RIC -> NYC

Hey there!

I arrived in NYC just a little bit ago. I am here for a friend's wedding. I have known Miss Emily since 9th grade and we went to UVA together! I remember many a snow days where I camped out at her house and the great parties she had. She has awesome parents, too! I am excited to be celebrating this special occasion with her! I am staying at my friend's apartment who live only a few blocks from the wedding in Manhattan, but sadly her and her fiance have to go out of town for the weekend so it is just me and the cat :)! What else is new, huh?

Ems and I during college:)

I took the train up from Richmond, which is an easy 6 hour ride. I even got to do some school work and met a great group who were also heading up for another wedding. It was an enjoyable trip! I love the amount of room you have on trains :) I also love how I can walk to where I am staying from the train station. My goal whenever I go to NYC is to walk everywhere, because you see so much that way!

Productive traveling!

I will be exploring the city on my own this evening and am meeting up with my friend Sarah and her husband tomorrow! Have a great start to your weekend. I'm off to explore:)

Weekly Workouts (10/6-10/12)

Traveling impacted my runs a little bit this week, but I was still able to get a good amount of exercise in. I think it is very important for me to stay with a routine even when I travel because I don't typically eat well, so it keeps me a least halfway healthy and gives me energy:). Running is also a great way to explore a new city.

Monday: 4 mile run after work (and before book club) + abs

Tuesday: 40 minute elliptical before work + arm/leg strength training

Wednesday: 3.2 mile run before work + abs

Thursday: OFF (travel day- but I walked over 20,000 steps through the city!)

Friday: 3.1 mile run before the conference sessions

Saturday: 37 minutes cross trainer + weights (arms/legs)

Sunday:  4.2 mile run + abs

It was an ok week; nothing to write home about, but as I have said, I am enjoying having exercise be a part of my daily life without worrying about getting in certain amounts of miles (if you notice, I usually only work out for 30-45 minutes a day). Leaves time/energy/planning for other things! This week will also be a little different due to work obligations in the evenings and a wedding this weekend in NYC, but I think I have food prepped enough and scheduled my days so I should be able to fit everything in!

Have a great week! Enjoy the fall weather and foliage:)! 

B-ham 'Bama

I figured it was about time I talked a little bit about school!

I am now over halfway through my first semester of doc life, and it is going well! I go through phases of loving it to feeling overwhelmed and unsure of my choice to feeling intellectually and personally fulfilled to wondering what on earth I will do with this degree (and sometimes all multiple times a day)! The coursework has been very manageable with my job, and I enjoy being in class twice a week. It makes my weeks busier, but I still have time to relax, workout and spend time with friends (and even go on trips)! It's been a good decision thus far and is opening up my eyes to a new world of education.

I just got back tonight from the SACES conference, and I am feeling fulfilled and rejuvenated (and in amazement of the wonderful world we live in- traveling always does that to me)! This could not have come at a better time. I was feeling overwhelmed and unsure of myself following class this week, but this conference made me feel like this career track is not only something that I can see myself doing, but could be something that will fulfill me as an educator, intellectual, counselor and person.

I love flying and looking through SkyMall!

I was not overly impressed with Birmingham (sorry!), but I did get to explore a little bit of the city before the conference began. A classmate and I found a great restaurant that we went to twice on Thursday and stumbled onto UAB at Birmingham. We walked a good part of the city but sadly not to any of the great shopping we heard about. I still can’t get over how big the hotel we were at was, though- it was like a little city with so many connections to conference centers and other hotels (and the beds were SO comfy!) I loved how our room looked over the atrium! I love cool hotels :).

The sessions overall were good. I went to a total of twelve over the course of Friday and Saturday, and I got wonderful ideas about programs and procedures I can implement in my school (namely great college/career and STEM ideas) and also good ideas for dissertation topics and doctoral life success. I now am not as intimidated to present at conferences and am more sure of myself, my identity as a practitioner and student, and my abilities. I see where what we are learning about in classes translates to the world of academia. And it excites me!

I also thoroughly enjoyed meeting other counselor educators, especially those that are new to the profession. It felt good to learn from their experiences, but also I (more importantly) liked their personalities! That is so important because these people could be my future coworkers, and they seem like good, solid people who want to make a difference in education, which says so much about the profession and what my future could look like. I also felt very comfortable asking questions and sharing my own insights in the sessions and round tables. They had a great program for students in the interview process, so that is good for me in a few years (it also seems like jobs are plentiful)!

It was also fun to spend time with all the VCU doctoral students and professors. They are a fun bunch:) The evening activities where we hung out more casually, ate/drank, and networked were great! I am looking forward to getting more involved in programs at VCU and hopefully writing with these ladies!

After the luncheon on Friday

Great end to the week! I love professional development:)

Counselor Moment

Quick hello from Birmingham, Alabama! I arrived here bright and early at 8:30 AM this morning (that's right- left Richmond at 5:53 AM...got up at 4:15!) and am now chilling in my hotel room. I am here until Saturday for a SACES (Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision) conference for (PhD) school. I also really need to update you all on how school is going! I probably will do that this weekend after the conference.

Anyways, women talking about their body "imperfections" and "needing to lose weight" has really been bothering me for the past few weeks. It's been a common theme at work and with friends and makes me so frustrated! I found a great video that I wanted to share for you all to keep in mind.



Keep this in mind, ladies! Promote positive body image with your friends!

