braided rug

this year for my birthday, i decided to check something off my to-do list...something that could be accomplished while having to take frequent breaks to feed and hold felicity.  i finished the braided rug i started making last fall!  i have had it mostly done for months.  i just needed to spend a couple hours sewing it together (which needs to be done by hand).  yesterday and today in my spare moments, i stitched away.  now we have a lovely new braided wool rug and i have one less thing on my to-do list!

1 month

felicty at 1 month

today felicity is one month old...and maybe we are slowly starting to figure life out.  it has been a really bizarre week here.  on tuesday i got back from my morning walk and started getting the chills.  when i took my temperature shortly there after i was running a low grade fever and a couple hours after that said fever had spiked to 102.6.  i talked to a nurse at the midwives' office and she thought i was heading towards heat stroke.  so i spent the day in bed with ice packs drinking lots of fluids and hoping that my headache would go away.  sure enough, my temperature went down and the headache did abate later that day.  i admit i never saw any sort of heat illness following a walk coming after all of the exercise i have done in heat in past years.  it is better to always be on guard!

in some ways, it was a great time to be recovering because the last few days have been very rainy and full of thunderstorms.  yesterday a break sort of occurred and i got to take in a little bit of artscape.  artscape happens just a few blocks north of where we live and as i walked around all of the closed streets, i found myself very grateful that i did not have to go anywhere north in a car this weekend.  i look forward to being able to take in a bit more of the festival next year too (and hopefully there is better weather for it given that its all outside!).

inner harbor

felicty takes in the uss constitution at the inner harbor

yesterday morning i went out for a walk and felt lonely.  after walking around with a wee person in me for 9 months and during that time also having eric with me frequently for longer runs, it felt weird to be out for a walk by myself.  so this morning, i brought miss felicity with me (and let eric steal a few precious hours of sleep!).  we did an early morning tour through the city and then walked along the inner harbor for a bit.

baltimore is definitely being blessed right now with cooler weather (sad that "high of 92" is cool, isn't it?) which makes leaving the air conditioning much less painful.  i am sometimes finding myself missing the cool mountain air that i have had the fortune to spend so much time in the past several summers for races.  eric and i are starting to look for job and school options for 2013 when my postdoc is done.  i find myself wondering if and/or how we can manage to have ourselves end up somewhere west with mountains and/or ocean!

walks

felicity and i pre-hike on july 4th

 one not-so-good thing about having a baby earlier in the summer is that you then have to worry about the heat.  i just took felicity on a walk around the park near our house to be sure she got some outside time, but even at 7am it was in the 80s.  the forecast is for 108 degrees here today.  even the air conditioning is straining with all of these hot hot days and high humidity!

baby girl waving hi (yes she has all of her fingers but it doesn't look like it here!)

felicity is here!

i have been on a bit of hiatus from the blog.  pregnancy is now done.  baby is here.  and now that i am on maternity leave though i hope to post updates a bit more frequently to let you know what is happening in baltimore.

we welcomed felicity anne into our family on june 22 (41 weeks and 4 days).  she weighed in at 6lb 13.2oz and was 19.5 inches long.  she's a great eater though and at 10 days has already put on more than a pound.  those baby rolls and cheeks are starting to fill out!


felicity and dad

felicity's first bath at home

i'm enjoying learning all of her quirks, faces and squeals.  it is still hard to comprehend that she is ours.

her name "felicity" means "a source of happiness" or "happiness" depending on your source.  we wanted a shorter middle name and with anne "with an e" we hope to instill her with a sense of the mischieviousness of anne of green gables.  her initials spell "fay" is how the word for fairy is prounounced in french (though it is spelled differently in french).

now back to figuring out how to get the smell of baby puke to disappear from the couch!

the awkward run

every once in awhile something makes me laugh so hard i cry.  a friend and colleague sent me this video of a fewer choice runners earlier today and i found myself crying at my office.  maybe this is why it is good that i study gait for a living.

