my love languages

A while back I read a book titled The Five Love Languages that talked about these five ways to express love: quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, physical touch, and words of affirmation. I think everyone gives and receives love in different ways, and I think that I'm most well-versed in the following love languages (not that I don't practice all of them!): words of affirmation, acts of service, quality time, and cooking/baking. Yes, I just added in a love language of my own.
Then just today I was reading an article in a magazine in Real Simple titled "10 things cooking has taught me about life" and my love language was affirmed. Here are the 10 lessons learned by Kim O'Donnel:
"Here are 10 lessons learned from my hours in the kitchen. Yours would no doubt be different. But I guarantee that if you stop to consider what you're doing as you beat eggs for breakfast or share a home-cooked meal with friends, you may never consider it a chore again.
1) Small gestures can make a big difference...
2) Cheap thrills are closer than you think...
3) Control is overrated...
4) Sing if you must, but quit thinking so much...
5) There are always second chances...
6) Substance beats style every time...
7) We all have what it takes to create something...
8) Communicate, any way you can...
9) Your instinct may not be the best, but it's yours...
10) Less really is more..."
Of course, I have my own interpretation of each one of those lessons, but I'll spare you! And I'll let you read them in whatever way they apply to your life, whether you cook or not. For now, I'll continue to practice being fluent in my love language of baking and cooking...quite literally as I skip off to finish up a birthday treat for one of my advisees!

ice cream epiphany

I think I might be about to show my true colors...and reveal (again?) that I am not a true Texan. I discovered this weekend that I prefer Breyers ice cream to Blue Bell. And I don't think that it was just because I was comparing natural vanilla (Breyers) to homemade vanilla (Blue Bell). The Breyers simply tasted better. And unfortunately, I would know how to "rate" ice cream. Confession: it is my weakness. I can bypass queso and (usually) cookies and other things that people struggle with, but it's really tough for me to pass on ice cream. Or gelato. Or frozen yogurt. Or popsicles. Or sorbet. Or sherbet. Hmmm...maybe I have a problem!
In my post-Thanksgiving, grateful to have my family but also glad to be back in Austin, having just spent a nice evening with friends...that is my deep thought for the day. Breyers beats Blue Bell. Next taste test: natural vanilla bean v. mint chocolate chip. (Might end up calling this one a tie!)

some of my favorite things about New Orleans...

So, the truth is that for a good part of my life I sort of wanted to deny the fact that I was born in and therefore "from" New Orleans. There are so many things about the city that give one reason to shake one's head. The politics. The police force. The crime. The socio-economic divide. So much of it is so bad or corrupt. And maybe that's not fair of me to say since I have not lived here for 30+ years. But it always makes me bad when I return and feel scared to walk around or feel sad when I see the disrepair, especially post-Katrina.
But in spite of all of this, there are lots of things that I've come to remember that I love about the city. The food is spectacular. The architecture is beautiful. The people are resilient. And the spirit of the city refuses to die. You've got to admire that, no matter what you think of the city.
So when I'm here, I try to visit some of my favorite places...
1) St. Charles Avenue (it's beautiful...it's my reference point for just about everything because I don't really know my way around the city...and it's where Gran's duplex is!)
2) Audubon Park - this is where I run when I'm in New Orleans. I love it! It reminds me that the city can feel much smaller than it actually is when I see the same people in the park every morning. And it's a place to run where it's safe and predictable - even though I can't remember the distances from one trip to another!
3) Camellia Grill - seriously...go here for a burger and a freeze (I suggest the coffee freeze!). I hear the pie is great, too, but I have not actually ever had any!
4) David Spielman's studio - David has taken amazing pictures all around the world but some of the ones that are most dear to my heart are the pictures he's taken of New Orleans, particularly the pictures that he took post-Katrina (he stayed in the city) that now make up the book Katrinaville Chronicles. But I always love a trip down to his studio to see what he's done recently.
5) A number of bookstores in New Orleans...I'm always eager to make sure that they are still in business. Some favorites: Maple Street Bookshop and the Garden District Bookshop have been on my radar for years and a new one that has been added within the last year is the Octavia Books.
6) Finally, there's food...and music...and the French Quarter. Some of my favorite places are Cafe du Monde, Preservation Hall, Mother's, Dick and Jenny's, Franky and Johnny's, and the list of good places to eat could go on and on and on (and I didn't even list the really fancy places - because those aren't actually my favorites!).
So...I guess when I stop to think about it, there's plenty to love about New Orleans. I'm grateful to have grown up someplace safer and a little more liberal, and I'm thankful to live in Austin now. But I'm also glad to claim New Orleans...or maybe it continues to claim me.

