Sand Volleyball

My co-workers organized a sand volleyball team and we had our first game tonight. We lost, but it was so much fun to play outside!

Kelly and I are demonstrating proper volleyball form here :-)

Half the team has a volleyball background and half do not. But it was fun nonetheless. I was never a volleyball superstar anyway, and it's been a good 6 years since I plapyed last.

Group shot post-game

Ross was afraid to play, but once he say how awesome (aka. bad) we were, he said he'd play next time.

CSA Week 4

This was a good week. We're loving the fresh lettuce and enjoying it while the weather is still cool enough for it to grow well. We also got more strawberries and consumed half of the carton before I even thought to take a picture!

The cool new thing this week was a bundle of scapes. They're the flower bud from hardneck garlic and they add a great, subtle flavor to everything we've tried them in. We've added them to eggs, pasta, and even in place of garlic when I made homemade sloppy joes. Plus, they look cool. They curve like this even when they're in the ground:

Spring broccoli. Love it! Not at all bitter like broccoli can be when it's been in the fridge for too long.

We also got green onions and fresh oregano and mint. Ross tried to make mint ice cream with the handful of mint we nabbed. He's had success with the ice cream maker before (he's the only one who should be allowed to make ice cream, pancakes, and eggs in this house) but this recipe was a little more complex than normal. Something didn't go as planned and he ended up with green soup. We were shocked at how green it was, though, just from soaking the mint leaves in cream for an hour.

We're definitely trying this again next time we score some fresh mint!

Reminiscing about BRAN

June always makes me miss BRAN (the Bike Ride Across Nebraska). Now that I'm working day shift, I miss it even more. When I walk out to my car on the way to work, all I can think is that June mornings smell like BRAN to me. It makes me miss being outside all day and wandering around small towns after a grueling workout.

I've done a total of 7 bike rides across Nebraska. When I started, I rode 5 summers in a row: every summer of high school and the summer after freshman year of college. Then I fell into an every-other-summer pattern due to summer jobs, moving, etc. However, this is the SECOND summer in a row that I am not doing BRAN, which means its the longest I've gone without my bike riding, small-town-loving, little-old-lady-homemade-pie-eating fix. I'm determined to go next year.

Somewhere in middle America in 2008

To get a mini biking fix in, Ross and I went out to Shawnee Mission Park for a bike ride this morning. It reminded me of the less pleasant side of BRAN: bike riding! I told myself I would take a week off of running this week. I'm not sleeping well yet and my body isn't recovering from runs. I just get slower and more sore each day. So I thought an easy bike ride would be a nice way to get outside and get moving. I forgot that my KC running woes would also translate into biking woes: there are hills everywhere!

We biked 6.65 miles in 35 minutes. This would be incredibly slow and kind of pitiful on a flat trail, but there were no flat surfaces on our ride! We climbed 679 feet, which isn't a lot to some bikers, but it's a lot when you haven't gone on a long bike ride in a year. It's also a lot when you've promised your legs you will give them a one-week break and they end up begging for mercy halfway up each hill instead!

The elevation on today's ride

It was merciless and painful, yet strangely fun. BRAN in a nutshell. All that was missing was another 40-90 miles of biking, some good home cookin', and a tent waiting to be set up for the night.

Click here to see more BRAN pictures from the 2008 ride.

Overworked

I just finished working 79 hours in 7 days and I am not a happy camper. I hate working that much. (I do realize that some people work 80 hours a week and I'm so thankful I don't have to do that). My entire body hurt-- especially my feet and legs. And I was so stressed this last week that I wasn't sleeping well at all. Isn't that ironic? Then this quote popped into my head"
*Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.*
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

CSA Weeks 2 and 3

This post is a little belated because we actually got our third CSA box this Wednesday, but the stuff is pretty much the same except for the fact that we got strawberries (!) instead of asparagus this week. Apparently it's "stir fry season" with all the Chinese vegetables that are ready to harvest in the spring.

Leek and green garlic

I never knew what a leek looked like when you cut into it

Yukina savoy

Bok choi- such a pretty plant!

Glamour shot

Fresh, in-season asparagus. It's half purple!

Hakurei turnips. I don't think I've ever had turnips before, but these are tasty.

All together now!

Seasonal stir fry

Learning to Chill

After my run today, submersing myself (and my burning legs... and my accidental sunburn) in cool water sounded great. The pool, however, isn't cold enough (I swear you'll never hear me say that in any other context). My legs have been burning for about 2 weeks now and desperate times call for desperate measures. I decided to resort to the old cross-country runner's standby: an ice bath. It's such a great recovery tool! So much better than just stretching (which, trust me, I do) and Advil.

I think I've only psyched myself up for 2 other ice baths in my life, both senior year of high school. I told Ross that last time I did this, I spent 20 minutes in the tub reading Boston College pamphlets and dreaming of majoring in theology. Funny how choosing a college when you're 18 really can be the biggest decision you'll ever make! My life would be so different if I'd enrolled at BC after getting that glorious acceptance letter!

Anyway, I filled the tub 1/3 of the way with cold water and then dumped about 13 lbs of ice in! It melted pretty quickly, making a uniformly icy cold bath.

Getting in was not fun. But I forgot the best part of an ice bath... after about 5 minutes, your legs get fuzzy and numb and you can't even tell it's cold! I kept having Ross stick his hand in to make sure that water was still icy enough to benefit from it.

You know you're a runner (and grew up biking and dancing) when your legs are flat on the bottom of the tub but your quads aren't covered in water. Boo. I had to keep swishing the water around because my quads needed ice the most.

