Monday, April 30, 2012

Cookies make everything better... Right?

Warning: I'm about to sound like a real brat.


If you're still reading, please be advised that the above warning serves as a disclaimer to any and all criticism.


On Friday, Charlie took me to get my first professional massage. I think it ruined my running. Not in a "I'll never run again, she ruined me" kind of way. More like a, "She dug her thumbs and elbows into my pressure points and almost made me scream" kind of way. 


I told you, I was about to sound like a brat. Don't get me wrong, I am eternally grateful for the free massage I was gifted. After Ragnar, I knew that my muscles could use some serious work. This, however, was a neuromuscular massage, where the massage is focused more on pressure points and the release of lactic acid and toxins from the muscles (read: not relaxing). I think I almost cried for half of the massage. The other half felt GREAT. "If you punch her now you can run out and wait for Charlie by the car." "If you cry too hard your snot is going to hit the ground and she is going to know." "Don't be such a wuss, Alyssa, suck it up it's just a massage." "If Charlie can do it, you can do it." Needless to say, my mental pick me ups barely got me through. I survived, however, and I did actually feel better afterwards.


On Saturday I woke up with every intention to run... but somehow I ended up walking myself to the restaurant on the corner and buying myself breakfast. Now sure how that happened. My shoes have a mind of their own.


Sunday I actually made it into my running shoes and headed off for a quick 6 miles. Again, the intention was to run the 6 miles at a decent pace. My legs felt like absolute LEAD. I felt like I hadn't run in WEEKS. "You just ran 21 miles over two days, little legs, pick it up!" "Honestly, what is the problem?" "Look there's a Starbucks, maybe coffee would help?" "At least keep moving." It was horrible. The worst run - well not the worst ever, but the worst run since my second leg of Ragnar, which was the worst run EVERRRR. Either way, I survived. I came home, stretched, iced, sticked the crap out of my legs, and took it easy.






Today I decided to try a little run after work to see if maybe it was just a rough day. The route below is only 3.5 miles and again, I STRUGGLED. I usually try to keep my music off until I'm in the zone and I actually need it. I literally didn't make it to the end of my block before I turned it up as loud as possible.






Now, I'm eating as many warm fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies that I possibly can. I hear those help legs feel more springy.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Wait.. what?


^^^ That just happened.


See here's what happened. Last night Charlie treated me to my very first massage - which just so happened to be a "neuromuscular massage" performed by a wonderful woman named Sarah
in Manhattan Beach. I may have mentioned that I run a lot (and bragged a little about Ragnar, standard procedure) so she destroyed my muscles because they were so tight.


Needless to say, I'm having trouble being active today and opted for Eggs Benedict (completely against my quasi-veganness) by myself along with Harry Potter Book 1. 


I was feeling a little bit guilty about not running today, so  I started browsing upcoming races . Sometimes if I talk/research/think about running I can fool myself into pretending that I ran. Not really, but I try to.


Then, next thing I know, I'm alerting my best friend to the fact that I will be crashing on her couch the entire first weekend of June and I'm charging my credit card for the full registration fee of the Half Marathon.


I promise I'll run tomorrow.


See you at the finish line!!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Back Story


The Back Story:

I never in a million years thought I would become this passionate about running. I played softball for many (read: MANY) years and considered running to be more of a punishment than anything else. I’ve never been slender, or fast, or even remotely motivated to stay in the gym for hours on end. Put me on a softball field and I’ll be out there all day. With a real job, a serious relationship, and a city like Los Angeles BEGGING me to eat all of the good food possible (as if it’s going to disappear someday, ha), I abandoned my softball ways and entered the Big Girl World. The problem with this is that I also abandoned my competitive spirit, and that left a giant void.

Enter: running. I blindly committed to Team in Training in Fall 2008 and started training with my boyfriend’s sister for the Nike Women’s Marathon. Unfortunately, I worked retail and had wonky hours so I missed some training runs but still tried to make up the distance quickly. I know you’re shaking your head at me – and I learned my lesson – a stress fracture in my right foot. Well, I didn’t make my fundraising quota either (isn’t this a fun story?) so I wasn’t going to be able to run Nike anyway. I last minute registered B and I for the Long Beach Marathon.

I knew my foot wasn’t 100% but I truly thought I could make it all the way through. We made it to Mile 15. Embarrassingly enough a race golf cart picked us up and carted us over to a side street where we were picked up – never to see the Finish Line. MORTIFYING. To this day I think about it every time I consider running another marathon. Maybe I was weak, maybe I failed, but then I reassure myself that I know my body and I probably would have injured myself very badly if I had kept going.

SO – here we are. The here and now. I run 10k and 5k’s fairly often and I go to the gym on a regular basis. Then, I heard about Ragnar. I scrounged up a team (not a very reliable one, mind you, like a million people bailed on me before race day) and we finished all 203.5 miles in 35 hours.

HELLO? THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR ALL ALONG. I don’t know where Ragnar has been all of my life, but I wish I had known about it. Now, I won’t miss another if I can seriously help it.

All of a sudden, I’m motivated again. I want to run a Half. Hell, eff it, I want to run a Full. So I need you to keep me accountable. To read my updates and tell me if you think I’m being stupid, or stubborn. I need you to help me finish this one. I’m going to register for Long Beach again, because there’s only one way to prove that I am truly capable and that’s to go back and FINISH.

So in October, you’ll see me cross that finish line, I promise you.

Now, let’s get some new shoes.

(p.s. did I mention I’m starting Law School in the Fall? Yeah, I’ll be training AND in the first few weeks of Law School. I never said I was sane.)