Random Shit Tuesday

Monday workout: 5 miles, 11:38 average, Connects
Tuesday workout: 9 miles with 6 x 1 mile (9:34 with 400m rest)

Hey, we should do another Random Shit Tuesday because it's Tuesday and I want to talk in bullet points so I can jump from random thought to random thought with nary a smooth transition to be found. Okay, let's go!

• Tuesday is my new least favorite day. Actually, it's always been my least favorite day (isn't it everyone's?), but now it's EVEN WORSE. Why? Because today I started the  Hansons' "strength" workouts. That means no more speed (wah), and also death. Because these workouts blow. At least, today's did. 6 x 1 mile with 400m rest between each. 9:34 pace for each interval. That isn't a speed workout, that's a tempo disguised as a speed workout, done on the sixth consecutive day of running.
• I'm pretty sure that the more torturous the workout, the more important it is to running a marathon. This seems to be true of these workouts. According to my Hanson guidebook, "When strength workouts are added to the schedule, the goal of training shifts from improving the VO2max (along with anaerobic threshold) to maintaining the VO2max and preparing the body to handle the fatigue associated with marathon running. You'll notice that at the same time the strength segment begins, the tempo runs and the long runs become more substantial." WHY DID THEY HAVE TO TELL ME THAT?
• Getting out of bed in the morning is really exciting these days because I never know how my legs are going to feel. You would think that hard run = difficulty getting out of bed the next day, but there seems to be no correlation between run difficulty and next-day soreness. Some mornings I'm surprised there's no soreness, and others I feel like I've got that horrifying disease where your muscles turn to bone (or something). It's kind of like Russian Roulette! And equally dangerous, obviously.
• It took me three years, but I can no longer tolerate the sight of oatmeal. This is a very sad state of affairs. Oatmeal and I were best friends. The promise of oatmeal was literally my only motivation to go to work when I lived in New York (you think I'm kidding). Now, not so much. Now, I want to gag when I eat it. I was blindsided by this development because I'm the kind of person who can eat the same shit food every single day for the rest of my life and love it (see: pizza and turkey sandwiches from Subway). So what am I supposed to eat for breakfast now? I DON'T KNOW. I love cereal and milk, but an enormous bowl of that good stuff only keeps me going for like an hour. Sometimes I have peanut butter on toast, but it's always followed by oatmeal an hour or two later. What else do people eat for breakfast? Waffles? Should I just make an enormous batch of waffles at the beginning of each week and eat a waffle for breakfast? Help me. This is urgent.
• I'm really starting to miss hiking. The snow's melting and I'm being pelted with amazing hiking opportunities from my weirdo Meetup stranger friends, but I can't go because I have to run. Fortunately, I foresaw this happening, which is why I decided to run Anchorage's earlier marathon in June and not its later marathon in August. Plus, the hiking's going to be pretty soggy for the next couple of months. Come June 29, we should have absolutely perfect hiking conditions. I'll be so ready to get back at it.

I miss you.

• If you have five minutes (obviously you do if you're reading this), use it to check out the reviews of this "BIC Cristal For Her Ball Pen." My favorite: "I can't find a switch to turn it on, and it didn't come with batteries. This is not the 'for her' product I was expecting. At all." There are many, many others (more PG than my favorite because I'm disgusting). It's a gold mine! Also, what a dumb product.
• I added up my monthly mileage the second I finished today's run, and I ended April with 154.5 miles. Last month? 154.75. What are the odds?! I missed five days of running while in Norway so I'm pretty happy with that number.
• Okay, I've put off studying for long enough. It seems I blew my concentration wad (sorry) on my first final and can't bring myself to study for the next. This bodes well for grad school.

Questions:

• WHAT DO I EAT FOR BREAKFAST? What do other people eat for breakfast besides oatmeal?
• What's your least favorite day of the week?

Pregnancy Glamor Shots... in a Bog (plus a Weekly Recap)

Thursday workout: 10 miles with 8 tempo (9:30), Connects
Friday workout: 5 miles, easy, 10:38 average, Pace Gloves
Saturday workout: 8 miles, 2 outside in Connects, 6 on a treadmill, socks, 11:52 average
Sunday workout: 10 miles, 10:29 average, Pace Gloves

I may have slacked at blogging these past few days, but I certainly did not slack at running. I've got finals next week (HOW are finals at the end of April, UAA? Budget cuts? This is not normal. Spring Break was one month ago) so I've been a bit strapped for time. Come next Thursday, however, I'll be spewing all over your interblogs, so get ready!

