Chicago is Not For Me

Before you freak out (or more likely shrug in bemusement) at the title of this post, let me assure you that I still plan to run the Chicago Marathon. But after a week of absolutely horrible workouts I needed to throw myself a bit of a pity party and then cowgirl up and remind myself of why I'm doing this.

First a little background, two weekends ago I decided to move my long run to Sunday so that I could go to Cuenca on Saturday and play tourist. This would have been an ok plan except for a couple of things. One: my phone battery died during the night so my alarm didn't go off nor could I receive the texts from my husband (oops! he forgot to send his, but at the time he got a pass) and from my running buddy Christy urging me out the door.  Two: after I got home from walking around Cuenca all day on a scorchingly hot day, I then went out to dinner at a friend's house where an inordinate amount of cava and white wine was consumed (considering the planned long run for the next day). When I finally made it out the door on Sunday morning it was already in the 80s and my route along the river just does not have much shade at all. Every minute felt like an eternity. By the time I finished logging my run, I was sunburnt and hating my life choices. Why wasn't I sleeping off the cava fugue and then doing something touristy instead of roasting myself on the pavement. Why could I do nothing all afternoon except lay in front of a fan feeling completely zapped of energy? I mean, I could have been at the Mercado de San Miguel eating olives and cheese and drinking wine.

That long run left a bad taste in my mouth so I didn't run again until I had been in Valladolid for a day or two Because the archive I was using is not in the city itself but rather in a small village about 7 or 8 miles away, I was having to get up early to take the bus so as to arrive not too long after the archives opened. Since they close at 2:30pm, it didn't make sense to dawdle, and a morning run seemed out of the question if I wanted to get to the archives early. So I ran in the evening. It was still above 85 or 90 degrees. It was dusty. When I got a mile out, the area where I was running along the river started to seem a little sketchy and isolated, so I decided to turn around and call it a day. I couldn't push the pace at all. My breathing and heart rate were erratic. Why was I doing this when I could have been sitting on a nice terazza drinking a tinto de verano?

The next day I thought it over and decided to skip running in the evening in favor of a morning run. It was something of an indulgence but I opted to take a cab to the archives. This allowed me to log a few miles in the morning and still get to the AGS in a timely enough manner. Although this run did not suck, I have to honestly say that it wasn't great either, especially the first mile. It was disheartening to see how slow my watch said I was moving even though the temps were cooler. Finally, about halfway through the run, I was able to mentally, if not to physically, shift gears. I finally remembered that Chicago is not for me. I didn't sign up for Chicago without knowing how tough it would be to train over this part of the summer. I signed up because of Bryant's story and Team Deere. And while nothing is set in stone, my only real goals for Chicago were/are to fundraise and to finish the marathon. I needed to get over myself. So I did (mostly) (sort of).

Since then running has not been easy - I've been having some hip issues, and the night before and after my 15 miler this past weekend I woke multiple times with cramps in my calves - but it's been easier. This morning I was even able to pick up the pace a little bit and run a couple of faster intervals.

I have two weeks left of this trip. My training goals are pretty simple for the rest of the time I'm abroad. I want to run one more time here in Madrid, once in Paris (a long run), at least once in Belgium, and once in Germany before I head back to Anchorage and hurtle toward the start of a semester.

July 2016 in Review

July went by quickly for me as I was preparing for my research trip to Spain during the first part of the month and then on said research trip during the second half of the month. Where am I at goal-wise? Let me quickly recount.

Goal 1 part A to run my 3rd marathon and to PR while doing it has been accomplished. Goal 1 Part B to run 800 miles during the process of training for this and my fall race is still a work in progress. In July I ran 68.95 miles, which brings me to 404.51 miles for the year. Right now I'm still off the mark for part B of the goal, but we'll see how the next couple of months go.

My second major goal for the year was to make significant progress on other research projects. July has been very research focused as I have been in the archives for 2.5 weeks now and prior to that I was doing quite a bit of transcribing of things I have digitized or copied already and taking notes on secondary literature reading. I'm still trying to see the shape of these forests in the midst of many trees, but I think one major project and potentially two smaller (article-sized ones) have begun to emerge from the stacks of manuscripts I've been working my way through. I will definitely need to come back to the archives in Simancas and possibly those in Toledo and Madrid before I will be able to get too deeply into the writing of my second sole-authored book. Can I say I've made progress? Definitely. Will this be a project finished in the next few months? No. In the meantime, over the next week or so, I'll also need to put my feet to the fire and make progress on an upcoming conference presentation.

