Feb 9

A BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!

FIT:
The start of it was rough, with staying up until 4am to study for a quiz in a class I'm not particularly interested in. And then I took the online quiz and somehow stayed awake through the 3 hour seminar. As I refueled with Goldfish (which I now eat multiple servings of each day), I contemplated sleeping for the hour and a half before I'd be meeting up with VP for dinner, but the road beckoned, and I'm so glad it did. Somehow, during the four hours of sleep I got last night, my quads and calves stopped being sore, going from grimacing pain to feeling good really quickly. I was sooo tired at 4:30pm, though.

The temps were perfect - I ditched my jacket at the root again, and the ground was spongy because it was saturated with melted snow. Since I didn't have time to go shopping, I didn't bring the backpack, which made running feel so light and easy. It's hard to know how much of that is from the lack of the pack, and how much of it is from the body's adaptations to the track workouts and perhaps even Saturday's endurance run. I felt like I was flying, though, keeping up a drilling pace the whole way through, not waning at the half way point like I usually do, since I'm conditioned to stop and shop halfway through my runs. Even the last hill back to campus was barely noticeable.

Starting from a little before Forbes, my right knee felt somewhat compressed. The feeling is waning, and hopefully, it'll fix itself up soon. I did stretch afterwards.

Splits: 9:42 t, 4:11 p, 4:02 h, 4:18 b, 4:52 x, 2:54 wm (30:02, a PB for this course), 2:54 x (look at that split!!!), 4:55 b, 4:23 h, 4:04 p, 4:06 t, 9:57 whitman, for a total of 1:00:12. It usually takes me about 32 minutes to get to wm, and then even more (due to groceries) on the way back, so this is really exciting (although I did have an advantage with the lighter loads). It's about 4 minutes faster than the run from a couple weeks ago.

Tried the double workout thing today, but at least with the 5 hour separation, my knees were bugging me too much, so I did the minimal required work at ulty, which tends to be underwhelming on Mondays anyways because there's limited space to do stuff, and so much standing around and teaching going on. Exercise every other day has been my norm, so that might be pushing it.

FUEL:
Your body's fueling needs and desires get all out of whack when there's a big shift in your activity level. Since Saturday (where I ran with a meager breakfast of an orange and goldfish due to time constraints, and was super hungry two hours and 14.5 miles later), I've been eating non-stop. I go to meals and then start grazing 30 minutes later. How much of it is the new glycogen demands induced by the long run? How much of it is my body's craving for protein to repair and build? How much of it is bad sleeping habits, putting satiety hormones out of whack, and the increased demands for energy from having to stay up late? How much of it is my body's compensation for not eating enough before and during the run? Is any of it emotional eating or unnecessary? It's so confusing.

The good news is, this awkward transition period should be temporary, and the body will adapt to the run's demands, and I'll figure out what I need fuel-wise to sustain the increased activity. Also, I'll work hard to not procrastinate next time, so that I can sleep more regular hours.

And since dinner was great, here's what I had: Skim Milk; Broccoli in garlic sauce; Turkey Breast; Cauliflower; Falafel in a WW Pita; Green Tea; Peanut Butter back in the room for dessert.

LIFE:
I'm going to try to be a good student this semester - my last chance at such an attempt, meaning, I'll try to reduce procrastinating, and I'll try hard to actually learn stuff rather than just learn as much as I need to to do assignments and get through tests. We'll see how it goes. No, I can and will do this ;)

During my psych reading (done amidst very little use of the computer! pat on the back), I read about two ways to interpret stressors: as challenges to be overcome or catastrophes to be endured. According to Hill (1949), when a family looks at stress as manageable, you adapt more effectively, summoning resources and banding together. When other families viewed the same stressor as a tragedy or punishment, they did not cope as well, and often failed to take advantage of resources that were available to them. Lesson here: see obstacles as stuff you can overcome, muster your resources, and charge through it, rather than be immobilized by fear and anxiety. Woo hoo!