(My) 2013 In Pictures

As part of my life update chunking I had planned to tell you guys about school, but then I realized that school's boring. Or, I saw Jill Outside's 2013 in Pictures and immediately became obsessed with her idea. What you see here is a much less thoughtful version, though; I basically chose what I judge to be the "prettiest" shot from each month of the past year.

Jill's totally got me beat (at photography, athleticism, and life, if we're being honest), but here are my own picks for 2013:

[I decided to be radical and present these in their non-Instagrammed form. I've done a bit of photo soul-searching recently and think I'm experiencing Instagram burn-out. That said, iPhone cameras make everything look more drab than it actually is]

January: View from a run on the Coastal Trail

For those not in the know, Anchorage's Coastal Trail starts at Kincaid Park and finishes downtown about eight miles later. The trail runs along the water and is a scenic, flat place to run.

During the summer people flock to this section of the trail, but last winter I often had it to myself. When it's cold out, the ocean freezes, which is what's going on here.

February: a winter trip up Flattop

Flattop gets kind of a bad rap because its accessibility makes it the most-hiked peak in the area by far. For much of the year, summiting via the regular route is sort of like climbing Chilkoot Pass during the Gold Rush. Last February, however, my friend and I went up after a heavy snowfall. The going was incredibly slow and we often found ourselves breaking trail through waist-deep snow, but the prize was totally worth the effort. It was a beautiful, sunny day and since marathon training had just started, was my last hike until July. When done right, Flattop's actually a great hike.

March: a run on the road past Point Woronzof, right next to the Anchorage airport.

March was a really busy month for me. I was working a lot, schooling a lot, and doing a lot of thinking about my future. On top of that, I started hitting some pretty serious mileage PRs as part of marathon training. This photo was taken at the end of what, at the time, was my highest-mileage week ever. It was a perfect run on a perfect day to end a perfect week. I was also thrilled to run on pavement again after four or five months of snow running.

April: that time I randomly got sent to Norway for work.

I still have no idea how this happened. I had been at my job for all of a month when my boss asked me to go to Alta, Norway for him. I kid you not. I wasn't remotely qualified and was shaking in my boots the entire time, but nonetheless got a lot out of the experience. I was also able to hang out in Oslo for a couple of days. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, and Oslo now ranks second on my "Jeano-approved European cities" list (Edinburgh's first. Paris is on my "worst" list. All the others fall somewhere in between).

May: when marathon training got intense

I honestly don't remember a lot about May other than that I spent much of it running. I don't remember this specific run either but chose this photo because I love the Sleeping Lady. Do you see her? The Sleeping Lady can be seen from pretty much anywhere in Anchorage and I have spent hours and hours looking at her. She's one of my favorites.

June: camping in Homer.

The week after my race, I took advantage of my newfound freedom to have some fun. Homer is, hands down, my favorite place in Alaska. To be fair, I've seen pitifully little of my state despite having spent 20-ish years here, but it's a gem of a town. I'd kill to own property nearby.

July: a hike up Wolverine with Bailey

I hardly wrote anything about this hike at the time, but it's stuck with me. I'm a pretty chill person, but that morning I was incredibly angry and needed to hate hike for a few hours to calm down. When I hit heavy fog only a few minutes in, I kind of felt like I was going to lose it. We pushed on, however, hoping against hope that it would clear up and we'd be able to see more than a couple of feet in front of us.

To my amazement, the fog cleared just long enough for us to summit, and we were gifted with an unbelievable view of the city below. There was something strangely therapeutic about the idea that I must have been one of only a handful of people on the other side of that fog.

August: a random lake in Canada on the way to Eugene.

The drive down from Alaska is beautiful. Take the Cassiar Highway if you've got some extra time. I can't remember which highway this was on, but I do remember screaming at my dad to stop just as we were about to pass it. I had to get a picture! I love the red hue of the mountains, which unfortunately doesn't really come through in this shot.

September: beach near Florence, Oregon

I've mentioned that during the month of September, my classmates and I did something called "math camp" that left us with a lot of downtime. One Friday, we decided to head to the coast despite the heavy rain forecasted for that afternoon. It was sunny in Eugene so it would obviously be sunny there, right?

Wrong. The first few hours were miserable. I wore a trash bag over my evidently fake rain jacket and was soaked to the bone in minutes. We made the best of it, however, and a few hours later managed to get a fire going just as the rain stopped. Major fun ensued.