Today's run was just delightful. And oh-so beautiful.

Kudos to anyone who can spot that beauty Flattop. Hint: it's the flat one.

I've been doing all of my runs in the same place since it's next to school/work and my beloved woodsy trails are covered in jagged sluce (snow-slush-ice. I just made that up. You're welcome), so I took the extra time the weekend afforded me to head over to the general vicinity of the Coastal Trail (which is also covered in sluce) and run in my pavement paradise. I spent most of my run in the airplane zoo I found last week and got way too excited about having to stop and yield to an airplane crossing the road (which, by the way, is a sight to behold. They have tiny tires and kind of flutter their way across the pavement).

Wasn't quick enough to catch the plane crossing.

I decided to fuel for this run even though I didn't really need it. I took a gross margarita shotblok (which, as I mentioned previously, I can hardly even look at these days) every couple of miles, as well as a Honey Stinger gel at mile 6. Last week my flavor was "golden." This week it was "chocolate." They taste identical. Huh? I think that fueling during a shorter run like this prevented me from the post-run panger (that's panic-hunger) I often experience. I was able to wait until after my shower to eat, as opposed to shoving food down my throat the second I got to the car. It was a nice feeling! [updated to add: I forgot I ate two pieces of pizza in addition to my usual breakfast. That may have more to do with it than fueling during the run...]

I spent the entire run head-singing this song. You've likely heard it. If I know it, it doesn't get any more mainstream/popular. But this song is peppy. It's slightly soulful. And the singer sounds exactly like Leona Lewis, who sang my Summer 2008 power song (Bleeding Love). Basically, it was written for me. I'd like to find "him" next to me someday ("him" referring, of course, to Taye Diggs).

I saw some strange sights on my run. Chief among them was a woman getting her pregnancy glamor photos taken. There's nothing wrong with commemorating that time you were pregnant, of course, but of all places in this beautiful town to take pictures, she chose to have them done in a gross, wet bog full of dead trees. Huh? Was this where your child was conceived, ma'am? Because I can't think of any other possible reason for choosing that locale. Also, she looked really depressed. And now that I've outlined that hypothetical situation, I'm feeling pretty depressed myself.

It looked like this, only uglier, because I sort of like this. Not for a pregnancy glamor shot, however.

I wore shorts today. And yesterday. And the day before that. And the one before that. You get the idea. Shorts season has officially arrived! No WAY I'm going back to tights. Tights are restrictive. Tights are dumb. And when you overheat like I do, tights do nothing but create a localized sauna of hot disgustingness. Everyone wins when Jeano wears shorts.

[side note: my real name is Jean (duh). I refer to myself as Jeano (in third person, no less!) because it helps me dissociate the real Jean, who would be mortified to be caught with a running blog, from Jeano, who's cool with it. Don't think about that too hard because it doesn't make sense. Suffice it to say that if this were Fight Club, Jean is Edward Norton and Jeano is Brad Pitt, only Jean's slightly less embarrassing than Jeano. This is my way of saying that if you feel ridiculous calling me Jeano, that's because it is indeed a ridiculous name. Jean's fine. Take your pick.]

It made me sad that so many people gave me judge-y (that's totally a word if I SAY it's a word, spell-check!) looks because of my attire. I mean, dudes, don't you know the rule? It's 52 degrees outside right now (in the sun-it still counts)! Somehow no one seems to have gotten the memo that down jackets and fur-lined boots are so last month. At this point, if you're wearing them, it's a fashion statement. A very ugly fashion statement at that. I'm going to chalk these nasty looks (and comments! There were comments!) up to jealousy. THEY haven't had a chance to develop that dark, tan strip of skin between shorts and compression socks like I have. Also, I haven't seen any other runners wearing shorts. Because I am always right, they are obviously over-dressing. I'm sweating just thinking about those tights.

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Somehow, today marks the end of week 11 of marathon training. Holy ship. That's a lot of weeks. Let's do a recap!

