Berkeley Court

It feels like summer today. For some reason every time the sun pokes out here in Seattle it reminds me of hot sticky summer days spent in my college apartment at Berkeley Court.

Walking to class in a tank top, jean shorts, flip flops and a jansport backpack, sipping on a nonfat starbucks iced caramel macchiato with extra caramel. Tying my then long hair up in a ponytail halfway through my comp sci class hoping a little bit of breeze will come through and stir me awake. After 4 long hours class would finally come to an end and I would walk back across Aldrich Park to the Trader Joes. I had a love affair with Trader Joes for 4 years. My staples were pita bread, tzatziki and a bottle of Orangina. All put in a little brown paper bag I'd carry back to my apartment.

I'd come home, take a shower, spritz on Bath and Body Works Sweet Pea, and spend the rest of the afternoon doing whatever I felt like doing. Chatting with my roommate, watching re-runs of 90s television, working out, reading charlotte bronte, playing online scrabble with a boy I liked. In summary, being young and having no responsibility.

I don't really yearn for those days, I've come a long way since that apartment, but it's nice to be reminded of it every once in a while.

5 years

Recently everyone seems to be interested in my 5 year plan, and by everyone I mean two people, one of whom is my Creativity professor who I think just overslept and wanted us to have something to do in class that night.

In 5 years I'll be 32 two years old. That's not old but it's no spring chicken. eww chickens. I really wish chicken didn't taste good in salads and soup or pot pies, I'd give it up. It's weird we eat them. They're birds. Birds who don't fly. creepy. Anyway, I digress...back to the topic at hand...here it is, this is what I want in the next 5 years. It's not a plan, it's a list of goals. You can't figure how to get somewhere without having somewhere to go, right?

The first thing I definitely know is that I want to have children. I really hope they look like my husband. I want to experience that moment of looking at their little faces and loving them more than I ever thought I could love anything in the whole world. I'm also a little scared that if they do look like him they'll have me wrapped around their little fingers. On the other hand if they look like me it'll be much easier to discipline them, I'll just give them a look and say "I know what you're up to".

The 2nd thing is to have a job that is people related. I'm still figuring this out, I don't know if that will require a career in a different industry. I really love my job right now, I'd like to stay in it a while. 5 years worth? I don't know. It's full of good people with big aspirations, and a product that really does change the world. We'll see...

Spend time volunteering abroad. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but honestly never had the time to do so. I haven't had more than 3 weeks off since the 7th grade. That was 16 years ago. It takes money to uproot yourself even for a short while. People who say it doesn't don't plan to come back to what they had before. Someone has to pay the bills, take care of the family, and keep things going while you're away. I want to make decisions that will eventually allow me to do this.

Spent time volunteering here. Not much to say, I just need to do it. I have two charities in my mind that I've been throwing around for a while. I'm committed to do this after I graduate in June.

Become a good cook. I like to dabble in new recipes, I'm just not very good at it yet. I want to be able to make delicious meals for my friends and family. I want people to request things and have secret recipes of deliciousness.

Have a warm inviting home. I love having people over, I'll take any excuse to throw a party. I want people to stop by whenever they want, munch on food in the fridge and stick around for a while to chat about life.

Run a marathon in under 4 hours. I have something to prove to Portland.

Read the entire bible. I haven't read it cover to cover. I had a reading plan I was following for a while but I stopped so I could read textbooks about business strategy. A lot less uplifting let me tell you.

Take a trip with my significant other to somewhere really really quiet. Where for just a moment you look up and see all the stars in the universe and feel like the only two people on earth.

Love is

I spent the entire day yesterday with a new coworker of mine who is married to a old coworker of mine. They have an incredible love story filled with experiences that people only dream of. Meeting each other in Ireland while he was visiting for work, dancing with her on his last night there, writing letters to each other for years to keep in touch, moving halfway across the world to be together, getting married in a castle on a whim, climbing Mount Everest, teaching children in Kathmandu, quitting their jobs to go travel the world...the list goes on and on. As I sat there listening to her I realized what was most touching were not the stories themselves, but how she told them. How she talked about her husband after all of these years. She still sounded like a teenager in love. She still blushed when talking about he kissed her for the first time. They've been married for 20 years now. I asked her what the secret was, and she had a simple answer. They do things together :) They spend most of their time together, growing as a couple and as individuals through shared experiences. She described all of his unique characteristics and what makes them different but spoke of him as her other half. How she goes crazy if she doesn't seem him for two weeks, and him feeling the same way about her. How going home to him every night makes her heart whole. So as I boarded my plane back home I realized their relationship isn't just about being married for 20 years, it's about being madly in love for 20 years. It's beautifully inspiring and uplifting, and it changed me to hear it.

