Time: 34:11
Length: 2.8 miles

In good news, my ankle didn't hurt at all when I was running today. So it must have just been a minor sprain that with some rest and ice would heal itself.

In not so good news, my left shin, knee and hip hurt during the run. The shin was the worst. And the knee and hip just twinged from time to time during the run. I'm not sure what's going on with the shin splint action. I stretch a ton after I run and now I'm going to start icing my shins after every run. Before I was only doing it from time to time because I didn't always have time with having to get to work and everything. But now that I'm going to be having some down time, I'm definitely going to stay on top of the icing.

It's so frustrating that I haven't just been able to run strong in a while. It seems like something is always acting up.

Today is my last day of finals. I'm looking forward to being done. And then BEACH! on Saturday. So I won't be posting for a while. I'm going to try to get some quality runs in at the beach and I'll be sure to update you on everything when I get back.

I'm not sure when I did whatever it was that I did, but I think softball may be my problem. Yesterday I spent the day icing the outside of my left ankle, right around the area where the ankle bone sticks out. I'm not sure what the problem is, but it feels really sore and tight there.

It hurts when I walk and make any sort of lateral movement, but running didn't seem to bother it. (At least that's what I thought at first.)

Needless to say I went out and tried to run this morning. Got about 10 minutes in and the pain that had started in my outer ankle area had moved into my shin and calf. Kept pushing for another 5 minutes. Stopped to stretch by a tree and that hurt like crazy. Trotted for another five minutes then finally threw in the towel and walked the rest of the way home.

I iced it some more this morning before I went to take my final. And now that I'm back (final was pretty easy....it's a class I'm taking pass/fail, so I just need a D to get credit) I'll probably ice it again.

Does anyone have any other suggestions besides ice and now obviously trying to stay off it?

In case anyone is interested, I'm posting the link to the website for the softball team I play on. If you search around you can find a hilarious picture or two of me, as well as my so-so stats.

We took another two beatings today. We have a problem in the first inning letting other teams score lots of runs and then we can't fight back into it. It was a little bit worse for me today though because a friend of mine was on one of the teams and we bet lunch on the game. Unfortunately we lost, so I was paying. Not to mention the part where he wacked a home run.....right over where I was playing in the outfield. It was a right at me and had I been back like 10 feet I would have caught it, but as it was, it sailed over my head and he made it all the way home. We had a good laugh about it at lunch.

Tomorrow's a rest day! YAY! But it's also study for finals day. Boo!

Time: 1:13:04
Length: 6 (ish....Gmaps doesn't show the pathways around campus so it's hard to measure exactly, and my computer hates mapmyruns :o( So I know I did at least 6. There might have been a few extra tenths though that I missed)

It's been a great couple of days. (See previous post about last day of class party time.)

But today rocked because I ran six miles this morning....after I had seriously contemplated going back to sleep. It was hummmmmid outside. It felt like I was breathing water and not air. They're calling for thunderstorms and I hope we get them so this ridiculously humidity drops (just preferably tomorrow so that I can go to the baseball game tonight and my softball games don't get rained out tomorrow)

So today's run was definitely the longest I've gone since summer when I was doing my marathon training. Everything was going great. I started out nice and slow to get my legs warmed out (and because I always have a tendency to start too fast and not having anything left in the tank at the end.) The second half of mile one was a bit of struggle, but I think my body was just not down with how warm and humid it was because by mile two things were feeling pretty good. I was crusing along through mile 3 when my left leg started bothering me again just like it did last week when I was doing my longer run. Just some kind of crazy tightness and pain in my left shin making it hard for me to flex my left foot when I picked it up off the ground.

Instead of stopping like last week, I slowed my pace a little bit and kept pushing through figuring it would go away. Normally I'm not a big fan of the pushing through it mentality, but I just had a feeling that if I stopped I would lose all motivation to keep going. So it annoyed me probably until about mile 4.5, but then it went away and I felt like I was running awesomely. My legs were tired and the heat and humidity were getting pretty uncomfortable but I somehow managed to run the entire six miles without having to stop to walk once.