Selfie on the way back to the train station in Toledo from using the archives

Archivo General de Simancas -- yes this archive is in a fortified stronghold!

Goal 3 focused on establishing a mindful practice of gratitude and optimism. I will preface these remarks by saying that I have spent far too much time the past few weeks reading comments on news sites and feeling absolutely vile afterward. I really need to be more disciplined about just reading the stories and not the comments. Aside from that and having to explain what's going on right now in American politics to a number of Spanish friends, I've had a lot to be thankful for. I've been seeing old friends here and making some new ones. I've been getting to do one of my favorite things about my chosen profession five days a week. I used my app 21 days in July. I do miss my spouse, but I am so grateful for our relationship.

In the Royal Botanical Gardens

Cuenca: I took this picture right before I had to deal with my skirt nearly blowing up over my head

Finally, I wanted to write some non-academic things this year. Over the past month, I made embarrassingly little progress on the short story I started in June. It's been challenging to carve out time to write in other genres when I'm trying to take full advantage of my time in Spain to work in the archives. The switch has not been flipping easily after a full day of reading early modern manuscripts. In my free time, I've been wanting to see friends, go to museums, visit new places, run, stroll, read a novel on the train or in the park, etc. Hopefully, I'll have more interesting news or at least some suggestion of progress to report in this category next month.

What's something you really enjoyed in July? What are you looking forward to in August? Have you ever had a Marilyn Monroe moment while crossing a bridge?

Postcard from Spain: Running and Picnicking in Retiro Park

I had hoped to stay in a friend's typically empty flat during my trip to Madrid, but because he's having renovations done that wasn't possible this time. As a result, I ended up renting a little attic apartment close to the Atocha train station because I knew that neighborhood would be convenient for commuting out to Toledo to use the archives there as well as allowing for easy walking or public transit to the national library and the archives I'd be using in Madrid. The bonus: being close to the train station means being close to Retiro Park - one of my favorite spots in the city. Although running along the river or in Casa del Campo makes more sense for longer runs, nothing beats a short jaunt just a few minutes out the door.

I ran here one evening during my first week (which was not a pretty run as I was so hot each moment felt like a hellish eternity and I was having trouble getting my heart rate under control) and then on Monday and Thursday this week in the mornings (much better). I hope to do so again before I leave for the next stage of my research trip in a couple of days. I will say that, although I see lots of diversity in the people walking or enjoying time in the park, the runners in the Retiro (unlike the Madrid Rio) do still definitely skew toward the fitter, the faster, and the male. Nonetheless, I have seen a few other women running in the park. Also promising: so far I haven't been on the receiving end of any catcalls going to and from the park in my workout gear. Nor have I heard or seen any other women runners getting harassed during my runs. This all gives me hope that the running culture in Madrid is developing/has developed to a much greater extent than I would have dreamed possible eight or nine years ago.

The Retiro is not just a place for running! I also was lucky to be able to attend the birthday picnic of my friend Carlos in the Retiro after I got out of my yoga class on Tuesday evening. His Retiro picnic is a tradition but one that I haven't been able to participate in since 2007. It was a lot of fun to briefly catch up with an old friend Sophie there and to meet some of the new amigos Carlos has made since I moved back to the states. We enjoyed drinks and food and two kinds of cake to celebrate the fabulous birthday boy.

Have you noticed changes in running culture in a location you frequently visit? When was the last time you went on a picnic?

June 2016 in Review

Forgive this post for being a bit bare bones, but I had it all drafted (but not yet proofread or saved) and stepped away from the screen for a few moments when my laptop randomly decided to restart. I lost the entire post. I've been having problems with my computer for awhile so July will bring an appointment to the Genius Bar among other things. I really hope I don't have to shell out the money for a new computer as that is not really in my budget right now. Aside from these annoying technological difficulties, June was a good month for me. I raced; I traveled with my awesome spouse; I hiked; I wrote; I spent time on my yoga mat and with friends; I accomplished one of my goals for the year and made progress on the others.

