ashatteredclock

It would definitely be Abbey Road by The Beatles.

It has basically all the elements of music that appeal to me, all smashed into (imo) the greatest rock album of all time. It has fun songs that really don't mean anything like come together, that's way fun to sing to. It has extremely romantic songs like "something in the way". No joke that song will be my wedding song, or "our song" with the bride (whoever that will be). It has nice soothing songs that could potentially mean something deep like "sun king" or now that I mention it, "here comes the sun" for sure. Geat lyrics, great guitar, and will definitely be my favorite album for the rest of my life.

Things I wanted to do/get done this summer:

.read the 20 or so books I had lined up
.continue working on my writing projects/poetry
.paint my room/re-decorate
.be full time training for running
.research running science articles/online studies
.write down some of my own observations for running science

Things I have done:
.Hang out with friends late at night/early morning
.Start painting my room
.Spend time with family
.Train half-assed


I am privelaged enough to complain about how my summer has been going...

Another note: my only week when I got down and foccussed on running was when I hot 100 miles (one of my best friends was in hawaii that week... coinsidence?)

Another note: I have been going once a week every week to my grandparent's house in LA cause my great uncle has cancer and is on the verge. I've always looked up to him and loved him more than he knows.

Another note: Last time I cried (about 1 year ago), I cried because I was depressed and felt guilty about never morning the death of my great aunt (who died about 4 years ago).

Another note: I have a feeling that this will be my last summer in Thousand Oaks. My parents may move to Pasadena next year. How can I get homesick if I don't feel like pasadena is my home???

Another note: when will people learn that getting together with the youth/highschool/college/joggers/recreational/old folks/fast/slow runners in the area is the best possible thing to do??? I hate when I run on my own, or with 1 other person when I know there are a ton of other runners out there who are running on their own too. Why can't we just all meet up and go running all together? Its always been a dream of mine to have that sort of thing going in thousand oaks. its probably too much to ask for though.

Last note: there is an advertisement to the right of my computer screen that is advertising for an art institute. anyways it says "Stop dreaming, start diong" I think my new goal in summer is to do just that.!

100 mile weeks... here I come!

Monday (5/18) - 6:30am; decided to run in the morning to beat the heat. warmed up 0.5 miles to waverly park. Did warm up routine, then did the pederson loop starting and ending at waverly. Went a good pace, faster than what I have been going. I feel like I need to start working on bringing my average pace/mile down, but at the same time try to do that without going too hard. I want to feel in control of the pace all the time. after I finished, I added on another mile in waverly and ran home. I didn't have much to do during the day since my mom and dad work and sister is at school so I took advantage of time and stretched a lot, rolled a lot, iced my knee, and went for a regeneration run which I don't count towards the mileage. I'm doing lidyard based training (minus the 3 long runs/week), so all my regeneration runs are just extra runs to speed up the recovery process and are done from 8:00 to 10:00 pace. 7miles total. and 4 extra.
Tuesday (5/19) - 6:30am; ran two miles easy from my house to body focus parking lot. There I did my warm up routine drills, then did my first workout. I ran 4 miles, to el capitan park and back, a little slower than threshold pace, what I estimated to be my marathon pace. It was also a little tougher to gauge it because the course it all over rolling hills. But anyways it was good. I felt good, good enough so at the end I felt like I could run farther at the same pace which is what I wanted. basically comfortably fast. After I ran 2 miles back home easy. 8 miles total.
Then around 9:00pm I ran 6 miles extra with Jason. He seemed to be happy with the pace too. It was just a very nice relaxing run. I also stopped at the highschool to do stretching/leg strengthening drills. I want to incorporate this 2-3 times a week in my routine. Also I need to add a core workout 2-3 times a week. 8miles total, 6 miles extra.
Wednesday (5/20) - 6:30am; did the lynnmere loop from my house, after I stretched, and rolled my legs thoroughly. 7.0miles total.
Later did 2miles regeneration jog with leg swings and thorough stretching after.
Thursday (5/21) - 4:30pm; drove to the track, warmed up 2 miles, did 8x150 strides with 250m jog rest, and did 2 mile cool down. iced after. 6.0 miles total. This actually tired me out a bit. The 2 mile cool down was slow and tiring. I think I took the 150's a little too hard.
note to self: 9 miles friday, 11 saturday, 7 sunday for 55 total
Friday (5/22) - 12:00pm; woke up late due to hanging out with friends and it was pretty hot so I decided to break up the day to make it easy on myself. so I did 4 miles at waverly at a decent steady pace. Felt pretty good actually considering yesterday was a little harder than I wanted. After I ran did extensive stretching and rolling and meant to ice my knee (it band) for good measure, but never happened.
6:00pm; did the second portion of the day. ran to wildflower, dropped off my shirt/camel back there and finished up in wildwood to make 5.0miles total. met up with friends for basketball (didn't play but shot around). After I stretched and leg swings. Tomorrow I leave at 6:00am for big bear. Thanks dad for making us leave so early so I have to do 11 miles @ altitude my first day there. ugh. 9.0 total.

