Ah, so inevitable. Every delightful snow run is eventually followed by an ice run... such is life. It was actually quite icy both yesterday and today--following Sunday's dump, temperatures dropped into the low teens overnight, and for all the diligent shoveling and plowing, there were still lots of patches of slick ground and piles of frozen snow. Yesterday I actually ran quite early, since I fell asleep Sunday around 10, and was out by 8:30 or so. I ran with the Yaktrax again since I figured it was too early for people to catch up on their salting, and because I also wanted to attempt a fartlek. That's all it ended up being though, an attempt, because there really just wasn't good footing. I did squeeze in some pickups, basically wherever I could find a stretch of dry ground, but it wasn't really a quality workout. It was a good run regardless, and I'm not too concerned about the "missed" workout. Then in the evening I lifted with some frisbee teammates, and followed that with a Shake 'n' Bake and latkes dinner. I hadn't had Shake 'n' Bake in a really really really long time--and man, I forgot how good it was. Of course, the latkes were really good too, albiet a bit smoke filled, on account of some oil temperature issues... heh.

Today is a busy day, packing and cleaning up the apartment (I'm the last one to leave for the holidays, so I'm trying to make sure the trash is out, dishwasher is clean, etc.), because in the afternoon we're driving down to Meri's house in New Jersey, since my flight to Israel leaves out of Newark (on Thursday). Of course, there's always time to run (and blog, apparently), so I braved the cold and ice once more this morning. I headed down to Science Museum and despite my better judgement, crossed the bridge over to the Esplanade, even though I knew it would be icy. Turns out I was right, and did a beautiful ass-plant just as I was crossing the bridge, the fault of an iced-over aluminum plank. It was a jolt to my body and my back is still a little shocked, but I don't think there will be any lasting damage. On the other hand, the Esplanade is absolutely beautiful when snowed and frozen over, so it was worth the tumble. On the way back I swung by campus to pick up a few things that were in my lab and locker that I needed for the trip, and ended up running the last 3/4 of a mile with an iPod cable and two travel shampoos in my pockets, and a towel tucked under my arm (Shhh! Don't tell! I "borrowed" a Z-center towel). Heh. Whatever, saves me a trip to campus later.

Anyhoo, now back to the ready-getting! Cross your fingers that I'll find half an hour to run in Israel!

12/22/08: 45:15 (fartlek), legs, core, some of arms
12/23/08: 43:14

Yayyy I love running in the snow! I'm not sure why, I mean, I very much feel like a born-and-raised Southern California girl, but snow is so great! Of course, now that I finally live in my own apartment instead of a dorm, and will have to actually do things like shovel the snow (I'm pretty sure my wrists are already sore from shoveling Friday night), maybe I'll change my mind, but for now, I'm still positive about it. So this morning, I did what every sensible runner would do (sensible runner possibly being an oxymoron), and put on my tights, strapped on my Yaktrax, and headed out into the still-falling snow for a short but pleasant run. I actually think half the reason running in the snow is so fun is the commentary. Today we got (we being Erika and I; it's really nice to live in a house of runners) some good ones. There was one woman who said "You're making me feel bad," a pair of Asian women completely bundled up and with umbrellas that simply said "Wooowww...." and one guy that said, "You guys are inveterate!" I liked the last one, because I like words, and I like the fact that the English language has so many specific words. "Inveterate," incidentally, means "settled in by habit," which I'd say is pretty accurate. And now I'm home, showered, dry, and warm, eating chocolate and being pretty much a bum while the snow continues to fall outside. Cool!

12/16/08: legs? I think
12/17/08: run, arms/abs
12/18/08: Evening run with aB, Summer, Erika...a little quick (for me) but nice to have company (47)
12/19/08: Nothing, the Z-center closed early because of the storm :(
12/20/08: Snowboarding!
12/21/08: 32:03

Welp, I decided to celebrate the end of my semester with a light track workout--it's odd how beating yourself up can feel kind of good. I guess it just feels kind of productive, you know? Of course, since I made up my own workout and ran it alone, it wasn't actually that difficult, but I felt like I earned my lunch. :P

I decided on 4x400, 4x300, with 100 rest, and 400 between the 4s and the 3s. I figured 87-88 for the 400s and 63-64 for the 300s would be about the pace I'm shooting for for the mile at the alumni meet (yup, striving for excellency), so I went with that. It was super-windy out today, on the backstretch as usual. But I managed to make almost all the times, although working against the wind kind of wore me out for the rest of the day. So... well, just one more week of research and then I'm on vacation!

