I cheated on my long run this weekend with two days of tennis instead. Shame on me.

But I was able to convince the BF to play with me both Saturday and Sunday and I didn't want to miss the opportunity. Saturday we had tons of fun and I picked up a little bit of color thanks to being out in the sun for a few hours.

Sunday was a kind of overcast day and I just wasn't feeling it. All I wanted to do was curl up and take another nap. I had already taken one when I got home from church. I was seriously dragging all day.

I'm feeling much better today though and plan to get some make up miles in tonight after work. Not sure how far I'll go. I'll just play by it ear depending on how I feel.

BF's still having knee problems. He said it hurt him Friday after we spent a few hours walking around the mall, (we both found some sweet stuff in Express on sale!) but that it doesn't annoy him too much after tennis. Strange, right?

I'm thinking about giving him a copy of my physical therapy program to see if that helps at all. I'm just getting worried because the half is quickly approaching!

My friend from PA. that I used to play tennis with all the time last summer and fall was in town yesterday before shipping off for the Peace Corp next week. We took advantage of our being in the same general area to get some tennis in for old time's sake and for a killer work out.

We played for about an hour and I have to say it was one of my better performances. My friend suggested that I look into joining a league, but I'm not that good, yet. I do miss having someone to play with though. Since moving to D.C. I've picked up my racket a whopping two times, including last night.

Hmmm, maybe I can get the BF to play with me sometime...

Tennis is seriously a kick ass workout. I was chasing balls all over the court because now that I've got more tennis skillz than when I started my friend has taken to playing much more up to his usual good self, rather than just hitting the ball over nicely so I could return it.

I figure the bursts of speed to chase down balls are probably helpful to my running in some small way too!

This morning my right shoulder is a little sore from swinging the racket. It's nothing that I can't deal with. It's just reminding me that it hadn't been used in a while.

I may look into leagues or lessons or something so I can maybe find someone to play with once a week or so. I'm not looking for a huge time commitment, just someone to hit the ball with.

Anyway, that's all I've got for today. Hope you all have a great 4th! I'm not sure what my exact plans are yet, but I'm sure they'll involve watching fireworks somewhere!

All this tennis and spinning have caught up with me and totally killed my legs.

I played tennis Sunday in Maryland. My legs had been tight that morning so I stretched out a little bit when we got to the courts and they felt fine when I was playing. Unfortunately it started pouring on us, so we made a mad dash to the car before heading home and sitting around watching football (to be read: no post-tennis stretching).

I could feel my legs tightening up as I was sitting on sofa so I tried to rub out some of the tightness. I don't think it did much good though.

Yesterday I played tennis during my lunch break and my legs felt heavy and tired. That should have been a warning sign that spinning last night was going to be tough.

But I had plans to meet my friend Michele from work, and I had no intention of blowing her off.

You may remember the last time I went spinning, I wasn't super in love with the instructor, well last night the instructor was evil. She kicked my butt. But it felt good to ride really hard, and I was dripping with sweat by the time the class was over. (Get your minds out of the gutter people, I don't mean that to be dirty.)

It was a great workout, but I realized just how stressful cycling was on my IT Band. I could definitely feel it tightening a lot when I was riding. We hit the sauna afterward and I worked on my IT Bands a bunch in the heat, which I think helped. I also rolled them out with the Stick when I got home.

Today is a much needed rest day. I'm heading down to College Park for our soccer game tonight against Binghamton. I'm hoping the boys can rebound from Friday's loss and get a convincing win tonight.

Last night I played tennis with a friend of mine from work and I'm happy to report my tennis skills have seen some serious improvement in the past few months. We had some good rallies going on where I was able to dig a few balls off the ground that I just wouldn't have had a prayer of getting to before.

We don't keep score we just rally back and forth for fun, but we were both running all over the place last night. It was some good times.

Another co-worker of mine came over to my desk today and asked me if I would commit to working out with her one night a week after work. She has a wedding come up in a few weeks and she wants to get moving and likes working out with people.