some pictures from Thanksgiving...

the whole gang: Rob, ETG, Mary, Gran, Ann, Margaret, and Miles

ETG, Mary, Gran, and Rob

I am grateful for...

...too many things to list but I shall try.
I am thankful for...
- love
- faith
- health
- family
- friends who love me as if I were family
- St. Andrew's: our students, my colleagues, the families, the opportunities
- T3: my coaches, my training buddies, my new friends
- my advisees: Nick, Nicole, Jase, Audrey, Dillon, Paige, John, Lauren, Ben, and Grant
- fall weather with blue skies and crisp days followed by cool nights with campfires, stars, and s'mores
- the very simplest things in life that make me smile
- having more than I need
- grace, forgiveness, and hope

...okay, the list could go on and on. It could include hot chocolate and ice cream and sunshine and camp and Barton Springs pool and the Town Lake hike and bike trail and James Taylor and, and, and...but I'll hold all of those things in my heart and maybe toss them out from time to time during the year so that giving thanks isn't limited to this one day. With gratitude and a thought from church this morning, I'm signing off...may I be one who sows abundantly not for any promise of the bountiful harvest but because it feels right in my heart.

go, go Gran!

I have not written a lot about my Gran but I could probably fill my blog for weeks with my awe and expressions of love for her. She's that amazing. But today what has struck me is that she is downright giddy.
She's 91. She still lives alone in New Orleans. She doesn't drive anymore but that only changed last spring. On a fluke trip to McDonald's (seriously, the second time she's been to a McDonald's in her whole life!), she slipped and broke her hip. But she didn't think it was broken at first so she drove herself home. Yep. That's my Gran. A little time on the bed and she'd be fine.
Well, it was more like some days in a hospital bed followed by surgery to fix the hip and then about 3 months in Lambeth House for rehab...and she was fine. Still in need of assistance at home but everything seemed to be heading back to normal. Until...in late summer she had an excruciating pain in her hip. My mom and I happened to be in New Orleans anyway to visit her so we took her to the doctor who informed her that the pins that had been used to set the hip had worked their way through to the other side and were rubbing against the bone. Ah - an explanation for the pain. Gran walked out of the office and when I saw her in the waiting room this was her line: "Well, I bet I'm the only person you know who can really say she has a screw loose." Cracking jokes even when she was in a lot of pain. And refusing to have surgery done the following Tuesday because it was her day to go to the beauty parlor. Seriously!
Turns out the Hurricane Gustav got in the way of any surgery anyway and she had to evacuate to Laurel, MS (her hometown and where her sister, nephew and his wife - who are wonderful to Gran, still live). Nearly a month after she was first told that she'd need to have surgery again, she had a hip replacement. Apparently the recovery from this is much easier since the docs want you to be up and moving on that hip ASAP. (When the hip is just "mended" you basically have to learn to walk again without putting full weight on your leg for a long time."
So...after surgery and INTENSE rehab (3 times a day and in a special part of the hospital with very limited visiting hours), Gran got to go home again. And now, well, she was the model student and it's paying off.
She's moving from her walker to her cane little by little. She did 4 laps around the dining room table with her cane two weeks ago and has started walking with the cane outside with her physical therapist. (This is no small feat given the bumpy conditions of the New Orleans sidewalks!!!) Her next goal is to cross St. Charles Avenue so that she can go to church. When she told her preacher this he said, "Well, Sister, you know that people come to church all the time using their walkers." Gran's reply, "Not me." Ah, vanity and pride kick in yet again. But heck, if those two things get you to where Gran is now then maybe they aren't so bad!!!
But I think it takes more than those two things...and my reflections are something I need to remember in my life and especially in my IM training. I think it takes:
1 - the desire to keep going (at 91, why not throw in the towel? Because something inside Gran must be saying that she's not finished living this life yet...even when the odds are against her.)
2 - the willingness to change your ways (okay, so not all of your ways, but I do think you have to be flexible and open to change)
3 - we need other people in this world and we need the grace to accept help from others (Gran is so independent that the thought of having sitters with her like she does has got to be really tough. But she's learning to be graceful and patient about it)
4 - there's no such thing as too many friends...and friendship spans decades and age groups (Gran has friends of all ages...and I think that keeps her going!)
5 - when it's all said and done, love and faith and family and friends matter...and if you have your health, too, you're doubly blessed but if you have only your health without those other things, I'm not sure any of it matters very much.

