Finding a Place to Call Home

One question that I dread in small talk is "Where are you from?" I know my usual answer, "I am from the United States" will likely not be accepted and I will need to get more specific. This is difficult. However, this problem is not new to me. I am a third culture kid all grown up. Finding a home identity has been an ever changing quest further complicated by a nomadic stay in the United States. And for those of you who want the list of places I have lived, here it is. (This does not include all the houses and apartments I have lived in.)

1. Kentucky (born - 9 months)
2. Madrid, Spain (9 months - 5 years old)
3. Kentucky (5 - 7 years old)
4. Madrid, Spain (7 - 12 years old)
5. Kentucky (12 - 15 years old)
6. New Jersey (15 - 17 years old)
7. Indiana (17 - 26 years old)
8. Nebraska (26 - 26 years old)
9. Oregon (1 month stay)
10. New Jersey (permanent address, for now)
11. London area, Great Britain (27 - present)

This list may seem short to some and long to others. It really is all a matter perspective. There have been times in my life when I felt like I had a place I was from. Most notably, when I was living in Indiana, I felt as though I was from New Jersey since I had graduated from high school there and my immediate family lived there. However, most of life can be classified as being confused. When I was growing up in Spain I did not know the country of my birth all that well and I was not from the country I was living in. Both felt a little like home and both felt foreign and I did not sense that I belonged to either. I did not develop a sense of cultural identity until my mid twenties, when I finally accepted my American background. (Besides being from the land of pioneers who survived the worst of conditions is pretty cool. I like that about my heritage and I am proud of it.)

However, America is a big country, what state, or city am I from? Where can I call home? What do I define as home? These questions pressed more heavily when I relocated to Great Britain. When I asked where I was from, I would either avoid the question or make an attempt at humor to disguise that I did not have any sense where to call home. It was painful. I found individuals to be predominately unsympathetic and was sometimes told where I should call home based on their definition. Naturally, others who have spent their life in transition can understand this dilemma, and do not expect understanding from those who do not know a nomadic lifestyle. I realized that I needed to define what "home" and being "from somewhere" meant to me.

For me, it needed to be more that just a place I had lived. It needed to be a place I could return to and still feel safe. It needed to be place where people still remembered me and would be excited to see me if I returned. Home is place full of people that make you feel like you belong. It is the smells that you miss once you leave, the streets you could walk with your eyes closed, the foods you crave, the place that makes you smile when you talk about it. The place where you are the most you. This for me is home. This is where I am from. The location has changed a few times over the course of my life, but I know where I am from right now. In my heart, I am from Lincoln, Nebraska.

From the first time I landed in Lincoln to go to a physics conference, I felt comfortable. When I left three days later, I wanted to go back. I spent the following summer there in the wonderful heat. I fell in love with the prairie and it's wild, untamed beauty. I became myself again. I left at the end of that summer only to return four months later to live there full time.

Moving so far away on my own was terrifying and I was afraid I had made a mistake. I had a small apparent, one block away from the towering state capitol building. However, within a month, I started making friends. I found a friend to go on long bike rides with. I found people who invited me to their homes and helped me learn how to be car free. I found someone to drink cheap wine with and talk about life. I found a team of amazing women to ride bikes with. And then there were the gravel roads. The stunning paths of rocks and dirt that could carry you for hundreds of miles through wilderness, planes, tiny towns, and breathtaking beauties. There were so many long bike rides and each one ending at the state capitol.

My bike in front of the Nebraska State Capitol at the end of a Century Ride

I crave the ice cream from Ivana Cone, the food truck tacos, the pizza from Yia Yia's, and the treats from countless local restaurants. I miss the heavy heat of the summers. I miss Tuesday night bike rides with stops to drink cheap beer. The art shows, the jazz, the amiable openness of the residence, and the feeling of belonging. It is clear, that though my time was short, Lincoln left its mark on me. I have kept my ties there through wearing my cycling team's colors, sporting the goods of Lincoln artists, through emails, letters, and cards, and sharing my found memories with anyone who wants to know me better. I know that should I return, I would be welcome.