Ross just had to document this even because he thought it was so funny that I'm always cold, yet I was willingly subjecting myself to an ice bath. Then he got all worried (he took whitewater kayak rescue classes in college) that the water was "wetsuit temperature" and I was going to get hypothermia. The nurse in me reassured him that my nailbeds and lips were still pink, and my torso felt plenty warm. When my arms did start to get goosebumps after 15-20 minutes, I knew it was time to get out (and apply aloe vera to my sunburn). I may have taken a cold bath, but I'm going to be burning up tonight!

I had an uncomfortable workout in the noonday sun today, but the most important part is this: today I realized that getting back into running is also helping me build character. (Corny, I know, but bear with me). I had a tough run today... not tough on paper, but tough on my mind and body. I ran 2.58 miles in 30 minutes. Hardly record-breaking, even by my own personal standards!

That poster made me smile during my "race" on Saturday, but my burning quads are reminding me I don't really want to run all day long :o) My legs never loosened up on my run today. I ran outside on an unshaded trail at 11:30am and it was already a humid 85 degrees. But despite my snail-like pace and discomfort, my negative-nelly mindset never showed up for our usual run date. Could it be that I'm *gasp* growing more mature?!

Never once did I freak out, and the thought of NOT finishing never even crossed my mind! I kind of zoned out, really. Definitely not the "runner's high" type of zoned out. More like my mind just decided, "this is really uncomfortable but it's going to last 30 whole minutes so I'm just going to think of something else entirely."

I know there are days that a full workout just isn't in the cards; I've had several of these since January. I start and I just never warm up. Instead of adrenaline, I get hit with overwhelming fatigue and I know in my heart that finishing a workout like that will do more harm than good. But most days, workouts are just hard. They push me out of my comfort zone, but I know I need to push myself and focus on my achievements instead of my unrealistic expectations.

I'd love to wake up and run an easy 5 miles tomorrow morning, but that's not something that happens overnight. Last November when I was alternating running 1 minute and walking 2 minutes, I couldn't fathom running 4 minutes at a time with just a 1 minute walking break between reps, which I've been doing for a week and a half now. Today I can't imagine running 3 miles without stopping, but I know I've done it before and I will do it again. I ran 1 mile without stopping on Saturday, so I know I'm getting closer! For me, running is JUST AS MUCH of a mental workout as a physical one.

I needed a mental and physical change of pace last week-- 2 weeks of rain was really wearing on me. I swam laps at the gym and a few minutes into my workout, I started to wonder (as I always do) why I don't swim more often! It's really quite nice, mentally. I'm always able to relax during swims and I don't count laps, I just go. When my arms start to hurt, I switch to breaststroke for a few laps and then resume freestyle. Sometimes I just kick, sometimes I do arm drills. But my thoughts are always pleasant (except when I see floating gobs of stuff, at which point I have to immediately remind myself that I'm swimming in gallons of chlorine).

Anyway, my point is that swimming is a good change for me mentally as well as physically and I should do it more often. Maybe that mindset will carry over to my running? As an added perk, I was drying off in the locker room and an older woman told me I was a strong swimmer. She said I make it look so easy! I muttered something bashful about how I splash a lot and I'm sure my face turned bright red. But then I claimed my senses, looked her in the eye, and said "thanks!" Compliments about my strength can only improve my mindset, and my mood was sunny the rest of the evening despite the pouring rain.

*We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.* —Carlos Castaneda

Girls on the Run 5k

I didn't leave work until 9pm yesterday and I was proud of myself for not crying until I got into my car after 15 crazy hours. It's a bad day when the best thing about it was that you didn't cry in front of your co-workers! I miss the days when I loved my job. Now I'm starting to dread going to work.

Ross was certainly dreading work this morning. He had to man the door during Old Navy's $1 flip-flop sale. Last year they had to call the cops 3 times because things got so out of hand! Apparently people lose all control during this sale. Let's remind ourselves that normally Old Navy flip flops are 2 for $5, so you're really just saving $1.50 on a chunk of plastic, and this sale limits you to 5 pairs per person for a total savings of $7.50. Yes I wear and love my cheap-o flip-flops, but I don't think I'd wait in a line that wraps around the store to get them. Ross doesn't get upset about work that often. I usually ask him how work was and he says, "work-y." But this afternoon when he came home for lunch, he had a few other choice words in his answer!

While he dealt with difficult customers, I made a last-minute decision to run the Girls on the Run 5k this morning. I was hoping to beat my Truffle Shuffle time and run a sub-32 minute race, but instead I finished in 32:58. Not terrible, considering I didn't have my long-legged running buddy (Ross) with me.

I walked 1 minute at mile 1, 1 minute at mile 2, and 1 minute at mile 2.5. I ran the first mile without stopping in 9:59! After that you have to factor in the walking, but I also know I slowed down a bit. Mile 2 was 10:42 and Mile 3 was 11:01. Mile 0.14 was 1:16. I'm happy with my time because I know I was pushing myself and I also have to factor in the heat that I'm no longer used to. (But I am glad summer seems to be arriving after all... April showers lasted a good 2 months here).

The 5k "route" was a glorified 2 laps around a parking lot, so I wasn't too into the race itself, but Girls on the Run sounds like a really cool program! I may look into being a volunteer coach this fall to give me something to do on my days off.

*Running to him was real; the way he did it was the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as diamond; it made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free.* –from Once a Runner by John L. Parker, Jr.