October: weekend trip near Coos Bay, Oregon

Oregon driving is really beautiful but unfortunately doesn't translate well in pictures. This drive, towards the coast, is one I could do again and again. Oregon bridges all look like that and I love them.

November: a Thanksgiving trip to Mt. Diablo

Thanksgiving was a bust, but after spending weeks pent up in a dreary office I was ready to be active again. The drive from Oregon to California did not disappoint, and neither did the hiking.

December: back where we started

You just saw this picture the other day, but it gives me so much joy. Oregon has surpassed my unreasonably high expectations, but Alaska will always be my first love. I can think of few things better than this. It feels good to be home.

[I highly recommend Jill's post and blog in general. My favorite month is July - Switzerland!]

Running, Lately

When I first moved to Oregon, I had an entire month to "math camp" and generally take it easy. During that time, I made an effort to keep my activity level up, exploring new running paths and hiking trails. "Oh, the places I'll go!" I exclaimed. With all my spare time, I was fairly confident I was destined to be the next Kilian Jornet... or, perhaps more realistically, Emily Dirr.

Well, that was naive. Once real school started, I quickly realized that I would, in fact, have to spend more than three hours a day being an adult. Remember that brilliant 9:00 - 5:00 schedule I was bragging about, a schedule that was sure to be the key to my success? Yeah, that lasted about a week.

At first, I tried to run regularly. I followed the first five weeks of the Hanson Method to a T, and I felt great. Just as the plan jumped from five to six days of running per week, however, I realized that kind of schedule was more than I could handle at that moment. I decided to try a different strategy, condensing the same number of miles into fewer runs. For a few weeks, I ran 6 - 8 miles three or four times per week. My body wasn't responding well to that kind of schedule, though, and then, just as I began to reevaluate...

... midterms happened.

Midterms, to put it lightly, were a bitch. All of us econ kids were at our desks every waking moment and I just couldn't bring myself to leave, even for a couple of hours. I assume this isn't unique to my program, but there's a lot of pressure to work when everyone else is. If other people are at school until midnight, I feel like I'm slacking if I'm not. To be clear, I rarely feel like I'm competing against anyone, one of the many great things about my program. When I stay late, I'm not thinking, "If I don't stay, I won't beat so-and-so." Rather, I'm thinking, "So-and-so thinks it's necessary, so I'll probably fail out of the program if I don't." It's an easy hole to fall into.

UO has a dumb quarter schedule so a mere three weeks after midterms (one of which was mostly useless because of Thanksgiving), it was time for finals, which were, unsurprisingly, more stressful than midterms. So, you know, it was more of the same.

Anyway, my current running regimen can be summed up as follows:

I'm so hot it hurts.

I've run three times this December, for a total of 11.5 miles. November was better, but not much.

And since I haven't been running, I feel like kind of a slob. It doesn't help that I'm rocking an extra pound or seven. I'm not a weight-conscious person at all, largely because I had hovered around the same weight for about seven years regardless of my activity level, but my parents' scale tells me I'm a good 5 pounds above the heavy end of that spectrum and I don't feel awesome about it.

My point is, I let my running go to shit and didn't really do anything about it. We're all busy. Being busy isn't an excuse, but I've let it be. I know that if I wanted it badly enough, I could get my runs done. But I haven't.

I hate posts that spew the "NEW YEAR, NEW ME!!!" message so I'm not going to do that. I just wanted to let you all know what's up with my running and lay it out for myself. Needless to say, I'm trying to turn things around and perhaps give myself a goal to work towards. You know, for accountability and all that.

Feel free to give me your honest opinion on the matter, but I'm definitely not looking for comments to the effect of, "Don't be so hard on yourself! You're busy! You're trying to figure things out!" I already know that, but I also know that finding time for running while in grad school is far from difficult. If I can make time for drinking and gallivanting, I can certainly find time to take care of myself.

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Hey, let's end this on a happy note! Bailey and I went to Powerline yesterday.

That blob is Bailey. The poor dog gets ice balls on her feet when we're out for a while so has to stop to bite at them. She rips booties right off, though, so I guess that's her choice.

I love the trees when they look like this! Side note: if I read any more bitching about snow/cold, especially from people who live in temperate places (*cough* Oregon *cough*), I'm going to flip out. I get it: it was below freezing and snowed for like five days. Go drink a beer and get over it.

