I’ve always been very cheap, or “money-saavy” if you will, but I have never really had to be.

I was very fortunate to earn a scholarship for a college degree therefore leaving me with no debt when I graduated six years ago.  I am grateful for that every day, especially when I hear about my friends’ monthly loan bills and how others are still paying off school debts well into their 30s.

I am 28 years old and haven’t lived at home for over six years yet I’ve accrued virtually no housing expenses thanks to generous friends and their couches, on-campus living, and a professional basketball career (housing included). 

So with no loans, no monthly payments (save a phone bill and car insurance) I’ve been able to, essentially, do anything I want.  Luckily “anything I want” doesn’t include a luxury car or lavish vacations but I’ve been comfortable, driven across country, and been to my fair share of Red Sox games.

But, about a month ago, Tanna and I decided to look for an apartment.

Yup.  Talk about monthly payments…  Well, we set our sights low (on rent price, that is) and as days and weeks went by we upped our “maximum”; southern Maine living is pretty expensive.  But about two weeks ago we found the perfect place, for a little more than we had bargained, and have already begun to “budget.” 

This was an unfamiliar word to me but my natural, cheap, and low-maintenance sixth sense has already kicked in.  We’ve been to Sam’s Club (on a free day-pass thank you very much), made all home-cooked meals, and, probably most surprising, decided not to buy cable or internet.

Yes, folks, I am coming to you live from Baxter Memorial Library in Gorham, Maine and probably will be for at least the rest of the summer.  We really have no use for the internet, own plenty of movies, and my life in Europe with non-English speaking TV programs have led me back to the free box sets of TV shows here at the library.

I do miss the side of Sports Center with my coffee, however.  But I’ll have to get my kicks in on the TV-equipped treadmills at the  USM gym (also free with the job).

Did I mention we have furnished our apartment for a grand total of $27 that we, personally, spent on a futon mattress cover and a trashcan?  Thanks to our hoarding skills (“I’ll need that someday!”), our generous family and friends, and our money-saavy abilities we didn’t have to purchase many new furnishings.

This is just month one of my real-world adventures (oh, the excitement!); what will next month have in store?  Tune in next week for more escapades and more “my hair-dryer uses HOW MUCH energy?” discoveries.

This has been a great self-discovery period for me. 

It’s been two weeks since I went to a career panel here at USM and it has kind of just jump-started my thought process.

My boss set up a career panel for juniors and seniors and I helped with some of the organizing but also decided to go myself.  I’ve come to the conclusion that I am at a similar place in my life as these graduates are: unsure of my future, looking for a career path, and armed with my degree.

BUT.  After a few meetings, interviews, emails, and the kind words I’ve been getting, I feel energized.  Though I do not have a career or really a specific interest in any industry, I have a lot to offer and I am actually, in MOST ways, nothing like this year’s graduates.

At the career panel I mentioned, I became very interested in what one woman had to say.  She is in the consulting business and I wasn’t sure what exactly that entailed so I asked.  Since graduating college and questioning a job in my degree’s (Journalism) field, I’ve taken to interviewing everyone about their jobs: what they like about it, what they don’t, and what it IS.  (I guess I am putting my journalism degree to good use).

K, the consultant, agreed to meet with me to talk about what she does and to have a look at my résumé.

I could not have imagined what I ended up getting from that hour conversation.  She got me excited about my life and saw some things in myself that I had never seen before.

“I like your energy; you have a very positive and optimistic attitude,” she told me.

That meant the world to me as I have struggled with my attitude most of my life.  And honestly, until that moment, I had considered myself a pessimist.  Often times I was very negative with myself and the people around me, especially in college.  But the years I have put in since graduating in 2007 have helped me grow.  I have a lot of life experience and I am starting to learn that it is invaluable.  The experiences I have been through are things that can’t be taught; they come with time, and they come with doing.  Taking risks, making mistakes, reviewing those mistakes and coming out a better person.

