Today's blog has nothing to do with food, but rather, a rant that I've been wanting to have for awhile but so far, I've only had to John. However, I'm going to go ahead and have it here because I can.
Showing posts with label military. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Been too long!
OK - so I'm usually pretty good about updating this blog, but between doing a ton of Air Force stuff this week (note to self: service dress blues simply will never look, fit, or feel the same way as a civilian business suit, and one should not be crestfallen one when looks into the mirror and admits this fact after 2 years out of the uniform), having my Mom come into town, and heading out on a girls' road trip, it's been crazy!
However, a few things: one, I started back up on my training for my next race and it's going smashingly. Sometime after finishing my last race, I realized that I have no excuses to stop on a run - unless I'm injured or sick, obviously - because I've proven to myself that I CAN do it, and therefore, owe it to myself and to my training to finish what I start. This "mental breakthrough" of sorts has been instrumental in me succeeding at my first bout of speedwork for this next race, and I intend to write much more on the topic. My first experiments with speedwork have been doing one-mile 5K pace repeats...as a 5K race pace is much, much faster than a half-marathon pace, these have really been helpful. Next up - fartleks. Might be a word you don't like to say out loud, but they're great for picking up the speed :)
Secondly, I've really started getting into the creation of new desserts, so I will be posting a great recipe on how to make triple chocolate toffee cookies - they're the size of bakery cookies and just as delicious, and very easy to make....you just have to buy a lot of ingredients, because like the name says, they use three different types of chocolate. I'm also experimenting with shortbread - it's the kind of cookie where you can make a ton of different flavors with very basic core ingredients of flour, sugar, and butter, so I'm looking forward to posting about that here.
Now you can see why I have to counteract the cooking of the blog with the running of the blog, yes?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
What are you here for, anyway?
Ah, blog, we meet again. After yet another hiatus - I originally started this blog in 2007, wrote a post or two, then picked it up again in 2008 for another two posts, and finally posted a few more blogs in 2009 - I've learned that the only way to be a writer is, well, to write. For relevancy's sake, I've deleted any blogs that wouldn't be share-worthy, and am attempting to stick to topics that keep in line with what I'm trying to achieve.
In my spare time, I've been freelancing, which has been fun - if not humbling - and working on a novel. I've found that when I actually let my imagination goes where it wants to, I have several ideas of what I want to write, but I'm trying to focus and produce at this point, and it's hard to do that if I'm writing four things at once. Therefore, I've narrowed it down to two things - a novel that has been a long time in the making, and this blog. (And the freelancing. Hmm. All speed, no vector? I digress.)
As you can tell, writing and therapy are two passions of mine, and two things I've racked up some experience in. The Air Force is another passion, and that currently comprises my day job. I take cooking and baking pretty seriously, and I like to experiment with new recipes almost daily. Lastly, I'm fairly obsessed with running. I have always enjoyed working out, and started seriously working out in high school. My whole life I've been interested in things that are athletic - my Dad started me scuba diving hitched to his hip at the tender age of 5, and I began lobstering soon thereafter (more on that later) - but running isn't something I picked up until freshman year of high school, when I joined the track team...and stayed on it for all four years, leading up to co-captaincy in my senior year, which was fairly cool for someone who wasn't a sprinter. Nope - my glory came from shot put, discus, and long distance racing.
Being in the military - and please, feel free to keep your Chair Force comments to yourself for the time being :) - physical fitness has always been important to me. Some of the most memorable runs of my life came from time spent in the Middle East, with my fastest run of my life taking place while being chased by a camel spider...in his defense, he was likely seeking shade in my shadow...or running with my squadron-mates during PT on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. I met some good friends in the Air Force who enjoyed running as well, and with some of those friends I did my first 10k, my first half-marathon, and my first marathon.
But, some time has lapsed. It's been two years since I separated from active duty (currently I'm in the Reserves), and it's been two years since I have raced. So, at the end of last year, I decided it was time to do another race. I set my goals on the Marine Corps Marathon in October, in Washington, D.C. This race has been an important one for me to run, because I was signed up to run it in 2006, but dropped out due to my Dad passing away. The following year, I suppose I could have rolled over my registration, but with separating from the Air Force, starting a civilian career, and moving to Chicago, my motivation to do the run got lost along the way.
