Making a Rumpus

A couple of weeks ago, I completed my first Olympic triathlon: the "Rumpus in Bumpass."  In fact, it was basically my first triathlon in general (not counting a little sprint I did when I was in middle school).  Over the past few months I have been very focused in my training with this goal in mind, and I have really started to feel like I have become sucked into the triathlon world, but I still couldn't techincally call myself a "triathlete"- so you can imagine my nervous anticipation as the event finally arrived.

Our race-day wake-up call was 5 am to make sure we had time to drive two hours down to Bumpass, set up our transition areas, and be ready for the 10 am start.  Jewel was nice enough to put my bike on her rack (since my Mini Cooper doesn't have one) and we caravaned down together.  My dad was there to see me race, so he drove while I dozed, but I was really not that tired- my adrenalin was already starting to kick in.

When we arrived, I was astounded by how many hard-core-looking triathletes were there (at what I had considered to be a little po-dunk race at the very beginning of tri season).  As we pulled into the parking area I saw dozens of Cervelos, Felts and other beautiful tri bikes, and I started getting pretty nervous. Though I am a somewhat experienced running and swimming racer, I had never done this kind of race, and many of these guys were obviously veterans.

Once Jewel, Cat, Pinata (my DC tri training buddies) and I got our packets and had our stuff together, we headed over to set up our transition areas.  I had watched some youtube videos about transitioning (curtesy of Jewel) but I hadn't actually practiced them.  I saw other triathletes meticulously setting out each of their gear items in a specific configuration for maximum time efficiency- some people even leave their cycling shoes clipped into their bikes in order to transition even faster. I had to make my best guess about how to set out my gear, since I really didn't know what would work best for me. Finally it was time to get on my brand-new DC tri club race top and bottom, chomp on some last-minute energy bars, get marked (i.e., volunteers write your number with permanent marker on your arms and legs) and walk down to the lake.

Though the lake temperature was about 65 degrees (not horribly cold), almost everyone was wearing a wetsuit. I struggled into my suit and put on my cap, which is color coded according to your swim wave. We were doing a water start, which means you are actually treading water out in the lake, then start swimming when the starting gun sounds, instead of a land start. I was in the women 35 & under wave, which was third, so we waited for the first two waves to get in the water before wading down into the murky lake.

I was surprised to find out that I was not that cold once I got in the water- the wetsuit kept me very warm, and it was a beautiful sunny day. I swam casually over to the start buoys with my competitors- I could tell everyone was sizing each other up- and my friends and I all wished each other luck.  We treaded water for a couple of minutes waiting for the start, and we were all squished together by the current and by racers jockeying for a good start position.  Seconds before we started, Jewel said to me "now, some of these girls are going to go out FAST. Don't follow them. You wait until the field thins out."  I was already pretty nervous about the open water swim, but for some reason her last-minute advice calmed me. I took a deep breath.

Finally the starting gun rang out. It was disconcerting at first, not having a lane line to follow (like in a pool), and there were so many people swimming on top of each other and kicking up a lot of white water. I had expected this, but it made me understand why some less-experienced swimmers panic at the start of open water swims. I just took Jewel's advice and started swimming at a good pace that I felt I could hold for thirty minutes, not sprinting. I saw her as a breathed to my left a couple of times, but as she dodged nimbly around someone I lost sight of her. She was right- after a few minutes, most of the people in my wave thinned out and started to slow down. I was starting to feel stronger, so I began passing people, and by the time we reached the turn-around point I had caught up to swimmers from the first two waves (who were men- they did not like that). Every once in a while I would take my head out of the water to sight where I was in relation to the buoys, and once or twice I realized I was starting to drift in the wrong direction. For the most part, though, the most difficult thing was coming up behind slower swimmers and having to change direction to go completely around them. 

