Week Done

Check out the vampire squid.. its an intense looking specimen. That has a pocket of bacteria on each tentacle provides a glowing "eye" using it as a defense mechanism. It's actually pretty cool looking. I saw it on the discovery channel. I am not really going to provide more than this on this post, due to my hellish state and the amount of homework i have today.

CAVES ARE SCARY.
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Sorry I missed a post, Daniel and I had to entertain a recruit, plus with the massive amounts of snow it was extra difficult to get back to my dorm, as i slept at good ole Daniel's room, as John was MIA.

Saturday: It was snowing cats and dogs, out there. I think we got about 8 inches, so me being a little girl and all, i decided to go to the rec with Zach Gates. I ran 4 miles at a leisurely pace, sinc eit was my easy day. My it band was really not feeling good, probably due to neglecting the powers of ice the night before. So overall it was a terrible ordeal, but I got in a great stretch and head over to the Gates house and ice cupped my it band.

Sunday: Possibly the toughest and gruesome run i have been through. Words cannot describe the amount of discomfort and the miserableness that I was going through in my 18.5 mile run. It started off with my calves just really tight and felt that i had a vice on them, not allowing any tension to reside from my shin/calf area. Finally my muscles tightness reseeded allowing my stride to open up. But by that point my body was already exhausted, my legs were heavy and sore, my hip flexors, burned as each time my foot placed against the unstable slush allowing them to never be completely stable. By the end of the run our group was really feeling it, looking back it was quite humorous we hit a hill and everyone just seem to drop off haha. I have never felt so happy when i ended my run, just sitting in exhaustion in the locker room in a more fetal position than anything. Afterwards it was even a struggle to walk, all of us could read each others mind, about how happy we were that we were finally done haha.

Week Mileage: 85.7 miles

The Third Coming??

Being a musical entrepreneur, i was trying to find a new rapper to listen to. I was having some tough times though, I already pretty much have a un-crackable list, which full of talent. My entourage is Wale, Wiz Khalifa, Charles Hamilton, Phil Ade, Eminem, Jay Z, and Lupe. But i felt like i needed one more. So i was listening and listening, but all i could find was just plain rap, none of it made sense, only about sex, nothing flowed. That's the problem with "hip" rap now a days, it's all just to sound nice with nothing behind it. I was pretty much about to quit, till i stumbled on this kid from Sterling, Virginia. He just started out, but he is proudly repping the DMV. He proudly gives shout out to, I am assuming his homie, named Josh Hardin. I do not know if this kid is in the Game as well, but he surely has influenced maybe the Third Coming of rap talent. He doesnt even have a graduating class, he's in his own class. Wale has called him maybe the freshest rapper he's heard since Biggie himself. I wont be surprised if he runs away with the Best New Artist this year.

All of you are probably wondering who throws down this much heat? Well i ll wait no longer, his name is P-WIL$. If his album which is dropping this April is as nice as his first two singles, he ll be reigning in the $$$ that is foreshadowed in his name.

Not only does he have metaphors that just make you shiver, he talks about real shit, you can hear the pain in his voice, as he spits about his life. Just check him out, i promise he wont disappointed, i heard he's signed with Sony. Also most rappers are "cocky," but this kid constantly says how bad he is, it just aint show. Check out youtube, you'll be hooked or find him on facebook "patrick wilson."

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Today, we had a workout, all day i was dreading it, not because i was nervous for the workout but because how cold it was. Today it reached around 33 degrees while we were running. I am the biggest baby when it comes to the cold. I much rather it be hot than cold :/. So finally the time came to get my workout going, so we ran 20 mins to Redoubt Park and Gibby laid us with a surprisingly long workout of a fartlek of 5 mins on 3 mins off x 3 and 4 mins on and 2 mins off and to reach the track in 45 mins (giving us 3 mins of extra rest). Being Gibby, he did not tell us the next part of the workout. As i was running, I followed Burke for most of it. I actually felt pretty good, I stayed in my own zone and my legs were hurting which was good. Although I did not stick with Burke (if i tried i would ve gone over my zone) the whole way, I stayed within for a while and than branched off. I do not know any spilts due to no mile markers, but it wasnt that bad, definitely working.

After that we got our spikes on and ran 3 1,000s (2:50, 2:51, 2:51). I felt like i could definitely open up a little more, but again i just wanted to be consistent with my paces. After that we cool down with a 23 min run, so my total for today was 17 miles.

