10k for Dummies.

Today was the day

to run in my first 10k.

It thinks it's funny.

Nice weather all week-

it interrupted last night.

Windchill: 17.

7 came early,

but I was ready to go.

If only I knew

What I'd have to do.

I wish it was a whirlwind,

instead of just wind.

We jogged to warm up,

and my body said, "nice run."

I said, "ha! Just wait."

My bruised rib was fine-

it only yelled a little.

My thighs yelled a lot.

I ran in slow mo

when I turned to the North wind.

Then, started to cry.

Only small tears, though,

for they dried really quickly.

Half way there- dying.

Then I saw a friend,

Who was going to campus.

We chatted- how nice.

I had to sprint more,

and so we said our goodbyes.

Then I was pumped up.

The wind was still bad,

But the end was in my sight.

If only my throat

would stop the hurting.

My legs were two Jell-o sticks.

But I had to sprint.

I ran my heart out,

and crossed- 1 hour, Fifteen.

A friend said, "Good job."

And I found free food.

I went inside to thaw out,

But it was too warm.

Back outside I went,

Because I'm crazy, you know.

I then heard a sound-

Whiny from my throat.

Yes, I was wheezing- 'Oh my!'

My body hates me.

I'm proud of myself

and am glad to have thawed out.

I napped- wonderf'ly.

I have now stuffed carbs

at a local Carino's.

Life is amazing.

:)

My Toxic Relationship: Volume 3

With the new year brought my friend Michelle and I to "Look Hott." So, we started working out almost every day until the Snowpocalypse hit. I was feeling great! I even discovered Endorphins. After the Snowpocalypse (in which we feasted on cookies and Goldfish crackers), we started getting back on track and things were great. I was happy, and we were able to run longer distances before we give each other that "I am dying and if we don't stop walking NOW my lungs will fall out of my chest and I will die" look.

It was a Wednesday, and I spent the day trying to figure out a good work out plan for us to "get hott" and was learning all about exercise that burns fat vs. exercise that is good for your heart. Thursday, we decided we needed to have an intense ab workout day. We had previously used an iPod app on her phone that is for ab workouts, but just a few exercises. We decided that we would do the whole thing. We were dying, but had the mutual support of telling each other "We are gonna be hott!" and "just 10 seconds left!", our faces red and veins popping out on our foreheads. We made it through the work out, feeling very proud of ourselves, but not feeling much of our bodies. That was okay though, because we would be resting for the next couple of days.

That day, I was headed home for the weekend for a doctor's appointment. My parents had bought themselves an elliptical for Christmas, so I planned to give that a whirl over the weekend, as well as a good jog or two around my neighborhood. I used to love biking/running around that neighborhood, so it was sure to be a great weekend.

I stopped at the doctor's office on my way into town, battling the horrible construction that has taken over my hometown. After, I was going to meet my "neighbor" while she worked on maintenance at her friend's bar. I was excited to get to hang out with her and see a bar during daylight. The appointment went very quickly, and I was going to call Molly when I got to my car to avoid being kidnapped due to phone distraction in the parking lot. It was the first great day for Spring weather, and it was gorgeous outside. However, gorgeous spring weather also means bright sun combined with high pollen counts. This is the perfect recipe for a good sneeze.

It was all in slow motion: Sun.....oh, a sneeze is coming..... "ahhhh---choooooo"......bend to allow absorption of sneeze force.... ***CRACK***......start un-bending...... "Oh Crap!".......*tears*.....walk to car..... attempt sitting in car........ success, followed by bawling......

I was a crazy woman, sitting in my car (turned off), crying and holding my rib cage. I thought I had broken my rib. I wasn't sure if I needed to go back to the doctor, and debated for a few minutes. After feeling myself up and deciding that everything felt like it was in its proper place, i continued on home. I cried the whole way and felt entirely pathetic.

My Toxic Relationship: Volume 2

This bruised rib hindered my goal of working out (especially swimming) on the days I didn't have class. But that was okay, because the bruised rib was to heal in roughly 3 weeks if I didn't exert myself. So I didn't. I laid around, didn't run, and didn't play intramural sports. After 3 weeks, the pain was much less, but still there. So I still did nothing.

