Happy Holidays!

Merry belated Christmas to everyone celebrating! Hope everyone is having wonderful holidays and is able to relax with family. 

We went to a couple of services on Christmas Eve and went to bed early... gettin' old I guess.

Started off Christmas Day with my physical therapy exercises before everyone else went downstairs. Hopefully the new year brings new hope in terms of my recovery and return to running!

Every Christmas morning, we host a brunch, and on Christmas Eve I prepare a blueberry apple coffee cake for everyone to enjoy. I followed this recipe and would definitely use it again! 

I received some Nutella in my stocking and ate it with a banana this morning... just like I used to do for breakfast everyday in Europe!

My sister got me some socks (socks are my favorite) - these ones are perfect!

My dad set up clipless pedals on the bike I was using over the summer for the 50-mile ride. I'll start practicing to clip & unclip indoors and then try outside! A relative generously gave me some hand-me-down clipless shoes. I can still expect to go down a couple of times before I'm used to it but I'm excited to start using these clipless shoes - hopefully helps me be speedier!

In the meantime, I can be found on the erg. I've still been working on long and low pieces but I will start with shorter explosive pieces soon so I can get ready for the upcoming sprint season.

Update.

I haven't wanted to do any of the usual stuff lately... I haven't wanted to take pictures, read my books, watch movies, go out to my favorite restaurants, or hang out with friends. I haven't wanted to write on the blog. I've tried; this is the third attempt to write a blog post in the last 2 weeks. I pull up the blank page and stare at it for awhile, and then leave it open on my computer for a day or two before giving up. Sometimes I'll get my normal aspirations to do the things I love; I'll plan a fancy meal I want to make, or make tentative plans with friends. But when it comes time to actually do those things, I want to back down.

I'm not sure exactly what it is! I've been this way for a few weeks; I am not sure if it's the fact that I haven't been able to run for 10 weeks (total drag, btw) or the fact that I just finished up a really rough semester, wrought with tough classes, high demands in my position for the rowing team, and a few personal crises along the way. Maybe it's my anxiety about my upcoming wisdom teeth-removal (1 month away... and not sure why I'm so nervous!). Or maybe I'm having an existential crisis since I'm turning 21 in 47 days or something crazy like that. Maybe it's none of those things! Or maybe it's all of them, working as a tour de force against my usual level of positivity. Usually I have quite the zest for life and I'm always busy, always planning, always on the go. Lately it's been hard for me to keep up with that; I feel like I want to be alone, I'm listless, and I'd rather hide under my covers as much as possible. (Of course, this leaves me also feeling miserable, because it's lonely and boring.)

Basically, I've just been sad lately. I've been in a funk. Which is why I haven't been posting (plus, as I've said many times before, this semester has really not allowed for a lot of blogging time). For me, this blog isn't the place to complain or unload my problems; this is supposed to be a positive space where people can read about travel, fun recipes, rowing, and lots of running. Today is Saturday, and I just got home last Friday evening, so I've been home for a week. In the last few weeks, (apart from final exams!) I've been working on physical therapy so that I can get back running. I've been doing a lot of the elliptical and rowing machine. Not sure which one I prefer. Now that I'm back at home, I plug in my speakers to my computer so I can watch Netflix on my computer while I'm on the rowing machine. I row about 7,000-8,000 meters (4-5 miles) per day. This has kept me focused, and let me sweat out some of my stresses. Still, apart from that, I've just been doing what my brain/body feels like it wants to do right now. I'm barely 1 week out from finishing my final exams, and my mind and body are still reeling from the stress of taking 5 exams and studying for too many hours per day. Mostly, I've just wanted to sit quietly. A lot of the time, I do nothing. I keep my phone in air plane mode a lot of the time now, and save all my messages for brief intervals in the day when I take time to answer them. I've watched a lot of the Kardashians in the last 5 days, too. I've started a few books, which I'll review when I'm done! I've tied up a lot of loose ends (with my exec position on my rowing team, as well as little things like answering emails, sending my broken phone case back for a new one - free! - and ordering/wrapping holiday gifts). I know that soon I'll be out of my weird funk and back to doing things with lots of energy and excitement. I'm just not there yet, so I'm trying to listen to what my mind needs to do to get there. Right now, it's been needing a huge break.