Monday (5/11) - 11:30am; woke up, went to the track, did warm up, ran golf couse + a mile on track afterward. I actually felt really good. This run is the perfect road run. Not too long or short, has fair amount of flats, uphills, and downhills, some gradual, some steep. The scenery is absolutely amazing for a street run. Usually I have to go on a trail to get good natural scenery, but this road partially goes through the forest, and goes parallel to some nice ranches so its enjoyable. Anyways I felt really good. I went a good, controlled, relaxed pace the whole way. The only thing is that on some of the uphills/downhills my left knee really hurt. It was a sharp pain whenever I took a step on the hills. Then magically, it would dissapear on the flats. It felt like I needed to crack something to loosen it up, sort of like my knuckles. So I tried doing some butt-kicks and some other things but nothing worked. This worries me. Usually when I have an injury it starts out light and not so bad and jus gradually gets worse. But this just popped out of no where. Who knows I might have slept on it wrong? I just hope it goes away soon because after being injured on and off for the last two years, I'm not ready to put up with this crap. I'm gunna continue to ice, elevate, rest, and stretch my quads/hamstrings. 8.5 miles total.
Tuesday (5/12) - 12:15pm; ok so I'll probably post twice today. I haven't ran yet, and I am a little weary to. My knee is in pain, more than when I ran yesterday. After the run yesterday it started to hurt when I would walk. And at first this morning it was actually feeling a little better, but coming back from class an hour ago it really hurt walking downhill to my dorms. This whole thing is very perplexing, and frustrating. I hope the trainer's is open today, I'm definitely going to check it out. I may end up running very lightly and easy on the grass infeild. I know it's probably a bad idea, but I really really want to get a run in. A 0 for the day would be haunting me. Also another thing I may check out is the eliptical; to see if this is impact related or motion related. Anyways.... this sucks bad. Its only been 3 weeks since I came back running, and I've been pretty conservative too. Then this happens. Its just very frustrating.
          Ok so its sunday right now, i haven't had a chance to go online cause I've been very busy with finals and moving back home. But I'm home now and trying to update by memory up until now, so bear with me.
Tuesday - 8:30pm; decided to go for a run on the track infield after all. Went about 10:00/mile pace and alternated laps on the infield and laps around the softball field that's next door to the track. ran 4.0 miles total.
Wednesday (5/13) - 0. Yes a zero. Partially because of my knee, and partially because of finals and my Dad came up around 5:00pm to take me home, and I gave him a tour of the place, so although I didn't run, I got a fair amount of walking in.
Thursday (5/14) - 9:00pm;  Left at 5:00am to get home and drove for 13 hours with my dad. Got home at 6:00pm and wasn't feeling like running at all. I was really tired and sore from sitting so dang long, but after rolling out my IT Band my knee felt great so I tested it out. If it hurt I was only going to run 4.0miles and if I felt good I was going to do an extra loop to run 7.0. I ended up doing 7.0miles total!
Friday (5/15) - 0 for today too =( well this doesn't have THAT great of an excuse, other than I was really tired. I spent literally the entire day doing my laundry, cleaning my room (and rearranging it..dang parents messing with my room when I'm gone). I worked on it all through the day and into the night and when I finally finished I debated a run, but I was just worn out, my back was hurting from bending over so much, so I just didn't run. I went into this week having no expectations other than go by feel, so I'm not TOO upset.
Saturday (5/16) - 2:00pm. Now that I'm all settled in at my house in Thousand Oaks, I can relax and get down to business! I actually went to CIF prelims at Moorpark HS to cheer on my younger HS teammates in the 2mile, and I brought my running stuff so I can get a run in there at this pretty cool trail I know. So I didn't have a watch or anything (I really need to get one) so I just guessed what 3.5 miles out was and turned back. The area in Socal is so different from my school in Norcal. For starters there are no forests to run in, this place is like a desert compared to what I am used to, and its 20 degrees warmer on average. Anyways I started at the track entrence and went down to the soccer fields, then turned left on a bridge and went east on a trail that runs parallel to a little canal river thing. When that trail dead ended at spring st. I turned left and went on spring st. until the crest of a long uphill and what I thought was 3.5 miles. Then I turned back and when I got back to the soccer fields I did a lap around the whole grass fields which I counted as a mile. Got back to the track to see my old teammates run really well. Sean ran 9:22 and qualified, and Kevin rand 9:20 and made it to CIF finals as well! 8.0 miles total.
Sunday (5/17) - 5:30pm; ran from my house to the peak of the Santa Rosa trail and back. I was planning on doing a long run by adding 2 miles in waverly when I got back, but I guess the heat really got to me because I was pretty tired when I got back into my nieghborhood and didn't feel like doing the extra 2 miles at all. So I just called it quits. I think from now on I'm going to be running in the morning, when its cool. Cause I have to figure out some way to beat the heat. Next week I'm getting down to business and I can't afford any excuses. Notable: I took an ice bath today about 20min. after I got back and I think I'm going to do this 3 times a week from now on. 9.0miles total.

