Some other fun-in-review from Hawaii...

This year we visited a few new more local places in addition to all the touristy places we went last year.  For lunch one day we ventured to the Health Bar and enjoyed an acai bowl.  It was incredibly yummy and the store was decorated in local artist photographs and some photos of the owners surfing dogs.  The other place that really stands out was Bubbies homemade ice cream and mochi!   We got some ice cream while at the store, I had chocolate hazelnut (YUM), and we took a sampling of mochi home to eat during the following days.  The ice cream was rich and delish, and the mochi was better than any mochi I've had before!  The weather in Cincinnati today (92F and not really a breeze outside) is making me long for Hawaii and the cool breeze off the ocean.

woof...18 miles

On Saturday I got up at about 5:30 am, consumed some coffee and an egg/english muffin, and prepared for the weekly long run.  It's been a few weeks since my 16 mile run, and since my hip was bothering me while we were on vacation I ran no further than 5 miles while in Hawaii.  Since returning home my hip has improved quite a bit, and it's now feeling mostly better thanks to icing and lots of stretching.  So, back to Saturday.... I headed out at about 7 am into the rice cool weather about 50-ishF, super nice.  I trucked along up and down the hills of Cincinnati, stopped to refill my water bottles about 3 times, jamming out to some good tunes, and before I knew it the run was over.

I took an ice bath following the run, but I ended up still being SUPER sore on Sunday and still today.  I think helping Jonah move added to the soreness a bit as well.  Only a few more long runs and a bit over 5 weeks until Chicago.  I'm feeling less nervous about the race since I ran the 18 miles this weekend.   I have to admit that I was very slow this weekend (about 3:10), and cautious about not over exerting myself.

First 18 mile run done and scheduled to do 20 miles next weekend!

I'm back to reality...

This is my first week back from vacation.  Luckily, it's a short week since we flew in on Monday so work from Tues-Friday.  Although it's a shorter week there are still TONS to do.
1. General research-lots of experiments
2. Prepare a presentation about my research for Friday
3. Get organized and adjusted to real life (vacay involved relaxing and sleeping, my real life not so much)
4. Prepare for Jonah's big move to Lexington
I keep thinking about Hawaii and all the fun we had.  We went on a tour of the island by road, lanikai beach, polynesian cultural center for a luau, lots of walking along waikiki, and lots of great food and time with family!
I'm totally behind on posting pics and more stories....I'm going to get to them hopefully soon..like in the next week!
Happy Friday eve everyone.

Hooray for vacation...

What a relaxing/tiring few days.  I know, I know, relaxing/tiring are two opposing feelings, but that's how I feel on vacation.  I'm so excited to spend time with family and to get more time during the day to relax, but we are also doing some fun activities during the day (shopping, luau, polynesian culturual center) that just plain wear me out.  Just a few days in and I already feel refreshed...running along the ocean has also contributed to this feeling. 

I'll put up a post about all the vacation activities when I return from beautiful Honolulu!

16 miler...sans humidity...finally!

This weekend for marathon training I ran 16 miles!  I was very very fortunate and there was a break in the humidity that has plagued this area lately.  I slathered on some SPF 50 and started out at about 6:30-ish on a cool comfortable morning.  The temperature was amazing, probably close to 65F.

The run was going great until about mile 12-13, and I began feeling dehydrated, and I was almost out of water in the hydration belt bottles.  So, I found a local playground to refill the bottles and get some hydration which was very refreshing and I felt fine the rest of the run.

Around mile 15 a random person starting running with me and kept me company for about a 1/2 mile.  I do so much running alone that it's easy to forget how quickly time flies when you have someone to chat with when you are running.  As much as I cherish the alone time while running, there are times I wish I had a local running buddy so we could help each other out during the tough times.  I can't wait to do a long training run with Morgan to get us ready for Chicago!!!  It'll be like a mini-preview of the race.