For now, the place I am from is Nebraska, because it is the place I miss the most. Home will likely remain fluid for me and I may move to another place later that will also capture my heart. That is okay, but for now I can finally answer the question I used to dread.

Tri Shorts and Transitions

One of the elements of doing a multisport event is learning how to do a transition from one discipline into the other. In the case of a duathlon, I will need to make a transition from running to cycling and a transition from cycling to running. The time I spend in transition will count against my overall finishing time. Therefore practicing transition is highly recommended on just about every multi-sport website out there. (Transition practice is different than brick workouts.) So two weeks ago, I did just that.

When I ran my marathon back in 2010, one lesson I learned was the importance of training in conditions as close to race conditions as possible. This includes clothing. (I did not follow this advice on my marathon and had the red marks to prove it.) I have been shopping around for a pair of inexpensive but well made tri shorts for a few weeks. Tri shorts are made to go from swim to bike to run. They fit closer than running shorts (running shorts would also be painful to cycling in) and have less padding than bike shorts (imagine running with all that padding) and dry quickly. I researched several companies and spoke to the multi sport athletes I knew. In the end, I order a pair of Sugoi tri shorts that I found for a very reasonable price. (Quick note if you are new to buying professional athletic clothes. These tend to run small as athletes are normally smaller than the general population. Always check the sizing guide for any athletic company. I almost always have to buy a size up.) Transition practice seemed like the perfect time to break them in.

Sugoi Tri Shorts (Photo by Piper Williams)

I set up a transition zone on the concrete patio outside of my apartment. This included laying out my running shoes, cycling shoes, bike helmet, and a water bottle. Some people clip their cycle shoes into their pedals for transition. I have elected not to do this. I will have enough on my mind and my race nerves have a good probability of making me clumsy. I have also elected to run with my cycling gloves on. This will save a little time in transition and, on the gross side, will give me a medium to wipe sweat off my brow while I am running. For this practice, I had mapped out a 2 mile run and a 6 mile cycle. The purpose was to repeat the transition multiple times, not get my milage in. My husband would watch my bike while I was doing the run. Now that everything was laid out, I could begin.

Where I entered my "Transition Zone" (Photo by Piper Williams)

I stared off with a run and tried to relax. After the run I went up to my patio and put on my bike helmet (duathlon rules state that you cannot get on your bike until your helmet is on and people are regularly disqualified for this). I then struggled to get out of my running shoes (mental note: buy stretchy tri laces) and into my cycling shoes. I downed some water and grabbed my bike. I ran with my bike down the apparent sidewalk and mounted once I reached the street. (Duathlon rules state that you cannot ride your bike in the transition zone.) I went through my bike ride, a little slower than I would like, and returned to my transition zone. I set my bike on the patio, quickly got out of my cycling shoes and put on my running shoes and fussed with the laces once again. This repeated two more times over the course of this workout.

This exercise proved to be useful in several ways. First, the transition was easier than I thought it would be. I have some ideas of areas that I need to improve. Second, it is another step in adjusting the weird feeling of running after cycling. Next time I may time my transitions and I will transition more than four times. To you multi-sport athletes, how do you practice your transitions?

Training Update:

I have been a little bit of slump due to an increased work load and additional responsibilities. I will write more about this later.

I am participating the London Ultra Duathlon to raise money for Scope, a charity that provides services for individuals with disabilities. If you would like to sponsor me please visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=EmilyGrace. Any amount helps and is appreciated.

Finding Solace in a Bike Ride

Last week I felt like I got into a fight with life and walked away with two black eyes and a bloody nose. I am struggling to be the scientist I want to be. My work feels so passionless and this is reflected in the results. I live with a daily reminder of the price and sacrifices my husband and I made so that I could have a career in physics. The burden seems almost too heavy to carry. I am so tired.

