33: Taking Stock

Yesterday I turned 33. While my life isn't perfect by any means and while I sometimes struggle to accomplish my goals and to cross off everything on my to-do lists, the day served as a good reminder of the sweeter and simpler things in life. I sometimes forget how lucky I am. I spent the weekend hanging out with my spouse and with friends, and I really couldn't have asked for more. We had a delicious dinner out on Saturday evening followed by celebratory Irish themed drinks at the Saint Patrick's Day party some friends hosted. Then yesterday we went for brunch with a couple of friends. After gallons of coffee and the delicious Kodiak Benedict at Snow City, Mark treated me to a little bit of shopping and yummy cupcakes from Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop. I received some thoughtful gifts -- including the complete set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, the Oxford Companion to Beer, beautiful flowers, and some lovely jewelry. Friends and family members called, texted, and sent me emails and FB greetings. All of this made me believe that some of the ennui I've been feeling lately is just a touch of spring fever and not a more debilitating listlessness.

This past year has been one of big moves, big trips, big mountains, big running, and big lists. In terms of trying new things and having new adventures, I checked 20 items off of my 32 in 32 list. In doing so, I found out that brussel sprouts and green monsters are not only edible but possibly tasty, that a month of daily yoga is well-worth doing, that snowshoeing is fun, and that gel manicures are totally worth the extra cost once and while. I still want to knit a scarf and make my own bagels and pasta and non-fugly pie crust; and an international race is in my near future. Maybe a group run in NYC will be too.

1. Climb a mountain. ✔
2. Learn to make pie crust that doesn't look fugly.
3. Take a dance lesson. ✔
4. Give brussel sprouts another chance. ✔
5. Go for a run in the Parque de Dehesa de la Villa in Madrid. ✔
6. Enter a contest.
7. Try snowshoeing. ✔
8. Get a gel manicure. ✔
9. Go an entire day without speaking.
10. Knit a scarf.
11. Go on a picnic. ✔
12. Face my fear of oral surgery. ✔
13. Do yoga everyday for an entire month. ✔
14. Go on a group run in NYC.
15. Get a zoom lens for my camera and experiment with it. ✔
16. Make my own pasta.
17. Throw a dinner party. ✔
18. Bring my half-marathon total to 10. ✔
19. Keep a travel journal this summer and share some of it on the blog. ✔
20. Have a spa day with a friend. ✔
21. Run my favorite routes here before I move. ✔
22. Spend a Sunday afternoon in my favorite museum. ✔
23. Volunteer at an animal shelter.
24. Go an entire day only speaking Spanish. ✔
25. Create an inspiration board to put over my treadmill. ✔
26. Go for a run in Central Park. ✔
27. Visit the corral at Alcalá de Henares.
28. Go to the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.
29. Run a race in another country.
30. Make my own bagels.
31. Try a green monster. ✔
32. Visit LA for the first time.



Although I don't plan to make a 33 in 33 list right now, I think this was a worthwhile exercise to push myself to try some things or at least think about trying some things that I might not have had I not made this bucket list of sorts. It's not on my 32 in 32 list or on the nonexistent 33 in 33 list, but the next adventure I have in mind is going tubing next weekend.

Have you ever made a bucket list? What's one thing that you would like to do before your next birthday or to celebrate your next birthday? 

Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 1

The first week of training for the Vancouver marathon is in the books. Not every run was easy or fast, but I was pleased that I got all my workouts in as it was the first week of classes, which is always a little bit nutty.

Monday - scheduled 3 miles easy. Actual 3 easy miles. Conditions were incredibly icy (such that the first day of classes was actually canceled here), so I opted to kick off training on the treadmill. I watched some Netflix and ran at an average pace of 10:57.

It's petty outside, but very slippery as there's a thick layer of ice underneath a few inches of fluffy snow.