I have been spending a lot of time doing all of the normal holiday stuff with my family. We got our Christmas tree a week ago. It came out beautifully!

Hot chocolate is a holiday must-have for me.

We ventured downtown on a double date with some friends earlier this week. Checked out the old Arcade in all it's holiday grandeur. 

We headed to the Chocolate Bar for desert and had some chocolate mousse cake...it was amazing.

I'm working on a post on my physical therapy activities... I think some of the stuff I'm working on can benefit all women - especially if you're active - because most of us have natural weakness in our hips! So I can show you what I'm working on for that. Also some recipes are in the queue. I don't have very much going on in the next 6 weeks and a big part of my goal for that time is getting some regular blogging back in the works. Talk to you soon - I promise!

Getting Back To Normal.

Hi! Remember me??? I'm back and going to be starting to try to blog regularly again as we head into winter break and the holidays. It's been really hard for me to blog regularly this semester... It's been tough. I am usually in class from 8:30AM-5:30PM everyday, and then I get home, cook dinner, head off to different meetings, etc. Typically I hit the gym for a workout as soon as I wake up every morning in order to get a good start to my day. I've accomplished a lot this semester and had a lot of fun, but it's been a lot of hard work and not so much play. Which is fine, but now I am finally just getting the opportunity to catch my breath. 

Though there has been a lot going on, running has not been included in my activities since the marathon, which is a big part of why I haven't been blogging so much. This blog used to be centered around my training, and suddenly, I was injured! I haven't been able to run for 5-6 weeks, and I'm actually headed to the sports medicine doctor today to start making headway. I am 99% sure that I have IT-band syndrome in my right leg (2 years ago I combatted a serious case of ITBS in my left leg). I won't be doing any Turkey Trots this Thanksgiving, but I'm hoping to start 2015 off running and a new half-marathon goal :) 

In place of running, I've been doing a lot of elliptical, spin classes, erging (indoor rowing machine) and walking. Nothing quite lives up to a good, sweat-inducing run that leaves your heart pounding in your ribcage, but I know I'll be back there eventually. I've really enjoyed spin the most as a replacement for running.

So what's been going on since the marathon? So many things!

Alex and I got to class things up a bit and go to our Honors Program Formal in late October.

I drove 8 hours on the highway (on my own, but with friends in the car to help!) to get to Head of the Hooch... where all of my university's events were cancelled but I got to hang out with my aunt, uncle, and cousins who I never get to see!

I've turned into quite the scientist - I spend about 12 hours per week in a lab conducting research.

I got to go to Rowing Formal with my favorite people :)

And cook a fancy dinner with Alex's aunt and uncle

Dye a chunk of my hair purple (post-marathon blues can make you a little crazy!)

I got to enjoy our first snow earlier this week...

And celebrate 5 years with my favorite.

Stay tuned for workouts, recipes, and maybe some funny anecdotes in coming days! Happy almost-Thanksgiving!

Race Recap : Chicago Marathon (and long time no see!)

Alright, I think I am back to blogging now that I am done with marathon training. I will have a lot more time in my schedule!

Thought the best way to start back up here would be to talk about the CHICAGO MARATHON. What an amazing race. If you're thinking about doing a marathon, I highly recommend you try to get to that one. You will have an amazing first-marathon-experience. 

I drove up to Chicago on Saturday by myself, and met Alex and our friend there. We were able to stay in his condo, which is right in the heart of Chicago (and one convenient mile from the Start Line), and 2 more friends were flying in. 3 of us were running officially, and 2 were going to run alongside. I was lucky that I was going to have someone to meet up with halfway through to get me through the tough part.

