Freedom from Metal

I have had braces for over half my life. It's true. I had braces before I was 10. Apparently my teeth were abnormally bad. My orthodontist said I had up to 3 people's problems in one mouth. What nightmare. I've had 8 adult teeth pulled since. That's including 4 wisdom teeth though.

So what's life like without braces? Pretty much the same.

But I can eat caramel now. And I had my first stick of gum in a very long time. But I still cut up my apples and corn on the cob is removed with a knife. Yes, the returned use of my teeth as functional removers of food is going to be a slow process. I've been ingrained with grabbing a knife everytime I wash an apple (or pear), that I'm having trouble stopping myself.

Freedom from metal does not equal freedom from pavement.
I feel on my face during my run on Thursday, not even a quarter mile from where I started. Now would be a good time laugh.

Ok, now that that's over with, I'd like to say that falling is very much unpleasant if done incorrectly. Falling while playing frisbee or football? Acceptable. Falling due to your foot not lifting high enough to clear a 1 inch high piece of sidewalk? Shuffle-foot. My stride was apparently not so hot yesterday, and I went down surprisingly hard. So hard that I couldn't walk or run evenly for a good 7-8mins afterwards. Yeah I walked back to campus. 20min of pool running. Hard workout today, coming in about an hour. So hopefully these flesh wounds will hold up alright. Though I should mention that my left knee is surprisingly tender, internally. When I push on it, it really can send me some pain signals.

DMC game night tonight, not sure if I'll show; depends on just how crazy today's workout will be. And yes, it will be crazy.

Running stuff:
My right achilles is still stiff in the morning for about 5 min after I wake up. Gotta keep going with my achilles tendon exercises to keep that from tendonosis-ing again.

Less than 2 months from the end of outdoor track. This week is all but over. One more week, then spring break, then 4 more weeks. Plan is to ramp up mileage through spring break, utilizing 2-a-days next week and pool time, allowing for quality training over break. More threshold stuff.

Goals for outdoor: qualify for conferences in 5k and 10k. That means 5:08 pace for the 5k, and 5:49 pace for the 10k. Those are minimums. Should be able to hit the 10k one fairly easily if I maintain good volume, coming off of decent base. 5k will require more speed work to get used to the faster pace.