Tuesday - scheduled yoga. Actual yoga. I went to a Hatha class at my studio. I hadn't been to a class since before the holidays and I was definitely feeling it during and after this class. We did several series of poses using the wall for support and then did them again without the wall. I think I managed my most successful half moon pose to date.

Wednesday - scheduled rest. Actual rest. I was glad to take the day off as my whole upper body and my hips were really sore from the previous day's yoga class.

Thursday - scheduled 4 miles speed work. Actual 3 miles easy. I was still feeling sore in my shoulders, arms, and hips, so I opted to switch workouts. I kept it easy, hoping to flush out some of the soreness, and ran at an average pace of 10:57.

Friday - scheduled 3 miles easy. Actual 4 miles speed work on the treadmill. I warmed up and then did 4x800 with jogging 800 recoveries in between each. My target average pace for the repeats was between a 9:20 and a 9:30 pace. I hit the pace for all of my repeats and averaged 9:58 a mile for the workout.

Saturday - scheduled belly dance class. Actual belly dance class. One of the things on my 32 in 32 list was to take a dance class. To that end, I signed up for a 5 week belly dance basics course. Saturday was my first class. As some one who isn't particularly coordinated, it was challenging but a lot of fun. I definitely felt my lower back, abs, and hips getting worked in ways that they don't during running and yoga.

Sunday - scheduled 5 miles LSD. Actual 5 miles run at an average pace of 11:23. I wasn't very comfortable during this run, as I probably should have waited another hour or so after brunch to run it, but I got it done.

Total scheduled miles: 15.
Actual miles: 15.
Cross training workouts: 2.

Today kicks off week two of training. Today is also my mama's birthday! I'm wishing her a very happy 61st!

Inspiration Board and Marathon Training Plans

One of the things on my 32 in 32 list was to create an inspiration board to put above my treadmill. Over the spring and early summer I had saved a number of magazine clippings and issues of Runner's World to use in making it. However, I ended up jettisoning them in the weeks leading up to our move to Anchorage. A few weeks ago I restarted gathering images and this past week finally had enough clippings from magazines - mainly Runner's World but also some Yoga Journal to create a collage of sorts on a pinboard.

Last night I hung the board up above my treadmill along with my two most meaningful medals from races. The medal on the left is from my first marathon, which I also ran to raise money as part of Team in Training, and the medal on the right is from the race where I ran my fastest half-marathon.

I'll probably be looking at this board a lot over the next few months as marathon training with a half-marathon in the mix for some more current race experience thrown in kicks off on Monday. Because I haven't run a full for a couple of years and because of where my conditioning is currently at I chose a Beginning Marathon Program in The Runner's World Big Book of Marathon and Half-Marathon Training and made just a few tweaks to it. This plan calls for running 4 days a week most weeks and gives me the flexibility to attend a yoga class each week as well as the Belly Dance class that I am signed up to take later this month and next. Since several of you have asked about training, I'm sharing my plan here.

Week	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
1	3 mi	Yoga	Rest	4 mi	3 mi	Belly Dance	5 mi LSD	15 mi
2	3 mi	Yoga	Rest	3 mi	4 mi	Belly Dance	7 mi LSD	17 mi
3	3 mi	Yoga	Rest	4 mi	4 mi	Belly Dance	9 mi LSD	20 mi
4	Yoga	4 mi	Timed Mile	3 mi	4 mi	Belly Dance	7 mi LSD	19 mi
5	Rest	Yoga	4 mi	3 mi	Rest	5 mi	10 mi LSD	22 mi
6	Rest	4 mi	Rest	3 mi	5 mi	Yoga	12 mi LSD	24 mi
7	Rest	4 mi	Rest	4 mi	4 mi	Yoga	15 mi LSD	27 mi
8	Rest	4 mi	Rest	Rest	2 mi	Rest	San Diego Half-Marathon	19.1 mi
9	Rest	4 mi	Yoga	6 mi	Rest	4 mi	16 mi LSD	30 mi
10	Rest	4 mi	Yoga	6 mi	Rest	4 mi	18 mi LSD	32 mi
11	Rest	6 mi	Yoga	5 mi	Rest	5 mi	20 mi  LSD	36 mi
12	Rest	7 mi	Timed Mile	7 mi	Yoga	7 mi	14 mi LSD	36 mi
13	Rest	6 mi	Yoga	7 mi	Rest	7 mi	20 mi LSD	40 mi
14	Rest	7 mi	Yoga	7 mi	Rest	7 mi	13 mi LSD	34 mi
15	Rest	5 mi	Yoga	4 mi	Rest	5 mi	10 mi LSD	24 mi
16	Rest	3 mi	Rest	4 mi	Rest	Rest	Vancouver Marathon	33.2 mi

