"[...] if you wanted to do something absolutely honest, something true, it always turned out to be a thing that had to be done alone."
I've been pondering on this same exact idea for a couple of weeks now, only to read it near the end of a book I just finished. It's funny how your thoughts can sometimes perfectly coincide with some exterior visual or aural representation of them.
You don't look dressed for an afternoon of Tchaikovsky and heavy petting,
Nikki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_2RZABiePo
It's been a super productive day and now it's time to relax.
Like a hobbit who hates the Shire,
Nikki
Yesterday KJ, Kelli, and I went to a wedding expo to get some ideas for their commitment ceremony. Looked at a lot of dresses and was accosted by eager folks with pamphlets and ate lots of free samples. My favorite: pink champagne cake!
Then we went to a bike shop and KJ ended up buying a brand new bike and Kelli was able to get hers tuned up with some new fenders and kickstand and they both got brand new lighting systems as well. I love bike stores... well, any kind of sporting goods stores. Stepping into one immediately shoots seratonin to my brain. The best part about all this vicarious purchasing for me was that KJ is lending me her old Fuji bike for awhile, until I'm able to get my Surly. yay! Can't wait to take it for a ride next week on my cross-training days.
Then I finally got the two of them to sit down and watch Stranger Than Fiction (which they loved). KJ was seeing all this symbolism in it that I'd never picked up on before, it was really cool.
We had some Papa Johns and then I came home at 9:30 totally wiped out after being awake for 25 hours.
Today I did my long run of the week: 3.5 miles. Presently, I run 3 miles in 37 minutes, and that's really with me mostly running but also walking a bit too. I'm trying to get my pace down to 10 minutes per mile. A marathon run at that rate would take 4.36 hours to finish. I can't imagine ever going faster than that. If I can run that thing in 5 hours I'll be very happy. Anyhow, that's still too far away to think about. Just gotta keep taking each training week as it comes.
I bought this shampoo and conditioner that has EGG WHITES in it. ....My inner Ramona Quimby is excited by that. The rest of me is really a little grossed out by touching it (the shampoo especially has the look and texture of egg whites..). But it smells nice, like coconut, and it makes my hair healthier, so that's good.
26 years old, practically a zygote,
Nikki
A couple things:
#1. At work the other night, one of the respiratory therapists came in to do some work and saw me reading during a lot of downtime and said "You know, people read books to fall asleep, not to stay awake when things are slow." I told him I read to stay awake. He said he likes to read. Then he qualified that by saying he likes to read news and sports headlines mostly. WHY is it so unusual anymore to see a person reading an actual book?? In college, this one guy would see me occassionally sitting in a chair out on the balcony reading and would always, ALWAYS say "hey, it's the girl who reads a lot" in passing. Certain roommates were always mentioning to me that I read a lot and then they'd say that they like to read too but I never once caught them in the act... People will talk about how tough it was for them to get through a little 200-page grocery store paperback. UGH! Too many literate people are missing out on all the lives and worlds you can experience when reading. I want to boomarang War and Peace at their empty heads. Not that I've read War and Peace either.... but it's on the list.
I spotted this concentration camp of an abandoned school at the end of a road on the way to the coast and had Mom stop on the way back for some pictures. Eerie. This must be my future home since I insist on being poor.
It's a really long school, this is the rest of it. What an amazingly beautiful dump. It looks as though it has stood empty for decades. Why haven't they bulldozed it?
The imagined homeless survivalists lurking inside with their bolt-action rifles kept me from getting too close...
N - The happy, bouncing little tennis ball in your soul must be weeping right now.
And here we have the basketball court.Coastal cities in Washington are like ghost towns. Even in the summer when I went here with KJ, everything was run down and there were few tourists. Even a lot of the pretty summer homes dotting the coast looked abandoned. For some reason the population is sparse and there is very little development in most of this state outside of the Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia corridor.
gotta have the sparkly,
Nikki
Running has quickly become one of the only things I care about right now.
