Hilary's blog

RUN

running into the sunset

i consider running my sport. i'm beginning to like swimming more now that i have access to an actual pool though. anyways, running has so many benefits and the main reason i started running was back in january of 07 i needed something to keep me busy since soccer had ended at school. katie and i started running and decided to start signing up from races. as i think back on that time, i realize my motivations remain the same yet i have realized so many other little joys that come from it. 

first of all, the most obvious benefit is physical and mental health and well-being. running 3-6 days a week is a good way to stay in shape and also train for endurance sports. it's also a key part of many other sports like soccer, basketball, football, etc. exercise in general is also a good way to release stress and keep you sane since it produces endorphins and therefore a better mood improves your health overall. i always feel so much better after i've been on a run, despite the pain i'm in sometimes depending on the intensity of the run, but nevertheless i feel better. i find it soothing once i get into the rhythm that you get into. it's like autopilot; you make turns, and you're in control, but you don't have to think about the speed or anything. the point is, it makes me feel good emotionally and physically, and it's a good stabilizer in my life. it also helps me feel better about my self image. 

moving on to the less obvious things. i love running into the sunrise or sunset. i think that the sunrise is more magical because most people aren't awake yet, and you and whoever else is up with you have this secret that the general public doesn't get to enjoy. i see other runners and cyclists (who get just as much credit) out and about at 6 AM and it makes me wonder how long they've been out there doing their thing. i also get to see the best athletes out there at that time because they are simply doing their daily workout so they can use the rest of their day. even if i go back to bed when i get back, i know i've done something for the day and i'm accomplished. at least i can say i exercised. sometimes i forget this and i forget about the beauty of running and focus on the beauty of sleep. what can i say? i'm a teenager, and we love our sleep. another thing i realized i love is when i pass other runners/cyclists, sometimes i can smell the clean clothes (or unfortunately sweatiness) or a guys' cologne, and it's just makes me realize a little detail i probably wouldnt notice otherwise. i think that running makes me notice the small stuff and appreciate it more. whether it's the break of dawn or physical changes, it makes things more intense. 

i wanted to make a list of why i love running, which i hope to add later on, but this is a good start :)

the MS-150

I just wanted to inform everyone that I am doing the MS-150 ride. I bought myself a new bike (that actually works!) and I've been training. The cause is multiple sclerosis, which is a disease of the central nervous system. MS is the number one disabling disease of young adults in America. I don't have it, but I want to help find a cure for it by supporting the National MS Society. Since I'm really interested in trying to keep a healthy lifestyle, I am going to become a cyclist. The ride is 75 miles from Lake Wales, FL to Orlando, staying overnight, and doing 75 more miles back to Lake Wales. I am starting from scratch, but I know I can do it, because I'm a determined person. I've already completed my half marathon in October for Team in Training, so this is only my next challenge in my ongoing goal of helping people with my healthy lifestyle. I've only raised $45 dollars as of now, and I have 5 weeks until the ride on May 16-17. Please help me out, even a $5 dollar donation would be wonderful! I've got to raise a minimum of $250 by the day of the ride, so I've got to get cracking! 

This is my fundraising page which I have just redone, and personalized. Check it out! :)

CLICK HERE!

THE IB RIDERS

Thanks! :)

to do list

SPRING BREAK IS OVER. (8 weeks of school left, and counting)

can you believe i'm almost a senior? i can't.

score for kids soccer tournament

what do i need to do in the next few weeks?

1. homework (spanish, critique?, bio)
2. run
3. get a hotel for MS150
4. cas (now a verb, DUH)
5. apply for jobs
6. look at my new goal- *top secret*
7. train for the ms-150
8. FUNDRAISE FOR THE MS150 ---- want to support me? click here to donate! :)
9. get SAT scores back on tuesday (AHHH NERVOUS)
10. practice swimming 
11. read up on the riding rules & look into cycling rides
12. get back on track with running, 3-4 times per week, plus long run on weekends
13. print pictures & put them back up. i miss them.
14. be amazing
15. apply for yearbook
16. start reffing
17. go back to boot camp
18. get a SPRR shirt & REPRESENT!!!
19. investigate art walks in gulfport
20. organize my room
21. put up pictures of the past few months on here/facebook
22. register for races/tris
23. get my prom dress hemmed ASAP
24. organize calendar/get stuff put on there

in no particular order...