Week Recap:
Mileage goal: 55 Miles ran: 36.5

Well as I said the expectations for this week wasn't too high. The main thing is to go by feel. I have to keep reminding myself that so I don't get down on myself. Also this week was a little weird with the whole blind-sided knee issue, and the tiresoms of traveling 13 hours and moving back home for the first time in 4 months (the longest time I've been away from home). I'm guessing if I had ran those two days I would have hit almost 50, but I think my legs would be more tired right now from traveling/running on top. Anyways the lack of running motivated me to get going this next week and hot 55, but (almost more importantly) I will also be adding a ton of "extra stuff" like drills, warming up, stretching excessively, rolling, ice baths, strength excersises (lunges, squats, etc.), core work, swimming, and most importantly I will be adding two "workouts". One will either be fast/relaxed 10x150 on the track, and the other will be a 6mi marathon pace run (6:00/mile pace or so). I'm stepping it up, so we'll see how it goes. I definitely have to be on my game for recovery stuff.

Monday (5/04) - 4:00pm; no more running with the team, just me and whoever I hook up to run with for this last regular week of school (before week of finals). So I did my warm up routine and went for a 5.5 mile run (mud run) in the forest. Basically all day it has been raining cats and dogs (good ol humboldt for ya), so I thought I'd have fun with it. The week was a little harder than I had wanted so I thought I'd take today as a regeneration run and just enjoy things. Within the first two minutes of running I was soaked from head to foot so I started running through puddles on purpose and getting muddy, and I had a lot of fun doing it. When I got back to the track I did another mile to make 7.0 miles even (0.5 for warm up).
Tuesday (5/05) - 2:30pm; went to the track and warmed up then went in the forest to do the no horses trail. The first 2 miles are always the hardest part in the forest, so I decided to take that part easy then when it starts to flatten out afterwords start to roll a little bit. This plan worked well. The last 5 miles I felt great and was going a good pace. When I got back I did 6 100m strides, then stretched and called it a day. 7.5 miles total.
Wednesday (5/06) - 5:00pm; met up with Hunter at the track after doing a lil warm up and ran no horses again with him. Except this time I got my butt kicked because he is in the middle of an 80 mile week and has been running continuously for over 4 months. While I'm in a 50 mile week, my third week back. So on virtually all the uphills he left me in the dust, and had to slow down for me after on the downhills. And it was a faster pace than I have been going. Its ok though, I'm not discouraged at all. It just means that I have to give it time (it has only been three weeks afterall), and the fitness will develope. Was planning on doing 6 today, but sacrificed a mile to run with Hunter. 7.0 total for today.