First view of Chicago - I came right in on the lake!

Let's start at the Expo : We went on Saturday evening and it was AMAZING! Definitely the BEST Expo I've been to.

The 3 (registered) runners!

I got everything ready the night before. Laid out my outfit, made sure everything was charged, etc. I wrote myself a note for when the goings got tough.

Got some pics before the race

I started out FAST (sub-7 in the first 1/4 mile) but knew that I absolutely had to slow down because every second you over shoot in the beginning, you slow down significantly in the end). I kept thinking to myself "hold it," or "sit on this pace" because those are things we say in rowing. Usually a coxswain is saying it, but I thought of it in a coxswain voice and it was effective.

My Garmin lost satellite under a bridge before the first mile marker, but it quickly regained it. I was surprised to find that I'd started the first 5k slower than I wanted (usually adrenaline gets me right on pace at the beginning of a race!) and I actually finished the first 5k in about 25 minutes (8:19 pace). However, I realized at that point that I had to GO and I dropped down to my marathon pace, which was between 7:40 and 7:55 minute per mile pace (depending on whether you looked at my Garmin or the course clocks). I was right where I wanted to be. I took my first GU at mile 7 and was feeling great. Before I knew it, I was flying through my half marathon, and my friend met up with me at about mile 14, and I took another GU. By mile 18 I was still feeling strong and confident ("only 2 4 mile runs left!"). At mile 21, I was on pace to run a 3:26. At mile 22 I hit the wall. Ouch.

I made the conscious decision after hitting the wall to drop my mile splits by a minute per mile. Instead of running at 7:40-7:50 pace, I went to 8:30-8:50. I was totally aware of doing this, and I knew I had to do it or my body might quit. I knew I still was going to clear my goal by a long shot, and slowing down was not only fine by me, but necessary. At mile 23 we found our other friend. He had started in Wave 1,  and he was actually running the race and had a bib number, so I knew we could finish together. 

During the race I took GU at miles 7, 13, and 18. If I could change anything, I would also have taken my fourth GU at 22...but I kind of forgot. My thinking started to get fuzzy around 22. I took water at every aid station and Gatorade at almost every aid station. If you ever do a marathon, definitely do this too.

Miles 24, 25, and 26 (and the .2) were the most difficult thing I have ever done. I felt like death. I had hit the wall so hard, and I don't think it's a reflection on my training but was probably more due to nutrition and fueling prior to the race (I probably needed a bigger breakfast). The friend that I was running with single-handedly got me to the finish line. At a few moments, I was afraid he would have to support me across the finish. It was all I could do to keep my legs going, but I had to make the decision to pick up my legs for every step. My friend who jumped in at the half brought me water from the aid stations so I could keep running straight and not slow or stop. In the last mile, my calves started clenching and cramping so hard that my feet were forced downwards, causing me to trip every couple of steps. That was hard.

.1 of the final .2 was UP HILL. The whole course was flat except for that. Then there was a final .1, which was downhill. I heard them call my name, and I grabbed my friend's hand and we ran under the archway together. I finished with a time of 3:31:16, which allowed me to qualify for the Boston Marathon by almost 4 minutes. My buddy grabbed me when we stopped because I seemed a little wobbly but after a few moments I was totally fine (except the legs haha). 

We got as much water/Gatorade/bananas/nutrition/as we could hold and slowly made our way to our meet-up spot.

We couldn't find Alex for quite awhile but I did get interviewed by NBC News Chicago.

While we waited, my friends took amazing care of me. They were really excited that I'd qualified (and so was I!). They got me coffee, water, and foil blankets. 

Before we found Alex...

After we found him!

The girl that got me through!

We got lots of Bean pictures

Things that kept me going during this race:

-Looking down and seeing the note on my hand. There are so many reasons, people, and experiences that drove me to want to run this marathon. I dedicated this race to them.