the women's half marathon

there is going to be an all women's half marathon in st. pete on my 18th birthday (NOVEMBER 22, 2009). it's hosted by team in training, polar, and presented by women's running magazine. it's to benefit the leukemia and lymphoma society, too. :) here's the link if you wanna check it out.

http://womenshalfmarathon.com/

going going going

i am not sure where to start. i want to go to bed soon. i've been going to bed at a good time everyday because i've been waking up early every day of the week including the weekends, mostly because of my jobs. but i've noticed it works better when i go to bed at reasonable time like 10 or 10:15 and unfortunately wake up at like 6ish. I think a more desirable time would be around 8. it's early enough that you're not wasting the day but late enough to get enough sleep. in psych we're talking about the importance of sleep and teenagers. it's all stuff i've already learned on my own, though. i know all about consolidating information while REM sleep. it's my favorite time of the day! i try to take naps, because i think later it makes me more focused and in a better mood. but that's not realistic to have a nap everyday. i'm just hoping that my fatigue will go away if i manage my time better and take naps and eat right etc. speaking of which, i've slacked on my food journal. i went to boot camp yesterday-- i noticed that the abs were easier than last week and i wasn't as sore. yay! it's worth it. but i feel horrible, however, for not running today and i know i can't tomorrow since i have work and the IB pinning ceremony. i heard they're not allowed to give us homework tomorrow night-- i hope that's true! i got a new dress with courtney tonight and that was fun!

on sunday night the ms-150 group made shirts together. it was fun and we bonded i think. it's an unusual group of people, i think, but it's actually not too bad and people seem to be able to get along pretty well. we have some sweet shirts, thanks to a stencil made by katy. tonight, our 5k group also met and we tried to get ourselves back on track. i really want this to happen! i'm optimistic about it.

let's see, last thursday we went on our field trip to see "dancing at lughnasa" and it was pretty good. i was bummed that one of the girls was out sick therefore the sub had to have a script but she was thrown into the role with only 2 days notice so i give her props for doing a good job. the bus rides were fun and i finished courtney's UF scarf from like 2 years ago. i also finished my "triple shot bettys" book i rented from the library. my new one is from katie's stash called sex, drugs, and cocoa puffs. it sounded interesting so i can't wait to start it. i think reading is good to relax after a busy day and it helps me go to sleep sometimes.

things have been coming and going very quickly. i need to sit down and write but i don't have time.

i need to:

sign up for SAT

sign up for MS150

sign up for gasparilla half marathon

do my stuff for CAS

and so much more. those are important right now though.

this was a quick entry-- goodnight.

busy bee

just to recap some things i'm going to try to stick to a list/bullet format.

• 3 jobs = overwhelmed. basically, i thought that the "season" ended at hollister, and when i went to settle it and try to get my paycheck and basically have some closure, they said i was still employed? i've only worked once, and they said it expired on the 31st of december OR the 15 of january, both of which have passed. i was utterly confused and conflicted because in the meantime i got a job at feet first. (and reffing, which is the best out of the 3 so far). so all this week i've been trying to work out things with hollister-- i finally got an official associate card thingy, and i got some hours on an official schedule. feet first said they'll get me in sometime, but they haven't said when, so i hope they give me a little notice. and i'm going to try to ref as much as i can.

 

IMG_0741

• visit to UF = enlightening. i went to UF last friday for a college tour and as they went over all the things they look at on the application, i realized that i have a lot of good things. i have tons of community service, but i'm continuing to work on that, i have good grades (in IB and pre-IB classes, which adds higher points to my GPA). i took anatomy which is another science than i actually need. they only thing i'm lacking in is the SAT/ACT scores. i haven't taken an official test yet, but i will in march, and probably every time after that until i get a high enough score. i'm worried about that, but i think for the most part i'm a good candidate. the campus was pretty and i liked the college community. i like the spirit. it was quite the experience and all this talk about college made me realize it was coming around the corner very soon!

