Graduation Photos

Who doesn't love Fridays? And photos?? Well here they are...some of the photos from my recent graduation!!

B and I

B-rabbit, Scottie, Me, Kim, Anna

Just after walking across the stage...
Notice ridiculous large smile

I ran in the Corporate Challange yesterday and it POURED rain pretty much the whole time. I was soaking wet but it was a fun experience. The funny thing...I got home and checked my running log and found that I ran the same course last year in the same time as this year! 3.5 miles in 27:21! Happy Friday! I am off to the track for my speed workout! Have a good weekend!

TIART: Injuries

I spent most of my high school and college athletic career without injuries. Of course I suffered from minor ankle sprains in high school soccer and then a jammed thumb in college basketball. It wasn't until college track that I was hit with a more serious injury...a hip flexor strain.

When I had this injury I set out to help prevent this painful strain from happening to anyone else. If you are interested in any exercises, just go to the search bar on the left hand column and type in "hip flexor" and the post should come up.

Well it has been a few months since I had this injury and sometimes I still feel a little pain. I am not sure if it didn't heal all the way or what but sometimes its just likes to remind me that it is there. There really isn't much else to say about this that I haven't already said....but the most important thing is to keep those hips flexible and avoid this injury!!

Its raining outside today...and thunderstorms are scheduled for tonight. I just hope the Corporate Challenge doesn't get canceled because I have a 4 mile easy run to complete! Tomorrow I hope to find a track I can run on and then hit up some garage sales for apartment furniture! Woohoo! Happy Thursday everyone!

TIART is from Runners' Lounge...they provide the topic, the runners' write about it!

Bump on a Log

Ok so I graduated....and it was AMAZING!! Seriously one of the best times of my life. In all the pictures I have this ridiculous smile on my face! It is the biggest smile EVER!!

Friday was convocation where all the graduates gathered and the president spoke to us and stuff like that. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and I actually enjoyed it.

Saturday afternoon was the official commencement/graduation ceremony and my whole family was there as well as B-Rabbits fam. B and I have very similar last names so we actually got to sit next to each other at the ceremony (they make you sit alphabetical) and I graduated first and then him. The feeling of walking across the stage was so exhilarating!

Sunday I had to pack up the remaining things in my school apartment and head home to my parents house. I have my new apartment...but it doesn't have a bed yet or any other furniture for my room. I said good-bye to my roommate Scottie and it was one of the hardest moments. I have lived with him for 3 years now and he is one of my best friends that it is hard to imagine life without him. He is now in Boston which isn't that far so hopefully I will be able to go and visit him!

Now it has been over 4 days since graduation and I have been a total bump on a log (except for running). It feels great just to sit around and relax finally. I don't start my job until June 29th and on June 6th I am headed to Florida with the family!! Thanks for reading! I have been trying to stay on top of reading blogs! Hope everyone is having a great week!
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Running Recap:

Last Wednesday - 6x400m repeats this morning. Finally my legs felt rested and not heavy. Took me a whole 5 days to recovery from the track meet. It was beautiful outside, very sunny and I was alone on the track. Perfect! (times = 84, 85, 85, 87, 85, 84 seconds)

Thursday - ummm, I may have been drinking Wednesday night so no running! hehe

Friday - 3 miles....blahh...I need to drink more water!

Saturday and Sunday = no running

Monday - 3 miles...back at home where there are tons of hills! ewww

Tuesday - 35 minute tempo run. I think I am getting the hang of this. Last week I did about 1.3 miles of tempo running and this time I did 2.45 miles of tempo running. I am slowly building up my miles

Wednesday aka Today - Went to the local high school track and apparently you cant use it even if you are a resident. WTF!! So today is a rest day. Tomorrow is the Corporate Challange (held at my alma mater..heeheh...thats weird to say) and I will be running it as a rebel! Track workout rescheduled for Friday morning!

Apologies

I am so sorry that I didn't post Wednesday or yesterday. Please Forgive me?? Things have been super hectic...who knew that graduating and moving out of an apartment could be so time consuming. Anyway, I don't have a lot of time because I am off to get a haircut, pedicure and a graduation outfit (Why did I leave this to the last minute...I don't know!). Here are some lovely track pictures for Photo Friday! Happy Weekend! Graduation is tomorrow!!

Matt and I - The multi athletes

Long Jump

State meet - 4x800m relay

Seniors!

Real Running!

15k training has started!!

Last night I ran 3 miles around campus at a moderate pace and felt pretty good. This morning I woke up and ran a tempo run. This would be my first tempo run and I wasn't exactly sure how it was supposed to go. I ran about a mile at a slower pace, then picked it up for 1.4 miles and then cooled down for the last mile.

The training plan explained the tempo run as a 10-15 warm up, then 10-20 minutes gradual increase to the tempo you will run the 15k, and then 5-10 minutes cool down. I feel that my training plan may be a bit packed with workouts but I would rather have it filled like this and be able to take things out than have too many rest days. I was thinking of taking a rest day on Sunday or Monday depending on how this first week goes.

