Yesterday was the kind of day where I wished I was already a surgeon.

Because I would have removed my stomach and intestines.

I’ll spare you the gory details and just put it this way: YESTERDAY WAS GROSS AND PAINFUL.

Yesterday the doctor weighed me at 105, which has been my normal weight give or take a few pounds for the past 2 years.

This morning, after yesterday’s uhh episodes, I weighed 95.  Holy shit, man!  And I was hungry as hell.

I don’t think I fueled up properly though, because I didn’t know what all the food was going to make my stomach feel like; I did NOT want another day like yesterday, so I ate pretty cautiously.  

But, after two days of not running because of said GI issues, I managed seven miles today.  Took me 60 minutes, which really isn’t too hot, but it was the best I could do.  

And how could I not go out for a run? It was so beautiful outside…..only 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky…In Pennsylvania in July!!  And I was still on the porch doing my planks when the thunder rolled in.

And because of the thunder there was no power at work, and so I had to take care of the dogs in the dark?? I can’t even remember how many times I was bitten.  But this is a blog about running soo…moving on….lol.

Yeah, I had a pretty good week getting back on track after coming home from Paris.  But then the stomach plague descended on me, and i missed a few days.  Anyone else feel like shit when they’re on a roll and suddenly get knocked off the train tracks?  Anyone else feel gross when they can’t run? Yeah, it was a tough weekend.

I guess I don’t have too many other updates….I’ve decided to run JUST FOR THE SAKE OF RUNNING.  I won’t start training for anything until I do it with the running club once I get to William and Mary (less than a month, can you believe it?? I’m scared shitless, but I’M SO EXCITED!).  I’ll just get my mileage in to build endurance, and then start the speedwork when I have people to work with and a specific race date to train for.

Oh on another note…the shins have been bothering me again.  They haven’t flared up since march…I think it might be the treadmill? I’ve had to do a lot of runs on the TM this past week because of work.  Maybe I should start taking calcium supplements again.  Maybe I should drink more OJ? More lactaid?  

MAYBE I SHOULD GET MY LIFE FIGURED OUT BEFORE GOING BACK TO COLLEGE?????? lol.

Bonjour from France!

Just wanted to pop in and say hi, though I don’t have many good running stories.  Running in Paris has been interesting.  I’ve mainly stuck to the Touilleries Gardens (right outside the Louvre, across the street from my hotel), because I can go as fast as I want and not have to wait three billion hours to cross the street, and not worry about running into people/getting stuck behind people on said street…Yeah.  A lot of people run in the Touilleries, but THEY’RE ALL SO SLOW!  And all the French people at my Dad’s conference say to me at dinner, “Oh we saw you jogging!” and Of course I give them a polite smile, but inside I’m thinking “wtf I was doing 7:30’s that’s NOT jogging…???”.  So I’m starting to think that the French are JOGGERS, not RUNNERS.  lol.  I had one good run with a couple of British men my first day here-they were training for a marathon and we all had a good laugh at the slow Frenchies.

Other than that, I’ve run along the river, crossed the Pont Alexandre a couple billion times, and I go into this park near the Grand Palais to buy a banana for my postrun snack (hotel breakfast closes at 10-I got yelled at TWICE by the cleaning lady for snagging a handful of cereal from the cereal dispensers after my run, and ever since I’ve just stuck with the banana).  They guy at the snack stand knows me now-today I ran up and he was like “banana for you!” and handed me a banana. Lol.

I haven’t run longer than 45 minutes, but seriously? I spend the rest of my day on my feet WALKING everywhere, and I end every day completely WIPED, so I don’t really feel the need.  

So yeah, Paris is fun but I want to get out of the freaking gardens and go home and do a nice tempo on the wide, relatively empty, tourist-free roads of good old collegeville PA. 

Vive L’Etat Unis!

I’ve been toying with this idea of doing a half marathon.

But lately, In my first week back running (which has been ok, but not all as glorious as I’d hoped), I’ve been wondering WHY I run.

I tell myself it’s because I love it, but I have this sinking feeling in the back of my mind that it MIGHT just be because it keeps me thin.

And that is WRONG and it scares me because I don’t want to be that girl anymore, I want to be a RUNNER!

If that turns out to be the case, I am not going to let myself run until I straighten that whole thing out.