-Seeing my shadow on the ground and feeling that my form looked strong; I tried to keep it up

-Thoughts of wearing fuzzy socks ASAP

-Remembering all the people that have done training runs with me or lent me marathon advice

-Hearing a spectator say "Now, she looks like she's a good runner" as I ran past at mile 8."

-Thinking of the friends and family that cheered me on from afar

-Thinking of all the work that I've put in; all the sacrifices I've made; and how bad I wanted to do this

-Thinking of all the people that will never have this opportunity, but might want it

Now Ryan as some deco hanging around him.

More on life and running and rowing later :) Now time to sleep!

Summary of Life Lately.

I'm back. I've been failing at posting on the blog lately, and I think about it almost everyday but never have the time to sit down a write a good update. I've been a little bit in over my head during this last month at school; I'm registered for 21 hours including doing some research in two different psychology labs (this is WAY cool), I'm wrapping up marathon training (T-17 days), rowing (just had our first regatta on the weekend - I'll get to that!), Regatta Chairing, and actively participating in a few miscellaneous clubs/activities going on.

The 21 hours isn't so bad. I'm typically in an academic building doing things that are, well, academic from 8:30AM-5:30PM from Monday-Thursday. Mostly I'm doing psychology and psych labs, but I also have some business courses for a change of scenery. I'm doing a minor in Management & Leadership, which serves as my "practical" minor (since, sadly, I'm not sure how often my French will come into play in the future).

Running has been coming along alright, though it's admittedly tougher when your whole life can't revolve around marathon training (shock!). My body is definitely more prone to injuries for fatigue-related reasons. I try to get 7-9 hours of sleep per night, which would've been more than enough over the summer, but when I'm riding my bike all around town everyday to get to classes, attending classes for 8+ hours 4 days a week, traveling, rowing, and doing 5 billion other little things, it's definitely tougher on my body. Last week I had to stop a run short and take an extra day off due to weird hip problems - luckily they were short lived. This week I'm doing a final highish-milage week and will be cutting back the mileage significantly for the final 2 weeks until the big day.

This past weekend featured lots of rowing. I'm the Regatta Chair for our team, which means I'm in charge of registering our boats for races, booking hotels/figuring out accommodations, figuring out our transportation (drive our own cars or rent vans?), making sure each individual rower makes it from Point A to Point B and back, picking up race day packets, etc. It's a lot of responsibility at times.

Our weekend at Head of the Cuyahoga was particularly special to me because that is my "home regatta," and is hosted by the boathouse that I rowed out of hundreds of zillions of times in high school. My doubles partner and I even borrowed the same double that we used in high school. Biggest plus? Sleeping in my own bed :)

This is how you know it's a regatta weekend:

We stayed at home on Friday night and got up bright and early on Saturday to launch. We were event 7 - by far the earliest event on our team. Everyone was there to see us off though!

We ended up having an amazing race. 

Many modeling shots were necessary once we were back on land. 

With our awesome rental double :)

Home sweet Cuyahoga!

It was nice to be done earlier one because we got the chance to spend the day cheering for our team. Overall, we did great. 3 of our other boats placed. Our women's varsity 8 got a trophy along with their gold medals - they won the "Daisy Award," which they received for the fastest overall women's 8 time - even among masters and junior boats. That's pretty fast.

We didn't know it until an hour or so after getting back on land, but we ended up taking first place. We were thrilled! The other competitors in our event were masters women with (supposedly) a lot more experience, so I felt really proud.

Modeling the gold!

1.5 weeks until our next race... stay tuned!

Things from this week, 20-miler & Running Talk Down.

There's been a lot of rowing and other things going on this week! Yesterday I had my first morning workout. We were on the water by 7AM! We got three good practices in this week - I'm really excited for our regatta in a week! And to visit home :)

I always lay everything out the night before : 

My new favorite pre-rowing snack: 

We headed into the city last night and Alex's aunt and uncle had us over to make PIZZAS. I typically stay away from wheat/gluten (and that has really improved my health over the last 6-7 months!) but I am planning on eating pizza (convenience) the night before the marathon so this was good timing to practice since the long run was today! Plus, who doesn't like pizza-making???

