Sweet volleyball pictures

Some sweet volleyball pictures:) #8

No running today, only volleyball practice. Btw I did push ups yesterday but no PU challenge just to get back to it.

Building muscle base

No, I did not weight lift today. But I was thinking about it.

Our school running practice almost killed me today. I was prepared for our usual 6x1k (yes, our coach is that creative, we always do the same thing, no matter that it might be 3 months is a row), but surprise, we did 6 x 250m sprint with 250m walk between. I am so not speedy, I know and admit it. I did something like 46, 44, 45, 45, 46, 45s. I believe that speed work can be advantageous in longer races because of the muscle base it helps to build so I am not complaining too much.

Then I did 5k cool down, alone, because it has been raining all day and everybody else left as soon as we finished "hard" part. I was soaked by the end therefore I headed directly to a shower, not to a weight room.
And once I was all warmed up and clean, I did not enough moral to go to the gym. I wanted to do some lunges and squads in my room but my quads and calves!!! are tight so I prefer give them some rest.

No push ups today, will start tomorrow, I promise!

Pushing my luck

I think that yesterday with 17k I pushed my luck a little bit too far. Not that my IT band problem has anything to do with luck but still.
My knee started to act up during my Comptabilite II class this morning therefore my plan was 3k run, 6k walk and 3k run. But after first running part I decided to modify it and did only 3k run and 12k walk- I have extended my original plan a bit.

Then I did 30min of yoga. Class was supposed to be 60min but last time I did yoga was summer 2006 and this was not a workout for beginners, therefore I am gonna do 30min today and 30min some other day this week. I really want to keep doing yoga because it is supposed to be for my body:)

And I skipped half of my Finance d'entreprise class this evening to go to volleyball practice. It was pretty intense, more intense that usual. I do not really enjoy playing matches (that's just too much pressure and I am not fast enough to play volleyball anyway) but I like practices and I like watching volleyball matches. Originally I did not want to do matches and I went only to practices but one day they were missing one player and asked me to come. And since then, I have sticked to play occasional matches. Other thing is that matches are always on Thursday when I have running practice and Spanish class and I usually miss both when I play.

But only two more months and then the semester is over and I can do whatever I want to! LOL!

Looking like a soccer weirdo

Because of my recent problems with tight calves I decided to try to wear over-the-calf compression socks. I got them last week for 15Euros so I assume that they are not the hard core $60+ compression socks that Paula Radcliff would wear. But if nothing else, they will keep my calves warm and hopefully prevent tightening.

I do not have a full length mirror so you have to imagine me putting these two pictures together:





And these are my new running beauties:)


Those socks are really tight fit around my calves which makes it difficult to actually put them on. It took a few minutes laying on my bed in different weird positions and breaking a sweat before I got them on. But it seems it was worth it. No tight calves today! Really, it is not just psychological, I swear. But I do not know whether it was socks working magic or just my calves have finally stopped protesting that I run again. I shall see tomorrow whet I run with regular ankle socks.

I did my long run today. Wanted to do 15k exploring the other side of a highway. I went there on bike already and I knew that there is a nice loop I could do. But at 6k into my run I saw a huge dog several ten meters ahead and no other person in sign. I am very scared of dogs (but less than of parrots) therefore I turned around. From there I had to improvise and I think I did a pretty good job because I "created" a different pretty nice loop. The only downside(or upside, don't know) is that I ended up doing 17k. At 5:06 average pace. Not bad, I felt really good (maybe because of those compression socks:)) I picked it up a little at the end therefore 5:06 pace, because it was raining slightly and I was getting hungry. Europe changed to summer time this past night and there was no way I was getting up one hour earlier to get breakfast. So I missed it and ate only 2 kiwis before heading out.

When I got back to my room, I did couple stretches and when I was taking shower I realized that I forget to do pick-ups during my run as part of my resolutions to get more speedy. Crap! Next time (if I remember).

I start Push Ups Challenge again tomorrow and am dreading it!

