Cohesion? Not Happening.

I cannot write a coherent post.
A Word Of Advice:
If you're feeling even slightly off physically, DO NOT GO FOR A 6 1/2 mile run. Particularly if the last mile of that run is in the spitting rain. Not that I speak from experience or anything... 

I also can't really speak audibly.
When I get sick, I complain about it.
Well, at least to my blog I do. I'm going to be a crotchety old woman, I can tell...


A good post is just not happening. I feel a strange mix of tiredness and pent-up energy. I don't understand it.
I have been so braindead today. You wouldn't believe the number of airheaded things I've done. No, I'm not telling them. But just know that I shouldn't mess with a stove when I don't feel good.


Maybe tomorrow I'll feel better.
In the meantime, I'll keep practicing my guitar. (Crazy On You is going to be mastered. Soon I'll be a rocker, just you wait)

Regression

My body is regressing.
Ever since the half-marathon, I've been dragging with the running.
It's like my body is fighting me every step.
Inner conflict? Not cool.
Why must my body be so loathe to obey my brain?

...maybe it's because I didn't really sleep at all the past few days. I slept in that I had my eyes closed, but it was weird unsatisfying sleep, if you know what I mean. Staying at other people's houses will do that to you. It had nothing to do with the comfort of the homes, just that it was a different place, and my body knew it.
I'll use that as my excuse.

Today I halfheartedly ran. I went 5 miles, but I walked half of it.
I went home and grabbed a snack.
Then I decided that if I couldn't run, I would bike. It was such a gorgeous day, I felt the need to capture it on my camera.
So I got out the mountain bike, put my camera in a backpack, and rode out.
I rode up to the greenway, down part of the greenway and back home. I'd stop every so often to get some pictures. The greenway goes down along the swampy parts of the Neuse River. It also goes along the back of a subdivision...which kinda messes up the nature -- just a smidgen. There was also some trash and litter. stupid humans...

So in total, I went 7 miles on the bike, which is apparently no big sweat. It felt like a big sweat, but I was biking at noon (I'm smart to do that, I know) I am so glad I got to enjoy this beautiful day!

I got about 150 shots...now to sort through them.

Down by the banks, there were these cute tree frogs -- he was the size of my thumb nail, pretty much:

Thoughts from the roadrunner part three (the ramblingest yet!)

I'm going to wrap the mini-series on half-marathons up now. It's about time!

We are ready to goooo! 

So, we went to the starting line. There was NO ORDER. Masses of people just swarmed together; there was a bit of pushing and shoving and "excuse me"'s.
The countdown timer to the start of the race hit zero.
Nothing happened.
A minute passed.
I tied my shoes.
Still nothing, just people standing expectantly.
Finally a guy with a bullhorn said, "Get Ready Racers! Go!" He also mumbled some other things, but no one could understand him. Hopefully it wasn't anything important, like the winning lotto numbers for the next day...

And we went. When you first start, you want to start strong. But you can't run. You have to just walk with the mass of humanity for about a 1/4 mile, and THEN you can actually run.

The main challenge is to pace. Pacing is a terribly difficult thing. At the start, people are sprinting and flying down the road. I wanted to sprint just like everyone else was, but I knew that I'd need energy for the next 13 miles.

less than 24 hours...

I'm not a super-runner, okay?
I never meant to be one of those running nerds.
...Way back in 8th grade, for volleyball conditioning, I was supposed to run 30 whole minutes.
I. thought. I. would. die.
(I didn't, but it was tough)
Thirty minutes feel like an eternity when you're first running.
After volleyball season ended, I kinda gave up on the whole running thing. I liked other activities, so I was fine.
Three years ago, something happened. My mom signed up for a half marathon. She got into training, and this urged me to try running out seriously.
I wasn't horribly out-of-shape, I just wasn't conditioned to endurance run.
It took forever a very long time (I exaggerate, sorry) for me to build up to being able to go many miles without stopping.
But I was still a "newbie".

