#hautevolee

[hey-pretty-beauty-blog-official]

The ALPINSPA hautevolée is the newest highlight at the @vitalhotelsonneck in Bad Wörishofen, in the deepest (greenest, loveliest) Allgäu region of Germany. Come join @sandra.gim and me for a lovely spa break on Hey Pretty now! #spareview #alpinspahautevolee #hautevolee #vitalhotelsonneck #badwoerishofen #allgaeu #wellness #takeabreak #beauty #beautyblog #heyprettytravels #heypretty https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmkl3GrlaqN/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=16oqsgzaqqks6

[gobigorgohome2016]

Milers and Marathoners

Last night, I had the only other Indiana Haute Volée member, Rebecca Tracy, over for dinner.  I was oddly nervous about dinner the whole day, because I’ve never had a ton of female friends, and sometimes feel like I can’t relate, or come off as awkward, or competitive, or too intense.  The last thing I wanted to do was make a bad impression on a new teammate!  

Clearly, I totally overthought this.  As with every single other woman I have met who is associated with Oiselle, we hit it off immediately.  After all, we have pretty much everything in common.  Chicago-land natives?  check.  High school competitors?  check.  (our teams both raced the Homewood Flossmoor invite in HS).  Big East competitors?  check.  Grad students?  check.  Professional runners?  check.  Live mere miles from each other?  check.  DOG LOVERS?  huge check.  For the first time since college, I found myself talking to someone who shared in and understood all of my experiences in running and post-collegiate life.  Plus, my senior deaf/blind/sick dog absolutely fell in love with her and soundly slept on her lap for half the night.  The biggest difference between us is that I run 26.2 miles, and she runs 1.  Hopefully, it will work out that we can do some runs together this winter, too!  

I did my first long run today since the marathon....16 miles.  Definitely one of those days where I wonder how the hell I ever have managed 26.2.  Perhaps mistakenly, I decided to do my long run today, instead of this weekend, since the weather was so nice (73 degrees).  IT WAS HOT.  It took me almost as long to get out the door as it did to actually run today:

-walk dogs to shake out legs (get mad at dog for seeing roadkill before I did) -eat breakfast and drink large cup of tea...wake up -find perfect long run outfit (stride short in midnight, tracktion bra in pink (old style), and oiselle shirt in deep rose ) -procrastinate while deciding route -finally walk out door -walk back in, grab water -leave -walk back in, dissolve Nuun tab in water -leave -walk back in, grab gels -leave -walk back in, grab sunglasses -tell dogs I am going to work, leave for good

Part of what made today’s long run difficult is that I did it alone.  I typically run with Dave, who’s out of town for work.  Dave is my sherpa, and typically carries my water/gels, too (whenever I carry my own gear for extended periods of time, I get too off balance and wind up with hip soreness).  I decided to park at the armory on 30th and run 4 miles out/back towards downtown, stop at the car for Nuun and a gel, then run 4 miles out/back on the Tow Path.  I struggled, hard.  It was one of those runs that I never seemed to find a rhythm on.  I averaged 7:36 pace...which isn’t terrible, but is certainly slower than I typically do 16 miles (not a big deal, but for how bad I felt, the pace didn’t match).  I have been exhausted the whole rest of the day!  Overall mileage for the week should be ~80, so I’m definitely getting back up there!  It feels good to be thinking about long runs and workouts again.  

100 days until the Trials!!

[gobigorgohome2016]

Day 79

Seventy eight days ago, I wrote this post, detailing how my “new life” was already different on the first day of my grand experiment to see what would happen if lived and trained as if I were an elite runner. 

Today, I felt as if everything came full circle. 

For my tumblr-only friends out there who aren’t connected to me on facebook or twitter, Oiselle officially announced me as a member of their Haute Volée elite team, and featured me in their awesome blog.  I have been incredibly overwhelmed with the outpouring of support throughout my entire journey, but even more so today.  Representing a company whose ideals so closely match my own, and promote nothing but strength, courage, taking chances, empowerment, and general badassery is the ultimate dream come true.  The rest of the women of the Haute Volée are genuine and gritty, and each has an incredible story of perseverance and beating the odds.  The few that I have already met have made lasting impressions on me, and the stories of the women I have yet to meet are unbelievable. 

Throughout the last few months, one thing that has struck me is how many people have used words like “courageous” and “inspirational” to describe me.  I am extremely humbled when people say these things, but also a little bit saddened.  Have you seen the Hyundai commercial that begins with the line, When did leaving work on time become an act of courage?  That line hits close to home for me and makes me wonder why so many people have likened the simple act of pursuing a dream to an act of courage.  It also makes me wonder how many people out there are unhappy, or not living their best life. 

I didn’t know it at the time, but a turning point for me in the PhD vs. full-time runner debate came back in January, when my adviser had the entire lab watch The Last Lecture.  If you’re unfamiliar, you should read the book and/or watch on youtube.  It is the account of Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon and virtual reality pioneer, who had been diagnosed with late stage cancer.  He delivers a “last lecture” in which he details how to go about living your childhood dreams.  A theme throughout the lecture is the “brick wall.”  He asserts that brick walls aren’t put in place in your life to stop you, but rather to help you realize how much you want to achieve your dreams, and what you’re willing to do to work around them.  I left our viewing of the lecture feeling deflated.  I had only watched this video through the lens of a PhD student.  Why didn’t I feel the same enthusiasm about science as my peers?  For a little while afterwards, I tried to convince myself that I had a renewed fervor for wanting to get my PhD so that I could teach chemistry, Jaime Escalante style, in a setting for underprivileged, but brilliant, undergrads.  But, when brick walls were built, I just didn’t have the motivation to vault them.  Then I realized what I should have known all along:  my childhood dreams were right in front of me.  They were the reason I was waking up at 4:45 AM every morning and running on 4-5 hours of sleep.  They were the reason I devoted my entire weekend to getting in as many missed miles as possible.  They were the reason I tried (always unsuccessfully) to cram 12 hours of work into an 8 hour day.  Why didn’t I realize that grad school had become my brick wall to running, and why was I killing myself trying to power through?   

For everyone who has said to me I wish I could do what you have done. 

You can.

If what you’re doing isn’t leading you in some way towards fulfillment, there is no shame whatsoever in finding the path that will.  The last few months haven’t been easy, but, neither was grad school.  The difference is that I’m excited to wake up every morning and get out of bed.  Not everyone will agree with the changes you will make, but, who cares?  One of the greatest lessons I have learned is that I can’t control the emotions of others, so why even worry?  What is wrong with their life that they care so much about yours?  You may not make as much money with a different path, but, you may be surprised how much happier you can be by having fewer things and more experiences (plus, I had no idea how many habits I had in my life that were costing a lot of money!).  You may feel like you’re giving up security for the unknown.  This was the hardest for me.  But, once I realized that no matter the outcome of my experiment, I would still come away with some of the greatest lessons I had ever learned about myself, and that I literally had nothing to lose, everything suddenly seemed possible.