Test runs are over

 Today I ran at 8 a.m. because I woke up at 7 a.m. and I could not sleep again, so at 8 a.m. I decided to get my run in.

The roads were all to myself and very few people outside, but a runner did a thumb up to me, first time that that happens here in Spain. I basically did the same route of Friday and yesterday. However, today I ran slower tan both occasions. I got to the intersection in 10:43 and back in 21:09. Almost 1 min slower tan Friday, but felt much better and felt very happy to have run without pain once more. From tomorrow on, I ll start doing 34 + mins runs. Weather was good at that time in the morning.

I have found that I run better faster, maybe not as fast as when I eat breakfast, but I feel pretty good. I think that I ran that slow because when you run early in the morning you are not all that warmed up. All in all felt good, and I ll have to run early because the heat is very high here  around 35 Celsius right now, which is pretty much like in the Dominican Republic, but there you did not see me running at mid night very often as I do here.

4 runs this week, although the 3 mins that I did on Tuesday before stopping due to the pain, not sure it counts!!

Have a great Sunday!

Running is great!

Today I headed to do another 20 mins run at 11:45 a.m. with the sun shining very hard. Too hot here!
The goal as I said yesterday was to do 20 mins to get back into the swings of things.

I did the same thing as yesterday, but the time was slower, but I felt better and the calf did not bother me. Time for today was 20:37.

You never know how much you love somthing until you no longer have it, that is what happens when I dont run. Since I am back at it, I am greatful that I can do what I love. These days I am just loving the art of running, not the races because I seldom race, but races are fun too, but these days an easy training run or a fast workout  is what keeps me coming and coming.

Another run in the books! From Monday on I ll start with longer runs.

Have a great Saturday! This evening off to the pool!

Always listen to your own body: I am back!!

I know that I said that I would rest 2 more weeks to ensure that this calf would heal. I started to stretch my calves while in bed for last couple of days. I think on Wednesday it started to hurt me a bit, like it has pulled again, but nothing close to the pain I felt when I pulled my calf for the first time.I thought that maybe it was healing.

I kept stretching the calves and today I did not felt any tightness there, I started to jump on one leg, and put pressure and did not feel any pain or annoyance. I broke my own rule and decided to give it a try, and it was a success!

I headed out at 6:30 p.m. with the temps in 33 Celsius and the sun shining hard, its too hot here in Madrid. I wanted to test the leg with the mínimum run of 20 mins, I headed out to the intersection in 10:13 and back for a total time of 20:13. Felt really good and in a momento I thought the leg was going to bother me, but for contrary, any tightness dissapear and I could run pretty much normal.

I am very happy that I can run again because these days have been a lot of pressure for me in my personal and profesional life, so the running is a good outlet for that. I ll do another 20-25 mins and next week Will start with 30+ mins. However, in 2 weeks I am going to Boston for another course for a week and I Will rest for another week, that week was planned though. After that trip I ll try to get back into shape and lose around 15 pounds.

Very happy to get back to the running scene!!

Cheers!

Resting longer

I rested till Tuesday  of this week, and gave the leg a shot, I was positive that I could run 20 mins today. However, as soon as I started running it was bothering me and at 2:55 I called it a day, it started bothering a lot, so  I had to stop. I feel frustrated that I cannot do what I love. But that teaches you to appreciate when you CAN run.

I am not sure how I ll handle that, I can rest 2 more weeks or I can stretch the calves and evaluate if it bother me I rest, if I feel that I can get run, then give it a try. Probably I ll rest though to avoid any longer rest after those weeks.

Or maybe at the end of the week, I wont take it anymore and Will test the leg. All in all I am resting, because those test runs are very short in durations and once every few days, so I can call it rest today.

Today I went to the gym and did some back work and tried to do pull ups, but I  could not even do one. However on the deadlift I did 3 sets of 6 repeats with 40 nd 50 kgs. Then did barbell rows, 3 sets of 6 repeats with 34 kgs. I am very weak, but at least I try haha. I went there to do pull ups and got there in flip flops, but then I decided to do the deadlifts and barbell rows.

I have to do something, exercise is so ingrained in me, that when I dont run I feel lost, so I have to replace running with some other exercise, strength training it is.

I weighed myself in the gym, but I had eaten breakfast and drank wáter and the scale read 90.9 kg, which is higher than I hoped, maybe I am eating more than I should, oh great news !!

Tomorrow I ll go to the gym and do chest and tríceps. If I cant run, then I have to get myself stronger

Have a great Thusday!

Not recoverd but I am a Magister

I rested a whole week to give the calf a chance to recover, and by Thursday I was not feeling any pain and could walk normally, but I wanted to give it a couple of more days off. That is what I did and I tried to run 20 mins on Saturday. I thought that that goal was conservative,  but I wanted to take things easy. Once I started running I could feel my calf botherig me, it was not pain, but a tightness there. As the run went on that tightness increased and when I had 8:13 into my run, I had to stop before it again " crack". I was dissapointed, I thought that I was going to enjoy my running again, but I have to be Smart, so here I am resting again, maybe I ll test the leg tomorrow again and see whats up.

In the meanwhile, I did 1 x 15, 1 x 10, 1 x 5 push ups yesterday to get the heart going.

However, there are not only bad news, in this past week on Thursday I presented my final Project and it was a success, here are a couple of photos:

 My team  & the judges

My team: Felicitá

My team: Cesarina, Laura & José

After those photos  We went and celebrate a bit and I drank 3 beers.

