It's been more than a month already!

Well, its been over a month that I've been here in Peoria and life is good!  Here's some of what has happened since I've last written.  

I've started working at a massage clinic called Balanced Health Concepts.  It's an independent contractor sort of situation and so far I think it's what I'm looking for right now.  I've finished designing my first-ever brochure, flier, and coupon!  :)  Now it's time to recruit some new clients!

My sister and her boyfriend have visited.  She took some photographs of me doing massage and Thai massage for brochures and future website:

We also did a photo shot of Frank's band.   This was a lot of fun!  At an old gas station:

And on some railroad tracks:

And a photo of Matt being goofy when we were checking out some garage sales:

Sara has also visited and we went up a tall lookout tower in Peoria Heights...

Chicago is 127 miles away:

Not close enough to see...

I did the Batavia Triathlon on June 14th.  Frank super-surprised me by showing up 1) to the race and 2) to multiple places along the course.  Here are some photos he snapped.  On the bike:

And on the run:

 

Frank and I have been mulching and doing some landscaping.  Here's a before picture:

And here's an after: 

(See little Sig check out the newly pruned bush.  Sig and I both prefer the wild-jungle-look, but, we don't live in the country country and neighbors seem to like this highly groomed look.)

Frank took his Echo racing at Autobahn Country Club.  Making adjustments pre-race:

Little Echo on the track with all the fast cars:  

But after one 15 minute run on the track, the little car couldn't hold up and a wheel bolt broke:

Hopefully, now that Frank's Mustang is in working order again, it won't meet the same fate next weekend when we go back to Autobahn.  Check out his new light-weight aluminum hood!

Kitty update.  Look how everyone is getting along.  Everyone say awh...  :) 

i feel fantastic

Okay, so I may not be in marathon shape right now, but I'm feeling pretty awesome.  I can WAD all I want; I have both enough strength and stamina to keep the knees up and to keep it going.  I'm feeling pretty strong swimming.  I think I'm running a bit faster (though not longer at the moment); I've decided to work on running faster for shorter distances for the time being.  After a couple of spin classes and one bike to/from work, I feel awesome on the bike.  I can sit seiza longer now than I'd been able to for the whole time I've been doing Aikido--somehow my quads are in better shape than they've been before.  Yoga feels pretty good...  So, all around, I'm feeling in good shape.  

Unstuck, Unstuck, Unstuck at last!

Seriously though, life is good.  Let me count the ways:

1) I started two of the three business classes I'm taking this semester.  And get this--I actually LIKE them and am excited about them.  If it had been a first date, I would definitely expect a second date in the near future (like, say, Monday) and I'd be thinking that there's real potential here for a long and prosperous relationship.  It's rather refreshing to be excited about something that seems practical and potentially useful.   

2)  Yesterday I joined the YMCA and went swimming.  Yes, swimming!  For the first time since Lake Michigan got too cold to swim in.  Today I will go and investigate the weight room and if lap swim is open, swim again.  It's also warm and sunny out though so...I may head out for a run instead.  Batavia triathlon is 142 days away!

3)  I bought a new faux leather purple bag that is AWESOME.  You know, I always think blue is my favorite color, but there's something about purple.  Purple can convey so much more *attitude* than blue ever seems to be able to pull off.

4)  I learned how to strum on the guitar!  Yes, I pushed past that plateau and, though I am far from where I desire to be with this most infuriating but lovely of instruments, I see a new light in this tunnel.  Thank you to all who have assisted me in this journey off this plateau.  Guitar is the first instrument I've played since clarinet that I have arrived at and departed from a plateau.  I'm growing!  Also, exciting news about guitar:  my guitar class has been asked to accompany the fiddle class at graduation!  For whatever reason, I find this awesome, like I'm/we're good enough to be useful. 