1. Run my third marathon and PR while doing it. I get to check this one off and put it in the Win column! I PR'ed at the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon and am still pretty happy about it. Ideally, I'd like to run an even faster marathon in Chicago, in October but I'll have to see how training while traveling goes over the next couple of months. In June I ran 63.25 miles and that brings me to 335.56 miles for the year. I've got some ground to cover in the second half of the year if I want to bring my running total to 800 miles for 2016. I'm hoping my body feels more capable of speeding some of those miles back up soon as right now I'm still feeling like each run is a bit like trying to move my legs through a vat of molasses.

2. Make significant progress on other research projects. I transcribed a number of documents in June and created a sort of database to help me keep track of a number of them as I progress through reading, transcribing, and starting to puzzle things together for this project. I'll know more once I've wrapped up my archival recon mission in Madrid and Toledo in a few weeks. I also have a paper to write for an upcoming conference and, although it's not specifically related to my research, I still need to finish that book review and send it off to the journal before I leave for Europe. The review, archival work, and the conference paper are my top priorities for the next few weeks in terms of my academic research and writing.

Corral del Coliseo in Seville, where I stayed on my last research trip two summers ago

3. Establish a mindful practice of gratitude and optimism. I used my Gratitude app 19 days in June. While I freely admit I have a lot of room to improve with regards to consistency, I've been doing better about journaling and being mindful over the past few weeks after a decline in this from about the middle of the spring semester until about a month ago. My decision a few weeks back to try to limit my use of social media and email has fed into this goal. My marathon was also in many ways an exercise in gratitude and optimism.

4. Write some non-academic things. I'm not sure whether or not I'll have a full draft of the short story I'm working on done by July 14th as I underestimated how much was going on (friends visiting, fundraising, academic responsibilities, travel planning, etc.), but I have been working on this and some other things (more about this eventually). Some of it is atrocious and will never see the light of day, but some of it might have potential. We'll see. I hope to have more news to report related to this goal in the coming months.

Midway through 2016, how are you feeling about your year so far? Is there something that you want to focus your energies on for the rest of the summer?

Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon Goals

It's been five years since I've run a full marathon. My last was Minneapolis Team Ortho in 2011. (Be warned: the race report may contain TMI, but runners will talk about such things.) For those who don't want to read the full report, in short, it was hot and hilly and full of cotton wood spores. That race was hard, and I was not really in the zone that day. In the moment, I was satisfied with my decision to stop worrying about the clock, but afterward my ego kicked in. I wanted redemption. Later that summer while training for the Chicago Marathon I got injured, putting my ego in check. Life intervened and it was a while before I was in a place to devote the physical, mental, and emotional energy to marathon training again.

In two weeks I will toe the line at the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon. I've put in the time and logged most of the miles on my training schedule. I'm excited for race day! I'm running for the joy of running and for the opportunity to run a race in a new state and a new city. But mostly I'm running for reasons that are bigger than running itself. They are bigger than I am; bigger than ego; bigger than the wall. Thank you to Team in Training for giving me so many reasons to run in the dark, on the ice, in the wind, in the rain, under the sunny skies, around the meese for the past few months of training. Thank you, coaches and teammates, for picking me up after I got flattened by dogs on bungees and for sticking with me and convincing me I could finish whenever I thought I could not. Thank you for reminding me of the bigger picture when I lost sight of it.

Some members of Anchorage Summer Team - photo courtesy of one of our intrepid members

With my two Summer Team Coaches - photo courtesy of our Team Captain Ruth

Some of you, dear readers, are part of this bigger picture. I cannot express how appreciative I am to all of you who sponsored me! I will run (and wog, walk, and limp if necessary) 26.2 miles for some amazing people (who gave donations of $50 or more to my fundraising efforts):