I now have something in my possession that no longer makes me a n00b.
Some of my past posts may make you think that I'm some running nut, maybe that I'm obsessed.
Maybe I go a bit too far with running. This is a lie. I have a love/hate relationship with running.
Now, well, running and I have made it official.

How? Expensive running shoes?

Yup, these are $$$ shoes. They're really wonderful and orange....very orange.

While that IS a sign of commitment, that doesn't make me one of those runners.

Fine, I'll just say it!

...I now have a water bottle belt.
Oh. Yes.
Your estimation of my coolness must have dropped by about 20 points.

This bit of equipment says, "hey, I am committed to this sport. I really don't mind looking like a dweeb for the sake of staying hydrated."


And guess what? It's totally true.
I love this belt.
While others may snicker at first, I'll be the one laughing as I pull out a fun-size snicker's bar and devour it for energy, thanks to the handy-dandy pocket on the belt.

(I tell myself that it's a stepping stone to the batman utility belt...)
...
I do think I've learned things from running that have spilled over  to other parts of my life...but I don't feel like turning into a motivational speaker right now. Maybe later I'll do an inspiring running post.
...
The half-marathon is tomorrow (!!!) and hopefully, I'll have a lovely experience.
I have a tiny voice whispering to me that I might die.
Or that I might pass out, and then die from embarrassment.
I doubt that will happen...it's not probable...
Either way, I'll let you know how it goes.

Here's one of my favorite passages right now; it gives me an excited thrill to think that God is so amazing, gracious, and loving. He's also the ultimate energy source.
Especially as I'm in that "figure out where I'm going" part of my life (Isaiah 40:27-31):

27 Why do you complain, Jacob?    Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD;    my cause is disregarded by my God”? 28  Do you not know?    Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God,    the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary,    and his understanding no one can fathom. ²⁹ He gives strength to the weary    and increases the power of the weak. ³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,    and young men stumble and fall; ³¹ but those who hope in the LORD    will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;    they will run and not grow weary,    they will walk and not be faint.

Thoughts of a loon

My forefoot strikes the pavement in an efficient movement.
I breathe steadily.
My hair swooshes through the air, streaming behind me. I love the silky sound it makes as I run. I am loathe to put it in a ponytail, though I'm not sure why.
Birds are singing.
I exhale.
Again, I propel forward a few feet, but I feel as if I'm going nowhere. The end of this trek is so far away,

rain, running, rest

Weekend? Where did you go?

Umm, come back. I need a good long nap (again)

The past few days I have felt so tired. I don't think it's anything I've done; maybe it's just the weather. This weekend was gray and drizzly, which makes for awesome sleeping/reading/chillaxing weather.

Also, I got to wear my ugly boots and polka dotted orange raincoat! Rainy days let me look tacky without people thinking I'm too weird. 

Here are the boots. Cowboy+fall leaves+rubber = these: 

my american idols

God has been teaching me something.
 I've noticed a recurring theme. It's popped up during my devotionals, when I hear a sermon, and in Bible study.

Yep, God's trying to get my attention.

The question that has been posed to me over and over is:
"Where or what is the source of my security?"

I'm a born-again Christian, and, of course the correct answer is that I should have security and hope in God alone.
This is true, but sometimes other things start to creep in and wedge themselves between me and God.

FEET, feet, feet

So I went running today. Whoop-de-do.

I don't know, I feel like I'm hitting a wall. Or maybe I just need new running shoes. Mine are losing their oomph. I've heard that you're supposed to replace running shoes every few hundred miles. My shoes have seen some action, they need to retire.  They'd be the Brett Farve of shoes.

Plus, (don't tell anyone) they're GUYS SHOES.
When I was at the running store, the sales associate assured me that there was virtually "no difference" between guy and girl shoes. She was wrong.

The insanity of some runners

As I've gotten into the world of running, I've begun to feel overwhelmed and small.

 It's hard to feel satisfied with my level of ability. You see, there's always a bigger fish in the ocean.

