Blowing Bubbles

Seems easy right? Breathe in...blow bubbles out. Something we learned to do with our rubber ducky friend at the age of TWO! Something we were then again taught in swimming lessons at age FIVE! Then why does it seem difficult at age TWENTY FOUR? Ive been a swimmer my whole life, but never quite gripped the concept of breathing out while your face is underwater so when you turn you only have to suck in. WHenever I do it...I feel panicked and starved for Oxygen. Almost like holding my breath keeps me satisfied knowing I have air. I dunno what the deal is...but blowing bubbles has become increasingly more difficult as my calendar years increase.

On the flip side...I swam THREE times this week. Crazy huh? And I figured out a way to avoid running while power walking................the answer? Not power walking at all. Then theres no temptation to run. I pretty much eliminated the sport that requires my two feet to carry me. I have stuck to the two wheels...or two arms in the water. Therefore there is no temptation to pick my feet up off the ground while walking. Problemo solvedo! Its worked for 5 days. However I want to run soon..I'm thinkin I might do the treadmill. Since its flat...maybe it wont aggrevate the IT band as much (I've dubbed IT to stand for Idiotic Torture Band)..haha. Unfortunately the pool is closed next week for repairs. Thats part of why I got so much swimming in this week. Also finals starts next week..as you remember we have two weeks of finals. WHOOO HOOOOOo = not much training..

Hope everyone has a great weekend:)

RunninDuff...not a cake decorator

Me and the hubby celebrated one year!!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYY! I tried to replicate our cake....since everyone ate it all at the wedding. What do you think????

LOL

VS

Clearly it is a good thing that I'm practicing anesthesia vs. baking peoples wedding cakes. And maybe I shouldn't even be doing that since I clearly cannot pay attention to detail! Anywho...this is what has gone down in ONE YEAR! Timeline fashion
May 5, 2007: Graduate with my Biomedical Engineering Degree
May 27,2007 : Celebrate a beautiful wedding in Cleveland, Ohio
May 28, 2007: Pack up the vehicles and begin the journey to Savannah, GA! Oh wait...hubbys truck falls apart in WV mountains. Get truck towed to dealership...hand over our wedding money...and buy a new car
May 29,2007: Finally arrive in Savannah at 4 am....leave at 8am for honeymoon to Costa Rica
June 10, 2007: Start graduate school and hubby starts working at Zales Jewelers
July 27, 2007: Bentley (our puppy) arrives...
July 28, 2007: Bentley eats an earring and winds up in surgery
September 2008: Hubby starts selling Nissans
October 2008: Hubby gets a great job with the Enterprise management program
December 2008: Cruise to Grandy Cayman and Cozumel
Feb 2008: Run first half marathon
March 2008: Run first marathon
April 2008: Moved from a third floor condo to another third floor condo
May 2008: Sell the celica...buy a mustang convertible
May 2008: Celebrate first anniversary

Clearly...it has been quite an eventful year....wouldnt you say? Graduated college, moved across the country, bought two new cars, moved twice, bought a puppy, ran 2 half marathons, a full marathon, 5k, and 10k. Began training for triathlons, Started and completed a year of Hell (I mean graduate school)...when it was time to do taxes...hubby had 8 W2s!!!!!!!! EIGHT!!!!....I am now starting to see why I have been quite stressed..haha.

But lifes short....dream big! Go out there and get what you want...even if it means a little added chaos. I wouldn't enjoy life if I wasn't dizzy from being busy. Maybe I can make next year even more eventful with moving every 4 weeks for rotations! Buckle up....and look forward to the ride! This girl is coming!

Power walking is physically impossible..

For me.. I made a promise..a pact with myself that I wouldn't run for a few weeks. I had the plan set in stone, even documented on the blog. I would swim and bike, but powerwalk the running portions of my training. I gave it a go for a short 3 mile power walk...and ran the better half of all of it (prob 2 miles). I thought today I might give it another shot and do a long walk (5 miles) hoping that the longer distance would keep my feet ON.THE.GROUND! No dice! Somehow I ended up running about 3.5/5 miles. So what is the problem?!?!