Mile 1: Mark, my husband and partner in crime
Mile 2: Wally, my awesome father-in-law
Mile 3: Gitta, my fabulous mother-in-law, who is a cancer survivor
Mile 4: Songho, my kind and generous colleague
Mile 5: Chris, who is witty and edgy even when being vague
Mile 6: Paul, my fearless department chair
Mile 7: Cristina, a brilliant art historian and a newer conference frolleague
Mile 8: Zeynep, a dear friend and pillar of support
Mile 9: Jen, House Ravenclaw and instigator of hair envy
Mile 10: Noam and Jen, cool cousins-in-law
Mile 11: Caroline, whose friendship got me to yoga and through dark times
Mile 12: Nan, my kind and cooky and wonderful mama
Mile 13: Ian and Eliza, kindred spirits and good friends
Mile 14: Dennis, a former student who has asked me to run in memory of his son
Mile 15: Jim, the genius sometimes known as Señor Queso
Mile 16: John B., who believed I could be a historian
Mile 17: Lisa, who will run again, but first has to recover
Mile 18: Geoffrey, my role model in so many things
Mile 19: John H., whose gazelle-like abilities and tirelessness I'll try to channel
Mile 20: Jodi, the best of sisters-in-law
Mile 21: David K., my big-hearted brother-in-law
Mile 22: David, my best friend
Mile 23: Bryan, my first true running partner
Mile 24: Suzie, my running bestie
Mile 25: Heather, my coach and running friend extraordinaire
Mile 26: in memory of Kris, who could make me laugh until my sides hurt
Mile 26.2: in memory of Bryant, who is the reason I'm doing Chicago*

My goals are to A) run a sub-5-hour race. I think that will depend a lot on how I physically feel on race day, the weather, etc. If I feel like it's potentially in my wheelhouse on race day, I will line up with the 4:55 pace group. B) Run a marathon PR, which means I need to finish in under 5:28:30 and C) to finish and to have fun! I want to enjoy the course, chat with other runners, listen to the bands play, and appreciate the day. I want to cherish the experience of running another marathon even when it gets hard and to feel gratitude for the people in my life to whom I've dedicated a whole lot of miles.

*Please consider sponsoring me as I train for and run the Chicago Marathon as part of Team Deere for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

May in Review

May has been like a magical elixir that has restored me to former self. The past few weeks have been a nice balance of work --I'm teaching a 5-week summer course, doing research, working on an assessment report, and have had some development workshops -- and play. I've been running, hiking, indulging in a couple of series on Netflix, and catching up on some yard work and other projects. I've managed to spend a bit of time lounging on my deck while reading novels and drinking some vino and cerveza, too. 

1. Run my third marathon and PR while doing it. My mileage total for May was 75.21 miles. Time on the trails this month included lots of good conversations with running buddies and moose, muskrat, and duckling sightings. I've been mixing in at least one yoga class and often two each week here lately for some good stretching and strengthening. With the Seattle Marathon now less than three weeks away, I'm feeling alternating stretches of confidence and anxiety about my ability to PR. On the one hand, I've put in the time on my feet and followed the training plan with consistency. On the other hand, I'm logging slower paces than I did during my last marathon training cycle in 2011. I'll be writing a post dedicated to my goals for the race and some thoughts about this training cycle soon. 

2. Make significant progress on other research projects. My book is going into production, which has meant I've been dealing with some odds and ends related to it this month. There will still be some things to deal with in the coming months, but most of my focus has shifted to other projects. This past month I met my transcription goal. I've set a goal of at least 5 hours of transcription and research each week for the last week of May and throughout the month of June. I joined a new write on site group with some colleagues in other disciplines so that should help to keep me accountable to this goal and get me some quality distraction-free time to devote to it as well in between now and the time I go on my research trip to the archives later in the summer. 

3. Establish a mindful practice of gratitude and optimism. I was better about using my food journal and my Gratitude app this month. I didn't hit the 25 day mark for either of them, but I was more mindful than the previous month or so I'll take a partial victory lap. Even more importantly, there have been many opportunities for me to feel joy, contentment, and thankfulness over the past few weeks. It hasn't quite been a panacea, but I feel really blessed to have had the cameraderie of my local chapter of TNT over the past four months. I feel grateful for friendships both old and new. My dog has made me snort with laughter a lot lately. Even though a certain Canadian claimed we don't need to have our housecleaner come as often while I'll be gone, I still think he's swell and can't imagine a better partner. 