Runners are extremely competitive. 
Sure, they're mostly competing with themselves, trying to best their personal records, but there will always be someone to one-up your achievement. 

{I have found the ultimate one-up, if I had the gutzpah and endurance to do it.}

I have FOUND IT!

At long last!
I'm quite thrilled.

The perfect workout has eluded people for ages.

I don't have to worry about exercise anymore, right?
I already have the perfect workout...

The beauty of running

Okay blog, 


I bit off more than I can chew. Posting on you every day is going to be a challenge. I know there's no bad repercussions if I don't post, but I'd be letting myself down. I mean, if you can't keep a promise to yourself of all people, what good are you?
I'll attempt to continue this trend, but it is only January. I don't think I'll run out of things to post, but...I'm going to not count weekends as days to post. Fair compromise? I think yes. Since you are just a webpage, you must agree. 

Onward to my post for today.


Today is my running "rest day". Psychologically, rest days are hard.

I feel like if I'm not training, I'll lose what I've worked for. This isn't true, but still.

I easily see how people become exercise addicts. But I AM TAKING this day off so my body can recoup from the past week of exercising.
You probably know the plus sides of working out (it seems obvious enough) but here's why I love it:

• endorphin high = feeling so chillaxed; nothing really fazes me. 

• I can feel that my muscles have worked, and it's a lovely thing.  You know that feeling when you haven't worked out, and you feel sloppy like a potato? It's the inverse of the couch potato. It's super-rejuvenating energy. 

• I feel like I've done something fruitful. I force myself to push past that "threshold" (the point where I feel like I need to either give up or die). Strangely, if I can hold out for a bit past that point, I get an energy spike and I can keep on trucking. It's sometimes insanely hard, but so rewarding.

• I don't feel bad eating a bit of junk food since I'm burning all of those calories. heh, as if.  Junk food cravings begin to vanish though. After running, I crave wholesome-good-for-you-full-of-nutrient stuff. I still have chocolate and coffee vices, but running makes me feel better about that. 

• Running is like pushing a reset button. I feel ready to face the day. 

• I see so much beauty. Running gives me much-needed outside time. Looking around and soaking in the gorgeousness of the day is great. 

I'm sure there's plenty of other reasons why running is great, and I'd take the time to list them out, but I have PHYSICS homework calling my name, and there's no time like the present.

I'm attempting to get everything done now so I can go dancing tonight!

...I'm excited.

Be excited for me.

I'll post about the awesomeness of dancing later.

And here's a picture that makes me glad to be alive (I hope you feel that way, too):
(I think from here on out, all of my pics will be hi-res and clickable)

Training Thursday...

So, as you might have heard, I'm training for a half-marathon.
I have a training notebook, schedule, and lots of reference guides.  It makes me legit, of course.

Though there's a bone to pick. The name of the event makes me feel like it's no big whoop.


Half-marathon? I mean really, it's only half of a regular marathon.

Psh, what wimp only goes halfway? It should be a piece of cake...

...then my common sense kicks in.

13.1 miles.

23,056 yards.

69,168 feet.

830,016 inches. 

Not too shabby if you ask me. Not shabby at all for a relative newbie.

They should rename it to something more...awesome sounding.

 Like "The 21.08 Killer K".
Sigh.

So, I'm sticking to my schedule, and we shall see how it goes.


...
As I've been going through life, I'm realizing that I'm cursed/blessed with an introverted personality.
One of my major flaws is the fact that I can think of things to say when I'm typing or with close friends and family, but it doesn't really translate when I interact with other humans. (When I mean things to say, I'm not talking about social niceties. I've got that down-pat.)
I have to be comfortable in order to open up. There's always the rare case where I meet someone and we "click".

It's terrible. I wish wit could always just roll off of my tongue.

I began to ponder my predicament. I thought about such characters that were classified as witty. Such characters as Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice.

Then I realized that she, like other fictional characters, is just that: a work of fiction, totally derived from someone's imagination. She is under the same curse as I.

