Alive & Kickin'

Wow. So the last time I posted was September 3rd, eh? And what's today - September 21st? Sheesh!

Instead of writing about each hike (there's NO WAY I remember individual details now), I'll highlight some of the major accomplishments that I've achieved in this post.

You know how they say that it takes six weeks to form a habit? Well, as of September 7, 2007, I officially have made a habit of The Dish. Have I formed the habit of hiking yet? All the evidence points to yes. Two big pieces of evidence clue me to this: first, on days that I don't hike, I feel grumpy and lethargic. So much so, that I think I might start some light weight-lifting or swimming on those days so that I remain active for 6 days out of the week. The second, and my personal favorite, piece of evidence that I've got the hiking habit is that it's become less of a mental struggle to drag myself out of bed in the morning. When my alarm goes off, I don't immediately start fighting with myself over whether or not I'll go hiking or making excuses about putting off the day's hike for another day. Instead, I struggle over whether I should shower at home or shower at work. For example, I'll decide that if I was awake enough at 6:03 (the first alarm), then I'll pack stuff up to wear, make breakfast and lunch, and head straight to lab from the hike. However, if 6:03 finds me not quite awake enough, I'll let myself sleep in another 20 minutes before hopping dutifully out of bed. I could get used to this.

One incredibly frustrating aspect of this whole process is that I haven't been losing weight. I know that wasn't my main goal - it was to run The Dish - but still, I figured, get one lazy butt off of her ass and go from doing no exercise a week to 10.5+ of running/walking a hike, and something's gotta happen, right? WRONG. I've been stuck at around 320 pounds for the last 5 weeks. WHAT THE CRAP?!?!?! I know, I know, I should be celebrating the fact that I've stuck with it so long. But can a girl get some results, please?!

Weight loss aside, there have been a number encouraging things along the way.

When I ordered my bridesmaid's dress for Kristin's weeding a few months ago, I was scared to death the thing wouldn't fit me. Since my torso is the approximate proportion of 'brick', I had a hard time deciding which size dress to buy. My bust measurement put me right smack dab at a 28W, the largest size they had. My waist measurement put me at a 32W, a theoretical size Alfred Angelo makes. My hips measurement put me at a 22W, which I would have loved to order, if only to boost my confidence. Since this was a strapless dress, I ordered the 28W, and hoped for the best ... there's some pretty good undergarments out there that could help me redistribute 6 inches of my waist, right?!? Anyway, after months of agonizing, the dress finally shows up at my door. Eagerly, I tried the dress on ... amazingly enough, I didn't have to unzip the thing at all! I just threw that puppy on over my head and it slipped right into place. The waist fit perfectly, the hips were a little big, but that was to be expected. Most shockingly, however, was that the bust was TOO BIG! I even had to get the top altered so the darn thing wouldn't fall off during the ceremony. I think my scale might be lying to me ... I've lost something that's for sure.

Bridesmaid's dress victory aside, there have been other forms of encouragement. Last weekend, I was in Sublimity, OR to attend the wedding of Lena Ho & Zach Wilson. Sublimity is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, except for the fact that it was about a 20 minute drive from So-lame (Salem), OR, home of Willamette University, my brother's soon-to-be alma mater. On Saturday, while the rest of the gang was shopping for pants or checking out Salem, I met up with my brother in Sublimity for brunch. His first words to me were - "You look great!" Encouragement from a family member? Check!

Also, at this same wedding, I would just like to point out that I looked smokin'. Check it out for yourselves:
That's right folks, I even look good standing next to two super tiny Singaporean girls. And, I pulled off slinky fabric, the hardest of all fabrics to wear when you're trying to hide some weight!