4. Write some non-academic things. I've only written and completed a full draft of one non-academic thing this past month that is not a blog post. I'm both surprised and not surprised by how vulnerable writing in another mode and sharing work (even with someone that I wholeheartedly trust) made me feel after only writing in an academic mode (aside from blogging and very incomplete things) for so long. Forgive me for not saying more. I'm not being coy, but I'm not quite ready to share more yet. Perhaps that will be another place to get comfortable with feeling discomfort in the coming weeks and months.

Does summer bring a more relaxed pace to your life? If you set goals for this year, how do you feel about your progress now that we're almost half-way through 2016?

More on the Running/Writing Parallel

I’ve blogged in the past about how running long distancesand marathon training and academic research and writing have a lot of parallels. I’ve been thinking about that quite a bit lately because of where I’m at in my current training cycle and where I’m at in my academic career as a researcher and writer. For the first time in a long time my pipeline is essentially empty. Articles based on my dissertation or side research project are out or under review. The critical edition I co-authored came out two years ago. My book Treating the Public is in the hands of my editor and the press production team.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about what it means to have written a book that is at least partially about the spaces charity, alms, and good works created for performance in the early modern period and what it means to perform charity today. They are very different beasts, but both are subjects I'm passionate about. Over the past several months I’ve dedicated numerous runs to those of you who have so generously sponsored me -- if I were a better actress I'd come perform monologues from early modern Spanish plays for you. I’ve given time, sweat, tears, and my own funds to training for the Rock and Roll Seattle Marathon, which is now just four weeks away.

Once again running and writing – or at least the mindset needed for them – seem to coextend and synchronize. Although there are still some things to be done for Treating the Public (and miles to be logged for Seattle) I am finally really embarking on another reserach project, which will hopefully grow into another book. It is daunting to have so few documents fully read and transcribed, such a limited sense of the shape the project will take, to have no idea if my next trip to the archives will be boom or bust (it’s usually never really bust, but I may not find things that answer the research questions I’m asking now). But it’s good to remember that I have the skills to do this; I’ve done this before; I can do this again. Like all big projects it will requre discipline and the investment of time and energy. I’m also beginning another training and fundraising cycle with Team in Training. Our Fall Team meets for the first time tomorrow to begin training. Another investment of myself that I know I'm capable of but that will require mental and emotional effort, especially once I leave on a research trip and have to run on my own in Madrid. 

My new research project is more about corruption and political intrigue than charity and is perhaps a fitting metaphor for running Chicago in October. I would love to have you sponsor me for Chicago (no amount is too small)! I promise not to embezzle your funds like a corrupt politician from the seventeenth or the twenty-first century! If you donate by the end of May, you will be entered into a raffle for a $25 amazon gift card. (You get one entry for every $10 donated to my fundraising efforts to Seattle or Chicago.) I will dedicate one of my training runs to anyone who donates and one of my marathon miles to you if you donate $50 or more.  You can donate by following this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/chicago16/rballn

And with that I'm off to finish transcribing some seventeenth-century documents I have digitized. Wish me luck! 

Do you see any parallels between your work/vocation and your hobbies? Do you have any big projects or races coming up on the horizon?

Training Updates: Adventures from the Trails

Since returning from Costa Rica in mid-March, things have been busy with work and with training. Because I was planning or involved in a number of events in the second half of this semester on top of my normal teaching, research, and committee duties, most of my rather limited free time over the past few weeks was spent running. I've dedicated runs to those who have sponsored me (more on that soon). I've also had a few adventures out on the trails.

I got pretty banged up two weeks ago about 2/3 of the way through a 2 hour long when I was in a collision with a cyclist and his dogs. The cyclist had his two dogs on bungee cords and they were zipping down the trail. They came right at me with incredible speed, and, before I could move left or right, the two bungees bisected me and cut my legs right out from under me. I went straight down and landed flatter than a pancake. My running buddy Christy just managed to jump over my legs as I went down. If she hadn't, she would have fallen on top of me. I had bruises where the cords impacted my shins, as well as some on my left elbow, my knees, and on my right breast where I first absorbed impact with the ground; I had some scrapes on my elbow, and road rash on my hands from catching myself. It sucked, but I felt really lucky that I didn't sustain worse injury. My nose came about an inch from being ground into the pavement, so I thanked my lucky stars that I didn't have a fracture or any broken bones. The cyclist popped back up and his dogs were fine. Although it was a pretty scary incident,  I managed to finish out my miles that day. I even held it together emotionally and didn't start crying until driving home from the run. I did have some pain in my shins from impact on bruised legs for the rest of that day and the next week or so but managed to make runs two days during the week that followed and to do my long run the next week.