5)  I've decided that tomorrow I'm going to join Weight Watchers.  Seriously.  I mean, I'm serious about my New Years Resolutions.  (Be it resolved that I get HOT in 2009 is basically it.)  There's a meeting at 8:15 AM 3/4 of a mile from my house on Saturday mornings.  This seems like an appointment I can keep.

Now, I just need to straighten up my apartment, set up my bike trainer, and hit the books!  :)

10 Miles?! No problem.

Time of departure: About 6:40pm-ish
Return: 8:30-ish

Phase of the moon: Waning Gibbous, 93% Full

Temperature: 73F
Humidity: 44%
Partly cloudy. But I could see the sun setting in the west, orange ball that it was.

Route: Down the lakefront, past Belmont, to the 5 mile point I charted on gmap
Approx Distance: 10 miles!!!
Running buddy: Self. My 2007 xmas mix CD.
Clothing: Brooks pants (pants I bought for Europe), Hind t-shirt. It's funny. When I last was really writing about running, it was always a struggle to figure out what to wear. Rarely now do I have the same problem. I feel like I always just know. And if I'm wrong, I'm okay with being cold or hot. I used to be so afraid of it.

What did I eat pre-run? Some Tings left over from Saturday night. Nutritious, I know, but I was just thinking I needed some carbs. :)
How did I feel? Awesome. Did I say awesome? Yea, I meant awesome. :)
What do I like about running? Cause it's kickass. Naw. I don't know. Cause all day I've just felt kind of under-expressed, as a human being, as an organism. Running makes me feel real.
________________________________

Okay, I'm just glad to have written gotten this far in the blog. I'm not going to write a whole thing, I don't think, because I'm exhausted and tomorrow is another day and I need to have sleep because with any luck, I'll get to live tomorrow too and... Yea, okay, so obviously, I'm tired.

I don't know where exactly I am with training. I know Eric and I are talking about doing the Half Ironman on August 2nd. This is 15 week away. Which isn't a ton of time. I want to run faster. I should start swimming. I should have started already, but it's hard to get into the pool that first time. This weekend I'd like to go for a loooong bike ride, see where I'm at. How crazy is 56 miles + 13 miles of running?

So, this morning, I'm not even sure I had committed to running this evening. Maybe I was thinking about running 6. I texted the usual buddies to see if one of them wanted to run...one is broken, one is sore. Hmpf. Okay, so I'm on my own then. By the end of the workday I was thinking I wanted to run 8. Why? What is this feeling you may wonder? I wonder. And I'm not sure I know. There's a sense that I've been craving the wrong foods (too much for foods that take up space versus foods that are high in nutrition--read: green leafy vegetables). There's a sense that my mind has been too cluttered, that I've been thinking the wrong sort of thoughts. There's an awareness I have now that the distance will help reorient these things. I've been missing the feeling of soreness, tiredness, achiness in my legs. A feeling that like, "Yes, I did something. I pushed myself beyond what is totally comfortable and, yes, I did it. I can do it. I can accomplish what I seek to accomplish."

I haven't, in a long time, wanted a run as much as I wanted this one. That's the thing, when you're training for something, for a marathon say, you are on someone else's program. There's an order to things that you're trying to follow. There is always a run that you should do. Or, when you're running with a buddy, you share the decision making about the nature of the run. And maybe you're just running because you decided beforehand that you should run, and you're holding yourself accountable. But when you're off a program and buddy-less, you are free! Free to realize, in the absence of structure, I WANT THIS. I do. I want this.

And today, oh, boy, I wanted to run. I didn't have to trick myself out the door. When I decided it was time to go, I just happily went outside and started running. Physically, I felt great. I started at a decent clip. At about the 2 mile point, I realized that 8 wouldn't be enough to satisfy. I would run 10. Yes. I would run 10 miles. A nice round number. I think I craved a feeling of accomplishment. I wanted my body to feel tired. I wanted my mind to the feel the master of its domain. I wanted control of myself. I wanted to feel cool. :) Because I do feel cool to be able to decide, on a whim, I'm going to run 10 miles. And then go do that. Wow. I think, all my life, I wanted to get to the place that I am today.