My it band held up pretty well, bu ti did not get to ice :(, but i ll run to the track tomorow to make sure i take care of it for a while tomorrow and before i go to bed i ll give everything a good stretch. Something that kind of was cool, was that Gibby said that I may be put in the 10k this year, which would be pretty sweet, since i think i would rather do the the 10k rather than the 5k.

<3

The Perfect Training Partner

As I have been at william and mary, i have noticed, people tend to liek to run with the same people a lot. As i was feeling everything out the first couple weeks, trying to figure out the nuances and tendencies of my teammates. i developed a pretty special bong with a certain runner. How did we do this?? Well not only where we incoming freshman, we had very similar mileage and happened to be in the same areas in our workouts. So we continuously ran together, including on Saturdays when we dont have official practice and go for runs on our own. We sit up all night texting when we would go for a run, or we would usually be together on Friday Nights, only was his roommate more inseparable than we were ;). We pretty much wouldnt leave the locker room without first figuring out how much we were going to do and who we wanted to run with. We got so comfortable with each other that on our runs by ourselves we didnt have to talk, it was just perfect harmony running together, like we were meant to be haha. Going into the middle of the xc season, one of us got sort of injured and things just went haywire. The normalcy of our runs had vanished. Every time without fail, I looked to my left to find him, but than i remembered he was lower in mileage now. We could look into each others faces and just see the dejection we both had. Now things are beginning to turn to normalcy and if my leg pans out we will soon find each other again gleaming in the woods, as we share the path between each other.

We even take macro economics together, he reads my blog everyday (my most advid reader, and is brutality honest telling me that my posts sucked. Altogether the perfect training partner is one that runs similar to you, runs mainly the same mileage, supportive, and is always there to push you through :). I hope everyone that runs will have that perfect training partner. This one is for you training buddy!

Good luck at Navy Champ you're last two workouts have been impressive.. Mull it over why dont you

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Today we ran 11.5 miles w/ Max, Pat, Skeet, and Tom. We hit up new trails again today and mainly stayed on paths. It progressively got quicker. For some reason, of late, in the middle of my runs I feel shaky, like i have low blood sugar or something. It's been kinda weirding me out. I hope it does not persist. after my run, we were suppose to do strides, but i decided to put it off till saturday. I am really not looking forward to tomorrow's workout, because it s suppose to be under freezing :/. I did my stretches and iced today.

Sorry about the delay with everything, but i have just been so busy with schoolwork, locking myself up in a room and just reading for 5 hours. I am really trying to get on top of my academics, so unfortunately i will be putting my readings over these entries.

Although it has only been a week of classes (seems so much longer), I cannot complain about my classes. I really am intrigued by all of them, except for macroeconomics. I am taking a pretty sweet freshman seminar based on steroids in baseball and the constant obsession of the human race for perfection of the body. My other classes are pretty generic, such as Brit Lit 1 (where we have read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and are starting the Canterbury Tales), Greek and Roman Mythology (which is an huge amount of work, being assigned to 100+ pages every night), and Comparative Politics which is mainly just out of interest in a possible major that i may take a stab at.

With my classes comes a great class schedule (in reference to time). MWF my first class is at 11, allowing me to sleep in and to top that TR i have my first class at 12:30. I wake up whenever I feel its time and never feel very weary or tired. This semester is looking quite up (knock on wood). Tonight I went to Andrews again and brought a friend John Muller (dont worry John, next time I get to really think you will enjoy that post, promise). This time there was no interference by any rude peers, which was nice. As I right this i still have about 70 pages of reading left and may just give up on it and call it a night.

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Tuesday: I had my secondary workout of a 28 minute pace run. I didn't have very much expectations of this workout, as i still feel grossly out of shape and on that day i had not drank any water for pretty much the whole day (as well as getting pounded the day before). So i started off at a conservative pace that proved to be a wise choice. Pete Asaro and I ran mainly the whole thing together splitting 5:24, 5:23, 5:23, 5:28(very windy haha), 5:17. This happens to probably be my worst pace run workout, but i feel like i stayed in the provisions of the workout at 85%, it was weird my breathing was fairly solid, jsut my legs did not have much pop in them. I feel that if i went with the second pack that went, i could of used them and held on for a much "better" performance, but probably would have gone above the suggested effort level. Hopefully this will be a just a stepping stone to a much more successful season in track.