By the time I was swimming on the back leg, I was feeling strong, but didn't want to push myself too hard- after all, it was a two to three hour race.  I could see the finish up ahead of me, and I didn't see many people from my wave around me. As I started running up the ramp to the transition area I noted my watch time (around 23 minutes) took off my cap and goggles and started trying to rip off my wetsuit- but I hadn't practiced doing it quickly while it was wet, so I had a really hard time getting it off.  I still had my arms in the sleeves as I made it to my bike, and it took me a little while to peel it all the way off... but I didn't realize that my race chip (which is on your ankle) was also pulled off in the process. I hurriedly threw on my glasses, helmet and shoes and started running out of the transition area- when I looked down and realized my chip was gone (Oy vey!). I had to actually turn around and go back in to find it, which confused a lot of people, and made my transition time very slow. Finally I got my chip back on and sprinted out with my bike, starting to ride.

The bike portion of the race was two 12 mile loops out through rolling countryside on paved road.  I was expecting to do it in somewhere around an hour and twenty minutes, so I settled into a steady pace but tried to keep my average around 18-20 as much as possible. Cycling is not my strong suit, and many men passed me, but not too many women. I was actually pretty startled when the first person on a Cervelo came up to pass me (for those of you who are not crazy triathletes or cyclists, those are really fancy tri bikes)- it sounded like a whirring noise, almost like a car, but it was just a person on a bike, going at least 25 mph uphill! After the first loop I saw my dad cheering me on, and I waved, then started on lap #2. There were several times, too, when I heard people say "Yeah DC!" (referring to DC tri club) to me.  It was very encouraging to have other people I didn't know but who were my teammates cheering me on. I held my own as best I could, trying to remember to hydrate and take shot blocks every once in a while, and finished the bike in a respectable 1:14.

I still felt pretty good, just really ready to get off the bike and start running. Unlike some triathletes I took the time to put on socks to avoid blisters, threw on my hat and tried to shovel down a banana as I ran out of the transition area. I saw my dad again at that point (he yelled "Jewel is only a few minutes ahead of you!"), but my legs were feeling pretty tired. I am fairly experienced at running, but I had failed to prepare myself adequately for the transition from long, hard biking to running for an hour. What's more, the running course was a dismal two loops of a three mile course which was mostly off-road on grass or painful rocks (my feet were killing me by the end).  I told myself, this is only six miles. You can do this in your sleep. Just be steady.

So I didn't worry too much about my pace. I just tried to keep it up as best I could, considering how tired I was feeling- but, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I always remind myself that nothing is as bad as the pain from the Marathon, so I could get through this.  Because the course was a strange out-and-back with several double-backs, I saw Jewel, Pinata and Cat at different times along the run. By the time I was on my final stretch, I was ready for it to be over but still feeling pretty good (except for the rocks). I got to the finish chute, saw Jewel, Pinata and my dad cheering me to the finish, and sprinted to the end. I did it! My time was 2:42, well under my goal of 3 hours, but more importantly, I had just finished my first Olympic distance tri! I was pretty happy.

I went to the recovery area with my tri buddies to eat and hydrate, and we waited for our friends to finish.  I had not been planning on waiting for the results to come out (I was ready to head home as soon as we could) but after Cat finished she looked at the results postings and ran over to me, saying "you won!" I said, "What? Won what??" Turns out, I won the Athena division, which I had never expected to do. I was pretty surprised. I waited to get my award, and my tri friends screamed with glee when I went up to get it.

All in all, it was an amazing experience. I can't wait to do more, and I'm sure I'll get better and faster as I go.  My next race is San Diego next month!

Kiss me, I'm Irish- If you can catch me!

As some of you know, I ran in the National Half Marathon on March 17, which was also... St. Patrick's Day! Naturally, many of the racers wore green (I even saw a few bright green tutus).  I wore a neon green shirt and matching socks, and borrowed a white bandana with a shamrock on the top from my roommate. I had originally wanted to get a shirt printed with the tagline from my title on the back- since people who were running behind me would see it- but I never ended up having time to make it.

Anyway, had been training to break my previous half marathon PR of 1:54, which I did last year, and I have been running fast enough in training that I was pretty sure I could do it.  In fact, my actual goal was to get under 1:50 (in case you're wondering what that shakes out to, it's averaging about 8:20 minutes per mile).  Ever since the marathon, I had been working more on my speed and the quality rather than quantity of my workouts.  Additionally, the fact that I have been training for triathlons seems to have vastly improved my cardiovascular fitness, and I'm not as likely to get "burned out" from just running every day.

