Mother's May Miles

My family doesn’t really do “typical” or “normal” very well. Instead of the usual Mother’s Day brunch or large family event, my mom asked if we could all go on a bike ride.

My mom on the ride

We did a nice 20-mile ride along the Los Gatos Creek Trail. Because we love to eat, we planned our ride so we could have a great lunch at the halfway point. We stopped in at a local pizza place and split a tasty pizza and some salads. (I meant to take a picture of my salad… but I might have eaten it all in my hunger-crazed state before I remembered that plan. I guess you will just have to trust me that it was tasty.)

It was great to get outside and take a break from my crazyschedule. The weather was amazing. It was in the high 70s and low 80s the entire ride, which was comfortable in bike shorts and a tank (and about an entire bottle of sunscreen slathered on me). The trail is covered by trees along the way so it has pockets that are cool. Where the creek isn’t channeled and overly engineered, you can see fish swimming (and I mean big fish, more than a foot or two long) and the birds diving in and out of the water. At one point we had to stop riding so a group of geese waddle across the path.

I’m looking forward to more warm days and more days out on the bike, especially if my knee keeps acting up and I can’t hit the streets for a run.

Life is flying by

The past two weeks have been insanely busy. They were the kind of weeks where as soon as you walk out of the bathroom you can’t remember if you brushed your teeth or not.

I had my final test of my college career. And although everyone is posting pictures of graduation on the Internet, I have four more weeks until I turn in my final projects and graduate. For once I’m not jealous of the semester schools getting out so early. I’m thankful to have the extra month with my friends before we are all split up and shoved into the working world.

(Check out my Beach-Inspired Skincare Story!)

I’ve also been busy at work. As Yoga Journal’s editorial assistant, I have the pleasure of working on many different projects, and they certainly keep me busy. They gave me the amazing opportunity to write a feature (unheard of for someone who still hasn’t even graduated). It hits the shelves next week, but it’s out online now if you are interested. I also get to go to my first photoshoots for my next project, and I can’t wait to share a few behind the scenes moments. Starting with what has been taking over my life: preparation for a huge photo shoot!

While my role at YJ is keeping me busy, I had my last day at the school newspaper. It’s weird to know that come deadline, it won’t be me in the newsroom running around trying to pull all of our content together and keep everyone on track. I’m going to miss working as the managing editor and all of my staff members. I applied to the newspaper two years ago on a whim, and it was the best decision I ever made. I’m going to miss the amazing friends I made while on staff. It was one of my most powerful college experiences and it solidified that I want to be fully committed to journalism. 

The Santa Clara's senior editors

Now it's just the mad rush to slow down time and make every moment count before graduation. That and to catch up with my to do list. 

May Miles

While I originally thought of May as the month I would build my monthly running milage, my body might have other plans for me. I'm currently battling a bit of tendonitis in my knee, and I have to first rest and rehab before I can really be running much. I'm hoping that by the second or third week of the month I will be back to slowly adding miles, but it doesn't look like it will be the massive running challenge I had imagined.

 
But that doesn't mean that my May Miles challenge will go to waste. Instead I will use it to increase my swimming and biking miles. As frustrating as an injury can be, every injury is an important reminder or lesson, and it provides an opportunity to improve. For me my lesson was to listen to my body sooner instead of waiting for it to develop into a full-blown injury. And since my legs can't pound the pavement as much as I used to or lift heavy at CrossFit, I am taking the opportunity to get back into swimming for the summer months and work on some technique and upper body strength at CrossFit (all while doing some super fun rehab exercises to get back in action). And with such beautiful weather, who could be upset about going for a swim?

April Adventure: Almaden Quicksilver Park

Confession: I am afraid of spiders. For the most part I am a logical being and I understand that the likelihood of death by a spider bite is incredibly low, but that doesn't stop me from believing death is imminent every time I see a spider. With that said, I had to confront some serious spider phobias on my last hike.

Getting to Almaden Quicksilver Park was an adventure in itself. I had been there before for a fieldtrip, but we had entered through a surrounding neighborhood that I couldn't remember anymore. We ended up going through the entrance at the far side of the park which meant that the trails we hiked on where fairly empty. This was great in that it's nice to hike with your friends and not be constantly surrounded by other people when you are trying to just be outside in nature by yourselves, but it's also incredibly unfortunately when it appears you are hiking straight into the Land of Spiders and no one appears to have knocked down any of the webs for you.

My poor friend Alec turned into our spider shield as my roommate and I crouched behind him for at least a mile total of the trail (that's definitely one disadvantage of being tall). The morning sun lit up the webs perfectly so we could see every terrifying strand handing down from the trees across the path and creating intricate patterns above our heads. At one point the nerd inside of me (and the part of me that really wanted to say forget it and go home) started quoting Ron from Harry Potter. Thankfully no one listed to me and once we made it out of serious spider territory the hike was great.

