Tucker

Got puppy Tucker February 13th. He was my Valentines Day present. He is SO freaking cute!! He just finally got his final round of shots so we can start going outside to the park!! VERY excited!! Can't wait to start jogging with my new friend!

He totally knocked out at the end of every class time in his puppy kindergarten experience. 

Cruising

Got to go on a cruise to Ensenada Mexico this past month. It was beautiful!

Back to it

Things in life got too crazy with school. I stopped running, blogging, reading, taking pictures and basically all fun extracurricular activities I enjoyed to try to deal with it. However, I am learning that life passes by too quickly to not do things that are enjoyable. Therefore I am going to make an effort to balance out my life a bit this year and start doing those activities again. I have read 2 books this year and have gone walking (not really able to run yet) several times this year. Returning to blogging is the final frontier and so here I am back at it.

I know this year is going to be amazing. I plan to get back into running and shape up a bit and I am really excited to blog about my journey. This February I am getting a new puppy and I am really looking forward to taking him along with me on my excursions. :-)

The weather has been beautiful in Southern California and I was able to get outside and enjoy it the other day. The clouds were amazing!!

Rain & Sunlight

I have been writing drafts for my dissertation and do not feel like writing - not even to blog.. so I think this blog will consist a bit more of pictures for awhile. Then I can still blog but not have to write. The best of both worlds. 

Here are some pictures from my last run. It was sprinkling but warm and every so often the sun would peek through the clouds. It was a great run. 

Tagged - 11 Random Things

Life has been crazy and not so fun lately. I started the third year of data collection for the foster care study - LOTS of interviewing is happening which is great but very time consuming. I hope I can survive these last few years I have left. I have been meaning to come visit blog land and catch up on everyones adventures and do a post but I have been lame, choosing to zone out in front of the tv instead when I get down time. Then a few days ago Lauren at laurenontherun tagged me so this is great timing! 

Rules: 1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them you've tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

11 Random Things About Me:

1. I work in Starbucks more than in my office.
2. I have a trained hamster that comes to you when you call her name and stands when you say stand (but you have to have a treat handy or the stand command won't work).
3. I have 10 siblings - 5 brothers and 5 sisters.
4. I am very sensitive to smells.
5. I hate make-up (too!). I only wear it when I feel like it is necessary professionally or if I want to feel especially beautified. 
6. I have been to all 50 states.
7. I have broken my nose snowboarding.
8. I have hit three deer with other peoples cars while driving in three different states.
9. I have changed my name twice. 
10. I like to be in cold weather more than hot weather.
11. I have a crazy talent (other people that I hang around a lot who have noticed it too say it is luck - but it is a talent), whenever I go into an establishment I always just beat the rush so I never have to stand in a long line. It is amazing and happens probably 90% of the time. There is no way that could just be chance probability. 

Now, Lauren’s questions... 

1. Short shorts or long shorts? I like long shorts better than short
2. How do you recover from a tough long run? Chocolate soy milk is my favorite for recovery! 
3. Favorite brand running shoe? Brooks
4. Longest distance ever run? 15 miles
5. What would you do if a rattlesnake coiled up to strike a couple feet from you? That actually happened to me and my friend Ana!! We were running in Riverside and we were talking and came right up to a rattlesnake on the trail. We jumped back before it tried to strike and then threw rocks near it until it slithered away. SO freaky!
6. For women – do you wear make-up?  For men – do you remove hair from anywhere other than your face? Yes but only 4 or 5 times a month.
7. Do/did your parents, guardians, siblings, children run? My siblings run marathons. 
8. How many days is your longest running streak? I actually have no idea. 
9. Would you rather run in extreme heat or extreme cold? Neither. If I had to pick I guess it would be the heat though. Running in extreme cold burns! 
10. If you had to watch the same movie ten times in a row, what would it be? Clue! I love that movie.
11. Vanilla or Chocolate ice cream? Vanilla all the way! 

Now my questions...

1. Where were you born?
2. What is your favorite way to relax?
3. What is something you did as a child that you got in trouble for?
4. What was the BEST race you ever ran and why was it the best?
5. Which do you prefer - ocean or mountains?
6. What is the furthest you have ever traveled from home?
7. What is your favorite restaurant?
8. Would you rather be able to teleport or be able to turn invisible?
9. What is your favorite body part?
10. What is your favorite song to workout to?
11. Would you rather run trails or the road? 

Okay, now my eleven tags. I think several people on my bloglist have been tagged already and I don't have that many people anyway but here we go!

1. Mallory
2. Kate
3. Glen
4. Anne
5. Johann
6. Mama runs barefoot
7. Green Girl
8. Jill
9. Judy
10. Janae
11. Just One Foot In Front of the Other

Dissertation Funding

Wow these past few days I have not done any running because all the dissertation funding applications are due at the beginning of the year. This stinks!! I started a new wave of p90x and Insanity (a series of exercise programs created by beach body that you can do at home) in combination so that has been helping me get some physical excursion time in. Exercise helps me SO much with stress.

I have been thinking about what I would like to do this year in terms of races. I have not done a whole lot of racing these past few years simply because I am so stinking poor I can't even afford the entrance fees. I really enjoy racing however and I would like to make sure that I get in at least 6 races this year. I think I am going to pick them out now so I can budget them in.

My good friend just moved to Boston to get her PhD in counseling at Boston College. We had lunch together yesterday as she was back home for the holiday. There is a good chance that I might fly there this summer to spend some time and it would be awesome to do a half marathon or 10K while I am there. I also really enjoyed the Danskin Triathlon that I did in October so I plan to do that again for sure.

Christmas was fun. I got some new Brooks Cascadia trail shoes and they are awesome. I am not too into writing about items I run with but I had to for these because I think they are amazing. I have had serious issues finding trail shoes that are lightweight but at the same time durable. These shoes are so much lighter than my Salomons and they were great at keeping up with all the rocks and dirt when I took them out for a spin. I went 8 miles on the first go and had no problems at all. I love move in ready shoes.

I also got an awesome bracelet with em. :-)

Hope you are all having a great year so far!

Happy

I have had a sore throat & chest cold sickness this past week. Today I finally felt good enough to get outside. I couldn't really run though because breathing heavy made my chest feel like it was on fire. It was great getting outside though! It felt so good. I took a lot of pictures because it was so pretty.

 I ended up covering 10 miles or so. It has been so long that I was actually in some pain on mile 9 and 10. Bummer. I need to get back on the trails!!