i would like to see an awkward pregnant lady running video too.  the picture below was taken this morning after my run so you don't have to see if i look awkward or not while running.  i'll be 22 weeks along on monday!

inspiration

a month or so ago, i discovered pinterest through a blog i follow.  the blogger had posted a link to an image of a dancer and i wanted to discover where the picture had come from because it was beautiful.  it had been posted by this pinterest pinner (is pinner the right word?).  the photos she (?) has collected are inspiring and i found myself browsing through them again this afternoon.  it constantly amazes me how many emotions can be communicated in a single photograph.

i have a photograph sitting below my computer screen at work as of late yesterday afternoon.  it is a picture of the small person currently growing in me whose heart beats three times as fast as mine.  i'm excited to meet this small person in june.

sleeping

found this here

i have been sleeping "like a rock on sleeping pills" lately, but mountains appear to be moving while i'm awake. work is going in full force.  i am engaged in and enjoying what i am doing.  i have just finished peak mileage and am now tapering for a 50k next week, probably the last one i do for the year.  i was called as a leader for the young women at church.

last night in the car on the way to drop one of the young women off, i was asked to tell them something unique about myself.  i started generally describing what i do and the 8th grader sitting next to me turned sharply and said, you're a scientist?  i said yes and told her more about what i did.  we talked about running and dancing and karate.  and then she asked if i new much about astronomy.  i said no, but i know astronomers and could try to arrange for her to meet them.  she told me she wants to be an astronomer and dreams of being surrounded by scientists.  i told her being surrounded by scientists is an amazing thing and told her about a program she could do in high school that would surround her with scientists.  and then we arrived at her house.

as we were pulling away, the other leader in car turned to me and said, that was amazing.  apparently this young lady doesn't normally talk very much.  i believe i met a kindred spirit last night and i believe that she will move mountains.

happy trails and new projects

my feet flew like eagles

my heart knew no boundaries

my spirit dreamed that the trail would never end

~from an email signature of another runner on the trail running list

we survived the earthquake and the hurricane.  the weekend of the latter turned out to be an excellent time to get the sewing machine working, so many months after its arrival.  i turned a pair of women's size 24 calf-length linen pants into a skirt that fit me (many sizes smaller).  i need to pick up some backing to put a few embroidery touches on the front.

we also survived the baltimore grand prix...by escaping to shenandoah national park for a couple nights of camping.  it is beautiful there!  we hiked and ran, made smores, learned about the history of the park and even got to spend a few moments reading in the rocking chairs at one of the lodges.  we arrived home to only have to put up with 24 hours of indy cars racing past our street.  

on labor day, we labored.  we went through those bags and boxes that weren't unpacked and had all the random odds, ends and papers tossed in them.  we cleaned.  i mended, baked, read and stretched.  my next project is to make a braided rug for our living room.  hopefully i will be able to take pictures though as i lost my camera in colorado!

earthquakes and hurricanes, oh my!

earlier this week we had an earthquake and now we waiting to see whether or not a hurricane will hit us this weekend.  this is enough to leave one distracted and rather unproductive at work.  i find myself wanting instead to be helping prepare our home and our friends homes for anything that may come our way this weekend.

i reaching a certain concentration low, i decided that i needed to write down goals that i had for postdoc in the next two years.  this at least helped me re-gain my focus for a period and start delving into the medical literature to see what i could find out about how we control our gait.  it is amazing how much we learn not from studying healthy people but from studying people who have disordered movements.

my stomach was a little disordered last weekend.  i ended up struggling up hope pass again this year and missed the time cutoff at the 50-mile mark by 22 minutes.  this meant i had to stop running.  again, i don't think i'd had enough calories, but i had done a great well enough with my hydration.  i have been kind of bummed out this week, but i think that partially has to do with the fact that i'm recovering and not getting as much exercise as normal...so its probably withdrawal that's making me sad rather than the race itself.  i will finish eventually.