It's the coolest thing, knowing that a week ago today I could barely run a 1/4th a mile before needing a walking break, and now I can run a mile before needing one. The quick progression is really inspiring.
I'm keeping strict adherance to the schedule on my wall. This week I've run 7.5 miles (3 of which were today) and walked about 5 miles. Next week it's up to 9.5 miles.
The weird thing about all this is that I used to hate running. I thought it was a boring waste of enormous amounts of energy and only served to wear a person out. Then I took that running class at BYU and learned all about max exercise and resting heart rates and how running strengthens and improves your heart and your cardiovascular system and streamlines oxygen absorption and capacity in the muscles and lungs. The health benefits are immense.
And the psychological benefits are just as great. I have a lot of hangups.... a lot. And they bog me down far too often. I'm strong and adventurous in a lot of ways, but when it comes to people and interacting with them.. too often I turn into this strange, timid creature that I don't recognize and that I hate. Anyway, running keeps me happier for longer periods of time and for that reason alone I'd continue, even if there was no marathon as a distant goal.
Getting off work at 7am is perfect too because I can get to the track when it's still mostly dark outside and run when it's not at all crowded. There are usually only two or three others on it with me, so I can keep my own lane the whole time. I'm in awe of the people who run up and down the stadium steps two at a time for 30 solid minutes... maybe someday that'll be me too.
The present goal at the moment is to run 3 miles w/out any walking breaks. There is a 5k in Lakewood next month on Valentines Day benefiting the homeless that I've registered for. My first organized run! Hehe, can't wait.
I think we could be more than just gym buddies.
.....You're blowing my mind right now Frank,
Nikki
Today I went in search of a decent track to run on. Drove to Tacoma Community College but couldn't find a single visitor parking spot anywhere near the track, not even after circling their whole campus 4 times. And to be honest, one look at that track and I felt a little glum because it was boxed in by a big fence and appeared to be treaded with dirt and no lane markers and not a single person was running on it.
After all that cautious driving around parked cars and endless pedestrians on campus, I decided to fly up the freeway and finally find Univ. of Puget Sound and see what their track was like. SO glad I did! The track is beautiful, the parking is free, and it's only a couple miles from the hospital. I was able to get my pedometer all set up with my stride lengths and ran 1.5 miles. Yes, don't laugh... I haven't run at all during these past couple weeks and all those cookies and Ferrero Rochers and huge family meals have definitely taken their toll. This amazing wrinkly old man in shorts came running into the stadium and ran circles around me. He must have run at least 10 laps in the time it took me to do 5. What a stud.
So I did that and then came home and did my arm-toning weight exercises and 50 sit-ups.
This year is the year I learn to discipline my body. My biggest goal this year is to run the Park City Marathon in mid August (this is assuming that I'll more than likely be in Utah during that time). I've been doing a lot of research and Hal Higdon's website is enormously helpful. At first, I thought that I could be ready for a marathon by May.. but let's be honest, I've only been playing at running: going out for a couple miles every now and then when the weather is nice or when I've been in the mood. My endurance levels fluctuate as a result and they really suck at the moment.
I've decided that 3 months of novice pre-marathon spring training (now through March), followed by 4.5 months of marathon training will be the right amount of preparation and the safest and smartest way to go.
So for the next three months I'll be running 4 days a week directly after work and doing yoga on the rest days. This feels REALLY good.
My 2009 goals:
1) Run the Park City Marathon
2) Erase all prior debt from those college years (getting there!)
3) Get a seasonal job/internship in paleo this summer
4) Bike Iceland in September
5) Study for and take the GRE as many times as I need to to get a good score because my GPA from college is pathetic and I'll need all the help I can get with grad school apps.
6) Apply to grad school for paleontology. Right now I'm looking at the Univ of Texas at Austin and the South Dakota School of Mines and the Univ of Cincinnati.
Let's get it on,
Nikki