As the race day sun began to peek its head over Capitol Hill, the temp was in the 50s- perfect, though a bit warm by the end of the race.  My roommate Bee and I got up in the darkness to get ready (I had my prerace meal of toast with peanut butter and banana), and headed out towards RFK stadium.  Since we live on the Hill, we were able to walk for a bit until we caught a bus running toward the stadium, which was packed with racers (this reminded me forcibly of the day of the marathon, when of course only racers were on the metro at 5 am).  We finally got there, and I was a nervous wreck (poor Bee, she had to deal with me being crazy!), worrying about getting our bags checked and finding Flash in time.  We had a set meet-up time and place, but we never found each other there- so Bee and I walked to the starting line.  She was in a different starting corral, so I hugged her goodbye, wished her luck, and jogged up towards mine.

I still had not given up hope that I would find Flash. I was not afraid to run by myself, since we almost always have to split up during a race, but Flash and I had rarely started one without each other.  I stood up above the corral and searched for him, combing the crowd for a tall guy in a hat... and finally, I felt someone hug me from behind, and it was Flash! Flash, Speedy and M were all together and had gotten stuck when there was a metro fiasco.  Now that I was able to calm my pre-race nerves down a bit, I settled down and waited for the starting gun.

Once our wave started, we began to run at a nice warm-up pace, still under 9 minute miles but not uber fast. As we started running down East Capitol and eventually turned onto Constitution, we got caught up in our adrenalin and were going at a pretty fast clip; our third mile was under 7:30. I realized that I needed to slow down a bit to make sure I could finish the race at a sub- 8:30 average, so I told Flash and Speedy we needed to take it down a notch.  By the time we turned around on Constitution and started heading up 18th toward Dupont and Adams Morgan (also known as the loooong hill), I started feeling really good.  My third-to-fourth-mile kick had begun, and right at that moment "The State of Massachusetts" by the Dropkick Murphys came on my ipod, and I really started kicking it into gear. 

Unfortunately, at the same time, Speedy said he was feeling pretty tired already, and I told him to run at his own speed, but he insisted that he wanted to keep up with us. A woman near us said "run your own race"- and that's very true. You may have to run faster or slower than your running buddies (even if you want to stay together) because everyone has their own pace during different parts of a race.  I learned that the hard way in the marathon, which may have contributed to my less-than-desirable last six miles.

As we started to run up the hill to Adams Morgan, which is the worst part of the race, I started to feel like my legs were really getting in gear.  I still ran conservatively because I didn't want to run out of gas and bonk, and I told myself that I would wait until about mile 10 or 11 and let it shake loose.  I could feel Flash and Speedy starting to hang back, and I tried to stay with them as long as I could.  By the time we got to the long straightaway down North Capitol around mile 9 or 10, though, I had to just let myself fly.  I felt amazing, and it was so much fun- I had been in such misery for the marathon, I forgot that racing could be such a heady experience. I felt like I was gliding over the pavement, caught up in the current of people all running down toward the Capitol in the distance.  I looked down at my watch a couple of times, and I was running well under 7:40 minute mile pace, sometimes 7:20.

My new triathlon training buddy, Jewel, had agreed to run with me for the last two miles and pace me to the end- I knew it was more than likely that I would need moral support because Flash and I would probably be separated by then.  As I rounded the corner and turned onto H street, and I spotted her (she was beaming, looking at all the racers and cheering) and yelled "Jewel!!" She looked almost surprised, but quickly started running with me.  She chirped, "Look at you!! How's it going?" I told her that still felt pretty great, and that I was running at pace to beat my goal time.

About a mile to the finish, which is where I "hit the wall" (as in, got a wave of fatigue) the year before, I started to feel the wall creeping up.  I had a mental arsenal, however, that I did not have last year- that there is nothing anywhere close to the physical and mental pain I went through during the marathon. I kept telling myself: "It is only one mile. You can do anything for one mile. This pain is NOTHING in comparison with the marathon. You know you can do this." I popped another gel shot (the clif shot blocks I use in a race) and a little while later I got a second wind back. By the end I was running at low 7's.