New February Training Schedule

Work school and illness have been taking away from consistent training. I was thinking about it more this weekend and came up with a solution. Have a highly structured week. This didn't occur to me in the past because I felt like my week was already jam packed, but I am struggling to get my workouts in and thought a solid plan would help the situation. So here it is...

The days in red are school, the days in green are special events, and each day has deliverables and training commitments. I am fully committed to this schedule for the next month. I'll checkin every so often and let you know how it's going. I'm excited about the potential of it all

Things that make me happy

So I've been swamped with work and school and a sinus infection, which is now also an ear infection, ick. I haven't been able to train so I've had to keep myself up beat by thinking about things that makes me happy.

1. The unconditional love of family

2. Having an honest conversation with a dear friend

3. Dogs on a walk, they always look so happy. It's especially cute when they get tired and sit down.

4. When greenlake turns pink at dusk

5. Having a coworker tell me I'm doing a good job

6. Feeling like I'm actually adding value and bringing calmness to my team at work

7. Asking a good question at school

8. Making delicious little hors d'oeuvres

9. Finding an extra apple in my backpack

10. Creating a plan to succeed and the motivation it brings, mainly in the context of fitness and training

11. Taking a drive and my favorite songs come on the radio one after another

12. Flipping to a page in the bible and having the verse be extremely relevant to your current situation

13. Sharing I love you's everyday

What really matters

This past week has been again pretty introspective. Here are some things that happened.

1. Have been banned from running for 2 weeks the same day I ran my fastest mile yet. I'm not sure I'm going to abide by this, but I have so far and it's been 4 days. My physical therapist is well-informed and reasonable, unlike my previous PT experiences. His name is Michael and he's at the Proclub Willows location. I highly recommend him if you're looking for someone.

2. Got a new bike. Cervelo P1, it's small, fast and nice to look at. I think it's cute when I put it right up against Austin's Felt B16. It looks like his bike is hitting on mine.

3. The new food regime is coming along well, I feel strong and full of energy. I have to begin any new food regime with care, and that's where the introspection starts. In college I went from 110 pounds to 78 pounds. I am now at a point in my life where the numbers on scale at times still bother me a little, but only when coupled with a really bad day. In general I feel like I have a good grasp on the difference between health, happiness, and the numbers on a $20 scale from Target. The marathon and triathlon training is interesting because it makes me think about weight again constantly. Nothing to do with fitting into low rise jeans with a teal hollister halter top (it's still cute 10 years later)... rather it's about having your body be the best it can be to get the job done. Crossing that finish line as fast as you can without carrying an extra 10 pound kettlebell. That's the image that pops into my head whenever I feel like I'm dragging. See this is progress. It's not an image of me carrying a box of krispy kreme donuts. Mmmmm original glazed. It's just weight that interferes with performance. The more athletes I spend time with, the more body image discussions seem to come up. I've had to remind myself of how far I have come, and the lessons I've learned. I can't let that all go to waste just because someone else is unhappy with their body. That will be their journey, not mine. That chapter is done and filled with moments of surprising perserverance. I liked the way it ended. The mistakes you make don't remain mistakes. They turn into lessons about what really matters in life.

Power To Weight Ratios

After test riding bikes this weekend I'm incredibly shocked at the difference three pounds of weight can make. It's the difference between lugging something uphill and feeling one with the road.

It's got me thinking a lot about power to weight ratios. I was chatting with our buddy at Speedy Reedy about it, and Chris Carmichael is a big proponent of finding your ideal ratio.

Here's an article about Contador's ratio: http://www.bicycling.com/news/2009-tour-de-france/chris-carmichael-contador-has-power-burn

As well as a fancy calculator to estimate your own:
http://sportech.online.fr/sptc_idx.php?pge=spen_esy.html

I'm going to focus on this for a bit and see if it makes a difference for me. I'll report back in a few weeks, after I've given myself enough time to lose a few and build muscle. Time for a little experiment...