The end to a "restful" week- St. Mary's Glacier

I've come to realize that the term "rest" is relative. Over summer break, rest was, well, nearly every day when I did a whole lot of nothing. Now, rest is when I don't have school, grad school, or homework to do. Needless to say, "rest" days look a lot different during the school year than over the summer.

Well, I was told to take it easy and "rest" for a week due to my little injury. I took rest to mean a small hike up a glacier. This was for two reasons: 1. I needed to partake in some type of movement because I thought I was gonna go crazy and 2. It is still really freakin' hot in Boulder and we needed some cooler air. Apparently, the term "air" is also relative in Colorado. In order to get this cooler "air", we needed to travel to 10,000 ft. where there really isn't much air at all.

This brief hike up to St. Mary's Glacier (a little ways west of Denver) turned out to be beautiful and also not so brief when we decided to hike all the way to the top of the glacier. We were really happy we decided to do this hike and my leg is now feeling better! It's not quite 100%, but it turned out to be a great excuse to skip a long run and indulge in some inspiring mountain vistas!

There she is.. St. Mary's Glacier!

Posing for a shot

Looking out from the glacier

Washing my hands in glacier water... contemplating making snow angels in August

John posing with the glacier

Nom Nom Nom... PBJ samitches

The view out from the glacier.. looking at 1 or 2 fourteeners (tackled one of those last summer ;-)) 

What a wonderful "rest" day that was. I was actually quite grateful for all of the cardio I have been doing because I pretty much kicked John's butt hauling up here at 10,000 ft. We headed up the glacier to the top, and then decided it best to begin the hike down considering the ominous clouds gathering around. All in all, the leg felt great and I think I am ready to start running again this week with some new inspiration!

I'll leave you with this trivia... it's gonna be a tough one:
In the last picture in this post, I mentioned in the caption that you are looking out at (at least one) Colorado fourteener. What fourteener could this be? John... you're NOT allowed to answer!

Have a happy week everyone!

I blame it on the roller skates

It's official. I'm broken. What I thought was simply a cramp became a knot. Then it became a muscle strain and then a pulled hamstring. Truth is... I have no idea what is wrong with my leg... all I know is that it hurts and it isn't going away quickly.

The weirdest thing though? It hurts the worst when I'm still for too long. Yep... I'm that girl on her 40 minute commute sitting sideways in the driver's seat and parking my car at every red light to stretch her leg out. Being injured stinks. I'm guessing I hurt myself during speed training last Wednesday and then made it worse while moving heavy furniture when I had to switch classrooms. I still did my long run Sunday and was "okay", but here's the kicker... I hurt it worse ROLLER SKATING! Yes... good old fashioned 4 wheel roller skates were the culprit. Seriously, when's the last time you've been to a roller rink?? I felt like a 6 year old kid and a 95 year old woman all in one... woohooo and ouch!!!

I have coach's permission to ignore my training schedule for a week and rest myself (which I'm not complaining about with grad school starting up again). The problem is, it's hard to feel rested when I'm constantly running around school. The commute from my new classroom to the copy machine (yes... commute) is a workout... when I do it 587,000 times a day (or so it feels like)!

Maybe I can focus on some fundraising during this "time off". I am $224 away from my fundraising minimum (otherwise they take it out of my bank account). Sooo... maybe you all want to help out an injured girl and her worthy cause? If you would like to donate to the American Cancer Society or buy some of my handcrafted cards for ACS, please contact me or donate at my fundraising page!

Well that's about it folks, I'm resting up and hopefully recovering. I hope all you runners out there can stay safe and healthy, I will be back out there soon (I hope)! For now, I'll leave you with my student encounter of the day:

Me: Oh, Have you been practicing your reading over the summer?
2nd grader: Yup, a lot
Me: Wow, with who?
2nd grader: My dog.
Me: Ohh, does your dog read?
2nd grader (with look of disbelief): Yeah, he talks too!

Oh boy, this explains quite a bit.

You know what I like?

You know what I like?

1. Baking recipes that allow for a little creativity
2. Baking recipes that call for ingredients that I already have a surplus of in my pantry and I do not need to spend any more money on

So you can imagine my excitement when I was surfing pinterest.com and found a perfect granola bar recipe! I haven't made homemade granola bars in a very long time, but when you already have all of the ingredients, they are much cheaper than buying granola bars at the store- plus there is no risk of ingesting any high fructose corn syrup (makin' dad proud =-)).