Finally, the last (and less vain) form of encouragement comes with the actual running of The Dish. I had been taking the walking route of The Dish for a while now, mostly because it enabled me to have an excuse not to run. On Wednesday (September 12), it was Xianne and I on our own for the hike. Whenever Xianne joins me, I always feel like I'm holding her back ... so I vowed to try my best running this time. Once we got to the top of the hills (boy did I forget how rough those hills are), I ran. At each marker, Xianne would ask me if I could do just one more; so I pushed myself a little further and we ran one stretch of 5 markers, and one stretch of 8 markers. Surprisingly, I didn't get as exhausted after running as I used to get; eight markers flew by like nothing. The next hiking day (Friday, September 14th), Alissa, Kristyn, and I attacked the hike. Knowing that I had just done some major damage running The Dish, Alissa pushed me even harder. I can't even remember the number of markers we ran, but during the pre-Dish segment, we ran from the tippity top of the hill down to the very bottom of the final hill leading up to The Dish ... it had to be a good 6 or 7 markers. After we passed The Dish, we ran 11 markers, all the way down to the bottom of the final big hill. Alissa even made me run up one of the final hills at the end! It actually felt good to run, and it was great to run without feeling like I was a fish out of water, gasping for air!

Even though my scale might not be indicating any progress, I feel like I've made leaps and bounds over the past few weeks. I have no trouble getting up for the hike anymore, I can run much farther than normal, I enjoy running, and I look hot! What more incentive do I need to keep this up?

Right now, I'm in Madison, WI, helping my bestest friend in the whole world get ready for her wedding. Needless to say, I have not be doing anything exercise-y lately, unless you count stamping programs, making favors, and making meal cards exercise! I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programming on September 26th ... hopefully I won't have lost too much progress there ...

Maintenance Required

While I was up at Mt. Shasta this weekend, the maintenance required light came on my car. It started off just flashing at me when I started the car, gently telling me that something needed attention. Now it's on permanently, reminding me ever so stalwartly that my oil needs to be changed, fulfiling it's purpose in life to get my attention concerning the maintenance of my car. Unfortunately for that little LED, it's soft orange glow is reminding me to maintain this blog rather than maintain my car. (No worries, ladies and gents, the oil will get changed this week; I gots to take care of my baby Rebel.)

It does please me to say the even though the blog hasn't been updated, I've still gone on hikes consistently. And, in fine fashion, here are the blurbs about the hikes, bullet-point style!

• Monday, August 27th, 2007 - All By Myself : On the one month anniversary of this journey, the inevitable happened - I hiked alone. Unlike the last time I thought I was going to have to hike alone, however, I was looking forward to it. There were a myriad of challenges in front of me - finishing the hike in a good amount of time, running on my own, pushing myself forward. I decided to take the counter-clockwise route, which has quickly become my preferred route. As I walked up the first hill, I watched as hikers in front of me branched off to hike in different directions. Turning the corner to go the less-traveled, counter-clockwise route, I spotted a pair of hikers walking the hike. They didn't seem to be walking too terribly fast, so I then made it my personal goal to pass them. They must have been on a mission, because they sped up on the hills! I silently cursed them as I pressed on towards my goal. Sadly, as we reach the big dish, they started to break away from my reach. When I reached the tippity-top of the uphill climb, I decided to run the remainder of the hike, including the super steep second hill. Running downhill often feels more like stopping yourself from falling downhill; my toes were pressed up at the top of my shoes, making my feet oh-so-uncomfortable. At the bottom of the hill, I checked my time - 1 hour, 4 minutes. What a proud moment! I had been able to push myself, run alone, and make good time all on my own!
  

• Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 - Snaaaaake, Snaaaaaake, it's a Snake! : There's nothing that makes me more embarrassed than getting schooled on The Dish hike. It's suppossed to be my thing, after all. I remember feeling a slight twinge of embarrassment a few weeks ago when Ken joined me on the hill. This time, however, the embarrassment was doubled - not only was I schooled on the hike, but I was schooled by my mother. My mom came into town to check out my new apartment, IV, and MPPC (the church I attend), and to check out The Dish hike with me. Xianne, Kristyn, and Nola joined us on the hike Wednesday. We must have been walking too slowly for my mother; she would speed past us (ok, mostly me) to the top of the hill. Then, to add salt to the wound, she would walk back down the hill to where I was, and join me in walking back up the hill! Sigh. In addition to getting schooled by my mom, the group had it's first encounter with wildlife (other than God's favorite animal - the squirrel) on this hike. As we were walking the final at the base of the big dish, my mom screamed. Kristyn and my mom scattered up the hill, while Xianne stopped to look at what the commotion was about. Next to the side of the path, a kingsnake was chilling out in the shade. Because of their similar coloring, are often mistaken for the venomous coral snakes. In fact there was really no need to be afraid of this creature; kingsnakes are highly resistant to the venom of other snakes and are known to eat more dangerous snakes, such as rattlesnakes. (Thank you, Wikipedia!) Xianne had only seen one snake before in her life, so she was enthralled by this creature. I found the whole situation hilarious, and was chuckling at the extreme responses of my friends and family. While I may have been schooled by mom, at least I didn't scream like a little girl and run away from a harmless snake.
  

