The Zen of Ultra Running

Today was my first day practicing swimming. I admit that the swimming leg is the leg that I am scared of the most. Why? because I'm not a good swimmer. I've swum in open water before (scuba diving) but it's not the same. I used to like swimming for fitness but recently became tired of showering and getting ready after swimming.  But it is a part of the triathlon!!! so, I just need to shut up and do it. I only have to swim 400m at this triathlon, which is about 8 laps non-stop. Not too bad. 

Started my day with a yoga class at the gym with one of my favorite yoga teachers. The class was nice because there were only 5 people in the class and the teacher was able to go around and make some adjustments. Super relaxing. Then, I began my regular training schedule. Today it was running 5 miles. The weather was on the high 70s but with the sun it was warmer than usual. There are a lot of hiking/biking trails around Eau Claire and there is one near the gym that I go. It took me almost an hour to run 5 miles. The evening we saw that the EC Brewing Projekt had new beer on tap. So, we went there to grab some drink and ran into some people that we usually run into at different breweries in town. Such a small town, indeed.

Today was another boring day at work. The campus is usually empty in the summer but today was the student orientation day so there were a lot of students and parents on campus. It was nice to see those incoming students. So young, so excited about everything :) I then came home and ran 4.5 miles. It was raining in the afternoon and it stopped just before I got home. The weather was still too hot to run outside so I waited until it cooled down a bit. It took me longer than usual to run 4.5 miles due to the heat. Had to slow down and drink water often to cool down. This is my first running selfie. Still need to improve the skill but this is not too bad for the first timer? ;)

it is our 3rd year anniversary!  I can't believe how fast time flies but seems like we just got married yesterday. Although P. doesn't really agree with me because he felt like we'd been married for 38 years!?!? Anyway, I'm now training for a triathlon in August and was supposed to do a 10 mile bike ride today (did not know what I was thinking when I created my training plan). Since it's our anniversary, I decided to skip the training. We then went to grab drinks at the Coffee Ground instead. Yeah, instead of burning calories, I put in about 1000 more!! We did not do much today because both of us were (emotionally) exhausted from work and other annoying incidents at work (urgh). I then realized that sometimes we don't need a "big plan" for our anniversary as long as we spent quality time together :)  Ok. Must.be.back.on.track.tomorrow... 

I don't know what makes me decide to create another blog when I already have too many!!! I have a blog for my baking, one for personal/daily life, one for my wedding (closed), and one for my job (for professional reason). Maybe it is because I don't think my interests now and then could be combined in the same blog (at least, not under the same name). I had been interested in baking for a long time but recently lost interest in it (for no reason). My first running journey started when I was in my 4th year in grad school. A friend of mine asked if I wanted to run a 5K with her and I immediately said yes. I'd been running at the gym for a while (just for exercise) but never thought about running races (partly, because I thought those who run races were insane. Who would spend more than one hour on the road or treadmill?). Well, I ended up doing a couple of 5Ks after that. Last year (2014) I did two 5Ks, one 4 milers, and one 13K trail run. Most races that I participated i