Another volleyball weekend

Ok, so only one day but still.
Our men's team went to Reims to play qualification match against Reims School of Management for Coupe de France final tournament and they had place in a car, so I went with them.
They lost :( which means that they have not qualified for final tournament but it was still fun. At least for me. The volleyball gym was full of spectators and I was the only one for HEC:( Therefore I had to scream on top of my voice to make me heard. I did my best and probably won't be able to talk tomorrow. I have enjoyed it a lot although some people made fun of me because of my screaming in very bad French accent. Jerks!

It was pretty short match and we got back to campus earlier than expected and I was able to fit in 12k run before dark. I went very slowly enjoying the audiobook of Harry Potter on my mp3 player. (I am little ashamed of that but I have had that book there for past 4 years or so and am too lazy to change it to something else and once in a while I listen to it) I do not know that the deal is with my calves. Since I started running again 2 weeks ago they get tight very easily and I had to stop and stretch several times when I run. I have never had such problems with calves before. I hope it gets better soon.

There go my resolutions

You remember how I was saying that I need to keep better care of my body? Well, I ate madeleines as my lunch today. I am not going to tell you how many of them I ate and how many calories it was worth because I am way too embarrassed. Let's just say that if it had been my only meal for a day, I would have gottten my daily caloric needs pretty much covered.
And it was not my only meal (I have frozen pizza, peanut butter, apples, veggie salad)...

But I managed to fulfill at least one other resolution. I wanted to get new shoes in April, but I realized yesterday that the ones I have been using (for past 8 months +- 1-2months...I know, I am an idiot) are too worn out. Therefore I put on new shoes that have been sitting in my closet for past 2 months. Man did I feel a difference!!!

I am never ever going to be cheap on running shoes. Because I have so many sneakers (trail, road, racers, bike, normal walking, "church" sneakers and all those that are not usable anymore but am too cheap to throw them out yet), I do not feel good spending money on a next pair. My parents will be thrilled when they see all this if I will stop by in Slovakia before leaving for the US.

Running-wise, I did 12,5k today. Not the best run ever but not too bad. Since back from injury I have been doing my runs on flat paths when I can run on the grass/softer side without any downhills because they strain my knee way too much. Today I decided to go for a "normal" run. Part was on a trail, part on a road and there were down and up hills. I felt some unpleasant vibrations in my knee at 10k mark and I thought that I will have to stop, but I only slowed down (went from 5:12ish pace to almost 5:22pace) and it helped. But I think that I will stay on flat soft roads for next few weeks though.
I wanted to hit the gym (aka Prison) afterwards, but when I got there, it was closed for "travaux". I wonder what they were doing, maybe they will upgrade all those shabby old machines by new super cool stuff. Although I doubt it.
I did few minutes of yoga instead. But I have not find any really good videos on youtubes. I need to search more.

I wanted to try to walk to Paris tomorrow and I have mapped out the way to get there because I have not done that before, but I think I will go with guys volleyball team to Reims to play a cheerleader:)

And by the way, I still miss my bike. Yes, even after one week, I have not forgotten...and as days are nicer, I missed it more and more.

500s speed workout

These "speedy" workouts are killing me. We did 6x500m with 300m walk between today. Is it normal that 6x500 much harder than 6x1k? I guess it kind of makes sense since I (am supposed to) run 500m faster than 1000m and because I do not have any speed in my legs, trying to run anything a little bit faster is a torture.

I did 1:43, 1:39, 1:41, 1:44, 1:41, 1:39 and I was dead.
Even if I had energy (and will) to try to run it faster, I could not. It seems that 18s for 100m is my limit and I can continue at that speed for a longish time but just cannot change pace.

I have always had hard time acquiring speed but once I got it, I could have run fast. But it takes me always a long time to get speedy and I lose it very easily.
I am sure my long runs do not help this issue a lot. Therefore I have decided to try to incorporate few pick ups into some of my long runs. That reminds me of good old Saturday bike path runs in PVD. Such good memories!
And our coach wants to do more speedy stuff with us, which means more suffering to me, but I guess it will help me in some ways.

Not the best of the days

My calves have been killing me since our "training camp" in Houlgate, probably because of running in sand. And today, my left calf got completely screwed. It felt like a huge knot was forming in my calf and it hurt like hell. I did 1k and had to stop and stretch. Then did 1k more and then I had to call it quits.
Therefore I did 2k run and walked 4k.