over the bayous and through the...

Well, the rest of that doesn't work so well - ... through the 'hoods?! Anyway, that was my day. Mostly spent on I-10 from Austin to New Orleans. An easy drive...it's just looooooooong. But the day was pretty, the tunes coming from the radio were good, and I never really mind that sort of alone time. Besides, every once in a while as I looked around, the scenery was quite pretty. Hints of fall
and the bayou at dusk

And then Gran waiting, with her walker and super excited to show me all of her tricks...the sweetest sight of the day.

IMAZers!

I'm so inspired by my T3 teammates who raced the Ironman in Arizona yesterday that I had to blog about them today. I know, a blog is probably technically supposed to be about me but today, they are a heck of a lot more interesting and exciting than I am. So, here's a shout out to Charles, Jess, Michelle, Jane, and Lory! WOW! It was so exciting to watch each of these T3 athletes cross the finish line...even if it was only via IronmanLive. What a huge deal. A 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run to top it off. Yes, folks, that would be a full marathon at the end of this grueling race. And these five folks from Austin finished with a bang - arms raised, grinning from ear to ear, and hopefully VERY proud of their accomplishment. In case you don't know, athletes train for an Ironman for months...many months...with many long workouts...and probably not enough naps. Training for an Ironman is like having another job - or so I'm told. I think that a typical cycle develops: train, eat, sleep, train, eat, sleep...and throw in work and do laundry and go to the grocery and try to fit in time with friends and family. Why do we do it? Great question! Some people think we're crazy...and maybe we are a little. But I think we do it because we love the sport. Because of the rush that comes with setting a goal so high that you really are not sure if you are going to reach it but you go after it anyway. Because if you're lucky enough to train with a team you develop amazing friends along the way. And because what sort of life would it be if you didn't take on something really crazy every once in a while.
You'll be hearing more about my journey on this crazy path in the coming months. I'm sure I will ask "Why am I doing this?" more times than I'd like to admit. But the truth is that a get so excited thinking about it that I can only imagine what I'll actually do when I cross that line in Coeur D'Alene and hear the words that I am an Ironman. Chills. (More likely...tears!)
But today is about Charles, Jess, Michelle, Jane, and Lory...a big congrats to each of you for being so amazing and a huge thank you for helping me to believe that I, too, might be an Ironman one day.
P.S. To that end, I sent in my community fund stuff for CDA today...thanks to all the people who helped make that happen. I feel surrounded by support and good karma before this adventure has even officially begun. I'm so, so lucky.

