stress, recover, rinse, repeat

Just a few to shake out. Race tomorrow (5 miles, so I'm excited. Tired of these fast 5ks).

Got a fair amount of sleep last night so I felt good on the run (later than usual).

My ankle felt fine during the run but afterwards it hurt.

I vowed to never wear another pair of VERY crappy sneakers. Now that I’m working at a running store and realizing the importance of having adequate cushioning I think I’m noticing the effects on my feet/body more and more (or maybe it’s a mental thing that I’m inventing yet it is still manifesting itself physically?) Either way, the cushioning on my shoes that I’ve run in for over 3 years and thousands of miles is pretty shot to the point where I can’t even walk around in them because it hurts my ankles (the shoes are ‘supportive’ shoes which means that they have a medial post for arch support. This medial post – a.k.a. the grey foam in the inner arch of the midsole- is firmer than all the surrounding white foam. Over time, the cushion, which acts like a sponge, doesn’t bounce back as well after it compresses during runs. Because the cushions are different densities (grey=firmer and white=less firm), as soon as I put the shoes on, I can feel my ankles being situated at an angle, which is actually painful! Right now, I’m only running in one pair (Mizuno Inspires) which I love – they’re lightweight and have a firm feel (I don’t like soft cushiony shoes). Before, I was alternating between a few pairs, all of which (except the Mizunos) were at least 2 or 3 years old, have virtually NO cushion left, and were completely worn away on thee sole to the point of my toe was nearly through to the pavement… bad I know. Looks like I’ll be taking advantage of my running store discount and treating my feet a little better!

Day off today…I don’t like having days off. When/if I start working a second job that’ll change. Workaholic! Maybe I’ll even be able to join a gym…will see how September expenses look when they’re all tallied.

Felt like absolute sh*t this morning. Could be the full moon (two days ago I was AMPED with an unbelievable amount of energy, which always happenes to me 2 days before a full moon), could be just everything is catching up with me (running, working, life), or a combination of both. I made it only about 4 miles and it was a sloww 4 miles. The ankle is getting worse. It really hurts to sit, walk, or do virtually anything. It’s probably due to the fact that I do not sit down at all from about 7am until midnight. After running an hour in the AM, I’m on my feel allll day and I think that is exacerbating the ankle L

Stomach is out of whack too. Ate another enormous 2:30 am meal (ugghhh 2 days in a row, and I was doing SO well!)

Tried on Newtons today at work – they are definitely pretty cool. I like the whole theory behind the ‘minimalist running’ craze; it’s interesting. The goal is to improve overall form and be more conscious about form in general. The entire time I forefoot strike, I do feel like I have good form (or at least better form than when I heel strike).

Ran on my forefoot for my entire run today. My ankle has been hurting a lot recently so I thought that forefoot running would be pretty painful. It hurt when I first started the run but once I got going, it hurt less than it would’ve if I were running with my normal heel-strike form. The constant ankle aching is really stressing me though (mainly mentally) because my biggest fear is an injury!! Especially since I don’t have a gym to cross-train…I don’t even want to think about it.

Ate a big 2am meal – the first in a long time, so I’m not too upset since I have been good since I moved here at the beginning of the month. I think it had to do with the double run and not eating enough during the day.

Run was normal in the morning, and afterwards I interviewed for a second job to make some extra money part-time (Trader Joe’s). I was amped all day because I had a sample of coffee (sad, but I have no caffeine tolerance) and also because I believe there's a full moon soon and I usually have a ridiculous amount of energy a few days prior. After work I went on a second run with a co-worker which was great. I never run in the evening but had a ton of energy despite hardly eating anything all day :/ We went about 5 or 6 miles.

I’m in a very bad yet hard to break pattern of going literally the entire day with eating nothing, or nearly nothing, and then absolutely stuffing myself for about 2 or 3 hours straight until I am ready to go to bed…I don’t get hungry at work because I stay so busy and can just go-go-go but then when I get home at night my blood sugar is absolutely rock bottom which isn’t good. I should try to eat more during the day L

Same old same old. Thinking more and more about my lack of strength training though…I really wish I could join a gym!!! That is no excuse though – I could do core and lifting at home with free weights but I really need to be in another setting to actually get up the motivation do it. It’s nearly impossible for me to do it at home… L ugghh!