Monday: 7 miles, easy

Tuesday: 6 miles with 4 x 1200 (8:30 pace with 400m rest)

Wednesday: rest

Thursday: 10 miles with 8 tempo

Friday: 5 easy

Saturday: 8 easy

Sunday: 10 easy-but-less-easy-than-other-easy-days

Total: 46 miles

I'd like to point out that, while 46 miles is an extremely high number for me, if you measure the week from Saturday-Saturday and not Sunday-Sunday, my total was 51 miles (!). I know it doesn't "count," technically, but hot damn!

Those miles didn't come easy, that's for sure. This week was hard. Probably the hardest one yet. My recovery runs felt pretty awful, to be honest. I spent each and every one angrily composing a post entitled "The Day My Body Just Stopped Moving" in my head because I literally couldn't contemplate running the next day. But those crazy Hanson geniuses know their shit, because those easy runs left me recovered enough to bust out some pretty impressive harder efforts. Normally I'd stomp my foot and throw a fit about how I always have to be right (see above), but in this case I'm glad they outsmarted me. Today, in fact, my ten miles felt great! Which is good, because this coming week is going to be EVEN HARDER. Send help. And pizza. A huge, all-meat pizza.

Questions:

• Tell me about all your crazy tan lines.
• What jams are you listening to recently? I need some power songs. I'm so tired of my iPod music, which hasn't been updated in a billion years.
• Why do people wear so much clothing? What are you rocking on your runs these days?
• People familiar with school schedules, when does the semester at your local school end? Not for another month, right?

Eugene-Bound!

Tuesday workout: 6 miles with 4 x 1200 (at 8:00-ish pace with 400m)
Wednesday workout: sweet, glorious rest

Hi friends, I have exciting news for you: I finally figured out where I'm going to school this fall!

!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm off to this pretty li'l place:

You mean you don't immediately recognize it?! Shame on you! Although if you're semi-literature and bothered to read this post's title (I wouldn't blame you if you didn't), you already know...

... that I'm heading to Eugene, Oregon this fall! I'm wicked excited.

You may be wondering why it took me so long to make this decision when U of O was my top choice to begin with. Well, I could go on and on about it, but I'll just say that I was unexpectedly admitted to two additional schools on April 14, one of which was by far the "best-ranked" of the schools I applied to. I admit that I allowed myself to be seduced by those wily rankings. Never mind the fact that being admitted on April 14 without funding meant I was obviously at the very, very bottom of their admitted list. It still counts!

Anyway, there was a lot of agonizing and hair-pulling before I realized I was trying to make the "better" program (and all the others, at one point or another) fit what I want instead of going with the program that already fits perfectly. That's Oregon!

I think my biggest difficulty in all of this was that I was so desperate to avoid making a hasty decision that I asked anyone and everyone (with a graduate degree) for their advice and hounded millions of students in each program about their experiences. Talk about opinion overload. The many people I spoke with had very strong views on where I should go to school, but there was almost no agreement on what's most important in choosing a graduate program. Some told me to just "go with the best-ranked program you can get into." Others told me funding should be the priority and rankings are bullshit. Yet others said I should choose the one MA program I applied to and reapply to PhD programs next year. I had so many arguments running through my head I didn't know what to do. Don't get me wrong, I'm lucky to be able to benefit from the experience of those who have been there, but it sort of made me lose sight of what I wanted. But hey, at least I can be confident I made an informed decision!

So, Eugene. I've never been there, but I hear it's a very Jeano-friendly city (also, fun fact: I'm named after my Grandpa's middle name which is, you guessed it, Eugene!). I see exactly one mountain in photos of the city, which hurts my Alaskan soul, but that's one more mountain than that dump New York City and I put up with that shit hole for two whole years! Also, I'll only be an hour from both mountains and the coast, and I hear Eugene is an outdoorsy place so I should be able to get my wilderness fix. And let's not forget the Eugene Marathon!! Eugene 2014, anyone? Okay, it would be naive of me to say I'll be running it next year because, hello, grad school, but maybe someday... 

[Also, good luck to everyone racing Eugene this weekend!]

Thanks to everyone for putting up with my grad school hysteria these past few months. It's something I've been working towards since I graduated from undergrad in 2010 and it's crazy to think it's finally happening! And THANK GOD I've got one less thing to think about. My brain hurts.