I really enjoyed this recipe in particular because it basically called for... well... whatever you want. A cup of any nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruit, whatever. I used the following: walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, pecans, craisons, and probably a few other things that I can't remember now. You use honey and mashed up bananas to sweeten and lots of oatmeal and peanut butter to fill up your tummy... yum. I would've added chocolate chips too, but since this was a strictly "only using what I already have in my pantry" type of experience, chocolate chips were out of the question.

Try these for a filling snack when you are training or hiking or biking or roller skating or just eating breakfast. You can find the recipe right here.

Note: shortly after completing this recipe, I found myself surfing pinterest.com AGAIN and found a recipe for peanut butter and nutella cookies which I also happened to have all of the ingredients for... you can guess the outcome of that discovery... yumm

Some food for thought.

I read this article yesterday, and today, and again tonight... and well... life is still excruciatingly unfair. A few weeks ago, I wrote about a family from back home and my reasons for running.

Maybe this article about them will touch you the same way it did me, or maybe it will just make you think, but please take a minute to read it.

That's about it right now, have a good rest of the weekend.

I love you guys, I wish I could be closer, but I am here for you.

Hole-y Smokes!

After waking up promptly at 5:30 am on my first day of school with children (thanks to my back up alarm clock, you know who you are, for making sure that I was, in fact, out of bed), I quickly threw on some running clothes and my sneaks and was about to head out for my hour long run. Hmm... I thought, why does my shoe feel so lopsided all of a sudden? It felt fine on that long, stinkin', hour and a half run on Saturday. Well, let's take a peek:

Oh, maybe that was it. Well, it looks like my right foot narrowly avoided what could have been a very painful puncture wound. Just a tad bit longer, and well... you get the picture. I'm not sure where I picked up this little guy, but I sure would like to avoid this in the future. Here is the damage done to the sneaks:

As sorry as I feel for having damaged my dedicated, squishy, and perfect running shoes, I am just happy that hole was not through my skin. I'm sorry, right sneaker, that you had to go through this, but thank you for saving my foot (and for saving me a trip to the doctor for a tetanus shot)! I realize today that I will most likely never be one of those barefoot runners... never..... ever.

Happy Monday!

top five

Let's talk about my top 5 anythings in the past week and a half:

1. The sunrise during a morning run- Some may argue that a sunrise is a sunrise. Well, in the Bay area, you don't get a sunrise because of the frothy layer lingering over the ENTIRE area until well into the morning hours. In Colorado, you get a spectacular show nearly each and every morning!

2. Heat- I complain when it's cold, I complain when it's hot. So I'm only comfortable in a very small range of temperatures, tough. I can, however, appreciate appropriate summertime temperatures that allow one to participate in appropriate summertime activities (ie. swimming in a pool).

3. Colorado Beer- 'nuff said

4. Quiet, sane neighbors without the affinity for dark Beatles songs and hoarding

5. My new Vera Bradley lunchbox in "purple punch"- Appropriately matched with my school ID lanyard, purse, tote bag, and mini hipster makes me a "Vera" happy girl

and a BONUS (kind of like the "pinch to grow an inch" on your birthday): MOUNTAINS- Once again, I can feel confident in the direction that I am traveling knowing that the mountains will remain on the west side of me. 

Taken with my iphone, my apologies

Welp, that was my top 5 for this week, at least. Stay tuned for what should be a much more entertaining top 5 after my students start on Monday... eek!

I'm going to bed... getting ready for the 1 1/2 hour run tomorrow morning. Good luck Whit on your next half! Happy Weekend! 

Kelly =-)

He's gonna know if I lie...

It's only the second day of school... the SECOND day! We haven't even had students yet, and I am exhausted. There's something very difficult and overwhelming about going from doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING all day long (for about 10 weeks, mind you) to running around like a headless chicken for 8 hours a day. It's like giving up relaxation cold turkey.

