All this tennis and spinning have caught up with me and totally killed my legs.

I played tennis Sunday in Maryland. My legs had been tight that morning so I stretched out a little bit when we got to the courts and they felt fine when I was playing. Unfortunately it started pouring on us, so we made a mad dash to the car before heading home and sitting around watching football (to be read: no post-tennis stretching).

I could feel my legs tightening up as I was sitting on sofa so I tried to rub out some of the tightness. I don't think it did much good though.

Yesterday I played tennis during my lunch break and my legs felt heavy and tired. That should have been a warning sign that spinning last night was going to be tough.

But I had plans to meet my friend Michele from work, and I had no intention of blowing her off.

You may remember the last time I went spinning, I wasn't super in love with the instructor, well last night the instructor was evil. She kicked my butt. But it felt good to ride really hard, and I was dripping with sweat by the time the class was over. (Get your minds out of the gutter people, I don't mean that to be dirty.)

It was a great workout, but I realized just how stressful cycling was on my IT Band. I could definitely feel it tightening a lot when I was riding. We hit the sauna afterward and I worked on my IT Bands a bunch in the heat, which I think helped. I also rolled them out with the Stick when I got home.

Today is a much needed rest day. I'm heading down to College Park for our soccer game tonight against Binghamton. I'm hoping the boys can rebound from Friday's loss and get a convincing win tonight.

Happy Saturday blogland!

It's rare that I'm on here writing a post on a Saturday morning when I'm not in serious training, but it's still kind of early (at least by college kid standards) and none of my other friends are really awake yet so I figured I'd report in on my run now.

I got sort of lucky with the weather. After monsooning last night for the soccer game (which we lost 4-2. Wake Forest is No. 1 in the country for a reason, they are definitely a legit. team) the rain cleared up for this morning. Unfortunately though the humidity is still hanging around.

Because I'm a real working person now, my internal clock thinks it's super cool to wake up at 7 a.m. on Saturday mornings. (This is fabulous for when I'm in hard-core marathon training...not so much so for a random Saturday when I wanted to sleep in.) I ate a bowl of cereal, waited for my friend to stir so I could get her access card to her building and then hit the road.

I did one of my old loops around Maryland's campus that I knew was close to three miles, but I couldn't remember the exact distance. Much to my surprise when I mapped it out when I get back home it was 3.5 miles. I was happy to see that because I had been able to maintain a pretty consistent pace during the entire run even after having been off so long because of my knee.

I guess all the soccer and tennis I've been playing have at least helped maintain my fitness level.

Nothing super exciting to report about the run other than it was a steady effort, I had no knee pain (SWEET!) and the only discomfort was an achy left arch toward the very end of the run.

All in all it was a run I'm happy with and definitely gives me some confidence about the upcoming 5K.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend and good luck again to everyone racing!

ORN:
3.5 miles
37:48

Spin class last night rocked. I had been away far, far too long.

My co-worker Michele and I headed to the gym after work, both needing to de-stress and get some endorphins flowing. With everything going on in the financial world right now, this business reporter has been up to her eyeballs in work and was in desperate need of blowing off some steam.

The instructor was alright. I don't love her as much as I love Angie, who teaches my early morning spin class, but last night's lady gave me a workout, so I can't really complain.

I thought I was going to be hurting a lot more than I was, having been away from it so long, but I felt really good and was able to crank the tension back to my usual levels.

This weekend's festivities include an awesome soccer match between my No. 2 Terps and No. 1 Wake Forest (soccer fans out there you can catch the game on Fox Soccer Channel at 8 p.m. tonight). Tomorrow is my roommate's birthday so we're going to dinner and then out in D.C.

It's supposed to rain all weekend, but I packed my running stuff anyway because I'm craving a run around campus on my old stomping grounds. As long as the weather isn't too miserable I'm going to try to get out there.

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend and good luck to all those racing!!!

My soccer team lost again last night and it wasn't pretty. It was a 4-0 drubbing, which is seriously disappointing because we played the better game, took the better shots, etc. etc. They took about four shots the whole game and all of them went in. We took about 20 and none of them went in. (Ok, maybe those numbers aren't quite right, but you get the point.)

Anyway, I was pretty happy with my performance for the most part. I played a decent first half and a solid second half. They had me at midfield for part of the first half. Oh lordy, I am so not a midfielder. I was happy to settle back into my role on the defense later in the game.