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Hey, running! I'm resting today. I am very happy about this. I survived my first week back post-Norway but I was so ready for a day off. Surprisingly, though, I somehow felt better after yesterday's speed workout than I did at any other time this past week. How does that make sense? Body, you are so strange.

My calves were REALLY sore from Thursday until yesterday (Tuesday), and Monday's seven miles may have been the hardest this entire training cycle (side note: although I understand their reasoning, why can't the Hansons give me a rest day after a long run like every other training plan?!). I think the best word to describe that run is "heavy." You know what I mean.

Consequently, I was NOT eagerly anticipating yesterday's 1200s, to put it mildly. My calves felt like they were about to snap and I just wanted to drown in a bucket of buttered popcorn and watch Breaking Bad (note to self: buy popcorn! I keep forgetting) next to the sweet remote-controlled fireplace at the house I'm watching. But noooo, the Hansons decided I was going to run around an ice rink. Fine. Jerks.

Because the Hansons know me better than I know myself, my run ended up being pretty awesome. It took an embarrassingly long time for my calves to loosen up but once they did, I was ready to run fast (FOR ME). I only get to run faster than a snail's pace twice a week and Tuesdays are the only day I get to feel really out of breath, so I made it count.

I ended up running my repeats at slightly faster than an 8:00 pace (I was aiming for 8:30-oops). I even had to hold myself back! I've come a long way since that first horrendous speed workout. I think the best advice I've got for anyone, ever is to NEVER DO SPEEDWORK ON A TREADMILL. Shit's painful.

And, of course, just when I've gotten the hang of speedwork, the Hansons are forcing me to move on to  longer intervals. This is what's on tap for next week and beyond:

Those dates don't make any sense.

Look at next Tuesday - 6 x 1 mi - eek! Granted, I've been running my tempos at around 9:30 so the pace isn't a big deal, but now I've got six miles of speed in each speed workout instead of three. So many miles.

Well, that's all I've got for today. All you Eugene marathoners, be sure to take plenty of pictures so I can check out my new home!

• Have you ever been to Eugene? Tell me all about it.
• Are you a "go with your gut" kinda person, or do you over-think things?
• What's your favorite interval workout? "No intervals" is an acceptable answer.

Jeano's Box Cake Factory

Workout: 15 miles (!!), 10:19 average, Connects

Somehow, aided by optimism and a mercifully poor memory that forgot what 10+ miles feels like, I survived 15 miles today. Yep. That's the longest run that's happened 'round these parts in quite some time (by five miles!). Why did those schizo Hansons decide to jump from 10 to 15 miles? Search me, but I somehow managed to pull it off. Not only that, but I'd say it went rather well!

So, fuel. After staring blankly at REI's offerings for a full 10 minutes or so, I grabbed a bunch of things, largely at random. I was really hoping to find something salty/savory because after one run three weeks ago, I'm totally over sweet and sugary energy things. Unfortunately, REI seemed to have nothing but sweet and sugary, so I reluctantly chose things that seemed semi-edible.

[Side note: does anyone have suggestions for savory things? I know Logan went the chips route for a run last week, and while that sounds like something I'd usually be all over, it seems too ultra-y (aka out of my league). I'm looking for something that packages itself as running fuel and charges me a premium for something I could make in two seconds for a fraction of the price]

For the run itself, I opted for some sports beans (WHICH ARE ACTUALLY MADE BY JELLY BELLY. What?) and a Honey Stinger gel whose flavor was mysteriously called "Golden" (I correctly assumed this meant honey, unless they're all honey? Honey Stinger?). I gotta say, that honey gooeyness was pretty awesome. I'm kicking myself for not buying more, and for picking up two packs of margarita-flavored Shotbloks, which used to be my go-to but now make me want to vomit. Why don't you learn, Jeano?! If I can't find something savory, I'll probably go for those from now on.

Most of my run happened on familiar territory, 

but I took a turn into crazytown when I stumbled upon a road that wound through an airplane graveyard. Or, I guess, zoo, as they're all in operation.

This does a very poor job of showing you all the airplanes, but at least they're airplanes!

I didn't have a hard time keeping my splits where I wanted them, although I admit I turned music on for the last five miles. It was Mumford & Sons, though, so, like, not pump-up music. I could have done all 15 sans music, but I just didn't feel like it.

15 miles on the books! Next week I only have to do 10 (although the weekly mileage is similar), so I've got a couple of weeks to gear up for the next long run (16 miles, I believe?). Bring it.