going with whatever moves me

That was my theme for the day. Get up and swim? Get up and bike? Get up and read? Get up and go back to sleep? Sleep in? I went to bed on Saturday night determined not to have a plan for Sunday morning and to do whatever I felt like doing. Whenever I woke up. No alarm. No agenda. Not the norm for me.
Annoyingly, I woke up around 7:00 a.m. anyway. Geez. It wasn't because the sun was shining brightly through the window in my bedroom. Nope. It was rainy and dreary outside so I rolled back over in hopes of sleeping at least a little longer. No real luck there so I finally allowed myself to get out of bed. And that's when I spied by bathing suit and could only think of one thing - Barton Springs. I honestly thought that it was colder outside than it was, which would have made the springs feel toasty. No such luck. It was pretty mild and the springs felt a little nippy at first but after a length in the clear green water I felt comfortable.
And fast. Even though I wasn't working on being fast. I was just trying to stretch and be long and think about my arms pulling all the way through the water. But somehow that translated to some speed - I think my body was trying to warm up! Did about 3.5 laps - down and back, not too sure of the distance, but I didn't care. I was in it for fun today and not for a serious workout. And I was swimming with fish! And I didn't freak out. As my family knows, my love for the water doesn't necessarily translate into an intrigue of knowing what is in the water with me. In fact, I'd really rather not know. But today not seeing the fish wasn't an option. There were two huge schools of them. One near the diving area and the other near the floats at the opposite end. And they didn't seem to be bothered by me and I didn't let myself be bothered by them. A peaceful co-existence. How nice.
What a lovely way to start the day. Doing one of my favorite things - swimming. In one of my favorite places - Barton Springs. What a treat to have this place here in Austin. Seriously, it's by far one of the things that I love most about Austin. For those of you who have never seen it, here are some depictions of it by an Austin artist, Cindy Stapper (she also painted the other picture in this entry) :

Yes, it's this beautiful. And I'm excited that CDA training will plunge me into it more often (pun intended).

"just right"

No, this isn't part of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
But have you ever been to an event or a ceremony or something like that and thought, "It was just right." Meaning that it absolutely fit the people being honored. Well, that was Jennifer and Billy's wedding this afternoon. I was worried that it would be too cold since it was overcast and never budged much above 60 today in Austin and sometimes because of some weird humidity factor here I think days like this can feel colder than when it's actually in the 40s. Anyway, I worried that Jennifer would be too cold - she's a whisper of a thing. I worried that none of us would wear the right thing - an outdoor wedding at 3:00 p.m. in November...what do you wear? The answer is: whatever seems fallish and feels good because it's not really about what you wear. And no one is really looking anyway because all eyes are on the bride who in this case was positively stunning.
The gathering was small - like a family gathering. Billy was beaming. Jennifer beams regularly. I've never seen Billy really beam. They played a song that Billy had written for Jennifer - now forever called "Jennifer's Theme". Chris and Jim Martin made sure that the ceremony kept flowing and added in their reflections and wishes about and for Jennifer and Billy. Friends read Shakespeare, Rilke, DeBernieres, Lao-Tzu, and an Apache Wedding Prayer. Jennifer and Billy exchanged vows. Everything was "just right". Even the peacocks that inhabit the Mayfield Cottage park stayed in the trees.
And when we went inside to sit down and enjoy delicious food from Elsi's, we were in for a treat. Jennifer and Billy simply know wonderful people so everyone was someone whom you would want to talk to and spend time with. (I wondered sometimes if I were boring the people with me!) So we sat around in a candle-lit screened in porch and enjoyed our food and talked about Jennifer and Billy. Oh, and then we had cupcakes from Hey cupcake! which is by far one of the coolest things going in Austin. (An airstream trailer polished all shiny silver where cupcakes are sold. Not your Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines mix cupcakes but truly amazing, worth-all-of-the-calories cupcakes!!)
And people toasted. And we all wrote wishes to Jennifer and Billy and put them in sealed envelopes for later opening. And then we also wrote cards with things we wanted to get rid of on one side and things we wanted to have more of on the other side. We burned these outside as if they were our offering to the world. Jennifer and Billy do this each New Year's. They call it their "regret log" and they literally write on a piece of wood and then burn it. Cool.
Yes, it was all "just right". But for Jennifer and Billy it's going to be way better than "just right". It's going to be a wonderful, blessed life that they lead together and I'm so honored to get to be part of their circle of friends. A friend of theirs toasted to the triumph of love. So that is my closing line for tonight, if I may borrow it from him, "Here's to the triumph of love" for Jennifer and Billy...for everyone all around the world.

13.0878 = 13.1?