Alex=pizza expert

This morning I got up at 5:15 to start the run. My roommate planned to do 10 miles with me, and we both had somewhere to be by 10:00 so we had to start early!

 I actually started at about 5:45 on the treadmill because I don't run in the dark on my own. I set the treadmill to 2% incline to simulate outside running. So, I did 5 miles on my own, met my roommate, did the middle 10 miles with her, and then did the last 5 miles on my own again. This was a pretty nice balance. I knew I couldn't (mentally) do the full 20 completely on my own and I LOVED the company. Running in sparse country roads for 20 miles on my own would've been too scary - either because of dogs, crazy drivers, or other unknowns. I think this is something I could've definitely done in my hometown where there are TONS of runners/cyclists/pedestrians, but here it's hard to do that.

DONE.

The 20 miles felt pretty good. Honestly, not that much different from 18! After the end of my run, I hopped in our pool for an "ice bath," since it was only about 50 degrees outside (the pool was probably closer to 60. That felt GOOD.

I don't think you're going to want to see my bare toes for quite awhile.

Then it was time to head to the boathouse to get launch certified! Figured it's as good a time as ever to make it official!

Running from 09/08-09/13:
Monday : Off
Tuesday : 6 VERY slow and easy miles + an evening rowing workout - 4 x 10 min pieces.
Wednesday : 4 fast-ish miles on the treadmill.
Thursday : 8 miles - 1-mile warmup, 6 miles at 7:41 avg pace, and 1 mile cool down. 2x15 minutes rowing.
Friday : Morning row (30 minutes) and 2 mile "shake out" run to make sure everything felt okay for the long run!
Saturday : 20.2 miles, mostly easy with last 5 miles @ marathon pace.

Weekly total : 40.2 miles

Now I'm just staying horizontal, studying, and preparing something special for dinner!

Slow-Cooked Bean Medley.

It's been a busy week so far! I've had a couple of REALLY long days (like...having class/meetings/runs/practice every moment from like 8:00AM to 11:30PM or so).

My sweet friend knew just what I needed :)

Got back into rowing yesterday, which was definitely worth the time it took :) I will be rowing in a double this season, which I'm really excited about. My doubles partner is very experienced, and very awesome :)

This is what I love:

Yesterday we spent practice just getting a feel for each other and we did a 5-minute warm-up, 2x10 minute pieces and 2x8 minute pieces. With lots of chatting breaks in between!

Today I made a bean medley with lots of kinds of beans, canned corn, ketchup, and a few other veggies.

Here's the recipe to the bean medley.

It turned out really yummy. I'm delighted with the fact that I can just throw a bunch of things in the slow-cooker, turn it on, and come home with a healthy, balanced meal. One of my roommates commented that it tastes like Sloppy Joe's? I've never had a Sloppy Joe but I'm guessing it was the ketchup. My favorite part is the kidney beans and the  corn!

This week I've started bringing lunches, too. Last week I was still able to hurry home for a quick lunch but this week is just too busy now that I've got my normal schedule going! One day I did meet my sister for one of the famous salads from around here :

Otherwise, I keep it simple. I'll usually bring a PB&J roll-up and an apple. Tomorrow I decided to mix it up a bit and do a kale mix roll-up, broccoli & dip, and an apple. 

It does take a lot of time, but I definitely have been enjoying grocery shopping for myself and preparing my own meals. This is something I really liked while living abroad, as well.

Let's end on an excited note : 

All seven seasons! I am not a big TV person at all, but I'm a diehard fan of this show. I started watching it when I was 12 and I've seen every episode at least 2-3 times now. So this is a very exciting piece of news ! I might be chained to my computer for awhile now... :)