2.5 mi wu/cd
88, 88, 87, 90; 64, 62, 62 62

I really should be doing one of two things right now (see title), but instead, for whatever reason, I'm writing this entry. After all, I have a final in 8.5 hours, which obviously means I'm already not going to get a good night's sleep but-- whatever, we have a French press at home.

So in the spirit of procrastinating/not studying, I've actually been working out a decent amount recently. I've been doing the frisbee lifts fairly regularly, alternating days of upper and lower body for a total of about 4 lifts a week, plus the running, 3-5 days depending on schedule/motivation. Last week I think I mentioned running a fartlek, which I did again this week, kind of a combo off-season frisbee workout + alumni meet prep. I also had a decent run this morning to Bunker Hill with Jacqui before meeting up for a legs session at the Z-center. I was a little out of breath, but I'm not actually sure why, maybe I just wasn't awake yet or something. Tomorrow, as a post-finals tradition, I plan to head out for a run immediately after the final, maybe even do another fartlek or interval run. My plan for this week is to get in two more interval-like workouts, maybe even on the track, since I'll be considerably freer after this final. I plan on doing the mile at the alumni meet, so I have to prep at least a little bit, and since I'm going to be on a rigorously planned trip to Israel for 10 days of winter break, with basically 0 time to work out, I figure I'll "load up" before I go (totally not how it works, I'm well aware). Right. So two workouts this week, then maybe one more workout next week, and one when I come back. Then I'm going to PR in the mile and have an awesome frisbee season. Hm.... maybe. Well, ok, gonna keep it short and sweet. Really. Gotta go to bed.

12/08/08: arms
12/09/08: legs
12/10/08: 30:14
12/12/08: 42:05, 5.5 miles fartlek (Weeks footbridge loop), 8x1-2 min pickups. Felt like I was getting good turnover, but of course there's no measure of actual pace on a fartlek. But I give the workout a thumbs up.
12/13/08: arms
12/14/08: 40:48, legs

Today was interesting, workout-wise, because despite the fact that I'm not training for anything, running-wise, I allowed myself to be coerced into running twice. I mean, I didn't protest much, it sounded like a reasonable idea, and as of now, 10:30 p.m., I'm feeling no ill effects. I went for the first run around 12:30, and in fact, it was only about 15 minutes before I left for that one that I agreed to run the second one in the evening with aB, who was looking for some company on a short run, but wouldn't have time until after dark.

I headed out from the apartment over to Science Museum and just did the loop back over the Mass Ave bridge. Knowing that I was going to run later in the day, I didn't feel any motivation to extend the loop, sometimes I feel like I "should" run at least to BU, especially since I didn't run yesterday, but I was happy to run shorter since last night was a bit of a late night (plus I have a bit of a cold and probably should be taking better care of myself). Plus, my initial motivation for running was simply to go outside and run IN THE SNOW!! Yes, we had our first snow of the season today. So that was that and I came back and took a super-quick shower before stuffing whatever food I had in the house into my bag and biking immediately over to campus, where I was meeting a friend to head over to Brookline for an orientation for our Birthright trip (I'm going to Israel over winter break!).

After that I stayed on campus for most of the evening doing some work and having some meetings, and I came home pretty exhausted and thinking that I was going to go to sleep immediately following the run, but it was actually really refreshing (albiet cold) and now that I've had dinner and showered I'm in a pretty good place. I mean, being/getting in shape is a really great feeling, but all semester long I've been struggling with whether or not I'm justified in spending so much time working out when I don't really have any good excuse. But for now, I just take it day by day, and if I have time to work out I do, and if I don't, I don't, and it usually ends up that I make time for it. So it's working well. I'm also starting to get pretty strong legs and rotator cuffs...