----

I finally signed up for the marathon I'm training for!

I really wish the confirmation page was more exciting than this.

I had to wait until my finances were in a better place, but now that Norway's behind me (I was afraid I'd need megabucks in the event of an emergency), I decided it was time.

I'll be running the Mayor's Marathon at the end of June. I'm not at all familiar with the course (I ran the half a few years ago but the two races use two totally different routes), but I know it spends 8-ish miles on "trails" typically closed to us non-military folk, so I'm really excited to see what that's all about. If you're at all interested, you can check out a race report here. She's got pictures of this mysterious trail and it looks nice! The weather's usually pretty decent in June and the temperature always gets five Jeanos up, which means this race will be better than 99.9% of all June marathons. That's a fact.

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Weekly recap!

Monday: I eased back into running with 5 slow treadmill miles

Tuesday: 6 miles with 5 x 1k (8:30 pace with 400m rest)

Wednesday: rest

Thursday: 10 miles with 8 tempo (9:44 pace)

Friday: 6 easy miles

Saturday: 5 easy miles

Sunday: 15 miles

Total: 47 miles!!!!

A new weekly mileage PR by 5.5 miles. Hot damn!

I can't say it was a piece of cake getting back to running this week, but I did all my scheduled runs and am back on track, my favorite place to be.

----

I'm thrilled to announce the grand opening of Jeano's Box Cake Factory. That's cake made from a box mix, not a cake that comes in a box (although I suppose I could throw it in a box if you're into that kind of thing, you weirdo). We can make you whatever you want, as long as it's vanilla with chocolate frosting.

All good businesses have pictures of their products, so I present to you the following:

Because I'm a good food blogger and we food bloggers know food looks radically different when viewed from slightly different vantage points, here's another picture. You're welcome.

Okay, okay, you got me, I'm not opening a cake factory; I just wanted to brag about my enviable culinary talents.

To you guys!

• Any suggestions for savory fuel?
• Your cakes look this bad, right? Right?!
• Signed up for any races recently? Where? When? Tell me everything.

That Time I Reported a Fellow Passenger to a Flight Attendant

Friday workout: 6 miles, 10:30 average, Pace Gloves
Saturday workout: 5 miles, 10:50-ish average, Pace Gloves

I thought I was done talking about Norway, but then I happened to rediscover the awesome shots I took while flying from Oslo to New York and realized I wanted to talk about that 26-hour saga.

Let's start with getting to the Oslo airport. Norway, you've got public transportation DOWN. The T-bane was awesome (and omg clean!!!!!!! Nary a hint of urine in the air!) and getting from downtown to the airport on whatever that train was called took two seconds. 

Those buildings are pretty rad.

This was the first time I've flown during the day in literally seven or eight years, and it was so nice to be able to actually see things. Also, because I was flying west, it was light the ENTIRE TRIP. That's 26 hours of daylight. It was trippy.

I don't really want to tell you about the entire trip, I just want to show you the following photos and tell you a story about what a paranoid (and delightful?) traveler I am. First, photos taken who knows where! My flight map was broken so all I can say is that it was somewhere between Oslo and New York. I'm pretty sure we flew over Iceland and Greenland, so probably somewhere in that general area.

If it's jagged and covered in snow, it will be my favorite thing ever.

If you're having a hard time distinguishing this from the previous picture, you're not alone.

It totally looks like we're in space. Also, the sky really was that blue.

Okay, last one, I swear!

So, paranoid traveler story. I want to preface this by saying that although I pretty much always manage to convince myself the plane's about to go down for one reason or another, I've never reported a fellow passenger to the flight crew. Uh-huh. You read that right. I tattled on my seat-mate for convincing me he was up to no good. Watch out, fliers, Jeano's on the case!

I swear, though, this guy was CREEPY. He was totally up to no good. At first he was just going in and out of the bathroom every two seconds. Strange, but not unheard of. Maybe he was hungover. After a few back-and-forths, though, he came back to his seat, pulled some documents out of his bag, and went right back into the bathroom for the next half hour. WHY? WHY DID HE BRING PAPERS IN THERE WITH HIM? In my mind, they were instructions for dismantling an essential part of the plane accessible only from the bathroom. See, I'm totally sane, right?