This is naturally reflected in my workout. My energy levels are not what they normally are and my muscles feel sore even after light workouts. I normally do my long rides on Saturday and my long runs on Sunday mornings. I woke Saturday morning in the pain that I have allowed stress to inflict on my body. I set my mind to ride. I need to work on my pace and I should do interval training, but I set these goals aside. Saturday, I needed my cycle to be more than training, I needed to be comforted. So I worked to get myself out of the house, which took longer than usual. I set no goals on distance, I had no plans for pace. My aim was to enjoy the feeling of pushing pedals and taking in the spring air. Piper, being the wonderful man that he is, told me to take as long as I needed. So I set off.

I live about 6.5 miles  away from a large park with roads that are mostly traffic free. I road the long way to get to the park and went through small towns I had never before seen. I could see the signs of spring in the various farms I passed. I arrived at Great Windsor park. I could see fields of yellow flowers and flocks of deer. Round and round the miles of park roads did I ride. It was comforting. It gave me solace. After I was calm, I road home through a different country side. The ride was a little more than 50 miles.

Once I entered my apartment, tired and sweaty, I pulled on my running shoes and dragged myself through a 2.7 mile run. I was able to run the first 1.5 miles fairly strong and this was an improvement from my last brick workout. (A brick workout is when an someone does one exercise work out immediately followed by a workout of a different type of exercise. Like a bike ride followed by a run. These are an essential part of multi-sport training.) Running after a bike ride feels like running in full armor through a field of molasses. So I will count my successes when they come.

Sunday came and I slept through the time I would normally run, but I woke up rested for the first time this week. Sometimes our bodies need more than just exercise. The more I do endurance events, the more learn about listening to what my body needs.

My research may continue to be a struggle, Piper may still be looking for work, my shoes may continue to break and be thrown out without replacement and the wears in my jeans may turn to holes. I have a husband who I am in love with, my bike can still take me to new places and I can still put one foot in front of another, and that is a win. Perhaps 90's grunge will continue to come back into fashion and I will look extra stylish. Next week, I will have more energy and I will train harder, but this week it was enough to remember that I still have so many opportunities to find joy.

Pre Bike Ride Looking a Little Tired
Photo By Piper Williams (500px.com/PiperWilliams)

Training Update:

I have been focusing on running hills and doing bricks. I am also working to run and bike at a faster pace consistently.

I am participating the London Ultra Duathlon to raise money for Scope, a charity that provides services for individuals with disabilities. If you would like to sponsor me please visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=EmilyGrace. Any amount helps and is appreciated.

Finding Inspiration

I step out into the wide expanse of the internet and immediately I am drowning in words. The sensation of screaming opinions overwhelms and I long to escape to the safety of a secluded library with the scent of books and card catalogues.

This is how I often feel when I enter the world of blogs on the internet seeking to learn from someone else's experiences. There is so much information, some of which is misinformed and/or unintentionally de-motivational. As a result, I am very picky as to which blogs I read to follow someone else's training journey. I am not looking to read anything that is overly opinionated on training and nutrition or to read about how a professional athlete trains. I will be unable to learn from these people as I am not a professional and sometimes the training methods that work for me contradict some of the advice. What I am looking for is to read about someone who works full time, like me, and who has a life outside of work and training, balances an intensive educe training schedule. Of course, what one person finds inspiring can be as different as training and nutrition needs.

There are two individuals whose writing I particularly enjoy and have learned a great deal from. Both are Sheclismo team members.

The first woman is Molly Nance. She is a marathon swimmer and presently she is training to swim the English channel this July. She is detailing this training in her blog: Mollysbigswim.blogspot.com. She is one of the reasons I am writing about my own training experience. What I particularly enjoy about her writing is the amount of detail she gives about her training schedule. I have learned a lot about how to carve out time in my schedule to fit in long workouts. She also describes different nutritional options for fueling while exercising and gives her own reactions. Also, when I read about her goals, I realize that there will always be new goals for me.