Thanks for all the comments on the training plan, it really means a lot to me and the insight has been very helpful!! I am off now to turn in my track uniform : (

Tomorrow I will be back with Literary Wednesday and also my mom's story! Happy Tuesday!

15k Training Plan

If you happen to google "15k Training Plans" you will see that there are very few. I knew of Hal Higdon's Training guides but I had only looked at the novice one which was a little too easy for me. Thanks to Glenn for sharing with me the link to the advanced training plan! You can check out the original plan here.

Now the kicker - the original training plan is for 10 weeks and I need a training plan for 8 weeks. So I had to do some rearranging on my own. Here is what I came up with (i took out weeks 8 and 9, sorry it is so small. Click on it and it should show the larger version)...

Today is a 3 mile run and some weight lifting. I am excited to start this plan. I don't want to gain mileage too quickly as I have been at around 10 miles a week for track since November so this should be interesting! I am going to be flexible and just see how this works out. This is the 5th year I have run this race and this year is the first year I will actually have a training plan.

Stay tuned this week...I will be posting about my moms college athletic experience with archery and also I will be posting some fun pictures from the track meet! Happy Monday!!

Final College Track Meet

I am back from Massachusetts (got back late Friday night!) and I had a blast. It was probably the most enjoyable track meet this year because I wasn't stressed about needing to preform at my best (although I wanted to do well).

I ended up coming in 4th place in my region with 3238 points (I was originally seeded 5th). I didn't get many PRs but I had fun the whole time and took lots of pictures. Not only did I have a good meet but the rest of the team did too! The mens team ended up coming in second in the region and one guy qualified for nationals in the decathlon and another in the 400m hurdles! It is sad to think that track is over but there are so many good memories to look back on.

It surprisingly has not hit me yet that my college athletic career is over...prolly wont truly set in for another couple of months. The good news is that my 15k training can now begin. The Boilermaker 15k race is exactly 8 weeks away. The only thing I need now is an actual plan to follow! Anyone have any ideas??!!

I started moving all my stuff into my apartment. I can't believe that I have my own apartment! I feel so grown up! I also feel like I am going to go wild at Target later this week!! I also started going through a lot of my books on my bookshelf and I feel like I have some that I don't need anymore. I know there are some websites where you can sell or exchange books. Has anyone used these websites or know anything about them???

Thanks to everyone for all the nice comments! It really means a lot to me! I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Five Year Old Photos

It has been a while since I did Photo Friday and although I am still currently in Massachusetts at my track meet I decided to put up some pictures from 5 years ago.

Five years ago at this time I went to my Senior Ball in May and Graduated in June! (Then in July I got my appendix out! Talk about three months of fun events!!)

Senior Ball

Graduation!! (all the ones of me with my cap on aren't on my computer)

Thoughts and LW

Well things have been hectic and stressful and such but my school work is pretty much all done!! I still have to pack all my track stuff and we leave at 6pm tonight!!

I woke up with a horrible headache this morning and now I sit at my computer with my water bottle on one side and a chocolate raspberry coffee (yum!) on the other.

Yesterday was my last track practice. And I am not sad about it at all. It has been a great experience and this is the best possible way for me to end my college athletic career! I am very excited for this "last" track meet!! The parents are traveling to see my compete as well which is an added boost!

Yesterday I got the keys to my new apartment. While driving there I saw that there were sidewalks on pretty much every street which will be great for running!! (I also saw a drive threw for a dunkin donuts! This will obviously feed my coffee addiction!)

Ok on to Literary Wednesday! I have a word document that has a list of all the books I have read since high school (We actually had to start this document my senior year for a portfolio project). I opened that file up and picked out a book that I really enjoyed.

One of my very good friends and also running buddy Winkly recommended this book to me a while ago. It is a young adult book but the story is really touching. I found this description online:

"It's a captivating, heartbreaking and illuminating tale of what happens after we die. Liz Hall, the narrator, is a well-spoken, emotionally intense 15-year-old. She was primed for adolescence: boyfriends, driving, her first bra. And then she was killed in an accident, after which she ends up in heaven looking down as those who loved her go on with their lives. After the accident, Liz ends up in a heaven called Elsewhere, an extraordinarily organized place where the dead go to await rebirth. In Elsewhere, the dead are not dead in the traditional sense. They have lives. They work. They eat and play and have relationships. They explore life as we do. They succeed and they stumble as we do. Most important, they age -- but backward, from the age they were at the moment of their arrival to infancy, at which time they're transported back to earth for a new life."

I definitely recommend checking this book out! It was a quick read and I really enjoyed it!

Happy Wednesday (and Thursday and Friday!) Tomorrow is Day 1 of Heptathlon and then day 2 is Friday! I am not as nervous this time, I am just hoping to beat all my previous times and distances!

Catch Up

I have been slacking on the blog posting but life is getting stressful over here. This is the last week of classes for college (ekkkk!) with next week being finals week and Graduation on May 23rd! I am desperately trying to finish my senior project by Wednesday afternoon when I will be leaving for Massachusetts and the regional track meet which is on Thursday and Friday!