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Do yourself a favor and listen to this if you're looking for a new power jam. I'm probably six years late to this song, but it's awesome. Very mall music-ish, which doesn't sound remotely appealing, but it's got a great beat. Try it.

My Favorite Morning

I woke up this morning after a glorious ten hours of sleep and did one of my favorite things: loaded up on coffee and took Bailey for a walk around my snowy neighborhood.

Snow's crazy

Wait, whaaaaaaat? That doesn't look like Eugene!! Did I fail out of grad school?!?!

But what does it all mean?! Okay, this mostly just means covariance. Incorrectly calculated, I might add.

Sorry, that was dumb. School's awesome. I'm obviously just home for the holidays. And a long holiday it is: 3 weeks in total! I think my body was about to kick the bucket if it didn't get some serious R&R/detox/real food STAT so I'm really looking forward to the time off.

The idea of updating you on #every #detail #of #my #life in one fell swoop makes me nauseous so we're going to use one of Holly's favorite tricks and chunk it. Today's update is easy: Bailey!

Remember Bailey? Bailey's the best. Bailey lives with my parents again. She also apparently struggles with looking happy in pictures.

The vet evidently told my parents that Bailey needs to lose ten pounds, so I expected to be greeted by an enormous dog. Fortunately, she looks roughly the same as I left her. I mean, no, you can't feel her ribs, but she's not wheelchair-bound. Good thing, since we went hiking at a very chilly Flattop this afternoon.

It was very windy

What else is there to say about a dog's life? Bailey went apeshit when I got back a couple of nights ago, which felt awesome. I was worried her adorably-demented brain wouldn't remember me, but that was not the case. In fact, she refused to move from my bedroom door until I woke up the following day at noon. She wouldn't even eat or go outside. I'm pretty sure she was afraid I'd leave her again if she wasn't there to stop it. I'm already anxious about going back to Eugene.

So there you have it: Bailey!

Next up, what you really want to hear about: running! Oh dear.

Just Like On The T.V.

Have any of you ever seen that show "Parenthood?" You know, the one based in Berkeley where a beautiful, interesting, and intelligent 3-generation family lives, learns, laughs, and loves together? Well, that was literally my Thanksgiving. Except, do you remember that uncomfortable-looking weirdo who just sits in the corner and shifts every once in a while to indicate that she's still alive while everyone around her laughs uproariously about shared memories of the past? Oh, right. That character doesn't exist. And there's a REASON that character doesn't exist: that character is a wet towel. She's lame, yo.

I think you know where this is going. This Thanksgiving, I was that wet towel.

This may not need clarification, but my Thanksgiving plans didn't actually include crashing someone else's dinner. I was supposed to spend Thanksgiving with my grandparents. I won't go into details because it can pretty much be summed up by "poor health ruins everything," but when I walked into my grandparents' kitchen after a 9-hour trek from Eugene, my grandma very eagerly informed me that I would be "spending Thanksgiving with the _____ family this year!" I think she thought her peppy tone would confuse me into being excited about it. In her defense, it almost worked. But then I paused to take it in.

Excuse me? The _____ family? Who are these people? Oh, twenty generations ago so-and-so's brother adopted a son whose birth cousin got divorced and then married the milkman's stepdad, who happened to have the same surname as your great grand half-mammy? I'm glowing with family closeness right now.

Joking aside, it really wasn't that bad. But I had only met one of the attendees before, and that was when I was 8. The only shared memory we had to reminisce about was "Weren't you the sibling that read a lot?" Dinner was uncomfortable, certainly, but I survived. Shit happens, and they were very kind to take me in.

So that pretty much sums up what I've been up to, right? Oh. No? You guys are a tough crowd. Here are some pictures of California to placate you, along with a promise to write more in the (hopefully not-too-distant) future.

From a hike on (around?) Mount Diablo this afternoon.

View from I-5. Not too shabby for a highway, eh? 

Shasta, you looker, you. I want your snow.

Everybody loves goats. At the Lafayette Reservoir.

Don't ask me what that is, because I don't know.

This post brought to you by the RWH clan, Professor Amy and Coach Holly.

Slow and Easy

Hola amigos! Long time no talk! Is Halloween really here already? Have I already been in Eugene for two months? What year is it?