Our gym is finally open (I wonder for how long) and I normally do 4 hours of volleyball training on Wednesdays but because of the calf, I decided to do only 2 hours.
Now I am sorry I did not do the whole thing because surprisingly my calf did not hurt at all when I played. The knot is still there though.

I hope it will be ok tomorrow because I ma thrilled for tomorrow's running workout!!!

6 x 1k workout

Quote of the day: "Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win." (Random fact: That's actually something what Chris Escareno told me few years ago when we were talking about days off from running. He said that he did not take days off because someone else is not taking a day off and that guy will beat him at next race. It seems it is working well for him since he is (and always was) one of the best long-distance runners in Ivy League. But I am not going to follow his example.)

I did not post yesterday because yesterday was crazy. I HATE students. We had group presentation to prepare for Wednesday and they decided to meet at 11pm! WTF!!! It's my bed time. I do not care that you go to bed at 4 in the morning, but please do not make the other (wiser) people to do the same! Grrr.
Anyway, I did 12k easy yesterday and my calves were killing me.


Today's workout was just awesome. We did 6 x 1k with 200m jog between and I felt great.
I did 3:48, 3:45, 3:47, 3:45, 3:46, 3:44 and I felt strong and relaxed.
We ran it in group but I ended up running most of them alone because my usual running partner did not have his day.
I did weights afterwards. I am taking a week off from Push Ups Challenge because my chest muscles need to recover a little.

It was not that hard and I am really confident about getting back in good running shape. I am exciting about doing 3k in April, now I just need to get used to pain and win that battle with my worse self that little pain is not bad. Although I am not sure whether I can do that.

VCH rocks!

It is really late therefore I am going to keep this short:

We won both volleyball matches today, which means that have qualified for the final Coupe de France tournament in Nantes at the beginning of May. It is really exciting! Go VCH!!! (Volleyball Club HEC)

I have not played much, which is perfect because my knee hurts when I jump or do fast movements to sides. I do not know that the deal is.

It was a perfect Sunday. Everybody was pumped and thrilled, especially our coach. We sang all French hits (well, not me, I did not know any of those songs) and danced in the bus on our ride back. Imagine dancing Makarena in a bus, you get the idea.

The only down thing was that we stopped at McDonald's for dinner. What the f***? I am not the healtiest-eating person in the world, but eating at McDo after volleyball matches, that's too much. In fact, eating at McDo anytime is unthinkable for me. Of course nobody listened to my protests.
I just do not get it. Even my sister's team, that plays volleyball in Arkansas in NCAA Division II, they go to McDonalds after their matches. Unbelievable!

I am off to bed.

Promises

I guess I will be a "new running me" starting tomorrow...

It seems that my Thursdays 10k race was little too much on my legs that are not used to running. My legs felt really very heavy yesterday even after easy recup run and this morning it was not any better. Therefore I told to myself that a day off will be the best thing to do. My mileage for pat 5 days this week has been around 40k which is not bad for "come back" week.

But I got so bored that I decided to go for a run, which is definitely not aligned with my new running resolutions. I did 5k out and then 5k walk back. It was a pure torture. I do not even want to know my pace. I walked back but tried to start running at about 3k to go but my quadriceps were so tight that I had to stop and continue walking.

I stretched a lot and massaged my legs back in my room. I hope it will be much better tomorrow. I am not going to run tomorrow, that's for sure, because we are going to Lille for Coupe de France volleyball match. I am secretly hoping I will not have to play and just sit and rest on a bench:)

Push ups suck. Today was my Day 3 of Week 4 and I moved to middle column because I the top column has become too hard for me. But it has not helped. I was supposed to do 23, 28, 23, 23, 33. I did 23, 28, 23 and then 13 and could not do more. What's the deal with this? It was not supposed to be that difficult today? Maybe I only need a rest. I will do Week 4 again next week and see how it goes. I am even thinking about taking few days off so my chest muscles can fully recover.

My "New Running" resolutions

Now when it seems that knee is finally ok again, I need to make everything possible to keep it that way.

Although I do not know for 100% why my knee keeps getting messed up, I think that it has something to do with my running and eating habits. I mean, that else can it be?