I plan to typically do speedwork on Thursdays and run most of the miles on those days as either part of tempo runs, progressive runs or 800 repeats. I'm also giving myself permission to ditch a few miles here and there during this training if some snow shoeing opportunities come along. I've heard it's a great workout and am keen to try it once we have more snow again.

Have you taken any dance classes? Are you training for a spring marathon or half-marathon?

November in Review and Thoughts on Thirty Days of Yoga

November is now in the books, and I have to say that it was a pretty solid month for me. I did a pretty good job of tackling my goals and making progress on a variety of projects at work and at home. At the beginning of the month I decided to start using my sticker calendar again to document each day that I journaled and practiced yoga. Beginning on Thanksgiving, when the RW holiday running streak began, I also added runs to the mix. My sticker calendar has proven to be highly motivating with its power as a visual reminder. It also appeals to my inner child (as does my Fluevog coloring book).

Sticker Calendar in Action

1. Write, revise, or edit at least 7 pages a week during the month of November. This was an aggressive goal, but I freaking nailed it. It should be noted that, though, that I have a course release, that until the last two days of the month I had very minimal marking to do in the two classes I'm teaching, and that the Thanksgiving break kept me bobbing along. I submitted an article to a journal this month and made some significant progress on an edited volume.

2. Maintain my food journal every single day this month.  As you can see from my sticker calendar, I came really close to achieving this goal. I didn't journal my food intake on Thanksgiving or for the couple of days after that, though. While I won't be buying snow boots this month, I feel like I've done a good job of establishing the habit of keeping my journal on a daily basis again.

3. Do yoga every day this month. I did yoga everyday this month. A number of my practices were short 20 minute sessions, but I also made it to a number of classes at my yoga studio over the course of November. The first week of committing to making time to get on my mat everyday was the hardest. After several days, I found myself looking forward to that time to stretch, unwind, and breathe.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I do think that my upper body and core gained some strength over the course of the month. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror at my studio the other day and for once was pleasantly surprised. Perhaps this was partly because I was seated so I didn't look klutzy and oafish in the way that I sometimes feel I do. Most of it, though, was because I noticed some definition in my tricep that definitely wasn't there at the beginning of the month. I've made some gains in flexibility. My shoulders feel a bit less tight in spite of many hours spent hunched over a sixteenth-century manuscript. My hamstrings, while still very tight, are a little bit looser. However, I have to admit that balancing poses are still very hit or miss for me. Occasionally my tree is straight and strong, but often it is still wobbly and tilting. Possibly because I did so many short practices, my body held up pretty well. I did have some tenderness in my left wrist on days 26 and 27, but it doesn't seem to have lingered. I also tried to approach all of my practices and classes with acceptance. I didn't push poses to a point where I couldn't breathe or feel space -- as one of my favorite new instructors says, "if you're already saying 'Oh God' you've found God. Once you've found God in the pose, why would you need to go farther?"

While my month of yoga is at an end and I get to check an item off my 32 in 32 list, I actually don't intend to end my streak just yet. I won't be setting a specific goal, but the benefits of getting on my mat each day have been so significant physically and mentally that it seems like I should just keep going.