Life continues as always, but as my workload's increased I've had less and less time for blogs. I'm able to read a few on my walk/bus to and from school (so, about my bike... the piece of junk derailleur broke off, which I took as a sign - along with my hate for biking - that I needed to find a new means of transportation. Bus it is! Eugene's bus system puts New York's to shame), but I'm currently rocking a 232 unread count. Whoops. That's what Christmas break is for, right?

The fall colors have been killer and it's been a joy to run in them, although running on leaf-covered, uneven sidewalks can be unnerving. 

The UO website makes campus look incredibly ugly, which I don't understand. Take a picture in any direction this time of year and it's beautiful!

This is where I live (during the day).

Hike to Blue Pool. Bluest water I've ever seen, not that you can tell from this. Let's play "spot the human in a red shirt!"

Aaaaand a picture from the coast, because I can.

WORLD'S LARGEST SEA CAVE. It's actually not that big.

In hobby jogging news, I hit 30.5 miles this week! This surprised me as a busy schedule forced me to do a fair amount of run-juggling, something I'm still trying to force my anal-runner-self to be okay with. I'm typically a "run now, work will hopefully get done later" kind of person, but I've realized that in grad school, it needs to be "work now, running will hopefully get done later." I should turn that into one of those motivational Pinterest pictures.

I also completed my longest post-marathon run yesterday: 9 miles! On the one hand, it's depressing that it's taken four months to get back to that distance but on the other hand, the run itself was not physically taxing at all. It's nice to see I haven't lost all my fitness!

My higher mileage this week reminded me of something I wanted to share with you guys: don't forget the importance of slow, easy miles.

Some people think slow mileage is "junk mileage." They believe that every run should have a purpose, and from what I can tell, that's code for "every run should be hard and/or fast." I suppose that could work well for someone who only runs three days a week (these plans are typically of the "run less, run faster" variety), but I think that easy miles are every bit as important as tempos/intervals/what-have-you.

The Hansons taught me this. Did I even need to tell you that? The Hansons taught me everything I think I know about running. And under their tutelage, I became the queen of slow, easy running. The majority of my runs were done 1-2 minutes slower than my goal pace (9:44). At first, running 11:38 miles seemed insane, especially since I had always (stubbornly) considered 9:30-10:00 to be my "easy" pace. Yeah right, Jeano!

As my mileage increased and I hit one new running milestone after another, I realized that none of it would have been possible without my slow runs.

The Hansons talk about a lot of physiological adaptations that result from slow running, such as the recruitment of slow-twitch fibers, using more fat (and less glycogen) as fuel, bigger mitochondria ("does this training plan make my mitochondria look fat?"), capillary development, blah blah blah. I'm no scientist so these things are largely meaningless to me. I was most interested in the structural changes that occur, namely tendon and joint development that assist the body in handling the higher-impact forces of fast running. This is important for everyone, but I felt it to be especially important for my minimalist-ish self.

If you want to know more about the benefits of slow runs... Google it. Or go ask Coach Holly. She's all-knowing and all-seeing.

Wait, why am I talking about slow running again? Oh, right, because I had forgotten how important it is. For the past few weeks, I've rushed through the majority of my runs, either because it felt awesome or because I had shit to do. I ran much faster than usual for many of my runs for two or three weeks, and was suddenly shocked (shocked, I tell you!) to find that one day, my body just ached. A lot. Apparently, feeling great immediately following a run doesn't mean you're in the clear. Eventually, it will catch up with you, as it did me. The past few days all of my runs have been done at a slower than 11:00 pace. My ego's a bit bruised (it's much harder for me to run slowly in Eugene than it was in Anchorage, probably because there are so many runner studs here), but my body's back!

End PSA.

Question: thoughts on slow running? Do you run a lot faster when you run by a lot of people like I do?

I'm Still Waiting For Those "Morning Person" Hormones To Kick In...

Weekly mileage: 24 miles (two 4-milers, two 5-milers, and one 6-miler)

I can't get over how awesome running was this week. I don't know if it was the weather, excess energy from studying all day, steroids, or a combination of the three, but I was definitely channeling a Xena Warrior Princess/Amazonian-type superwoman. Yesterday I checked my Garmin after what felt like a pretty easy 6 miles and was shocked to discover that I ran it at 9:50 pace, only slightly slower than my marathon tempos this past spring. I'm back, baby!

The changing leaves also made for nice running company.

Fern Ridge path. It's actually kind of a disgusting place, but it has its moments.