• Friday, August 31st, 2007 - We Built This City : My undergrad institution seemed to be constantly in some stage of construction. Each summer, the school would be invaded by Bobcats and (John) Deeres, each marking their territory on the campus in a manner known only to their species - digging a big hole. By the fall, the fleet of Bobcats and (John) Deeres left campus, leaving a small path of destruction in their wake. Construction never seemed to finish at that school; once a building was finished, construction or renovation on anoter began. If I visited it today, I'm not entirely sure that I would be able to recoginize the majority of my undergraduate institution. I'm sure that construction woes are a shared experience for every collegian, but somehow I expected more from Stanford; that they might buck the trend in construction and settle for a more stable campus. Even The Dish undergoes a fair bit of construction during the year. I'm not entirely sure what was going on this week, but there was a bustle of activity around The Dish. As our group rounded the turn to the final hill, I noticed the familiar shape of a Bobcat loader at the bottom of the hill. Construction signs and tape lined the side of the hike on the way up the final hill. Taking a closer look at the signs, I notice that the construction signs were labeled "HATTON'S". It's nice to know that the Hattons have left their mark on The Dish in more way than one.

• Saturday, September 1st, 2007 - Chasin' Waterfalls : Labor Day Weekend. The end of summer. How did it come so fast? Thankfully, Stanford doesn't start up school for another month and I live in the land of gorgeous weather, but there's still something dismal about the end of the summer season. To celebrate summer's last gasp, Kevin Carlberg organized a trip up to Mt. Shasta. After a good six and a half hours of driving up on Friday, we finally reached the City of Mount Shasta. Talk about gorgeous surroundings - the peak of Mount Shasta, still speckled with snow, surrounded by green trees as far as the eye could see. After spending the night underneath the stars, the thirteen of us Peninsula-ites (and one Hawaiian - my mom) went to 'hike' the McCloud River Waterfalls (http://www.visitsiskiyou.org/hikes/hike6.html). The entire hike was about 3 miles round trip, and about a third of it was paved ... so I'm tempted to call it a stroll instead of a hike. Semantics aside, it is an absolutely gorgeous stroll. The group took a break at the second (and most gorgeous waterfall) to jump in the freezing cold water. Being manly men, all the guys jumped in and swam to the waterfall. Not to be outdone, Xianne, Grace, and I followed suit. As soon as we hit the water, we realized what a mistake we had made, and swam back to shore to shiver on some rocks. While we were standing out of the water, I decided I couldn't be beaten by a group of boys - what a disgrace that would be! I convinced Xianne to join me, and we swam to join all the guys at the base of the waterfall. The guys did show me up twice on the hike - I wimped out climbing down a very steep path to the final waterfall, and I didn't cliff jump at the first waterfall. C'est la vie; I guess the guys have to show off to the girls somehow :).
  