the plus side to this finish status, if you choose to look at it this way, was that eric and i found ourselves with a a free day in breckenridge that we had not been expecting.  we were able to go on a short hike in the mountains (that was all my recovering legs could take) and time to just enjoy being outside and in breck.  we are plotting ways to move there.  unfortunately, my camera seems to have been misplaced so i don't have pictures to share from the race or from breck.  hopefully i will find it soon!

from the mountains

we are in the mountains.  i love the profound stillness that exists here.  eric has quickly taken a liking to the mountains in colorado, much to my pleasure.

my race is on saturday.  i'm drinking water like there is no tomorrow and managing to stay somewhat hydrated.  we have to pick up a few things tomorrow and go to medical check-in in the morning (they measure our blood pressure, weight, oxygen saturation, etc, so they have a baseline for comparison if we need medical attention) followed by racer orientation.  after that i will commence making my ume musubis and finish the instructions for my crew and pacers.  the weather is perfect.

i am trying to embrace my nervousness.  i am getting lost in my own thoughts a lot staring at the mountains and visualizing the trails.  i am on familiar ground and excited yet scared that i will make mistakes like i did last time.  some of the cut off times have become more strict.  if i have a good day these won't be issues with this, but the reality of this race is that you don't know what you're going to have to deal with physiologically, environmentally, etc, until you start running on race morning.  that is part of what makes leadville such a great adventure though. 

i will try to post some pictures of the mountains here soon.

heat wave

we have been having a bit of a heat wave here on the east coast.  naturally, the air conditioning for half of our house broke at the end of last week, and lucky for us, our room is on the 3rd floor of the house.  temperatures in our room were in the 90s for most of the weekend.  we slept in the empty basement room (which was at least 20 degrees cooler) on saturday night because it was too hot.  last night though the new housemate had moved in and we were confronted with a night in our room again.  i opened the door that leads out onto our small patio just to remind myself that it was hotter outside than in, but what i discovered was a very nice breeze.  in fact, it felt cooler outside than in our room.  so last night we opened the three large windows in the front of the house and the door in the back (our room with its bathroom and closet takes up the whole 3rd floor), let the ceiling fan run and discovered that, though warm, it was actually quite pleasant in our room.  the breeze and fresh air were lovely.

we move into our new (permanent) place on wednesday.  it will be nice to have everything out of storage and not be living out of a suitcase.  i am excited to play the piano (keyboard) and not have to fight for space in the refrigerator.  and the timing of the move is perfect to find anything i think i might use for leadville next month and take it with me this weekend.

saturday will be my last long training run before leadville--50 miles.  i hope to test some more nutrition ideas.  we had to fill out medical forms this weekend for the race which is bringing home how soon it really is.  i was perusing the leadville 100 website and discovered why i should be glad i did not go out for training camp this year...snow.  there was so much of it that it was not safe to run part of the course and on another section they had to "make" trail through the snow to be able to run it.  i am wondering what this bodes, if anything, for next month.  i wonder how high the water will be in the stream crossings, how cold the air temperature will be and if it will snow.  racing in the cold is a different animal from racing in the heat, so i know that no matter how much i train, there will probably still be some things i am learning or experimenting with while i'm racing.  i suspect this is why so many people tell me that "life" is training for these races--doing things when you're hungry, tired, cold, hot and sore while doing your best to keep your attitude positive and your body in forward motion.  i am excited though to say the least.

movement

"The body was designed to move and movement is the great elixir of life. Where there is lack of movement life becomes stagnant and stale. Human life is a mind/body event. Simply put, what you think affects your body and what you do with your body affects your thinking. So if you wish to improve or change the output of this continuum you are best served by addressing both."