I got about 11.7 miles out of the run, as we ran 20 mins to the Rec Loop and than did the workout, 10 minute run back to campus, 4 hard strides (felt pretty quick there), and another 10 minutes around the campus with John.

My leg after the run felt terrible, I couldnt walk without limping and it was really swollen where the it band connects to the knee. This of course concerned me and Harry gave me some advice on some stretches and what i should probably do that night (which was to ice it). My dilemma however was that my dorm does not have an ice maker. So either i had to spend my whole night in the locker room or just not ice and allow it to remain swollen. I am really tired and frustrated with this injury, so i decided to be smart and i spent the next 4 hours icing 12 mins on and 25 mins off, which reduced the swelling and allowed me to be able to walk fairly well once it had warmed up.

Wed (Today's Run): Today was my MR+ run of 13 miles. It was a pretty pleasant run through tthe trails, whihc probably not the best for my IT band. Which felt decent, i could still feel it a little and it had some moments where it didnt feel to hot, but overall fairly good.

I stretched before the run with the rope and Harry applied some Kinseo tape (the black stuff sported by Hasheem Thabeet and the volleyball chicas). We didnt do it quite right, but we figured it be better than nothing.

After the run we had to do core, which consisted of variations of planks, crunches, push ups, supermans, lunges, etc. I stretched after core and iced, later in the night while reading, I did 2 sessions of icing. Hopefully tomorrow my leg will feel a little better.

Special thanks to Harry Miller for all the help :).

<3>

Sexology

'School of Wizardry on Facebook'

For all those who do not know, i devote about 15 minutes a day all chopped up spread sporadically throughout my day on the Facebook app School of Wizardry. haha i know this sounds like possibly the nerdiest thing in the world and honestly that's why i started it. As i continue my quest to becoming the greatest wizard, every minute i spent "managing myself" i became more absorbed by the app.

When i started i thought it would be some type of RPG game where you could duel others, but honestly it has no action whatsoever and is a huge turnoff for most. Basically you have energy and health and the goal of the game is to use your energy on lessons that you must complete to obtain a new level. You use your health and stamina to "duel" people, which is merely clicking on duel with some person that you think you can beat, by looking at their followers and their attack and defense. That's the basic overview of the game, there are much more aspect that make it harder, like investing your money in real estate that in the end provide you with more money (it's an investment). Basically if you do not invest, you ll become stuck in the game as you cant afford any of the items (that are needed to do lessons, they become pricier as you go on) to expend your energy on lessons. there are much more facets of the game that I will not describe, but i just thought id share my passion.

People ask me how this is at all fun, it really isnt fun, it's just like running. I do it to compete and succeed. So as they post my world rank, I do my very best to keep climbing the ladder to Wizardry greatness :). Plus, I am all about managing, like in NCAA Football (my favorite video game) unless I am online or have some friends play, I do not actually "play" the dynasty. I just simulate and just do all the management stuff, such as recruiting and setting up the best team for the best situation. So my suggestion is people should try the app haha.

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Today was my long run today and finally the end to the longest week i have ever had haha. Gibby was gracious enough to let us sleep in a bit later, im assuming because we have recruits this weekend. We traveled out to York state park and started my 16 mile journey. I ran in a pretty big group for a long run consisting of Pat, Jon, Ben, Sklo, and Adley. Pat and I usually start out together and we have a pretty regular long run route, which i like a lot.

i think we all felt pretty sluggish today, everyone looked kinda slow and flat. My it band wasnt feeling to hot, but not that bad.. as i am writing now, it has gotten worse. i could basically feel it there, but it did not hurt, so much better than yesterday but still not where i want it to be. The only plus was today was a beautiful day from mainly the miserable days of Williamsburg.

Week Mileage: 76.3 miles

The augury dissatisfaction

Tomorrow is the NFL's Conference Championship games. I believe the New York Jets vs. Indy Colts play first most likely on cbs for the AFC Champions. Followed by the more intriguing game of the NFC, where the Minnesota Vikings go to battle with the New Orleans Saints in the Dome.

