I had a whole post written yesterday about how I have no self control and then I magically lost it. At least it wasn't my bar outlines? Still, sadface. Hopefully I will be able to resurrect it this weekend. In the meantime, enjoy a super awesome bulletpoint list of my very exciting life [please note the sarcasm].

• I hate bar studying. Seriously. Hate it. You'd think someone who loves color-coding and flashcards as much as I do would jump at a summer to do nothing but that. You'd be wrong
• My running has been a little hit or miss lately. I'm getting my miles in, but I'm definitely struggling through some of them. I read somewhere that running performance can tend to decrease the week before your Aunt Flo comes to town. I'm going to chalk it up to that? Yeah, that sounds good.
• I've run more miles this month than any other month since I've started logging my miles. Awesome sauce.
• My diet sucks lately. Not as in "I'm gaining weight," but more in the "I'm not eating enough and the things I am eating are crappy." I know this, I just can't seem to fix it. It's not necessarily that I don't have time to go grocery shopping, it's that I don't have the inclination. By the time I get home from studying for 10 hours a day, it's just so much easier to order in or eat a random hodgepodge from my fridge. 
• I'm casually thinking of joining a running club of some sort. I really like the idea of running with other people and I really like the idea of making friends who are runners but I'm not social enough to just meet random people on a running path and trying to be friends with them. So, if you live in LA and you want to run slowly, I'm your girl.
• I'm in Week 3 of my training for Long Beach Marathon training. I'm super excited. I would love to try to get a half marathon in at some point this summer [after the bar]. Currently taking suggestions for cheap halves in either SoCal or NYC in August/September.
• I'm getting sick. Or getting over being sick. I haven't quite figured it out. Tuesday night I went to bed with sweaty eyes [aka a fever] and a sick feeling in the back of my throat which makes no sense to anyone but myself. Wednesday I woke up with a baby fever and a sore throat. I spent all day yesterday chugging OJ and Theraflu [nectar of the gods] and soup. By last night, my fever was gone so I hopped on the treadmill for 4 easy miles that felt amazing. No fever today, but a little bit of a sore throat still, so I'm becoming best friends with Vitamin C and "doing work" in bed. And by that I clearly mean "watching 4325 episodes of Hoarders."

What are your favorite sick day activities? Any suggestions for a late summer/early fall half?

Archnemesis

Last week was my first week of training for the Long Beach Marathon. I was originally nervous about trying to follow my marathon training plan while trying to finish up the challenge. I had planned on just adding the long runs and not worrying about any speed or hill work until after the challenge. But since I was feeling so good, I decided I'd throw in a speed workout once a week. Once that felt good, I thought maybe, just maybe, I'd throw in a hill workout.

Now. Contrary to what one might think from my general snarky/judge-y attitude, I don't hate a lot of things [or people, for that matter]. Coconut, rain and Angelina Jolie [don't ask] is pretty much the extent of the list. But I HATE hills. Hate them. They are my archnemesis [which, ps, spell check tells me isn't a word. lies.]. If hills didn't cause my IT Band problem, they certainly exacerbated it. They make me feel like I'm running backwards underwater wearing a clown suit [read: they're hard]. I hate them. Hate.

But I know they're good for me. I know that they will help make me strong and even though Long Beach is relatively flat, I know they're essential to my marathon training. So, last week, I hopped on the treadmill and did some hill sprints [you didn't think I was actually going to run hills outside, did you? where people can see? pssh.]. Were they awesome? No. Did I like them? Heck no. BUT - Did they eat me? No. The next day, I ran my easy 3 with no problems. Moral of the story: I still hate hills, but I may downgrade them from archnemesis to mortal enemy. Coconut, though ... that's a different story.

What's your least favorite part of training?

Bad Run But Good Brunch

So I couldn't think of another adjective that began with B besides "Badass" and I thought that might be inappropriate. Sorry in advance for the lack of alliteration.

