I notice a lot of your journal entries mention minor chronic injuries (shin splints), lack of energy, and a desire to lose excess body fat.
Shin splints were first mentioned in Nov. 2003.
Do you think any of this is diet related or does it “just happen”.
TNT
Hmmmmmmmm. This could be very true. Before track (before 2003) I played tennis since I was 8 and never had shin splints. Once I started doing track when I was 20 I wanted to do really well (for matters of consistency at being good at things that I do) so I decided: the lighter and the stronger - the faster. I got shin splints the first spring I ever ran and the second year I ran, but they were only periodic. They came during indoor season, bothered me a bit, but with no major problems. Last fall I had the MAJOR shin splints, which for the first time showed up while I was still practicing outdoors and it could be for a couple of reasons:
But I agree that nutrition is very important and the reason I had stress fractures the first months of my track experience is due to bad nutrition ->> loss of mentrual cycles->> low calcium levels ->> fracture
So with saying this, I’m about to have some breakfast. 
Headache all day, stayed out till early in the morning last night, woke up very early, slept in the afternoon for two and a half hours, headache still there, so I decided to go outside and
BARABOOM!!
It worked.
I did a 35min run: first 15minutes steady pace, followed by a hill/stairs interval (did 4 of those). My first two were 2minutes, then 1:40 then 1:30 and the rests in between were timed at 3-4minutes.
Then I still wanted to be outside so I biked for another hour and now I’m getting ready for family dinner with cousins aunts and uncles, yay! 
Spend as much time and effort on your recovery and nutrition as you spend on your training and I’m sure you’ll begin to see improvements. Don’t expect immediate results.
If your diet has been lacking for several years it may take awhile to do some catching up…
or maybe it’s too late already. I sincerely wish you all the best with getting your diet in order.
It’s not that difficult. If you are disciplined enough to train you should be disciplined enough to eat well. It just takes practice. Good luck.
TNT
Thanks TNT.
It’s never too late!!
I’m only 22.
Recovery day:
1 hour tae bo and out for dinner with family (sea food, yumm). Ate a lot of it, and plenty of desert!! I still think I eat too many sweets.
Just make sure that you are NEVER undernourished, because then you will have a tendency to over feed. Did you ever read the book, “Overfed But Undernourished”? The body will keep craving until you get enough of what it needs to survive. You do not make the rules. The rules have been developed over the last several million years. Play by them or lose.
TNT
Got it!! Thanks TNT.
Today was so hot I didn’t want to go running, I biked for an hour outside instead.
My coach wants me to run cross country this fall.
Any thoughts? She even sent out an email with miles to run and also said:
""I know some of you on this list may not even be planning to run, but I thought I’d send it to everyone and HOPE you will (Stefanie!!) “”
:eek: :eek: :eek:
Help…
Stefanie, Stefanie, Stefanie,
You know what the answer is. You know about speed and how it is developed through quality speed work. You know about rest intervals, you know about how many days it takes to recover from speed work. And, you know what most of us on the forum will say about doing cross country instead of doing a proper short to long program.
Do what you have to do to reach your goals. If your goals are to please other people at the cost of being an elite athlete, then fine, do what your coach and others want you to do. If your goal is to be elite, then you need to do what you know you need to do. If you are still unclear about how the fastest athletes get to be the fastest, then we are still here for you to answer questions. Besides that, do what you gotta do!
I really needed that post Herb!!
Thanks!
My coach’s email was very tempting, because they’re going on this trip full of adventures before school starts:
""I know this much- it is very hilly, we’ll be camping, and there are lots of streams to cross (some that you actually have to swim!) It’ll be fun, but it will also be kind of crazy so be prepared! You will get dirty, wet, need extra dry shoes, and should be prepared to pee in the bushes! If you have questions or doubts about going, let me know as I don’t want you to feel like you have to go if it doesn’t sound fun! On the other hand, it’s going to be a great “team” time and I hope everyone w ill be able to come and enjoy it. It will definitely be an adventure! “”
BUTTTT I really want to be the best 400m athlete that I can be, and I’m DEFINATELY not built as a cross country runner. I just happen to do well with endurance and my coach gets overexcited about it.
I’m officially writing this down and all you readers are my witnesses:
I AM NOT RUNNING CROSS COUNTRY THIS FALL
:o pfeeeeew
WELL DONE!!
So far nobody I’ve asked has encouraged me to do cross country, so I’m not even having the slightest doubts about it.