So that’s where I am at.  I’m putting my mind to things and I’m doing them.  I am doing them the only way I know how and that’s hard and with everything I have.  That effort will be applied to my search for a job as well.  I’m ready to find something and I am ready to learn, try new things, and push my limits.

It’s quite common for me to worry about my future but then I have weeks like these and I realize that it’s bright.  I’m continuing to learn and experience new things and I’m excited about it.

I moved back to America about 13 months ago and it has been nothing but rewarding.  In Europe, I spent lots of my free time reading about searching for jobs and discovering what I want to do and now I’m trying to do them.  I’ve learned you can’t really understand something second hand, you have to experience them yourself and make your own conclusions.

It’s really funny how when you aren’t desperately looking for something, you often times trip over it.  If you put yourself out there and aren’t afraid to be honest and open, opportunities are everywhere.

It’s a pretty unbelievable thing.  You are going about your life and then, in an instant, something happens that makes you become more aware of the world around you.  Something that is so much bigger than you.

I was talking recently with friends about how big the world is.  How the world is just too big to comprehend or make a difference in.  How every day so many different things are going on in so many places that we can’t even begin to try to make sense of it all.

So, we discussed, we all just need to make our part of the world the best that we can.  We can only control what kind of vibes we send out into the world and sometimes we can’t even control our own world.

Yesterday when that horrible, horrible scene unfolded at the Boston Marathon I started thinking about it again.  It seems to me that it’s so easy to negatively impact large amounts of lives and people.  We talk about helping others, smiling at strangers, or doing the best we can every day but it’s times like this that all of that just doesn’t seem like enough.

Well it has to be.  It has to be enough because we can’t control the hate in the world.  We can only hope to provide more light and love in our own corners.  We can only hope that love will spread and catch fire. 

Like MLK said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”  On days like today when it seems you are too small and you feel helpless, I hope that you’ll try to make yourself and your loved ones happy and start spreading some light.

It was windy (20mph winds), cold (a temperature near freezing), and it was windy, did I mention that?

But more importantly, we did it!  We completed a half marathon.

Saturday, Tanna and I arrived at Brunswick Naval Airbase to whipping winds (they were shaking my Nissan) and near-freezing temperatures but it was our day and nothing could stop our confidence or make us question our preparation.

We did, however, have to wear our sweatpants.  That’s right, we ran 13.1 miles in sweatpants but it was much better than the alternative.

The first few steps were so exciting and we were surrounded by 1,000 other runners.  Many were running the 5k that began at the same time and flew by us.  At the first mile marker we finally had our own space and got into a nice jogging rhythm.  Around mile three we hit the biggest challenge of the running year: a grueling head wind with gusts up to 50 miles per hour.  (Maybe you’re not sure what that means but to put it into perspective: I couldn’t hear Tanna, who was running right next to me, and at times I wasn’t entirely sure that I was actually moving forward).

That mile and a half that we ran on the runway against the wind was one of the hardest physical things that I have ever had to do.  Still there was no point in the 16 plus minutes it took us to turn off the runway that I thought I wouldn’t be able to continue.

Finishing that stretch was an awesome feeling and I felt like a completely new woman once we got out of the wind and it was pretty much smooth sailing from there.  The last mile, however, was a little painful.  Even when I saw the finish line from about .4 miles away I was thinking, “wow, so far!”

At the end of the run I honestly almost teared up, I felt the welling begin in the back of my eyes but I think the wind kept them dry and the feeling of “I DID IT!” was replaced with, “oooo, my legs hurt…. Oooo my legs hurt pretty bad.”

But, really, I did it!

Back in January I made it a goal of mine for the year, 2013, to run a half marathon.  The training for this beast began at the end of that same month and I did it!  The weeks of running 20 and 30 miles are over.   And honestly, I am pretty ready to play some more basketball and lift weights.

Thoughts:

Amazing feeling to train for this and finish it.  Doing something I never thought I could do really changed my perspective on how capable I really am and how capable my body and mind are.