Workout:
6.63 mi - 1:20:20

There's really not much to say about this run, or at least not much that I'm willing to think about right now. It was really disappointing. After banging out some awesome runs these last few weeks, I was anticipating this run being AWESOME. It was decidedly less so. I was scheduled to meet the super stellar Skinny Runner and some other speedy blogging ladies down in Newport at 9am for my very first group run! However, after getting off to a late start and realizing I'd have to stop for gas, I figured I'd never make it in time. I sent off an email letting the ladies know I'd be a little late and to start without me. I made it down to Newport in record time (especially considering the gross traffic Moondoggie and I sat in to get there last weekend). I got a little lost and ended up in the middle of the loop (I think). I had planned 2 outfits - one for rain and one for no rain - and brought both down with me. The sun appeared to be shining so I made the executive decision to wear the non-rain gear. That was, in hindsight, a mistake. After a quick stretch, I headed to the path. I ended up parking pretty much in the middle of the path (again, I think. There was definitely some confusion as to where the path started/ended/went at all). I decided I'd just go right, run a nice easy 1/4 mile warmup, run for 3 miles, then turn around. I wasn't sure if I'd pass SR and the other ladies, but I figured maybe it was for the best - they're all in such better running condition and I really didn't want to slow anyone down! The path looked gorgeous and I was really excited to get out there and run.

My non-rain decision turned out to be misguided. Within the first 1/4 mile, the rain started again. Now I had a tough decision to make: I was still close enough to the car to go back, grab my windbreaker and a hat and be none worse for wear. As the rain came down harder, I decided I'd turn around. Bad choice #1. By the time I got back to my car, the heavy rain had stopped, so I decided not to stop and just keep running, but this time heading for the path to the left. Bad choice #2. The path to the right seemed nice and flat. The path to the left was full of rolling hills that my knees just did. not. love. The rain continued on and off and I definitely regretted not getting my windbreaker. My first 2 miles were perfectly lovely. Then my left IT Band decided to read its ugly head. Yes, you read that right. The LEFT IT band. As in, not the one that made me cry during the half. As in my good leg. As in kill me now. I stopped at the turn around and sent some pretty pathetic text messages to Moondoggie about how I was hours from home (not really) and 3 miles away from my car (almost true) and maybe crying (definitely true). As I hobbled painfully and slowly back to my car, I passed the adorable SR, Megan and Pam. They were running so effortlessly I didn't have the heart to stop them and tell them that this pathetic bundle of IT Bands was the person they were supposed to meet.

So I finished up my miles, tearing up the whole time, stopping every once in a while to stretch, got to my car and seriously debated finding the nearest grocery store and drowning my sorrows in as large a vat of icing as they were willing to sell me. However, I realized that that was just going to make me fat AND sad, so I head to the blogger brunch over at Mother's Market. I'm so glad I did! All of the ladies were so inspiring and fun and gorgeous. Not gonna lie, kind of jealous and their awesome running abilities! I may or may not have been tempted to trip them on the way out in an attempt to level the playing field :) Thanks for a great day Sarah, Monica, Nicole, Megan, Pam and Bri!

Shamelessly stolen because I'm obviously not fancy enough to take pictures for my blog yet.

Today's run really got me thinking. I was so disappointed and frustrated to see this injury pop up again. It was really disheartening, especially considering how well my runs have been going lately. I had these beautiful visions of running a half before bar studying really got under way, then putting in some serious training for a fall/winter first full marathon. Now I just don't know if that's going to happen. Maybe my body just isn't cut out for long distance running. That's a really sad thought for me. I love distance running but my knees may not. For now, I think I'll try to scale back my mileage and little and see what happens. My knee began feeling worse and worse as the day went on. I convinced Moondoggie to massage it a little, I did a ridiculous amount of foam rolling and now I'm just trying not to aggravate it (I may or may not be blogging in bed and drinking wine with ice packs on my knees. May or may not.). I really don't want this to snowball into another 3 month forced hiatus, so I'm going to be extra careful. I'd rather lose some milage now, maybe have to forgo the spring 1/2  and be able to keep running.

Have you ever been sidelined with an injury? How do you deal with the mental pain?