Hooked on East Nasty

I'm hooked. I'd been hearing about East Nasty, a running group in Nashville, for quite some time now but didn't really have the nerve to go. I kept nursing fears about injury and pace, and didn't want to be the girl bringing up the rear of the pack. Yes, I do realize there has to be someone who does it, but still, I didn't want it to be me. So today, I finally was brave enough to try it out and I loved it. Love love love. I don't know why I waited so long to check it out. It felt like running in a race without numbers, and everyone was so supportive of the other runners.

EN does a rotating set of 12 runs and today was back at #1, a 3.1 mile figure eight. I figured it was a good distance to start me at, plus it was all of a gorgeous 78 degrees today. When I arrived, there was a giant pack of spandex clad runners, some with pups, all set to go. I think that maybe there were 100 in all? (I don't have a method for estimating that, but there were a lot) I started out pretty fast (probably too fast) at about a 9:10 mile, but settled in at around around 10ish. There were more hills than I was expecting, long ones too, but I think I did a pretty solid job of powering up those, even if my pace dropped a little. Since I run mostly flat courses, the hills were pretty challenging, but I looove the relaxing momentum of running downhill. Anyway, I ran pretty well I think, and at the 5k mark, my watch said 30:23.

REALLY!?!?!? On a super hilly course, less than two months post recovery, I shaved 3 minutes off my 5k time. Ecstatic. Now I'm dying to see what I can do on a flat course. I've been planning on running the Purity Dairy Dash 10k for the mid-distance, but now I'm considering shifting down to the 5k for the fun of it. A sub 30 minute 5k would be awesome. Things to think about... :) Although my IT bands feel pretty awesome, I bought a tennis ball a few days ago so that I can work on my peroneal muscle (peroneus longus) in my calves. They are both awfully tight and are a bit sore. Hopefully some self-therapy can take the edge off. It's amazing how much lower body anatomy I've learned with this injury!

Anyway, I had an awesome salad-esque dinner when I got home. I tried to make the Mediterranean Chickpea Patties from Carrots 'N Cake, but since my food processor is hand operated, the puree never got quite smooth enough so they kind fell apart. They were still pretty tasty, but i couldn't coat them in flour without them breaking into pieces so I just went without. Also, tonight I was out of lemon, so instead I mixed some olive oil with Greek yogurt (plus salt and pepper) and that was an amazing dressing.


All served on top of a salad w/ peppers, tomatoes, and onions, plus an Ezekiel English muffin on the side. Yum. (Check out the original recipe; they photos are much nicer!!)

Anyway, I need a good night sleep, but as a farewell, here's the little one. Martha was being a doll tonight and was begging to have her picture taken. :) I have the sweetest pup in the world.


G'night!

Improving, finally

Today I finally took some time to notice how much my running has really improved. I still describe myself as a slow runner, which is true, but it's almost like a defense mechanism to protect against criticism from "real runners". In addition, I think I tend to focus on my speed compared to other runners instead of compared to how far I've come, particularly since I'm just barely post-injury. In late October, my 5k time was 33:19, with two bad IT bands and a ton of pain. Today, I did about 3 miles of speed work (warm up + 400+600+800+600+400, with a one minute walk in between sets) and that took about 29 minutes. How can I be disappointed with that?! I walked about 5 minutes recovery in this workout and still am killing my last 5k. Maybe I can't run a 7 minute mile, but I can run a 9:30 now, and I did all of my intervals at about an 8:30 pace. Considering that until mid-February, I couldn't run a quarter mile without pain shooting up my thigh, I should be thrilled. So here's to focusing on my own improvements and not about the 6 and a half foot tall guy at Centennial who was lapping me, and to keep my eyes on my own mat (to use a yoga-ism :) ).

Besides, his legs are twice as long as mine anyway. :)

Oh, last thing. Have you seen the new lululemon ad? It's in April's Runners' World (p. 39) and is currently hanging on my fridge. Scorpion handstand with one leg in lotus? Killer.

Running again!

Blog resuscitation, part III? A good friend and I made a pact to blog two times a week and she's been keeping up her end of the bargain. I certainly haven't though! Trying again! :)

I went for an amazing run yesterday. As I've clearly complained about, pretty consistantly, I hurt my IT bands pretty bad back in October. However, after months of physical therapy with some amazing people and a couple cortisone shots, it looks like I may be in the clear! In fact, I feel like a stronger runner than ever, probably because of all the PT work.

So yesterday, my run was 7 miles and it felt incredible. I kept the pace pretty slow since it was the longest I've gone since injury and since I basically climbed a friggen mountain during it. I had decided to try out Edwin Warner Park, which was really pretty with tons of trails, but also mighty hilly at parts. However, no pain! I walked about a quarter mile in the middle just to give my legs a break before they needed it, but other than that, ran through the whole thing without a problem, even going up hill. A-mazing. Plus, it was 70 and sunny. Spring may finally be here!

In other news, I finally saw Coco Avant Chanel last night. It was not was I was expecting but I certainly liked it. The plot centered much more around her personal life instead of her design career but it was pretty beautifully filmed. I was also pleasantly surprised at how much French I still understand. It was still nice to have subtitles as a reminder, otherwise I probably only would have gotten a very general idea of the story. :) Hélas, j'ai besoin de plus étudier.

I have piles of work to do and would love to fit in a trip to the gym today. I had planned on taking the day off for recovery but I feel fine. Also, I'm heading to NY for Easter next weekend so things will be a tad thrown off there. Off to enjoy the rest of this beautiful weekend!