One final thought is that my yoga studio seems to be the place for me to cement new friendships with people I've befriended at the university but who are in other departments and I don't often see on campus. Twice now I've run into a new friend at yoga and talking before and after class has led to making plans to get a beer or go on a double date.

So November was a full month. I also ran 48 miles, hosted a brunch, celebrated Thanksgiving, hung up drapes, went to the crafts' show at the museum, and experienced ice fog for the first time. How was November for you? If you practice yoga, is there a pose that becomes immediately intense for you?

Over the Long Weekend: Feasting and Streaking

Over the past few days I have indulged. I've slept in. I've lounged in pjs. I've consumed extra cups of coffee in the morning and beers with friends in the afternoons and evenings. M. and I have had two Thanksgiving dinners. The first was a delicious meal hosted by some friends. There were about twenty people there, including our two closest friends in Anchorage. My friend and I were both attired in outfits that involved oxblood, as you can sort of see from the photo below. It was a fun evening spent chatting and eating. There was an array of dishes: ham, turkey, mushroom and rice dressing, cranberry ambrosia, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, and roasted root vegetables. My contribution was a sweet potato casserole. The selection of desserts was also impressive with pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheese cake, almond cake, a caramel tart, sweet potato ice cream with candied pecans, and chocolates. I tried a little of everything, including the dreaded brussel sprouts. I found out that roasting them is definitely the way to go. While I don't see them becoming a staple in our household, as M. doesn't like them, I enjoyed them and was able to cross an item off my 32 in 32 list.

Thanksgiving Dinner Take 1

I also wanted to make my own dinner since I knew that some of the dishes that I associate with Thanksgiving would not be on the table at dinner on Thursday evening. We had initially thought about doing our second meal on Friday, but we decided to meet up with some friends at Midnight Sun Brewery for a late lunch and a couple of beers and then to acquire our Christmas tree instead. So on Saturday I cooked a smaller scale meal at home including my favorite cornbread dressing as well as green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and some more sweet potato casserole.

Thanksgiving Dinner Take 2

Tree 2012

Although I've been indulging more than usual, I've also been continuing to hit my yoga mat and logging the miles. I have practiced yoga for 25 consecutive days now, and I have noticed that I'm making some gains in upper body strength. I'm still not as strong as I would like to be, but I can hold plank for a bit longer now and downward facing dog is becoming less intense for me -- though it is still not the resting pose that it is for more advanced practitioners. I've also noticed some minor gains in flexibility and that I'm becoming a little less Monty Burns-ish in my posture. A friend back in the Midwest convinced me to attempt the 2012 Holiday Running Streak that Runner's World is challenging readers to do from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. Initially I wasn't sure about starting a running streak while in the middle of attempting to maintain a daily yoga practice for a whole month, but at four days into running at least a mile a day I'm feeling relatively optimistic.

Are you participating in the holiday running streak? What is your favorite dish at Thanksgiving?

In Which I Buy Trail Running Shoes

Last week before M. and I left for Rushmore and the Badlands on I hopped on the treadmill for a quick and easy little run to shake my legs out before a day of driving. I left my running shoes sitting out next to the treadmill to do a little airing out before I packed them in my bag. I should have moved them to a location where I would have seen them on my way out because in between showering and getting ready and heading out the door, I forgot about them.

A few hours into the drive I suddenly remembered that I had never packed my running shoes. The only shoes I had with me were the sandals that I was wearing, and I knew that they would be no good for hiking in the Badlands. Fortunately, M. had also been foolish and brought his messenger bag instead of his backpack, so on our way out of Rapid City on Thursday morning we stopped a sporting goods store to buy him a cheap backpack, me a pair of shoes, and us a knife with which to cut the cheese that we purchased for a Badland's picnic.

