Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Spooky weather, Halloween mood!


I've been getting into my Halloween mood this week. Yesterday I went on a 7-mile run and ran a little bit through a tiny graveyard! I couldn't not take a picture when I saw how spooky it looked with the weather!

I proceeded to run by the house with all of the decorations that I mentioned yesterday. I didn't end up getting too close because the people were back outside decorating! But here you can kind of see…it's decked out with light-up things, a giant moving spider, and lots of other creepy decorations! Plus it's a farmhouse in the middle of the country - very Halloween! I'll go back for an even better picture.

Also yesterday Alex and I went to get cookies. We ended up sharing this amazing s'mores one… It was HUGE. S'mores everything is just the best!

The very holiday-appropriate weather continued into today….

I tried to take a picture as well but mostly succeeded in getting a reflection of my room.

Since I've already run 18 miles this week (more than I'm used to, Sunday included) and am a little sore, I took today off. As it turned out I had a lot of catching up to do on homework and some new articles that I'm writing. I'll hopefully get back into the running tomorrow or maybe swimming! Definitely would like to see how many miles I can comfortably and safely run this week though. Maybe 30!

Tomorrow=thrifting for Alex's/my super-cool costumes… stay tuned!






Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Running, regatta, coffee, eyeballs.

On Sunday after the 5k, I ended up running 3 slow (and careful!) miles, bring my daily mileage up to 6.1! The weather was beautiful and I didn't have much going on and I just HAD to get out there! Well, I lived to tell the tale - no injuries resulted from that choice (that I know of!).

Yesterday I ran about 5.5 miles and passed by a REALLY cool house. I'm going to go back today to try to find it so you can see why!

Being that ALL races were cancelled at the regatta on Saturday, we only got good land pictures. 

Me with some of my best buds


Wanted to show you the beautiful hand warmers that saved my life on Saturday. Not being dramatic at all!

Since Saturday (when I woke up at 5AM and had to stay awake till 2 or 3 due to Formal) I have become a coffee drinker. I guess that night broke the camel's back and now I need to exist off of caffeine…

I got really excited when someone gave me these eyeballs. Love Halloween! 

Sorry for the randomness! 


Sunday, October 27, 2013

Formal and 5k!

Honors Formal went so well! We got tons of pictures to commemorate the evening and with over 200 guests I would call the night a success. It's something that I hope to work on in future years here - hopefully this was just the beginning!

My co-leaders and me, and the HSAB president to the right of me!

Our warm decor (I picked the color burgundy :)

 



Mustache friends

The evening was a huge success and so much fun. Totally worth all of the work (and inevitable stress) that went into it.

As I wrote last week, I had been thinking of doing a 5k today - but had pretty much scrapped the idea when I decided my IT-band was still unhappy from my half-marathon. This morning a bunch of people asked me if I was doing it so I threw down and did it anyways - didn't want to miss out on the fun! Ran my 2nd (or maybe 3rd - the distance was questionable) fastest 5k time and felt pretty rotten because I had just inhaled some cereal (since I didn't plan on doing it). It ended up being a great time - and hey I got a t-shirt to add to the collection! The cause was also a great one: providing books for children. 

My pink friend and I took first and second place women!

Planning on concluding this awesome action-packed weekend with Safe Trick-Or-Treat for local children tonight. We're decorating our dorms to get ready for them! Regatta pics still to come :)







Saturday, October 26, 2013

Bread, trees, and food pics.

Sometimes… you're in such a rush that your breakfast needs to be portable and needs to be eaten in the lab…

My favorite part of fall is the beautiful trees (which I insist of always posting pictures of…) on campus.

Sometimes they brighten your day…

Or make it even brighter!

Thursday was a 5-mile run and 30+ minutes of hard rowing in preparation for our Saturday regatta… today I just ellipticized 30 minutes so my legs wouldn't hate me. For  now all we can do is hope that the weather bears with us! This is my last race with my boat so we're hoping for the best.

Still very proud of my bread-making abilities….

Yummy on-the-go snacks:

Yummy greens!


Check back tomorrow for more details updates and lots of Honors Formal and Regatta Pics!







Thursday, October 24, 2013

BQ!!! and rowing video of the week.