So, if you're being really technical, we didn't quite hit 13.1 miles. But I'm willing to round up today. Besides 13.0878 is darn close. If you count my walk through Whole Foods after my run, then I certainly hit 13.1 miles.
Either way, it's not that big of a deal to me anymore, which is the point of this entry. Here's how my conversation went with Erin, my running buddy and friend, on Friday evening:
"I think I'm really only supposed to run 7 miles but I did 10 last weekend so I could do more. And if you need to run 13 miles then that's cool. I mean, once we hit 12 miles, why not finish off the full 13?" I realized in that moment just how far I'd come...and that maybe I was truly having an identity crisis and not just a training identity crisis!!! Seriously though, a year ago (maybe even just 6 months ago), I would not have said that we could just tack on an extra mile to a 12 mile run. I wouldn't have even voluntarily run 12 miles! So it's pretty exciting that I'm there. Wherever "there" is. This morning "there" felt slow. Our route was great - 53 blocks plus some change from Erin's house and then back again. Lots of cemeteries. Lots of cool, funky Austin sites. Good stuff. Cool to begin with and cool to end with. How does that happen? No sun to warm us up - or to make us hot would be another way to look at it. We were both content to mark the miles off of our "to do" lists...and we just won't talk about our pace. It wasn't terrible but it certainly wasn't anything to go bragging about! No matter, 13 miles is 13 miles.

friday morning run workouts!

I really love Friday morning run workouts...even when it's cold (low 40s this a.m.)...and when my legs feel like lead. Yes, lead. Pretty much I needed the assistance portrayed by the runner in the cartoon.
Usually after my warm-up run with Erin (we meet at 5:30 a.m. so we can get a few miles in before our 6:00 a.m. practice - we're crazy like that...but not the type of crazy that Logan tells me I'm going to go when I'm training for CDA!) I'm good to go for practice. But this morning my legs just felt heavy and sore the entire time. I kept thinking about how nice a massage would be! I don't think you're supposed to be thinking about stuff like that during a workout. Anyway, even when my legs are rebelling, even when I never really get truly warm, I love Friday morning workouts. We usually do some sort of repeats (1/2 mile or less) and then lots of drills/plyometrics. Ladders. Chasing tennis balls. Bear crawls. Okay, I must admit that I thought Logan had added this last one just to have some fun with us. Turns out it's a "real" exercise. Who knew? Anyway, I always leave Friday a.m. workouts feeling like I've had a super efficient, super effective hour. Good way to start the weekend!
Running 13 miles with Erin tomorrow...I'm a wimp when it comes to riding in 40 degree weather. I need to get some winter cycling gear (mostly just the pants) so that I'm not looking for every excuse to avoid the bike! I was actually excited to ride my new bike outside (finally...and only for the second or third time!), but I'm more excited now to run with Erin - fun.
Hope the weather warms up for Jennifer and Billy's wedding on Saturday afternoon. I'm so happy for them!

splish...splash

Finally, a swim this morning that made me feel strong...which was a surprise after our run workout last night. And then a core + spin workout tonight that made me feel totally capable as well. It's a nice feeling! (We'll see what the Friday a.m. run does to me!)
One more day of school and then a week off for Thanksgiving...hallelujah! I'll go in on Monday to wrap up some loose ends but otherwise, I'm in good shape to enjoy some days with Gran (and get caught up a little).

step by step

I'm starting to believe that I might actually be getting faster at this whole running thing. Logan called it my "raw, nasty speed" on Monday night and Liz (my partner on Monday night's specialty run) might have been genuinely surprised when I showed up on top of the hill so soon! I actually felt really good on Monday night. I think that running will always feel hard to me - or maybe not? - but it's encouraging to feel some improvement.
Some stats to prove that it's not just in my mind:
November 19 - 1/2 mile repeats at O'Henry 5 sets (I was supposed to drop 10-15 seconds each time. Didn't quite do that, but I didn't get slower either!)
1) 4:20
2) 4:06
3) 3:53
4) 3:47
5) 3:40
(these times surprised me b/c I wasn't feeling 100% tonight...I'll blame it on the &^*&# blue band at core this morning!)

compared to...