The second woman is Laura Anderson. I rode with her a few times when I was still living in Nebraska. Laura does triathlons and shares my passion for extra eating that being a runner allows you. She was also the first person I ever received multi-sport advice from. Her blog, http://fitfreshandfunny.wordpress.com/, follows both her training and day to day living. She makes it seem like fitting in running, biking, swimming workouts throughout the week is easy. She, like myself, did not start running until her mid-twenties. I have enjoyed reading about her journey of realizing that she is now indeed an athlete.

These are just two examples of excellent and inspiring blogs on the internet. I do believe that is important to choose who you read with care, whether it be training, home improvement, or whatever subject. If you find that pieces of writing perpetually leave you discouraged, then it might be time to realize that you are not the intended audience. There are others that might be a better fit. I would love to hear about any blogs you find particularly motivating.

Training Update:
I have started increase my weekend mileage on both the bike and on foot. This past weekend, I did a 40 mile cycle on Saturday followed by a 10 mile run on Sunday morning. This is the first time I have done two longer workouts on two consecutive days. I only felt a little sore on Monday, so it seems I am taking my training on the appropriate pace. I also learned this past week of the importance of a rest day. I had too many workouts too close together on too many days, and as a result, my weekday workouts left a little to be desired. I hoping that this will be a better week. I am sure that many running parter Thyla is ready to push me so we can do more runs at her pace. (My workouts can be found here: http://www.endomondo.com/profile/4756204)

With Jake (my bike) Post 40 Mile Ride
Photo by Piper Williams (http://500px.com/PiperWilliams)

I am participating the London Ultra Duathlon to raise money for Scope, a charity that provides services for individuals with disabilities. If you would like to sponsor me please visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=EmilyGrace. Any amount helps and is appreciated.

Happy Exercising.

Running and Biking and Running for Charity

Endurance training, like getting an advanced education, can become an incredibly selfish venture. Your training schedule becomes a priority, you start focusing on your diet, you are constantly listing to your body and everything becomes about you. While these activities are not inherently bad, (in fact they can be quite good for you), it does become easy to give into the temptation of becoming very self absorbed. I speak from experience on this point.

A practice I began engaging in when I first started doing long run was using this time for meditation and prayer. Those of you, who know me well, know how busy my mind generally is. Seeking quiet and silence is challenging for me, but not so when my legs are carrying me across pavement and trails or pumping bike pedals. In doing this, the time that I spend training becomes about something greater than just my athletic endeavors. In these moments, I begin to realize how incredibly blessed I am. I have a life that allows me to make time for endurance training. I have always had enough in life. I am physically capable of doing athletics. These things are not afforded to everyone. I have tried to invest my time in helping more people realize that they can make time to have the fitness levels they want. I have taken multiple individuals on their first runs. I started a column on commuting advice to encourage more people to take up cycling and bike commuting. I have tried to be generous with my finances, though this is something that I could always do better. Still, I want to do more.

This led me to the decision to run this duathlon to raise money for charity. While I am excited to work towards new athletic achievement, I want this effort to be about more than me. Scope is a charity that works to provide services for individuals with disabilities, both mental and physical. This gives people who have different challenges than the rest of us to have more normal lives and to go after their own goals and dreams. I believe that this is an important service and I am excited to contribute to this cause. If you are able, please consider sponsoring me financially for this event. All of your contributions go directly to Scope to fund the services they provide. My fundraising page can be found here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmilyGrace. I will have this link at the bottom of every blog post I write about training during this time, but I wanted to dedicate at least one post about my reasons for training for charity.

Training Update: Over the past week, I have been focusing on rebuilding my distance running and increasing my running pace. I have an excellent running partner, whose natural pace is faster than mine. We have been running throughout 2-3 days a week after work. We usually do one run for distance and one for hills. After each run, I hop on my bike and ride 6.7 miles home. This is starting to give me a little more of the feel of a run followed by a bike ride. I also did an 8 mile distance run at an average pace of 10:28 min/mile. This is my fastest distance running pace yet and gives me hope that I will be able to run the miles of the duathlon at a sub 10 min/mile pace.