Yesterday, I ran my normal five mile route.  No matter how hard I try, I CAN’T BREAK 40 MINUTES!!!  

It’s pretty damn frustrating.

But, all through the rest of the day, I was once again irritable and cranky.  I could tell Joe (my boyfriend of 1.5 years) didn’t want to be around me.  I came home, put on a cute face for my mom, but was miserable, restless….and SPENT.  I lay down on my bed at 9:30, and was awoken at midnight by Joe’s goodnight call.  I had a silly half-asleep conversation with him, and then fell back into a deep sleep for the next nine hours.

Something’s wrong with me.  I shouldn’t be crashing at 8pm every night.  I shouldn’t be so irritable.  I shouldn’t be so moody ALL THE TIME. I’m tired and crabby, and I CAN’T FUCKING BREAK 40 MINUTES!!!! 

So, I’m taking a few days off of running.  I’ve been so miserable lately that I don’t even look forward to my runs anymore.  I wake up sore and exhausted, as though I never went to bed, and the last thing I want to do is run.  And that’s not how I want my life to be!! I want to love running, enjoy it, look forward to it again.  I want to be the happy and energetic person I used to be.  So, though I don’t LIKE to take time off (because, for someone who only eats like 1500 calories a day, I sure am fat!), I think I really need to.  For my mom’s sake, for Joe’s sake, fuck, for my sake, since I’m even starting to piss myself off….

….here goes.  Today I biked 70 minutes and then went to the gym for an hour and a half and did strength training with Joe.  We went to Panera<333333 afterward.  It was fun! I had a good day.  It’s 10:30 and I’m starting to get tired….my body feels ok though.

Hey!  I’m Kate.  Some of you might know me from Runner’s World…I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and create a blog about my running!

For starters, I just made a pretty important decision about where my running is going to take me.  You see, I ran track and field while I was at Bates College, but now that I am transferring to William and Mary…well, going from Division III to Division I is a big jump.  The coach, when I met with her last week, told me that I’d be the slowest girl on the team.

Basically, if I ran for WM, I’d be busting my ass all the time, I’d be overtrained, not getting enough sleep, and as a result, I’d be too irritable to be a good friend, too tired to run well, and….also too tired to do well in school!  And, not to sound pedantic, but my dream is to be a cardio-thoracic surgeon.  I want to go to an Ivy League medical school, so, obviously…my grades are SO SO important to me.  Running is important to me to, but….

…I thought about the reasons I wanted to run for WM.  I came up only with the “glory” and “prestige” associated with being able to say “I am a Division I Collegiate Athlete”.  And yes, I love to race…but lately I’ve been getting the feeling that maybe 5ks and 10ks aren’t my thing.  I’ve only been competing for a year, but I’ve never broken 19:30 or 42:00 (respectively).  And I’ve noticed that the longer my run, the happier I am.  Maybe I am meant to run longer races…10-milers, half marathons, and marathons.  (If I didn’t suck at swimming so bad, maybe I’d do a tri…)

Fortunately, William and Mary also has a Running Club.  It’s Co-Ed, so I’d get to run with girls AND guys.  It lets you be the type of runner YOU want-there are social runners, serious competitive runners, and every gradient inbetween.  You work running into your life the way you want it to…instead of the team BEING your life.  And, get this…they train for and run marathons together!  It sounds perfect for me: training, motivation, new friends, and none of the stress and frustration that comes with being the slowest girl on a varsity team.

So.  Yesterday I decided to see how long I could run for.  The longest I’d ever done before was 9 miles-I wanted to do a distance PR, so I was going for at least 10.  I did 11.25 miles in 82 minutes!  I was stunned with myself.  Today I took a complete rest day (though it was crazy-work for six hours, home for a snack and a quick shower, then off for an evening out with my boyfriend), because I haven’t had one in a week!  Tomorrow I am going to start off light-I’ll get to about 35-40mpw (I’ve been doing more, but I’ve also felt very cranky and tired all the time…might be a sign of overtraining).  I am going to FOCUS on endurance and mileage, but of course I will throw a bit of speedwork in there as well as some tune-up road races here and there (I’m going to Paris next month….maybe a foreign race? lol).

So here we go! Tomorrow starts fresh with a new direction in my running.