November 5 - mile repeats at O'Henry
4 sets (I was supposed to drop 3-5 seconds each time. Didn't quite do that, but I managed to beat my previous time with each mile. Not quite sure about this whole pacing thing!)
1) 8:47
2) 8:25
3) 8:05
4) 7:57

Maybe I did get faster and not older on November 6?! Yeah for T3 training taking me to new places...eventually to CDA!

training identity crisis

OR

So I was laughing at our Monday night specialty run because I suddenly didn't know where I belonged - was I in "winter training" or "1/2 marathon training". I'm training to race the Austin 1/2 Marathon in February which places me in the 1/2 marathon training group. But that race will also be part of our CDA training program and for that, I'm supposed to be in the winter training group. I'm pretty much a classic "in between sizes" in this area (and so many other areas of my life!).
Soon enough though, it will be clear that I'm in the CDA training group - yikes! That should be finalized soon...I'll feel better when it is!
Off to bed so that I can get to core in the morning. We did yoga Monday morning - it felt good, except for that the PTC was freezing and we could barely hit the poses because our bodies were not warmed up. (Okay, and maybe because some of them are just tough!) Such a switch from the typically snug-as-a-bug (okay, very warm!) PTC. We'll warm it up at core in the morning.

just something I do

I find myself using those words quite often - "it's just something I do" - as a way of explaining (or perhaps not explaining) something I do. Get up and the crack of dawn to swim in frigid weather, "it's just something I do". Tackle crazy challenges, "it's just something I do". Bake cakes for my advisees when they are accepted to college, "it's just something I do". My advisees sometimes think I should quit my college counseling job and become a baker or a pastry chef. I tell them you've got to have a back-up plan in life...maybe baking/cooking is my Plan B!?
But the reality of all of my "it's just something I do" answers is that I do these things because I love them, or I love the people for whom they are intended. Case in point, these goofy cakes. I make them because I want to celebrate my advisees. Because I'm so darn proud of their accomplishments. Because this college application process can be stressful and needs to balanced out by the celebration of successes. But above all, I do it because I love my advisees and I want them to know that. If cooking/baking for others were a love language, then I'd be trying to become fluent in it! Here's to love and baking/cooking and love of baking/cooking!

adventures in the kitchen

I love to cook. No really, I seriously love to cook (and bake!). But I never seem to have the time that I would like to devote to it. My current answer to that problem: my new crock pot. Yes, it might be a throwback to the '60s or '70s but I'm all over it. I know, you're imagining a cream colored, flower-adorned crock pot from yesteryear...not so - in 2008, we have chrome. So our kitchens can look cool.
Anyway, my first experiment was Chicken Casablanca - great name, huh? Good stuff! This might very well be my saving grace through CDA training.
And then I made a streusel for my advisees. Okay, I cheated a little on this one. I made the streusel from a mix...but I added the filling on my own! Raspberry - yum. Monday is my day to bring snacks and I used to just bring bread that I warmed up and served with butter and honey but this crew doesn't seem that excited about that. So, I'm trying to mix it up a little.
All in all, a very good day from running to cooking and church in between. Got to finish up laundry and am, for the first time in a long time, feeling ready to tackle the week! I think the fall weather puts me in a really good mood thinking I can take on whatever life throws my way. Who knows? Maybe I can!

38 degrees and headed up Mt. Bonnell

Today was a day of firsts:
1) the smallest group ever at our T3 morning run (combo of off-season + chilly weather?)
2) having more miles on my "to run" agenda than Jess! (She's tapering for IMAZ next weekend.)
3) running with Ben and Logan (yeah, they hung back with me...which was VERY nice of them considering I'm a lot slower than they are!)
4) tackling Mt. Bonnell (well, not actually the full set of stairs up to the top but the road up there! Here's our full run.)
5) needing my fleece lined shirt and running tights - yep, it was 38 degrees when we started...thank goodness for the sunshine!
Great way to start my Sunday!!!

saturday!

