Quick recap on my life

I actually said something about this last night in the other post, which is now deleted. Sorry Unexpected Runner for making you read that post, but thanks for the great wishes!

So the most important things that have happend in my life was that  . .

1. I got a job in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (So scary to write that out).

2. I graduated and received my piece of paper worth $200,000!

It still hasn't hit me yet. 

3. I ended up not making it to the Run for the Red Marathon. After the job search craziness and the whole hip thing, I just didn't make enough time to prepare. (Fun fact: The girl in the hat in the above picture ran a marathon under four hours after three months off due to an injury and her longest run having been about 16 miles)

Now, I'm trying to get back into the running thing and learning to drive, which both scares me. Can you believe that I'm still scared of driving? But I haven't really driven since I was sixteen and I never got over that fear.

What have you guys been up to? I'm going to start marathon blog reading really soon!

Hello from California

I haven't blogged in a long time, but I had a perfectly reasonable excuse. I just haven't ran in a long time. After my last post, (by the way thanks for all the motivation and reassurance that a little break is fine), I tried to run more, but I just didn't have/make the time. However, while running didn't happen, lots of other things happened.

1. I didn't get that job. Oh well, graduation is still two months away and there are tons of other opportunities to pursue! (Trying to stay positive)

2. I got to see the corpse flower.
Ever since I was little, I wanted to see the corpse flower because it was on the cover of this one book that I used to read as a child. Luckily for me, my college has an awesome agricultural/plant program, and this rare plant is currently blooming. Unfortunately, I missed the actual blooming as it bloomed during spring break and I'm currently in California, but I did see the bud.

It blooms once every ten years and the flowers open for pollination for only 24 hours. Maybe that's why they have become so rare? 

3. I came to California for spring break and ran a grand total of two times. 

But on those times that I ran, there was a total party in my pants. And by that I mean my legs were loving the flat terrain. It was also nice to run at sea level. Despite the long hiatus from running, my easy 6 miler clocked at 9:01/mile, which is way faster than my normal easy pace. 

What can I say, I'm a little awkward. I think this photo caught me as I was gearing up to jump. Before I left my jacket to do a five miler at the beach. 

4. I went to the San Diego zoo. 

My bf is also staying with my family in California. Previous times, we'd do a lot of touristy stuff, but this time, we just stuck to going to San Diego zoo. (cross training?) There were lots of low impact walking. In fact, I ended up taking an Advil before bed, because my legs were so sore from all that walking.There will be random photos of animals later, but for now let me tell you about wild asses. 

I only took a picture of this, because of the true wild asses. Immature? Totally.  

5. I've been stressing about all the missed running. 

This unplanned break has gone on a little too long. Now, it's time to get back on schedule and on to marathon training for May. I don't know what's scarier, graduation or my first marathon. Both scare and excite me. 

I'd rather not think about the marathon or graduation and fool around in Cali  forever. 

I think I've finally caught up on blog reading. But anything interesting happen in the week that I was gone? What's a good stretch for IT Bands? They've been feeling a bit tight lately. I hope everyone has been having a wonderful week! 

I am back

It's the last week of school and finally all the projects are done. Now all there's left is to bang out three tests and wrap up my research project. Easier said than done, but yay. And I also somehow have to figure out what I want for my life and try to find a job. Yikes! Despite the fact that I always complain about tests and hw  come May, I feel like you'll have to drag me away from my little sheltered college world.

College land is pretty. That's our art museum. 

It's sort of worrying that even in this unreal world of academics, I still have a hard time fitting in running. To everyone who goes to grad school, has a job, and/or has babies and runs, kudos to you. In fact, I haven't run in more than a week. It's not even the time commitment that prevents me from running. It's that if I know that I have to stay up past 4AM, I don't want to expand more energy than is strictly necessary.

But there's always time and energy for a super Asian pose.  Always. 

But I was determined to run today. Even though I felt like the walking dead. I was lurching around moaning for brains AKA Starbucks. Thank God for seasonal flavors that I can try out. Let's just say that last night, I spent 15 hours straight, except for a 10 minute where I went out to grab dinner, in Olin Hall (chemical engineering building at my school).

However, I slept through an alarm and by the time I woke up from my nap, it was getting too dark. But dammit I was going to get some exercise tonight.

So, I went for a little night walk through campus.

A little arm work out. 

This was what I was going for. Not the wild flailing that I'm doing with my legs. 

And best of all, I got to wear matching leg warmers with my sweatshirt. I love the legwarmer poking out from the tops of boots look. Which inspired me to do a dancey pose. 

It looked better in my head.  

I am definitely running tomorrow. Happy Friday everyone and may your garmins catch signal quickly!