Since I had a new pair of my regular brand and style of running shoes on the way to replace my older and more worn pair as my main running shoes, I decided to look at trail running shoes. When I was in Anchorage house hunting, I scoped a couple of trails and was thinking that I would want to invest in a pair of trail running shoes before too long anyway. The store was rather limited in their selection, but after trying on a few different pairs, I settled on a pair of Brooks.

In the late morning and early afternoon we did some driving through the scenic outlooks in the Badlands and then M. and I went on a tour of the Minuteman Missile Launch Site that is just outside the park. Then we had a picnic at one of the tables outside of the Visitor Center at the Badlands. After eating a lot of cheese and a few other things, we filled up our water bottles and set out to hike.

We started up the Saddle Pass Trail which was short but strenuous due to the steep incline. We then did about two hours of hiking along the Medicine Root Loop and the Castle Trail. These were quite flat trails so we were able to focus on the scenery a bit more easily. We were treated to some incredible views.

Before we knew it we were making the treacherous decline back down Saddle Pass. As those who read regularly know, I am a klutz and I have noted in the past that I almost always fall down at least once on the descent of a hike. It's a testament to the gripping power of the treads on my new trail running shoes that I didn't fall a single time. (I also got lucky and didn't get any blisters even though the shoes were new and a 2+ hour hike might not have been the smartest way to break them in.) M., who is much better at staying upright than I am, fell twice on our way down, but fortunately didn't get banged up too much. Tired and sweaty, we headed back to Rapid City to have some dinner and a couple of local brews at the Firehouse Brewing Co.

It was a great way to spend a day. I got to cross picnicking off my 32 in 32 list. I got to hike with my partner in crime. And I got trail running shoes.

Have you ever forgotten to pack something important? When was the last time you went on a picnic?

Weekend Adventures: Museums, Eurovision, and Running in Parks

This weekend was a fabulous one that recharged me for a final week of work in the archives. On Saturday I got up relatively early and went for a 5 mile run along the Madrid Rio. After getting cleaned up, I sought out a cute bakery and cafe that I had noticed one day when I was on my way to the archives and had a napolitana de chocolate and a cafe con leche. Then I went to Lope de Vega's house. I have tried to go a couple of times in the past to the Casa de Lope de Vega, but each time it had been closed. This time I was successful and managed to get inside and take a guided tour with a group of Spaniards. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside the house, but it is allowed in the lush gardens behind the home.

In Lope's gardens

After visiting my second favorite Spanish playwright's house, I spent a couple of hours meandering around an art museum in Madrid.

Saturday evening my friend C. and his partner J. invited me to join them and some of their friends to have a Galician feast of food and to watch Eurovision. Being an American who doesn't pay too much attention to singing competions, this was my first time to pay any attention to Eurovision at all. I had a blast, as we also scored the entries and came up with our own top 5. However, it was incredibly cheesy, and the Bjork-wannabe from Albania got way too many votes....

Intent on tabulating our scores

On Sunday morning I slept in a bit, and then headed to the Rastro (a big weekly flea market in Madrid) to buy another pair of harem pants and to do some looking around the other stalls. I meandered for a while around Madrid, had some lunch, and then spent a couple of hours reading a novel. Then I headed out to find the Parque de la Dehesa de la Villa to go for a run. While I'm glad that I explored a park that I was unfamiliar with and that I got a second run in this weekend, I'm not completely sure that this was worth the 3 euro in metro fare that it cost me to head up to the northern part of the city. The park was crowded with couples and families strolling around and kids playing soccer. So I didn't run for long.

Do you watch Eurovision? Readers who run, do you drive or take public transit to places where you run or do you just run from your door?