Wow. I just typed that, but reading it again, I realize it is true. This is where I wanted to be. Have wanted to be. This has been my subconscious goal, I think, to attain this level of fitness, though I'm not sure I realized it until now.

I wasn't just jogging today either, I was running. I never was at my slowest pace--like at the marathon. I was always pushing the tempo a bit, sometimes more, sometimes less, but never totally relaxed. This was good. I didn't walk at all, and only stopped once for 3 sips of water at the 7 mile point. And I almost didn't do that. Part of me wanted to just tough out the whole thing, but I figured I'd allow myself one water break. I don't need to start being a masochistic fool about training. (I watched G.I. Jane last night. I love that movie. I don't think it's a great movie, but I always enjoy watching it. And it always makes me want to run in the rain. And it makes me perversely miss the military life.)

Okay. I had observed all sorts of things about nature, but I'm tired now, so they will go unrecorded. Basically, it was a nice warm spring evening. :) Ya'll should've been out there.

Running in Circles - Track Run #2

I miss my running blogs. I miss having all these stats collected and paying particular attention to the nuisances of my runs because I know I'll be writing about them later. I wish I had two years worth of of thoughts and stats to play with and chart. But I don't. Because it's a pain in the ass to collect them all. And it takes time to write. :) Anyhow, it's a new season in my mind. A new beginning. We'll see.

Time: 10:15am-ish. Maybe we ran for 45 minutes?
Sunrise: 6:04am
Sunset: 7:37pm
Phase of the moon: Full moon, 99% Full

Temperature: 58F
Descriptor: Overcast, but then the sun came out and I wanted my sun glasses.
Dew Point: 52F
Humidity: 91%
Lake Temp: 48-50F. Yikes. We're going to start swimming in a little over a month! It better warm up!

Route: Around the track at Loyola. It's a 300m track. We did quite a few 300m repeats and 122m repeats and a couple 600m. We were running fast (by our own standards).
Approx Distance: Not sure.
Running buddies: Matt, Eric, Pete
Clothing: Pants I bought for Europe, blue Patagonia shirt. Once the sun came out, I wanted to take my shirt off, but didn't. The boys were wearing shorts and t-shirt. The temperature really dropped once we left ANF. Poor Matt. He looked so cold.

People tally: There were some kids running around the track. A mom and college daughter walking on the inside track, an older couple, and one man walking.

What did I eat pre-run? Multiple pieces of toast w/ Earth Balance, green tea w/ soymilk
How did I feel? Good. During one of the early 122m sprints, I think my right rectus femoris was about to cramp, but it didn't. It kind of whined the rest of the time but it actually isn't sore today (yet, I'm now writing this in Sunday). I could have run for a much longer time. My legs felt a little tired later in the day, but not overly so.
What do I like about running? Oh, it's fun to feel what your body can do.
________________________________

I'm waiting for Eric to remind me of the stats. I forget how fast we were running. If that is important, I'm not sure.

I don't have much to say. It was fun. Sprinting and running fast is an entirely different kind of thing than running long distances. Both require a strength of mind, a discipline, but in different ways. Both require a trust in the universe and in yourself that there will be an abundance of energy and ability to get you through. But I feel like I'm utilizing different discipline muscles when we're doing this sprints and fast repeats. Learning to trust my body to be able to keep up, follow through. Learning to trust my mind that it won't give up on me, make me feel like a failure.

It's helpful that I have a sense that I know I can keep going. I know I have endurance. I know I won't give up. If I set out for x miles, I know I won't quit and, say, get a on a bus or something silly. I know I'll make it back. I know I can keep myself running, keep myself moving.