This post is extremely late… but ALEX QUALIFIED FOR BOSTON!!! With a 3:00:50 marathon at the Columbus Marathon on Sunday, Alex secured his spot at the 2015 Boston Marathon. When I saw the results (you'd better believe I was continuously hitting refresh on my computer to see when he came in) I teared up and jumped around my room joyously. After a long journey towards this goal, he's finally made it!

As a 3-hour marathoner he ran most of the race right with the fastest pace-group!

Lots of happiness will go on for days… I can't imagine ever accomplishing a challenge quite like that! 

On that note, NYC Running Mama shared this in a post the other day…

If this is true, Alex must have one tough mind!

---------------------------------------------------
In other less exciting news, yesterday was my first run since my half-marathon. I had been meaning to run over the weekend - usually I take a week off and then start easy runs again but the weekend got busy and I had exams and rowing things (i.e. 5k tests at practice - yuck) so I wasn't too worried about pushing my first run back. Yesterday I went out for a 32-minute easy run in the now-freezing weather! Suddenly I had to wear long pants, a technical shirt, and running jacket just to bear the chilliness outside! This is good running weather though - can't complain! 

I came back and enjoyed a scalding shower and some hot-chocolate…


On my first runs following a race I like to take it super slow (Garmin-free) and assess my body - how do I feel? Yesterday I felt…achey. After a good stretch I felt better but this morning I woke up with a really tight hip on my "bad" side (the side that had a really nasty IT-Band injury last fall, which took months of rehab to finally kick to the curb). I'm going to stretch it out and then try to run some more today - taking it easy again. I'd been hoping to get in my 7-mile route today but I think that one will have to wait for when my body feels slightly less questionable!

Rowing video of the week!




Sunday, October 20, 2013

Week off, ergathon, next plans.

Eek I haven't posted in a few days! It's been busy this week with exams, rowing, and not running. I haven't run at all since my half-marathon, but I think after a week off I'll be ready tomorrow or the next day (probably depending on when I have more time...). After Tuesday morning (a big exam), things will settle down quite a bit and I'll have more time to run and swim. 

Friday night was ergathon. We raised hundreds of dollars selling cookies and grilled cheese!

Alex prepared for his big race day with about a pound of pasta...

Looking ahead, I might do a 5k on Sunday! I'm not exactly sure if I want to or if I'll be ready, but it's a possibility. This would be a fun one to do on campus. 

This weekend has included a lot of bread baking. Looks like I still got my bread talent!




Monday, October 14, 2013

Weekly rowing vid, foam roller, and cute :)

This morning it was coollddd and I got to wear my puffy red vest (and sunglasses)

My recovery is going pretty smoothly from yesterday. I'm not too sore, though practice today didn't feel great. By Wednesday I'm hoping to feel much better and be able to give full pressure in practice. For now I'm just going through the motions to make sure my IT-Band doesn't bother me anymore, and me and my foam roller are really good friends.

When I got back to Oxford yesterday, Alex brought me flowers! Then today he gave me a giant cookie! He clearly knows how to take care of me :) 

I made a fancy flower arrangement, as you can see! 
I love the yellow flowers.

Now, time for our weekly inspiring rowing video! Watching these makes me excited to go to practice.





Sunday, October 13, 2013

Race Recap: Northern Ohio Half-Marathon!

I did it I did it!

Let me give you a play-by-play of this mornings events:

I got up at 5:30AM and snoozed till 5:38. I had a terrible night's sleep and was up and anxious almost every hour! This has never happened before before either a half-marathon or even my triathlon, which I was terrified for. We (me and my cheerleader/mom) left at 6:06AM.

This is the first year for the Northern Ohio Half-Marathon and Marathon, and I think it went pretty well considering this. Nothing too big went wrong, just a few "littles." Most people did the morning-of packet-pickup, which was very disorganized. We had to wait in a looooong line, so it's good we got there plenty early. At the other Lake Health Half I did in June, it was much speedier and well-organized, so I think this is just something they'll have to workout for next time. The race also started several minutes late, and we were all standing in the corrals for about 5-10 min just waiting (anxiously).

