Thursday, September 15, 2011

Running

I've now been in trainig for... 6 weeks or so. I am using the walk/run plan designed by Jeff Galloway. I truly believe that without this plan I would not be where I am now. I don't know how people can literally run all those miles-I'm very attached to my walk breaks and I believe they are better for me than running until I feel like I'm going to pass out.

I started out running for 15 minutes or so and doing 15:45. 15 seconds running, 45 seconds running. As I got stronger I increased my time and upped the running. I am now at about 2.5:1 (in minutes). I am really trying for 3 minutes, much easier on the stop watch. I run with a stop watch so I can keep track of what I'm doing and when I need switch from one to the other. I run with a small handheld water bottle that is my savior when I'm running and of course, tunes. I love my shuffle and that's what I always run with. I have fun things on there, anything I think that might keep me motivated. I often skip songs but there is a lot on there.

Since this is my first half marathon I'm not supposed to be worried about pace, but I would love to do it in an under 12 min/mi pace. I'm Hoping for around 11:30 but we will see. Along the way I do these things calls magic miles to see how fast I really am. Last weekend was the first and I ran a mile in 8:32! Incredible! Now that was only one and I was dead afterwards but I was pretty impressed with myself. From there Jeff recommends a 10 minute pace for training and a 12 minute pace for the run itself. I'm getting stronger everyday!

Sometimes I don't want to run. Sometimes I don't want to get out of bed to do the run before school and the long runs still freak me out. 8 miles on Saturday! I think it's mostly that its lonely. I'm lonely sometimes without being out running. I don't have a lot of friends here and most of the ones that I do are in the city so it hard to see them often outside of school. So for me, having another thing that is lonely isn't really needed and sometimes I have a hard time getting past that. Toshi used to run with me at the beginning but he doesn't anymore.

Time to go. Alexander lesson and a busy day!

First post in a while

So back in march I said I was going to post more often. Clearly that didn't happen but maybe I can start it now since I have time between classes or on the train.

March was my last post so let's see what has happened since then.

I finished 2 of 3 semesters of school. It was a fun year and honestly I'm going to be sad in December when it's all over. For so long I have wanted to go bad to school and soon it will be done and real life will start, sort of.

In May I flew to Seattle and performed Copland with Cascade. I felt like a real clarinet player and that was a pretty amazing feeling. Also the orchestra misses me and that was a pretty incredible thing too. I loved being in that orchestra and it was fun to see and talk to everyone again. I would LOVE to go back if we make it back to Seattle but I'm not sure how that would work since there is a replacement for me there now.

Toshi was able to come out for the performance. He recorded for me and now its up on YouTube! Every once in a while I go back and watch parts of it. I have sent the link to my students on Long Island so they can watch it and hear what they can do it if they want to. After the performance Toshi and I had a very busy week. We spent a night in Cannon Beach because I really miss it, and on the way stopped at Monet so he could drop his trumpet off. After that we spent the week seeing family and friends including an overnight in Boise to see Jeffrey and hear him play. We rarely had a minute to ourselves, it was incredible. We got home and were exhausted but so glad that we had done the trip.

This summer was a lot of working for me. Knowing that once school started I wasn't going to be able to work, I worked a lot this summer at my new Starbucks. So much better than my last and although I don't miss 4am, I miss the people and my manager Ellery. We bonded over running and he and a few others are going to come to my recital in December. It felt like a family I was part of instead of a family I was excluded from like my old store. I may end up back there, who knows.

Also this summer I started running. Carrie is running the half marathon on Thanksgiving morning and somehow she managed to convince me to run with her. I am training three days a week and this weekend I will run 8 miles as part of may training and then a 5K for fun. I never thought I would be running but I have this awesome run/walk plan that makes it possible for me. This may be the only half marathon I ever run but who knows, maybe I'll love it?

We are now in the second week of school: my final semester. Right now things are pretty mellow but as w get going, things are going to get a little nutty especially around half marathon/recital time. I have an outline of the semester and I am planning on doing some things early, like the paper I have due two days after my recital (December 3) is going to be done before Thanksgiving, at least thats the plan.

After school is over: Toshi and I will be spending three weeks in New Zealand. The plane tickets have been bought. I am going home for Christmas for the first time in three years, we will meet in LA and then fly to Aukland.

After New Zealand is a big black hole. I have no plans... Nothing. Toshi is in the process of fellowship interviews. Two done in Seattle already and a couple more coming up in San Diego and Utah. He's got 5 interviews and 3 rejections. He got nervous last night and started applying for more places. I'm not sure how many he got done last night but he's adding 12-there are also a few we have not heard from including Denver and a couple of others. In two weeks (or two weeks from this past Monday) UW Body said he would know either way. Relly hoping for that-great program and in seattle! would be incredible.

So, his fellowship starts July 1, 2013. Until then, I have no idea what I'm going to do. I may go back to work until we can get pregnant. Thats the next plan-babies- but who knows how long that will take and we won't start tying until after New Zealand because I don't want to worry about not being able to drink all the yummy wine while we are over there.

So guess that's pretty much it. I'll also be doing a Seattle recital, hopefully before christmas but we will have to see based on when I end up flying home after school is done.

I'm hoping to write more, thats all for now