12/7/08, AM: 38:27
12/7/08, PM: 30 min

Oooh look at all the working out I did! Too bad the discount Timex watch I bought from some vendor on Amazon.com erased all the saved runs I had before I got a chance to write them down (also, the sound/beeper doesn't work, grrr). It's ok, though, I have an exceptional memory, haha. Basically, though, I've been managing to squeeze in workouts despite a bit of traveling and the end of semester crunch, rotating through lifting and running. On Thanksgiving day, I ran a turkey trot--I actually flew home for 2.5 days at the behest of some of my friends currently living in California who wanted to come to my house, and we ran a 5k downtown. That was also at the behest of a friend, who's training for a marathon and needed to run a race. It was pretty fun, I bumped into a bunch of girls on my old high school team (they're still on the team; I know a few from being a camp counselor), who went up to the state meet two days later and took second place! Woo success all around from my alma maters... Anyway, I ran something like a 22:50 by my watch (23:10 gun time, no chip timing), running with Dre, a former teammate of mine, which I was happy with. Haha, actually, I was really happy, because about 2 miles into the race (we missed the mile mark), I was feeling pretty crappy and thinking "man, why does an easy run feel so hard?" And then they called out something under 14:50, which was good because I thought we were running something like 8 minute pace. So that was fun. Then the next day we all went to TP state beach to run. We headed north from the parking lot, along the cliffs up to Via de La Valle, just around sunset, which was super-nice.

After that, it was back to Beantown, where exams, presentations, and the student life took over. But I'm squeezing in workouts, so it can't be that bad (or else I'm just not doing things that I should be doing, hehe). The only real highlight, workout-wise, was the fact that I did a mini-fartlek on Tuesday--kind of a dual prepping for alumni meet/prepping for frisbee, which went well. It was just something like 7-8x1-2 minutes, which I did along the Science Museum loop. But yeah. Now, though, I think I'm getting sick, and I'm losing focus on writing this entry, so I'm just gonna stop.

11/24/08: 35:11
11/25/08: Lifting, legs
11/26/08: Lifting, arms/abs
11/27/08: SD Run For the Hungry 5k
11/28/08: 7 miles
11/30/08: Lifting, legs, arms, abs
12/1/08: 6.5 miles
12/2/08: 4 mi, fartlek, lifting: arms/abs
12/3/08: lifting, legs
12/5/08: 37:17

Whoa dang, it's cold all of a sudden. Monday was ok, I made it to practice and ran with some of the younger girls through downtown Boston, but it came on strong and quick this week. I'm really glad that I'm going home for Thanksgiving in 5 days because I have almost none of my winter running clothes with me. Which sucked when I woke up early Wednesday morning to run before class, and stepped outside in a long sleeve-T and shorts only to find that it had gotten cold enough the night before to freeze the puddles on the ground. But I made it through, returned with red legs (which is usually hard to do, I'm not light-skinned), thawed, had breakfast, and enjoyed a nice shower. Thursday and Friday I didn't make it outside; Thursday we went through the winter lifting program for frisbee, and Friday I just plain couldn't squeeze in a workout. I made it out today though, properly dressed but still quite cold (I'm currently sitting through the my-joints-are-aching-as-they-slowly-return-to-normal-body-temperature phase), after waiting through the morning to watch the live webcast of D3 nationals. I left just after the official results came out (10th!), and ran a loop down over Science Museum, back over the Mass Ave bridge, up to Prospect and then home. It was pretty windy out, but other than that, nothing really to report.

Congrats again to the MIT ladies!

11/17/08: 45:23
11/18/08: ultimate (scrimmage)
11/19/08: 31:49
11/20/08: not much, a bit of lifting
11/21/08:off
11/22/08: 44:43

Ladies and Gentleman, I introduce you to the third place team in the New England region for NCAA Division III cross country!!!! Wooooohoooo!!! Wowow! Oh my goodness! GAAHHH. Soo exciting! Now, of course, a nationals trip is not guaranteed but given the strength of the region and the fact that they've been ranked all year long... this is just plain super. So I'm going to blog about other people's running today.

So, yesterday, I went to Williamstown to watch the meet, which was at Williams' Mt. Greylock High School course. And by I went, I mean that I was one of two drivers of 12-passenger vans that went, such that there were 17 of us in total. Yes, so, the men raced first. I don't think any of them will try to argue if I say that they fell apart a bit; I'm not writing that with any mean-spirited intent, I'm just writing down what happened because I'm about to gush about the women's team and inevitably someone will wonder about the men.