Thursday (5/07) - 7:00pm; ran with Hunter again in the forest except he ran with me the whole time this time, it was more easy/steady for me, and easy for him. Only did the community loop and ran some field laps to fill in the rest of the runs. I've also been meaning to jot down that my arch pain has dissapeared so as of right now I am 100% healthy and feeling good. My motivation is through the roof, and I'm am enjoying every day I go out to run. And I'm looking forward to building up to some heavier mileage and getting in "real" shape. 6.5 miles total.
Friday (5/08) - 3:30pm; wanted to get my run done with a little earlier today so I could eat when I got back. Just ran my myself. Did the same warm up, and ran 5.5 miles at a steady pace. It was harder/faster than I have been going so far, but it wasn't out of control at all. Maybe at the fastest 6:30-6:40 pace. Which is about the pace I want to be at eventually once I get in better shape. Full stretching when I got back. 6.0 miles total.
saturday (5/09) - 12:30pm; woke up, went to the track, did my warm up, saw steve and derrick there, talked to them, did my 10mi. long run. went jackson ranch. My legs were fatigued from yesterday, I guess I went a little too hard. I wouldn't say this long run hurt, but I was tired from beginning to end. I don't have a watch but I know its a 9.5 mile run (plus 0.5 warm up=10) and I'm guessing I averaged between 7:10-7:30. I didn't want to really push it so I just tried to relax the whole time. Glad I got it done. 10miles total.
Sunday (5/10) - 12:00pm; woke up late and went to the track. did usual warmup then ran 5.5 easy in the forest (community loop + california 1mi. loop). Felt surprisingly good considering yesterday I didn't. But glad I do feel good cause I raise the mileage again next week. Got back to the track and did 6x100m strides. Stretched, then called it a day. 6.0miles total.

Week Recap:
goal of: 50 miles /ran: 50 miles.

Mileage wise was perfect. I basically scheduled my time around running this week since I didn't run with the team so there wasn't any reason to keep me from running the exact mileage. I can feel my running economy getting better and better as time goes on. I have to keep myself from pushing too hard beause I'm so anxious to get bak to running 6:30 pace every run. I just have to tell myself that as time goes on I'll get there. For now though, just by running easy for just about every run and raising the mileage steadily I can feel myself getting better, and this bodes well. It means that the shape I used to be in is in reach within this base phase, but its just a matter of running every day and waiting till I get there. The goal for next week is 55. I won't be too surprised if I don't hit it because on thursday/friday I'm driving 15 hours back home from school and could effect my mileage. But we'll see how it goes. The week after next week is going to be the "tough" week, cause thats when I;m going  to add in a lot of strength drills, swimming, and two very light workouts. But thats really too far in the future to worry about for now. Until then I'm feeling good and enjoying life!

Second week back and running.