Well as some of you remember my post about my relationship with running. Yes yes...it was all about how you can't really be in "love" with something until it takes work. The beginning was lust..then came love. Well now came the "break up". I swear running is like a high school relationship with me. I broke up with running for a day....tried SUPER hard to stay away, but just couldn't. Its like those teenage relationships when you "Go on a break". But the next day you are back together?! You know the one! And nothing has changed....the problems that were there before "the break" are still there now, but you realized you just CAN"T live without each other. Yep..thats us. My knee still hurts...but I simply can't live without running. So then what? what do those lil smitten high schoolers do?????? They compromise. *sigh* So....do I buy an IT band band? (haha)...Do I stretch it? Run slower? Shorter Distances? Make some dates with my IB profen bottle? Thats what I'm working on. How to compromise in this complicated relationship. Suggestions are welcome... :)

Meanwhile... I wll continue to drag my butt to the pool and spin on my bike Benson! I may attempt power walking one more time...but I might as well just get over it and move on. Were back together for now....I circled "yes" on the "WILL YOU GO BACK OUT WITH ME?" love letter.....*sigh*

Suwanee here we come!

Ok...its official! We are MOVVVVVVVINGGGGGG!!! Not until March/April though. Heres the deal. Next year I have to do my out of town rotations for Anesthesia. Basically we do 13 one month rotations...and at the end of each month we have a weekend to move to the next city and start back at the new hospital Monday. We have rotations set up everywhere: St Louis, Kansas CIty, Houston, Atlanta, Ohio, Alabama, New MExico, etc. So as you can see.....thats a lot of moving and driving and what not. Heres the other kicker....only about 1/2 of them provide housing. Most of them you have to go on craigslist and find somewhere to live for a month. ($$$$). Paying double rent while paying to travel across the country isn't exactly the easiest thing for a grad student. With there being 12 rotations set up in Atlanta...it only makes sense that we should move there for a few years. (Theres 4-5 in Savannah but tons of competition since everyone lives here now..so I could probably only get 2 months in Savannah) So after a little research, we decided Suwanee, GA is the place to be for the next few years. Now that we have made the decision...I'm SUPER excited! I really think its somewhere I could raise my family. It will be tough being away from home (Cleveland)...but it was rated #10 in the top places to live by money magazine and top places to raise a family. Pretty cool huh? So for my first 6 rotations I will try to get them in Ohio where I can stay with family and in Savannah where I can be with my hubby. Then the last 7 will be in the Atlanta/Gainesville area in which I will NOT be paying double rent or being away from my hubby for 7 monhts. SAweEEEEEEEET! (IN addition I will NOT be dealing with snow either :) I'm sure my family and friends in Ohio aren't exactly enthrawled with this decision...but its what's best for now. I will probably take a sign on bonus for 2-3 years...and we can reevaluate at that time if Suwanee is the place for us...and if we should buy a house there. (By then we will probably be dealing with lil runninduffs if you know what I mean) haha

So thats the big news around this place. Other than that...I'm just trying to go force myself to go to the pool....eeeeeeeeeek! 1..2...3...GO!

SOmething new

Ok You might have noticed a lil change on my blog. I wont point it out....in case you didn't notice. hehehe...I'm sneaky like that.

School has gotten so crazy that it has taken every bit of life out of me. And no...its not the studying, countless hours in the OR, and trying to stay awake during class thats killing me. OH NO!...that is the easy part. Its dealing with the teachers and mostly the secretary. Everyday we come home to these bitchy e mails "if you parked in the wrong spot at the hospital you get a zero for the day, we are having security forward your license plate numbers"...etc. EVERY Fing DAY! its so hard putting in 16 hours and killing yourself over this program...but someone who is supposed to make our lives easier finds a way to drive me to the point of buying a bottle of St. Johns Wort. No jokes! I missed Friday due to being at home for the weekend and let the school know in advance. I also had a student notify the hospital since I would be on the plane with no cell phone usage at the time I would need to call in. Apparently somewhere in some handbook it says we must call the hospital to notify them (my bad). So I got an unexcused absence. Ridiculous...just flipin ridiculous!