I was checking my watch a bit by that time, and I realized that I was going to be VERY close to 1:50.  When Jule peeled off and yelled "see ya at the finish!" I yelled back: "meet me at the beer tent!" and I started sprinting up the last hill.  I kept looking at my watch to see how close I was to 1:50- one minute, 40 seconds, 30 seconds... (oh no!! I'm so close!) I rounded the corner and kicked it into high gear as I saw the finish line, running as fast as I possibly could.  I crossed the line and stopped my watch- 1:50:06, just barely over.  I was still really happy with that time, but I now know that I could have probably raced slightly less conservatively at the beginning. Still, I beat my previous PR by several minutes.

Anyway, running the half marathon made me remember how much fun running mid-distance races can be.  As much as the marathon was, shall we say, a traumatizing experience, it really taught me how much mental and physical pain I can endure.  I am now training in full force for my triathlons- my first one is in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

Keeping it Real (Simple)

I do not plan to tout consumer items on this blog, but I have to talk about Real Simple magazine.  As its title denotes, its basic premise is to simplify your life by cutting the excess out of everything- from food, to clothes, to organizing your time, closet, and even work desk.  I love the fact that the layout is clean and clear-cut, and one of my favorite aspects is that it has great articles about "trimming the fat" (so to speak) from recipes.

The recipes are, of course, very no-frills, but they are almost always made up of many things I already have in my kitchen, so I can easily throw together a meal in about a half hour on a weeknight or for lunch.  I usually alter the recipe slightly, but the recipes are often scrumptious (though not always extremely refined in taste) and combine flavors I might not have thought of myself. Most importantly, they are most always very healthy! A friend of mine who is not particularly interested in spending lots of time in the kitchen, yet wants to cook her own meals as much as possible, constantly uses Real Simple.

There was one particular article from a Real Simple back in early 2011 that I find myself returning to all the time: Superfoods (indeed, I should get it laminated, since the magazine is looking a bit ragged). I try to incorporate these vitamin and nutrient-rich foods as much as possible, because they are vital to long-term health, longevity, brain function, and even to losing weight- because they keep you full longer.  Note, however that this is NOT a "fad diet" or a get-slim-quick scheme but a lifestyle; in fact, many of the foods are "good fats" such as avocados.  A simple rule of thumb I follow is thus:  half your plate should contain vegetables and fruits; one-quarter should be lean protein; and the last quarter, whole grains. The article not only listed the "superfoods" but also provided recipes for each one, and listed some full meals that incorporated several:

Superfoods: the 30 Healthiest Foods

Here's a recipe I borrowed the other day, for example:

Yogurt-Marinated Chicken with Mushrooms and Sweet Potatoes

I changed the original recipe as follows: since I didn't feel like I needed two starches, I eliminated the quinoa and added the chopped walnuts to the roasted vegetables. I also marinated the chicken for a long time, but you only really need to for about 30 minutes, and added mint to the marinade (which gave it a nice fresh flavor). Also, I added another vegetable- my favorite, sauteed garlic green beans!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup mint, chopped
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 4 4-ounce chicken cutlets
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1 tablespoon plus 3 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 large sweet potato (about 12 ounces), peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded
• 1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, halved if large
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
• Haricots verts or green beans
• 2-3 more cloves garlic, minced

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, mint, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon pepper. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (or up to 2 hours).
2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Divide the potato, mushrooms, walnuts and thyme between 2 rimmed baking sheets; toss with 1 tablespoon of the remaining oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon pepper. Roast, rotating the sheets once, until tender, 13 to 15 minutes. Drizzle with the vinegar and toss gently.
3. While vegetables are roasting, steam or boil green beans until crisp-tender.  Heat oil iron wok or skillet, and add garlic, stirring until fragrant.  Add green beans and stir-fry until at desired consistency (I like them with a bit of a bite), adding salt to taste. Remove to a plate.
4. Heat the remaining 1 teaspoon of oil in the skillet over medium heat. Wipe the excess marinade off the chicken and cook until golden brown and cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Serve with the vegetables.

