School and running

Since I last blogged, I started my last year of school!! Since I only have class 3 days a week and don't have class until 1pm Wednesday, it leaves plenty of time to study, work, and run!  The first few weeks seem like they'll be tough since I have 2 field trips in 2 weekends (those are my long run days), but I'm moving around my schedule to keep on track.  Speaking of field trips, here's a couple of shots I took on my first one:

Conglomerate rock from the Cambrian

Stromatolite!!

I'm currently trying out my new schedule with different rest days. I have rest days on the days I have 8am class and I'm finding it's kind of tough in the beginning of the week since I'm running 4 days straight.  Minus the drawbacks, I've increased my mileage up to 9 miles! Unfortunately it had to be done on the treadmill with the hills built in... lame.  Last week I skipped my cross training on Friday and didn't have time to run this past Sunday after my 12 hour field trip.  I have to be better about keeping to my schedule!! Today I did a 7 mile run outside once my clothes dried... laundry isn't as easy with a busy schedule!  It was hot, but I think my time was better than my 8 mile run outside.  BUT here's a little caveat to anyone who's reading this: DON'T let the excuses cause you to give up!

I've had friends as well as myself let this distract me from the goal at hand.  Is it hard to force myself to run in 90 degree weather when I have school work to do or better yet, trashy shows to watch? YES.  But I have started to change my view on my workout schedule as not something that sound like a good idea, but rather like an assignment that I need to do.  We've all had an assignment notebook at one point or another (whether you enjoyed it or not is a whole other topic), but it essentially tells you, "Hey! Lazy-ass! You need to get this crap done t-t-t-today junior!".  That's what this training has taught me.  There's no "late assignments" or "extra credit", it's get it done or hurt yourself in the long run.

Also, it's called a "workout" for a reason.  It takes work.  There's no way around that.  There's going to be some pain, there's going to be sweat, probably even some curse words, but it's all for a better good.  Hell ya my knees hurt and hell YA my hip hurts. But I know that it's within my threshold of pain and it's not something that should hold me back (unless it's SUPER bad, then ya know... go to a doctor).  I have the belief that this society, probably American since I'm not sure about country norms elsewhere, is that we want things fast and we want it now.  Any quick fix is what is wanted, but you just can't do that.  I have to remind myself of that almost every time I have to go for a longer run!

So anyway, I've still been having trouble with my right hip.  It's usually when I'm super sedentary, which is pretty much throughout the class-day.  I've been increasing my stretching and movement and it's been manageable.  It's feeling really great making sure to incorporate running since it seems to give me a lot of energy and certainly helps manage my mood throughout the week.  Looking forward to keeping to my schedule a bit better to make sure I can finish strong in my half marathon!

Hey, it's been awhile!

So life has gotten slightly busy and I've put off the blogging thing for awhile, but I figured after my backpacking trip and before school starts next week is a good time as ever to add another addition to my blog!

I'm now in week 4 of my training and it's getting a bit more difficult, but nothing I can't handle.  I took last week off to go on a backpacking trip in the Porcupine Mountains with my boyfriend and our best friend Cody.  We did 19 miles in 5 days which I thought was pretty good for one first timer and someone who hadn't gone backpacking in 8 years.  They were good sports :)  Since I'm so in love with that park, I have to post some photos before I talk more about running:

First day of the trip after driving for 6 hours. Excited for the trail ahead!

The boys super excited that our second site had rock chairs. Oh, and it was right on Lake Superior :)

Lily Pad Lake on the last day.  I progressively took less pictures as the trip went on unfortunately, but still gorgeous

So after we got back Thursday night I had a rest day Friday and could not motivate myself to run 7 miles Saturday, so I pushed it to Sunday and skipped my first rest day this week.  This lack of rest is reminding me how important keeping to the schedule is since my hip is starting to bother me a little bit.  Aleve liquid gel and ibuprofen are keeping my joints at bay.  I feel like I've accomplished so much in just a month nonetheless.  I ran 7 miles Sunday and ran 6 yesterday and didn't feel like death, but rather refreshed.

I have officially run 68 miles since having started my training!!

Tonight I'm just running a 3 miler FINALLY outside.  The past 3 workouts have been on Anytime Fitness' treadmills since it's been at least 95 degrees with ridiculous humidity.  Since it's currently nighttime, my best friend Angela has offered to ride her bike alongside me so I don't get attacked.  She's pretty much amazing.

I think my hips will be very thankful for my cross training day tomorrow and a rest day after that.  I've been upping my stretching during the day too when I think about it, so hopefully my body will get over itself and just work with me ;)

Anxious to see how well the training schedule will go once school starts next week Tuesday.  I've planned my schedule so I don't workout on the days I have 8am class.  I'm in my last year and luckily get to only have class 3 days a week! Most of the days are super long, but less driving on my part and time to sleep in and work Monday and Friday!  

First Saturday run!

So I went to see Les Miserables last night and it was wonderful! I cried, I laughed, and cried again.  I decided to wear a dress to the musical:

I didn't get home until 11pm and it was difficult knowing that I had to wake up at 6:30am the next morning to go for a run, but I did it!