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Since classes started a couple of weeks ago, I've been trying to figure out where running fits into it all. I haven't had any trouble getting out there (in fact, I've never appreciated running more!), but there have been a few days where I've honestly had no idea when the miles were going to get done. More than once, I've left my house at 7:30, running clothes in tow, and returned 12 or 13 hours later with them unworn.* Those days, I'm forced to run in semi-darkness because Eugene is crazy and has, like, four streetlights. On a related note, I need to buy a headlamp.

Now, there is a very obvious solution to this. That hasn't escaped me. I am WELL aware that "running in the morning" is something that people do. While I sit around whining about waking up at the god-forsaken hour of 7:00 a.m., millions of other, much more hardcore people than I are busting out 20-milers at 4:00 a.m. I'm not that person, though. In fact, I'm the antithesis of that person. Waking up 3+ hours before I have to be somewhere (to eat, digest, run, shower, and commute) is my idea of hell.

In a perfect world, I'd incorporate my run into my commute to school. When I lived in New York, this is how 90% of my runs got done. It was a great set-up: running the five miles to work was quicker than taking the subway, and infinitely more pleasant. Running also meant that I could shower after entering an air-conditioned sanctuary, which was way better than "I just showered an hour ago but commuting in this disgustingly hot swamp that is New York has soaked my entire body in sweat." The very best thing about this situation was that I didn't have to wake up any earlier in order to get it done. Wins all around!

The thing about that job, though, was that I didn't need anything once I got there. No books, no brain... Nothing. A couple of times I forgot crucial pieces of work attire (one embarrassing day spent in spandex and a sweatshirt comes to mind. That shit doesn't fly in New York), but that problem was easily solved by stashing an extra outfit in my desk.

College, on the other hand, requires you to bring so many things. Computer? Essential. Micro textbook? Necessary. Macro textbook? Yep, need that. Oh, and let's not forget the stats textbook! And food. More food than a single human should be able to eat. Add clothes into the mix and you've got enough to fill a giant backpack and accompanying tote bag. There's no way that much stuff is going into my tiny running backpack. I don't have any place to store stuff on campus, either, so that's not an option. Oh, woe is the hobby jogger!

So what's a whiny, tired girl like myself to do? I'm not sure. For now I'm fitting my runs in where I can and hoping for the best. I'm also waiting for the hormones that allow you to wake up at 4:00 a.m. to kick in. That's what happens when you age, right? Or are you people just, like, better than I am?

*[I feel the need to clarify that my grad school strategy is to treat school like a job, which means work, work, work from at least 9:00-to-5:00. No mid-afternoon runs for me!]

 TOO PRETTY.

Happy Sunday, friends!

1,000 Miles

Weekend: success.

They grow oysters down there!

We got lost on a sketchy logging road and almost ran out of gas looking for a waterfall. At least the view was nice!

Four-ish hours and five trillion detours later, we found it!

View from the super awesome cabin.

Last week was the first of many, many long weeks and at its end I needed to blow off some steam. Translation: I had too much fun and now want to crawl in a hole and die. That is not my way of telling you how cool I am because I ravage my body, but rather my way of telling you that I'm considering doing something I haven't done in as long as I can remember: blow off my run.

What?!?!? "Jeano, you're a blogger, you're supposed to inspire us by telling us you REALLY didn't feel like running but then just shut up and do it!" My bad. You come here looking for inspiration? TERRIBLE IDEA.

That said, I may still go out and do it if for no other reason than if I don't, I'll probably fall asleep at 5:00 p.m., wake up at 9:00 p.m., and be up all night. But isn't that what grad students are supposed to do?

As of right now I'm at 16 miles for the week. I could bump that up to 21. Final mileage TBD. You know what's cool and not so pathetic, though? While hanging up my calendar last week, I decided to add up my total mileage for the year. I write each and every one of my runs down on that calendar as soon as I do them so I know it's accurate. 

So how'd I do? Well, I hit 1,000 a few weeks ago! I was pretty impressed with myself. I've always thought it would be awesome to run 1,000 miles in a year, but I didn't really think I'd be able to do it in the near future. I guess I was wrong! This means that I could stop running for the rest of the year (not that I have any intention of doing that) and I'd still average roughly 3 miles per day. Badass!

Anyway, I had planned to write up a real post on a real topic, but I just don't think I can summon the energy today. Maybe later?

Question: What badass thing have you done recently? If you're Coach Holly, your answer is "I ran a trail 50k this weekend!" That's most definitely badass.