Has anyone ever noticed how cbs game, mainly AFC games are just extremely boring. Like i rather watch the seahawks play the rams, than watch the steelers play the bengals or some game that is worth note but not to the prestige of Colts vs. Pats, but even when those type of games roll in its still quite difficult for me to stay intrigued with the CBS game. It's like everyone is practically on their death bed and every thing just seems so generic and how's no extras that FOX provides. The commentators see quite dull and just matter of the fact, while the Fox announcers are energetic, joyful, and try to actually entertain and retain listeners. I do not know if this is just me or if it's the same for everyone. I am just glad I decided to be a Redskins fan (no matter how much they break my heart, but tha will be another topic in time) than a Ravens, because CBS might just put me in a coma.

But anyways back to my reason for my post, my picks. I believe the AFC representative will be the Indianapolis Colts, I was going to go with the sleeper pick with the NY Jets, but in one of my classes my teacher asked us who we thought and everyone said the Jets were going all the way? I guess everyone has jumped on their bandwagon/underdog story. so i gave some thought to it and decided i was just willing the Jets to win and logically i cannot see Manning blowing the game like the Chargers did. The jets talent is no where near the colts and they ll need more than a defense guru to stop the Indy attack... im saying the slot receivers have a huge game and Wayne burns Darrelle Revis at least once.

For the NFC, again i really want the Saints to win, Favre has disgraced and tarnished his legacy. I use to be in love with how he played, but the fact that he can't let it go and does the ultimate no no in the Bay, by signing with the Vikes i just have no respect anymore. But i am just not convinced the Saints are the real deal, like they ball out on offense, but their defense has holes and is not very staunch. They played well against the Cards, but the Cards were out of sinc from the 3rd drive till the clock read 00:00. Naturally Favre's fairytale ending will continue for another game, as i pick the Vikes to up end the Saints, in a close battle that actually is not a high flying scoring game but stuck in the 20's maybe one team hits the low low 30s. I really has mixed emotions of this game, because although I do not think the Saints are completely there, i am not totally sold on the vikes, and karma is catching up to number 4, it's only time till he blows another huge game with nonchalant and forced throws.

If the Colts lose, I will not be making a prediction, as i think they will take the crown for themselves. I do not believe if I can just come back and say who is going to win the Super Bowl if my picks for the conference championship games fell through.

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Ugh, so Saturdays are usually my easy days, where i can just enjoy a run and not worry about anything and just run. Of course the running gods would not give me a break and decided to make my it band feel the worse it has it quite sometime. It's rather depressing that it has regressed this far... I ran for 4.5 miles today, just around campus and through some trials. It was enjoyable when my it band was not hurting, after my run I stretch a good amount and iced.

Oh also today was my first day i went off my pain medication so that could be a big reason why it hurt so bad today, but im afraid if it doesn't get much better that I will be repeating the same steps, as i did earlier this season :/.

<3

Insolence to a whole new degree

Like i said in my '1st post,' i had a ton of homework to do and i was trying something new out by working in an academic building, instead of the library. I had never done this before, but i was beginning to realize from my unsuccessful 1st semester that although the library is suppose to be a place of solitude and focus, it is far from that. A lot of people like to waste time and think of off topic things to do, as if the library makes them feel better about themselves, because at least they are at the place where people are suppose to do work (kinda like when people go to class, just to go, and do not pay one lick of attention). Anyways, so instead of going to the library, I proceeded to Andrew's Hall and went to a far off location inside the building. 20 minutes in i was loving it, i was breezing through my literature and going on to my next homework assignment, when a lady came in and asked me, "Do you have a class or are you just doing work?"I told her, "No, I am just doing some homework." She than asked me a question that I regret answering so kindly. "Would it be alright if i did some work?," she said. Of course being the gentleman that i am i said, "sure." As she got situated she could not have made more of a ruckus, slamming her books around, ruffling papers for what seemed to be over an hour, kicking a chair over, trust me she did it all. She than brought out her computer and began to blair her music for a good 5 minutes, while I was reading, after she was done being insensitive she turned off the music and gave me 5 minutes of peace. When all of the sudden "She wolf" by Shakira began echoing throughout the room. Instead of going outside and talking to her friend, she stayed and talked, leaving me to continously re-read the same line over and over again. But you know it's probably my fault, i should be able to block out noise better, i'll work on that. Don't worry things get worse, after her phone call 2 of her friends barge into the room and without even acknowledging my presense goes stragiht to the projector screen and hits up facebook to talk about boys that they had sex with and which was hotter. I was so baffled with the amount of rudeness i was experiencing that i just sat their with a blank stare watching and listening to their meaningless and frivolous conversations. i began trying to work again, but it was to avail, i really am terrible at reading, while there is noise it would be awesome if i could just block it all out. Terribly this is not so, hence the reason i sought solitude for my reading. So i just started packing up, on my way out, 5 more girls began entering the room.