He finally came back to his seat, and I was able to rest easy... until thirty seconds later when he and those damn papers made their way to the emergency exit, where he parked himself for the next hour "reading" but really figuring out how he could open the emergency door and make the plane go down (does a plane go down if you open one of those things? I don't understand science). At this point, we were about three hours into the flight and I had done nothing but stalk him the entire time. I was very tired but determined to be the hero that saved everyone's (okay, mostly my own) lives.

Eventually, he sat down again... for ten minutes. Then it was back to the bathroom for another half hour, and then BACK TO THE EMERGENCY DOOR. What are you doing, Norwegian man?! Why can't you sit in your damn seat?! At this point, I decided it was worth revealing my insanity to the flight attendants if there was even the remotest possibility he really was up to something. So I walked right up to a flight attendant and told him my crazy theory.

He was nice enough to take me semi-seriously, although he asked me a strange question like, "What are you having to drink?" I don't know if he was asking if I had been drinking (although it would probably help my craziness, I'm always worried drinking on a plane will just make it worse so I never do it) or offering to give me a free drink to calm me down. Who knows. I said no. The flight attendant said he would keep an eye on my Norwegian nemesis and I sat back down.

Surprisingly enough, evil man sat down after I reported him. He stayed seated for an hour or so and I was able to relax a bit (not sleep, though. Constant vigilance!).

Just as I was able to convince myself we were in the clear, we started descending and of course this gd Norwegian GOES BACK TO THE BATHROOM. Dude didn't come out again UNTIL AFTER WE LANDED. I was literally semi-hyperventilating in my seat. I couldn't believe no one else seemed concerned about this crazy man.

Obviously I survived. That doesn't change the fact that this man was up to no good. I'm convinced he was aware of the fact that I could do nothing but stare at him and thus decided to let us live. See? I'm totally crazy. I hate, hate, hate to fly and am relieved I don't have another flight scheduled any time soon (I'm pretty sure I'm going to drive to grad school instead of flying, thanks god).

---

Moving on to running, it's been so beautiful in Anchorage the past few days! So much sun and so much snow melt. It's still around 12-17 degrees in the mornings, but in the afternoon it's been a shocking 50+ degrees in the sun. In fact, I ran in shorts both yesterday and today. Today, I even had to shed the long-sleeve shirt I was wearing! Yes, folks, I, the ice queen, ran in shorts and a tank top. It was a sight to behold (or maybe not-this girl's skin is PALE).

Kind of a terrible shot but the only picture I took on my run yesterday.

Taken today-look at that sky!

I've been completely unable to keep my pace as slow as I'm supposed to these past few days. It was actually really frustrating today, as I literally didn't feel I could go any slower and yet I was running 10:50s or so (I was supposed to be running 11:38). This is obviously not the end of the world since I'm still maintaining the spirit of the workout (ie. run as slowly as possible), but obsessive Jeano has definitely been yelling at me a lot.

Tomorrow's a doozy - 15 miles! My longest run in almost a year. Eeeeeeek! I'll be fine, though. I'm taking it easy tonight, hoping to get a good night's rest, and fueling with pancakes tomorrow morning.

I hope you're all doing wonderful things with your weekend! Tell me:

• What's the craziest/most paranoid thing you've ever done on a plane?
• What's the coolest place you've ever flown over?

I'm Out There, Bloggers, and I'm Loving Every Minute of It!

[Okay, that title didn't work at all. I thought the quote was "I'm back, Jerry, and I'm loving every minute of it," but a quick google search told me I'm full of it. That was my attempt to cleverly tell you I've returned to the interblogs. Also, I still don't know what you're supposed to capitalize in a title.]

Monday workout: 5 miles, super easy, on the treadmill in socks

Tuesday workout: 6 miles with 1 x 5k (8:30 pace with 400m rest), Connects

Wednesday workout: rest

Thursday workout: 10 miles, 8 at tempo (9:25-ish), Connects

Oh hey, fancy seeing you here! You come here often? No? Hey, me neither. At least, not these past few days.