Sigh

{It's a sigh kind of post, and I apologize. Next post will be peppier, I promise.}

new ocurrences

This is almost becoming habitual.
A post every day
...keeps the...
the...
urge to write long letters away?
brain from overloading, they say?
public informed of what is my way?

Ehh, whatever. I feel like posting, so I will. Who knows? maybe this will be one resolution I can keep.

So much has happened since yesterday morning. It sounds silly, but it's true. Just like in the show 24, a lot can happen in 24 hours. (although nothing quite so epic as 24)

To start my list of recent exploits, I'll attempt to redeem myself from the previous post's show of wimpdom by saying that I DID run yesterday. To further prove my ability, my mom and I signed up for a 1/2 marathon in Charlottesville. They call it the "Bad To The Bone" run.

I've got 15 weeks to train, and I apologize in advance for my future posts about running technique, gear, etc.

That was big news for me. I've never run in an "official" race before.




...unless you count running to the fridge for the last klondike bar, or proving that you're faster than your sister by sprinting until you leave her in the dust.


Another event that has happened is the start of Physics 2.
I took Physics 1 last year, and I thought the subject was one of the worst subjects known to man.
Physics 2 is SO MUCH BETTER. I have a different teacher, and he is heads above my former professor.

They might make an Einstein or Newton of me yet. If you know me, you should look skeptical about now...


 AND overnight, I became an old person.


18, people. 18. 

It's a bit of a big age to be. I'm in denial. I'm putting my birthday on hiatus for a day. Saturday is when we celebrate with the family. Weekends are better, anyways.

Though I am older, I feel no different. I still have the same tasks to carry out, one of them being the orthodontist appointment I will be late for if I don't get a move on.

In other news, Alejandro the aloe is growing nicely. Isn't it pretty? It's a hi-res pic, so if you click on it, it gets really big and detailed.

*SIGH* I'm always indecisive about bracket band color...

Drizzle, drizzle, drizzle

This morning, everything was gray and drizzly.
I'm not big on gray and drizzly.

When the weather gets like this, I just want to curl up with a blanket, a good book (and some PG tips) and read.
Today, I had a few potentially interesting (and yet unread) classics on my shelf, so I was all set...
...but then we decided to run out and look at the shoe sales...
WIN!
I ended up with a new journal, $10 chucks, and an "eco-friendly coffee cup". All wonderful items that made my day sunny.

....
So, the other day, we (my family) were discussing my sister's t-shirt.
Pictured on it are two wedges of cheese and a cheese grater. One cheese is being grated, the other stands (?) in horror shouting, "You Monster!", to the grater, I suppose.

Well, you can kinda see for yourself:

Asking what character my sister most closely identified with, she responded that she was like the talking cheese, because the cheese was cute.
This started a silly debate.
We determined that she WAS the grater, but just didn't like to admit it. She's nobody's victim, try as she might to look "cute".
I laughed and laugh still.

My other sister is to the point, she gets the job done. Like a hammer.
Both can be cheeses though. *wink-wink*


I was told that I'm like a fan with sharp metal blades.
Sharp metal blades that can cut off appendages.


BUT, I do have a safety grille covering the blades, so you have to do a bit of work to get hurt...
That's comforting, right?

Oh, yes...inanimate object psychology.

ANYways...

Perhaps I'll go for a quick run today.

I went running yesterday. It was beautiful outside. I appreciated the bright orangey yellow, and brown-red of the leaves of the changing trees. They were absolutely aflame with color.

It was a warm humid day and the sun was very bright. The kind of bright that requires squinting.

I was about a mile and a half from the house when I heard the thunderclap.
Then the floodgates opened.
The wind picked up. It was blustery and felt fabulous.

The downpour became stronger. The rain started coming in sideways.

The falling leaves swirled around me in the strong gusts of wind.



{You know how in movies that "sudden rainstorm" happens? I thought that was a made up thing or a very rare occurrence. Who gets caught unawares like that? Apparently, it does happen. It's fun.}



When I arrived home, I was positively drenched and my shoes were squelching with the water.