Here go my new running me guidelines:

#1: Eat better. I have a VERY sweet tooth and it is not a problem for me to eat chocolate for lunch or breakfast. I eat always the same food, therefore I guess I am not getting enough of all necessary nutrients. Then I am trying to save money on food, which is not a good thing. Since breakfast is free here (hm, free. We pay almost 600 Euros a month for a room, therefore I guess that it is not completely free, although they claim it is. And our breakfast choices are limited to bagettes, butter, jam, milk, sugar, honey, coffee and tea. What do we expect when it is free, right?), I was trying to save money by eating baggetes for breakfast and then store them and eat them for lunch as well. It is just simple carbs with no nutritional value. Now I need to stop! No more bagettes for lunch. No more chocolate, madeleines, and other sweet stuff for lunch, dinner and so on. Cut on peanut butter. Eat only wholewheat pasta because I eat lots of pasta. Eat more chicken (I almost do not eat any meat, only fish and chicken and should eat more of it). And drink more water.

#2: Take rest days and take it easy on my easy days and try to cross train. I almost have not taken any rest days prior my injury because I felt I needed to do more because of all the time I have "wasted" being injured. Should be wiser about that. Since my bike is gone and we do not have pool, I do not know what I can do as cross training but I will try to figure out something.

#3: Strength training. At least 2 times a week, preferably 3 times. My plan is work out on Tuesdays and Thursdays after running practice and then maybe something easy on Friday. I should do more core strengthening. I will try to do abs 4-5 times a week.

#4: Stretching. I am usually very good about stretching when I am injured but when things clear out I tend to start slacking. Stretch each day at least for few minutes.

#5: More "quality" running. What I mean is tempo runs, intervals, strides. Not only it will help me to keep my leg muscles more balanced (or something similar, you get the idea what I mean) but it will help me to run faster. We do intervals at our running practices but it might not be enough.

#6: Stop being cheap and change shoes more frequently. I have had the same shoes since September (I have rotated shoes until mid-November but since then I have been running in one pair only). I know it is a long long time. I have another pair in my closet but I was trying to "save" them for later. I am going to start using them at the beginning of April.

I cannot think of anything else for now but already these few things should help me a lot. At least I hope. In retrospective I see that I have not been doing right choices and now it is time to change that.

Le printemps est là

I am sure that winter is definitely over although it is not March 21st yet. I am really glad because I hate being cold. I should move to country where it is always warm, that would be so cool!

On a sad note, my bike was indeed sold:( Now I got store credit and I was debating about buying a new bike. But do not worry, I have not bought one. But I have already started to spend the credit: I got compression socks and protein powder. Suzy Favor Hamilton would be proud of me! (I am sure only Brown XC 2007 knows what I am talking about...)

So 17k walk in the morning and my knee felt kind of funny. Not my IT band but something inside. I did not want to run but it was stronger than me! I went for 11k slow recup run and it was great.
I am so happy I can run again. And like I promised I am going to take better care of my body and make everything possible to prevent any injuries.

No push ups today. I tried but I was too tired, I am going to do them tomorrow.

OMG, track! (10k track race report)

I do not know why I have agreed to do this. 10k on a track. 25 laps. After 4 weeks without running. With screwed up IT band.

It was a meet organized by Polytechnique and it is usually on a road, but this year they do some construction work therefore they decided to do it on a track. We were supposed to start at 3:10pm and at 3:09 when everybody was getting ready for start, they suddenly realized that there is too many people and no way they can deal with all of us at once. Therefore they divided us into 2 groups: those whose reference time was under 40min and those planning on finishing over 40minutes. Which meant that my race was postponed by 50min! Crap.
I spent those 50min swearing and complaining to everyone who would listen and asking myself what exactly I was doing there. Indeed, very enjoyable 50 minutes.