• tok = controversial. in tok, we have to pick topics that are controversial that interest us. today rachel did hers on stem cell research, and in the discussion time, we had a chance to disagree. MC, nikhil, and i all attacked her point of view, especially when she got into abortion. the class started realizing how abortion would be a good topic, and so zac decided he would take it. i mouthed to courtney that i wanted it, and he should give it to me and he thought that since i was a girl, it would be biased. although, we both disagreed and said you need passion for the topic you're doing, and i have passion! rachel approached me after class, in 6th period, and said "hilary! you're so scary when you're passionate about something!" which, i haven't decided yet, is a compliment or not... i got zac to switch with me, and he's doing prostitution, this shall be interesting...
• lunch bunch = delightful. today, the lunch bunch got together after i sent out a text and we went to "ricky t's" on treasure island beach. i pass it all the time when i run, and i asked erica if it was good and she said it was, so i decided we should go to a lunch bunch there. it was good food, i got a burger, since it's a staple of theirs, i think. we chatted and it was good to catch up. courtney and anastasia ended up dropping in just as we finished, and we talked a little more, but then we realized we were gonna be late for medical explorers so we all sped off to change and such. it was kind of amusing to watch dylan and shannon scurry away. 

• today = busy. today was such a busy day i just wanted to recap. school. sign up for nhs tutoring. go to ms-150 meeting. go to bank. go to lunch bunch. change. go to tb shot reading and medical explorers. change. go to boot camp. sprint cause we're late. come home. eat. change. go back out to hollister to get schedule and such. come home. shower. blog. check cas manager. talk to parents. talk online. planning on: (read. go to bed). basically an insane dayy. i was home for a total of 20 minutes up until about 8:45. i just wanted to note my excitement.
• my life = unscheduled. i really don't mind being busy, i just need to have a plan. i can't have things "up in the air" because there's indecision. i hate that. i feel like i can't move on with other plans until the ones before that fall into place. that's why i'm freaking out about this 3 jobs thing, because 2 of them i need schedules for so i can choose the games i ref, which is the better money and more leisurely thing, in my opinion. i also have been planning all these races i want to run including the gasparilla half and probably the 15k gate river run in jacksonville. i've already signed up for the bay to bay in march, so that's set in stone. i need to register for the SAT in march, and TNT keeps sending me volunteering opportunities that i would love to take. they involve me talking about TNT to potential newcomers and i think it'd be awesome for them to see a "youngster" like me as an alumni. sort of a "if i can do it, so can you" type thing! plus, volunteering is fun and looks good to colleges (i.e. UF and Miami)

new things i've learned: 

• why muscles get sore: delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) happens after you exert yourself in a new activity or have caused increased strength. When someone starts exercising a muscle there is first an increase in the nerve impulses that cause muscle contraction. This muscle pain is a normal response to unusual exertion and is part of an adaptation process that leads to greater stamina and strength as the muscles recover and build hypertrophy). This alone often results in strength gains without any noticeable change in muscle size. As one continues to exercise, there is a complex interaction of nervous system responses that results in an increase in protein synthesis over months and the muscle cells begin to grow larger and stronger. Delayed onset muscle soreness is thought to be a result of microscopic tearing of the muscle fibers. The amount of tearing (and soreness) depends on how hard and how long you exercise and what type of exercise you do. Any movement you aren't used to can lead to DOMS, but eccentric muscle contractions (movements that cause muscle to forcefully contract while it lengthens) seem to cause the most soreness. Examples of eccentric muscle contractions include going down stairs, running downhill, lowering weights and the downward motion of squats and push-ups. In addition to small muscle tears there can be associated swelling in a muscle which may contribute to soreness.
• when someone pronates it means they roll towards the inside of their shoe, when they supinate, they go to the outside of their shoe. there are 3 types of shoes: neutral (without any extra support), motion control shoes, and stability. i have a shoe with a stability wedge in the arch. you can tell what type a shoe someone needs if they run or if they bend their knees and you can see the type of person they are. 

okayy, that's it for now.

