Sunday Morning Entertainment

After I got to thinking about running at Bowdoin due to my blast-from-the-past workout this week, I asked my stepmom if she had any pictures from my college running days. She didn't have much but I think this is cute, it's a picture of me and my dad from one of my first cross country meets at Franklin Park in Boston. The best story about this day was that my parents parked at a church and when they tried to leave the meet they were stuck because churchgoers had parked all around them. My dad and I have awesome matching hair here :)

She also had a picture from my high school track days. You can see that I had a sweet neon scrunchie if you look really closely and you can also tell that I was sprinting those days because of the look of sheer pain on my face.

And before she found those, she found an early bike shot. Clearly the seeds of cycling greatness were sown on a banana seat.

It has been an awesome weekend so far. I am about to head into the city for a run and a swim, it's been a beautiful weekend thus far so I am pretty excited for some nice sunny temperate weather today. I will not miss the 16 degrees from the last two weeks, not one bit!

What's New...

Well I cannot believe it but January is almost over. That is crazy! This year has been so busy and awesome so far. It looks like it's shaping up to be one of the best ones yet. I am loving where I live, I am energized by training, and life, and I am super excited for what the year holds in store. I am so proud of myself for moving and taking this leap and glad it is turning out to be as awesome as I hoped. It was pretty scary to move across the country, but I really feel like it is home now, and I am so glad and also a little bit relieved, I can't lie! I didn't know if I would really like it here or if I would miss Denver. Oddly I don't really miss Denver at all. I do miss my family and my friends, but it was kind of a rough place for me in a lot of ways, and I do not think the climate ever really agreed with me. I love humidity, and water. I ran down to the water this afternoon and it was just so peaceful and beautiful. So that is good.

So let's see, what else has been up? Chad has me doing all kinds of crazy stuff. He has me running faster than I have in years. One workout I did this week was actually reminiscent of one we used to do at Bowdoin, it was called Flow Miles. We would drive out to Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park in Freeport and run around like crazy people - five miles at a progressively faster pace for each mile.  Luckily the scenery was nice...

Here is another picture. We didn't run down to the water but I used to go a lot with friends to play around.

It was really hard then, and it was hard this week, especially without my teammates! But it's been nice to push myself. I will basically look at my schedule, think to myself 'how in the world am I going to do that?!', then I just try my hardest, and I find that most times I am able to do it as written.

In other news I have for the most part given up wheat/gluten. I know it is a fad and everything but I have noticed that I feel way less bloated and my stomach in general feels a lot better if I do not eat wheat. However I really miss bagels. They are so good, especially here in New York! I have a new food obsession - oatmeal with peanut butter and raisins mixed in - which is amazing. I found at first that I was suffering peanut butter withdrawal because I didn't know how to eat it without bread. But the oatmeal is great.

I suppose that is all for now, I really must get in the shower as I have not showered yet today and I have already exercised for 4.5 hours. I swear, you can take the girl out of Boulder, but sometimes you can't take Boulder out of the girl!

I wished for winter, and we got it...

Sorry, Northeast, if this is my fault at all. But I have to say that even though I have spent way more time on my trainer, and watched way more TV than is healthy, I am loving it. This morning we got our first snowfall since I've moved here (and that I've been in town for, I would imagine it's snowed a bit during the weeks).

I took a few pictures, it is really pretty. This is from this morning in one of the nicest parks in town. I used Instagram, my favorite new thing on the internet, to pretty it up.

I also like the effects on this one. Kind of brightened up even though it was cloudy.

Then this is from a walk I took this afternoon after a torturous four hour trainer ride with some intense quality. It was about all my legs were capable of. I love walking though, it is my favorite way to explore my new home.

Last weekend it was very, very cold, without the benefits of snow. So my friend Laura who was in town and I went to the Guggenheim for a really cool exhibit by a famous sculptor (we'd never heard of him but we are not really 'art' people). The exhibit was awesome, the artist had arranged all the sculptures and hung them from the ceiling in the big atrium. Here is a snap from the show.

The exhibit was pretty interesting and thought-provoking. And the Guggenheim is always fun.

Tomorrow I am heading into the city for a 17 mile run. Luckily I do not have any evil speed workout stuff to do, but it should be fun. I can't wait to see Central Park all covered in snow. I may take my phone and take a few pictures.

Now this is what I expected from the Northeast!

I am in my apartment thank heavens because it is cold as crap outside. I have to say that although I am sad that I will be riding my trainer for four hours tomorrow, I wanted some cold crappy weather in my first winter back in the Northeast so I am actually not disappointed! It wouldn't be that bad out  but the wind was just crazy today. I was very glad I wasn't on my bike. Just walking it would stop you in your tracks every now and then. It was so cold that I even dried my hair after I swam this afternoon/evening, so I would not turn my hair into frozen ice sticks. It actually looks cute this way - I never do it because I am always in such a rush but I think I might start doing it more often!

In other news, well things have been crazy busy at work and Chad has started giving me some real volume which is awesome so I am a very busy little Banzo these days! I love being busy so I don't mind. I have some crazy thing going on with one of my eyes - I had a corneal ulcer in late 2011 and my eye just never seemed to be the same since. I guess I have a small scar on my cornea and then I had a bunch of irritation all over my eye. It was driving me crazy because my eye was really cloudy so I basically could only see out of one eye. Therefore I have these crazy antibiotic and anti-inflammatory eye drops and haven't worn contacts in a week and a half. Wearing glasses is also driving me nuts but I can almost see out of my right eye again so I think it is worth it!!

Last weekend the weather was amazing so I went for a long ride up the 9W and took a few snaps I thought I would share. There are actually a few deer in this picture although due to my eye problems and the fact that I'm a terrible photographer they are very hard to see. But it was so cool.

This is a view of Rockland Lake which was the farthest point of the ride and near where I saw the deer. It was beautiful. There were tons of bikes out.

Along the whole ride I just kept imagining what it would look like in the spring when the trees all have leaves and I just absolutely can't wait. I did the same thing when I was running in the park on Sunday. Oh boy. In Colorado we didn't really have spring because the weather is just erratic and it goes between summer and winter on a daily basis, and there aren't many trees. So I cannot wait for my first real spring in years.

I was also excited to be out on the bike last weekend. I am getting a little bit better at taking self-portraits.

I am just loving training more. I must say I am at my happiest when I am physically challenging myself. So far this week I had a rough start but then I did a crazy running fartlek, 40 minutes of hard intervals on the bike, and a 5,150 yard swim after which I thought my arms might just quit in protest. Good times, people, good times!! Let the fun continue!

Airport entry, and I have an addiction to bikes!

I am in the airport waiting to board to go home. It was rough getting back into work this week, I cannot lie! Also, I bought a new bike last weekend and I kept thinking about riding it this weekend. I cannot wait!! It is a sweet single speed. Living in such an urban area now, and not owning a car, I wanted a bike that I could use for commuting all around and taking on the train. I think my sweet new ride will be just the ticket!!

I will write more about my trip to Munich, I promise. In short it was a ton of fun! And jet lag sucks!

I will also post about riding outside which I've been able to do a lot of believe it or not! Here's a snap from last weekend as well!