Presto! Dinner in about 30-40 minutes.  Enjoy!

You've Got a (Running) Friend in Me

(Flash and I running the marathon)

There are few things in running that can effect your speed more than your mental state.  Sure, you can get more fit, do more speedwork and have better nutrition. But in any given day, your psychological state is a huge factor in whether you have a great run or bonk. And one of the best things I have found to make you change your psychological state is: running with someone.

I used to hate running with other people. Well, I used to hate running in general. But even when I started to get out there more, I always thought that running with someone else would just be a pain; if you are faster than the other person, then it would feel like you're chomping at the bit, and if they are faster, you'll tire too quickly. And how did people chat while they ran, anyway? I felt like I couldn't breathe as it was.

I have talked about my, shall we say, "main" running buddy, Flash, in my marathon blog. He's a two-time marathoner and 9-time half marathoner, and we have been great running buddies; I definitely gleaned much of my running knowledge from his experience.  He was the one who showed me everything from how to fuel a long run (water, carbs, and shot blocks) to how to pace a 20 miler.  He was my first real running buddy, and I realized how much fun it can be, and how much faster a workout can go by when you are running alongside someone.  I learned how to chat and run at the same time (gasp!) and now I actually have a hard time not chatting while I run.  It really takes your mind off of putting one foot in front of the other, and to be honest, you really shouldn't be running faster than a pace at which you can carry on a conversation, anyway (if you are huffing and puffing the whole way, you need to slow down and build your endurance).  In fact, when I ran a 20 mile race (in which I wasn't pacing with Flash), I fell into step with a few strangers and we chatted the whole three and a half hours or so (yes, really) while jogging through the rolling hills of Virginia.  I would have been bored out of my mind otherwise.

Anyway, apart from Flash, there are other people I run with sometimes.  Each of them is different in their style, and I get something different out of running with each of them.

First of all, there's Ax.  Ax is new to running distance races, but he is very speedy- he ran his first half marathon in a 1:41, or averaging about 7:40s.  My fastest time in a half marathon race so far is 1:53, and I'm hoping for under 1:50 this time (or averaging 8:20s) so I have been working on holding a faster pace.  One really good way to do this is running with Ax, because he is fast, so I run faster! We went on a morning run the other day (starting at 6:30 am) for four miles, running under 8 minute miles pretty much the whole way.  I'm not used to running at that clip, but it was really very exhilarating- we were running on the mall as the sun came up, and it warmed up quickly despite the crisp air.  We live on the Hill, so we always have to truck up that darn hill at the end of a run- and Ax powered up it like there is no tomorrow. I need to work on that.  Then we had some fantastic omelets at his favorite post-run diner on the Hill, Jimmy T's (he goes there so often that the owner knew who he was).

Then there is Lei. Lei is another coworker of mine who has started getting into running lately, but has not really competed in races.  We go on runs together during lunch sometimes, and I really enjoy her company- she is not a run-and-talker (I might try to convert her, eventually).  I always feel more relaxed, though, running with her, because I am less inclined to check my watch all the time to see if I am holding my "ideal" pace, and we actually go at a pretty good clip. But she is actually pretty competitive with herself- she is always trying to bring up her pace, and she speeds up at the end of a run.

Basically, the point is that running with someone else can really make your workout go by much faster, whether it's because you have someone to chat with or someone to suffer in silence with, as the case may be. But it can also hold you more accountable- I am more likely to hit the snooze button and go back to sleep at 6 am if there isn't someone waiting to meet me.  You might find that you are running with someone who is faster or slower than you- and that's ok; in fact, it can be really productive for your growth as a runner.  Increasing your fitness comes from going outside of your comfort zone and trying out different paces and distances than you would normally.  And if nothing else, you might discover something about yourself- you may even find a different gear you didn't know you had.