Monday (4/27) - 3:00pm; ran with team, warm up 1 mile with the workout people and thought I was gunna go for a run but coach surprised me by giving me a workout "to get back into shape". I didn't think much of it, it won't hurt me at all. I did 5x400 with 100m jog rest @ 5:00 pace. Wasn't THAT bad, but lets just say I can tell I'm not in shape. It was so easy for the people I was running behind, and they left me on the last one about 2-3 seconds behind. But oh well, I still have all summer to get there. Did a nice 3.5 mile cool down for 6 miles total.
Tuesday (4/28) - 3:00pm; ran with team again. Just a regular run of 7 miles. Ran with bubbles, robert, nick, drew, and hummer. Of course they are in season and in shape so their idea of easy is different from mine. But I hung on just fine. Just a rough guess but probably averaged in the 6:40's. It was my first time running the Ginantoli loop, and it was ok. Flat, on the street, nothing special. Good run for a low mileage easy run. 7 miles total.
Wednesday (4/29) - 3:00pm; ran with team. Warmed up 1 mile, did a super easy workout called "diagnols" where we stide the infield diagnol-wise 12 times. Wasn't bad at all. Then did a 4 mile run with a larger group of guys than most days. Today was the last practice for the seniors because the team leaves tomorrow for regionals (and they aren't close to the national qualifying standard) and that will be their last meet. I'm really greatful for them because I know when I was a senior in highschool I didn't really talk to the freshman because I already had my core group of friends, but the seniors did a good job intergrating me into the team (it was my first semester here), and helping me out with getting used to this school and calling me to hang out whenever some guys on the team were hanging out. I know I've only known them for about 4 months, but I'll still miss running and hanging with them next year. 6 miles total.
Thursday (4/30) - 2:00pm; team left for conference meet today at 12, so I was left here to practice alone. I thought I would continue my "run by myself routine" that I usually do on the weekends. So after my class let out I went to the track and did a half mile warm up, then did drills that warmed me up further, then went on a 5.5 mile regeneration run in the hilly forest. I went pretty dang slow, but it sorta made up for doing to easy workouts this week (wasn't planing to), and the run with my teammates. When I got back from my run it took me probably less than a minute to get my breathing down to normal, it was nice (lol). After I did foot drills to hopefully strengthen my feet, because my arches hurt a little bit, and I want to incorporate this into my routine during summer too. And I forgot to stretch! I usually stretch after every run, but somehow it just slipped my mind. anyways 6miles total.
Friday (5/01) - 3:30pm; ran by myself again and will be until monday. did my normal warm up routine and ran a 6.0 mile run. Felt good, and ran maybe around 7:00 pace. Took the uphills a little harder and downhills easier, flats normal. Ran golf course loop, except cut through the golf course in order to get 6. After I stretched. It was poring rain and will be for the next 3 days (so the forecast says), and I was happy to just get my run done with. Its a little harder to force yourself to get out there with no team and run in the rain. But something cool today that I saw when I was first entering the track was an old guy, probably in his 70's running around 15:00 (about as fast as I walk) pace on the infield. I see him all the time when I come to the track on the weekends to run and he's there just running laps chugging along. It inspired me sooo much though because here is a 70 somehting year old guy running laps, in the poring rain, having more dedication to get out there and pound it out than a ton of atheletes on teams do. Before I left my room I was almost questioning myself of puting off the run for later (which usually leads to no run at all), but once I saw the old runner out there I was thinking I have no excuse to skip out on days like these. Myabe one day I'll be a 70 year old runner, running laps around the field at 15:00 pace in the rain. While runners on teams sit inside convincing themselves not to run. 6.5 miles total.
Saturday (5/02) - 5:30pm; in the morning/noon went to Rio Dell to help set up team's tent for the Marathon on sunday, so that consumed most of my day and made me put off running until later. Ran in the poring rain with Alan Kass, who isn't on the team anymore but still runs and we ran into eachother at the track, so I did 5miles with him easy. Did warm up, and strides after. 5.5 total.
Sunday (5/03) - 10:00pm; boy what a day. Woke up at 6:30 to go volunteer for my team at a local marathon. it was soo tiring. I had to stand at the 15 mile mark for 4 hours and read off times for the runners. I mean I love going to these things. But I was literally standing in the same spot for that long, and my legs got tired from standing for so long. I got in 2.0 miles there from running to my spot. Then I got home and was dead tired, and was soooo close to not running at all and just calling it a 2 mile day, but alas, after watching some flotrack interviews I decided to get out there and at least get a few miles in. Ended up doing 5 miles at a surprisingly solid pace, and felt good doing it (must have been the three hour nap I took today ;o). So 7 miles for today.