Well, mostly.... Due to a moose resting on the trail, we turned around a bit earlier than planned that day so instead of running 2 hours 40 minutes I only ended up logging about 2 hours and 10 minutes that day. That time did at least include a massive hill that has crushed my soul while doing the Zombie Half Marathon in 2012 and in 2015, and I was not sure what to expect about tackling it during this training run. However, I was running with one of our team coaches and his gazelle-like gait and cheerful demeanor propelled me up that hill. I might have been doing it incredibly slowly but I was running the whole time. In fact, the only time I walked during that day's run was when I was fueling and when we had to wait to see what yet another moose would do -- it was being indecisive about whether or not it wanted to cross the trail and graze on the other side. Once it did, we were able to pick up the pace again. I wasn't able to get a photo because I had my phone in my carrier, and I needed all my alertness in case the moose got interested in us instead of grazing.

In general, I have to say that although I've missed some mid-week miles and a couple of longer training runs over the past couple of months, I'm pretty pleased with the overall level of consistency in my training for Seattle up to this point. The only thing that's making me nervous is that due to missing a long run for a conference in Boston one week and the moose blockade a couple of weeks ago, my longest run so far in this cycle has only been 13 miles. However, with the end of the semester in sight, I'm looking forward to fewer long work days and more time for resting and relaxing as well as running. And there will be a lot of that in the next few weeks. We have a couple of 3(+) hour long runs coming up on the training schedule before tapering. It's hard to believe it, but my spring marathon is now only eight weeks away.

I wouldn't mind if my next few weeks of running were a bit less adventurous. I really hope they are bear free! Have you ever had a wildlife encounter while running? Have you ever been in a collision on the trails?

Mental Health and Mountains

Lately I have been fretting a lot about how to make everything happen in the compressed amount of time that it needs to happen in. On Friday during a really stressful moment, I was driving to campus to a meeting that had suddenly popped up as a result of an issue with an event that I'm directing in a couple of weeks, and suddenly I felt a pain in my left arm. Lest I worry you, I will go ahead and tell you that it was actually my tricep being sore from yoga, but in that moment of stress I had this brief but intense fear that the pain was shooting and that I was having a cardiac event. My father died from a sudden and massive heart attack behind the wheel of his truck during an incredibly stressful time for our family in 1999. I pulled over into a parking lot and spent a couple of minutes breathing deeply and making sure that my other arm felt the same way (it did). Although there were other stressful moments in the day, I kept thinking back to that moment when I thought stress from my job might actually be killing me and reminding myself to slow down and breathe and let go of some of the worry.

I know that I am privileged to work in a field that I love. But institutions often bank on their faculty working far more than 40 hours a week. On Friday when I was driving back to campus, I had already worked close to 70 hours that week. On Sunday I had worked from 7am to 10pm with a two hour break for brunch and shopping. The rest of the week was not much better. That moment in the parking lot made me realize that I need to recommit to drawing some boundaries and to stopping letting molehills at work become mountains for me that I spend all my time trying to scale. I need to be better about saying no, asking for help, and recharging my batteries. It's hard for me because I strive to be good at my job, to give my students and my research attention, to be a good community citizen of my university. But I cannot do any of these things if I work myself sick.

Plus, I have some actual mountains to tackle. After a much-needed evening out with Mark and some dear friends for dinner and vino (at a cool bar where you can buy a card and get wine out of dispensing machines), I hit the sack in preparation for Saturday's beast of a run. My Team in Training group was running up Arctic Valley Road. Because I knew that there was a very good chance that I would try to avoid running up this cursed mountain and bail if left to my own devices, I had committed to carpooling with one of our coaches. We went a little early and set up a water stop.

I dedicated this run to my dear friend Geoffrey who has been my sponsor twice for TNT, my mentor, my co-author, and my friend.