Sorry about that. I wasn't trying to be dramatic or anything ("Did she decide to stay in Norway?!?!? Did she break her leg?! Does she not like us anymore?!" Or, more probably, "Jeano who?"); I just had a shit ton of stuff to catch up on. I am not anywhere near caught up, but there's only so much work you can do before you need to chill the eff out. I'm chilling out by chatting with you fine folks, sitting next to an incredible remote-controlled fireplace, watching Parks and Rec, taking advantage of a well-stocked fridge, and being harassed by an attention-starved cat at the house I'm housesitting. It's delightful. Anyway, let's get to it!

I'd be remiss not to start with Boston, although adding another "thoughts and prayers to those affected by the tragedy" to the mix sounds almost hollow at this point. It's not that I don't mean it, of course not. I just mean that because I am not particularly adept at talking about feelings, I don't have much to add to the many wonderful things that have been said already.

As someone who likes to take action, tragedies like these are extremely frustrating ("frustrating" is an understatement). We can't outlaw pressure cookers and backpacks the way we can (and should-gettin' political!) outlaw guns. And given that we don't even know who these guys are (yet), there is nothing to direct my rage towards. All we can really do is sit around and twiddle our thumbs. I just hope we catch the assholes who are responsible for this.

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So I lied about not running in Oslo. I ran. 10 miles. I know, I know, I babbled on and on about wanting to walk all over for hours and hours and how running didn't fit in with that, but I obviously spoke too soon. I'm an idiot. 

I'm paranoid about budgeting a ridiculous amount of time to do even the simplest activity (for example, when I lived in New York I would give myself a solid two hours to try out a new subway route that only took a half hour because I was so worried about screwing it up). Last Saturday, my only full day in Oslo, I decided I wanted to go to a lake on the outskirts of Oslo. I figured it would be an all-day affair. 

Sognsvann. It was not the lush paradise I had pictured. There were billions of runners out, though. I saw a sign with the Olympics rings so I think it might have been a training camp of some sort?

Well, I went, I walked, and I conquered that lake in, like, two hours. I was back in my hotel room around 11:00 a.m. The hell? What was I supposed to do with myself for the rest of the day?

Go for a run! Duh.

I made the mistake of starting by the ocean, which I thought would be pretty, but it really wasn't. Think construction. Oslo apparently loves construction (or, I guess, cleaning up the city, an admirable goal!).

I wasted four miles along the water before heading north along the Akerselva River, which runs right through the middle of the city. I'm so pissed I didn't start there, because it was gorgeous. The farther north I got, the higher I went (this run was insanely steep. I'm not sure I would have done it had I known just how steep going in) and the more picturesque it became. Had I continued, I would have ended up at a lake.

HOW IS THIS IS IN THE MIDDLE OF A CITY???

It was spectacular. Since it had been an extremely low-mileage week, the run didn't feel hard. I did a lot of walking afterwards and didn't seem to feel it.

I love the heart statue in front of the church (church? Fancy building of some sort).

The opera house, the only scenic part of the waterfront.

View from the opera house. It took the entire trip, but the weather finally cleared up!

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And thus we conclude Oslo coverage. Norway was amazing, if ridiculously expensive, and I am so happy I had the opportunity to go. Honestly, when I left I was kind of upset about it because the timing was so inconvenient (close to the end of the semester, right when I had to make some big decisions about grad school, etc.), but the very short time I was there has me itching to go back (in a million years when I'm earning six figures). I LOVED Oslo, which really surprised me because I hate cities. Oslo: five Jeanos up! That's the new super awesome rating system I just came up with. People should pay me for my genius ideas.

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Last week killed what had been, up to that point, a nearly perfect marathon training cycle. Some commenters claimed to admire my "dedication" and "commitment," to the Hanson Method, although I think what they were actually trying to say was, "Jesus Christ, you are an obsessive maniac. Chill out already." I wish I could say that my week off allowed me to do just that, but if anything, I think it's made me even more determined to follow it exactly. Suckers!

I can't tell whether my legs feel refreshed or awkward and leaden after my time off. I guess I'd say it's a little bit of both. During my runs I've been pretty tired (although I'm still sort of jet-lagged so I'd say part of it has to do with that), but afterwards my legs have felt great. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be dead by the time my next rest day rolls around, though.

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Well, this post has been kind of all over the place (blame Parks and Rec!) so I'll stop while we're behind. I am eager to start reading blogs again and can't wait to hear what you've all been up to!

