Running again

Last night I attended the first night of the season of Team Steam, a running group in Peoria that trains for the Steamboat Classic. I had in my head that this was your average casual friendly running club, and while, yes, they are friendly, they appear to be anything but casual. They distributed timing chips for our shoes and were told to bring them to every workout!

The first workout:

-1 mile warm-up
-interval training: 2 min, 4 min, 2 min, rest, 2 min, 4 min...I lost track.
Then:
-2 mile timed trial!
Cause they wanted to see how we'd perform on 2 miles after our muscles were fatigued. I've never heard of such a thing.

Boy, am I out of shape!! My time: 20:47. (Which, amazingly, is a pass for a woman of my age group on the Army Physical Fitness Test, a whole 66 points. But still sucky compared to where I was a year and so ago.) When I finished, I almost threw up. When I got home, Frank was quite concerned, "you don't usually look like this when you get back from a run." My face was beet red.

Oh, Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be fun!

Mosaics and a Pin Wall

After almost 3 years of thinking about it, I've finally started working on mosaics. Here is my new work space in the basement:

(Sig never passes up a chance to be in a photo.)

Here is a picture frame:

And the coasters that are just about finished, as soon as I figure out why they're shedding sand. I was experimenting with different colors of grout: white, beige, and black:

A hot plate, pre-grout:

Also in progress are 2 clocks, a mail/envelope holder, and (still only in the idea stage) my first picture mosaic which will (hopefully) be a gift. Sometime this week I want to check out the tile store at the bottom of the hill by my house...I hope they have a discounted remnants bin or the tile equivalent. :)

Last weekend or so my mom visited me in Peoria for the first time. Frank and I took her to the one museum in town--the Lakeview Museum. They have a little of everything there: an observatory, some art, and a children's section! We looked at the art, watched a movie on black holes, and then played in the pill wall. This is us in a wall of many many pins...

runyogameditate

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.
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New Website!

I finished my website! Yay! I'm excited. Come see:

http://www.maryraven.com/

What do you think? Let me tell you, DIY website writing and designing when it's not your specialty is very labor and time intensive project.

Stay tuned for my runyogameditate routine report...

Also, I'll be in Chitown Nov 20th-23rd for birthdays and vegan thanksgiving!

:)

A Run blog, cause I need to get serious

Time of departure: 11:15am-ish

Return: 12:00pm-ish
Temperature: 43 F

Route: Around ICC
Approx Distance: 3.3 miles
Running buddy: 2008 Mix CD
Clothing: Athletic pants, sweat wicker, pink running zipper top

What did I eat pre-run? nothin'
How did I feel? Running sucks when you haven't been running. My left knee/ITB attachments were whining periodically. I was really slow for most of it.
What do I like about running? Running makes me feel happy and content.
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Since moving to Peoria, there have been a few necessary-to-a-happy-life things that I haven't established. One of those things is a running routine. Of course, it doesn't have to be running, it could be some other sort of fitness routine, but running is the best for a couple of reasons. 1) It's inexpensive. I already have all the shoes and gear I need. 2) I can do it on my own schedule at any time. 3) I already know how to do run, how to ready my body when it's cranky or isn't feeling quite right. 4) I can get fresh air and sunshine at the same time I get my exercise. 5) Running really is just the best. Nothing clears my mind as completely as a long hard run does...with the possible exception of a West African Dance class, but that is not an option here in central Illinois.

For awhile after my move, I really wasn't running at all. Then, a couple weeks ago, I started walking more, but still running less. Today though, I decided walking doesn't really do it for me. It's nice enough, it moves my blood around a little, makes my body feel a little less stagnant, but that's not enough for me. I remember talking to Eric way back when about running for the feeling you get after running. That post-run high. That's why I have to run, because running makes me happy. It's gives me a feeling of peace and contentedness. I feel calm in my joints and muscles and relaxed in my mind after a run. I can breathe deeper.

So, it was a beautiful fall day. The whole nice fall day deal: crisp air, golden-sunny blue skies, brown leaves scuttling across the pavement. And it's Halloween! A day of infamous bad weather! But it was a good day for a run. There's a cross country running course carved in amongst the cornfields on the ICC campus and it looked as though a big conference match and just ended. Hundreds of people were dispersing from that area carrying signs like, "Run, Joe, Run!" I picked up my pace running through the herd of running fans, otherwise, I was pretty much at a snails pace. Not my favorite speed to run, but I guess that's where you begin, when you're beginning again.

Merry Halloween!

Motorcycle Diaries - Part I

Since we live in a cold weather climate racing season is over. Which means it's time to start working on my dad's motorcycle! To remind you what it looked like, here are two "before" pictures that I took when we were loading it up in Frank's truck to take it home:

Here it is today after we spent two hours delicately eviscerating it:

Which was a very very dirty job. Thirty years in a damp dirty barn makes for a filthy rusty motorcycle.

There was 30 year old gasoline in the tank, too! The gas tube was rusted shut, so we had to dump it out the top--a messy job. And very foul smelling. Unlike the usual fragrance of fresh gasoline!