The game was definitely a physical one and I got beat up last night. I took a header and collided with a girl on the other team. Then not long after I jumped to deflect a ball off my chest but timed it wrong and the ball smacked me in the side of the head (I think I totally played it off as a header...or at least I hope so lol). Then a girl drilled a ball at the goal and I jumped in front of it and got nailed in the chest. They didn't score though so I guess it was worth it.

Anyway it was a fun game despite the outcome.

I'm super excited for spinning tonight! It's been way too long! Hope you all have awesome Thursdays!

Last night I played tennis with a friend of mine from work and I'm happy to report my tennis skills have seen some serious improvement in the past few months. We had some good rallies going on where I was able to dig a few balls off the ground that I just wouldn't have had a prayer of getting to before.

We don't keep score we just rally back and forth for fun, but we were both running all over the place last night. It was some good times.

Another co-worker of mine came over to my desk today and asked me if I would commit to working out with her one night a week after work. She has a wedding come up in a few weeks and she wants to get moving and likes working out with people.

Sounds like a great plan to me. So for now our plan is to hit a spin class together Thursday night. I haven't been to a spin class since I hurt my knee in the summer, so I'm excited to get back to it!

I'm heading down to Maryland for our soccer game tonight and then tomorrow I've got my rec league game. I'm busy as a bee lately, but I'm happy to report that I'm getting more workouts in than I was before.

No real quality running though, but I'm enjoying my break from it do to some other things and just fitting in runs when I get a chance. It's nice to not be a on a training plan.

I know I have that 5K coming up in a few weeks, but I'm not too worried about it. I figure as long as I can fit in a couple good runs in in the next few weeks I'll be fine. I'm not looking to shatter any records on that race.

My soccer team played our first really close game in a while last night, but too bad we ended up losing 3-2.

It was a good game though and it was fun to play a team that we were more evenly matched with. Turns out high school soccer teams kind of kick our butts.

I played an OK game. One of the goals was partially my fault, but otherwise I made some good stops and such as a left back.

Something's been going around my department at work and sadly I think I'm getting it. I'm all congested and stuff and have all that nasty drippy stuff down the back of my throat.

I'm hoping it's just that the seasons are changing and it's nothing more serious than that.

I had a bunch of errands to run after work and unfortunately it was dark by the time I got back home, so no run today. Hopefully, I'll have more luck fitting something in this weekend, if I'm not super congested.

Yesterday was busy, busy so I'm just getting to my weekend update now. Apologies.

Overall it was another fabulous weekend in Maryland.

Quick highlights:

Soccer beat B.C. (more at terpsoccer.com)

The alums came back so we got to catch up with some of the guys who know play for D.C. United and FC Dallas and some other alums we haven't seen in a while.

Football beat Cal...whooop whooop!

I got wicked sunburn...with some unfortunate sunglass tan lines...here's a pic for your amusement...have a good laugh...everyone else has haha!



Didn't manage to fit any running in this weekend (or yesterday or today....crap...that's not the kind of streak I want)

My Robbie Rogers national team jersey finally came today!! I am sooo pumped! I love it!

Sorry for the lag time between posts. I haven't had much free time lately or well I guess I have, I've just been using it to get my life together. (i.e. working on completing the switch from the old computer to the new computer, trying to figure out why half my music disappeared in said switch, etc., etc.)

I'll do a quick update bullet point style:

• Wednesday night my soccer leauge started back up. Because we had a ton of defenders, I saw a little action at forward in the first half. That was an interesting experience to be sure. I haven't played forward since I was in like 6th grade. I was able to switch back to my normal defensive position half way through the first half though. Unfortunately we lost 3-0. I guess that will happen when you play a high school team that just joined the league to keep in shape in the off season.
• My doctor has me taking melatonin to help me sleep better and maybe figure out the cause to some of this fatigue stuff. I should mention that melatonin is a supplement that helps your body sync to natural circadian rhythm and isn't one of those addictive sleeping pill dealies. I've been taking it for three days so far, and I definitely feel like I've been getting more quality sleep. So score one for the doc!
• I'm meeting a co-worker for tennis during my hour and half lunch break today. I think it will be the first time in the eight or nine months since I started working here that I will actually use the full hour and a half. Usually I only take an hour at most.
• I'm heading to Maryland again this weekend. My soccer boys play Boston College in their ACC opener. It should be a good and close game. Tomorrow Terps football plays Cal. That unfortunately, has every potential to be a blow out in the wrong way. Tailgating tonight for the soccer game at 5:30 p.m. Tailgating tomorrow morning for football at 6 a.m. Oof! I hate noon kick-offs.
• Maybe getting free tickets to Saturday's D.C. United game. A guy my friend knows apparently has two he might not be using! That would make for an awesome, sports-filled weekend.
  