I love Saturdays! And today is perhaps the first Saturday in Austin that really feels like fall - no matter that the first official day of fall was back on September 22. It's sunny but crisp...and windy! Which is why we rode inside this morning instead of outside. Jess started outside and after one MoPac loop came in and joined us. She said she only caught a tailwind for about 1 mile! No fun - but maybe good training for IMAZ which is next week? I'm so excited for her and for Michelle, Jane, Charles, and Lory. But it's been strange to have them in taper mode and not full training mode. I was accustomed to seeing Michelle, Jane, and Jess at most/all of the practices that I attend so it's felt like someone's missing from our workout groups without them around as much. And if it's felt weird for me I can only imagine what it has felt like for them!
I discovered this year in my Longhorn 70.3 taper that I'm really just not very good at tapering. I'm likely to be a mess after CDA training which is so much more intense! But I'll have great teammates to be a mess with. Teammates that will ride on a trainer for 2+ hours watching a really bad movie ("You Don't Mess with the Zohan") - okay, there were some funny parts but we should have watched "Caddyshack" or "Spaceballs"! Truth be told, I think for our CDA training we have at least a few Saturday rides on the trainer ahead of us so I'm guessing we'll get our fill of movies - good and bad.
With my workout under my belt, I headed to run an errand or two and this afternoon I got to hang out with Kimberly - a pedicure birthday treat! Woo-hoo for both time with Kimberly and a pedicure. Then some more errands...want to get a slow cooker because I think it's time to venture into that realm of cooking (especially as the colder weather sets in) and also load up on vitamins. I feel like I'm hunkering down for the winter even though it's about 65 degrees outside. Texas winter, right?
Laundry, a little cleaning...and then some reading and maybe watching "The Namesake". I have had it for waaaay too long now. Good thing Netflix doesn't seem to mind that I average a 3-4 week turn around of the movies I receive! Anyway, I've listened to the book on tape so I will probably knock out some birthday thank you notes while I enjoy the movie. Hope to hit the sack fairly early tonight...I have a 10 mile run (including Scenic and Mt. Bonnell - yikes!) tomorrow so I want to be rested.
Yeah for Saturdays...even if they don't include wild and crazy nights!

two in one

I now see why people sometimes go a few days without blogging. Okay, truth be told, I never really thought I would blog every day. But I sure will try.
Couldn't blog on Thursday night because I was chaperoning the sr. campout at school. It's a funny little tradition for the seniors to set up tents, fire up the grill, set up the fire pit, roast marshmallows, listen to music and bond in other ways one night during their last year of high school. This year they also took all of the furniture out of the library as a prank!
I usually chaperone the midnight - 3 a.m. shift because it's really a time when no one wants to chaperone. But this year, my running scheduled dictated that I take the 8-midnight shift so that I could get home and sleep before my scheduled 5:30 run with Erin. This earliest shift turned out to be lively, fun, and fast...before I knew it Laura and I were waiting with only moments to go for Renee to arrive. We left the scene but it was about 12:35/12:40 and I was beginning to wonder if Erin was really set on our 5:30 meeting time.
Turns out that Erin was still out on the town as I was heading home and we agreed that a 5:30 a.m. warm-up run might be a bad idea for both of us. So we settled on meeting up at our 6:00 a.m. T3 run workout...maybe. I discovered that as tired as I was, I was also wide awake. So I actually roused myself from bed for the 6:00 a.m. workout...and wise Erin slept! When I got her text I was so jealous!
I was sleepy literally all day as a result of the campout + not being able to fall into a deep sleep + my run workout. And the seniors at school were as sleepy! It's always like that the day after the campout.
But now it's the weekend...yippee! It's supposed to get much colder and windier overnight so we're spinning inside. 2 hours! With a movie! Does wonders for my "I'm going to get a flat" & "I might fall" thoughts that hold me back out on the road. Saturday afternoon I get to hang out with Kimberly - we're long overdue for a catch up. And on Sunday I'll do a 10 mile run. Some work and rest and housekeeping sprinkled in between all of that. If it's as cold as they say, I'll be making some soup! Who am I kidding, I made soup three weeks ago in a desperate attempt to lure in the cold weather...looks like it worked (just a few weeks late!!!)

what to blog about?