~Author Unknown

I thought this was beautiful. Movement is a very powerful thing.

bonjour!

i decided that at least one of my pictures should have me in it to prove that i am in fact here in belgium and taking these pictures. we had a "light" day at the conference. i went to one of the keynote lectures and then, set off in search of food that didn't involve french fries, mussels or mayonaise (i wonder if belgians really do eat them all together as we're told or if they just tell the tourists they do and then laugh when said tourists are not looking).

no, i wanted something less heavy and something that my body was more used to digesting...so i went in search of belgian vegan food. about a block from the lovely arch above sits the little restaurant and store pictured below.

i grabbed a to-go lunch full of all sorts of different veggies with all sorts of spice combinations i had never had before. most were winners but i wasn't a fan of whatever was on the artichoke. i ate in the sun on a lovely little bench in the park on the other side of the arch.

when i finished lunching, i continued on my self-guided tour of brussels and happened upon this:

brussels is the captial of europe. i wandered around the streets checking out all the e.u. headquarters buildings. outside of one of them was the following story:

aside from the gender confusion, i think we need more teachers like him/her. that teacher makes me want to learn too.

that and my experiences reading the other signs about the history of the e.u. brought home needing to learn a bit more about world history (exercised my freedom of choice and elected to not take that course in high school!).

my tour then led me through the rain to central station and then to the grand place for a tasty late afternoon waffle break. i saw the palais, a church that appeared to be on the palais compound and then did a lot of window shopping as i wound my way back to my hotel.

i am happily sitting down now.

belgium

there are lots of lovely walkways in brussels. the weather here has been sunny and very pleasant given the heat of maryland at present.

i gave my talk, poster presentation and co-chaired a session at the conference today. late afternoon i decided that was enough work for one day and it was time to go play tourist. i headed towards the grand place and enroute stumbled upon st. michael's church. the stained glass was amazing. the above picture is the organ, which seemed to be floating in air and which sounded incredible echoing through the space.

i arrived in the grand place to discover that the square was being overtaken. the police informed us that a "medieval spectacle" was taking place that evening. there were grandstands set up and people walking around in tights and puffy hats looking like they just came from a graduation ceremony (they were in costume). hundreds of people filled the square as evening went on.

i was kind of stalking this guy when i realized what he was doing. when i walked into the square, there was music playing and a beautiful, but kind of eery? voice singing. it was perfect for the location. i stood there listening for awhile taking it all in with all of the other tourists milling about...and then i noticed someone who appeared to be wearing a microphone. this was the guy singing. they were testing his microphone settings and he was walking about the square amongst the tourists singing, but he would put his head down so unless you paid close attention he looked like everyone else. a few other people started noticing though and also stopped to listen. the square is all stone and surrounded by taller buildings. the acoustics are amazing. it was incredible to just stand and listen.

i have two more days left of conference time. i am thoroughly enjoying it but hoping i will be able to take some time to explore brussels a bit more while i'm here...and maybe eat more than just belgian dark chocolate and fresh baguettes!

eat more fruit!

all of my reading lately has led me to the conclusion that i should be eating more fruit and less dessert. in theory i already knew this, but sometimes it takes a few scary statistics to drive it home. this morning i went to a (relatively) nearby organic farm to pick fruit (note: i had been planning to do this independent of any scary statistics. berry picking is so much fun!). this was the first day they were open for the pick-your-own season and the bushes were bending over because they were so heavy with berries.

they gave me a bucket and pointed me to a field. i was enjoying myself so much i just kept going until the bucket was full (5lbs of blueberries!). afterward i went to another section of the farm for red and black raspberries. the best part was you could eat while you picked. yum!

so this is what $20 of fresh picked organic berries looks like. i froze a bunch of the blueberries for future smoothies.

prior to berry picking i also stopped by the farmers market (its amazing how much time you have on saturday morning of a recovery week in training!). lots of greens were to be seen. i'm excited to watch the market develop as the summer progresses and more fruits and veggies ripen.

koshari

i made myself some delicious koshari for dinner this evening. koshari comes from egypt and is a mix of noodles, rice, lentils, a spicy tomato sauce and crispy, browned onions. mine had a little bit of a twist to it though. i ran out of pasta noodles so instead i used mung bean (cellophane) noodles. it looked a little different but tasted great all the same. i used this recipe for the proportions and sauce and now have leftovers for a week.