I was feeling a little congested before I went to bed, but I have finally attributed that to my excessive sobbing from the musical.  I had a vanilla protein shake for breakfast and started my 5 mile run.  It went wonderfully!  I really didn't feel restricted by anything.  Unfortunately, Devils Lake got cancelled today and I've been stuck around the house doing not much really.  I did officially sign up for my half marathon (since I got paid Thursday, $58 ain't cheap) so it's definitely real.

Tonight Mike and I are going to a jorts party in a barn with some of his coworkers.  Should be pretty fun. Spending the night in our tent so we don't have to deal with getting home.  I'm sure I will need lots of gatorade and ibuprofen before my 4 mile run tomorrow, but it'll be worth it :)  Tomorrow will mark my first ended week of training

Longest run yet!

Hello yet again.  Since I last blogged I have run my longest mile I've ever run and did my first cross training.  All the while life happened of course.

Like I said in the last blog, Mike and I caught 2 salamanders and decided to make them pets.  Who knew that keeping a couple of tiger salamanders would cause so much trouble!  Currently we're having problems with their food.  They eat smaller insects such as crickets and earthworms, but I decided to try to take the easier route and feed them little pellets that are sold at the local pet food store, but since they're wild, they don't seem to be eating it.  I'm not the biggest fan of crickets (mostly because of the constant chirping) so I'm heading to a bait shop today to grab some small red worms.  My many years of fishing has prepared me for how gross worms can be for some people.  Below is our current terrarium:

We are planning on adding a divider that will allow us to have half the tank as a water environment where they can swim and the other half as a dryer/mossy area with a water bowl and places to hide.  In the meantime, I'm making sure they're moist by checking on them in the morning and night.  I've grown up with salamanders my whole life (Angela and I used to catch at least 30 of these a day from our windowsills and release them in a safer place closer to the pond).  I'm hoping they decide to eat the worms, if not I'll get crickets... the sacrifices I make.

ANYWAY!  This is a running blog right?  Wednesday I was scheduled to do field work on the same day I was supposed to run 5 miles.  If you've ever had a job that is in the sun all day, you know how tiring that can be.  We ended early and Mike "forced" me to go tubing on his family boat that afternoon.  Before I knew it, it was 8pm and sunset is around 8:30... crap.  Running at night makes me nervous with all the creeps in the world, but I decided to go anyway.  It was actually really nice having cooler weather and a beautiful sunset to watch.  The only downside was a side stitch that happened around mile 3 probably from the Scoopie Kids meal I got from Culvers earlier that night for dinner around 6.  But, I pushed through it and ran the entire way.  And according to my RunKeeper, I set TWO records:

Longest run and longest time run.  It's the little accomplishments and hurdles that I have decided are worth celebrating.  It's great having a wonderful boyfriend who's supportive in every accomplishment I make as well. He's great :)

Yesterday was my cross training day.  These days I have decided to dedicate to light/low-joint work.  Since I don't go to a gym with a swimming pool (which would be GREAT for my joints), I've decided that the elliptical and some strength training would be just fine.  I had field work that day and didn't get home until about 5:30 and had forgotten I had made dinner plans with my dad.  So, I ran out there and had a DELICIOUS meal with marinated steak, twice baked potato, and possibly one of the best salads I've had.  We played with the dogs he was dog-sitting and played a game of pool.  I ALMOST won!  Around 9pm we had to call it a night and I still had to run to the gym!  I was exhausted, but it felt so good to commit to my workout and work on my arms/core.  Once I got home I crashed and it was wonderful :)

Today is my rest day and I'm looking forward to biking to a coffee shop and getting food for my pets on my way home.  Tonight I'm going to see Les Miserables by Four Seasons Theater with my friends Becca and Angela.  I'm so excited since in high school I did two youth musical workshops with their company as well as a youth production of Once on this Island.  I am so excited to see some familiar faces in the show and enjoy my rest day.  Tomorrow I'm waking up early for a 5 mile run before going to Devils Lake State Park all day, can't wait!

New route today!

Today I had my second run and it went wonderfully.  Monday was my rest day and I felt pretty antsy most of the day, but enjoyed catching salamanders and keeping two new pets: Captain Jack Sparrow (he's missing an eye) and another yet to be named by Mike.  I also had dinner with Becca and Angela.  We made homemade chicken/veggie curry for the first time and seemed to turn out great with lots of leftovers! Had a fight with a bottle of Moscato, but we managed to get the best of it :)

Today was my second run, 4 miles once again.  After making some egg whites with a slice of turkey, and wheat toast for Mike and I, I decided to try a new route to spice things up a bit.  I ran around the pond behind my house for ~1 mile and saw so many salamanders squished or crawling for their life that it broke my heart so I thought I'd tack on my 5K route on the bike route.  I thought I was being super sluggish, but I actually ran my fastest average min/mile yet!

I've been working on my research project the rest of the day and am going to my first Meetup with Becca tonight. Trying my hand at trivia at Pedro's and if that doesn't work, it's half price margarita night :)

Looking forward to my 5 mile run tomorrow after doing mini disc infiltrometer measurements for work.  Hoping it will be a beautiful day for field work as well as a good run.

