.