I have been using the free workouts available on YouTube heavily throughout my training. I have found some really good workouts, so I have decided to post a link to one in each of these training blogs. Here is a link to a good 20 minute interval indoor cycling workout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGGvKt8vWho. This is the perfect workout for busy days.

Post Hill Run and Cycle Home Celebrating the Sweaty Disheveled Goodness of Exercise
Photo by Piper Williams (http://piperwilliams.500px.com/)

When Training Begins

I ran my first marathon and only marathon back in 2010, around the time I started this poorly maintained blog. The training took around 8 months and took my physical body from being able to run 1 mile to 26.1. The preparation for this endurance event helped sculpt the person I am today. I have since wished that I had kept a better record of my progress, both physical and mental. Since that marathon, I have run two half marathons and have participated in about a dozen cycling events, but I have not had the time to devote to training and running another marathon.

About two weeks ago, I decided the time was right to prepare for another endurance event. I signed up to do the London Duathlon on September 14th of this year. A duathlon is race that consists of a run/bike/run. The options for this race was the Super Sprint 5k/11k/5k, the Sprint 10k/22k/5k, the Classic 10k/44k/5k, and the Ultra 20k/77k/10k. Guess which one I picked? You guessed it, the Ultra. I have eight months to complete these distances in under 7 hours. I am would be lying if I did not admit that this makes me a little nervous, but I have to move these thoughts aside and focus on my newest goal.

Once the event was chosen, one of my favorite parts of training comes next: choosing a training plan. I searched the internet for a good duathlon plan, but I was not able to locate one for such a long distance. I resolved to come up with my own, using my own experience and the knowledge of my cycling team. I will be using my favorite marathon training schedule to prepare for the running and a combination of elongated commutes, long weekend rides, interval trainer sessions, and weekend night rides (when the light improves) to prepare for the biking sessions. This will also include days where I both ride and run. My workouts during February and March will focus on short, intense sessions to build my baseline fitness while fitting into my hectic schedule. Starting in April, I will start to shift my focus to building endurance. I have also decided to blog about this. I have greatly enjoyed reading the training blogs of others on my team which has inspired me to keep my own record.

Presently, my training is off to a slow start. I have grueling research and teaching schedule which forces me to have shorter workout sessions. However this past week, the weather has limited even these. The severe flooding have made the roads too dangerous to commute by bike and heavy rains and hail have cancelled a few runs. I did, however managed to do a few sessions on my indoor bike trainer. During these, I have focused on a high cadence and low resistance. A big challenge for me on a bike has been to go fast and go all out. (I am an endurance girl at heart.) I hoping to combat these tendencies through interval training.

Given how crazy my schedule is, this may seem like a strange time for me to begin the time commit that this type of training requires, however I find that this level of dedication in one area of my life encourages dedication in other areas of my life. Besides, hours of running and biking provide the perfect opportunity to solve science problems.

Also, I am participating in the duathlon to raise money for Scope charities. Scope provides services for individuals with disabilities. It is a really good cause. Please consider donating. More information can be found here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=EmilyGrace

Post Trainer Workout - My Starting Shape

What Am I Doing?

When I first starting writing in this blog, my original intention was to craft a science blog. I made a feeble attempt, and then this fell to the wayside. I suffered from having a large diversity of interests, wanting to write more introspectively, and feeling overly insecure that I would not write anything of actual quality. So this page, like many other forgotten dreams, lay dormant most of the time with occasional post when I felt inspired. As for me, I missed writing, but I was frozen by own fears and insecurities.

 Now I am a PhD student and I have a thesis looming ahead of me. A task that will require a great deal of writing and most days feels impossible. So I am returning to my other childhood passion. I am returning to writing. It has often been said that the key to writing well is writing often and realizing that most of what one produces will be terrible. So I have decided to write. This will not be a themed blog. I will occasionally write about my life and sometimes my ideas. Perhaps there will be the occasional science article, but mostly I am writing because it makes me happy. Perhaps something of worth may come out as well. Time will tell.