Thursday, February 24, 2011
Marine Corps Marathon
Yesterday registration opened for the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM.) I love MCM! The thought of MCM of the training, the pre-race day, the time with friends and the run all bring a huge smile to my face. MCM is just one day but it feels like the bookends of my favorite time of the year. It starts with registration and ends at the Iwo Jima Memorial. This year, my cousin, my brother and my sister-in-law all registered as well. It'll be exciting to have so much of my family be a part of this year and I hope they love it as much as I do!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Meatballs & S'mores
Doug & I aren't big go out to dinner on Valentine's day people. Since the very first Valentine's we were dating we've had a tradition of staying in and cooking our own meals. Doug started this tradition by cooking for me the first year and the next year I cooked for him and on and on. So this year it was my turn to cook. I was feeling a little overwhelmed because Valentine's day fell on a Monday this year and I have class on Monday. I didn't want to ruin the tradition of making something special that night but I also didn't want to eat at 10pm. I felt stuck. Last week I had mentioned something to Doug about making meatballs soon and Doug's eyes lit up and with great enthusiasm he let me know that he'd like nothing else for Valentine's day except meatballs.
Well, that's easy enough I thought. The way we make meatballs in my family is we mix all the ingredients together, we brown the outside on the stove top and then we plop them in homemade marinara sauce and let them slow cook all day long. By the time they are done the whole house smells amazing and it's a mad dash to be the first person to get your hands on them. I figured meatballs would be perfect. I could make the marinara sauce on Sunday and mix the meatballs on Sunday and then Monday I could just get up early, brown the meatballs and they would be ready when class was over. I was feeling relieved but still also feeling guilty. Valentine's day is the day we usually try to make something out of the ordinary and while I don't cook meatballs all the time, I do cook them often enough that I wouldn't call them out of the ordinary. So I began looking for the perfect dessert recipe. After all, this recipe was going to have to carry the dinner. I searched and searched and suddenly I found it, the perfect Valentine's day dessert for Doug... s'mores pie!
Maybe you have to know Doug to understand his deep love for marshmallows and s'mores. A few years back when Doug bought me my fire pit as a gift for running the Marine Corps Marathon I knew all along that it was secretly also for him so he could eat more s'mores. Doug also loves pie. I'm not a huge pie fan so I rarely make it but this was his dessert and I wanted it to be special so I set off to make it. It was a lot of steps, graham cracker crust, dark chocolate filling and homemade marshmallow - yeah, that was an experiment that turned into a mess. But overall the pie was a huge success. Doug loved it and I honestly can say it tasted very much like a s'more. I have a feeling this is going to become a regular request in our house.
Well, that's easy enough I thought. The way we make meatballs in my family is we mix all the ingredients together, we brown the outside on the stove top and then we plop them in homemade marinara sauce and let them slow cook all day long. By the time they are done the whole house smells amazing and it's a mad dash to be the first person to get your hands on them. I figured meatballs would be perfect. I could make the marinara sauce on Sunday and mix the meatballs on Sunday and then Monday I could just get up early, brown the meatballs and they would be ready when class was over. I was feeling relieved but still also feeling guilty. Valentine's day is the day we usually try to make something out of the ordinary and while I don't cook meatballs all the time, I do cook them often enough that I wouldn't call them out of the ordinary. So I began looking for the perfect dessert recipe. After all, this recipe was going to have to carry the dinner. I searched and searched and suddenly I found it, the perfect Valentine's day dessert for Doug... s'mores pie!