Sounds like a great plan to me. So for now our plan is to hit a spin class together Thursday night. I haven't been to a spin class since I hurt my knee in the summer, so I'm excited to get back to it!

I'm heading down to Maryland for our soccer game tonight and then tomorrow I've got my rec league game. I'm busy as a bee lately, but I'm happy to report that I'm getting more workouts in than I was before.

No real quality running though, but I'm enjoying my break from it do to some other things and just fitting in runs when I get a chance. It's nice to not be a on a training plan.

I know I have that 5K coming up in a few weeks, but I'm not too worried about it. I figure as long as I can fit in a couple good runs in in the next few weeks I'll be fine. I'm not looking to shatter any records on that race.

Sorry for the lag time between posts. I haven't had much free time lately or well I guess I have, I've just been using it to get my life together. (i.e. working on completing the switch from the old computer to the new computer, trying to figure out why half my music disappeared in said switch, etc., etc.)

I'll do a quick update bullet point style:

• Wednesday night my soccer leauge started back up. Because we had a ton of defenders, I saw a little action at forward in the first half. That was an interesting experience to be sure. I haven't played forward since I was in like 6th grade. I was able to switch back to my normal defensive position half way through the first half though. Unfortunately we lost 3-0. I guess that will happen when you play a high school team that just joined the league to keep in shape in the off season.
• My doctor has me taking melatonin to help me sleep better and maybe figure out the cause to some of this fatigue stuff. I should mention that melatonin is a supplement that helps your body sync to natural circadian rhythm and isn't one of those addictive sleeping pill dealies. I've been taking it for three days so far, and I definitely feel like I've been getting more quality sleep. So score one for the doc!
• I'm meeting a co-worker for tennis during my hour and half lunch break today. I think it will be the first time in the eight or nine months since I started working here that I will actually use the full hour and a half. Usually I only take an hour at most.
• I'm heading to Maryland again this weekend. My soccer boys play Boston College in their ACC opener. It should be a good and close game. Tomorrow Terps football plays Cal. That unfortunately, has every potential to be a blow out in the wrong way. Tailgating tonight for the soccer game at 5:30 p.m. Tailgating tomorrow morning for football at 6 a.m. Oof! I hate noon kick-offs.
• Maybe getting free tickets to Saturday's D.C. United game. A guy my friend knows apparently has two he might not be using! That would make for an awesome, sports-filled weekend.
  

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! I'm taking my running stuff with me to Maryland again, we'll see if I have time to cram in a run at some point.

Remember how I said I was finally packing work out clothes to take to Maryland so I could run?

Right, well Tropical Storm Hannah had other plans. Plans to the tune of five inches of rain on Saturday. Needless to say, I didn't run.

Instead my friend Sam and I camped out on her sofa and watched Notre Dame football, followed by Maryland football, followed by D.C. United soccer. (W-L-L...not so good!)

Sunday the weather was beautiful so Sam and I played a little bit of tennis before I headed back to College Park for another Terps soccer game.

The Terps were awesome this weekend, winning 3-0 on Friday and 4-1 on Sunday. (You can read more here.)

Got some mixed news back from the good ol' doc today. No diabetes (whooo hoo!!!) but most likely I have a sugar intolerance so I have to be extra careful about what I eat. Still no sugar, but carbs are OK as long as they are the whole grain/whole wheat, high fiber version.

I also have to write everything down, as well as all exercise, and my energy levels so we can monitor it and then I go back in six months for a re-check.

So some good news and some just plain annoying news because I wanted an answer for the sluggishness and stuff and didn't really get a solid one. Oh well, at least it's not diabetes!

There are so many reasons I'm in a fabulous mood today.

1. It's Friday.

2. I'm done work in 30 minutes because I came in early today.

3. Soccer tonight!

It's the last preseason game, which means the real season is upon us!