By dead week I had successfully not worked out in a very long time. Since it had been a couple months, I decided to spend a study break doing crunches. Nothing bad, just 25. No pain- I was happy. I thought the rib had finally healed. Then the next week, I studied at my desk for finals for HOURS. All of a sudden, the pain was back. Go figure that crunches didn't hurt my rib, but studying did. (I decided it wasn't the crunches that caused it because it had been over a week after that my ribs started hurting again, but it probably contributed. I needed to convince myself I could still exercise.)

I got through finals week with the pain, cursing my ribs more than finals. And trust me, finals are very curse-worthy. The pain subsided once again during my laziness over Christmas Break. I even went Zip-lining in Costa Rica---no pain! I was a happy camper and so glad to be myself again.

Oh, but how wrong I was...

My Toxic Relationship: Volume 1

So, as a couple of you know, I have been in a really bad/toxic relationship for a while. I thought I would spend today telling the rest of you about it. It is something I have been struggling with for quite a while. Hopefully writing all about it here will help give me more strength to get through.

I will start from the beginning:

In early October, I had the unfortunate 3-week-long-cough-that-won't-go-away-n0-matter-what. It lasted a little bit longer than 3 weeks, but the intensity was much less after that. My poor roommate had to hear me hack up a long approximately every 2 minutes, ending with me running away to the bathroom at least once every 30 minutes. Sleep was horrible, and by the end of the 3 weeks my morale was low. Coughing even just made me cry sometimes. One time when I was visiting boyfriend I actually did start crying. It was ridiculous.

At the end of the third week, I developed muscle pains- first on my lower right ribs, then lower left, and it continued making a full circle ending with my lower right (back) ribs. About the time this pain went away, I noticed another pain- this time in my upper ribs. I thought this was the same muscle pain- but I was wrong. After a couple days the pain was worse and it hurt to bend my upper body, cough, or sneeze. After careful web-diagnosis and confirmation with my dad(he is a doctor), I had a bruised rib.

The day I discovered Endorphins

Today has been a GREAT day! Actually, it has been a pretty great week overall. Last week was the first week of school, but I had two papers due for my Costa Rica class. But now I am free! Classes are going pretty well, but I have only had 3 days of classes. I don't have Monday or Friday classes, and for some reason we had a snow day last Thursday. Oh well!

Today I had my lab for Dynamic Earth, which meant I drew arrows on a map and did some math. After, Michelle and I worked out- and it was great! Everybody always talks about how exercising releases Endorphins and you will be happier. I have NEVER experienced them before though, guessing I was just too out of shape. But today I didn't work myself too hard, but just kept a steady pace. It was really nice, and though I had a few moments of struggle I made it through with a smile on my face! Now, I only got a couple hours sleep last night (for reasons I wish I knew) but I was so happy/hyper tonight. After dinner Michelle and I went to Target and on our way back I was crashing. But we are motivated to go work out pretty much every day, because while we were at Target we tried on bathing suits. We probably should have just avoided them at all cost- but it made us decide for sure that we were hitting the Huff tomorrow(Huff = Huston Huffman Center/aka the Gym).

In other news, I got selected as an Alternate for an internship with the US Dept. of State. This is super cool, as 12,000 people applied for 1,000 positions. However, this doesn't give me any clear mind of what I will be doing this summer, which I don't like. They could call me up 4 days before and tell me that the spot opened up. This is something I REALLY want- and it would be the opportunity of a lifetime! So for now I am just praying that the people chosen get better offers of things to do for this summer- and that they are willing to turn down the DoS. So, despite the super cool-ness, I am having a little trouble getting excited about it. I am trying though, and I am sure the Endorphins are helping! :)

Getting there..

Today I am feeling better, but my stomach is still bothering me. Our rainforest visit was moved to tomorrow to give us sickly ones another day to get better. Waking up this morning, we found out that Cindy is sick and class started at 10. We finished our movie and it was pretty good. Then we had a group assignment and chilled till lunch. People played volleyball again, but I am pretty sure my stomach would have killed me if I joined in this time. Recess today = checking my email and relaxing.