Everyone has been asking: So are you going to do it again?  Is this going to lead to a full marathon?  The answer to the latter is, “No.”  I imagine I would be physically able to run 26 miles in a row but I don’t want to do it.  Running twice as much as we ran this past Saturday seems pretty absurd.  But never say never.  And, am I going to do it again?  Hmm.  Originally I’d say no but I have been told by several people who run marathons and who ran on Saturday that it was the worst half marathon weather conditions that they’ve ever run in.  So that fact and knowing we ran faster than we had planned (averaging a 10:52/mile) on top of my competitiveness almost makes me want to run another one just so I can improve.  ALMOST.  The answer to that question is TBD.

I really hope this has inspired some of you to JUST DO IT.  I can’t tell you enough how absolutely terrified of running I used to be and how I had no confidence in my ability to do it.  (Refer to this post, when I decided to start the training).  But, after doing the half marathon, it just really proves to me that you can do ANYTHING you put your mind to and sometimes you have to face your fears.

GU energy gel tastes disgusting (at least the Strawberry Banana flavor).

I enjoyed the Gatorade at the water stops but often times felt that I was dumping more on my face than in my mouth.  One of my friends and fellow runners later told me a trick: squeeze/bend the plastic cup so you have a smaller area that the water is coming out, like a spout.

We had some conversations with people running near us and they were all inspiring.  It was so much easier and more enjoyable to be out there running with hundreds of people (and the volunteers at the water stops were very inspiring as well, cheering us on).

I remember last summer when my step mother and sister decided to, and ran a half marathon and then a marathon.  I thought they were crazy.  Like, “You’re running twelve miles today?  I don’t think I could ever do that.”

But I can.  I did run twelve miles and I’ll be running 13.1 on Saturday morning.  When people ask me if I’m nervous for the run I tell them I’m not.  I’m ready.  I can’t believe it’s finally here but I’m certainly not afraid of it.  I’m just going to run and not stop until I reach the finish line.  Sounds simple and with all of the preparation, guess what, it is!

It just makes me wonder what people could do if they just did it.  We spend too much time in awe of what other people do and claim our own mediocrity when we would be better served to just do.  No excuses.

 “Turn your can’ts into cans.”  It’s a silly, old, underestimated adage that we should put it into use more often.

Thoughts of the week?

I feel that I don’t have much more wisdom to share when it comes to the training of this half marathon.  I’ve learned a lot of things and now it’s time to put it all together and just keep running.

 The race begins Saturday, April 6^th at 9:30am in Brunswick.

Tanna and I ran 12 miles (our longest) on Sunday.  I was still 27 at the time and it was the hardest run I’ve ever done.  At about the eight mile mark I had a high interest in starting our cool down walk and then with about a mile to go I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.  Actually, that’s a lie, I knew I’d make it but I just started feeling it.  The run was painful.

We decided it must have been the hills on this 12 mile run.  Last week we ran a completely flat route (the indoor track) and the 11 miles wasn’t too bad.  This week we ran the roads of Newburgh, Maine and faced a monster of a hill around mile seven plus several other little guys.  The toughest hill, however, may have been the short downhill during our eleventh mile.

Ya, downhill.   Have I mentioned yet that I have a slight, comical fear that at some point during the long runs my legs will stop working and I will somersault to a stop in the ditch?  Well, I think of that possibility often and it almost became a reality on the last, fairly aggressive, downhill.  I even told Tanna, “Be careful,” because I didn’t want the both of us to start rolling.  But, since this blog didn’t begin with a picture of me in a hospital bed, you can be sure we made it safely down that hill and finished the 12 miles.

I’ve decided this week that my favorite thing about this training is that I’m not changing my life for it.  I don’t want to.  I want to run this but I’m not looking to put my life on hold to train.  I still eat all of the sweets I want, have a drink once in a while, and just enjoy being young (yup, young).