But with this faster running stuff, it's like learning to trust that I have enough reserve to maintain what I'm doing now in this moment. Start at one speed. Keep it going. Maintain it. Go faster even. Run without effort. Run with your chi. Let it flow. Open your stride. Faster. Breathe. Keep it going. These things, they are more in the moment. In the moment, committing to pushing, to not being afraid of the future. Not trying to figure out precisely, not measuring exactly how much energy you'll need to get there. Not being afraid of running out. Not trying to play it too safe so that at the end you have a sense of security. Running so that at the end of it, you have exhausted your reserves. That is it. I play it safe. Always conserving energy, never really committing to giving it everything I have.

I play in life this way. Measuring, being conservative, restricting myself, not really letting myself open to the possibility of fully committing to something in the moment that requires being there, present, standing for something. Sabotaging through restricted effort, through not really expressing myself, for a fear of running out of...that thing that is your ability to cope with your current situation.

I can and do put forth a certain amount of effort to pursue goals, and I can maintain a conservative level for a long long time. But when it comes to committing to giving something everything you have in a moment and maintaining this level of commitment for the next moment and the next, I become afraid. Of failure. Of running out. Of running out of my ability to cope. I hold back. I seldom, if ever, give something my full effort, my full attention.

Huh.

I think, Eric, we need to keep doing this speedwork stuff. I think I need it. Spiritually.

Yea. And by the way, this is why I love running. It is my dharma. It's what I do.

back on the bike, again

Today was the third time this spring I biked to work, though there have been a few more days when I said I would bike and I didn't. I'm such a slacker. I have yet to get back into any biking routine. I'm still heavily [emotionally?] dependent on my car. Why is it so hard to get out of one's automobile?!

Anyhow, in honor of Vanessa, I'm doing this blog quiz-style.

What is your favorite thing about your bike? I LOVE how light weight it is. I forget if it's 15 or 17 pounds, but it's just heavy enough that pressing it up military press-style is mildly satisfying. But it really is very very light weight, which, if you don't know, creates the sensation that I AM MY BIKE. I move and it moves and we are one. This is sweet.

Also, I very much enjoy my clipless pedals. 1) I feel very much connected with the bike. 2) Pulling up on the pedals when I'm going uphill makes me feel really strong and powerful and I like that. 3) Putting more of the work in my psoas and hamstrings and taking it out of my quads makes me feel good about creating more of a balanced musculature.

Also, I very much enjoy my hip angle on this bike. I like how more of my downward force can come from my glut max and less from my quads (as is the case on my mountain bike) which seems like a much more efficient way to ride. The gluteus maximus is, after all, the biggest muscle in the body--make it work! (AND, hopefully, it aids in the development of nice butt.)

What do you like least about your bike? My handlebars are freakin' uncomfortable. I have the thickest biking gloves I could find, but sometimes my hands still go numb sometimes. I feel like I'm constantly moving my hands around, looking for a more comfortable position and I never really find one. (Any ideas, boys?) I suppose it's time to try out those aerobars, but navigating city streets on them makes me nervous.

What's the hardest thing about getting out the door and onto the bike? There are a few things. Time is one of them. It takes me roughly 32-35 minutes to bike to work. To drive there, now, with Ridge and various other pockets under construction, I need to allow 30+ minutes. So the time in transit is virtually equal. But as biking makes me SWEATY, because I'm the kind of girl who sweats, I have to shower at work. And move my bike to the basement. And eat something. And maybe stretch. And so I have to leave an hour before work. But if I shower at home, I can wait 15 more minutes........ So the schedule would look like this:

If biking:
8:30 leave on bike
9:03 get to work
9:05-9:30 shower at work, eat, stretch, move bike, etc
9:30 massage

-OR-

If driving:
8:45 shower at home
9:00-9:28 drive to work
9:30 massage

It's only 15 minutes, but it trips me up! Because I'm in the middle of doing something and I don't want to quit doing it 15 minutes early. Of course, as I'm writing this, I'm aware of how perfectly ridiculous this reason is. It's absurd! I really SAVE time by biking to work because then there is one less workout I have to do. Absurd, I am, truly.