But then off we went. I did not know what time I can hope for and was already sous-motivated. I started at 1:40min/lap pace and decided to see how it goes, whether I will die at 5k mark or not. First 3 k I ran with one of my teammates, but then he decided to go ahead and I stayed alone for the rest of the race. I was not really pushing myself, but it was still pretty hard, because 10k race is 10k race, it is quite a lot. And I got bored. It is not like running trails or in town where you can look around and observe things. Here, all you do is running in circles. And I had already enough after 6 of them.
I told to myself, ok you will do 5k at this pace and then you try to pick it up a little. At 5k mark, I decided to wait until 2k to do. At 8k mark, I told to me what's the point, I can just pick up the last 400m and then it was really too late so I just kind of sprinted last 100m.

My time: 42:13. Now awesome, but not that bad. Maybe if I persuaded myself to push a little, it could have been very close to 40, even maybe just under 40min because I really felt good. Of course I curse myself in retrospective and feel guilty that I have not tried to run it faster but I am somehow satisfied because I have not run for almost one month and (I can just go on and on with excuses).
My knee bothered me a little at around 3k mark, but then it was ok. Seems that it is back to normal again. I just hope it will stay like this.
There is another meet on April 15 and I might try to do 3k. This time, I am going to train for it and maybe I can win the battle with myself and push a little bit more.

I jogged

Quote of the day: If you went for a run today and didn’t sacrifice anything, congratulations you just jogged.

Another awesome day but not so awesome run. I went out to do 6k but my legs were so heavy and I felt really sluggish so I turned back at 2,5k mark. Painful jog worth 5k. I only hope that I feel better tomorrow.
I was supposed to have volleyball practice but it has been called off last minute (they closed our gym again I suppose).

Week 4 Day 2 Push ups challenge...is killing me. I am definitely giving up and moving to middle column. I was supposed to do 25, 29, 25, 25, 36. I did first 3 sets ok, but then had to take 3minutes break instead of 90seconds and last 36- I did 28 took few sec off, did 3, few sec off and finished 5. There is no way I can do Day 3 of this in "top" column.

Other than that, pretty eventful day: I finally finished filling tax forms and will send them on Friday. I have not spent a single day in the US in 2009 but still have to file taxes! Thanks God my taxes in Slovakia were filed by my employer and French taxes...I think I have to file them but accounting lady told me that it is not necessary so I am not going to worry about that. Just hope I will not find myself in a jail couple years from now. It is not fun if you have to file taxes in three different countries, no fun at all.
And I had an internship interview over phone with company near Detroit this evening. I have a good feeling but I am not too optimistic because of me not being an American and not having a work authorization. But still keep your fingers crossed!

Pre-race workout

Although I question the use of this workout before 10k race, I shut up and did what I was told to do.
1,5k warm up followed by 10xcca200 with 200m jog between. We went very easy, not as usual when we "race" each other. We usually do this in high 30s whereas today it was in mid 40s. Then 2k cool down.
I still have sore calves:(

Awesome weather today (warm and sunny) and I miss my bike!!!!

Getting back to running

Quote of the day: "Death before DNF"

My calf are still sore from running in the sand but other than that all Normandy memories are forgotten and I am back to reality. I learnt it very hard way this morning during my Corporate finance exam...I hope I will get at least an E and pass.

I still do not want to put too much pressure on my knee because I feel it is not 100% (maybe 97,3%) and want to save it for 10k race on Thursday. I am kind of excited for that race, it will be fun. I have no expectations, I am not sure how fast I can run it and nobody expects anything form me.

I did only 5k easy run today, on soft surface and felt pretty good (it was a very easy run so I should feel good, right?).
And I did Week 4 Day 1 of push ups challenge few minutes ago. Push ups...horrible. It was 21,25,21,21,32 today and I was really struggling at last 32. I did 20 and then my arms just could not do more, so I took 5sec rest and did another 6, another few seconds off and 3, another few off and last 3. Awful. (I keep hitting random letters on my keyboard and deleting and backspacing because my arms just do not do what I want them to do.) I will see how it goes Wednesday and then I decide whether I repeat Week 3 or not.

Yeah, I changed the name of my blog because "change is life".

Week in numbers

Running: 29
Bike: indoor:2h outdoor: 8k
Volley: 2h
Weights: 2x
Walking: 7k
PU chall: Week 3 total: 300
+ some funny drills

Running weekend

I am back from our running camp in Houlgate in Normandy and it rocked!!! Not only I ran on a beach but I also swam in a sea!