It was a 60 minute out and about 40 minute back run. The elevation gain was approximately 2,700 feet. It was painfully slow going on the way up, and my lungs and calves were on fire almost the whole time. The last 10 or 15 minutes I had to alternate a minute of running with a minute of walking in order to keep moving forward. The way down was much better and felt like a great reward for making it up so far. Due to the ice and snow on much of the road, I wasn't making up tons of time in terms of pace, though. We'll return to this route in a few weeks, and it will be interesting to gauge our hopefully increased levels of fitness next time we go up, up, up. Hopefully, the next time I run up this mountain I'll log more than 7.8 miles.

Running friends, how do you feel about hills? What are your strategies for minimizing work-related stress?

Currently: March 2016

Current Netflix/TV Obsession: I haven't had much time for binge watching much of anything lately, but I've managed to sneak in all of the DVR'ed episodes of the last season of Downton over the past few weeks excepting the show's finale. I'm looking forward to seeing where the story ends even though the show declined in quality a lot after the third season. Hopefully, I can sneak in time to watch the last episode a little later this week.

Current Running Status: My past couple of long runs have not been super confidence-boosting ones. In part, I can chalk this up to the fact that I was sick, and it's a tiring time of the semester so that makes it hard to get back to 100% healthy and rested. I finally felt like I was getting my groove back on a frosty run dedicated to my friend and colleague Gretchen on Thursday. Then I took a tumble on Friday on an icy campus sidewalk which made Saturday's hilly long run something of a painfully hippy experience. Full disclosure:  20 minutes into the run I was having fantasies of just hanging out permanently at the water stop and eating gummy bears. Only my coaches and team captain and thoughts of my dear friend Lizzie to whom I dedicated the run kept me going on that one. More yoga, stretching, and foam rolling are likely in my future. 

Moving along at a decent on Thursday's run

Coach Orrin Keeping Me Going

Current Food Journaling Progress: I'm trying to get back into the habit of keeping my food journal (I fell out of it while I was sick in the middle of February). I'm not currently trying to lose weight, but it's useful information for marathon training purposes to have a log of what I'm eating and when. 

Currently Looking Forward To: Spring Break. If for nothing else than to get caught up on copy edits for my book and a little bit of a respite from the breakneck pace of this semester.  

Current Book: I'm currently reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I was on the waitlist for this book forever, and I'm enjoying it so far even if I'm not as in love with it as some of the reading friends who recommended it to me seem to have been. Up next is Station Eleven for my book club and a 400th anniversary of Cervantes' death (re)reading of Don Quijote in Spanish. 

Current Drink: Coffee and copious amounts of it these days.  

Current Excitement: I'm really excited about getting to explore parts of Costa Rica on an upcoming trip! A couple of days of beach time, cave hiking, and zip lining in the cloud forest are all things on an agenda that will hopefully be equal parts restorative and adventurous!

Current Fashion Trend: I would love for it to be more practical to indulge in the current culottes and cropped pants trend. In the meantime, I'm deploying some of my older pieces to tie into the new bohemian trends that are popular right now. 

Current Love: I love playing Scrabble with my mom on the app on my phone. I love this even when she opens the game with a Bingo.

Current Food: Cheese is delicious. I've been trying some new ones from my local grocery's cheese counter lately. My favorites have been a smoked sharp cheddar and a cheese with Jamaican jerk spices. 

Current Indulgence: Writing this post instead of grading or copy editing.  

Currently Pondering: How to get everything done that I need to get done this month. It's what I like to call Academic March Madness here. I have a conference paper to write, book copy edits to finish by a deadline, an undergraduate research conference to finish planning and put on, and a symposium to help plan on top of the normal demands of teaching, grading, advising, etc. 

Current Mood: Did you have a mood ring in the 70s or 80s? If I still had mine from childhood, it might or might not be orange or yellow (because, you know, those rings were incredibly calibrated and scientific) as I've been pretty stressed and anxious here lately.

Current New Find: I was thrilled to discover that I can (seemingly easily) deposit checks to LLS through their app.

Current Outfit: I'll show you. Please forgive the low quality shot.

Current Peeve: It really bothers me when people don't show up to appointments or meetings that they have scheduled. 

Current Song: I can tell you about a song that I never cared for and am now am absolutely sick of: Coldplay's incredibly banal and not catchy "Adventures of a Lifetime." As soon as the radio starts to play it, I immediately change the station. 