You'll never know until you TRI

As a lot of you know, I trained for and completed the Marine Corps Marathon last fall.  As I talked about in my other blog, I was never really a "runner"- in fact, I was a competitive swimmer, and I abhorred running. When I had to go for a twenty-minute run for lacrosse practice, I was in pain the whole time ("my achilles hurt!" was my excuse to walk). After college, I really wanted to start doing triathlons, since I already had the swimming part under my belt.  The only problem was: I didn't have a bike. Sure, you can just go buy any old bike and ride it in a race; no one would stop you. But I wanted to save up enough money to buy an actual racing road bike, which is NOT cheap.  So, in the meantime, I figured I might as well develop my "weakest" sport: running.  I began doing my first 8K the fall after I graduated,  then a 10K, up to my first half marathon. I discovered that I could actually like running (astounding), and so even though I finally had enough money to buy a bike after a year, I trained for and completed my first full marathon.

After the marathon, I took a deep breath and started looking at a new horizon: tri's.  I do have a new passion for running, but marathon training can get very monotonous- putting in up to 50 miles in a seven day period can be mentally (let alone physically) exhausting.  To tell the truth, at some points I just wasn't enjoying it anymore, and that's really the point, isn't it?  Now, since I have to balance between running, swimming, and biking, plus fit in strength training, yoga, etc., I feel happy when I get to run, which is a huge psychological shift.

I have signed up for my first triathlon, which is the "Rumpus in Bumpass" (yes. that's what it's called) in Rumpus, Virginia on April 14.  Ok, well, technically it isn't my first; I actually did a sprint triathlon with my dad when I was about 13 or 14.  So I decided to start out with an Olympic/International distance tri.  I'm hoping to do a few Olympics and eventually work my way up to a Half Ironman.  Just for your information, these are the standard distances for triathlons:

Sprint triathlon:

Swim: 0.5 mile (750 meter), Bike: 12.4 miles (20K), Run: 3.1 miles (5K)

International/Olympic triathlon: 

Swim: 0.9 mile (1.5K), Bike: 24.8 miles (40K), Run: 6.2 miles (10K)

Half Ironman:

Swim: 1.2 miles (1.9K), Bike: 56 miles (90K), Run: 13.1 miles (21K)

Ironman:

Swim: 2.4 miles (3.8K), Bike: 112 miles (180K), Run: 26.2 miles (42K)


That's right. An Ironman race consists of swimming two and a half miles in open water, then biking over a hundred miles, and then running a marathon.  Yikes.  Running a marathon in itself was enough (ha).

So anyway, I have already started training for the Olympic distance tri in April at the same time that I am training for a half marathon in March, so I have to balance enough running mileage with getting enough swim and bike workouts.  Since a couple of you have asked me what I do to train, here's a sample of what I do (this is from a couple of weeks ago):

Monday: lunchtime: 45 minute spinning class; after work: swimming 2800 meters (about an hour)

Tuesday: running 5 miles outside; plus abs and pushups

Wednesday: 5:30 am: master's swimming practice 3800 meters; lunchtime: 45 min spinning class

Thursday: 2.5 miles running on the treadmill, then 45 min personal training

Friday: Rest day (these are important!!)

Saturday:  Running 10 miles outside

Sunday: 90 min bike ride outside (about 22 miles)

Obviously, some weeks I don't have as much time as others, and I don't do two-a-day workouts all the time.  It ends up being about once or twice a week, just out of necessity,  so that I get all of the different sports in. But I really love it so far, because I have started to get to a whole new level of fitness- someone told me recently that tri's seem to "agree" with me.  So I hope you'll join me on this new fitness journey!

Chinese Character

When I was in fourth grade, I started taking my first foreign language: French.  I was fascinated by the different sounds, the musicality of the language, and how the intonations were so very different from ours.  Even though it was not as "practical" as Spanish (the only other option at the time), and the fact that my mother used to teach Spanish, it never occurred to me that I shouldn't learn a language I could only use far away.  As the years went on, my love for the language and its culture grew, evidenced by the Sorbonne t-shirt I literally wore to tatters and my "fleur de lis" vanity plate.  I even considered attending the University of Paris for my undergraduate degree (which is still a pipe dream of mine for graduate school).

As I moved on to college, I still took advanced French literature classes, but I wanted to explore more language horizons- so I took up Italian, eventually going to study in the University of Bologna after only taking it for two years.  I realized that not only did I like learning French, I love learning a new language; each has its own texture and taste,  like different spices or even different melodies. French is a bright sound, like a jaunty tune, and Italian is more rounded, luscious, exuberant and gestural.