I know, I know, you're all probably thinking "Poor Kelly, how sad that her summer break is over and she has to go back to work." Right? Yeah, I thought so ;-)

I thought very hard about giving up today. It took me about an hour and a half to talk myself into running once I got home from work. The usual motivation techniques just couldn't bring me to lift my head off the pillow or nudge my sluggish body off the couch. Why do I have to run 5 miles when I feel like I just ran a marathon around the halls at school then got run over by about 15 semi trucks and a bulldozer? Well... because I didn't want a blank spot on my training log and coach would know if I'm lying... that's why.

But do I HAVE to move?

It's common sense, folks. It follows me from my job to my workouts to my eating habits. If you keep track of something, like training, for instance, you're going to be more consistent and dedicated to it. You will see growth and improvement... and that's the FUN part! My students read better when they can watch their words per minute go up on a graph and I do better when I can watch my mileage climb and my mile time go down (I ran at about 8 1/2 minute miles today, in case you wanted to know... feeling good).

TIP OF THE DAY: If you're thinking about training for something or just starting to run/workout/walk/diet... then think about tracking it. There are hundreds of ways to do it now online or on smart phone apps. Doesn't the thought of a blank spot on your training calendar just make you cringe?? What about if you know you're going to facebook your workout, you don't want your friends to think you suck do you?? If you have it planned or somewhere to log it, you are way less likely to skip it. That's like motivation and human behavior 101 people. Here are some awesome tools to use:


-Trainingpeaks.com- This is what I use. I get my workouts from my coach, but you can also purchase or download free training programs and track calories.
-iMapMyRun app for smartphones- FABULOUS app that records your workout while you are doing it.
-Nike + - I have not used this, but I have heard rave reviews. It costs a few bucks, but you can post to facebook when you start a run and you'll hear cheers on your iphone/ipod everytime a friend "likes" your status... sweet!
-myfitnesspal.com and smartphone app- A great website to track fitness (not just running) and calorie intake... I've heard good things.


Well everyone, those are most of the training things that I use or have heard personal reviews about. Here is a great website that offers descriptions of more smartphone apps for running... great tools to keep motivated and track growth. Oh god... I'm such a teacher... I scare myself sometimes. 

She's gone Bananas!

Hearing about the same delicious recipe for "banana ice cream" 3 times from 3 completely independent sources elicits at least an attempt, don't you think? Especially if that recipe takes about a 1.5 effort score on a scale of 1-10 and costs me about $1.65. SOLD... I would make banana ice cream... Except it's not ice cream at all!

We all know about my addiction to all things frozen in the summer time, so why not at least try to make it something my body would approve of? I know this sounds a little weird and scary, but there is only one necessary ingredient: Bananas. The result is a creamy (yes, actually creamy) and delightful treat that can be enjoyed for dessert (or even breakfast, for that matter).

What do I need?
4-6 bananas
A knife
A freezer
A food processor or blender
Optional mix-ins: cocoa powder, chocolate chips, peanut butter, walnuts, and so on

Look, I'm in the bowl!

Directions:
1. Cut bananas into small circles (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick)
2. Freeze the banana slices (usually only takes about an hour)
3. Put the frozen bananas in food processor (blender) until creamy (you might also put some mix-ins in here)
4. Enjoy now or freeze for later

Banana, Banana and chocolate chips, Banana and peanut butter

I ran a little experiment. My favorite? Banana and peanut butter- for breakfast (pre or post run- the potassium in bananas reduces cramping while you run)! A filling choice that kept me full for a while. A change from the usual yogurt. This is a great option for people who crave ice cream as often as I do- or for those of you who may need to avoid dairy. I've heard that even people who don't like bananas have enjoyed this frozen concoction. I love bananas, so I can't tell you how true that is... maybe one of you could let me know!

I hope you enjoyed this excursion from the usual post. Exercise, diet- it all fits in together, right?

Welp, it's back to school for this teacher tomorrow... wish me luck!

thanks,
Kelly =-)

Grateful

Yesterday morning, I woke up around 5am and absolutely could not fall back asleep. I tried everything- eye mask, deep breathing, sheep- NOTHING! So why not run, right? This weekend's long run began with a little bit of this:

And it ended 9 miles (or 1 hour 25 minutes) later with a quick shower and a 3 hour nap... it felt phenomenal!