We even journeyed off the trail (just barely) and climbed a rock that looked interesting. 

But the best part was finally settling down to eat an amazing salad and some cookies on the floor (we were too dusty and dirty to sit on anything nicer). 

WOD of the Week

I have always loved to swim. I was swimming before I could talk, and it's one activity that has always been calming and fun for me, whether I am swimming competitively  to stay in shape, or just to catch up with all of my thoughts. I'm never bored in the water, and I rarely, if ever, pass up on the opportunity to swim. 

Thanks for the photos Meagan

Today felt like a great day to swim, especially since the weather has been nice and I upset my knee a bit last night (I had poor form on a max weight squat clean and tugged on something in my knee. It's fine, just a little swollen and tender, but I'm going to give it at least a week of rest before I squat even body weight). So instead of going for my typical run, I pulled out the bathing suites (yes, I am one of those swimmers that wears two suites, a weird habit I picked up on the swim team) and slathered myself in sunscreen. 

Unfortunately I spent so much time cleaning up the kitchen that my swim was seriously rushed. Due to some car trouble (my driver's side window gave up on ever coming back up, leaving my car breezy and open for the taking) I only had 30 minutes to get my mile swim in. Yikes.

I definitely have not swum that far, that fast since I had a swim coach yelling at me from the deck. I know I will probably be sore tomorrow and I will be annoyed with myself for doing a miles worth of sprint sets when I have to work on only my arms at CrossFit tomorrow to keep resting my knee, it felt absolutely amazing today. I feel graceful and powerful in the water. It's the one element where I can't trip and fall over and no one can see all of the weird faces I make. I also love not being able to hear anything except for the water moving past my ears. You can't beat a great swim, even if it was brutally quick.

Why Women Run

I got this month's issue of Runner's World in the wake of Boston (the problem with having your mail forwarded, it's always insanely late). Most of the magazine was full of cheerful essays about what running the Boston Marathon meant and projections about how it would play out. But in the aftermath of the bombing, I couldn't bring myself to read any of them. 

Instead I got caught up in a story about why women run ("Why Do Women Run?"), and I found myself oddly frustrated with the whole thing. The ultimate answer given was "because they're human." Really? I was dissatisfied with their answer, so I started to think about why I run. They should of said because:

1. Running builds confidence.
2. It pushes the limits of what you thought you could ever do.
3. It makes that voice in your head that doubts you shut up for a while.
4. It's relaxing.
5. It has no expectations for you, and I have no expectations of my performance or ability. 
6. It's fun.
7. It can be competitive or another way to spend time with a friend.
8. It takes you places.
9. Runners are a community that looks out for one another and encourages each other.
10. It's nearly impossible to not feel good about yourself after a good run, or any run for that matter.

April Adventure: Alum Rock Park Hike

My roommate, my friend, and I decided to get in touch with our inner explorers and go for a hike. My roommate wanted to go to Alum Rock Park, about 20 minutes from our apartment. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we ended up being pleasantly surprised. The park itself was small, which meant it wasn’t too crowded and it would be difficult to get lost (something I am typically pretty adept at).

There is a saying around campus that we live in a bubble, and it’s often incredibly accurate. We spend most of our time on campus or right next to it. Before college I lived a mile from the beach and another mile from a park with plenty of open space and hiking trails, and it is one of the things I miss most about my hometown. This was the first time I had ventured so far from campus into San Jose without a class project forcing me to. From one of the lookouts along our hike it was clear just how small our bubble really is. We live and study in such a small space of the Silicon Valley that you could barely see it from the hills we look at from our windows at home.

It was absolutely amazing to get out of the heavily suburban area we spend so much our time in and see real wildlife (not just drunk students and squirrels, of which there are plenty around campus). We saw some seriously speedy lizards, little birds and hawks, an adorable rat, and a whole lot of cows. I’ve been to farms before with school groups, but I’ve never spent so much time so close to quite that many. At one point we were walking through a whole herd of them (which terrified my roommate, she had earlier decided that the cows were suspicious of us and didn’t like her because they would stare at us). Other than having to constantly watch where we were stepping to avoid any surprises they had left behind, it was really enjoyable to be able to see so much life along our hike.

My friends were completely against using a map (it was a really small park with only 13 miles of trails, so we figured we couldn’t get into too much trouble. However, I recommend always taking a park map) and instead we went where we wanted and followed our curiosity. We ended up taking an incredibly steep, winding journey up one of the foothills near Mt. Hamilton and a very steep trip back down.

We went to the top of the peak in the middle of the photo. 

When we got home I could hardly walk. My roommate and I ended up having to take a nap we were so exhausted. I woke up feeling better than expected, and falling asleep to my memories of the stunning views and peace was well worth the calf pain and foot cramps. 

To read more about my April Adventures, go here.
To see more photos from our hike, go here.