A good friend of mine, Kate, has agreed that as long as she's not deployed (as she currently is to Afghanistan) that she will run it with me. Even if she isn't able to, I fully intend to run the race. And with that, I figure I need a training run. So in 6 weeks, I've signed up to do the Notre Dame Holy Half marathon, which is designed to benefit survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav.
This blog in part will be used as a quasi-training log, to make note of my Tracks of the Day (see previous post), and to report on my general thoughts about running, cooking, writing, and the like. The beautiful thing about a blog is that it can really be about whatever you want, so I'm taking great pleasure in taking advantage of that.
On that note, I should probably wrap this one up, and go shower. Today was a cross-training day, which means I did a Wii Active workout (lunges, reverse flyes, tricep extensions, crunches, leg raises, stride jumps, lateral jumps, and a few other exercises that involve spot-training) and may walk a bit later. No running today!
In my spare time, I've been freelancing, which has been fun - if not humbling - and working on a novel. I've found that when I actually let my imagination goes where it wants to, I have several ideas of what I want to write, but I'm trying to focus and produce at this point, and it's hard to do that if I'm writing four things at once. Therefore, I've narrowed it down to two things - a novel that has been a long time in the making, and this blog. (And the freelancing. Hmm. All speed, no vector? I digress.)
As you can tell, writing and therapy are two passions of mine, and two things I've racked up some experience in. The Air Force is another passion, and that currently comprises my day job. I take cooking and baking pretty seriously, and I like to experiment with new recipes almost daily. Lastly, I'm fairly obsessed with running. I have always enjoyed working out, and started seriously working out in high school. My whole life I've been interested in things that are athletic - my Dad started me scuba diving hitched to his hip at the tender age of 5, and I began lobstering soon thereafter (more on that later) - but running isn't something I picked up until freshman year of high school, when I joined the track team...and stayed on it for all four years, leading up to co-captaincy in my senior year, which was fairly cool for someone who wasn't a sprinter. Nope - my glory came from shot put, discus, and long distance racing.
Being in the military - and please, feel free to keep your Chair Force comments to yourself for the time being :) - physical fitness has always been important to me. Some of the most memorable runs of my life came from time spent in the Middle East, with my fastest run of my life taking place while being chased by a camel spider...in his defense, he was likely seeking shade in my shadow...or running with my squadron-mates during PT on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. I met some good friends in the Air Force who enjoyed running as well, and with some of those friends I did my first 10k, my first half-marathon, and my first marathon.
But, some time has lapsed. It's been two years since I separated from active duty (currently I'm in the Reserves), and it's been two years since I have raced. So, at the end of last year, I decided it was time to do another race. I set my goals on the Marine Corps Marathon in October, in Washington, D.C. This race has been an important one for me to run, because I was signed up to run it in 2006, but dropped out due to my Dad passing away. The following year, I suppose I could have rolled over my registration, but with separating from the Air Force, starting a civilian career, and moving to Chicago, my motivation to do the run got lost along the way.
A good friend of mine, Kate, has agreed that as long as she's not deployed (as she currently is to Afghanistan) that she will run it with me. Even if she isn't able to, I fully intend to run the race. And with that, I figure I need a training run. So in 6 weeks, I've signed up to do the Notre Dame Holy Half marathon, which is designed to benefit survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav.
This blog in part will be used as a quasi-training log, to make note of my Tracks of the Day (see previous post), and to report on my general thoughts about running, cooking, writing, and the like. The beautiful thing about a blog is that it can really be about whatever you want, so I'm taking great pleasure in taking advantage of that.
On that note, I should probably wrap this one up, and go shower. Today was a cross-training day, which means I did a Wii Active workout (lunges, reverse flyes, tricep extensions, crunches, leg raises, stride jumps, lateral jumps, and a few other exercises that involve spot-training) and may walk a bit later. No running today!
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