FIELD TRIP TOMORROW.

wishing, praying, hoping, waiting

well today has been an unexpected day.

today i had my last exam- TOK, and we got the quote "for a prince, it is safer to be feared than loved" that we had to discuss emotions and knowledge. i probably rambled through it, but maybe i hit some good points? i'm not sure. i hope that he gives everyone an A like he implied in class. 

beach

afterwards, erica and i hit up chick fil a with our last set of coupons, and got breakfast since its one of those rare times that its before 10:30 and we want to eat. after that, we watched desperate housewives, ate, and she left around 11. i read for 20 minutes, and took a nap for an hourish. after that, i looked at my phone and noticed 2 calls from an unknown number. i was expecting it to be the hospital since i called in interested in shadowing the heart surgeon, and i couldn't quite understand what they guy said but i thought it was "volunteer services" so i asked for jeane stevens. it wasn't the hospital, i realized. it was feet first. they wanted to interview me formally later that afternoon, and of course i agreed to happily. i went down there (early) and interviewed with sheila. she seemed pleased with all my answers and commented that the interview went very well, and told me to expect a call in a couple days. i also had a call from courtney asking if she wanted to run, so she came over and we ran to the beach and back with 2 minor detours to grant's house. the run was probably 5.5 or 6 miles total, and going at courtney's pace is faster than mine so it was a little more challenging than usual for me anyways. 

pinellas trail

after that, dave m came over for dinner and i had called feet first back because i had noticed after my run that they'd called. sheila wanted me to come in tomorrow afternoon at 3:30, which would've been fine any other day, except tomorrow, erica, katie, my mom, and me are going to UF for a college visit/doctors' appt. so i hesitated, and told her that i'd have to discuss it with my parents. my parents said at very last resort we can cancel, but it was something that was already planned and really wasn't fair to me to have to cancel. she asked when i was available to work and i said whenever, but i hadn't anticipated tomorrow. i was forced to schedule it on saturday at 3pm. i might need to cancel my game for saturday at 1pm, since it's cutting it a little close. 

the good news is that i have a 4-day weekend, the bad news is that i have to do my english oral. oy vey.

well i'll post when i know about the job or not. pray for me!

exam week and such

photoshoot at a pizza place

well, i haven't really gotten a chance to blog recently. let me catch up. last week was our first week back from the break. we had a decent amount of work up until about thursday or friday, because over the weekend we were supposed to study for exams. the exams i'm taking this time are biology HL, spanish SL, math SL, and TOK. i should probably take psych to try to raise my grade, because now i am down to a high B. ugh! but i think that since it's two essays, and i usually have a B on them, it would probably get me a B on the exam, therefore wasting my time. i have a couple days to think about it, but i doubt i'll take it. today was biology. it wasn't bad, my only gripe was that the clock is almost impossible to read, so at least half the class including me thought we only had 20 minutes left and rushed to finish, when we really had an hour and a half. it wasn't exactly fair, but honestly, i don't think it would've made that big of a difference on my grade. other than that, it was fairly easy, with the exception of some of the genetics stuff. i think we could've gone over that stuff a little more... oh well. a lot of questions came of past tests and the tiger book- which i actually studied this time! so i felt i did okay, in addition to that, we get an IB curve. so a B or C is really an A or B. :D it's impossible, with my six weeks grades already being C A B, :/ my next two exams are on wednesday (yay no school tomorrow!) and they are spanish and math. i'm not too worried for either. i already reviewed a lot for spanish because she made us do reviews, but i need to review a couple more times. and then math is pretty straight forward, just do the review and you'll be fine. i've done some of it but i need to finish it up between tonight and tomorrow night. then, we have no school friday- which i'm going to gainsville with katie, my mom, and erica, to visit UF and for katie's doctor's appt. monday we don't have school either, but between all these days, i really need to work on my english oral. OMG. :O i wish she would assign us days like the other teachers. 