Maybe you have to know Doug to understand his deep love for marshmallows and s'mores. A few years back when Doug bought me my fire pit as a gift for running the Marine Corps Marathon I knew all along that it was secretly also for him so he could eat more s'mores. Doug also loves pie. I'm not a huge pie fan so I rarely make it but this was his dessert and I wanted it to be special so I set off to make it. It was a lot of steps, graham cracker crust, dark chocolate filling and homemade marshmallow - yeah, that was an experiment that turned into a mess. But overall the pie was a huge success. Doug loved it and I honestly can say it tasted very much like a s'more. I have a feeling this is going to become a regular request in our house.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Freak Shoes
Yesterday I completed my first regular outdoor run in my Vibram FiveFinger shoes. I purchased them at the beginning of January and had been contemplating purchasing them since the middle of last year. The shoes look funny, I'm not going to lie and what's even worse than how they look is how childish you feel trying to put them on for the first time. It's harder than it looks trust me.
I had read a lot about these FiveFinger shoes starting sometime last July or so. I love to run barefoot. I grew up being barefoot and to this day putting shoes on is the worst part of getting dressed. I just love the feeling of my feet being free. As I read more the theory behind what Vibram's are and how they work became very intriguing to me. The thought process behind who they were and why they felt their shoe worked just made sense to me. I believe that God created your body go function perfectly all on its own so the theory that regular running shoes takes God's perfection and changes the dynamic of it was a logical reason as far as I was concerned as to why injuries occur.
As someone who hadn't ever really been injured I didn't have a compelling reason to buy the shoes outside of sheer curiosity. At the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) last year, I talked to every person I saw cross the finish line in them about what they liked about them. Each person had their own unique life changing story. I became more and more convinced I needed to buy a pair and finally in January I did.
I did a lot of research before I purchased them, talked to a lot of people and took my time trying them on. I learned through my conversations that my calves would be worked in a way they hadn't in years and to not expect to run more than a mile or two the first few times out. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that this couldn't be true, I mean I run marathons, how could I have trouble running a mile or two? And then I ran my first mile in them. I was exhausted and my calves were burning. What a big difference.
When I first started running in them, I started slow, on the treadmill and I sounded like an elephant running. My feet pounded down and the sound bounced from the walls of the gym. It was as if I was telling everyone in the gym to look at me and my "freak shoes" as my friend nicknamed them. I kept at it though because I had been told that once I got used to them everything would change, my stride, my speed, my muscles. So I kept at it. A little at a time each week. Finally yesterday I went out and did I normal 6 mile run in them. When I finished my legs were dead tired as if they had just run 16 miles and not 6. But it was that good tired, the tired you get when you know you just worked your muscles out really hard. I have had no pain in my heels since I started running in them and I can already feel a difference in my stride both in them and when I change over to my brooks.
I'm still a newbie. I don't have any life changing stories to go along with them yet but I will say so far, I'm sold. I'll keep you all updated on it though.
I had read a lot about these FiveFinger shoes starting sometime last July or so. I love to run barefoot. I grew up being barefoot and to this day putting shoes on is the worst part of getting dressed. I just love the feeling of my feet being free. As I read more the theory behind what Vibram's are and how they work became very intriguing to me. The thought process behind who they were and why they felt their shoe worked just made sense to me. I believe that God created your body go function perfectly all on its own so the theory that regular running shoes takes God's perfection and changes the dynamic of it was a logical reason as far as I was concerned as to why injuries occur.
As someone who hadn't ever really been injured I didn't have a compelling reason to buy the shoes outside of sheer curiosity. At the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) last year, I talked to every person I saw cross the finish line in them about what they liked about them. Each person had their own unique life changing story. I became more and more convinced I needed to buy a pair and finally in January I did.
I did a lot of research before I purchased them, talked to a lot of people and took my time trying them on. I learned through my conversations that my calves would be worked in a way they hadn't in years and to not expect to run more than a mile or two the first few times out. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that this couldn't be true, I mean I run marathons, how could I have trouble running a mile or two? And then I ran my first mile in them. I was exhausted and my calves were burning. What a big difference.
