I can still run!

I don't know why I'm always surprised that I can still run after not running for a month (or so), but I am always surprised. For some reason, I expect to suddenly lose overnight everything that I had built up. Huh.

But, as you might surmise from the shiny, pretty stars at the beginning of this post, yes, I can indeed still run, although I've definitely lost some conditioning.

Tuesday 11/18: 2 mile run in the evening, blistering wind

Sunday 11/23: 2.5 mile run (12:16 min/mi) in the beautiful crisp morning under a blue sky, light wind

All I can say is thank Bob for my running partner, because who knows when I would have made it out the door with my running shoes on if I hadn't committed to running with EM.

Also thanks to Merry who has been both motivating and inspiring. Again. It was Merry who help to inspire me last fall to get the running thing going again. Merry, ever consider motivational speaking?

Oh, and Xenia, who was also motivated and inspired by Merry last year to start up running, well, she's running in her first marathon next weekend! Go Xenia!!!

And CMS/Keziah, finished writing her book!

I haven't mentioned Team CB for a while, but we four are the original members. It's been a year since we joined together in a virtual sort of way to motivate and encourage each other. And I'd just like to take a moment to say: Well done, Ladies! Well done all of us!

And yeah, I can still run. :+)

A Weekend in Oxford

This past weekend, I finally ventured out of Scotland to other parts of the UK. I took the train down to Oxford to spend the weekend with friend and fellow member of Team CB, Xenia. On Saturday, we ran in the Oxford 5k Fun Run. If you follow the link, you'll notice the runners, presumably from last year, actually have bibs with numbers and it looks all official like. They lie. Rather than going into the details, I'll just point you to Xenia's race report (both very true and very funny). Based on my watch time (the only time I have for the race), I completed the 4.9k in 37:15. Which is actually pretty good for me, but I did end up walking for about 3-4 minutes of the race. Bummer.

Chri..err..Xenia and I spent the rest of the day walking around Oxford and enjoying the sun. Xenia is a terrific tour guide! I learned all about the weird collegiate setup that is Oxford, about pimms and punting (a very good way to look silly). It was a beautiful day to be out and about. And Oxford really is a neat place to wander around. Here are some pictures from my tour.

This first picture is of Wadham College (I think).

It turns out that the University of Oxford isn't
really a university as we typically think of a university. Imagine if someone picked up all the small liberal arts colleges in Ohio and plunked them down in the same city. Oxford is kind of like that. Each college is much, much more independent than a college in a US unversity. I also learned from Xenia that the castle-like, up-and-down, edging bits on the building are called crenellations.

Oxford was interesting because, like Edinburgh, the city and buildings resonate age. Here is a picture I took along Broad Street.

Although you can feel the age as you walk around, the weightiness of Oxford was very different. Buildings and sidewalks in Edinburgh are made up of all this dark, grey stone. The stone buildings in Oxford have a much warmer feel, probably because they are made of a lighter sandstone.

Enough about stone. This is a picture of one of the guys they have ringing the Sheldonian Theatre.

I think it looks like he's going to sneeze. Hopefully it won't happen during graduation, which is held here.

These next few pictures are of the Bodleian Library.


If you look closely at the second picture, you'll see they have Latin above the doorways. Apparently, you need to know Latin just to know your way around this particular library. I'm guessing you won't find any fun romances here.

And now we have the Bridge of Sighs. No wait, wrong bridge. That one's in Venice. This particular Bridge of Sighs is a replica. I can't help but wonder what message they were trying to send to their graduate students.


And here is me, in front of the Radcliffe Camera. "Camera" seems like a funny name for a library, until you realize they were just trying to be all pretentious with the Latin again ("camera" means "room" or "chamber" in Latin according to the Wiki page).



This next building is part of All Souls College, or more formally, The Warden and College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford. I can't help but wonder what the requirements are for getting into this particular college.


This next batch of pictures were all taken at Christ Church College, which is very pretty and not Latin. (Ok, there was Latin in the Chapel, but I didn't take any pictures there.)







For all you Harry Potter fans, this dining hall in Christ Church is the one they used to film the dining hall scenes for Harry Potter.





Ok, enough buildings. One of the very, very cool things about Oxford was the parks and greenspace. There are two rivers that run through town, where you can find ducks and geese, including Canadian Geese, which is a bit surprising. My best guess is that the geese in these pictures are Greylag Geese. Although this one looks like she's walking, she was actually posed that way for several minutes.

And look, goslings!! Awwwwww.



Ok, not geese, but also not animals that I was expecting to find in Oxford.


And since I love trees, as usually I must include a couple that I thought made for particularly interesting pictures.



And that concludes your tour of Oxford!

Weekly Running Log

This was a so, so week as far as exercise and general self-care. For the third week in a row, I only got out running twice, my nutrition has been lacking, and I screwed up my sleep again midweek. Actually, derailing my sleep has a lot to do with everything else. I know why I stayed up late (ok, all night) reading, and a good book is only part of it, but knowing why is unfortunately a far cry from stopping that particular destructive habit.

So I'm struggling now to get back on track, to take control again. I've done it before, so I know that I can do it again. Going running yesterday helped. Cooking so I have nutritious food to eat for a couple lunches this week helped, and I will cook some more today. I'm trying to remind myself that last week was ok. I did go running twice, and I went to pilates class on Friday. I'm getting stronger. I resisted the lure of large bags of potato chips at the grocery store, and only secumbed to a small bag one day at lunch. Yes I ate a lot of chocolate, but at least it was dark chocolate. (Hmm, potato chips and chocolate. Can you say stress eating?)

And I really want to thank Christina, Mary, and CMS because without Team CB, I don't think even the minimal amount of exercise I managed this week would have happened. I know that thinking about you guys is the only thing that got me out the door last Sunday. So a great big ((HUG)) and thanks!