I'm not really at a loss for words - I rarely am. But I do wonder what I will choose to blog about each day. For example, today was relatively uneventful...tough core workout this morning (I can't tell if I'm getting stronger at all!), work complete with lots of meetings (including a faculty meeting at the end of the day) - but a good day of meetings with students (makes it all worthwhile!), and then a track workout. To which I was late...later than I thought I might be. But I still got to do all three sets of the workout so that was good.
Maybe this is a good time to say that I'm in my "off season"...especially as I prepare to start Ironman training in January. But I'm also training for the Austin 1/2 Marathon in February. And I'm determined to become a better, stronger, faster runner this winter so that I feel really good going into CDA next June (and all the training that leads up to it). So, my running plan has looked something like this:
- Monday evening: "specialty" run (we do hills, fartleks, more hills...and all of that good stuff)
- Wednesday evening: track workouts (yes, we run around in circles in an effort to get faster. It might just be working for me?!)
- Friday morning: "performance" run on the track - more plyometrics (which are also supposed to make us faster)
- Sunday morning: long runs (the distances vary...and usually increase each week. This week we're supposed to run 10 miles - which I actually did last week in the Run for the Water last week so I'm feeling good about this weekend's run!)
I don't really love running, but I actually look forward to our run workouts. T3 has done that for me - made me excited about things that I didn't think I could get excited about. Like training. And training for the Longhorn 70.3 this past October. And training for the Ironman CDA this coming June.
More about T3 in another next post...there is simply too much to say!!

why blog?

These are the questions I've been asking myself, "Why would I ever have a blog? Who would ever want to read my blog? What on earth will I say in my blog?" I'm not sure I have all of the answers (to these questions or anything else for that matter!), but I think I've been moved to blog for a few reasons.
1 - I feel like I'm about to embark on a pretty fantastic journey as I prepare for my first (if I say "first" does that mean there will be more?!) Ironman. Or, in the words of one of my coaches, I've just entered "crazyville"! Maybe so but I know a heck of a lot of people there and they are friendly and fit and fun so maybe it's not such a bad place to be!
2 - I like to write. Anyone who has ever received an email from me knows how I like words. I feel like sometimes I'm better with my feelings on paper (in email, on the web...however we communicate these days) than I am in person. So, this will be another reason to get to write. Yippee!
3 - I want to have a way to keep those who are going to be following my progress in the loop. I could send a monthly newsletter or something like that, but I think I want to log how I'm doing on a daily basis...both for me and for others.
Now, I'm not so self-focused that I think that anyone else is going to read this blog on a daily basis! Just little old me blogging about life and triathlon training and whatever else crosses my mind. It really might not be that interesting from day-to-day but I'll try!
As Anne Lamott (one of my favorite authors) wrote in her book Bird by Bird - Some Instructions on Writing and Life: "The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason why they write so very little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out."
Maybe that's what this blog is also about - about writing to figure "it" out. And when I discover what "it" is and when I have it "figured out" you can be sure that you'll see it here on my blog!

Blog #1 - why "who knew?"

"who knew" seemed like a good thing to title my blog because:
- who knew that I'd ever have a personal blog?!
- who knew that I'd ever be doing triathlons?! not to mention getting ready to embark upon training for an Ironman (in Coeur D'Alene, ID on June 21 in case you were wondering)?!
- who knew that turning 35 (last week) would be so much fun?!
- who knew that I could run a timed mile in under 8:00 minutes?! (Okay, it was JUST under 8:00 but my coach told me I had to go under 8...and I did!)
- who knew that I'd be so excited about training and working out that I look forward to it all day?!
- who knew that I'd be sitting here feeling pretty darn fortunate about where I am in my life...even though it looks a tad different than I thought it would at age 35?!
Life is good...and I'll tell you all about that notion as well as my training in my blog. More tomorrow on why I decided to blog in the first place...for now, it's off to bed so that I can swim tomorrow a.m. Love a good morning swim!!!