Track season has started

The first week of Track is over and the second week has started. I am so relieved to find out that I am not as badly out of shape than what I thought I was. I can still run with the girls I normally run with (who have already been competing in club track), even if I have to work a little harder than they do. I also ran a 5:48ish 1600, which is a lot better than what I ran last year at the beginning of track. There are a lot of new distance runners and a lot of people who returned from last year, so I really like our team. Track is off to a good start and I am excited for this season!

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Books :)

About a month ago I read a really good book called, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I was originally assigned this book for Biology and for whatever reason, I have a hard time reading books that I have been assigned to read, but I was pleasantly surprised with this book.

The Immortal Life of Hennrietta Lacks is about a woman who died of cervical cancer, but before she died doctors took cells from her tumor and those cells never died. They were used for many things, including a polio vaccine. However, neither Henrietta nor her family knew these cells were even taken. This really upsets Henrietta’s family. The book was very intriguing and it was hard to put down. Not only did it contain interesting, scientific information, but it was also a really good story. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone, especially people with an interest in Biology.

Currently I am reading Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. I had heard that it was a good book and I had a gift card to Barnes and Nobel, so I decided to buy it. Unfortunately the gift card did not have nearly as much money on it as I thought and I had to pay more money than I ever had on a book before. Because of this I considered returning it multiple times, but I am so glad I didn’t! I am almost done with it and so far it is amazing. It is a memoir by Jenny Lawson and it is extremely hilarious. I literally laugh out loud whenever I read this book. It is by far the funniest book that I have ever read. Jenny tells her life, starting with her childhood, where her dad brought home random animals to when she is older and trying to fit in. Here is a random quote from Jenny in her book, “I picked up the phone to call the police, but then I considered how it would sound when I told them that I was calling from inside my bathroom, where I’d OD’ed on laxatives, and that a possible rapist was quietly passing me notes under the bathroom door.” Like many other chapters, I could not stop laughing in this chapter. I recommend this book to everyone, except people who are easily offended and can’t stand the use of swear words. This book is sooooooo funny! I really can’t even make this book sound half as entertaining as it is, so you should really go read it!

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Abs!

Core is a really important part of running, and it happens to be one of my weaknesses when it comes to running. After the State cross country meet, my arms and my abs were sore. My legs didn’t hurt at all, but I couldn’t move my arms to hug anyone or laugh without grabbing my belly and screeching in pain. So I decided I need to start working on getting stronger arms and abs. It is really hard for me to do ab work outs and about 99% of the time I actually start a work out, I end up quitting in the middle of the workout.

Normally when I want to do ab workouts, I do either Julian Michaels (sorry if I didn’t spell that right) or Kettlebell core workout. I really like the kettlebell workout, but I get tired of doing the same one over again. I really just need a good video to do that is fast, effective, and not confusing. Some of the moves on the videos are too hard to do and it gives me an excuse to stop working out. I think I am also really bad at a lot of the moves, because a lot of times my neck is left sore and I don’t even move my neck! It’s really quite confusing.

Although I am not a huge fan of ab workouts and I have a hard time completing them, I am actually working my abs a lot more than I used to do. My stomach is a lot flatter than it normally is, especially for being winter.  Ab workouts are also continuing to get a little easier to do. I am going to try to do more ab workouts and I am going to try to find good ab workouts to do.  

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Food

Track is starting on Monday! For some reason during cross country and track, I just can’t stop eating. I have to eat almost every hour and I just never get full. That’s one of the best things about track, but my house never has any food, so a lot of times it sucks. I always forget to make a grocery list for my mom so I end up eating random healthy, but unappetizing food, such as chia seeds mixed in coconut milk, which is what I had the pleasure of eating this morning. There are a lot of different foods that I like to eat as snacks during the track season.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! I try to eat especially good breakfast during Track season. It is important to eat at least 3 different food groups in the morning. I might start my day off with eggs, toast, and orange juice, or oatmeal (which I put protein powder in, because it not only makes you fuller, but also tastes really good) and yogurt with fruit in it. There are a lot of different breakfasts that I eat during track, but I always make sure I have at least three food groups.