Unfortunately I forgot to add a new part to the course I mapped out so I ended up being too close to home way to fast. It wasn't a big problem, I just kept running to add the distance. The crappy part was that I had to end on a really big hill, which was just killer on my legs.

Overall I'm super happy with my run. Running in the morning always makes my days start off better. What I lose in sleep time, I totally gain in a happier outlook on the day.

Anyway, I'm off to waste my study day not studying for finals and instead lounging around doing lots of nothing until the baseball game tonight! I figure I've earned it.

Well sort of. I still have finals to get through....but still the last day of class always calls for a minor celebration -- dinner with the gang followed by The Office.

I'm sort of intrigued by this new show on ABC, Traveler. It's about the two guys who are framed for blowing up a museum. Interesting. It was a sneak preview tonight and the real series doesn't start until May 30.

As far as today's workout of running vs. cross-training....decided to go with the cross training because I'm going to go for six miles tomorrow morning. I know a long run on Friday is a bit different, but I have softball Saturday and don't want to keep slacking on my long runs.

I'm really really glad to be done with class and I'm so looking forward to the end of the semester when finals are over and I leave for the beach for a week. Here's what's standing in the way: 1 film final on Monday (I'm taking the class pass/fail and therefore am not concerned as long as I get a D in the class I still get credit and it doesn't affect my GPA) 1 psychology final on Thursday (I need a 77 on the final to pull an A in the class, but her tests are tricky because their are short answers, which requires a lot of memorization, studying for this will suck), 1 take home law final due Thursday (these tests take at least 6 hours to complete and our teacher grades extremely tough. I love the class and the teacher and I'm borderline A/B sooooo unfortunately I will be spending a lot of time on that one). So really it's not too bad.

I just want it to be done so I can go to the beach. My friends and I got a house in Rehoboth and we're going for the week to relax and unwind after finals before all of our summer internships start. I'm looking forward to getting in some nice runs in a different setting. I love running in beach towns there's always so much cool stuff to look at. So that will definitely spice things up a bit!

Just one more week left. I can totally make it!

Time: 36:00
Length: 3.2 (Gmaps is amazing! Thanks to all who left links on where I could find my mileage!)

Getting out the door to run this morning was not the most enjoyable moment of my life. I was tired and when I looked out the window at 6:30 it was grey and yucky out. But I dragged myself out of bed, hopped on my computer to check the weather and saw it was 62 degrees outside. Not too shabby I thought. Nice temp. for a run.

So I got dressed, laced up the sneakers and headed out.....to be smacked in the face with humidity. Whooo it was nasty outside. I hate running in humidity. It stinks a lot.

But anyway, I started out slow to get myself going and did some sort of speed workout. I wouldn't call it a tempo run because I didn't hold the same pace the entire time. I also wouldn't but I don't know if I could call it interval work either. My training plan calls it a tempo run, but ehhh I don't know. Anyway, what I did was 10 minutes at regular pace and then picked it up for 10 minutes at a faster pace and then dropped back to regular pace for the last 16 minutes of the run.

It seemed like working on foot turn over was a good goal for today. Tomorrow's supposed to be a running day according to the training schedule, but I think I'm going to swap it up for cross-training because I need to bump my long run from Saturday to Friday, and I don't want to have run three days in a row right before a long run. I think this week's long run is supposed to be six miles. Since GMaps is my new favorite toy, I'm sure I'll be spending plenty of time on there plotting out my course.

Tomorrow is the last day of classes for the semester! WAHOOOOO!!!!

Time: 40 minutes
Length: A little more than 3...I'll say 3.2.

I didn't get my run in yesterday morning because I had a breakfast with the College Board of Directors for the Journalism School. (Basically it was a chance for a bunch of journalism students to spend an hour chatting with someone important in the industry and make networking connections, etc.)