What do you say when people talk negatively about themselves? 

How do you promote a positive body image?

Weekly Workouts (9/29-10/5)

Hey there!

I hope your weekend went well. Mine was good- nothing crazy but a good mix of events and relaxing. I had great fun with friends & family Friday night watching my dad's band play at Conch Republic on the James River at Rockett's Landing (such a cool part of Richmond)! I enjoyed a lazy Saturday morning of cleaning, running and grocery shopping and then spent the rest of the day catching "Gone Girl" and watching the UVA vs. Pitt game with friends. Both were great! Today I cleaned some more, food-prepped for my short week (I am trying to eat more salads for lunch this week...I need to get out of my childish lunches of PB&J, pretzels and trail mix), ran, and went into work for an open house event. Our new building had its ribbon cutting ceremony, so I just had to be there to answer questions. Then I went to my parent's house to clean out my car (I HATE when crap is all over the floor) and have dinner. My mom is out of town so it was my dad and I vending for ourselves.

Anyways, here is my weekly recap of my exercising. It was a pretty typical week besides having to sneak in some morning exercising due to my schedule- I am still enjoying my evening runs!

Monday: 4 mile run after work + abs

Tuesday: 40 minute elliptical before work + arm/leg strength training

Wednesday: 35 minute elliptical before work + 3.5 mile run after class + abs

Thursday: 2 mile walk at lunch + 3.5 mile run after work + arm/leg strength training

Friday: off (walked about 2 miles around Rockett's Landing before my dad's gig as I was phone-chatting with a friend)

Saturday: 4.1 mile run + abs

Sunday: 4 mile run + arms/leg strength training

I head to Alabama this Thursday morning for a conference (yay doctoral life!), so this week will be a little different in terms of workouts. I hope to get in some runs in the cooler temps at the beginning of the week and to explore a new city at the end of the week. Have a great start to your week!

Cancer Hater

Happy Weekend!

For those of you who do not know, I got involved with the Massey Challenge at the very beginning of this year due to a high school classmate's great blog, Still Easier Than Chemo. I raised money on behalf of her team for my run in the Monument 10k last spring, but since then I have become even more involved. 

More than just attending events, now I am on the events committee for Massey to help raise money and plan fundraisers for the organization. This has been a great and rewarding way to get involved in an organization that is a big part of my community and goes to a cause I believe worthy of my time (and yours)! There are many great people involved on the volunteering side, and it has been fun to see a different side of Richmond and the people that support Massey.

In addition to my work behind the scenes, I also joined the same team again for this years Monument 10k, and I need your help! Cancer affects EVERYONE, so what better cause to give some of your time or money to? If everyone who reads this donated $5-10, I would easily surpass my $1,000 goal. I may even do something crazy if I get to my goal....I am not going to shave my head or anything, but I can definitely do something. Maybe run the 10K in a crazy outfit. I will think about it and feel free to share your ideas:)

Pass this information along to your friends and join or donate to my team! Let's put cancer on the run! And for those of you in Richmond, be sure to check out some of Massey's events this month on their facebook page. More details about the event I lined up in November coming soon:)

Racing Updates

I haven't talked about my running much lately because it is now such a normal part of my life that I don't feel the need to report much. I am still running 15-25 miles a week, which usually amounts to 4-5 days with a day or two of cross training mixed in, and am doing ab and/or strength work (mainly push ups, squats, lunges and tricep dips) every night. I am not currently registered for any races and have really enjoyed NOT training for anything the past 5 months. I basically run when I feel like it for however long works in my schedule. It is nice! I have joined in on some long marathon training runs with my friends who are training for races (I did a 9 mile run about 3 weeks ago), and I can still do the distance but I don't feel the need to do it all the time. My energy is good, I feel fit and I am not feeling like I need to rearrange my life to fit the runs in. It's great!

That being said, I may still do the half marathon in Richmond in November, but I will register last minute (like I did last year when I registered only 3 weeks out!) if I feel like doing it. My issue with races is you have to register SO EARLY for them to get a good deal, but then you don't always feel like training for them or you don't feel good in the weeks leading up to the race. I get why races have the lower rates early on, but it does make it harder for me to register last-minute. I go through so many cycles of feeling GREAT and then struggling to run, that it stinks to have a race coming up when you just don't feel like it! Anyways, we'll see about the half and then I will have to wait on the Turkey Trot 10k I normally do on Thanksgiving, because it looks like we'll be out of town this year. I may try to find a local race once we know what city in Ohio we will be in:)

Something I also don't mention much on here is how I FEEL during runs. I am going to be honest: oftentimes I don't feel great running, especially the first few miles. I usually hit my stride AFTER 3 miles, but some days that is when my run has to end! I have enjoyed switching my runs to the evenings now that it is cooling down (sleeping in until 6:15 is such a treat after months of getting up at 5:30!), because I have more time to run as long as I feel like. This usually puts me somewhere between 4 and 5 miles, so I can get into a good rhythm. On Saturdays I try to pick that up to 6 or more miles, but it really just depends on how I feel and if I am joining in on a training run!

I will tell you that I do not regret AT ALL not signing up for the marathon this fall. Maybe since I am back in school and in a new job, but I feel fulfilled in ways that running isn't needed:) I find that I get more obsessed with running when other parts of my life aren't going as well, so it is a good sign I have other outlets and hobbies to keep me going, and I can still enjoy my running in less doses:)