st. pete beach classic

let's see, enough with the boring school stuff. running-wise i've been pretty good. last week, i didn't get in a workout everyday but for a school week it was pretty good. i did a 7 mile long run on sunday because saturday i had my first games reffing. i did a U12 line and the head referee was the other linesmen because someone didn't show up and that was a little nerve-racking, but i like him and i was actually able to ask a lot of questions, which i think he liked. then i did two "tots" games, which is the 4,5,6 year olds. they're so cute! they just stumble and swarm, and it's no pressure. for 40 minutes and 8 dollars per game, it's actually more than minimum wage. i'm gonna do two more games next weekend after my 10k. i've signed up for the st. pete beach classic. i liked that race last year-- funny, we were actually discussing our higher level classes and such last race! weird how i remember that. i'm excited for that. i've been getting up early everyday, and while i'm tired at the end of the day, i feel accomplished. on saturday, i made 31 from reffing and 55 from babysitting. quite the accomplishment, i'd say. and then the next morning ran 7 miles. i'm kind of training myself for a half marathon. i really want to the disney princess half marathon still, but it's 120 dollars. i've got to discuss this with katie. it's also almost all of my savings for my bike... if i don't do that one, i want to do the gasparilla, in tampa. its only 50 dollars! yess. 

palm trees

i read somewhere that setting 1 goal per month toward one over all goal -- like improve your health, is quite the accomplishment if you can reach those goals. jaunuary's is getting running back on track and keeping it on track (and working water into my daily routine). i think next month i might try something very not me. i might try being vegetarian. i think it might really help my health. i need to research stuff a little more, but i'd like to try it out, to see if it's right for me. it would definitely cut out that junk food since almost everything i get has meat on it. that'd be the challenge. OO! maybe i could do it for lent this year? idk yet.

fruit and towels

i also want to join the st. pete road runners. i might go out to one of their training runs tonight. boot camp! ack! it sounds pretty intense. if i don't do that, i will run on my own. tomorrow i was also going to run with them, maybe. i havent decided how much i treasure sleeping in. there's just  something very rewarding about waking up early and getting something done before everyone else has gotten up. it's like you're experiencing something only a few people bother to discover. something to think about, eh?

sunrise runner

NIKDAUM.COM - Dordles

NIKDAUM.COM - Dordles

http://www.nikdaum.com/dordles/#

About Nik Daum’s Dordles Dordles are not quite drawings and not quite doodles and not quite bad. Each mark of lacerating genius is thoughtfully recorded in the margins of advertising briefs, discarded printouts, or the company stationary.

break's almost over

wow break's almost over! noo! :( well, new year, new me!

i've been camping, to honeymoon island, tampa, and around the city. 

running has been one of my major goals on this break. i really wanted that chance to get it back on track before we head back to school. i think that if i wasn't running, i was at least doing something active (almost) everyday. i think i accomplished that goal. in the meantime, i've also been exploring on the internet and have found a number of articles about running and medicine/health. i love reading about health/sports related things. it keeps me motivated and interested. 

random pic...

cooking dinner!

recently, i think i've been leaning toward sports medicine for a career. combining two of my favorite things into one! i already do it for fun, why not make it into a career? i'll be sad when we go back to school and i won't have much time to read my articles. i've also made a digg account to save all these articles. it's quite the system i've got going. i also post other websites that i want to remember/share on my blog so it's all interconnected. i also love blogging. i feel like i've been repairing all my mental health that doesn't get well-kept when we're in school. i've had time to just relax and unwind, which is exactly what break is for. i didn't spend all my time with my friends, which is good, because sometimes, don't you just want to be with yourself? why do we all spend so much time trying to keep up with our friends when we barely can keep up with ourselves? you can't be an individual that way! 

another random pic...

st. pete beach classic 08

i don't have much to say except that hopefully tonight i will go running on the sand at the beach, probably not for a long time, but i read that it burns twice the calories! :D (oh yeah, that's another reason why i like reading all the different articles. it's a good way to look at things a new way and it also helps you build a good knowledge base for different things). 

running into the sunset