See Emily Run

Although my miles are low right now, I've been running for a long time and am planning on getting back up to 30-40 miles a week soon. I'm actually in China right now and running has helped me to stay sane and to make this crazy place feel more like home. :) I ran only sporadically during the winter because it was so cold where we lived - I know, I know, it's a lamesauce excuse but that's how it went. We didn't have heat at our location so I felt like I needed to preserve my energy for warmth instead.

I'm getting back into shape now, though I think I started off a little too fast. There is a half-marathon coming up here in a few weeks and I really truly want to do it... but jumping right back into it gave me a chronically painful left knee and made something go pop in my right foot a couple weeks ago. So I took a week plus off, got new shoes, and now I'm trying to run just a little every day. I really like the mileage tracking feature on this blog so I hope it will keep me motivated and aware of how much I'm running.

To change things up, I ran on the road again instead of the track, woohoo! Morning traffic is terrible around our apartment - lots of people on narrow sidewalks, cars doing all kinds of questionable maneuvers on the streets - so at certain points I have to walk so I don't knock people over. The last city we lived in a had a big beautiful lake with lots of paths to run around so it was worth navigating the crazy roads for the mile to get there and back. Now I just have hard asphalt (slash uneven bricks) the whole way, but to me it's better than running endless little circles. ANYway.

I ran my three miles. My knee and foot felt perfect the whole time and haven't hurt afterwards. So after MWF at 3 miles a day I'm going to try the same MWF pattern at ... four miles a day! I know, it's pretty exciting. If that goes well, maybe I'll make it five on Friday.

The day started off terribly foggy but cleared up by early afternoon. It's a holiday week so I was able to delay my run until things cleared up and got sunny. Spring is finally here for real!

The run was beautiful until just before my turnaround point. I smelled something like burning trash that was just sickly, and I looked up ahead and saw a suspicious cloud over the next block and beyond. Here in China, it could be people burning weird trash, some kind of plant fumes, or any other number of unpleasant things, but there was no natural reason for that thick, low cloud in an otherwise perfect sky. So I turned around and ran for my life, back to where the air smelled clean. And that was my running adventure of the day. The end!

I didn't run today, but I did walk for about 3 hours (sightseeing around the city) and I'm so. Wiped. Out. I also pulled my left hamstring yesterday while doing some lunges (I thought that I was properly warmed up ...) and it's kind of bugging me today but hopefully it will keep fading. I plan to run through it because it's very minimal and I'm just getting easy miles in for a good few weeks so I can get my base mileage up.

Another easy day for me ... the first day it's been rather hot during a run. I might need to start getting up earlier.

Big news, five miles today! The ball of my foot just under my right big toe was hurting for the first few minutes but I stopped and massaged it for a minute and it felt fine afterwards. Maybe a reminder that I should still be taking it easy?

As I was finishing my run I was still moving quicker because I'd just finished a long, gradual downhill and was feeling pretty confident. Right before I get home I have to run on a narrow sidewalk next to a wide, busy road, so often if there is someone else on the sidewalk I have to step down onto the road again so it doesn't get too crowded. (Since there are few runners, let alone foreign ones here, I want leave a good impression.) As I ran along that stretch today I tried to jump down to avoid a man in a blue jacket. My foot clipped the edge of the sidewalk (gasp!) and I fell down into the road instead.

This was the first time I've fallen while running in forever so I'm pretty proud that (1) it was a rolling fall - fun! and (2) that I got back up and started running again right away. Considering how busy the road is at that time of day it was probably a survival instinct, but I like to think I'm just so hardcore that a little fall can't stop me from running. Also I was very thirsty. And just a little bit embarrassed. I only have a couple of scraped up knees to show for it, so altogether the fall just added a little variety to my run.

Today's lesson: only stupid people go running immediately after eating a generous amount of fried bread. And today I was a stupid person.

I was originally hoping to be running a half marathon this coming Saturday (tomorrow) but I decided to not do it because I was pushing my training too quickly and starting to get injuries. Now I'm REALLY glad I didn't sign up for it because I sprained my ankle today. GAH.

 I was trying to avoid someone on the sidewalk just before my one mile mark (sound familiar?) and I stepped over a raised edge of the sidewalk and rolled my ankle really badly. It hurt enough that I stopped right away, but after I sat down and massaged it felt somewhat better so I decided to do two more miles on it - so smart, I know. I ran on it, walked on it for a few more hours at home and then it started to hurt really badly so I couldn't put any weight on it.

Okay, enough of the excessive detail... it's feeling somewhat better now so I can put some weight on it. I'm pretty sure it's a minor sprain that will heal pretty quickly, but I'm still sad that it happened. I guess I'm just injury prone lately. Sigh.

