siesta sunshine

I'm back again in the wonderful neighborhood of siesta key (well, technically sarasota, more inland of siesta, but still) meaning too much together time with the family, lots of sunshine, WAY TOO MUCH EATING, and then more eating. These vacations , conveniently enough, also lend themselves well to long morning runs as the sunrises. I mean, I have to do long runs to keep up with all the food my mother and grandmother keep supplying me with, in addition to the fact that I'm not walking miles and miles across campus everyday... There has been a constant supply of chocolate cake, pies, strawberries and various fruits, candy corn, chocolate chip cookies..etc, and of course, all gluten free. Last night even included a trip to the local gluten free pizza place, a vacation essential now that we've discovered it hidden among a Family Dollar and a Bingo joint. I certainly will not go hungry while I'm here, and I'll probably be properly full for the next week.

With that being said, the cookies are calling, again.

damage contorl, eminem, or tswift?

What a wonderful Wednesday today has been! Care, not surprisingly, didn't come to the gym with me today. In her defense, she does have an exam tomorrow, but I always feel better after running. I'm still relying heavily on my damage control playlist, but today I mixed in a little bit of Eminem as well. I'm resisting the urge to add in Taylor Swift's new album, with the fear of over listening to it.

Today was our first GammaFits meeting and I am SO excited for what the rest of the semester may bring in the form of group fitness, yoga, 6am cycling and the possibility of training for a half with others, forcing me to stick to the plan! More immediately, fall break is taking it's sweet time arriving, and 2:15 Friday afternoon can not come fast enough. Luckily, the worst of my week is over, and only one lab, and four lectures stand before me and freedom!

tornado watches and the elliptical

As it could probably be inferred, I didn't go running yesterday. I was still in desperate need of sleep from last week/the weekend, and yesterday after a three hour nap and going to bed before ten, I was well rested for an adventure to the gym. I even dragged Care along, and convinced her to make a work out plan with me :) This makes me tremendously excited, as it is so much easier to go with someone.

While at Fike, I experienced my first ever tornado warning! At first it wasn't so intense, but then about half a mile into my run, they made us move to the bottom level of the gym. I wasn't able to find an open treadmill, as everyone was now coming downstairs, so instead I hopped on an elliptical. I was able to watch part of the Celtics game until they told us it was safe to leave the gym "at our own risk." Care and I adventured out, to find pouring rain, lightning and thunder on our drive back to Calhoun. As our luck would have it, there were no close parking spaces, requiring us to run through the pouring rain back to the apartment. I can't remember the last time I was so soaking wet, especially from rain that intense.

I know that elliptical miles don't equal running miles, but it still felt good to get back into the gym, especially after a whole week off. Tomorrow brings a psychology exam, another trip to the gym, and our very first GammaFits meeting!

I have yet again survived another week with the mentality of "If I get through this week, I can get through anything." It was a busy week all around, with exams, lab reports, dance practice every night, competition and a function on Friday night, a game on Saturday, all in addition to the usual hectic schedule at Clemson. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way, this week was stressful enough to make the weekend's activities so much more enjoyable, but it also meant that there was no time, nor energy for running this week. Fall break is only a mere five days away, meaning that this week will also be consumed by lab reports and exams, but without dance practices eating up my evenings, I'll have time to fit in a few runs before I can run around Sarasota next weekend. Holler at a baller!

HELLO WORLD

I went running last night, although when I say running, I mean I watched Hitch and jogged along an embarrassingly slow pace, mostly because of the three hour dance practice that was to follow, and will consume every evening this week! I have never been more excited in my LIFE to be in Siesta in only 12 days (which I know will fly by, especially with another game next weekend), 36 days until I'm home in Maine for Thanksgiving, and only 54 days until I will frolic around to my heart's content in BOSTON. This all makes me very excited, especially because my dear old sister and I have registered for our first Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, a mere old 4-miler, which will thankfully be run BEFORE we consume heinous proportions of food.

that is all. be a great day!

it's only a mile to Bi-Lo?

Yesterday afternoon it was beautiful out, perfectly sunny and just enough breeze to keep you from getting too hot. It being Friday afternoon, I didn't have much else to do besides go for a run. I ran a different way than I usually do, mostly because of all the game traffic already clogging up downtown. I headed out towards Bi-Lo, the grocery store that we all adore. I was so surprised to find that it was only a mile away because it always feels like so much farther! It was good to finally run again outside, as I haven't done that in ages. It actually felt better on my knee to run outside, or maybe that was just a result of taking Thursday off. Today will also be a day off, considering it is game day here in TigerTown. I'm sure most of the town is already done their first morning mimosa, and I'm still hanging out in my pajamas! Kick off is at noon so if I'm going to get some quality time roaming around tailgates today, I better get moving. Go Tigers!

