Thankful Thursday

I realize that a lot of my previous posts have been rather negative or down on my luck, but for my 100th post I’ve decided to be thankful (a week early). Here is a list of the things in my life that I’m horribly grateful for.

This week I am thankful that I was able to complete a 19 mile run with minimal training. Not my fastest run, but I also happened to run up a large hill for eight miles. It was great training for my marathon (CIM in less than three weeks, eep!) and it was great to feel like I’m ready for this race.

I’m also grateful that I was able to complete all of my work this week without becoming a complete and utter stress case.  On Monday I submitted a piece of work that my professor loved, Tuesday I welded (I weld, isn’t that somewhat impressive?) together a piece for a final project in one of my classes, and yesterday I gave a huge presentation. Although I am swamped by work I am getting things accomplished and that is a fantastic feeling.

I’m overjoyed that I will be spending the entirety of Saturday with some fantastic folks from my program being social and not remotely thinking about work. The plan is to spend the day tailgating and celebrating Stanford’s win against Cal (just so ya know, they are going to win). Hopefully we’ll have the energy to go out dancing afterward, I feel it is about time I got my groove on. (Bring on the cute boys!)

More importantly I am excited to go home and spend a week with my dogs. Oh, and my family as well. On Sunday I will be flying back to Philadelphia to spend Thanksgiving with my entire family. The best friends and I will be running a 5k on Thanksgiving day and then we’ll have a family reunion (that would be 10 people, my family is tiny). I’m looking forward to a week of rest and relaxation (with some intense Black Friday shopping) before the last few weeks of term.

What are you grateful for this week? How is everyone spending their Thanksgiving?

Catching the Bug – Guest Post

Hey everyone, today I have a special treat for you! My good friend Alanna recently started Couch to 5k and I asked her to share her tale. I’m so proud that she took this step and can’t wait until we have the chance to run together. Please enjoy her post and make sure to leave some loving!

So, I recently took up running.

As a woman of size my entire adult life and most of my childhood as well, taking up running was one of the least likely things I could have imagined myself doing. I was a fencer in my teen years, and since age 24 I’ve been dancing regularly, but running? Clearly for masochists and fitter people.

Alanna rocking out at a recent dance show, little did she know this pose was going to prepare her for her new running career!

I was inspired to run first and foremost by a friend who was a non-runner (though an avid hiker and no slouch in the fitness department) up until February of 2011, when she started training and turned herself into an unapologetic half-marathon junkie. Her passion was and is tremendous, and she had been preaching the gospel of running to me throughout last summer. “You’ll love it,” she enthused, “you should see the races: all sizes, all ages.” I was skeptical.

Finally, at a get-together in late September, the subject came up again. Seeing her physical and emotional satisfaction had started to intrigue me, and I finally asked her how she started training in the first place, anyway. “Couch to 5k!” she exclaimed, and proceeded to fill me in on how an iPhone app had started everything off. They make one for Droid too, thank goodness. I promised to look into it, nothing more. “You’ll see,” she promised.

Back at home, I spent what might become the most important $2.99 of my life and purchased the app for Droid. The first workout had jogging intervals of only 60 seconds, with 90 second rests in between. Even I could hack that, I thought. Surprisingly, my husband wanted in, and just as surprisingly, I was game to have him along. I usually like to sweat my balls off in private, but this looked unintimidating enough for me to agree to the company.

We went for our first 30 minutes session. It was incredibly sweaty, huffy, and puffy, but we both made it. My natural jog pace is pretty reptilian, but I decided to embrace that in the interest of not over doing it and possibly causing injury and/or loathing of the enterprise. My husband came along the whole first week, but after our 3rd session he bowed out due to some joint soreness. I carried on alone.

Somewhere in late week 2 to early week 3, I came to the end of my session and actually wanted to CONTINUE RUNNING. I had never had that thought before in my entire 28 years. Run more as opposed to stop running? Really? It was nothing short of amazing. I’m still amazed! I also experienced what may have been a runner’s high, but again, at my pace it’d be more accurate to term it slogger’s high. I came in after a session and was bouncing around all over my house, gleeful and elated and clearly “up.” It was a truly great feeling.

I registered for a 5k race the will take place just as I’m completing the C25K program. As a lifelong procrastinator and project-not-finisher, my dogged devotion to training for this race is pretty much shocking to me and everyone close to me. I apparently really want to do this!

So the take-away from all this is that if you hate running and always have, you might not actually hate it if you do a really easy start on a program that is completely self-paced. It’s just you and your shoes and your phone. No coaches, no faster kids, no driving to the gym, no hassles. And! All those people you know who run “for fun” are not actually crazy, because liking running is a real phenomenon.

Stay tuned for a post-race update, folks. Thanks for reading!

Friend Making Monday – The Dating Edition

Since it seems I have some free time this morning, I decided to participate in this weeks awesome Friend Making Monday. If you are not familiar with FMM, check out Kenlie’s blog to see other’s responses and learn more about the phenomena.

1. What is your current relationship status? (Be as specific as you’d like to be!) So… I’m technically dating, but I don’t have much time for it. There is a gent on campus who takes me out once a week and another who I spend time studying with, not sure where either is headed. And then there is a gentleman across the country who I care deeply for and I’m conflicted about how I should proceed in that situation. Current Status: Completely and utterly confused.
2. List a few qualities that you look for in a significant other… Intelligent, funny, athletic. Good looks can’t hurt, right?
3. If you could choose to date one character in TV or film, who would you choose?  And which characteristics are most appealing?   I love Shawn from Psych or Hank from Royal Pains. I want a guy that has a goofy side while being insanely smart.
4. How long should you date before becoming exclusive?  There is no good formula for this, I think it really depends on both individuals.
5. What are your thoughts on public displays of affection? All for it! I want to hold hands, snuggle up with one another, and kiss in public. Want to put your arms around my waist? Yes please. :)
6. Do you kiss on the first date? I do indeed but I don’t want to initiate.
7. Biggest turn-off? Bad hair or teeth, but more importantly, poor grammar! If you use text speak then I won’t be interested for long.
8. What’s the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?  I typically notice if a man can hold my gaze and then I focus on the smile.
9. How long do you/did you wait before becoming intimate? Again this depends on both individuals. In the past I’ve had everything from the fourth date to several months in. I’m still not sure which I prefer.
10. Describe your dream date.   I’m not completely sure what my true dream date is, but I’d love a perfect meal followed by wine and stargazing. I am a bit of a hopeless romantic…

Now it is your turn, tell me about your dating life! If you’d like to share with the world, write your own responses and post your link on All The Weigh.

Wordless Wednesday

I’ve been ridiculously stressed out as of late. Things are hectic on campus and the fact that I took last weekend off is not helping one bit. So in honor of calming down and enjoying the little things, I present to you this Wordless Wednesday. (Also a somewhat-Ohio inspired theme)

Spending time to cuddle with pups this weekend was a great de-stresser (although they are not my own)

If you are ever in Ohio, try Jeni's ice cream, it is some of the best in the world!

Sometimes you have to stop questioning things and just embrace the awkward

This made me smile and is motivating me to dress it up a bit today

Now this is something I need to remember as I continue through my week...

 

Hope you are all having a lovely week. Happy hump day?

Tell me how you’ve been feeling this week.