Post-graduation, similarly to my nostalgia for reading heavy literature, I felt the loss of languages- after all, I had been taking at least one for the last 15 years.  Since I only know romance languages, I had thought about picking up something further east, but I never really had the push to do it.  A couple of weeks ago, however, a friend of mine forwarded me a link to the GLN (the Global Language Network) lottery.  GLN is a non-profit that was actually started by George Washington University students for the sole purpose of offering language classes for free- that's right, FREE. You enter a lottery before each session, and if you are lucky enough to win, you put down a small deposit (which you get back at the end) and take your new language!  I never thought I would win due to the high demand, but I threw my hat in the ring for Beginner Mandarin and Beginner Spanish (why not round out my romance languages, eh?).  To my surprise, I won the lottery for Beginner Mandarin, and the next week I was sitting in class and learning how to introduce myself in Chinese.

Of course, no one would ever say that taking an Asian language would be easy; for one thing, you have to learn a completely different alphabet.  Another aspect that is very difficult for Anglo speakers is thus: there are different tones which change the meaning of a word (four in Mandarin, eight in Cantonese... you get the idea).  This means that you could say the same word four different ways and it could literally have four different meanings- you could repeat the same phrase and it could make sense or could be complete gibberish, depending on the tones. Here are the four different tones:

The Four Tones of Mandarin

Pinyin	Chinese Character	Meaning	Tone
mā	媽	mother	First
má	麻	hemp	Second
mǎ	馬	horse	Third
mà	罵	scold	Fourth

(This is a quiz for trying to identify them- as you can see, it's not easy!)

My background in romance languages gave me no help with this, but for some reason, I have not been completely hopeless so far in identifying the right tone.  I realized, after the last class, that it's probably because I have a background in music.

Once upon a time, I was also trained classically in voice and vocal performance, including opera.  Interestingly enough, aural recall (that is, listening to a phrase and repeating it back) was never my forte (pun intended).  I was able to do it, but I always relied more on my sight reading skills.  But I could tell, based on the foundation classes in Mandarin, that one way to recognize the tones was to compare them to different notes on the scale. In my comparison, the first tone is as if you are singing a straight note, the second as if you are singing a descending scale, the third as if you sing descending then ascending, and the fourth is like an ascending scale.  I'm not saying that Mandarin is going to be a cinch for me because of this- for one thing, it is still pretty difficult for me to replicate the tones when I am speaking myself- but with any luck it will make me a little less hopeless. 

So far I have truly been enjoying class, but we'll see how frustrating the class gets in the end- I have heard that it can be quite daunting to even get a small grasp of Mandarin. But when someone has asked me lately why I am taking it, I just said bluntly, why not?

Friday Fitness Tip

Here's your fitness tip of the week: when you are first starting out with running, don't try to just go out and run three miles (or even one mile).  Not only could you injure yourself,  you most likely will get frustrated and give up, and fall back on an old excuse ("my ankles are too weak" was mine).  Instead, try run/walking- first, for one minute each, then two minutes running, one minute walking, then three minutes running, one minute walking... you get the idea.  Before you know it, you'll be running a 5K, and maybe in a year (like me) you'll be finishing your first marathon!  The bottom line is that you want to get to the point where you feel more comfortable running, and honestly, eventually you will get to the point where running is actually fun! Yes, you heard me right, FUN.  I used to hate running, but one day I just started trying-  I ran about 10 minutes at a time, but it was still better than nothing.  You can do it too!

Gray Area

Since I graduated from college in 2010, I have really missed reading.  Sure, I'll pick up a book now and then, or I read the New Yorker, but I am not required to read several dense volumes per week like I did for my advanced literature and history seminars.  I'm a huge nerd, and during my tenure at college I took courses on Existentialism (reading Camus, Kierkegaard, Nietszche), Transcendentalism (Thoreau and Emerson), and even a seminar on Proust, Joyce and Faulkner.  There were definitely times when I felt like my brain was doing cartwheels- especially reading Kierkegaard or Ulysses- but I also loved it.  I realized recently that I missed that kind of great literature, the kind that you were required to read in school but would not pick up on your own (who just decides one day to read War and Peace... for fun?). 