I celebrated my birthday with family and friends starting on Friday and lasting until Tuesday night.  Best birthday of my life and yet I was still able to get all of the runs in.  Case in point: Friday night I drank more than I have since the summer, went to bed at midnight on a pull out couch, was woken up by the cutest four-year-old I know at 7am, and ate eggs and cake for breakfast but STILL ran the four miles for that day and 12 miles the day after.

I’ve read that it takes 21 days or 66 days to form a habit.  Either way, I started this training at the end of January and it’s definitely become a habit.

Thoughts:

Don’t let this running take over your life.  I’ve made some small sacrifices but I refuse to not do something I want to just because I have to run the next day.  I lived that in college (“I can’t, I have basketball) and I don’t plan on doing it again.  Enjoy every moment as it comes.

Be careful on down hills.  Somersaulting down those doesn’t sound like a good idea.

Tanna got me a professional massage for my birthday (among other things) and I think it’s been helpful.  I got it on an off-day of running and it was deep!  I laid there while she was working on my legs and feet trying my best not to tighten up or yell, “stop!” because I’ve heard that working hard on muscles that are tired is beneficial.  So, I took it like a champ and I think it’s made a difference in the past couple days.  My legs aren’t as sore as usual and my last two runs (a four and a five-miler) have been good.

Drink lots of water!!!!  I think we were dehydrated after our 12 mile run and it wasn’t a pleasant rest of the day.

The alignment with the end of my training and the delivery of Girl Scout cookies couldn’t have been any more on point.  Luckily I have someone to share them with me and that same someone is trying to run a half marathon, too!

Hmmm.  Remember last week when I said I probably wasn’t paying enough attention to my nutrition?  Well it got worse with the Girl Scout cookies but I think deciding not to run outside in the freezing cold helps keep me healthy (and maybe a little stir crazy) as well.

Ever since starting to run outside a few weeks ago I have enjoyed it much more than running circles on the indoor track or running in place on a treadmill.  You could say I was getting spoiled with the “ok” weather that was good enough to run outside in.  Well, on Sunday, it was about 30 degrees and the wind was going at a 16 MPH clip.  No thanks.

Slight problem, however, we had to do our long run on Sunday.  Eleven miles.  Eleven miles on the indoor track while watching high school girls play some AAU basketball.  It could have been worse in any number of ways: an empty field house with nothing to look at, a treadmill, or not doing it at all.

I realized, also, that this running is testing my patience (or lack thereof).   I have always been one who will try to get things done in the fastest, most efficient way possible.  I don’t like wasting time and I’m not a procrastinator.  With running that long, there is really no fast way to do it.  So I have been learning to just get it done.

Someone asked me on Monday (after the 11 miles), “What were your thoughts when you started on that first lap?”  That’s a funny question because, seriously, what WAS I thinking?  I guess I was just thinking, “Wow, when I finally stop running I will have run for two hours.”

It’s kind of something cool for me to try to apply to my life.  Maybe once I put my mind to something (like a career I hope) I will just have to know that at the end of my journey I will have reached my goal, if I just keep going.  At the beginning of anything sometimes everyone wonders just HOW they are going to finish it but this running thing has given me the belief that if you just keep going it WILL get done.  It just will.

Thoughts of the week:

Running 77 laps on an indoor track isn’t ideal but it’s doable.

Maybe next time I train for a half marathon I’ll check the schedule of Girl Scout cookie deliveries.

After finishing running eleven miles you probably won’t be able to walk normally.  But with some water, nutrients, stretching, and about two hours the walking process will come back to you.

I’ve always worn cutoffs while working out but chaffing can be a big problem if a workout lasts longer than an hour, especially with the same movements so I have switched to t-shirts.  A fellow runner has also suggested “Body Glide” to me but I haven’t had enough of a problem with it to invest the eight dollars in it.