Why I'm doing this and my plans

To start off, my name is Erin. I'm a 23 year old Wisconsinite finishing up my last year at UW-Madison in Geophysics/Geological Engineering. I am a super-super senior having transferred/graduated from Carthage College's physics program in 2011.  So as you can see, I'm a super nerd.

I can safely say that for a good chunk of my life (let's say 20 years) I have never ever EVER been considered a runner of any sort.  If my gym teacher asked me to run a couple laps around the gym, I'd laugh in their face and do anything to skip at least half of those laps. I got creative when it was required to collect different wrist bands per lap and you ALWAYS made sure to have your friend handing you two bracelets per lap to make the experience less painful.  In high school I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism/Hashimoto's disease and I can safely say I used that as my crutch: "Why should I bother? I eat healthier than half of these people and I'm still viewed as being fat. Working out won't help either".  I won't even get into my obsession with dieting when I was in elementary school before that...

This was my mentality until I got accepted into UW-Madison's engineering program and decided that in order to "fit in" I'd better try this working out thing that people keep raving about.  At the same time, my mother had joined the Princeton Club and lost weight and gotten herself healthy and she generously offered to pay for half of my membership in order to have a new workout buddy.  I had a few free trainer appointments, and just committed to my new goal.  I started with the elliptical and weight machines and after a few weeks, I graduated to the dreaded running.  After a lot of pathetic run/walks in laps maybe a mile long I got stronger, my lungs began to actually work WITH me rather than against me (I was an on/off smoker from 17-21... dumb).  Once the running started, I saw the pounds fall off and was encouraged!  I went from a little over 200lb to 160lb within what seemed like a few months.

With some slip ups, hectic school schedule (seriously, I should have just slept in my classrooms/Wendt Library for the past few semesters), and life events in between, I've been hooked on running.  My most recent goal was participating and raising $300 for a 5K obstacle course called the Warrior Dash.  All of the money raised would go to St Jude Children's Hospital and I'd get free gear on dash day.  My best friend Angela agreed to do the obstacle course with me and I was set.  We both reached our goal (with a lot of help from my dad's co-workers) and I really felt like I had accomplished something.  Then a week before my race, I thought "ok, so I've done all this training for the Warrior Dash... what's next? I don't want to retreat back to barely making time to workout and losing all this new strength".

Then I thought, a half marathon should do the trick!  I was too nervous to bring it up to even my boyfriend for a couple weeks in-case I was having a brief moment of insanity, but then I just bit the bullet and talked with him about it making it seem like a more solid plan.  Later that day, we went to Half Price Books (one of my Kryptonites) and while Mike was looking at swimming/coaching books I saw "The Non Runner's Marathon Guide For Women" by Dawn Dais and was so ecstatic!  Let's be honest, I had NO IDEA where to start before that.  I read the first couple of pages and could not stop laughing at the author's sarcasm and honesty with her original position before she started running.  It not only has a day by day workout schedule for a marathon, but also a half marathon!  So there it was, I was doing a half marathon.

I started training the day after the Warrior Dash (which was SOOO fun).  Here's a picture of what I looked like that day before and after the mud:

My best friend of 19 years. LOVE HER :)

Check out deez guns!

After the run and after being splashed with more mud from an ATV

What I found was great about our effort that day is that I'm a little bit of a stronger runner than Angela (to be fair, she's got friggen asthma and she's still a rockstar runner) and literally after every obstacle she'd be waiting for me at the end.  She's da bestest :)

My first run after the Warrior Dash was an easy 4 mile run. I'd run up to 4.75 miles before then, so I was not scared away from the number.  It was a slightly difficult run just given the fact that I got PRETTY drunk at a friend's birthday party the night before and in order to cure my hangover I ate Taco Johns for breakfast/lunch.  I was a little more sluggish than usual, but I finished.  I also was running in my new running shoes I bought for after the Warrior Dash (since my old ones were covered in mud and donated to those who could not afford shoes of their own).  In the store, they felt amazing: light, cushy, breathable, AND bright orange shoelaces.  Unfortunately, I have this thing where I don't cut my toenails as often as I should and this was the result:

After mile 3 I was feeling this sharp pain in one of my left toes and I immediately thought... great, I can't even get through the first workout before an injury occurs.  Eventually, the pain subsided and my toe felt kind of wet and I figured the nail just finally broke and relieved the pressure.  After showering, I don't actually even see where the problem occurred.  I'm hoping it's just my toenails and NOT my new $60 shoes *crossing fingers*  After celebrating Angela's 23rd birthday at Ale Asylum, I decided to write all of my workouts out on my calendar so I can mark each day down until my run:

I started my workout plan on Week 8 according to the book since I'm a bit more of an experienced runner than what is expected for the training and have been doing the workouts on my own pretty much for the previous 7 weeks.

I found a race that is within the time-frame of the training weeks ahead of me. I will be running in the Tyranena 1/2 Barrel Beer Run November 2nd!  Beer, running, and geology.  I'm in!