Sophisticated Lady Tours Oslo on the Wrong Side of the Sidewalk

Friday workout: walk 5 bajillion miles around Oslo

Saturday workout: 10 miles, 10:30 average, Connects

Yesterday, I walked. And walked. And walked and walked and walked. You get the idea.

Walking's no joke when you're out of practice. When I lived in New York, I was the walking queen. I walked all day and all night. Walking for 3+ hours was no big thang.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

It's easy for me as a runner to look at a proposed route and think, "10 miles? I can run that just fine, so I can obviously walk it even more easily." WRONG. I can't say for sure that I walked ten miles yesterday, but I was on my feet and moving for four and a half hours so it must be something like that. Although I was literally taking survival breaks on benches whenever possible.

That's my very long introduction to, "here are some pictures of Oslo!" It's a beautiful city, albeit a city that's still very much dead. It was cool, rainy, grey, and windy yesterday, but like the intrepid tourist I am (side note: my ex-boss once called me intrepid and I think it was the best compliment I've ever received), I got out there and took in the sights.

Without further ado, a tour of Oslo through Jeano's eyes!

First up: Munch Museum.

If I'm being honest (and we like to be, here at JJ-o), I wasn't crazy about this museum. I'm a Munch fan, but they didn't actually have much of his work displayed. They're in the process of changing exhibitions or something (All I heard was, "The Scream isn't here"), so they actually had the work of a lot of other artists who influenced/were influenced by Munch on display. Some of his work was thrown in, but not nearly enough for my liking.

In fact, the piece I liked best was on display in the basement by the bathroom:

Lover of bathroom art. AKA sophisticated lady. Also, can we talk about how taking pictures of art in a museum is dumb? I realize my hypocrisy in posting this. But really, you see tourists spending every second taking pictures of every single piece of art without actually stopping to take it in through their own eyes!

Sir Jahren, you have the handwriting of a 12 year old. This suggests you are, in fact, a 12-year-old (making me an extra sophisticated lady), but I doubt it.

So austere.

Because it was right there, I went to the Botanical Gardens. Obviously, there's not much to see right now.

The route to Old Akers Church:

Old Akers Church! In addition to having tons of dead people (always an attraction, amirite?), it was on one of the steepest hills I've ever ascended (it made my heart stop seeing how many runners were using it for hill repeats), which allowed for some nice views of the city.

I obviously had a love affair with the church door. Leave me alone, it was vibrant!!

The tiniest stained glass window I ever did see. 

Miscellaneous houses:

I love all the yellow buildings. 

I decided to take a scenic route back to my hotel via the Akerselva River, which runs through the middle of the city from north to south. It's rather dirty, honestly, and there is pretty major construction what seems like every 100 feet (there must be some initiative to clean it up), but it's still a gem.

So that's what I was up to yesterday afternoon. I'm gearing myself up for today, which is going to be even longer (and thus more painful). I'm not an "eat in fine dining establishments when I travel" kinda gal (sophisticated lady. Also, my pocketbook would thank me if I had one) and much prefer to just walk around and see pretty things, so there will be a lot of walking.

Oh, what's that? What about running? Wasn't I telling you all about how excited I am to run here? This is true. I was really, really looking forward to it, and running is a great way to see a city. However, the running clothes vs. regular clothes issue is too much for me to deal with when I have so little time here and want to see as much as possible. I don't need to wear much clothing while running, which is all well and good, but that means that when I finish running I need to be back inside immediately or I'm going to get hypothermia and die (or something). If I want to run somewhere that's far from my hotel (which I do/did) and then continue to explore the area post-run, that would require two trips, which I'm not cool with. And yes, if I wanted it badly enough, I could probably figure out a way to make it work, but I'm on vacation, guys! Let me live a little! My muscles are not atrophying (quite the contrary, in fact) and I'll be back at it come Mondag (oh god, Mondag is going to be miserable. Also, see all the Norwegian I'm learning?!).

[UPDATED TO ADD: I'm such a liar]

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As for my totally interesting observations from a couple of days ago, I've got one more to add:

From what I can tell, Norwegians walk on the left-hand side of the sidewalk and not the right (Americans do do that, right? It's not just me?).

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I guess it's the freakin' weekend for you guys (and me!) - go have some fun! Get in lots of runs so I can train vicariously through you and not feel guilty once I get back to Alaska.

And thus we conclude the longest post in JJ-o's history.