Overall, it was an agreeable experience.

Home, home, home...

So good to be home after a month away! 


The beach was FABULOUS. Every day was perfect. 
God is so very good! 
My cup of blessing? 
Overflowing. 
To have such sweet loving friends as Britt, AL, and Ms. Debbie. :) 


So, I know I could take up lots of space listing blessings...
I've done it before (on paper) and...wow, just wow. 
It'll lift your spirits. 


So: home. 
I forced myself to unpack yesterday, going against my lazy grain. Really, it wasn't so bad. 
I dread unpacking. And packing. 
Packing in general. 
It is in such times when you must make hard decisions. (The blue blouse or the green one?...why can't I just have both? I know, I know...because that makes for a full suitcase...) 
It was nice packing to the beach.  I was already packed. 
See, the week before I was at my grandparents, and the week before that I was at camp, and the week before that I was cooking in another camp kitchen...
My clothes had been washed of course, but I was packed with a VERY FULL suitcase. I was used to living out of it. 


At camp, you go through clothes like nobody's business. (I don't go through nobody's business usually, but...) 
At camp, you wear crazy stuff that you wouldn't really wear anywhere else (a t-shirt with tofu fighting? really?)


But that was what I had to work with for my wardrobe. 


I was home for about 45 minutes before heading out to HHI. Just enough time to grab a few good books, a beach towel, and a few other beach-y items. 
Turns out I had PLENTY of stuff...


Anyways, today I played guitar for the Sunday school classes. 
The kids in there need some pumping up. Give me a few more Sundays, and they will be crazy...
maybe the teachers don't want that. 
hehehe 
I have PLENTY of silly songs up my sleeve...


Today I went running.
It's been a while since I've gotten to go. 
endorphins. Runner's high.
Mmmmmmmm.


It wasn't a long run, just 3 miles, but a start nonetheless. 
I've been staying active this summer. Things like biking, hiking, swimming, cooking (it's more active than you'd think!), doing stunts and falling down are all great; still, nothing like a good run. It gives you time to think. 
This run was great. I kept having Bible verses pop into my head. How cool and comforting. 

Then, to top off the night, Daddy bought some avocados! 
I have MISSED guacamole all summer. Poor, poor me. 
It's a super addicting something-or-other. My favorite. 
Not really a dip. I have my own secret recipe for it. (I've tweaked it recently. Shhhhh. Don't tell!)


Then, to make it an even better night, we watched Dr. Who. 
I am getting into Dr. Who. At first, I thought it was cheesy, silly, etc. 
Nope. It's a really riveting and interesting show... 


It was a very nice night indeed. 
Now I'll pop off to bed. I felt like blogging something, even it it is all rather rambly and not terribly cohesive. 
It's so annoying. I'll get going on an idea, and then have another great thought come forward. I'll want to write about that too. Next thing I know, my post is waaayyyy long. 


I need to stop following so many bunny trails. 


My sisters and I are going to make a video soon. 
We have to come up with (or narrow down) our theme for the video. 
If you have an idea, do comment. 
We love satire and goofiness. Nothing too serious. 


.....Argh, bunny trail! 


Alright. It is my bedtime. It SHOULD be my bedtime. 
Goodnight, reader! 

In which I say nothing, but there are words to be read.

Much to say...

So, I decided that I wouldn't post anything until I went for my run.
Tonight, I got one in.
How I LOVE running.
The endorphins, the accomplishment. The feeling of being fit...

Okay, now I don't know what to blog on.
I have a wide variety of topics here.
I could talk about my life, my thoughts, etc...
Ugh. before I thought I didn't have anything, now there is too much!
Should I go chronologically?
That would make sense, I suppose.

Welll, next post will pick up where I left off.

This post is simply here to annoy you.

Did you notice something about my posts? They're alphabetical. In reverse order.
Q may be a hard one...
Oh, and this one does not count as a "real post".)

mkay, where is that sign off button?
ah,