Week Recap:
total: 44.0 miles

So the goal was 45, and I hit 44. Pretty close, and close enough for me. This week was definitely harder than last because I picked up the intensity a little bit, especially with those two easy workouts that I did. I really hope its just pure base from here on out so I can focus more on the runs and less on workouts and recovering after words. For the last three days of the week I have been sore in my hamstrings perhaps from workouts, strides, lots of drills etc. I imagine at this rate I should be in pretty good shape (being able to go a decent pace for every run, and not just some), in a couple weeks. The first thing on my mind though is injury prevention. So I'm going to keep on doing my warm up routine and excessive drills/stretching. Again, hopefully next week there won't be any workouts and I can focus souly just on regular runs and get my goal of 50.0 miles!

friday(4/17) - 3pm 7.5mi with Hunter.
saturday(418) - 8pm 2.5mi SLOW, i was sore
sunday(419) - 5pm 5.0mi still slow, still sore
monday(4/20) - 4:30pm 5.5mi kinda slow but better
tuesday(421) - 3:00pm went out 3 miles to jackson ranch with robert, bubbles, hummer, and drew and turned around to run back by myself. Was a faster pace because it was with the team, and was pleased that I held the same pace going back
wednesday(422) - 3:00pm ran 2 miles out to the marsh with hummer, drew, and steve, and while they tempoed I continued my run 3 miles around the marsh, then ran 2 miles back to school with them. Solid pace too (sub 7 probably). 7 miles for the day.
thursday (4/23) - 8:40pm ran by myself; 3 miles out and back on LKwood and to the track and did 2 laps. Just an easy thang. 3.5 miles total
friday (4/24) - 0 ZERO. no reason, but lazy.
saturday (4/25) - 12:30pm went to the track and did proper warm up, then did a "long run" of 8 miles in the forest. came back and stretched. proud of myself for doing the "extra" things well! 8.5 miles total.
sunday (4/26) - 2:00pm went to the track again and did the same warm up since I liked it so much. then did golf course (via streets) for the first time. went easy. came back and did strides, then stretching. 8.0 miles total.

week recap:
(not including first three days)week total: 38.5
first week back from nearlt two weeks of no exerise. considering that, it was a really good week. I have a new found motivation and it seems to be working. if it were seven days of running, then I would have been in the 40's, which exceeds my expectations of myself for the first week back. basically as of now I am just working the aerobic runs (base period) until xc starts. I pretty much know what I'm gunna do during summer running when home, and am excided for it. Also I can't wait to run with friends. I am constantly dreaming of a future 3 weeks from now of running with my groups of friends back home, just chilling on a long run and catching up with them. anyways, this week was also good because I didn't feel any pains whatsoever, which is always a good thing. Well actually a little something in the arch of my foot, but its sort of expected because I recently switched insoles. Also I need new shoes. But regardless I'm taking no hances and have been doing foot strengthening excercises. Anyways to sum up this week: good job to me for starting to build up the miles, staying positive, ENJOYING just about every run I have been on this week, enjoying being bak to running and not being lazy, and lets keep up the motivation! Next weeks mileage goal is above 45 miles!

I'm gunna be posting a lot of stuff now.
Its gunna hopefully be about my training, and my running research <----- this part probably during summer.

If school equals life, and I fail at school, then I fail at life.
This semester at school I haven't had much of a life at all. Just school. I study and read so much everyday! I am on the track team, but I am just getting over injury so I haven't been to practice in two weeks and that has freed up more time for studying. And I do study. So today when I got my test back in Natural Resources class I was devastated to see I got 22.5 out of 50. This is my favorite class too! I am ok though... I am still here, together, in one piece. I just need to take better notes in class. Yas, yas, note to self: take better notes. A song that is playing through my head right now, telling me that life will go on all the same: www.youtube.com/watch

Possibility of another post in the same day. Why? I'm allowing myself this night off for homework cause I have spring break all next week for studying!