32 in 32: Speaking Spanish for an Entire Day (Almost)

Yesterday I came very close to crossing off number 24 on my 32 in 32 list. Since I arrived in Madrid a few weeks ago, I've made every effort to speak only Spanish with my Spanish friends, some of whom I became friends with as a result of language exchanges when I lived here five years ago. I have been eager to brush up my Spanish, because I have lost a lot of vocabulary and gained a bit of accent since I moved away. Most days since I've arrived about 95% of my interactions have taken place in Spanish. During the hiking trip, I spoke some Spanish and some English. I've spoken in English with other American Hispanists that I've run into here at the archives. I have a couple of American friends who reside in Madrid, and our relationships are in English. And M. and I have had a few phone conversations since I left.

Yesterday I went to the archives. As I was just about to arrive, a felt something wet on my hand and arm. It was bird shit (which is apparently good luck), and my first reaction was to curse. It was in Spanish. I only spoke Spanish in the archives and with the waiter when I took a break for lunch. I met up with a friend in the afternoon for a couple of drinks before I went to see a performance of some Baroque interludes at the Teatro Clasico. We spoke Spanish the entire time, and the theater had me feeling pretty good about my Spanish again.

After I got home from the theater and was unwinding for the night with an Isabel Allende novel (La isla bajo el mar), I was thinking that I could cross this one off my list. A few pages later and my phone rang. It was an American friend of mine (who is actually a native Spanish speaker but with whom I have a relationship in English), and without thinking I answered in English and we talked for a few minutes before I realized that I had just screwed up.

There will be another couple of opportunities to try next week, so I may still nail this one completely. I hope that I do. Otherwise, I may have to be satisfied with having gone a day speaking only in Spanish - minus 7 minutes.

I'm curious. How many of you readers speak a second or multiple languages? How fluent do you consider yourself? How do you keep your fluency when you live somewhere where that language isn't spoken?

Adventures in Oral Surgery

On Friday I took a sick day and had my wisdom teeth removed after many years of stalling and 10 hours of fasting (fortunately I was asleep for most of them). M. took me to the oral surgeon's office for my 9am appointment. Because my lower two wisdom teeth were impacted, both my general dentist and the oral surgeon had recommended that I be put under for the procedure and have all four teeth removed at once. I was nervous (I had never even had a single stitch before Friday) and the nurse gave me some nitrous to help me relax and lower my heart rate. Before long the IV drip was going and I faded out of consciousness.

Apparently the procedure went swiftly and smoothly. The nurse and oral surgeon proclaimed me a good patient. With a mouthful of gauze and a brain full of fog, I told them, "I'm really good at sleeping." Then they brought M. back to give him some care instructions for me. I was helped out to the car. Vaguely stoned and with my mouth still full of gauze, I rambled for a little bit about Marxian social history and radical feminism, briefly cried, asked my spouse if he considers himself a feminist (he said he is a liberal feminist), and then waited for M. in the car while he picked up my prescriptions and bought some sherbet and soup at Target. If anyone was hoping for awesome antics or wizardry, they were disappointed. My post-op, stoned ramblings were rather academic.

I didn't stay very groggy for long. I was in some pain, but it was more or less at a manageable level. I spent the rest of the day on Friday on the couch, watching episodes of Buffy, applying ice packs religiously, and bleeding occasionally. I was unable to eat any of the sherbet sadly, as, after I had a couple of bites, the bottom right side of my mouth started hurting more and I started bleeding.

I spent most of the weekend on the couch. I felt well enough to do some grading here and there, but I wasn't up for much else. I watched a couple of movies and some episodes of Downtown Abbey and I finished a novel that I was reading. For the past three days my diet has consisted of oatmeal, soup, and mashed potatoes. I'm hoping to go into semi-solid territory again later today, but am trying to err on the side of caution. I am terrified of getting dry socket and prolonging my recovery. Depending on how my mouth feels tomorrow, I may try to do a short and easy 2 miler. The oral surgeon said I could run after 3-4 days so long as I stopped immediately if I felt woozy or tasted any blood.

So I crossed #12 off my 32 in 32 list and spent the weekend recuperating. Hopefully, my next 32 in 32 adventure involves less pain and more excitement.