Lately my hip has been bothering me a little bit.  Stretching and icing has been helping it from getting any worse, however, it's still tight when heading out on a run and it takes a mile or two to warm up.  This is def. a case of soreness and not injury.

This week my long run is going to have to be on Wed. and I'm going to attempt to repeat the 16 miler, but the humidity is supposed to return!

Happy running!

Whoa, what a week...

This past week was crazy busy and fun at the same time.  Here's a quick run down....

-Monday-Jonah arrived to hang with me for the next month or so.  We also went and ran errands about town together.
-Tuesday-Trivia night with friends....I still think we got the last question right even though the official trivia judge said we didn't.  (We were 11 out of 14 teams, at least that's not last!!)
-Wednesday-Burgers and drinks to celebrate a friend's bday!!! (It was a blast, and we ended the night with some swimming)
-Thursday-Work picnic to celebrate my advisor's 15 year anniversary at Cincinnati Children's Hospital!
-Friday-More fun at Fries with friends to do more celebrating the same bday from Wed., and the going away of another friend for med school!
-Saturday- Decent 16 mile run for marathon training!  (woohoo) Zoo picnic for work! All the animals were out and about.  We walked around for hours and had a blast! (of course we also got a funnel cake, YUM)
-Sunday-Family reunion then dinner with friends in Muncie!

It was so wonderful to see friends and family this past week and spend time catching up with everyone.  This week isn't looking like it will have as many events, but vacation is coming up. I'm def. looking forward to a few days on the beach relaxing.

One tasty burger...

Last night to celebrate a friend being alive for a quarter century we went to dinner at an infamous place in Cincinnati....Terry's Turf Club.  This diner has been featured on TV shows and in magazines as having the best hamburger in Ohio.  When we arrived I was delighted to see TONS of neon lights.  It's like someone tooks all the neon lights/signs from a whole strip of restaurants and put them into one!  The only downside was that we had quite a long wait (about 45 min to an hour), but we had fans and some nice cold beer to keep us company while we waited making the time pass quickly.

The menu had options for all kinds of fun sauces for burgers.  One had truffles, portabello mushrooms, and brandywine.  I got my burger with a goat cheese and roasted red pepper sauce, and it was amazing.  Jonah told the waitress to surprise him and ended up with a huge burger filled to the brim with topping including a peanut sauce.  I enjoy a burger now and them, but this burger was AMAZING!  no joke.

It was a great fun night with friends, amazing food, and lots of fun/random conversation.

How to be alone vid...

This was posted on facebook by one of my sorority sisters from long ago....I wanted to post it since it holds so much truth, and it's just wonderful.

Check out more about this artist:
Tanya Davis

I have a love-hate relationship with change...

This photo is from design inspiration

The title of this post says a lot about me.  I'm always excited for change and doing things differently, however, once they start happening I have crazy anxiety....and maybe a little freak out.  Case in point...this past week Jonah moved his stuff to my apartment before he moves to his new place.  The whole moving his stuff in process started to give me anxiety when we were about halfway through.  Seeing the shear quantity of stuff, and knowing that this is going to change my day to day living in my apartment switched the event from being happy and fun to the opposite.  Then, the following day he rearranged some of my things while I was at work, and I have to admit that I had a bit of a melt down.  I like my routine and my things to be just the way I like them.  A lot of consideration and thinking goes into the placement of something in the apartment.  

All of this anxiety and melt downs are totally unwarranted and are over things that when are though about in my head I'm super excited about.  Why wouldn't I want my fiance around for about a month before he starts his job an hour away?  I'm just not good at change, and there are a lot of changes coming up in the next year of my life (moving, wedding, etc).   Moving to Cincinnati a few years ago was a huge change and challenge, and I learned to enjoy aloneness, time to relearn what it's like to have someone else around all the time again.  As a 27 (nearly 28 year old...yikes) I would know how to deal with it so, it's time to give myself a pep talk and learn to deal with things not being my way (I may have to deal with some selfishness issues too :( )