The week after my 10 mile race, I was on vacation with my family. I had planned to run a little during my vacation, maybe running at the beach, which I love. This time, however, it wasn’t so much fun. Turns out, it’s not fun to run at every beach. 

As beautiful as that beach is, I had never realized it’s not for running, especially when it’s crowded. Also, I wasn’t really prepared because I didn’t have my running shoes or sneakers, the sand was hot and there were a lot of people, so I had to run close to the shore. This wasn’t easy because the shore was not flat because of the erosion, so I was running sideways. Running like this is not comfortable, especially when your ankle is bothering you. 

At least running was only a short part of my day; it was still a beautiful day and I had a very good time with my family. Taking a little time for myself to run didn’t affect my time with them at all. 

The next day, I was able to run at a track, which felt a million times better. The difference between running on the track versus the tilted shore and hot sand was incredible. My timing was closer to what I usually do, even though I still have to take into account how hot it was at 9 am in August. 

After this, I realized I need to prepare for my next big goal, running a half marathon in November. This will be my first half marathon and I want to do the  best that I can. This means I need to do more than just practice running. 

Having strong legs is a very important part of this, but I realized that doing a few short lower body strength videos sometimes is not enough. I need to do more so I decided to start with longer lower body strength exercises, like I used to. I don’t remember why or when I stopped doing the 30 minute strength videos but for over a year I have only been doing either 10 or 20 minutes of strength exercises. 

I don’t have time to do these when I run during the week, but I don’t run every day so I really have no excuse. Yesterday I finally decided to start doing longer workouts again. This was a bad idea: I did a 30 minute lower body strength video after a week of barely running and not doing anything else. 

I should have worked my way up to this, because my legs hurt all day. I didn’t even know how I was going to run 3 miles today. I was having second thoughts as I was warming up but once I started running, I didn’t feel it anymore. I was able to finish the 3 miles without pain, and my ankle didn’t hurt either. I wasn’t any faster or slower than I usually am, even though I tried to finish quicker. 

I wasn’t able to do any strength workouts today, but I will continue doing the 30 minute videos as much as I can and hopefully not get as tired as I did on Sunday. 

As for the running part of my training, my coach is giving me longer long runs at the end of each week and also suggested a 10k for my next race.

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Published by mariacristinasanfeliu

I’m an aspiring writer still looking for exactly what I want to write about, with a lot of creativity, imagination and desire to write. I studied Writing and Rhetoric at Syracuse University where I explored many different sides of writing through my classes and extracurricular activities in order to narrow my search for an identity as a writer. I have written for Citrus TV Noticias and La Voz magazine, both of which gave me the chance to explore different mediums in which to write in. Through Citrus TV Noticias I also gained experience in translating from English to Spanish and vice versa, which is also something that I would be interested in working on since I am fluent in both of these languages. I was also an intern at Syracuse University Press where I got hands on experience in what goes into actually editing and publishing a book. Through out the last four years I have faced a lot of challenges, which helped chape the person I am today. After being in a tragic car accident, being in comma, having a Traumatic Brain Injury, and being in therapy for over a year, I am a new me, willing to face challenges and knowing how to deal with them. I want to write about my accident and life after it to help others, show them it can be done and help in any way I can.

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