When I first started running in them, I started slow, on the treadmill and I sounded like an elephant running. My feet pounded down and the sound bounced from the walls of the gym. It was as if I was telling everyone in the gym to look at me and my "freak shoes" as my friend nicknamed them. I kept at it though because I had been told that once I got used to them everything would change, my stride, my speed, my muscles. So I kept at it. A little at a time each week. Finally yesterday I went out and did I normal 6 mile run in them. When I finished my legs were dead tired as if they had just run 16 miles and not 6. But it was that good tired, the tired you get when you know you just worked your muscles out really hard. I have had no pain in my heels since I started running in them and I can already feel a difference in my stride both in them and when I change over to my brooks.
I'm still a newbie. I don't have any life changing stories to go along with them yet but I will say so far, I'm sold. I'll keep you all updated on it though.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Life's a funny thing and you can't bring yourself to face it if you want to
The title of this post come from the lyrics of the Stroke 9 song California. I love this song.
I was standing in the shower the other day, water running down my face, I closed my eyes and this flash of memories came over me. I felt my chest get tight in a way it hasn't in a long time. Not so many years ago this was a normal everyday occurrence in my world. My life was so different then than it is now. My mind was constantly turning, over and over and over again. Thoughts, memories, moments all there haunting me each day. My phone would ring and I would have to pick it up. If the person calling didn't leave a message I would begin to hyperventilate while calling back, sure there was an emergency that I had to attend to. Oh life, it's funny that way.
I often ignore phone calls these days, I leave messages on my phone for weeks before checking them. No one is dying and my life is simple. PTSD is a thing of the past and sometimes I can even bring myself to watch movies or shows involving drugs and suicide without needing to leave the room and run cold water over me. The reality of my life is just so different than it once was and yet it's still my life. It's these things that have made me into the person that I am and yet most people in my life today don't know anything about that life.
I sometimes feel as though I'm two people, the me who was before and the me who is now and I don't think I do a good job of reconciling the two. I keep the two very separate. Maybe everyone does. Maybe it's an extension of survival mode, when it's all over and you've finally healed maybe it all just fades away. Maybe, but then in those moments in the shower it's like it's all still there. Ready to haunt me at a moments notice. To permanently forget those things would be to lose the person I've become since these are the things that shaped me but to keep them so close is to hurt all over again. Where's the balance? How do you know when you've found it? Thoughts?
I'll see you on the way down
Life's a funny thing and you can't bring yourself to face it if you want to
Now I shake here
For your sake dear
-California, Stroke 9-
I was standing in the shower the other day, water running down my face, I closed my eyes and this flash of memories came over me. I felt my chest get tight in a way it hasn't in a long time. Not so many years ago this was a normal everyday occurrence in my world. My life was so different then than it is now. My mind was constantly turning, over and over and over again. Thoughts, memories, moments all there haunting me each day. My phone would ring and I would have to pick it up. If the person calling didn't leave a message I would begin to hyperventilate while calling back, sure there was an emergency that I had to attend to. Oh life, it's funny that way.
I often ignore phone calls these days, I leave messages on my phone for weeks before checking them. No one is dying and my life is simple. PTSD is a thing of the past and sometimes I can even bring myself to watch movies or shows involving drugs and suicide without needing to leave the room and run cold water over me. The reality of my life is just so different than it once was and yet it's still my life. It's these things that have made me into the person that I am and yet most people in my life today don't know anything about that life.
I sometimes feel as though I'm two people, the me who was before and the me who is now and I don't think I do a good job of reconciling the two. I keep the two very separate. Maybe everyone does. Maybe it's an extension of survival mode, when it's all over and you've finally healed maybe it all just fades away. Maybe, but then in those moments in the shower it's like it's all still there. Ready to haunt me at a moments notice. To permanently forget those things would be to lose the person I've become since these are the things that shaped me but to keep them so close is to hurt all over again. Where's the balance? How do you know when you've found it? Thoughts?
I'll see you on the way down
Life's a funny thing and you can't bring yourself to face it if you want to
Now I shake here
For your sake dear
-California, Stroke 9-
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