As I've stated many times before, I have a soccer problem and so do many of my friends. So tonight we are celebrating preseason in style -- with an awesome tailgate. (I won't be eating the tailgate food, but I'll certainly be playing the tailgate games.)

The rest of the weekend will be spent bouncing between my friends' various apartments in Maryland, DC, and Virginia.

I'm also excited to be playing tennis for the first time since my knee injury on Sunday afternoon with a friend back in PA.

So it looks to be a fun-filled weekend for me. I'm wishing all the same for you!

Catch ya on the flipside!

I'm feeling a little bit like Casino Drive this morning. Don't follow horse racing? He's the one who had to scratch the Belmont Stakes at the last minute.

How am I similar to said horse you may ask? Well I'm thisclose to scratching the Baltimore 10-Miler because of my stupid knee. But before we get to that, I'm going to focus on the positive of this weekend -- that besides running it was awesome and I accomplished a ton.

Friday I hit a rocking spin class and it felt so good. I was sweating like crazzzy, but was working my butt off and I liked it haha.

Saturday I played tennis for about an hour and a half with a friend from work. It was insanely sunny and hot outside leading to unfortunate sunburn lines. I was wearing a sleeveless Under Armour top (who's surprised?)and my shoulders are really red and there's a very distinct line between red and ghostly white haha. It doesn't hurt too badly though.

Sunday was the day I was going to test out the knee. I headed out around 9ish and it was already 86 degree so I made sure to carry some water with me. I started off fairly slowly just trying to take my time. After little more than a mile I could feel something twinging in my knee. S of a B. I didn't want to push it so I headed home raving mad.

Because I was pissed off at my knee, I decided to head to the gym for some nonimpact stuff. Did an hour of yoga and about 40 minutes or so of laps.

Because I am stupid/was antsy from sitting around/am extremely stubborn/figured if my knee was hurt already what the hell was more tennis going to do for it, I went out Sunday night and played about 30 minutes or so of tennis. It was a good thing it got dark when it did.

Anyway, going to try to make an appointment with an orthopedic dude sometime. Goody goody.

Please kill me now.

Spinning this morning was fine, but then it started to bother my knee. What the heck else is new? I"m swimming tomorrow because at least that can't mess anything up.

GAHHH!!!!

I haven't run since my long run on Saturday because of my knee. I spent most of the holiday weekend hobbling around.

Yesterday it felt a little better and I thought about testing it, but decided it against it. I was on the phone with my mom who made a good point. She basically said, if I ran 8 miles last weekend, I will definitely be able to cover 10 in time for the race, even if I have to take time off and rest. But if I go back too soon and get hurt, there's a very good chance I won't be able to do the race.

Sometimes my mom's a pretty smart lady.

So I didn't run yesterday.

I am however, going to attempt to play tennis today. The knee doesn't seem to be acting up and I figure tennis is a good way to get a little bit of running in and see how it feels. If all goes well, I may try to get a shorter run in tomorrow.

This isn't exactly how I planned for my training to be going, but I'm fairly confident I'll still be able to do the race -- just probably not as fast as I would have liked to.

Update: Apologies for how hurried this post sounds. I'm super busy but wanted to get something up here!

This weekend I did nothing but go to BBQ's and graduation parties in College Park. It was a great weekend, but didn't do too much in the ways of running and accomplishing things work out wise.

Last Thursday I played tennis with a girl I work with. We had a pretty good time. It has been ages since I've played tennis. It was nice to get outside and move around. I had been looking for a new sport to play because soccer ended :o( and tennis sounds about as good as any. I like mixing it up with sports because I run by myself but still like social interaction when I work out.

I'm going to try to squeeze a run in after work tonight, but I've got a work thing at 8 p.m. and need to grocery shop too so I'm not 100 percent sure that will happen.

I may have found a sweet 10-mile race to run. Registration doesn't open until tomorrow though, so I don't want to jinx it because I'm not actually registered yet. If registration goes as planned, I will fill you in on the details.