Speed Update

As it's Saturday, it's time for the end-of-the-challenge report. I was able to beat my previous fastest time for the mile.
Nov 27 - 9:07

April 17 - 8:48
April 23 - 8:21
April 24 - 8:17

And just to compare, it would take me roughly 38 mins to swim 1mile, but I have never tried for speed :)

So this challenge was supposed to be for a week. I had to run 1mile as fast as I could (on a treadmill - cheating?!) everyday for five days. I knew it was a silly idea... I mean, running ALL-OUT is hard in itself. If your muscles don't hurt, you're probably doing it wrong. If you don't hurt or feel terrible afterwards you were definitely not going hard enough. And 2 days into the challenge I realised that I was hurting. My knees were definitely feeling the increased pounding and my muscles were tired. I wasn't pushing myself as hard as I could - I finished that last 8:17 knowing I could do more, but not wanting to. The fact that I was able to improve so much over such a short period of time shows that my body CAN do it, but it's my mind that's telling me that it hurts... it's not important... if you stop you'll feel so much better.... why do you even need to go fast?!

So through this I've learned a few things:

• I'm faster than my friends, as none of them run!
• I can improve my mile time, but this is not the way to do it.
• Speed - stronger impact - more knee pain. I was smart to back off, so I'm not sorry I stopped the challenge.
• I can absolutely do a sub 8-minute mile, and I WILL!
• It's a fun way to challenge myself and I will try again in the future.

I want to do a real timed mile at the track in May. It will be approx two weeks from now, before my trip. I'll update on here whenever it happens :)
I went for a 20minute Vibram run on Thursday and my legs are just killing me now... I was also dumb enough to sign up for a 5k that is one hour away from my house via bike. So  I will bike 1 hour to get there, run for a 1/2 hour, and bike 1hour back. Then I will round up the day by sitting in a bus for 2 hours, as I'm going to London to visit the boyfriend.

I never claimed to be sensible, or to think things through well :)

Crappy Knee

I had the toughest run of the year today.
It was at the track. It wasn't speed that got me, it was pain. Pain you shouldn't feel while running, and pain that shouldn't be there.
It's my stupid knee. It hurts about 1mi into a run and then doesn't go away. It's usually not too bad... or perhaps I usually stop when I feel it.
I've tried ice, changing shoes, taking days off.
The days off help, and my knee wont hurt at the beginning of a brand new run. But it's still there and as soon as I near 1mile, it flares up.

It hurts worse when I walk vs when I run. It super, super hurts when I walk. I did two cool-down laps while waiting for one of my roomates to finish his 10k, and I was crying since it hurt so freaking much.

Here is a copy-paste of what I wrote on DM:
16 x 200m: 
1.13 
1.23 
1.24 
1.23 
1.25 
1.00 (ran with the Mikes) 
2.21 (recovery lap) 
1.27 
1.33 
1.29 
---- knee flare-up, went to the lockers to have a meltdown. 
12.35 min mile on elliptical. Initially hurt to put weight on my knee, but it cooled off eventually. 
---- 
Sat in the fieldhouse feeling sorry for myself for a while, watching the Mikes do laps. 
I figured that I maybe won't be doing too much damage to my knee since it hurts anyway. AND it hurts a teeny bit less when I run vs when I walk. 
1.18 (with MacAdams) 
1.19 (with MacAdams) 
1.30 
1.33 
1.33 
- 
2 x 200m cool-down. This was painfully slow. Haha, get it? It freaking hurt to walk and I was crying most of it. 
Limped home. 
There will be a Dr's appt tomorrow, we'll see how that goes.
-----
On the one hand, I am glad I didn't quit. But on the other, there's a part of me that will be so upset if I've made the whole thing worse.
So tomorrow morning, I'm heading to the student centre and seeing if I can either get help at the Student Health Services, the Sport's therapy place at the gym, or the other place at the student centre. We'll see. I'm going to make someone help me.
Stay tuned!


Oh... on a brighter note, I saw TWO people with Vibrams at the gym today! One had bright red ones and they were gorgeous :)

Bullets

Right now:

-my tongue hurts because I ate too many salted sunflower seeds.
-I am growing tomatoes on my windowsill.
-My calves hurt... some would say due to overdoing the new Vibrams, but I refuse to believe these lovely shoes would want to hurt me :)
-My cat decided he wanted outside this morning... so he ended up closely resembling a popsicle, since he had to stay outside until 5pm when I came back :(
-The 150min/week challenge is over at the gym. I thought it went until the end of Feb??? So I didn't win a T-shirt :(
-I went to the gym today with my new gym buddy. I had originally said 1h on the elliptical, but at the half hour mark, once my feet went numb and I sweated all the way down my shirt and wanted to quit, Modern Family came on and I decided to do my whole hour :D

Vibrams!

My trip to London ended with a trip to Novacks, where I bought a pair of blue Vibrams!! They look more purple than blue, and they are SUPER COMFY.
My toes fit a bit weirdly inside them, because they have spent 20 years being squished by shoes, but I have hopes that I will get used to my pinky having separation anxiety.

I also bought my sister a super secret birthday present, which I should mail out in the next few days! :)

And my trip to london also included a short trip to pick up some take-out from Veg Out, where I got a large Roasted Potato Spinach salad for my bus ride back :D They're food is great, but the prices are a little steep. My salad was $10, and could have been bigger. I plan on trying to replicate it at home - but tomorrow, after I've gone shopping for food. We have nothing in the house right now!!


Off to the gym for a couple of hours. I am debating whether I want to go to the pool tonight or not... if I do I may not have a ride back, and there is about 10inches of snow on the ground... so maybe I'll push it until tomorrow! :)


Pictures soon! :)

Recovery

I'm supposed to be studying for my Group Work midterm, but I keep getting distracted by the internet!
I have been thinking about getting some Vibrams for the longest time.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-Sprint-Womens.htm

I would love them in purple!!

The idea came about as I was cleaning my room and came across my pink shoes, which are reserved for summer and hold many awesome memories :)

Each summer I notice that the first few days I wear them I get a headache because I step too heavily in them. I then realise that the way I was changes, as they are basically made of pink material with NO support. However, once my feet get used to the heat (I could feel the ground in Kuwait) they are my favourite shoes to wear the entire summer. I even wear them swimming in the river/sea, as they dry quickly and are super versatile.

I will be sad when the day comes that I will no longer be able to wear them. They've lasted a bunch of years with minimal tearing and I am proud of them!

So...  Vibrams. They seem more durable and could withstand the pounding of running. I would love to try them out, but I'm a bit weary of the separate spaces for each toe, hmm.

Next time I am in London I will look around and see if I find any.

In the meantime... back to studying and resting my aching calf muscles (the hillbilly trail race this past weekend was tough!!)