At noon, the women raced. We had our spectating optimization plan worked out such that we'd see the start/first half mile/first 3/4 mile by standing in one spot, dash across to a spot 2:00 later, down to a little past the mile, back up to the 1.5 mile mark, back to the 3, then over to the finish. So I think I can give pretty thorough judgment on how it unfolded.

They got out well at the start--the course narrows quickly and in past years we've had trouble learning how to get out, but yesterday it was very nicely done. By the time we made the first dash to a spot just before the mile, one of the guys' team spectators asked me how I thought they were doing. My response was, "They've put themselves in a great position to do something, but they haven't done anything yet." Which, in all likelihood, was what Coach Taylor told them to do, and was really how it should be in the first mile of a 6k. When they rolled by at the 1.5 mile they were still looking strong-- Jacqui was leading the team as usual, but the MIT chase pack was much closer. It was hard to tell if Jacqui was fading or if they were running well, so I flipped out a little and told Jacqui to go kick some ass (that might have been word for word). Jen, a reliable 2nd-half runner, was already moving up through our own pack after starting in 6th or 7th for the team, and I knew we could count on her not only to take places but to drag her teammates along with her. Maria was running extraordinarily well considering that two weeks ago was her first race of the season, Anna was doing her job well and a freshman, Katherine who busted out at NEWMACs and was put into the race at 10:30 that morning after training as an alternate for two weeks was proving her spot by sticking with the pack and maintaining a spot in the front third of the race. Another freshman, Janice, was running in her same strong form as all season long and aB, the 800-turned-cross-runner was moving up in a way that would have terrified her opponents if they would have been able to see her face and body posture. Things boded really well, as long as the movements over that last mile continued.

By the crest of the big hill, which is about the 3 mile mark, things were looking skeptically great. By skeptically great, I mean that moment when you're watching a race and you think to yourself, "Holy crap that looks awesome," but then you check yourself and tell yourself not to get too excited, because anything can happen and because you never really know the score until they add it up. But I was pumped. Everything that looked awesome at the 1.5 mile continued to look awesome, Jen was moving up even more, and aB was hunting down Jacqui (and the dozens of opposing runners in between them). We watched all 7 runners blow by in a minute and a half, sprinted down the hill for a brief second look, then dashed over to the finish. (In the process of that dash, incidentally, I decked a Smith mom--I said sorry but was too concerned about getting to the finish to ask if she was ok... I feel really bad about that.) At the finish it was Jacqui, aB, Maria, Jen, Anna, Katherine and Janice-- and damn they looked good. I was so amped that I could barely keep myself distracted while we waited for results, and when they finally came out and we were in third.... wow I freaked. More so than anyone on the team, which I felt a little foolish about, but when I look back on it, they really did, as athletes, have to maintain a bit of a composure, even if it was a subconscious decision, because they had to represent the MIT team and also had another race to worry about...

So it was a great day, and I couldn't think of team in the history of MIT cross country that deserves it more. We've had talent and potential in the past. We've had hard workers, team players, above-and-beyonders.... but I don't know how exactly to describe why this team is definitely the one that this should happen to, for the first time in program history. Just watching them all season (and granted, this is the first team that I've truly had the opportunity to watch all season), you can tell that as a group, as a one single team, they bust their ass and make choices that are better for the team than for themselves and they've really earned this. I didn't expect to be this excited about this. I mean, of course I would be, but I really really am just super super super happy for them. They deserve this. This is great.

The recap.

11/10/08: 45 minutes at FP with some of the regionals runners
11/11/08: ultimate
11/12/08: lifting
11/13/08: ultimate
11/14/08: 37:49
11/15/08: 32ish +spectating

I have two fears about having this nice of weather in November... 1) snowboarding season will never come 2) it's going to be snowing in April. Bah! Scary thoughts, both of them. But for now, I suppose I have no options but to enjoy the sunshine and t-shirt temperatures. Unfortunately, yesterday I got sick (I think on account of a vaccine shot that I got on Friday), and had to miss a frisbee tournament at Yale, which I was (am) pretty bummed about. I definitely have a lot to learn and get used to in the game (I really have one of the slowest reaction times of anyone I know), and the only way I'm going to improve is by doing it. And with winter coming, I think that was the last tournament for a while, so that kind of sucked. But there's still practice indoors all winter. And I'm feeling mostly better today, so that's good.