I would say last weekend’s two runs were the best of the seven weeks of training so far.  This came as a big surprise as we did our four mile run on Saturday after not eating a healthy meal and doing it in the afternoon (two things that don’t normally happen) and Sunday we ran ten miles (period)!

Most of the time, worrying about something is worse than actually doing that something and the four-miler was a piece of cake.  The ten-miler wasn’t so bad either!

On Sunday, we found a loop near Dysart’s in Hermon that was close to ten miles and then just used Tanna’s handy dandy distance watch to make sure we did the entire long run.

I am most proud of doing the run while being sick.  I had a runny nose, sore throat, and the ever-so lovely-post-nasal drip but, somehow, it didn’t affect me as much as I thought it would.

We ran hills, we ran against the wind, and we kept on running.  Oh, and I didn’t have to pee this time.

I should confess something right now, though.  Ever since beginning this running regimen (five days of run per week) I have also been playing full court five on five basketball at least twice per week.  The basketball playing falls during the week and, so far, it hasn’t seemed like much of an issue to continue the running and play basketball as well. 

If something is suffering, it’s my basketball playing.   Luckily, I am just playing basketball for fun now but I wouldn’t really recommend trying to go hard at two things.  Half marathon training should probably stand alone when it comes to working out.

(And, not to worry, this training will be done by the time summer basketball league comes around: that takes center stage in June and July.)

Thoughts:

Maybe I should wear running shorts?  Last week a co-worker laughed at the basketball shorts I always run in.

My left calf and left foot felt a little tingly at times during the ten-mile run and a little bit on the following day so I am wondering what’s going on there.  Could be that I need to wear my newer shoes or that I need some more vitamins in my life…

Speaking of vitamins, I think I am not eating properly for the toll that running this much takes on one’s body.  Don’t get me wrong, I eat healthy for the most part but that just comes natural to me and I think, with all this running, I need to actually FOCUS on what I am eating and when I am eating it.  Someone should include an eating guide with their running calendars… or, maybe someone already has?

Again, it seems that half marathon training should stand alone as a workout.  Playing full court basketball probably hasn’t rested my legs properly between runs.

I enjoyed this running outfit today: bright yellow cutoff, shortest shorts I own: bright blue, and bright orange shoes.  Still need to decide what I’ll wear on the big day!

“We are Hosting an NCAA Regional!”

“An Unexpected Loss”

“First Season of Coaching in the Books”

 These are all headlines I should have had in my blog in the past month.  I’ve been more focused on my half-marathon training and thought I’d keep my basketball thoughts to myself for a later date.  Enter later date:

At the beginning of season I wasn’t sure what to expect from Division III basketball players and this new job of mine as a coach.  At the end of the season I’ve found that you can’t expect or assume anything, every day is bound to surprise you. 

But as the season was FLYING by, our team managed only one loss on the regular season and were nationally ranked throughout the year.  I always found that hard to believe: of the over 400 Division III women’s basketball teams in the country we were in the top 25.  The funny thing is I felt we were good but I also felt we had a LOT we could improve on.

In the end, we won our conference, were able to host four teams in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, and ended with a disappointing 22-point loss on our home court.  The loss was hard to take and almost even surprising to leave the tournament so early but, I’ll tell you, losing as an assistant coach is much easier to take than losing as a player.

I am a pretty empathetic person, though: I’ve lost many, many games in my life and I’ve also been at the point when I thought my basketball career was over (twice) so I felt for the seniors, especially.  It’s not a good feeling to wonder what’s next and know that basketball as you know it, something that is such a huge part of your life, is over. 