I will start form the beginning.
Friday: In the morning I went to sell my bike (tears), which meant that I did cca 8k bike, then 7k walk and 1k run.
In the afternoon, we had a nice easy 7,3k run on a beach. It was hard running in sand but it was still awesome. Push up challenge (total 120 push ups, I was amazed how easy that felt (not easy, but not too hard), I do not know what happened there. I thought I would not be able to do that, but I did).Then sauna and in the evening we went to creperie for yummy pancakes.
Saturday: W/up, then some drills and sprints and some other weird exercises in the morning, plus 1k cool down and sauna. After very filling lunch and some rest, we had a real workout. 1k w/up and then 7x400m hard w/400 jog between. Well, they were not supposed to be too hard, but we kinda could not restrain ourselves and other thing is, our running is not too serious to care about paces and stuff. So we just went as we felt like going. We started at 79 and worked our way down to 73s. It was not that hard actually but I do not have any speed so event if I wanted to go faster, I could not. Then 1,5k c/d and again few minutes in sauna. I wanted to spend my evening studying for my Corporate finance mid-term that it tomorrow but felt asleep after 40min, before 10pm:) I was dead!


Sunday: Slow 9,5k jog on a beach and then I put my bathing suit on and I went to swim. People though I was crazy, because we ran in gloves and hats. Even some random people going by stopped and watched me and even applauded me:) Water was freezing of course but I am from landlocked Slovakia, we do not have any seas and therefore I must use all the opportunities I get to go swimming in a sea. I should not call it swimming, since I have spend there like 2-3 minutes. Then warm sauna, lunch and weights in the afternoon.





The purpose of this training camp was to prepare us for competition we have on Thursday. Our school is competing with 2 other schools in our region in 10k track race. I am not sure whether it has really helped us to be prepared but it was fun nevertheless:) And the best part is that I did not have to pay for it, because it was too expensive for me but our coach really wanted me to come so he persuaded school to pay for me. Isn't that cool?

I was nicely surprised that my knee has survived all this. I felt a slight pain on Friday and then Saturday after 400s but other than it, it felt really good. I hope it will be ok on Thursday.

Now I am back on campus studying for my exam. I cannot fail it (which is very easy here), otherwise I will have to take a gap year and cannot go to UCLA.

SAD

I sold my bike this morning (well, took it to sale that starts tomorrow but I am sure it will get sold).

What am I going to do without it? Studying? How am I going to further explore my surroundings? So sad.
I have the other bike but I took it for a ride couple days ago and it is falling apart. Literally, I left the "screws trace" behind me.
If I am not accepted in any internships in the USA, and I might stay here for summer, I am going to buy another bike, definitely.

On the bright side, I will have enough money to buy at least two pairs of new sneakers:) But it is not making me feel better.

I hope that running on the beach this afternoon will cheer me up. Yes that's right, I am going to Normandy for the weekend with our running club. Sure it will be cold and windy but beach is beach:)

No running, again

I have planned on running today but then I got suddenly called to plan volleyball match.

I did 30min on bike this morning before school and then in the afternoon we played. I played the whole match and had some bright moments:) But we lost, which is not surprising since we have not had practice for past 3-4 weeks and we are not that great anyway, but sometimes we we step it up and win, but not today!
But we had great time (our coach could not come:)) and I really enjoyed it. My knee did not hurt at all which is great because volleyball is sometimes worse than running.

Then I had to run to Spanish class so I could not get run in before dark and I did another 30min on bike instead and finished the day with abs.

Taking it easy

After the excitement of being able to run again, I decided to take it easy today and dis not run because I feel my knee is not 100% yet. I will run again tomorrow.

And I was little sore from yesterdays hills:) It was much easier than my bike hills because those were pure torture but I was not sore from them...Does it mean that my "bike" muscles are stronger than my "run" muscles? I do not understand.

So today I went to the gym "a la Prison" and did legs workout, then biked for 30min (inside because it is freezing here) and did push ups- Week 3 Day 2. Those push ups are so difficult, I am sure that I will not be able to do Week 4 next week. I will try but I think that I will have to repeat week 3. Today I did 20, 25, 15, 15, 25 and I had VERY hard time finishing last 25 eventhough I took longer breaks between sets. Actually, I might not be able to finish my Days 3 of this week...