Unfortunately, school doesn’t feed you after every hour, so I have to bring my own snacks to school. Normally during track and cross country I bring anywhere from 3 to 4 snacks each day. I always bring at least one granola bar. I bring either Chewy granola bars, Kashi cherry dark chocolate, or Cliff Bars (a lot of times I bring the kids ones, because they are better than the adult ones). I also like to bring fruit snacks, Chex mix, and pretzels. I always want to bring fruit, but fruit is really hard to bring to school. I have no place to put it, because my backpack will smooch it and sometimes it is really awkward to eat it in class, so I normally stick to foods that come in wrappers. It can be really hard to bring all this food to school, but it is definitely worth it.

After I get home from track practice, I need protein. So I will either eat chocolate protein shakes, which I buy from Melaleuca, a smoothie with vanilla protein powder that I get from Hy-Vee, or apple slices dipped in peanut butter. These are all healthy options for snacks that I eat after Track. I really like to make smoothies, but a lot of times I am too lazy to make one, so it’s nice to have other options for snacks with a lot of protein. They are not too filling and I am still hungry by dinner.

Around 8:00 I start to get hungry and head to the kitchen to try to find something edible. For some reason I either crave ice cream or breakfast food at this time. Sometimes I make egg in the middles, egg sandwiches, or toast. It’s really hard to find food to eat at night, and I haven’t really come up with any good snacks to eat at night.

 

I think I just made a grocery list!

 

Ps. This is what Chia seeds in coconut milk look like:

yum.

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And the Ravens Win!

This year, at the beginning of football season, I decided that I didn’t just want to cheer for a football team, because my dad likes that team. I wanted to pick a team to cheer for by myself. I started watching different NFL teams play and one team really stuck out to me. Their team consisted of a former Iowa State player, that I remembered watching, Kelechi Osemele, and Michael Oher from Blindside. I instantly fell in love with the Baltimore ravens. I loved the way they played and I started watching all their games. They did well, but I could have never imagined that they would be the Super Bowl XLVII (I think that’s 47 but I am not really sure and do not feel like looking it up) champions!

 

The game was pretty intense. Baltimore had a good lead at half time. Baltimore also made a 50ish yard pass to get a touchdown and got and interception before half time. Beyoncé sang at the half time show and I was pleased with her performance, although I had heard from someone that Justin Timberlake was going to be singing with her, so I was disappointed when he didn’t. After half time ended Baltimore Raven’s Jacoby Jones, ran for a 108 yard kick return, leaving the Baltimore Ravens winning 28-3! When everything seemed good, the lights went out. They had to take a 30 minute break until the lights turned completely on again. This somehow boosted the 49ners confidence and they had a good comeback, scoring 17 points in around 4-5 minutes. The Ravens didn’t give up though. They scored 2 field goals and stopped the 49ners from scoring a touchdown with 2 minutes left of the game. John Harbaugh made some good decisions to let the 49ners score a couple points, to buy time and when the 49ners got the ball after a punt, there was 4 seconds on the clock. Baltimore won 34-31!

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My Creative Side

 
Lately I have been feeling all artsy and creative, which is a little unusual for me. Although I really like art, I am generally not that creative of a person. A couple weeks ago I cut some old jeans into shorts, found it really fun, and have been DIY-ing ever since.

 

I think the coolest thing that I have done since my creativeness started up a couple weeks ago is a pair of shorts that I made from a pair of old jeans. I started out by cutting the jeans to be a little longer than where my fingertips reach. Then I ripped the seams at the bottom of the jeans and bleached them to have a little lighter of a color. Next I got a bleach pen and drew stars on one leg and stripes on the other, then washed them and repeated that step. They turned out looking really awesome and they were really easy. I will try to get a picture up soon.

 

At cross country camp I saw a lot of girls who cut tee-shirts into tank tops, so I decided to try it. I didn’t have much guidance and just cut off the sleeves and neck line at random. It ended up being a little harder than I thought it would. I ended up having to lower the neckline and broaden the arm holes. I finished by tying a strip of fabric around the back. I am really excited about making these tank tops and plan to make more, with hopefully more success.

Here is a picture of tank tops similar to the one I made:


http://pinterest.com/pin/175781191676454277/

 

I also made a collage of photos. I bought a simple cork board, stained it a darker brown to match my room, and filled it with pictures of my friends and family. This was a surprisingly interesting project. The pictures brought up so many good memories and the board adds personality to my room.

 

I have also been doing many other creative things like making bracelets, hair bows, and coming up with my own recipes. I have been searching pinterset for my next project to start and I am hoping this sudden creativeness continues.                                            Words-367