my body seems to be slowly adjusting to getting up earlier again. it helps that it is light outside at 5:30a, which was definitely not the case in austin when i left. i have been ready for a nap around 10a though, which isn't good when i have seminars and meetings. a major clinical trial for preventing falls in the elderly is about to start in our department and i'm getting to sit in on the meetings. its definitely getting me excited about changes in balance as we age. based on what i see from ultrarunning alone (though i know people who are finishing up clinical trials with it as well), exercise definitely seems to have a role in maintaining balance. i am hoping to be able to explore more about what exactly that role is.

room with a view

i just finished moving into the room i'll be in until late july. the picture above is the view from the balcony at the back of my room. yes, the water that you see is the inner harbor. i'm actually only about 4 blocks from a couple marinas and do shorter runs along the docks.

i made a last minute trip to nyc this weekend to visit rob and britt. i arrived in penn station and went straight to a benefit concert in a loft to see rob and britt's friend's band...and reggie watts showed up to perform next! but that was only friday night. the weekend was packed, but relaxing. we brunched. we walked. we cabbed. i ran. we found a great bookstore. we ate vegan food. we danced with hipsters in williamsburg, brooklyn until 2a. we visited a legit bakery (why are these only found on the east coast?). we strolled in central park and crossed 5th ave through the middle of the puerto rican parade. the only thing missing was eric. i am looking forward to going back to visit with him when he finishes school!

today was my first day at work. i am excited to be (formally) working again. in between taking care of all the fun logistical things, i am going through papers figuring out what experiments i want to do next. partially inspiring my thoughts at the moment is healthy at 100, which i just started reading. it provides an overview of 4 cultures that are known for having elders that live (abundantly) in their 100s. i have been thinking lately that next i may want to focus on elderly populations in general and issues of balance and posture during walking. hopefully i will be able to formulate a few questions to answer over the next couple months!

c & o towpath

this morning i headed west to do my long run on the c & o towpath. it was beautiful and green and unpaved (!). i ran past great falls, many old locks and even more people. i saw the scariest beaver ever (and now respect the attempt mit athletics made a few years ago to have a intimidating beaver mascot), numerous cranes and a very large spider. when i finished, i ate the tastiest fresh peach ever.

baltimore!

last week was an exciting week. fortunately our road trip was much less exciting than the 48 hours before we left and we arrived safely in baltimore on saturday. we spent the rest of the weekend and first couple days of this week on a mini-vacation in baltimore and dc. being in arlington cemetery on memorial day was an incredibly moving experience and definitely made me more fully realize the importance of the holiday.

i am settling into my new place in baltimore. i'm temporarily in a room different from the one i'll be living in for the next 7 weeks, but when i move, i will post a picture of the view...i can see the harbor from the deck outside the room. its beautiful! eric and i were able to sign the lease for the apartment we're renting before he left. we're scheduled to move in there in late july. it will be nice for both of us to move into it at the same time.

i have been enjoying all of the fun things i had forgotten about in the 8 years since i last lived on the east coast--humidity, bob evans, bertuccis, trader joes, farmers markets that are cheap, speeding, proximity to everything. that said, today, my first full day in baltimore by myself, i spent mostly around the house catching up on all of the emails and work i haven't been doing for the last week or so while traveling...like sending preferred dates, etc, to the travel agent who is arranging my flight for my conference in brussels at the beginning of next month and finishing my hiring paperwork so i can be paid when i start my new job!

and in my spare time, i've been studying trails in the area. yesterday i went hiking for an hour in oregon ridge park and drove past loch raven reservoir which is supposed to have a solid 10 mile loop around it. i'm planning to head to the c&o trail on saturday morning for my long run. hopefully the weather forecast is correct and it cools off a bit!