Also, there are things like figuring out what is the proper attire for the weather conditions. Checking the weather forecast online. Gathering the inner fire and determination and strength of will to battle with the elements and disgruntled drivers. It does involve a bit more planning and...well, strength of will.

What's the best thing about biking? Passing stupid ass people who are locked up, alone in their metal boxes, polluting and killing the earth. Yep. That's number one. But two is: I have HUGE road rage when I'm a stupid ass people locked up, alone, in my metal earth killer...and being aware of the contrast of how I feel on the bike--happy and strong and powerful and knowing I'm transporting myself with my own energy--is AWESOME. Knowing my chickpeas and apples and spinach are my fuel. That's a good feeling.

Also, showing up someplace pumped up and energized and full of life--that's better than how I feel when I roll in somewhere in an automobile--sedate and half asleep.

What's the worst thing about biking? It can be cold. It can be wet. Driver's can be mean and scary.

What's your favorite stretch of your commute? Green Bay Road in Wilmette. Wide shoulders, relatively smooth pavement and lots of cars stopped at lots of lights. I think I passed 60 cars this morning that never caught up to me. It was definitely faster to ride than drive.

What's your least favorite stretch? Kenilworth and Winnetka upset me because there are so many bumps and potholes my head hurts. There's a stretch on Asbury that has no shoulder going south, there's aways at least one car here that pisses me off. And the bit of Howard I jog over on sometimes distresses me--lots of scary drivers there.

And one final question, what do you recommend for people who are considering biking to work for the first time? (Heehee, this is fun.) Set a goal. Come up with a workable plan: give yourself a timeline, figure out what you're going to wear, come up with a contingency (if you bike breaks, what will you do, can you hop on a bus?). And write me if you're interested or want to be talked into it...apparently, I'm VERY convincing. :)

A blog?

Oh, hey, woah! I have a blog! I forgot.

Yea, so we did the marathon in Rome. And it was awesome. I should write something about that. And post some pictures.

And we did sprints for the first time last weekend. (I'm such a slow poke--but not for long!) I should write something that too.

And I have CSA (Angelic Organics) produce boxes coming this summer and I want to get into jarring, I have to do some research on that! And write about that. And I want to read more about keeping bees.

And I want to read more in general.

And I have...crap...what was it. Oh, yes, I decided my writing goal for this summer is to write, edit, re-edit, and submit a short story or first chapter to a writing contest this summer. By, let's say, the end of September. That seems like a totally reasonable and reachable goal.

And Eric and I have both decided to do the Steelhead Half Ironman Triathlon in August, I think mostly because we can't let either of us get one up on the other. (Or he not anymore than me, he's 3 marathons ahead of me--I have to catch up!) So there'll be plenty to write about that.

Also on the athletic agenda: Batavia Sprint Triathlon in June, Proud to Run in June, 56 mile training ride in July, Chicago Marathon in October

And also I'm thinking about doing Aikido and/or Taiji and there'll be things to say about that.

And I want to make a Vegan Lemon Cheesecake, and that's definitely important enough to talk about.

:)

My First Triathlon!

Blogging is a funny thing. I started with one purpose in mind (to hypothesize about all-weather runners, or something), which morphed into another (describing the weather and philosophizing about life on a winter running path, basically), which started morphing into something else...But I'm not sure what. Now that the weather has been pleasant I have been less inspired to write. I need to find another angle. I'm disappointed that I haven't written in the last month or so. It would be nice to have a record leading up to.......

MY FIRST TRIATHLON!!!


That's right! Eric and I did the Batavia Triathlon today!!! It was awesome. I'm in love. (Of course, I'm always in love with something.....)

The event broke down like this:



Friday night. I think I got 6 hours of sleep. 8 would have been nice, but the sun woke me up and I had some nervous energy.