The day after that was Graduation Day and my brother came to the graduation, I am finally a magister, and I accomplished one of my goals for this 9 month travel to Madrid, now I am off to look for Jobs. It feels good to set a goal and accomplish it. Here are some photos from the Graduation:

 

For the time being I dont have the desire to do another master, my true motivation is to work hard and make some money. However, We Will see how that plays out, the monotony is not good either and this was good to vary things .

Having said that, I think that this was a great opportunity and I met some great people here and the teachers were great.

Injured

Yesterday I went out to do my run after days without running due to college obligations. Everything was going normal, first half was crossed in  17:27. However, as soon as I climbed the big uphill and was entering the park to the last 600m of my run. I felt a big pain in my left calf, I tried to run through it, but then it felt like a "crack" in my calf and it hurted even more I could not run anymore, I stopped my run in 31:29. Tried to stretch, but it hurted so I aborted that, then finish the workout limping in the last 600m.

I limped for the whole remaining of the day, it felt strained. I took a few antiflamatory pills and today I woke up feeling a lot better. I am not limping anymore walking, but when I try to run it hurts a lot. So I decided to rest till Saturday next week, I think by then I ll be recovered. I ll sure lose fitness, but I have to be Smart and dont try to run through an injury that might be worse later. So patience and I ll be back soon.

3 runs this week! I cant remember the last time that I only ran 3 times in a week, but college and that injury put my running in my back seat.

Have a great Sunday!

Easy run

Yesterday I headed out to run at 12.05 p.m. and I headed out to run easy, the last couple of days I kind of sped up a bit and on Monday did hard strides. I crossed the halfway in 17:31, and kept the effort easy, but surprisingly did 34:11 when I came back to Guadalupe. Then continued to do my remaining 8 mins, and I finished up my run in 42:12.

Weather was good around 12 celsius and I felt pretty good. Battling with low motivation, but getting things done anyway.

Today I rested, was preparing a presentation. I ended a subject today, 2 to go, presenttion of the final Project next week, and guduation next Friday.

Have  a great hump day!

Easy run with strides

Today I almost skip the workout as well, motivation is very low this week. I went out anyway, and once I start running I felt better, but before going out I decided to do the same route as yesterday, my normal route with extra km, that I have been doing.

I went out easy, but in the second half I did 5 strides, sometimes longer than I should, but I felt really good and it was to stretch the legs. I crossed the halfway in 17:27, and came back to Guadalupe in 33:30, then did the extra 300m or so, finished the run in 35:19, finished with my final stride, which was uphill. Felt good and fast.

Weather was good and felt good at the end. Tomorrow I ll be doing my normal route.

Have a great night!

Not a great week of running

Yesterday I had to take the day off, because I could not run in the morning due to lazyness and the whole afternoon/evening We had to work on the final Project, so DNR.

Today I did not run before lunch because I was working on the Project and to finish something to send it, it took more time than I thought. I almost skipped the evening run, because honestly I dont like to run in the evening, but things have to be done.

I braved and got dressed and went out at 6:15 p.m. to get my run in. I headed out to do my normal route, but when I was around 1k out of coming back to Guadalupe a dove shitted on my shirt, and I had to take it off for the last km, so I was modeling my abs and my pecs, the whole park, haha. I have nothing of that, just a flab belly. I am not sure if you can run shirtless here so I decided to came here to Guadalupe and run the extra 300m, but not doing the extra km that I am doing lately, so my total time was 35:57. Came here in Guadalupe in 34:00 give or take.

I looked at the watch at half point and it read 17:19. I felt unconfortable in the first half, too many gases in my stomach, burned quads, and a lot of people to Dodge. I could only loonen up after the 25 min mark. Felt really good in the end, maybe because I was shirtless and it was too hot, lol!

Weather was in 28 Celsius, which is hot. When I run in the morning is usually in 20 Celsius. Dry mouth made me unconfortable, but as I said you have to brave the elements and get things done.

4 runs this week, the goal is always 5 runs, but something is something. I ll start eating less to see if I can lose a few pounds. We will see how that Works out as I love food. The only good thing is that I dont normally eat candies, or cookies, I normally crave meat and fried food, plus carbs, but good carbs. I am not into veggies and fruits, but here in Spain that consumption has improved.

Have a great Sunday!

Tired

Yesterday I took the day off because I had an exam, and I also wanted to give my right leg a rest. I am feeling a cramp that is bothering me, dont know to explain it, and cant exactly spot where is it, maybe its a nerve.

Today I ran with Katherine at 10:40 a.m. and We did my bread and butter route, She ran great eventhough She had 2 weeks without exercising due to a lot of work in varsity. I was feeling very tired, dont know why but my legs seemed blocks. Also, the cramp was bothering me a lot. In the second half felt better but tried to do a stride to test the leg and it bothered me, it affects my form at faster paces.

Katherine stop at 27:20 and I continued to complete my run and finished the route in 42:37. Crossed the halfway in 17:23 and came back in Guadalupe in 34:28. Katherine ran faster than ever today and I can say that She runs at the same pace I train, if she runs more regularly She would defeat me easily.

The cramp is not bothering me walking, in the last couple of days it was, lets see how it behave tomorrow.  I should feel very recovered, but I felt really tired today, oh well!

Weather was good! Have a great Friday!