• Monday, September 3rd, 2007 - De-Motivation : While my mother may have schooled me on Wednesday, she served as the sole de-motivating factor on Monday. We had made plans to spend Labor Day shopping, especially at my mom's favorite store - TJ Maxx. No joke, people, this woman CRIED the day that TJ Maxx left Hawaii. All my state is left with is Ross, which can normally fulfill your discount shopping needs, but is still lacking a small touch of class. Since it was a holiday, I figured I deserved to sleep in. So, before I went to bed, I moved back the meeting time to 8:30 am, and alerted the troops. When I woke up (sadly, at 7:00 because I couldn't sleep in for the life of me), my mom was dressed and ready to go. She had woken up at 5:30, and decided that she'd rather run around the block and be ready to leave for shopping as soon as I woke up; "we'd leave to late otherwise." Begrudgingly, I alerted th troops that hiking was canceled for Monday. Thanks, TJ Maxx, for breaking my hiking streak.
  

The Week In Review

I could make about a million excuses for why I haven't posted. "I'm too busy" is always at the top of the list ... but let's be honest, when have I let being busy stop me from doing anything that I want to do? "I'm tired" is another crowd favorite, but to be honest, I've been a little less tired recently, probably due to the fact that I'm exercising about 10000 times more than I usually do. "My dog ate my homework" doesn't really work for this situation, and is entirely non-plausible, since I don't even have a dog (although I would really like one!)

This week, the excuse is the following - "my undergrad is gone." Yes, my friends, although I complained for what seemed like an endless amount of time about having to take care of an undergrad all summer, the truth is that I miss the kid now. We had a nice thing going on when he was here - he worked as the hands, while I worked as the brain. While he busied himself around lab, scurrying here and there doing my bidding, I sat in my throne (ok, desk chair) watching the poor sap. To be more accurate, I was planning the next experiment for him and I to do; regardless, I spent about 80% of my day at the computer, giving me ample time to post. Now that he's gone, however, I have inherited the remainder of his project IN ADDITION to what I already had to do. My computer must miss me, as I now spend only about 5-10% of my day caressing its keyboard and staring dreamily at it's LCD screen.

In light of the severe decrease in computer time, I'm going to make this post super short and bullet point style:

• Sunday August 19th, 2007: What better way to celebrate turning the big 2-4 than a hike? Highlights of the day include me getting stuck on some 'cliffs' hiking up a narrow path at Muir Beach, making 'Sandford' (a model of Stanford made out of sand), getting pelted by water balloons by all the guys, miraculously getting a parking spot at Muir Woods near the entrance, using a fallen redwood as a slide (I'm pretty sure this is illegal), and strawberry noses (see below). All in all, it was a pretty sweet day. Although next time I'll make sure to limit the invites to a few close friends (see pic below) and not the entire Bay Area, who, if the traffic is any indication, were also coming to Muir Woods to celebrate my birthday.
  

• Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 & Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007: I know for sure that I hiked both days. I also know that I hiked on Tuesday instead of Monday because Joel and Jacob convinced me to take a break on Monday morning (I don't know why I gave in ... but it did feel nice to sleep in). What I can't remember is which day Amy Chambers joined me and we turned the hike around and went up counter-clockwise. Sadly, it's only been a week since these hikes happened and I already can't remember what went on. I have a really, really crappy memory.
  

• Saturday, August 25th, 2007: To switch things up a bit, Alissa, Xianne, Kristyn, and I took a run around the campus loop instead of hiking The Dish. The campus loop run goes around Campus Drive, and is slightly longer than The Dish (3.75 miles instead of 3.5 miles). The nice thing about Campus Loop? It's much more flat than the Dish. The not so nice thing about Campus Loop? Being seen in public by cars driving by. There are also no convenient stop markers that one can use to time their running segments. At first, we ran as far as I could before stopping. The first running interval was only 30 seconds long. I decided that I wanted to increase my interval time during the run. My longest stretch during the day was 1 min and 20 seconds. That desperately needs to improve. I'm sure we could have done Campus Loop a bit faster, though, if all the girls (myself included) weren't so into talking about weddings!
  
  
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Notice anything funky about last week's schedule? Yeah ... the MWF hike didn't really happen. There was a ton of shuffling around dates,this week. One thing you also won't notice in the mini-posts is that after both the Tuesday and Wednesday hikes, I came home, showered, and the fell back asleep. I didn't make it into lab until about 11 am each day - two hours later than normal. C'est la vie. At least I did 4 hikes last week.