Saturday. Ate a bagel with vegan cream cheese, I worked (4 massages), had an apple for lunch (not the best idea, probably), bought appropraite sunglasses (thank goodness!) and a water bottle, dinner at Dharma Garden, saw Lucy Kaplansky at the Old Town School (I love her!). I slept over at Eric's. I think we went to sleep at about 12:30am.


Sunday.

3:00-3:10am Wake up

3:30am Load up Eric's bike and head out of town

4:30am Pick up Eric's Tri Packet

5:00am Unload from car, walk over the chipping and marking station with bikes and trigear. Here we got our ankle straps with chips, had our shoulders marked with our race numbers, and the back of our calves marked with our AGES! It's rather interesting to be able to look around and see everyone's age. It reenforces in my mind the idea that age last little to do with the number. But more on that later.

5:30am-ish After "setting up our transition stations" (this is the jargon term for laying out your shit so that when you get back from the swim, you don't have to be searching through your backpack for your sunglasses), we went to the bathroom. This was fun. There's a long long long-ass line, but if you're a girl, you just skip the line and go into the women's bathroom (of course) where not only is there NO line, but there's an abundance of empty stalls! How fun! I wonder if some stars shifted in my astrological reading or something, because lately everywhere I go the men have the long line and I have no bathroom line (Shellac show, Propagandhi show...and apparently Triathlons too!). After I utilized the ladies room, I stood in line with Eric a bit...and right behind us was Mark McNeill! He is one of my favorite massage teachers and massage therapists of all time and he's an all around great laid-back guy. He's done quite a few tris and marathons and such at an elite level and it was great to see him. He really talked up this event.

I pretty much talked to everyone I was around, telling them this was my first time, and about how I was nervous, etc. And everyone was super nice, giving me words of encouragement, and asking me afterwards how everything was... Anyhow, I'm getting ahead.

So Eric's line was really really long. He said that all the urinals were open too, everyone was heading for the stalls. "Gotta get the shit out." Important stuff to think about for these sorts of events.

The big question of the hour for us was "to wetsuit or not to wetsuit." The water was definitely tolerable, but we had wetsuits, and it wasn't warm per se. So we decided to suit up.

5:55am. Back at the Transition zone. And....the Transition zone was closing. I had all these silly thoughts of not being in the right place at the right time. How silly! Of course with 500 people milling about, there's going to be someone telling them what to do!

And then everyone got in a long line roughly in numerical ordered, and every 5 seconds someone ran into the water. Two laps around (400m) the "facility" and out to the transition zone...Okay, now I'm finally trying to finish this blog in now Nov 2007...oh, dear. I was wearing a wet suit that was two big. I had bought that one at a scuba shop. It was a unisex shop (bad idea for someone with my build!). I returned it and bought an Ironman suit from Fleet Feet (a running/tri store), which proceeded to fit me very nicely for the remainder of the summer.

We changed into biking clothes. Went for a 13 mile bike ride, then ran 4 miles. What I wasn't prepared for, was how rubbery my legs would feel for the first 2 miles...

Anyhow, after finishing two more triathlons after this one, I know this one was really great. As awkward as the swim course was, the people were wonderfully friendly. The run course was very pleasant, along the river. The post-race deal was great too. There were some PT-type people there who were stretching people for free, everyone got a free beer with a tag on their bib, there was music...and it just had a joyous feeling to it! Yay!

And this is a very anti-climatic blog post. I apologize if you've read this whole thing. But perhaps that says something. For years (like, since I was a little kid watching my dad swim triathlons with binoculars) I wanted to do them. For (how many years?) I've been intimidated by them. But now? Not so much. Now I think, if I can do them, anyone can do them. How silly, right? In the end, they're not a big deal. You go out and do a little swimming, you put on some biking shoes and doing a little biking, you put on your running shoes....and, well, that's the hardest part, those first 2 miles of running. But everyone is feeling it then so it's okay. So you do a little run. You feel great, for a bit. Then you (I mean I) feel really cranky until I've had my nap...

:)