On a somewhat related note, I've been running a little less and trying to lift a little more/heavier. Although I can't seem to find someone to lift with me on a regular basis, and you can't improve much lifting without a spotter, so I'm gonna have to figure something out. One thing I can do alone, though, is Calf Drop-Sets-of-Death. That's not the official name, I'm pretty sure, but basically it's something that Coach Brooks taught me a couple summers ago, and it's something you do on the seated calf raise machine. You start with some barely manageable weight, do 10 reps, take off 10 lbs, do 10 more reps, take of 10 lbs, do 10 reps, etc... through 10x10 reps. Starting off though, I'm just taking off 5 lbs at a time, mostly because I can't lift 100 lbs yet on the seated one. It's pretty rough, but I have this idea in my head (that could be completely wrong) that having awesome calves will improve my sprinting/agility, so, I'm gonna try to work it in two times a week at least.

Right, so... well I don't know where I was going with that. Here's the summary:
11/3/08: 29:56, lifting
11/4/08: frisbee
11/5/08: lifting
11/6/08: frisbee
11/7/08: 32:39
11/9/08: 36:12, lifting

This entry has been about 4 days in the making, and since I keep exercising while trying to finish it, it doesn't really get any easier. But I'm waiting for a simulation to finish running (NERD), so I've got some time to wrap it up.

There really isn't too much consistency in my life right now, as far as knowing what my schedule will be and/or when I'll be able to squeeze in a workout, on any given day. I'm doing the best I can, but I got in over my head in the classes I signed up for, mostly thanks to one extremely interesting but absolutely horribly time-budgeted biological engineering class that I'm taking, which I probably put in 20-25 hours a week on alone... but I'm not complaining. Just commenting, or possibly making an excuse for why I've been such a slacker workout wise...

Yeah.. so... about them workouts. Well, I have been able to return to running, hooray! (Thanks to those expressing concern, I really am fine--not perfect, but fine, ambulatory, fairly purple/stiff around the knee, but no broken bones or even skin, and I should get the bike back next week.) Last Saturday I made a solo attempt that was slow and accompanied by a dull ache, but I managed probably 4.5 miles. Later that day, I could feel my knee aching a bit in a tired/sore way, but nothing major. Sunday, I ran with Dre, a track alum in town for the weekend, and again we took it easy and went about the same distance. Monday... shoot I can't even remember Monday, which means it was probably a lifting day. Tuesday I drove the kiddos to Franklin Park (wait, I shouldn't say "kiddos," I should say WINNERS), ran 25 minutes while they warmed up, then called it quits, exhausted, up working late the night before. Wednesday I snuck in a quick run around 7, another measly 25 minutes, Thursday I missed my workout (although I did go to an IM air pistol match, where I shot horribly, thanks to the caffeine-induced tremors in my arm), and by Friday I was just about ready to skip again but I forced myself out the door, knowing that I'd feel better (if not exhausted) afterwards. And I did--I ran down the Comm Ave mall to the Commons and back along Beacon, a change from my now-standard Longfellow or Science Museum loops (yeah, the short ones).

Saturday I squeezed in a nice 5-miler in the perfect fall weather between putting up "Go MIT" signs and the gun of the men's NEWMAC championship race. I went alone, since everyone had a job to do or a race to run, but it was a nice run anyway. Then I got to watch both the men's and women's teams absolutely DOMINATE.... we had like 8 or 9 of the top 14 in both cases, and the women had their entire scoring five before any other team's second runner. Boo yahh!

Sunday, I finally did a little competing of my own, although it wasn't in running. I played in my first frisbee tournament, which went really well. We lost 4 of 5 games, but since the official frisbee season was in the spring, the objective was really more to use the games as a teaching/learning tool. And I definitely did learn a lot, which was really good. I also sprinted a lot, which was.... well painful, after the fact. I have to say that I really haven't participated in anything that requires any sort of lateral movement in oh, 9 years... on top of that I typically had one of the slowest 400 times of the CROSS COUNTRY team, i.e. a group of slow-twitch muscle lovers, so sprinting isn't really my thing. But I've been running less and lifting a little more (haha not quite on purpose), so hopefully I'll adapt a little bit.

10/25/08: 38:20
10/26/08: 4.5 miles
10/28/08: 25:35
10/29/08: 25:29
10/31/08: 36:01
11/1/08: 41:24