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! I'm taking my running stuff with me to Maryland again, we'll see if I have time to cram in a run at some point.

I went out for a run last night and was hoping to get in an easy three miles or something close to that. Unfortunately my calves rebelled against me and cramped like wooow. I had to slow down and walk around mile 1.5 for about two minutes. I picked it up again though, but the tightness was still there so I just walked back home for a total of about 2 miles.

That's not really going to help me in breaking my mileage goal in this month's challenge.

I figured tonight I'd make up for it and get something a little bit better in after lots of stretching and rolling out the muscles.

But this excessive exhaustion thing is killing me. When I got home from work I was feeling pretty sluggish so I ate some dinner and figured I'd wait until I had some energy, but I wasn't really feeling any better.

I figured I'd force myself to at least take the lady I live with's dog for a walk then, just a short one, just to do something, but when I stood up to get changed I felt like I was sleep walking or like in some crazy hazy state of mind. (And no Marcy, I haven't been trying some crazy drugs because, I know you were so going to go there in the comment's haha!)

So I nixed that plan. I'm going to head to bed early again and hope that I have more energy tomorrow.

Really this is starting to get old. Blah!

Remember how I said I was finally packing work out clothes to take to Maryland so I could run?

Right, well Tropical Storm Hannah had other plans. Plans to the tune of five inches of rain on Saturday. Needless to say, I didn't run.

Instead my friend Sam and I camped out on her sofa and watched Notre Dame football, followed by Maryland football, followed by D.C. United soccer. (W-L-L...not so good!)

Sunday the weather was beautiful so Sam and I played a little bit of tennis before I headed back to College Park for another Terps soccer game.

The Terps were awesome this weekend, winning 3-0 on Friday and 4-1 on Sunday. (You can read more here.)

Got some mixed news back from the good ol' doc today. No diabetes (whooo hoo!!!) but most likely I have a sugar intolerance so I have to be extra careful about what I eat. Still no sugar, but carbs are OK as long as they are the whole grain/whole wheat, high fiber version.

I also have to write everything down, as well as all exercise, and my energy levels so we can monitor it and then I go back in six months for a re-check.

So some good news and some just plain annoying news because I wanted an answer for the sluggishness and stuff and didn't really get a solid one. Oh well, at least it's not diabetes!

I didn't get any runs in this week, which is frustrating, but I've just been so run down. I get home from work and literally collapse. I had every intention of running on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I just feel dead tired.

I'm looking forward to getting the results of my blood work re-test back on Monday so I can finally figure out what's going on with everything.

I'm spending another weekend as a hobo living out of my duffel bag in MD/D.C/VA, but this time I packed running stuff because I'd like to try to get a run in sometime.

Two soccer games this weekend. Tonight against Hartford and Sunday night against Davidson. I'm super excited.

P.S. If you've got two seconds, check out www.terpsoccer.com. My soccer buddies and I finally decided we were sick of not being able to find a quality Maryland soccer blog/site so I built one for us. It's still a work in progress, but I'm happy with the way it looks so far.

Happy weekend to everyone. Good luck to everyone racing! Can't wait to read your reports!

Well as the title may suggestion, my long weekend in the city was awesome. Birthday dinner, tailgating, Terps (football) winning the home opener, tennis with a friend.

It totally rocked.

It was nice to finally have a day off from work. I get a whole two vacation days in my first year at this job so let me tell you how much I love holidays.

On the running front, I think I've found a comeback race. It's just a 5K in the middle of October, but I did it last year and it was a lot of fun. It's the Komen Race for the Cure in Maryland.

The best part about it is I convinced a bunch of my friends to do it with me. None of them really run regularly, but a couple of them have said they'd like to do a 5K sometime, and they all like that it benefits breast cancer. So they're in.

So it will be a blast and I'm really excited. Plus I haven't followed a training plan in so long.

I know I don't really need to follow one for a 5K, but I think I'm going to just for the heck of it. I'm thinking Hal Higdon's intermediate plan, but I have to look at it a little more closely and then format it to my schedule. I'll work something out in the next few days! Hooray for having a race on the agenda! I'll register in a few weeks, just want to make sure the knee holds up through the first few weeks of training.