I suppose since it's 7:51, and I don't have to leave for my communications class until 9:15, I technically have time to update. I'm not supposed to have this time, because in nine minutes, my ass is expected in Bracket 100 for Bio 103. Now, you could imagine, a room titled "Bracket 100" would have way more seats than you could ever count, and a professor who doesn't really care who is sitting in those seats, awake or not. Either way, it would have probably been in my better judgement to make it to Bio this morning, seeing how yesterday I discovered that I failed Tuesday's test, and obviously need to start doing something differently to pass this class... (and when I say failed, I mean, FAILED, no curve could work it's magic enough to make me happy).

That being said, my body is doing strange things to me. 1) I never snooze my alarm, ever. It's happened the last two days in a row. 2) I have a constant headache, that gets extremely worse after eating. 3) My IT band is about ready to snap as a result of failing to find a foam roller 4) I popped a blister on my right pinkie toe, and now it's awkward to walk.

Complaint number three is the most relevant to my running blog, and yesterday's adventure. I went to the gym last night, mostly because I couldn't stay in the apartment any longer without killing someone. I would get to this point while running, that I would feel pain in my knee. I would say to myself, "Okay, I'll finish this quarter mile, then walk it out." STUPID IDEA NICOLE. I would run maybe a tenth of a mile(?) and then slow to a brisk walk. As soon as I started walking I would feel fine again, and decide I was good enough to run again. STUPID IDEA NICOLE. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't get motion sickness from all the speed changes. All in all, it was the most dysfunctional two and a half miles I've ever run/walked but, it's two and a half miles more than I'll run today!

Despite missing Bio, today brings a communications lecture, my speech on the Boston Marathon, a mandatory trip to Starbucks, a flashcard making blitz, teaching the kiddos at Upstate, and GREY'S ANATOMY. Here we go thursday :)

what a difference a day makes

Well, what do you know, I finished another run today! Obviously when I finish this post I will reward myself with a cookie and a shower, in that order. Running today, I was at much better overall mental standpoint, meaning it made for a more mentally challenging run because I was lacking in other frustrations as fuel. I suppose all in all, that's a good thing in terms of my mental health in day to day life, but just disappointing from a running aspect that at times I struggle to find the motivation. I can't say that I don't have any motivation, that is SUCH a lie, I have lots of motivators, and today's game was to run longer and faster than the girl who was running to my left. Today, it was a girl watching teen mom and walking at a 2.5 pace. I looked. I'm not judging, but I wasn't hard to me to keep my pace above her's, meaning that if I played by my own rules, a pace of 2.6 would have made me a winner.

Regardless, even Kayla Reeves would tell me that I smell right now, my roommate is out of the shower, so I suppose that means it my turn!

tears

It's clear from my lack of posts, that I haven't been running, because I generally like to write about all of them. It's pointless for me to reiterate day after day and say, "welp, I didn't go running today! There's always tomorrow!" I bet I would lose one of my already too few followers if that's all I talked about. It's certainly not very motivating, or interesting to read. That being said...

I had these thoughts today on my way over to Fike that I would step onto my treadmill, and immediately burst into tears. This isn't an uncommon occurrence for me, this whole crying while running thing. It happens more often than is probably healthy, but I actually feel that it's some what productive, especially when I just don't have time to curl up in a ball and cry, which is weirdly enough very similar to the feelings that I have been having. It's unfortunate that life moves on, with or without you, and I generally like to go along with it, I'm a needy girl and I hate being left behind, thus I don't curl up and cry too often.

Well what do you know, all it took was a few well chosen songs from my newly created "damage control" playlist to get the tears rolling. I would say by the time I hit mile one I was what you could consider crying, and full out bawling by mile two. It's Sunday night at Fike, honestly, I don't think any of the other three people surrounding me were too interested in my spontaneous crying, especially while Pirates of the Caribbean was playing on the TV in front of me. With the sweat that was also accumulating on my face, I'm sure it was difficult to differentiate between sweat and tears, but it's not like I was looking for sympathy. Per usual, my run was followed by a wonderful, but intensive two hour dance practice, that left me more sore and sweaty than I ever imagined possible, but all the hard work will pay off in a few weeks.

I have to say, I do feel better. Today's run was possibly more satisfying than laying on the floor and crying, if that's even possible. Following an eventful (and regretful?) weekend, this week brings too many exams, a speech on the Boston Marathon and hopefully, more runs.

loving life

I feel like every post I talk about this running routine, but honestly, I think I've got it down. On Sundays and Tuesdays, I have dance practice at 9 in Fike, so it just makes sense to head over early and bang out a run. At the very least I'm already warmed up when I arrive for dance. On Thursday's I get out of work at 7:30, can get to Fike by 7:45 and make it back to the hall, showered, by 9 for Greys if I do a quick run. As you probably figured, I'm loving life on this schedule. I'm not quite fitting in nearly as much mileage as I would like, but something is better than nothing. Coming up this Sunday there is a 5k on campus, and as it involves a t-shirt, I'm very seriously considering entering, mostly so I stay on this running schedule. As for other convenient races in the area between now and December, they are kind of non-existent. Come on South Carolina, let's get with it.