The rest of the day was fairly easy. Cindy came after lunch and we had more class time. Then I came back and napped before heading to dinner. I studied a little bit, skyped with Marc and Mallori, and checked up on everything back in America. Pretty easy day.

Tomorrow, the rainforest!!

Cabin Fever

Today was our second free day. Unfortunately, I woke up at 1 am sick. I slept horribly all night, but napped a lot throughout the day. There is something going around our group, but I seem to be doing the best out of everyone who is sick. I watched some English movies on tv and talked to my parents a little bit. Cindy got us some adult pedialyte stuff and crackers. My diet for the day has been Crackers, Bread, and Cheeze-its. Plus powerade, water, and the adult pedialyte. I have been slowly getting better throughout the day, but am not perfect yet. I was lucky though, because nobody was really doing much of anything today.

My friend Mary brought me Haggen-Das Dulce Leche ice cream. :) She remembered me saying that my mom would get it for me to cheer me up. It made my day. I haven't eaten it yet, but it will be great when I do!

Suan Le!

Wednesday June 23, 2010

It was another tired day in class, but it was not bad. I still can’t believe I wake up at 6 am every day, and that bedtime is at 10 pm. In Song Laoshi’s class (our speaking teacher) we learned a tongue twister, that they call a rap. Next week we will try to recite them as fast as possible. I am very excited about this. After class I got ramen noodles (fang bian mian- convenient noodles) because I don’t trust the cafeteria right now. I really don’t want to be sick for a long time again. After eating, I took a nap while the Justin, Jeremy, and Rachel went to play ping pong. I woke up when they came back, apparently quite a few hours later. We wanted dinner, and so we hopped on a bus to McDonalds. Once again, it was amazing and didn’t hurt my stomach, so I was happy.
Jeremy set a new goal- to find salsa in china. We found the Wal-Mart, which was smaller than the Carrefore, but had no luck. I tried finding a foot scrubber, but apparently they don’t understand the concept of pretty feet here in China. Oh well. Then I wanted to find Ma Jiang, but also had no luck. We asked one person, who wouldn’t let it go, and that led to about 5 people trying to help figure out what it was we were looking for. We drew out what the game looks like, and even some of the tiles. They still didn’t understand. I then said it goes on a table, and we were led back to fabric. I think she thought we wanted a table cloth. At that point, we just said, “suan le,” which means forget about it. We laughed and parted ways. We don’t know why they didn’t understand us, since it is a Chinese game. We are going to ask our teachers tomorrow in class.

When we got back, I decided to shower since there was hot water. My shower turned into a bath though, because I really wanted to just lay in the water. I had to rig a shower mat and my foot over the drain, so the water filled very slowly. But it was very relaxing, and I actually feel completely clean for once. It kept me up past my bedtime, but at least I had taken a nap earlier, and was relaxing. I watched a little bit of the Terminal with Rachel and Jeremy, and went to bed about 11.

Class and Korean food

Monday, May 31, 2010

We woke up early so that we could get our meal cards and eat breakfast. We were supposed to do a ton of other things, but ended up just having free time. Then we got ID pictures taken, and had free time again. We went to lunch at a restaurant down the road. Rachel, Jeremy, and Michael went. We attempted ordering, but were having a lot of trouble until the woman found a menu with English translations. The food was amazing, and I had the best rice so far since I have been here, and the best tasting broccoli I have ever had. We then went to watch a movie about Yunan Geography and Culture. In the movie, they said that Yunan was the treasure house of medical herbs and wild animal genes. It was wonderful. After that, we had free time again, and continued with the Uno. We are now incorporating Chinese words into the game. For dinner we went past the afternoon’s restaurant to what ended up being a Korean restaurant. They had stove things built into the tables. We had our own little room (it was Kacee, Kayla, Rachel, Michael, and Jeremy). The waitress cooked in front of us on what looked like a lid. The food was really good, even though we didn’t really know what we were ordering.

I got sick today, I think because of my lactose-intolerance. I had some hostess-esque cake things that I didn’t think about, and so my stomach has been bothering me. Rachel and I were both reading Nicholas Sparks books, and got to the sad parts at the same time. We stayed up till midnight reading.