After a bit of a break from running due to an injury, getting back into running was difficult; not in the motivational sense rather it was getting my minute per mile down to what it was prior to my injury.

The injury was more or less an effect of pushing myself too hard and not listening to my body and listening more to the Runkeeper App that was training me. After pushing myself too hard on a speed workout my foot was more or less like ?????

To conclude - I was out of running for about 2 months.

By the time my injury healed, finals were coming around the corner the same way like when you're walking down a street / hallway & have to make a turn and you end up bumping into someone [ the someone in my case were my final exams ].

Attempting to get back into running with the Runkeeper App was more or less in my mind the NOTP that I subconsciously did not want to happen due to the injury I had as a result from using it. That's when I thought back to what I did before having an app to guide me - I would run & increase the distance the second I became too comfortable with the distance I was running.

What I ended up deciding on was to use the Runkeeper App only to track my minute per mile. That was until it couldn't perform that function -  I would run for 20 minutes & it would tell me that I ran for 0 minutes and 0 miles. This happened for a few times before I made the switch to the Nike+ Run Club App.

Some exercises that I have been doing before running are these from Pinterest as well as these from 100 Days on YouTube. I've been doing the latter more, and have to say it's really effective in moving all your muscles. After running I do a variation of stretches but use this & this as a guide.

If you're just getting into running, I'd recommend doing the workouts above & start by running at your own pace not the pace an app is trying to make you run at - yes of course challenge yourself, but also, first & foremost, listen to your body.

____

Missed a previous fitness type post?

Here's the one prior to this -> Track VS. Road

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Normally, whenever I see someone with a watch it is either a digital one or a good ol' fashioned one. Though, the funny thing is, they are both used for entirely different purposes.

The digital watch is used to actually tell time - though, ironically, I feel that it destroys the purpose of a watch. Rather than my mind counting the lines, as I would on an old fashioned watch, to see if it's 5:46 or nearing more towards 5:48, it's just visibly there; no mind work or squinting at the lines needed.

The people that do have an old fashioned watch use it for aesthetic purposes. Rather than it being an instrument to tell time, it's like oh this accessory pulled my outfit together #aestheticgoals.

I personally didn't see the point of having an actual watch until last year. 

Why have a watch when you have a phone? 

Well, for starters, in a workplace / school it's not really acceptable to be checking your phone every .5 seconds to see if an hour passed. It's good to have a watch to glance back at without it coming off as rude / inconsiderate.

I feel that as technology advances our brains do less and less work. There's no brain work done when your watch is digital - the numbers are blinking straight back at you. Meanwhile, for an old-fashioned watch there is a lil bit of work to do in counting the lines just right.

I have to admit, my family did make fun of me when I first got my watch because of how long it took me to actually tell them the time. My brain had become so accustomed for the time to be digitalized on my phone that seeing that I actually needed to put in effort to tell the time my brain was like lol bye let's not for the first few weeks; as months passed by it became easier. It is as though I had reawakened my how-to-tell-time part of my brain. [It's actually really sad how long it took me to get the hand of telling time; past me would be ashamed oops]

My eyes were blessed with being able to tell time whenever and wherever I was without it coming off as rude (or unblessed if I discovered I still had a half hour left in my lectures).

Also, the satisfaction of actually getting the time right when you double check on your phone is actually what dreams are made of.

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Sometimes you're walking down a street and it diverges in two directions. Everyone in front of you goes right, but then you stop in the middle unsure of which direction is the one for you. You then choose left because you decide that's the direction you are meant to go.

A month ago, I went to the movies to watch Hidden Figures. If you haven't seen this movie yet, you're truly missing out [ like legit stop reading right here and go see when the next timing for it is ]. It centralizes on the three women that were behind putting the USA in the space race over at NASA ( well, it was a two man race between USA & Russia and USA came in second but anyway ).

This movie showed three women who went in a direction that was not paved for them, rather they paved the way for others to follow. This made me think that sometimes the best leaders are the one's that didn't expect themselves to be leaders in the first place.

Three general points that I learned from the film:

• Sometimes the way you're going, there isn't anyone there. But that's the reason you're going in that direction- to be that first person there. 
• Believe in yourself and you know, in the right time, others will to. The most important thing is to NOT stop believing in yourself.
• Never doubt your ability to do something by others inability to see your capability. 

Sometimes the path you're on there isn't anyone there- that's because it's your path to pave.

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