Here are ten things I learned this year, my first year as a college coach:

1. Assistant Coaches don’t get any recognition.  This probably seems obvious but the up side to this is that things are rarely ever your fault.
2. The Suggestion Queen.  I have never made so many suggestions in my life.  “Want to try this defense?” “Should we sub her?”  “Need a timeout here?” Looking back this was great for me; I’ve always been pretty indecisive so a lot of times I was very content not to have to make the final decision on anything.
3. I can still play basketball.  Luckily I got to practice just enough and along with other workouts have been able to stay in basketball shape.  (For what reason?  I don’t know).  But being on the scout team I think I played more defense in those ten or twelve times I got to practice than I have in my whole life.  Oops.
4. These athletes are still learning.  Some of them weren’t familiar with many basketball terms that have been a part of my vocabulary for a long time.  But I guess that’s why I’m a coach…
5. It’s nice to have a player come to you with a question or an idea.  The players seem to trust that you know what you are talking about.  I think this surprised me just because I am young (I look younger) and this was my first real coaching gig.
6. Same goes for the head coach.  Coach Fifield has been doing this for over 25 years and he still valued my thoughts, ideas, and opinions.  Doesn’t mean he always inflicted them but I always believed he truly took them into account.  I don’t know if this would have happened anywhere.
7. Just like any other job or experience I can take things with me that I might do in the future and I can see things that I wouldn’t want to make a part of my coaching philosophy and, really, life philosophy.
8. In the end, I miss playing competitive basketball a little bit but not nearly as much as I thought I would.  Sitting on the bench I had too much to focus on and think about to have time to wish that I was on the court.  (Plus I was always in non-playable heels).
9. I like college coaching but I’m not sure it’s going to be a lifelong thing for me.  On top of everything the money is part time and the benefits are none so unless I marry a millionaire or find another job I love that could fit with college coaching hours this couldn’t be a long term thing.
10. I may never get sick of basketball.  I coach it, play it, talk about it, read about it, write about it, and watch it on TV; whatever I decide to do with my career, basketball will never leave me.

My Conclusion?  Surprise!  I don’t have one but I think I might do the college coaching thing for another year….

Nine miles was the long run this week.  Three times as much as my long runs used to be.

Tanna and I ran outside for a four-miler on Saturday and a nine-miler on Sunday.  It was unbelievable.  If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I would be able to run nine miles straight I would have been really surprised.  (If you had told me that when I was in college I would have laughed and made a sarcastic comment).

I think running outside was easier.  I wasn’t running in circles and I wasn’t running in place.  There were some hills but, luckily, when there are ups there are also downs.  Breathing the fresh air was nice and it got me thinking about spring (maybe a little too early).

I do recommend, however, thinking about a place on your outside route that you may be able to stop and pee if need be.  Two miles into our run on Sunday I realized there was no way I was making it another seven without relieving myself.  Unfortunately for me we were on a straightaway out in the open with snow-covered fields on either side of us.  I’m not shy so I squatted behind a guardrail and ruined two people’s day as only one car drove by.

The last mile was absolutely the hardest for me.  This time is was more so that my legs were tired whereas last week, the eight miles, my cardio felt like the issue.

I am learning that this running thing is going to be more mental than anything.  Our bodies are amazing things and they can do much more than our brain believes they can.  So it will be a matter of the mind as we reach ten miles this Sunday and onto the 13.1 in April.

Thoughts on running outside:

When running outside (especially in the spring in Maine) don’t wear your favorite running sneakers: they WILL get muddy. Thankfully I realized this BEFORE we went outside and my bright orange Nike’s are safe.

If you’ve got the money (or a birthday coming up) invest in a distance watch.  I’m not even sure that’s what these are called but Tanna has one and it tells us how far we’ve ran and at what pace we are running.  It is much better and more accurate than a stopwatch and having to drive around in your car marking out miles.

Enjoy the fresh air, especially now, we’ve all been cooped up inside for far too long!

Don’t forget what I said about a designated potty break spot.

Wear something on your ears.  Saturday (the four miles) I didn’t and my ears paid for it.  On Sunday I wore a headband and felt much better.  Same with cold gear, gotta keep warm but you don’t want to be wearing a bulky sweatshirt if you can avoid it.

Smile.  My boss tells me that he doesn’t understand why people run because, “every time I drive by a runner they aren’t smiling, why do it if you aren’t having fun?”