I ran!!!

Today was awesome, because I tried running for the first time after almost 3 weeks of not running. I did 1k warm-up, then 6x80m uphill and 3k cool down. My knee was not 100%, maybe like 98% and I felt the pain only once at the end but it was only for a second. I am sooo happy.

I did not do anything else today, although I originally planned to do 30min on bike in the evening but then I decided not to stretch my luck any further and give my knee a rest.

I hope this is a new start and this time I am going to make things right - eat, stretch, ice and recover between runs!!!

No fun

Back to school...not easy after 1 week of doing NOTHING (I mean schoolwise).


It seems that winter is coming back. It has been freezing all day, but at least it does not rain or snow.
No moral to go biking outside today so I did 30min in my room and Week 3 Day 1 PU challenge (total 80 push ups). Man I will be sore tomorrow...

Week in numbers

Running: 0
Bike: 238k
Volley: 0
Weights: 0
Walking: 17k
PU chall: Week 2 total: 218

Oh, well...

Freezing!!!!

It was sunny today but very cold and very windy. So I bundled up (1 short-sleeved shirt, 3 long-sleeved shirts, 1 winter running jacket + 1 extra jacket in a backpack, 2 pairs of gloves, 2 pairs of socks (one thin, on warm) and off I went.

I wanted to go to these cool lakes and take some pictures. First 18k were great, but then...I got a flat tire.
Of course I had a repair kit because I do not want to get stuck somewhere in French countryside since I do not know anyone who I can call to come pick me up.
But you can imagine how hard it was to fix it with frozen fingers. I did not know whether I should cry, scream or what. It took me almost 30minutes to fix it and I was frozen to bones. I am still little frozen now.
Of course I did not go to lakes, I turned around immediately. Maybe sometime next week, hopefully it will get warmer.
This was the worst bike ride ever!!!
Total: 35k today

You might be a runner if…

...you do anything to try to heal an injury except go to a doctor or athletic trainer because you know they will just tell you to "stop running".

So true. In past year (March to March), I have been able to run approximately 5 months and the rest I have been injured and not able to run as much as I would like to. But I never really went to see a doctor because...well, he will just tell me to stop running (and because they are soooo expensive! I mean, 80 Euros for being told "stop running", come on!) But maybe I should go see a doctor because I want to run again, desperately.

I have enjoyed past week when I went biking every day but it is just not the same! I promise that I will take days off, eat right and generally take better care of my body, but please...I want to run again.

I am selling my bike next Friday (but there is still a chance that nobody will buy it and I am secretly hoping that it will happen). If I had enough money, I would definitely keep it but I cannot.

For now, I will try to stay positive and get back on track.
I would love to do another marathon because the first one was just to see how it is and now I want to try to race a marathon. But I am too scared that I will get injured again so I have decided to do a half marathon instead. I want to do Rock'n'Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon on October 24th, if I am healthy (Anybody in with me????). I will wait a little more before doing next marathon. Although I was contemplating signing up for NYC Marathon lottery because this might be my last chance. Who knows where I will end up living...But if I get lucky..it is so freaking expensive for non-Americans- like 265$!!!

I did not go to biking event today because it was kinda cold and it is 30k to get there, 30k back and 80k inbetween and it would have been not enjoyable.

I did 50k on my own instead and my fingers and toes were freezing although I was wearing two pairs of socks and two pairs of gloves! I was wearing a t-shirt and 3 long-sleeved shirts and I was still cold and after 30k I had to put on also NorthFace running jacket.

Push Ups

Took a day off from biking because it is very cold and I really had to start studying. So I have basically spent the whole day studying accounting and sending more internship applications. I am starting to be very skeptical about that... but I know it has been only 1 week and I cannot expect companies' replies yet.

And my knee felt weird today. I have not tried running for over a week but I kneeled down today to get something from my closet and then suddenly I felt a pretty sharp pain on the exterior side on my knee- spot where it has been hurting before and then it has been bothering me most of the day.