Running provides a lot of, well, alone time. On yesterday's run, it was particularly easy for me to get lost in thoughts while my legs just went through the motions- I felt a bit like a wind up toy.

My thoughts yesterday veered all over, but focused mostly on my family and I feel the need to share. I'm pretty sure that I have the best mom and dad in the world. They are so completely supportive of everything I decide to do- studying abroad, moving to Colorado, running 1/2 marathons, raising money for ACS, and the list goes on. I am so grateful for my mom and dad and the fact that they are willing and able to help me and support me in my "adventures". It's sometimes tough for a girl to jump and land on her feet in this world. It is great to know I have caring and loving parents to guide me, because after all, that's what family is for, right? I'm pretty sure it's in their job description.

Any girl would be incredibly lucky to have parents only half as awesome as mine. Thank you mom and dad for everything you've always done to help me, guide me, support me, love me, and much much more.

We put the FUN in fundraising: a memoir

Let's go back to last year, October 2010. I still needed to raise at least $500 for the American Cancer Society, or it was coming straight out of my bank account in a few weeks. We had an abundance of homemade wine. John, the boyfriend, had an abundance of body hair. John's friends had (and still do have) an abundance of charming personality quirks (no offense guys), one of which is a desire to see each other in substantial amounts of pain. You complete this equation.

What's that? Unbelievable! You didn't come up with the idea to have a "Wax 'n' wine" party, too? Well, for us, this was the ONLY option... we didn't need to think twice. Our friends were happy to spend a night sipping homemade Cabernet Sauvignon while paying (or donating) by the strip to wax John's body. Only a few had the guts to rip the hair right off of his body themselves... one with his bare hand, but more on that coming up.

Get ready, let me take you on a visual journey through this hilarious and barbaric night, maybe you'll rethink fundraising altogether.

At the start, we thought it important to read the directions. After posing for this picture, the directions were quickly discarded, but we listened to Nate anyway.

It started as a team effort. Each strip dedicated to a lovely donor.

Our friend Nicole might have enjoyed this a little too much because she came back for round 2, maybe 3. Now that's dedication.

Look at Lauren getting the correct leverage for an optimal wax.

And our champion of the night: Nate. A picture's worth a thousand words, folks, and in this case, most of those words I am not willing to type on my blog. You are going to have to imagine John's face, but I'll give you a hint, it was gruesome. It took Nate about an hour to wash his hand clean, but John wore that print proudly until it grew back in.

No, I didn't reach my fundraising goal that night, but I did get to watch the little thermometer on my fundraising page creep up almost $200. We had a pretty spectacular time and John had a hand waxed into his chest for about a month and a half, so isn't that what matters?... right? Oh, and "where's the wine" you may ask, after all, it was the "wax 'n' wine" party. Well, it is clear that the "wax" stole the show. I only chose to focus on the important part, let's face it, the wine was good... but John was fantastic... what a guy!

Welp... here I am this year at $820 raised. I need to raise $1250. John is as wolf-like as ever. Please consider donating to a worthy cause before we resort to these barbaric tactics once again. John's begging, "Pretty Please?"


=-) If you would like to donate to the American Cancer Society and support my efforts, there is a link to my fundraising page here. Also, I am still selling cards (a far less traumatizing way to raise money than the one pictured above). 


Thanks all, 
Kelly

One of my favorite cards, just thought I'd throw it in here!

More runners, more fun (but what about dogs?)

So I finally got my pool day yesterday. I told you I'd be going for a group run last night, and I sure did! I thought to myself yesterday afternoon, "Man, I had better take it easy" (after all, I did a whole lot of nothing all day). But seriously, there is something about running with other people that makes you forget that you're running at all.

Group runs are a fantastic way to make training way more entertaining (maybe I should call it "entertRaining"). Last night, we left from Road Runner Sports in Westminster, CO and I got to run with 4 other lovely people including the owner of the store, 2 other runners involved with ACS, and Valerie, the DetermiNation coordinator in Denver (and Valerie's dog). I think she  remembered my feelings towards dogs (which are something like terrified and/or disgust depending on the dog), but I really don't mind running with her dog. Anyways, I was able to practice my second strategy for staying motivated to run.