Ok...enough of that. Just had to get it off my chest. I think mentally I'm coming back into training mode. My friend Lana booked our hotel for the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon (Olympic Distance)..which means I need to really start training. The furthest I've ridden my bike is 11 miles...lol and it is a 25 mile HILLY course. Oooh man I'm screwed. But I'm getting totally excited about it and this is just what I needed to get my butt in gear. I'm still going to take some time off running. I will be power walking the "running" workouts for now. Also I will be doing some ITB stretching and icing. I Just needed something to get me motivated to get out there and start training again. Apparently school has driven me nuts...and its time to battle back with some training and release of negative energy. WHOOOOO HOOOOOO! I am also looking for a fun half marathon to do in the fall....any ideas? Then of course Disney in January. Holla back! I'm coming all you chattanoogians......ughh...right!

p.s....I changed my header...if you are still reading

Trip to Cleve

The trip home was exhausting. Got up at 3:30 Fri morning to catch my flight. After I finally got into cleve (after a layover in DC) I had to go get a new license (mine got stolen in GA...havent had one for 8 months). Then I drove to Toledo (almost 2 hrs) to go to my best friends goodbye party for her work. Finally got to bed around 1 (yes thats almost 24 hrs) and had to get up early to drive BACK to Cleveladn to go to the expo and pick up my race packet. After that, my parents had a party since it was the first time home in about a year. Good times...got to see family and friends and overall it was great.

The half marathon. Not good. I have learned that I am not immortal. I apologize for anyone I disappoint. Apparently two half marathons, a full marathon, a 5k, and a 10k are just too much for me to run in only 3 months. I've learned that you HAVE to listen to your body...and give it a rest when it demands it. I've been having major IT band problems after those MONSTROSITIES (aka hills) from the full marathon in Atlanta. Did I stop and let myself recover????? NOOOOOOOOO! I was running a mere 4 days after that race. I have battled and battled the frustrations of my knees while trying to prepare for the Cleveland half. THe furtheset I got on a long run was 8 miles....sad I know. I decided to run the Cleveland half for fun and to support my friend and family (That I roped into running this a long time ago), and that is exactly what I did. I finished in 2:26...which is bad. Very bad for me personally. My first half after 5 weeks of running I finished in 2:12...the half I did during the full marathon in Atlanta I finished in 2:20...and I still had another 13.1 to go. So yes...I wasn't too excited about my time. But I realized...that it is time for a break.

When I got home my mom said she could see in my face that I was in survival mode. She said it was written all over me. School has really taken a beating on me lately...and apparently I couldn't hide it. At one point on the course I almost broke down in tears because I literally felt like there was nothing left in me. I am taking this as a big sign to slow down a bit. I plan to take 4 weeks off running to let my knees heal. In that time I want to really focus on eating healthy (somethign I have ignored while running....I shove everything in my mouth because I'm constantly ravenous from training). I also want to continue biking and swimming and power walking. But not too intense....just whatever I'm up for. I realize I'm soooooo young and really an infant when it comes to this racing and training. I have a LONG career ahead of me...and sometimes you just really have to give yourself a break if you want to get better and faster. This is what I will do.

No fear...I can't wait for the full to start training for the Disney marathon. Still planning to do a few triathlons this summer...nothing too crazy. All in all the Cleveland half marathon was cool. I liked running in my home town...running by the Browns Stadium (stupid hill!!! killed my knees)..and there were quite a few spectators despite the horrendous weather conditions (50 and pouring rain). At the end the sun was shining, I had an awesome medal, friends and family, and was completely happy to be finished. It was a good weekend....plane landed and got home at 1 am, had to take a test at 7 am, and back to the grind again. God willing I will have the strength to get through this quarter of school without being too "broken" Thanks friends for bearing with me at this harder time in my racing career.

I am lucky!

what to do?