The only workout today was Push Ups challenge Day 3 of Week 2. Total: 81. Last 20 I did were hard and I am sure my pectoralis muscles will be sore tomorrow. Thanks God I can take 2 days off now and Week 3 starts on Monday.
I should take a new assessment test now to see where I stand, but I think that I am going to skip that, since I know I can do 25 push ups so I will just jump into 3rd column.

Paris-Nice bike race starts on Monday so they are doing different animations for people and I signed up for 80k fun ride, but I am not sure whether I will do that if it does not get warmer outside. Because freezing my ass off for 80k...not so much fun. But Alberto Contador should be there, so I might go check him out. Our gym is still closed for safety reasons and we do not volleyball practices and I miss my weekly dose of manly volleyball players:)

Cannot think of any

My mind is too tired:(

I have a school break now and I have planned on studying a lot (I need to study because business schools are pretty hard:)), but it is Thursday and I have not even started. I want to cry!

But...I have sent out a lot of internship applications and now I hope someone will accept me. I hate writing motivation letters. I mean, I don't really want to work for those companies, I am applying only because of money or because it is requirement if I want to graduate, so what am I supposed to write in those stupid letters?!?
And last night, I even had a very stupid dream about internships/applications/work.

I did only 30k today. It was sunny but we had a very strong and COLD wind and I was freezing. So I just took few pictures (with my new camera) of some of my favorite places and went back to my warm room.

Now it is time to sleep so I can continue writing cover letters and start studying tomorrow!

FIRE!!!

Do not worry, I am not talking about an arson. I am talking about my legs...
I did a hill workout today: 10x400 and man was it hard! Of course, it was bike workout, not running workout. My first real bike workout ever. Until today, I usually did only long steady rides but I figured I should do something more productive. So hills it was.
I did 1,5k warm up and then started the workout. I took 3 minutes recovery between each hill for first 5 hills but then I could not bear it any longer and had to extend it to 5 minutes recovery. In those 5 minutes I kinda forgot how hard a hill interval is and could start a new interval. My quads were burning like hell, my heart was about to jump out of my chest and I thought I am going to throw up soon. Just horrible.
I was always saying that cyclist are incredible because it is a really hard sport, especially going up a hill and today just confirmed this.
Then I did 15k cool down, just cruising around and enjoying a ride.

I am sure that I can only benefit from these kind of intervals. It is an awesome strength workout.
Check this out:


I am not quite there yet, but getting there :)

Oh, I have forgotten: I did 17k power walk this morning. To the mall to get a camera, so now I can take pictures:)

And in the evening I did my Push Ups challenge routine Day2 of Week2. 74 push ups today (14, 16, 12, 12, 20). It is definitely getting more challenging and I am not looking forward to week 6. But I need to be strong and set a good example for Mad:)

Who says I live in the middle of nowhere?

Another gorgeous day and another bike day.
I did another 50k today (well 51,6k according to Garmin). I cannot imagine myself doing this if I lived in Paris. Everybody complains that we do not have campus in Paris and I am probably the only person here who prefers it this way. I think that everyone should buy a bike and then everybody will see how awesome it is that we live in the middle of nowhere.

Oh, yesterday I forgot to complain about ice hockey. Well, I cannot say I am happy with the final result of Slovak team. But everybody (me including) was saying our team is too old and blahblah and therefore I was nicely surprised after first few matches and 4th place exceeds my expectations. But, still, afterwards I expected more, at least the bronze medal. I have one suggestion to all Slovak hockey players: switch from NHL to NFL because I am sure you will get many offers after what you showed in the last third of the match with Finland.... Winning 3:1 and then repeatedly trying to see whether you can still win playing with 4 players (goalie included)...You could have asked me, I would have told you that it does not work.
Hopefully it will be better in Germany, now everyone expects more:)

Bike and push ups

Nice weather today, awesome. I did approximately 50k on bike and it was also AWESOME. I need to get a camera so I can take some pictures because there are so many nice and awesome places!!! I tried to push a little harder then usually so it felt like a workout and my legs feel little sore.
Then I did Day 1 Week 2 of Push Ups challenge:) Total push ups: 63

Maybe I should start doing pull ups challenge as well because the amount of pull ups I can do is pathetic. I manage to do like 1,5 (one and a half) consecutive pull ups.