Count down...

The count down begins... 31 days until race day! This will be my second half marathon, and my friends first! It's October 20th, 7:00 am, here in Kansas City; the City of Fountains! I haven't really trained much for this half, mainly because I don't really have much pushing me like I did the previous half. Still I want to finish with a reasonable time, but still have fun at the same time. Some of you might think that is impossible being that I'll be running 13.1 miles, but believe me, it's so much fun, and unless you've done it, you really wouldn't understand. I was in pain with the first one from the massive blisters that I got, but that wasn't about to stop me. Almost the entire run I was singing, yelling, giving high fives, etc., because that's just what we runners are like. We don't really care what people think of us, mainly because we already know that most "non-runners" already think we're crazy anyway, so we might as well live up to that! Anyway, so a month away, and many miles to log before the start of another race. Until then, it will be a race for me everyday to get to the gym and work out (or on the streets as the case may be)! So here goes nothing, although I'm pretty sure it's something! Over and out!

Lo!

So sore!

This is my new favorite machine at the gym. It's called the "Ab Coaster" and dang does it work! My abs are so sore today, which is a wonderful feeling, but still, soreness is soreness! The great thing about this machine is that you can't cheat on it. It's completely up to you to move your body, and you can add up to 40 additional pounds for even more resistance if you so please! I only added ten, but hopefully I'll continue to increase the resistance, and even more the strength in both my abs as well as my obliques (the muscles diagonally on your sides). See, the cradle where your legs rest, pivot so you can not only work your rectus abdominus & transverse abdominus, but also your obliques adbominus as well! (Thought I'd through in the actually names of the muscles!)

Anyway so I'm still sore, but honestly it's a great thing. I did a bunch of strength training and not a whole lot of cardio. I have a half marathon that I'm running with a friend in a little over a month and need to get back to running more but didn't want to burn out either. The next month I'll be back to running on a regular basis and really watching what I'm eating and such. It should be a good thing overall anyway! We'll see how the next month plays out! Should be fun! Over and out!

Lo!

Re-cap from the weekend...

I had a great time at home overall and had some amazing time reconnecting with friends. I was able to see a friend that I haven’t seen in almost eight years! It was great catching up and laughing about the last time we were together. Plus I was able to try and speak a little German which is always fun! I still remembered a few things, but I really lost a lot of the little that I did know. It was really wonderful hearing about where life has taken her and remembering how I was so many years ago as well. It was a short visit but I packed a lot in. Jen & Andy’s wedding was absolutely beautiful, and really captured their spirit…zany and fun! It really looked like they had a great time and were actually able to enjoy the wedding, which I feel like that doesn’t happen as often as it may seem. Everyone had a great time at the reception, which was a blast and had Jen & Andy written all over it!

Throughout the weekend I was able to hang out and catch up with Melissa! Thursday evening after church a bunch of us decided to go to one of my favorite restaurants back home and catch up. Melissa was going to drive me, but on the way up from the lower parking lot she got a flat tire! Eek! So a couple of the guys put her spare on, but there was no hope for the tire, there was a 2-3 inch gash in it! I’m talking you could put a couple fingers through it and they would fit just fine! Anyway, so after a slight delay we were off and running again. We were able to get a great deal on a tire the next day before heading to Redamaks for the most amazing cheese burger ever! Yes, it really is worth an hour and a half round trip drive! Anyway, it was just wonderful to really be able to just sit down and talk about life with her again without feeling like we had to be somewhere or that we had to get something else done. It had been such a long time since we had done that last. The first night we were in the Bend we stayed up until close to 1:30am talking on the porch about the past year and how far we’ve both come. It’s amazing to think that a year ago I was just starting MT school. I’m now almost done (10 weeks to go!) and looking on to bigger goals now. It’s amazing how much I’ve grown and changed but at the same time how much I’ve stayed the same and have grown stronger in my faith and really learned the value of friendship even more than I already knew.

Okay back to the weekend. Church was great, as always, and I learned so much from only being there once (well 1.5 times…got in much later than expected so I missed half of the midweek service...poo!). One thing that really stuck out to me was something that our senior pastor said, “We are not to prey on each other; we are to pray for each other.” How often do we look at other as just an obstacle to overcome? In just about every aspect of life we look at each other as just an object in our way of our bigger goal. We don’t see each other as people we see each other as objects. (Yes, I know I just said that twice basically, but I think it needs to be said a couple times to really understand it.) After church I was able to meet up with my former supervisor (and mentor!) and catch up with how things are moving along for me. It’s always great to talk with her, and get her wisdom on different situations that I’m going through. About a half hour later me and some friends went to grab a bite to eat and catch up one last time before being gone for a couple months again. I was able to see a friend of mine that I’ve been praying for, for some time now, who is getting baptized today! (Although by now I’m sure that happened already.) I wish I could have stayed longer so I could have been there for the event, but no luck. Either way it was still great to see her and let her know how proud of her I am.

Altogether I really had a wonderful time, but it went way too fast. I really wish that I could have caught up with more friends but that will have to wait until next time, which I’m sure will come faster than I can even imagine. For now…Over and out!

Lo!

Some thoughts...

I haven't posted anything in a while and thought I would post a few thoughts.

- I've been working on my application for Cleveland Chiropractic College. I can't even tell you how excited I am about the possibility of going to chiropractic school! Every time I talk to anyone about chiropractic school, or methods, etc. I get even more excited!

- I finished one week of traditional Chinese medicine, so only 5 weeks left of TCM, and then 6 weeks of clinic before I'm home! I'm so excited!

- I've been hanging out with my friends here in KC which is great, but I'm seriously going to miss them so much when I leave! It's so wonderful getting to know each of them, which will be wonderful when I come back here for chiropractic school.

Okay well that's all for now. Over and out!

Lo!