Running Friend and I had plenty of picture time :)

Finally, we were off. I purposely started off in the middle of the pack, not wanting to rush out with the excitement. I didn't want to fly and die at this race, and had high hopes of setting a pretty substantial PR. At first, I thought it was good that the crowd was so congested that I couldn't run faster than a minute above my goal race pace. However, this persisted for 2.5 more miles! I'm not sure if this helped my mile-splits later on or just slowed me down about 2 minutes...either way, it's in the past. I just wish the start hadn't been so congested for so long. It was reminiscent of the Cleveland Marathon - though this was nowhere near as big.

Meanwhile, my mom got to take pictures of the scenery that I mostly ignored... lighthouses! I LOVE lighthouses and (not so) secretly want to live in one when I grow up. 

Miles 3-11 flew by. Never had a faster-seeming run. Loved the course, loved the people, and another runner helped keep me on pace the whole way. I exceeded my expectations with the pace I was able to keep. As usual, miles 11-13.1 were OUCH but I did bring it down and hit my goal. I finished with a 7-minute PR. 

I was thrilled to be finished - I spent all my energy. I don't think I ate/hydrated well yesterday, and I didn't use my chewable (or any drinkable) Gatorade either so I attribute this to why I pretty much collapsed at the end. I was happy though, because I knew I had given it my all - nothing worse than going back and questioning if you could have persevered more. 

This happened right at the end.

As soon as I had some water and stood up and walked around, I felt MUCH better. I waited for Runner Friend to finish, and then ran in with her, which she had wanted. She did an amazing job :)

Later, I went to check my official live results on these cool monitor-y things they had .They were attached to keyboards and I just typed in my bib-number and all my stats popped up on a big screen in front of me! I wish I took a picture because that technology was really cool. I found that I placed second in my age group, and ended up winning a $30 gift-certificate to a running speciality store!


I got home and noticed that my feet got some damage...
The blood washed out so it's all good though. I showered and stretched and I feel great! I'm very excited about how today went. Also when I got home I realized that the finisher's medal had my favorite thing on it... a lighthouse! Maybe my new favorite finisher's medal. 

All in all, a very well-spent fall break. Yay. :)







Saturday, October 12, 2013

Fall Break Pt. 2 and Pre-Race Night.


For Day 2 of my Fall break in Cleveland, we went...Apple Picking! This is a favorite fall tradition of mine and I'm really glad I got to partake while I'm home! Fresh apples are the best.


We also picked pumpkins...I am bringing this one for my room at school!

We did another family tradition by going to Chagrin Falls... usually this isn't something we can do in the same day as apple-picking but we've had unseasonably warm weather this fall. 

We also hit up the Popcorn Shop

Probably too much dairy for the day before a race... seemed like a good idea at the time!

This evening I'm taking it easy while my sister is at her senior Homecoming dance. Might get to watch Ironman 3 (again!) tonight and do some laundry (exciting) and get my race bag together for tomorrow. I'm not quite in the mindset yet but I know as soon as I cross the start-line I will be ready to give it my all. I'm really, really excited to see how it goes. 








Friday, October 11, 2013

Favorite Things Friday: Fall Break Edition :)

I'm hoooome! So this week's fave things Friday will have a fall-break/home theme to them!

1. This yummy lemonade sold in our Business School. I usually don't drink anything but water but I really liked the packaging for this lemonade (thought the glass bottle was cool) and I'm so glad I got it! It lasted me a few days and I just kept taking it out of my fridge. Was so refreshing on these uncharacteristically-warm fall afternoons!

2. The "therapy dogs" that will be coming to visit during midterms next week :)

3. Going downtown and seeing the beautiful spot where I want to take wedding photos (if I ever get involved in the institution of marriage! i.e. Not for a looooooong time...).

No edits!




3. Finding this chalk-drawing in front of the art museum :)






4.  Hanging out with THIS GIRL!

5. Taking selfies in the beautiful weather

Okay sorry for the 5 billion pictures, I just was so excited about the gorgeous day and being in Cleveland! Now I'm drinking Gatorade and hydrating/resting for SUNDAY. Also on the agenda: Sister time and visiting the Grands! Have a beautiful Friday!