Jae is Chung

A coworker and sister in Christ suggested this to me.  A simple exercise in re-centering your life around God:

Think of 5 things, daily, that you are thankful for.

Today:

1) My Mom.  She is the best.  I don’t know why she puts up with me and my general crankiness towards her and my father, but she does and never gets mad at me.

2) My friends.  Sometimes I don’t realize how much they do for me.  I think those are the best kind.  The ones that don’t shove things in your face and make you feel bad that they did something for you.

3) My Boss.  He gave me a job when I didn’t have one and puts up with all the mistakes I make.  

4) Caffeine.  I don’t know how I would survive half of my days without it.  

5) My over all situation.  It isn’t ideal, but it’s great compared to what so many others have to face on a daily basis.

What are you thankful for?

-Jae

Shin splints are getting out of hand.  Doctor told me to stop running for 2-3 weeks and see how it feels.  I think I’m just not meant to run.

On another note, thumb is almost all better.  Time to hit the weights again.  

Jae

I wanted to time “Running 5” so that it was the post that I talked about my first 5 mile run.  It didn’t happen. 

Run tonight was alright, kind of on the bad side.  It was nice temperature, but it was icky humid out.  was drenched in sweat after the first mile.  My knee and shin acted up again after another 1/2 mile.  I think there is something wrong with my running form.  I rested and stretched and did all the magic tricks, but my knee and shin are getting worse.  I had to limp home.

I’m going to buy a calf sleeve to see if that helps.  I am also starting to do some squats and leg raises, as knee pain is symptomatic of weak upper leg muscles (I don’t actually think I have weak muscles, but just to see if it helps).  

Here’s to another week of pain.

Jae

Studying for MCAT is easy…if I got to take one subject test at a time.  I keep forgetting stuff from other subjects when I am focusing on another.  It’s kind of frustrating.  

I like taking breaks to go run.  it gets my mind off of things, especially when I start freaking out (anyone who has studied with me knows I have these before every test).  

I fixed my knee pain problem (I think) by starting to alternate what side of the road I run on.  Seems like my knee pain is subsiding (not getting worse, anyway).  A new problem has started.

When I only ran like once a month, I thought I got shin splints.  It turns out that I just had weak legs and the muscles in my shins were sore.  Now that I’m running almsot everyday, I am starting to get real shin splints, and damn, it is painful. 

I know the solution is to stretch/rest more/maybe get a calf compression sleeve, but I hate all three of those.  Stretching wastes time and it can be argued that static stretching can cause more injury than prevent.  Resting more means not really training as much and calf compression sleeves make people look like one of those “I’m way more intense than you” athletes.  

I am not intense.

Jae

Running without music:

I find this actually helps.  At first, I was pouring over my computer trying to find songs with the right bpm so that my stride would match up perfectly (I’m kind of stupid so my legs won’t work on a different pace than music I listen to).  Now, I’m starting to realize running with music is kind of a distraction.  I don’t concentrate on setting a pace that is comfortable and breathing/posture/correct form.  

Where to run:

My knee pains returned again today, as I weaned myself off my advil (no longer sick, PTL). I realized I always run on the right side of the road on the black top rather than the sidewalk or even the other side of the same street.  Since the road is crowned (angled to drain water away from middle of road and into sewers) my left leg (where my knee pain is) is always striking sooner than my right leg.  I think I will start alternating which side of the road I run on.  

Running to lose weight:

I didn’t start running to lose weight, nor have I actually started losing weight.  What has started to happen is I am losing fat around my mid section and muscle from my upper body, but I am gaining muscle in my lower body and core.  The result is I look smaller but I weigh the same.  Today, the Doc that I work with (very critical of weight in people…has no problem telling a patient if they have gained weight or not just on appearance) said, “Are you trying to lose weight?  You look thinner.”  To which I responded, “Nope, just have been trying to run more.”  In my head I was like:

hahaha.  

Jae