April 2012 in Review

April's been a pretty sweet month, and not only because the weather's looking up!

Mileage Recap

A year ago - April 2011: 103.58

January 2012: 181.21

February 2012: 86.84

March 2012: 6

April 2012: 89.59

Boy does that number feel good, especially after March! Did I mention how much I <3 running?

Cross Training Recap

Since I was injured in February cross training has become a huge part of my weekly workouts. I decided it was about time I started recapping that on top of running mileage. I will be curious to see my own trends and whether I keep up with it. So, for April:

5200 m swimming

2 spin classes

81.93 miles road cycling

4 Pilates classes

What went well

Well, obviously the number one thing that went well is that I'm running again, and I am now over 5 weeks injury free and without pain. I ran my first double digit weekend in months. I bought a new road bike, which I love, love, love. I even learned some cool stuff from Christopher McDougall. 

What didn't go well

I'm still dealing with the after effects of a pro-longed injury, both physically and mentally. I know the longer I remain healthy, the less and less I will feel these effects: my running fitness will fully return, I won't be scared that I might suddenly be in pain again, etc. etc. Baby steps. 

May 2012 goals

May is going to be an insanely busy month! On the calendar is:

- My first wedding dress fitting

- Broad Street Run on May 6th

- Pack up our apartment

- Move into our new house!

- Do a million and half things for the wedding, which is now a little less than 7 weeks away

- Continue to cross train, do PT exercises/stretching every night, and remain healthy!

Are you doing any races in May?

Friday Favorites

Again I've been a little MIA this week. Apologies. I've had my nose in a Middle Egyptian dictionary all week and had a four hour final on Thursday. It reminded me of the SATs, except instead of English, I was looking at hieroglyphs for 240 minutes. Needless to say my brain and body are still exhausted. Hello graduate school!

Getting to the point though, here are some things that have been knocking my socks off lately:

Darrell Lea Liquorice
I love candy, but I've never been a huge fan of liquorice. Never, that is, until my neighborhood stores started carrying Darrell Lea Liquorice from Australia. It's just about the best damn thing I've ever eaten. I think I like it better than chocolate (sacriledge!).



Oh, what's that? You never heard of mango liquorice? It will change your life.

Physical Therapy
Next week is my last PT session since the doc only gave me a six week script when I went in for my shin splints. Not only do I really, genuinely love my therapist, but everything she's taught me has been so invaluable. I am, after all, running again, and I 90% chalk it up to PT.

Foam Rolling
Call me crazy, but I've really come to love foam rolling. The PT has been having me do it every night and I'm kind of addicted now. Funny thing - when you foam roll every night, things hurt a lot less. Who knew!?

If you're curious, I use this foam roller and it's freaking awesome (not pictures above).

Pilates
I signed up for a four week intro class at my gym two weeks ago. So far I'm really digging it. It's like yoga, except the core focus is greater and it's a lot more fast paced. I think I will keep it up and start taking some Mixed Mat classes after the intro period is over. I do, after all, have a wedding to get ready for. Maybe we can all be Pilates-happy like Miley Cyrus one day.

Looking good Miley...except that unibrow. Get some new glasses girl.
Source

Future Prospects
I'm a long term kind of thinker. So, with my master's program probably ending in the next 1.5-2 years, I'm already thinking about the never step. I would really like to get my Ph.D, but my field is extremely small and extremely competitive. Frankly, it can be downright depressing to think about trying to get into a program.
After getting through year one of my master's, however, and realizing that I'm actually not half bad at deciphering dead languages, I have higher hopes for the future. I've even been thinking more about getting out to do some field work maybe next winter or summer. Who knows, maybe one day I will be Dr. Kristin!


I want to go to there
Source

 What are some of your favorite things lately?

Double Digit Weekend

Sorry I have been MIA for a few days. This week is the end of the semester and finals start so things have been a little crazed.

Good news though: I ran my first double digit mileage weekend in TEN weeks! Seems crazy to think it's been that long.

It's now been a little over four weeks since I've had any pain and exactly four weeks since I started running again. But even though it has been a month, I still cannot seem to move past the feeling that my shin will start hurting at any moment. I still spend every run over-analyzing every twinge and feeling of tightness. And whether I'm running, walking, or sitting, my left shin always feels different from my right. Not painful, just different. I know that much of this must be mental, but I shouldn't be pushing it anyway, so I suppose this is all helping to keep me in check.

Saturday morning I ran 8 miles, my longest run since getting injured. Apparently 8 am was already too late in the day to run, because at 70-some degrees I felt like I was dying in the heat.

Taken after a run last summer. Kind of how I was starting to feel on Saturday (and it's only April!)

Sunday I really had no intention to run. In fact, I was planning to go on a nice long bike ride. I bought actual bike shorts and was stoked to try them out. Unfortunately the weather had other plans and it poured all day. So what's a girl to do? I tripled checked in with my legs to see if they were up for it and ended up running a glorious, albeit wet, 6.5 miles.

The next challenge was dealing with this rainy, rat's nest of hair

I ended up scoring about 29 miles for the week and I couldn't be happier. Two weeks until Broad Street!