Today was tempo day and I had energy allll day, which explains all the activities that I did in 37 degree Celsius weather (that is Hotttt, for those who speak in Fahrenheit)
Morning: 4 lap warm up, stretch, drill, alternate leg bounds (3 sets of 10)
500-300-150-150-300-500 (I thought I would get a heat stroke during the 500s, even the 300s)
Afternoon: Pool (swam some laps, then ran in water, all took an hour)
Evening: 6 laps easy with friend, and good stretch
(Note: the point of this evening session was to socialize and catch up with my friend on personal lives while doing something “productive” haha)
Tomorrow will be even warmer. I’m doing my workout at 9am (that’s as early as it can get during vacation :o )
practice at 9am (I could actually breathe at that time)
5 laps warm up, stretch
430m high knees
230m butt kicks
230m B skips
260m strides emphasizing high knees
3*12 alternate leg bounds
sprints:
30m, 60m, 80m
Weights: single leg squats, leg extensions, leg curls, hang cleans, push ups, abs
(all done light, at 12-15 reps)
Then gone to the beach and played a lot of beach tennis
dam that sounds good. Iwould have to get the train to go to the nearest beach.
Your training sounds, good, and it seems liek you enjoy it.
Shaft plays the game, Shaft wins the game.
Can you dig it
thank you
Yeah, one great part of living in Greece are the beaches
Mr Shumon, I can surely dig it, but right now I’m not really digging it, only trying to maintain my fitness. The digging starts August 8th when I return from a week of camping right by the beach and playing beach tennis aaaaaall day (God I love doing that…)
Today I taught my cousin some tennis for more than an hour and a half - that was my only workout of the day.
The plan was to do a track tempo workout with my friend in the evening, but we got the track and the soccer players had taken over the stadium and they wouldn’t allow us to train (bastards… :mad: )…the soccer players actually want us there, and so do the coaches, it’s the old people who run the stadium that won’t let us in, cause they have brain tumors that forbid correct function of their brains.
So instead, we went to the “sweet store” and sat for an hour and half while eating ice cream :o
There’s always tomorrow.
sounds good Stefaine, greece is a pretty country. Sounds like your enjoying summer, i need to start doing the same.
So your tough training starts on the 8th. Whenever you feel pain, and you think you cannot sprint another rep, or lift another weight.
Say to yourself, i can dig it. All these sciencetific studies, coaches, with there supplements.
I got the biggest suppliement in tons,and that motivation.
So August the 8th, you can dig it.
Thank you
Well said
Today I woke up and went to the track on my own (one of my partners is taking two weeks off and the other went on a trip for three days to visit someone).
The weather was hot, but the sun was not as strong, so it was very bearable.
I did a long tempo session composed of drills and a couple of sprints. This is what I did (I love making up workouts!)
4 laps warm up, some active stretching
Then I jogged the curves around the track while doing drills on the 100m straights:
2100m high knees
2100m butt kicks
2100m A skips
2100m B skips (ouch - the good ouch!!!)
2100m hurdler’s drill right leg (I love these)
2100m hurdler’s drill left leg (yeah I love these too…)
2*100m sprint (those felt GREATTTT, although I was tired)
I was concentrating on form for all of these, and it was kinda hard, 1)because of the heat (lots of sweat 
), 2)it was physically tiring from jogging the whole time (I had no walking recoveries)
So yeah, that felt good
Weights: arms (all three sets of 10-15 reps)
bisep curls with bar
triceps extensions with bar (behind head)
abs
lateral pull downs
military press
triceps pressdown
Stretch
Then:
one hour of tennis in the middle of the day when the sun is at its hightest (I don’t understand why I love doing stuff in the heat so much)
Sun’s my friend.
Last Saturday and Sunday and Monday I did nothing training-wise really…
Tuesday: 5 laps WU on grass, stretch
bleachers: 3 sets of 3 bleachers (no rest in between)
push ups/abs/jump roping
Considering I haven’t done bleachers in a while, I was surpisingly NOT sore the next day.
Today: on the roof garden: jump roping:
endurance WU: 2* 500reps (alternating double leg hop with single leg hop)
3* 100 high knee fast jump roping (great stuff…) with abs after each set.
Today I worked out just out of frustration because I argued with my mom and I needed to take the anger out… I didn’t really do anything extreme workout-wise, except go outside in very very hot weather:
ride my bike for 45 minutes at a good pace with wind and hills
jog for 25 minutes on grass
I’m going on a two and a half day trip tomorrow, so I won’t be doing anything till Sunday or Monday. Then workout for sure Monday- Tuesday and then off to camping for a week I go, yaaay.
To be honest, I really can’t wait till I start to work out for real August 8th…!!!