Still Running

This past Saturday Eric and I ran together outside. We've figured out that if he runs on a "recovery" day, it works out okay. He can pretty much speed walk alongside my run! We went to the trail off Isabelle between Boulder and Erie. It was great! We had really nice weather. Somewhere around 55F and sunny! I have never been trail running before or done hills. This run had both! We ran 4 miles. I had to stop about three times for a brief walking break but I felt pretty good about my performance anyhow! I think I ran it in about 45-50 minutes.

This Sunday, March 14, will be my first running race. I'm not really "racing" so much as just trying to finish in a respectable time. It is a 7k St. Patrick's Day race. I even took a day off work for it. My goal is simply to run as much of it as I can, and finish in under an hour. Ideally, I'd finish is 44:00 or less, but I recently read the course is hilly. Since I have a total of one hill run under my belt, I don't have great expectations if that's the case.

As for the rest of life...I'm on Spring Break now. The weather hasn't been very nice this week, so I'm not even getting outside to climb. I've have however been working on my application to the University of Colorado Hospital. They have an amazing Graduate Nurse Residency Program. I'd love to be a part of it, but it's very competitive. They have a whole year of training and special stuff for new grads. I'm applying to any of the ICU units, oncology or transplant. I'd be happy working anywhere though. It's a really long application process.

Well, I'll report back after the race!

Running

I've decided to start keeping a blog about running. The reason is because I've recently started running and have experiences a lot of up's and down's. Mostly down's, but I'm determined to stick with it. Eric got me a Nike sensor for my Ipod back in December. It come with a little chip that goes in your shoe and a receiver that plugs into your Ipod. It then records the distance you run, the calories you burn, and an average pace. It is a very cool and motivating thing to have. It links you to the Nike website and allows you to track progress.

So, back in December I started a run/walk program. This was great because I was on winter break and really didn't have much going on. I felt like I progressed fairly well and was able to run a mile without stopping for the first time in my life. I was feeling fairly positive about this running business. From the beginning I was excited about the idea of participating in the Boulder Marathon in September.

Then school started. It has been very difficult to continue running three or four times a week, climb, work, go to school and do clinicals. I've been able to run once a week. Sometimes twice for the last few weeks. Time is a major issue, as is energy. I figure keeping a blog when I'm frustrated or feeling particularly good might help my motivation. So this will be my first entry. The following will be training reports.

MacBook PhotoBooth

These photos are from PhotoBooth on my new Mac. I guess it's not technically new anymore, but at the time of this photo it was. My computer died last November and I became the proud new owner of the new MacBook.

I'm a terrible blogger!

So I've been a terrible blogger. I blame nursing school. Luckily, I'm approaching the end. Maybe I'll actually be a better blogger in the near future. For now, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from our Holiday Party. My parents came out for Christmas a couple weeks early and we had a dinner party. It was a lot of fun! We had our neighbors Dustin (and his sister), Steven, and the Fuller's (Jim, Deb and Alaina). Our friends Jacinda and Cory, and Erin also came. So with my mom, dad, Eric and I we needed to rent some tables. Mom made two turkeys, and we spent almost two days cooking side dishes, pies, cookies, and making drinks. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again next year. This photo of my mom and Steven cracks me up! I can't even remember what they were doing, but we were all a few drinks down!.
So, as I enter my last semester of nursing school I feel a bit like a tornado! My head is everywhere. I'm taking community health and nursing roles the first half of the semester. I think I'll like community health since I was very interested in pursuing a public health degree before I decided on nursing school. I'm hoping my schedule is easy enough this semester to allow more time for recreation. I have Mondays off, Tues and Wed class and clinicals on Thurs and Friday.

The second half of the semester I have practicum, which is where we work three 12-hour shifts with a preceptor per week but don't have classes for the most part. We only meet three times during those weeks. Then, I graduate...May 9, 2010!

My new endeavor is running. I'm trying hard to not let it impact my climbing, but I've decided to do a marathon (or a half if I can't pull off the whole...we'll see how training goes!) The Boulder Marathon is in September, so I figure I've got lots of time to get ready. I've been running some, and it's going alright so far.

Okay...soon I'll write a blog about the wedding. I'm a married woman now!