Other guts: the battery (cracked and completely empty of battery acid), filthy air filters, the side panels, spark plugs, and carburetors:

Next on the agenda: do some reading of the manual and figure out how the drive chain comes out. It's all very interconnected and how to disassemble it is not intuitive.

*****

I wanted sweet potato fries (again). They are so easy to make! And so delicious.

This is the recipe I'm very roughly following.

And, I was going to take an after-cooking picture...but they were too hot and yummy and I ate them all up already... Yum!

NS & SC trip report

Frank and I recently returned from a whirlwind trip of Greensboro and Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC. Frank is scheduled to graduate from his MBA program in May, and we're trying to determine if we want to stay here or trade in Peoria-living for a city that ranks higher on the Frankenmary Index.

*****

Here's an overview of Greensboro, NC:

-A b*tchy waitress at Applebees

-Socially, it may be very college-towny?

-Outside of town: lots of random trailer homes interspersed with nicer houses and subdivisions--not very appealing

-Greensboro-proper had some pretty areas, but not Frank-appropriate housing. Some areas reminded me of old Urbana near U of I.

-We had a drink at sports bar near campus that cousin Jimmy recommended

-Frank-jobs are limited--all they really have would be Volvo Trucks

-We found some potential neighborhoods/houses in Jamestown, SW of Greensboro. 17 min from Volvo Trucks, 22 min from DT Greenville

-We only spent half a day here, really, but weren’t too inspired to spend more time.

-Close to mountains & to ocean & racetracks

*****

And an overview of Charlotte, NC:

-Reputed, at least among its residents, to be growing into the next big metropolis

-Banking center. Lots of money moving around these parts.

-No one we talked to seems to love it, but “you get used to it” after 5-7 years, they say

-Some people seem proud that it is growing into a big city--this is the big thing it has going for it

-Commonly understood fact: no one in Charlotte is from Charlotte. If you’ve been there 7-9 years, you’re a native. (Compare that with areas of New England where they say you aren't a local unless you've been there 7 generations.)

-Seems like the time to (Frank) work->(Frank-friendly) home->fun factor would be a problem. Potentially very difficult to be close to all, as is the case with bigger cities.

-One neighborhood we looked at had some diversity, but mostly, our impression was that the city and suburbs were rather segregated.

-We had drinks at a sports bar downtown (all white people), the Tasty Beaver with lots of Bloody Mary's on the menu and the pig roast or whatever out front (all white hipsters), and another sports bar near the small venue Third Eye Blind concert where we met this guy Taylor, his Montreal girlfriend, and Jeane, the bassist of Wavy Space, and food runner for 3EB...there was a little racial diversity here. A lot of Bears fans too at that bar.

-Close to mountains & to ocean & to racetracks

*****

But things got a lot more interesting once we headed down into South Carolina.

I have said more than a few times that I want a peach tree some day. I thought this was a sign:

About Greenville:

-Lots of Frank jobs! Great weather! Friendly people! I could live here!

-We spent basically 2 full days here, and easily could have filled more days with activities!

-Hotel staff was notably friendly, as was everyone else we encountered.

-We had dinner Monday night downtown at a sports bar with live acoustic guitar (who gave us his CD! and was very friendly), had pizza at a local pizza place, lunch at Quiznos; all experiences were pleasant, people were friendly, diversity felt healthy & nice.

-People's accents are nice here.

-Had 1.25 hour meeting with a friend of a friend of Frank's at Caterpillar. He loves living in Greenville, moved from Ohio 35 years ago--had great things to say! People like living here, it seems.

-Weather is mild in winter, hot but not humid in summer

-Dirt is red clay, will have to lay down black dirt for gardening.

-Gun culture (which is perhaps surprisingly not a negative). I like the independent spirit that comes with this, I think. The law seems to be a little hands off.

-Rated/voted one of the bike friendliest cities. On a related note, Lance and whatshisname train here. It's what'shisname's hometown.

-100-mile moped competition--has interesting local character. Also: has a subdivision for anyone: including those who want to keep an airplane in their garage...

-A number of housing areas have potential. Location of Frank-job would influence what neighborhood. (eg. Greer, Five forks)

-Downtown Greenville is revitalized and nice--both walking, biking, and driving. Active at night, even on a Monday night

-Greer, a suburb of Greenville that has the BMW plant and housing potential, spoken highly of on city data forum

-Schools are generally bad in SC, but the Greenville area has some good ones

-The Frank-job capital of the world! Catepillar, BMW, GE, Belcan, Michelin! All great possibilities. Also maybe: Standard Motor, Baldor, Rexroth, Automotive Products, Siemens.

-It's near mountains & ocean & racetracks & low commute times to work, fun, home...sounds ideal!

*****

Here are some other photos from the trip:

We allowed ourselves one hour of fun, a break from research, and hung out at the BMW museum:

This is a super cute little car from the 60s, I think, the door is in front. So cute!!!!

This Formula One engine is only 1.5 liters. Just like my little ECHO! :) It has a lot more horsepower though.

On the drive home, we took the long cut through the mountains:

Here's a view from the Blue Ridge Trail:

It looks really bike friendly up here in the mountains until you notice the bullet holes...

*****

We've started tearing apart my dad's old motorcycle, but more on that later...