I had plans to run when I got home from my internship yesterday, but instead I laid down to watch TV for a little bit and accidentially fell asleep and woke up 2 hours later. I guess I really needed the sleep. I had been up late the night before working on a group paper. The end of the semester is killing me. All the work is leading to major lack of sleep.

So instead of cross-training today I bumped my run back. It was really chilly this morning; I had to pull out a long-sleeve running shirt. But other than the weather, the run was excellent. I went longer than usual, seemed to be able to keep my pace and felt really good the whole time. And even though it was chilly, the sun was shining the entire time and it was gorgeous outside.

Reminded me of this little country tune: "It's a great day to be alive. I know the sun's still shining when I close my eyes."

Time: 60:28
Length: 5 miles (approx.)

It's been a long time since I've done a long run. With softball on Saturdays I just really haven't been going. Plus since I'm only training for a 1/2 this time, I don't really need to be training too hardcore yet. But because today was a bye week in softball I decided it was time to go out for a nice easy long run.

Overall, the run went well. I had to stop aobut 1/2 way through though because my calves were getting really tight and I was developing a shin splint in my left leg. So walked to the nearest telephone pole and stretched it out for a few minutes. I started off slowly after that and I could still sense the tenderness, but after about 10 minutes it seemed to go away completely, and as a result I was able to pick up the pace a little bit. I definitely finished stronger than I started which is great!

I have to write a paper and start a take home final this weekend, but other than that there isn't too much going on. Summer is sooooo close!

And a huge shout out to Joe who is running his first half marathon tomorrow!

More details later, just quick stat post:
Time: 33:47
Length: Not sure rounding down to 2.5 miles just to safe. (Must really consider getting a Garmin because it's so annoying to drive all the routes to get mileage counts).

ADDITION: Ok, now that I have a few minutes to sit down and write an actual entry, I'll get started. First, I've had to change up my cross training yet again because the indoor pool at school is close for re-finishing for the entire month of May. They're re-tiling the bottom and in order to do that they had to drain both pools (We have an Olympic size and a regular size) and will have to refill them and balance chemicals after all the work is done. It was slightly frustrating, but I've been able to replace it with a workout DVD. Now it may sound kind of corny, but I reviewed this set of DVD's for my internship last summer and they're actually pretty intense and give a really good workout. Each DVD has two different strength training portions to alternate between and then they include a 1/2 hour cardio segment too.

I figure this is good, because my strength training has been virtually nonexistent this entire semester. I know it's a good thing to do, but I really have a hard time motivating myself to do it because I feel I get so much more out of cardio and when I only have a small amount of time to workout...yea I'd just rather spend it on cardio.

So that will be my plan until the pool is up and running again. After, I'll see.

I was really pleased with today's run. I started off slower than I usually do, but was able to really pick up my speed after about the first 7 minutes or so. And it felt good to be running faster. I noticed a slight dull pain in my shin towards the end of the run, but other than that I have no pain to report.

It was really humid out this morning though which made it hard to run. I felt like I was inhaling water instead of oxygen because the air was just that heavy. Unfortunately I'm sure that's what I'm going to have to look forward to on most of my summer runs. It was humid at home in PA, but I hear the humidity is a bear in Maryland. I'm trying to look at it positively though. My 1/2 marathon is at beach...there is definitely going to be moisture in the air there, so I figure it will be good training in similar conditions.

I'm so excited this weeks almost over. (I only have class/work Mon-Thurs.) Just need to get through next week and then classes will be over. My finals schedule isn't too bad. I have a final on Monday (but I'm taking the class pass/fail so I don't need to study :O) and then I have a final on Thursday (which will be horrible and will require many hours of studying) and then a take home final which will be due Thursday.

I'm so looking forward to it all being over and being able to relax and really log some quality miles in the summer when I have more free time!