I always appreciate an opportunity to meet other runners, especially the one's who are also involved with ACS. Group runs can sometimes be intimidating to join, especially when you get there and find out you're running with someone who's on her 7th marathon! Geez! You go girl! I've done other group runs before and I find that the intimidation kind of disappears if you bring a friend or make a friend... so I did the second.

Here are some resources for group runs:

Denver Group runs- In particular, I have done the Wahoo's run. I also hear that the Irish Snug and the Bull and Bush Running Club are pretty awesome. Any run that offers free food and/or beer afterwords is ideal- a workout and a free meal?!?

Boulder Group runs- The one that we did last night is included in here- Road Runners in Westminster

And for my people back home:

Fleet Feet Sports Buffalo Running Meetup Group

Running with other people is way more fun!

I thought that today, after having my first experience this season running with (and from) a dog- because after all, he was a part of the group run too, I would leave you with these words from Tina Fey's new book "Bossy Pants". I just read this book in about one week and thought I might be arrested or thrown off of my flight for having gone crazy I was laughing so hard.. outloud... by myself. 

"...I have no affinity for animals. I don't hate animals and I would never hurt an animal; I just don't actively care about them. When a coworker shows me cute pictures of her dog, I struggle to respond correclty, like an autistic person who has been taught to recognize human emotions from flashcards. In short, I'm the worst."

Thank you, Tina Fey, for understanding me. 

Today I'm going to do something I haven't done all summer...

Hello out there. I safely made it back to Boulder, Colorado yesterday... and thank god! I wasn't too hard on myself last night, but I did finally do some wash (errr... running clothes).

This morning I arose at the ripe hour of 9:00 (in my defense- it's only 8:00 in California). I quickly began to tackle the unpacking process. About 4 t-shirts later, I gave up.

If I forgot what heat felt like living in the bay area, I was quickly reminded upon my return to Colorado. There is just something far more inspiring about waking up to warm, sunny weather and this:

...instead of waking up to this:

That would be the fog coming in over the bay area... every day... of the summer... boo...brrr.

Anyways, when I woke up in Boulder this morning, I thought, "Hey, I'm going to do something I have been dying to do all summer- go to the pool." Sounds so simple, huh? But when I realized last week that I had only put a bathing suit on ONCE this summer... I was appalled. In case you weren't aware, San Francisco and Berkeley have trouble making it into the 70's in the summer. This equals a chilly summer for Kelly.

I also can't describe my excitement at being able to sit out on my patio with a chilled glass of wine or a delicious Colorado brew... am I lame? Wait... don't answer that. Of course, I'll at least wait until noon- that seems acceptable.

On that note, I'm going to unpack one more item that needs to see a little love this summer- my bathing suit! Don't you worry about my training schedule- I plan to hit up a DetermiNation group run tonight. It's always fun to run with other people ;-)

TRIVIA: In stark contrast to the bay area, on average, about how many days of sunshine does the Denver Metro area see per year? The winner of this can have a picture of me at the pool today enjoying my iced tea through a pineapple straw.


Thanks for reading- Happy Summer!

Oh, let's go back to the start

Let's forget all of the ridiculous running strategies that I use to entertain myself for a minute, and remember the most motivating strategy for a DetermiNation runner: friends and family members who have or are currently battling cancer. For anyone who doesn't know what DetermiNation is, it is an endurance sport program through the American Cancer Society. Athletes can meet their goals training for an event while dedicating their training and race to ACS and loved ones by raising money for cancer research/community programs/etc.

Training for a 1/2 marathon is tough, but fighting cancer is even harder. When my calves are burning and I just can't take one more step, I am thoroughly inspired by those people I know that have persevered and fought this terrible disease.

This week, a friend of our family from my hometown, who has been fighting brain cancer for a few years now, is experiencing a very rough time. My heart is breaking for her, her husband, and her two daughters. I wish I could do more for them than write about it from 3,000 miles away. So, I will do what I do best: go for my run today, raise awareness, and fight back against this terrible disease that affects so many people.

Please, let's keep this family in our prayers and send some love their way. Thanks everyone!

If you would like to donate to ACS, here is my fundraising page. If you would like to buy more of my handmade photo greeting cards (I have A LOT), here is my latest post on those: Greeting Cards