As i was walking out, I thought to myself is this a joke? Like you got to be kidding, i just couldn't believe this woman and how she didnt even ask me to leave or try to get her friends to be a little more respectful, as i was clearly trying to work and was their first. Obviously she had no respect and could give a shit about me or having any manner of politeness. It really infuriates me that people can just be so stuck up. My trip out was not in vain though, as I was getting pretty hungry and headed over to the library, where instead of work beign done, i started this paltry blog.

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So I had my primary workout today. This is only my second workout back from injury and it definitely felt like just like that. I ran a total of 14.3 miles, off of a 34 minute fartlek (4min on, 2min off x 4-- 3min on, 2 min off fartlek x 2). In case one does not know what the term "fartlek" means. it's when you run hard (on our team that means 90-95% effort pace) for the allotted amount of time and than instead of resting for the other part, like you would with intervals, one runs at a regular pace for the remainder of the time interval (so like 6 minute mile pace).

My group ended up becoming a pack of 5 with John Muller, Maxwell, Pence, Adley, and I. We ran fairly consistent running 5:27, 5:25, 5:22, 5:15, 5:21, 5:25 over the hilly "Country Road." Workouts with the team makes things much more manageable, as you feed off of one another and are able to switch the lead among the pack. it's an invaluable advatange in these types of workouts for runners like me who have a hard time running hard efforts on their own, sadly.

I felt pretty good for most of the run, but in my last set, my back began cramping a tad. I am going to begin stretching out my back that with a few stretches my coach showed me. I hope things will begin to become more manageable as my training progresses.

<3

1st post

This is the blog that sums up my life and how frivolous and boring it has become due to my obsession of running. the monotony of running has really begun making me soul search a lot about my life and whether i am doing the right thing. As injury has already begun to plague my season, it's been hard to maintain a focused sound state that an aspiring elite runner must have. However, running is almost a drug, where i have become addict to the competition and the lust for personal glory and perfection that i do not see myself ever discontinuing the dream of actualizing my potential in the sport.

I currently attend and run for the College of William and Mary, which is a small state school in Williamsburg, VA. known for their academics and basically that's it.

I have a ton of homework to do and this is primarily a blog to keep track of my running log, that i often misplace or end up not filling out, so this entry will be brief.

-10 mile run with Maxwell and Skeet at a fairly decent pace probably hitting around 6 min. still feeling real weak and sore from the drastic increase in mileage and intensity. My IT Band keeps me, still, in constant paranoia, as i worry about getting re-injured all the time. it didnt feel too shabby, but still could somewhat feel it, without it hurting.. if that makes sense at all. I did some quick strides and core, as it was raining a whole a lot. Another miserable point about my school is that it constantly rains and really puts a damper to one's mood.

Oh and i finally got a watch! it could be the girliest watch i ever done see, but i like, its a timex, purple/pink infusion of colors, it makes me think of my lovable mother. Also i donned my white full tights today, caused a lot of ruckus, as people called me a faggot and what not, but there were many that were really feeling 'em :)

Previously this week, before i forget.

Monday: I ran 7.5 miles at an okay pace somewhere around 6:15-20 with the likes of John, Thomas, and Adley. did 4 strides and did two sets of drills and core.

Tuesday: had a workout that collectively lasted 11 miles... it was a 24 minute pace run where my first mile was 5:07 and my last was 5:12? (i think). not a very impressive workout, my back cramped up mid way and my focus was just completely lost. Props to my roomie Zach had a great workout on his road to return after his injury!

Wed: I had an MR+ (which is a secondary long run) of 13 miles, i meant to only do 12, but the people i ran with were doing 13, so i just went with them for the whole way. The pace was pretty darn fast, especially on the roads. My legs were real tired, from strides, core, and the workout, whihc i have not done in over 3 weeks, due to injury. Nevertheless a great run, to kind of whip myself into shape. and my capri tights were in full force, an runners out there that read this, definitely should invest in some capri tights. Starting a movement.

<3