When I was in a bookstore last year, I was searching for a new bookmark (yes, I am one of the few people who still uses bookmarks... or reads real books, for that matter).  After perusing some bookmarks with famous quotes on them, I found the one you see above, which boasted (daringly) that it listed the "50 books you should read before you die." Intrigued, I decided to research the books everyone should read in their lifetime.  Of course, it is extremely subjective, so I found several different versions of the same list online; but I found a couple of lists that were created by librarians or by well-known news sources like BBC.  I compiled my own list from these, since there was a lot of overlap.  Interestingly, there are several novels which are newer and wouldn't be considered classics, such as The Alchemist, and some books were on one list but not another (like one of my favorites, Tess of the D'Urbervilles).  I then divided my master list into the ones I have already read, those that I have not read, and those which I have read parts of but not in total. I am going to try and make my way through the books I have not read first, and maybe eventually re-read the ones I have already read.  Here are the lists:

The books I have read:

1984 by George Orwell

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling

His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Candide by Voltaire

The books I have not read:

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by Tolkein

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

A Passage to India by  E.M. Forster

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulke

Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald

Winnie the Pooh by AA Mine

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham

The Prophet by Khali Gibran

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Middlemarch by George Eliot

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

A Day in the Life of Ivan Densovich by A. Solzenhitsyn

The Bell Jar by Sylvie Plath

Emma by Jane Austen

The Quiet American by Graham Greene

Money by Marin Amis

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

The Beautiful and Damned by Scott Fitzgerald

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

Man Without Woman by Ernest Hemingway

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Divine Comedy by Dante The books I have read parts of:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Ulysses by James Joyce

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky

For no reason in particular, I decided to start with The Picture of Dorian Gray.  I have read Wilde a few times, and I have heard references to the book in popular culture.  I have only gotten about a third of the way through, but so far it seems to be a commentary on the destruction of corruptive influence- the power of simple suggestion, and how it can shape our world views, relationships, and the future.  In a way, Dorian Gray's story falls under the category of one of my favorite themes: the loss of innocence.  Interestingly, too, though it was written in the 1890s, Dorian Gray could be transposed into our era almost seamlessly; the themes of the corruption of society and morality could also be applied to today.  Meanwhile, Wilde's descriptions absolutley amaze me in their intricacy, the phrases glittering like woven, gleaming tapestries. 

I'm periodically going to post about my current reading on my blog, so if anyone wants to read these books along with me (and post your own comments) in a sort of online book club, go for it!

Cultivate your garden

Welcome to my new blog, Dashing Through DC! To answer the question some of you have already asked, this is not necessarily a "sequel" to my other blog, the Meatless Marathoner, though I am now training for triathlons; rather, it will be a blog about living and working in DC, recipes, quotes, books, politics- you get the idea.  I included my "running" nickname, Dash, in the title because I will also include training and fitness tips of the week! The theme of the blog, in effect, is "cultivate your garden," after a quote from Candide by Voltaire (cultivez votre jardin).  The phrase can be interpreted a number of ways, but one way is thus: that each of us must make our own path in life, not leaving it up to fate or just going along with the current and never making waves.  We can each make our lives as well-rounded and full in all aspects as we want.  Just as you wouldn't want only one kind of vegetable in your garden, you wouldn't want to develop just one area of your life to excess, would you? Instead of just having nutritious and practical carrots (which, of course, are useful in their own right), you might want some herbs to add spice, some sweet fruit as a treat, and maybe even a flower or two.  Similarly, I realized last summer that at some point my life revolved too much around my marathon training, which was a very rewarding experience, but left a lot of other parts of my life lacking. Voltaire essentially was telling us to live our lives to the fullest and not to place limits on ourselves, whether they be physical, mental or emotional.

So I hope you enjoy my fresh start as much as I will. I'll start us off with another of my favorite quotes: "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." (Kierkegaard)