Current Triumph: Successful adulting and getting some dental work that I was procrastinating from done last Friday. 

Current Wish-List: I wouldn't say no to some new jewelry or some new gloves for winter running. I'd love it if I could raise another $500 of my fundraising goal for TNT over the course of the rest of the month of March. Work-wise, I wish for the three conferences/symposia that I'm involved in over the next few weeks to be successful and intellectually stimulating  

Currently Delaying: Grading, but I can delay no longer. So adieu, dear readers! Please tell me what's going on currently with you. Are you procrastinating from anything? Watching or reading anything good?

Frenetic February 2016 in Review

The second half of this month has been insanely busy. At the moment, I feel really overextended because of a confluence of events and deadlines on top of the grading, committee work, class prep, and marathon training. I may require many centering moments and mini meditations and copious amounts of coffee and glasses of wine in order to not lose my sh*t over the next couple of weeks. Thanks to my husband's deft cooking skills and kindness and wine's antioxidants I probably won't contract scurvy. 

Even with the intense schedule, I've made some progress toward some of my goals. 

1. Run my third marathon and PR while doing it. I was sick and off my feet for about a week during the middle of the month. However, I still feel like I'm making decent progress with my marathon training plan. I've had several good runs with my TNT group, including a 70 minute long run that featured a beautiful sunrise a couple of weeks back. In February I ran 39.55 miles and dedicated training runs to my friends Gail, Jen, John, Liz, Shanda, and Zeynep.  

Scenes from a 6.3 mile training run dedicated to my friend, colleague, and sponsor Liz

2. Make significant progress on other research projects. I only transcribed three documents this month so I didn't meet my transcription goal. I made better progress in some other research arenas. I wrote a research presentation and have made some significant progress on my article project. In the month to come, I'll largely be focused on working on a conference paper and copy edits to my book manuscript that just came back yesterday and have to be turned around pretty quickly. 

3. Establish a mindful practice of gratitude and optimism. Although I haven't used my gratitude app every day, I've used it most days. I've also tried to be kind to myself, to make yoga more of a routine for both my overall physical and mental health, and to not compromise when it comes to getting enough sleep. Exhaustion is the enemy of optimism.

4. Write some non-academic things.This has been on the back burner for most of this month as grading has mounted and academic writing deadlines have popped up. I'm alright with that as I'm still percolating on ideas for the short story I've been working on and writing down a sentence or two here and there. 

How are you progressing toward your goals for this year? Did you do anything special with your extra leap day?

Scenes from Dedicated Runs

In an effort to encourage people to sponsor me for my TNT race, back in January I offered to dedicate a training run to anyone who donated more than $10 to my fundraising efforts prior to February 15th. I have also pledged to dedicate one of my marathon mile to those who donate/have donated more than $50 before then.  

On Monday evening I dedicated my 3.5 mile recovery run to my friend Zeynep who is an alumna of TNT herself. This year she's in Turkey on a Fulbright working on an amazing documentary and book project related to foodways and cultural identity in Turkey. I miss her a lot as she is one of my Alaska besties. We have spent quite a bit of time over the past few years writing together, drinking coffee and cocktails together, and occasionally working out together. I wish I could afford to go visit her in Turkey. Wouldn't it be amazing to do a run in Istanbul and cover two continents?

I dedicated Saturday's slightly longer run of 5.36 miles to my friend Jen, who is a talented writer and artist. I'm proud to have a piece of her art hanging in my home. Jen is one of my former students, and I really enjoyed having her in my classes. After she graduated from university a couple of years ago we became friends since we have a number of mutual interests (history, Dr. Who, Marvel, feminism, art). She likes looking at winter scenes but has repeatedly claimed that she doesn't like to be outside in the winter, so I offer these scenes from my run to her for her viewing pleasure.

I'm really thankful for my friendships with both of these fabulous individuals, and I really appreciate that they sponsored me! There's still time for you to get in on this. If you'd like me to dedicate a training run to you, donate more than $10 to my fundraising efforts for LLS before the end of the day next Monday (2/15).

Have you ever dedicated a run to anyone? Have you ever had a run dedicated to you?