Here's a quick recap of my workouts (This is more for my sake, so you can skip this if you want!)

Wednesday 5/6
No running. Came home and took a nap!

Thursday 5/7
My team had a track meet, I opted to stay home and rest. I ended up doing 4x400m repeats. (times = 92, 87, 90, 85 seconds)

Friday 5/8
I went to practice and spun for 15 minutes with my teammate Jill. I wanted to do some running so after I left her I came home and decided to run the 3 mile loop around campus. I ran it in about 23 minutes, stopping around the 2.5 mile mark to run 4 hills. Let me tell you 3 miles is hard right now since I seem to be only in shape to run 1/2 milers!

Saturday 5/9
Woke up and hit the track. I ran 3 sets of these => 200m, rest 3 minutes, 100m rest 4 minutes. This workout was ok, my left hamstring has been bothering me....weird.

That's about it for workouts. I took Sunday off and went home to see my mom! A lot of you asked about my mom's story with archery and I asked her about it so I will post it later on (maybe not till after I get back from the track meet).

I cannot believe that college is almost over and I am going to graduate! I signed my lease for my new apartment where I will be moving in right after I graduate. I am moving in with a girl who graduated from my college last year and works at the same company where I will be working. On top of all that we have almost the same name!! Ill post more about this later on too!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Happy Monday!

TIART: Running Moms

Every time Thursday rolls around I am surprised and happy that the week is almost over. In case I was wondering what I would write about today, Runners Lounge always has a nice (TIART) topic for me ponder. Since Mother's Day is Sunday it seems very fitting that we talk about running moms!

Of course I am not a mom yet, but I do have a wonderful mother of my own! With each day that goes by I realize that I am more and more like my mother (and I am starting to look more like her too!)

My mom grew up in the time before Title 9 but she still participated in sports. In college, she went to the National Championships for Archery (this reminds me I should ask her to tell me the story about that when I go home this weekend!!) and also competed in Badminton. She eventually graduated and became a Physical Education teacher where she could do lots of sports everyday!

I don't think she started running until after college and after she was married to my dad. They both started running to get back into shape and lose weight. From what my mom tells me, she never liked to run and she hated hills! Eventually she was forced to give up running in order to have me. Talk about a true sacrifice! Nowadays she walks and hikes the areas around her house and sometimes my dad will join her.

Both of my parents were very athletic (my dad played football in college) and so I have had great examples throughout my life. I have been blessed with a wonderful mother who gave up running in order to bring me into the world and give me a chance to learn to love running!



Later this afternoon I hope to head out and get a nice workout in. I am hoping that some 400m repeats will help my legs to feel better! Happy Thursday to everyone and to all the fabulous mothers out there - Happy Mother's Day!!

Seeking Inspiration

I am going to jump on TFH's bandwagon and participate in Literary Wednesday! Since I got back from my "week of track meets" and finally settled into my regular routine I have been seeking inspiration to inspire me to compete in my final track meet (next week).

My mom suggested this book - Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell and I have only just started it but it is really interesting. Some of you may have heard about Luttrell and his story is one of determination and heroism.

Speaking of determination - once I picked up this book I started on a Navy SEAL kick where I looked up all the information about them. I was able to find videos about the first three weeks of training they go through to become a SEAL. It was very similar to the movie G.I. Jane but I have always been fascinated with the amount of perseverance and determination it takes to complete the training. Seeing those men push through pain and continue on really helped to motivate me to continue working to be the best in my track events.

Speaking of motivation - I usually don't watch the Biggest Loser but last night I just happened to tune in and I was sure glad that I did. I don't mean to spoil it for anyone but watching those four contestants run/walk a marathon was very inspiring and brought me to tears. It is amazing how much they have accomplished on that show!

As for workouts this week, I still have my cold and I still feel really run down from last week. Practices have been fairly light but I still have been feeling sluggish and slow. I guess it is taking me a lot longer to get back to normal than I thought.

It is a beautiful day out today! Happy Wednesday!

Outdoor Track State Meet

I am going to make this short and sweet.

Friday morning I left with my team for the Track State meet. It was a two day meet with half the events on Friday and the other half on Saturday. Friday I had Long Jump and the 4x800m Relay and Saturday I had shot put and long jump.

Due to my cold, I ended up only competing on Friday. Long Jump was horrendous and the 4x800m relay was not much better. I ran a 2:43 split and felt like I was going to die after the first 300m. My coach said I looked like I had no leg lift and I agreed as my hip hurt for most of the race.

I think with the cold and having competed Sunday and Monday, I was just burnt out. Thank goodness I had three other great teammates on my relay team who ran great and helped us get a third place finish!

Saturday my coach pulled me from my events because I wasn't feeling good. I ended up taking pictures of all the girls running and just supporting and cheering on the team. With my rinky dink canon camera was able to capture a few good pictures but nothing compared to the ones that B-Rabbit takes with his camera!

Anyway today it is back to the grind with practice. I am just hoping to get over this silly cold as soon as possible!! Hope everyone had a great weekend!