Feeling better! Took it very easy, avoiding uneven ground and only jumping up and down from curbs onto my right, uninjured foot.

My ankle is still feeling great so I'm hoping to get back to building my mileage now. My left knee felt a little funky after my run so I think it is still a little funky from rolling my ankle last week. It hurt along with my ankle, but it didn't last long and was much less painful. So I will do my best to treat all my joints like glass for the next while ...

Funny story today. I decided to run at the nearby track since (a) my run wasn't going to be very long, (b) it was getting a little late in the evening and I prefer to stay off the streets then, and (c) I was too lazy to face any hills today. I end up being one of the only people there running, but there were over a hundred people playing soccer, badminton, or walking around. So I plugged into my tunes so I could ignore everyone and try not to feel self-conscious as I zipped around (my speed was relatively fast compared to the hordes of walkers). After a couple laps a guy passes me on the inside lane and then slows down so we're running at the same pace, but maybe four feet ahead. Is it a male pride thing, having to show up the running girl? Is it that he got tired right then and decided to slow down right after he passed me? Does he want a running buddy? I've no idea.

However, since I was guessing that the male pride thing was factoring in here, I didn't want to run behind him continuously so I caught up with him. We ran next to each other for a lap or two, not talking or looking at each other, so I gave in to the awkwardness when I got to the line, "You treat me just like another stranger" in the song I was listening to. I asked him how far he was going, but he said he didn't speak English. I don't speak Chinese myself so I was stuck. I figured I gave it a shot, and just maintained the pace after that. I did my 2.5 miles on the track, and we ended up running the whole time together, weaving through walkers as needed. It was kind of weird, but by the end I felt like it was a friendly dynamic. Maybe he did just want a running buddy for motivation. Or maybe his friends bet him to go run with the crazy foreign person. I don't know. But when I finished my distance I just said goodbye (I can manage that much in Chinese, at least) and headed home. 

Any ideas on possible motives? Was I being too harsh in assuming male pride was the main factor? Anyone else picked up a random running buddy recently?

Alas, I couldn't even run 3 miles today. The injury that I was staving off just before I started blogging here returned during this run. The metatarsals in my right foot started hurting badly within a few minutes of running. I wanted to run through it but I figured it was best to just head home so it didn't get worse. It feels like it could turn into a stress fracture if I keep running on it.

I'm feeling quite frustrated (and I'm only now feeling well enough to blog about it, on May 24) because I've never had so many running-related injuries even when I was running 40+ miles a week. Now I can't even hit 20 miles a week and I'm sitting on the couch again. I don't have a bike, and we leave China in just a few weeks so it's not worth it to get a gym membership for crosstraining.  I'm pretty sure the injuries (the sprained ankle aside) come from running on old shoes for too long (but I've replaced them) and from not getting enough calcium over the last several months, so I know I could have done some things better.

Sorry if this all sounds like whining. At least let it be a cautionary tale: don't stop drinking milk and don't run on shoes that have too high of mileage. :)

After a very long break of one whole week, I ran 3 miles on the track today. It feels better just to get out there again. At first my legs felt really tight and my breathing was all off, so I guess drowning my running sorrows in Snickers and other junk food for the past seven or so days didn't really do much for me.

Ah, well. I plan on taking it easy for a few more weeks, only running on the track (for lack of any other soft ground around here), icing my foot a lot, and eating lots of yogurt. The milk around here is pretty gross, but the yogurt is delightful.

Another short one on the track, but feeling much better than I did on Saturday.

Ran at the track again. I forget how nice it is to get a run in early instead of worrying about fitting it in all day long.

I was planning on doing 5 miles today but since a certain sweet toddler ripped her mother's earphones apart, I thought I'd get terribly bored running the four extra laps without music. Surprisingly, the time still went quickly so I guess that means I'm not totally music-dependent, right?

We had a big shopping trip today afterwards, so it was good for time that I only did 4 miles. We got lots of gifts for our family, and we head back to America in less than two weeks now! Walking around until 1pm (carrying the toddler on and off) totally wiped me out. I guess I need to build up my shopping endurance now.

Met a new friend at the track today. She's an English major at the university here and approached me to ask how I can run for so long/how she can get into shape. I just encouraged her to run another quarter of a lap each time (she can only do two laps right now) and I hope it works for her!

Such a happy run today! After running at about the same pace for most of the time, I decided I could throw in some speed. I ran 6x200m at about 40-43 seconds, and it felt SO GOOD to sprint again! It's the best feeling to walk up the stairs of the apartment afterwards, feel the burn, and know I got a good workout in. I iced my foot afterwards since it felt a little achy, but I think upping my calcium is paying off.