Learning to love running again

As stated in past blog posts, I have been having troubles with running, lately. I keep injuring myself, and it is hard to pick yourself back up after that.

I went for an 18.75km run, in training for my half marathon on May 6th, but I didn't wear my running watch (so I didn't know my pace). I did record my run on a running app on my phone, but I don't look at my phone while I run. So I just ran. I did run fairly slower than usual, but I ran 18.75 km, so I am happy. It was a good run.

I have also been getting used to a new pair of running shoes. They are the best "Feeling" running shoes yet, but I find them hard to run in still. Still getting used to them. Here is what they look like:

I think once my half-marathon is over, I will be more relaxed about running. It psyches me out. Once it is over, I think that I will be back to normal, just running for fun.

But 11 days until my run! It is scary! I originally signed up for it because I wanted to improve on my time from my half marathon in September, but I am not sure if that is going to happen now, since I don't have much time left to train, and I just got off of running rest. I will still try. But it may not happen. If it doesn't happen--- don't get me wrong, I will be really sad, but I won't quit. I can always try again. I probably won't try again any month soon, but eventually.

I originally wanted to sign up for the FULL marathon in may! But I had to be 18. I am so glad I didn't sign up for it. If I did, I probably would've finished, but with a horrifying time. So glad I'm only running the half, now!

I'm happy.

Quitting Running

Something occurred in my mind during my 30k.

I was in an extremely pessimistic state of mind during the run and thought "Should I quit running?". Briefly I decided that I would.

Quickly after I decided there is no way I would quit running.

Why would I quit running? Well although I have the body shape and type to run, I honestly do have some physical impairment with my running. I think it is either my bone structure or my tendon/ligament strength.

I do not overtrain. But I have had constant injuries. I have seen some doctors and they say nothing is wrong, or they refer me onto another doctor, but in the end I am just told to "stop running for 2-3 or 4-6 weeks". Then after I am healed, I go for a run a few more times, and then I am injured again.

I am tired of this constant fight with my body. I have gone through so many pairs of shoes, because I think the shoes could easily be the problem. But I just can't find a solution!

I have a half marathon on May 6th in Toronto. I haven't ran since my 30k on March 24th... other than no more than 2k, because then my leg/hip and/or knee starts hurting. I can't run!

I literally cannot run.

So whenever I attempt to run and I literally can't, it gets me down and makes me think I should quit.

Soon after that I think "Why would I ever quit? I love it!".

But the truth is that I think I am harming my body more and more. I don't want to quit.

Since I am on running rest, healing up before my half-marathon, I ask myself "Should I run the half marathon?". I should drop out of it. But I know by then I will be fine (or at least usually I am fine in 4 weeks). But my running time will be off. The purpose of me doing the half-marathon was to get an improving time, from september. I wanted to run it in under 1:45:00, compared to my first half marathon which was at 2:01 something. During my 30k, I hit 21.1k around 1:55:00 (approximately). So I know I COULD run it faster. But the thing is, if I am not training for weeks, waiting for myself to heal, my time might not be that good.

I think I will stick it out and do the half-marathon. But my time might be horrible compared to september. I know I can at least FINISH. Even if I have to walk the last 8k of it, I will finish.

But after the half-marathon, I think I am going to take a bit of a break. I don't want to, but I want to give my body a lot of time before I kill it again.

After that, I think I am only going to go for a run once a week. I still do cardio at the gym, of course! But I am only going to go for a weekly run.

I think that having these timelines with these races is stressing me out. I will eventually run a marathon, but I can't until I am 18 anyways. I think I will run it in the spring of 2014. I was going to run it late fall this year, but there isn't a rush. I don't know why I thought there was a rush.

I am just going to hope that my leg really does get better before the half marathon.

I know it did this before the 30k, but during the 30k my leg felt better. Towards the end my hip hurt, and then I hurt my knee 2 days after that.

I think in 2 weeks I should be fine to run. But I just have to wait.

I need to be patient. 

Running Updates!

I have come to the realization I had not yet blogged about my 30k which I ran on March 24th.

My official time was 3:06:49.5

You can look up my times, photos etc., at this link right HERE

If you saw the times, you can tell that I ran fast, and then got progressively... erm, extremely slow... throughout the race.

I ran way too fast the first 10k. My pace was like 5:02 ish, which was :25 faster than I should've been going. I got extremely tired come around 22km ish.

My goal was to finish under 3 hours. But I still placed well! 9/20th in my age/gender category, and I was in the top 50% of all women. So that's good!

But the worst part, is that I hurt my knee a little during the run. This progressed to a hip injury, a few days after the run. Now I am ONCE AGAIN on running rest. I am going to get an extremely expensive pair of running shoes on Saturday (hopefully) that will help me.

Also, on March 31st, it was time for me to submit my progress photos on bodybuilding.com, as a part of a contest I was in. You can see the before and after pics here: http://blog.bodybuilding.com/sarahfloria/2013/03/31/the_end_is_just_the/

I am happiest about my back progress, because my trapezius and rhomboids are a lot more defined. Also you can kind of tell that I've lost a bit of body fat in my stomach, and my butt.

When I was taking my "before" pictures for the contest, I was somewhat bloated. So I'm real sexy there.

I feel like there is way more to say than there actually is. Oh well. I am just hoping that my hip will feel better soon!

I have my half marathon in Toronto in a month! Woo!

Here's a photo I posted on instagram on the day of the 30K around the bay in Hamilton!