What to do when your life is soooooooooooooo boring that you literally have nothing to blog about. PATHETIC! I wish I could make up something cool like while on my open water training swim yesterday I had to run from a sting ray that was trying to attack me....or during my cycling sesh I got the opportunity to race a motorcycle....and WIN!! But no.....sadly yesterday consisted of leaving the door at 5:30 AM.....and returning home from school at 8 PM.....PM PEOPLE!

On the flip side...I got to deliver anesthesia for my first craniotomy yesterday (brain surgery). Thats pretty cool? Umm...been running still...and cycling...not swimming so much though. I just can't get myself to go to the pool anymore. Not sure what my problem is. So yeah...nothing cool to report here. I'm a school slave. It sucks. Shoot me now.

Feelin better

Things have been so crazy with school. I have still been doing my workouts, but trying to make them more fun and relaxing for me. So far so good.

Yesterday I had a nice day on my friends boat. We took it out to this private island in the Atlantic Ocean then went up to River St and docked and had lunch. It was super fun and we saw lots of dolphins and had a relaxing day in the sun. It was definitely what I needed.

Today I need to get back on track with training but it is pouring rain outside. BOOO!! I've been obsessed with the mustang convertible....and yes we did get it. I put the top down every day just about and its like therapy. If you live in the south...you HAVEEEEE to get one!!

Cleveland half marathon is next weekend. Pretty pumped about going home to see my family! My parents are having a party for my return (haven't been home yet since I moved away last May). All my friends and family will be there and I couldn't be more excited to get out of Savannah for a weekend. After that...I think my next race might be the Savannah sprint triathlon June 1st. I am not really ready for it...but just want to go out there and see what these 3 sport events are like.

Everyone have a great week:)

taking 2 steps back

So we tried to go for a 10 mile run on Sunday. WRONGGGG! it was sooooooooo freakin hot and humid that it turned into a 4 mile run and a 2 mile walk. Also my knee is still so buggered up! SOOOOOO Frustrating. Guess I need to start tapering for the Cleveland half... boo :(

Taking a step back

Hey guys! SOrry its been a while. It's been a super stressful week. My whole class went to hilton head for this anesthesia conference and I decided to stay back for a few reasons ($, and others). It was nice because I got to spend more time with the husband and puppy! But we had a lot of other stuff going on as well.

We decided that it was time to sell my car. It has 130k miles on it....the trunk doesnt stay open anymore..and I will need to drive it across the country in a few months for clinical rotations. NExt year I will be staying in cities like Washington DC and St Louis and my husband isn't comfortable with me being there with that car. Or even trying to get there. So we sold my celica (I'm really sad...I part with her today...and I might cry). We got quite a bit of money for her. And there will be a new member in the family as of this saturday..................................Sally..............Mustang Sally....

Shes really pretty. But we have to go to Orlando to pick her up this weekend. Basically she was only $2000 more than we got for the celica..so we are using our tax refund. This way we won't have any car payments. YAY! I'm so pumped to have a convertible! :)

Also on Monday I went and had a deep tissue massage. SOmething the hubby got me as a birthday gift. What an amazing hubby right?? Ughh..it was unbelievable. ANd ever since that, I've been obsessed with drinking ice water with cucumer slices in it. Its sooooo fresh and good. You should try it.

On the workout front....I need to take a step back. Suddenly, this is all starting to feel like a chore. It is adding to my stress load. I went for a run yesterday...and I was trying so hard to run fast that I wasn't enjoying myself at all. Finally I stopped and walked.......and decided the rest of the run I was going to run for "fun"....and not worry about speed. I enjoyed it so much better that way. When I first starting running it was an outlet for me. ALmost therapuetic. It took stress away and made me feel unbelievable. Ever since the marathon and sorta wrecking up my legs a bit...I've just been struggling with trying to make my legs go faster and faster and faster. I need to take a step back....bad. This cannot be something adding to my stress level. My life is too crazy......it needs to be therapy. So there ya have it. I'm going to slow down and enjoy myself. I'm not going for a PR in CLeveland...I'm going to Cleveland to see my family and friends. I have not been home in a year since I got married and moved for graduate school. The half marathon is something I'm doing for fun that weekend, but I'm more focused on seeing loved ones.

Hope this makes sense.