Saturday, August 14, 2010

6 Miles and Black Cloud

Great news! I ran!

Up until Thursday, as you may recall, I have encountered every hurdle in my runs out here; I've gotten cramps, out of breath,...well I guess that's it, but it has happened every time I try to run! I attribute it to the altitude and to my avoidance of running (due to the cramps, I know, it's a never-ending downward spiral). I FINALLY got past that wall on Thursday, but it took some persistence. Here is a summary of my trip, in outline form.

1. Awake at 8am, very small breakfast of water and approx. 22 goldfish crackers. Checking weather and convincing myself that I can run today
2. 9am, drive to Conundrum Trailhead for a trail run
3. 9:30am, arrive at trailhead and wait for the sudden rainfall to stop, temp is 55F
4. 9:35am rain lightens, fellow hiker at the parking lot yells to me to get out my car
5. 9:37am, dodging mud puddles and rocks on my first true trail run in Aspen
6. 9:47am, thunder heard overhead, I decide to stick it out
7. 9:48am, lightening spotted overhead, I decide to turn around if I see more
8. 9:49am, more lightening, I turn around
9. 9:50am, rain and hail. Goody!
10. 10am, arrive back at car. Perhaps I ran about a mile?
11. 10:05am drive to Aspen airport to wait out the rain and get much needed gas for my car. This run isn't over!
12. 10:30am Arrive at Rio Grand trail, unpaved portion at the end of Cemetery Lane. Sit in car to wait for the rain to stop.
13. 10:40am Running!
14. 11:15am Rain again, not stopping this time!
14. 11:55am back at the car, 6 miles in the bank! No cramps:)

So there you have it. That is how mu Thursday went down. I am grateful to have the time and resources to finally achieve a "long" run in Aspen. I attribute my success to a very small breakfast, the early morning, and pure determination. I'm so glad it finally worked! Now I can seriously get ready for my half marathon on September 12!

The next day I left open for a hike up Colorado's tallest mountain, Mt. Elbert. At 14,443 feet it offers 360-degree views of the Collegiate and Snowmass wilderness regions around Aspen and Leadville near Independence Pass. In the lower 48 states, it is second in height only to California's Mt. Whitney, which stands at 14,505 feet tall. Bryan and I got a perfect day of weather for the hike-not a cloud in the sky!! We left Marolt at 4:30AM, drove across Independence Pass, found the trailhead, and started hiking at 5:50AM, just when the sun was rising. The Black Cloud trail is considered the most difficult of the three trails that ascend the mountain, so naturally we wanted to do that one. It rises over 5,000 ft. in about 5 miles. Let me tell you, it was steep!!! In the first mile, I was seriously regretting my 6 mile run on Thursday and wondering if I was going to make it up the mountain. In my hiking this summer, I have learned to keep my mouth shut when it comes to personal doubts I have in my mind. Unless I am in danger, I will only raise concern and give merit to other hikers' doubts if I share my own. Bryan buys into this too, so we are almost always confessing our fears and doubts to each other once we reach the top:)

After a bunch of rest stops to catch our breath, lots of cold wind, and many false summits, we made it to the top 5 hours after we started. The visibility and the view was SO great from the top that we stayed up there for almost an hour!! It was a popular hike, so we had plenty of company. On the way down, we didn't need to stop as much so we got to our car in about 3 hours. It was a FANTASTIC hike, and a great day. I am so glad that I was able to do it. Check out my Aspen photo album on facebook for lots of good pictures from the hike.

http://www.summitpost.org/route/166522/black-cloud-trail.html

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Dudley lessons

I have completed my 3 hours of lessons with Chris, and I have a lot of reflection to do! I played minimally in lessons; I did more absorbing and thinking than playing. I am grateful for these lessons with Chris because it is very much just what I needed. When we talked about books covering the mental approach to playing in brass lit. this spring, I knew that I needed to be more in touch with my inner monologue, including my ability to control and/or free my thoughts. Chris touched on a lot of this in my lessons and master class. Now as long as I continue to work with it, I will make progress in the way that I want. Thanks, Chris!

Friday, July 30, 2010

I'm back!

My dear readers, I am so sorry for the long delay. You can be assured that the lack of blog posts has been due to the fact that I've been real busy-and having a great time!! Here is a photo-blog of the past few weeks:


July 16, 2010
Chamber Orchestra Concert with Julia Fischer, violin
Khachaturian Violin Concerto
Brahms 4



July 17, 2010
Komen 5k Race for the Cure



July 17, 2010
Music on the Mountain
Trombone Octet & Quartet Concert



July 20, 2010
American Lake


The next few photos are from our hike to Electric Pass on July 22. Russ and I started hiking at 6am. We summitted around 9am, but not before we ran into cold wind and rain, severe enough to make us both consider turning around early. But we persevered and made it to the top of the pass. I was so happy we did!








At the top!


Russ and I


And then Bill arrived! Even though he was acclimating, he let me take him hiking every day that he was here!

On Sunday July 25 we went to the Grottos Day Use Area, which had a bunch of trails, rock formations, and a creek throughout. Also, ice caves!



The water was a little cold for feet-dipping, but we did it anyway

On Monday we visited the Maroon Bells, a very popular spot for a nice day hike. We ran into a lot of people there!


On Tuesday we explored Hunter Creek/Smuggler Mountain area. This hike a was more flat than the others and we got to soak in the nice meadows and quiet forest, as it wasn't nearly as heavily-traveled by tourists.


And on his last day here, Bill decided he was up to climbing Mount Aspen! I had already done this one, so I knew what he was in for. It is an ascent of about 3,000 ft in a relatively short trail. He wanted to know what we were all talking about when we mentioned the Ute trail, so we started there:


Bill on top of the Ute


And then we continued all the way to the top! We maintained a steady and practical pace, took water breaks, and wore sunscreen. It was really rewarding to get to the top with Bill. Plus we avoided spending the $48 to ride the gondola up!

From the Top of Aspen Mountain, July 28

Then we rode the gondola down, ate at NY Pizza AND Paradise Bakery, and went home to take a nap! Later that night I played on an Eric Nathan piece at the beginning of an orchestra concert. We went to Little Annie's for dinner with a few low brass kids, and came back to Harris Hall to hear the American Brass Quintet give a concert. I was really glad that we got to hear that concert because it was fantastic!!! Bill really enjoyed it too.

Yesterday we drove to Denver to catch Bill's flight. Since we knew it was going to be a long driving day, we planned a few fun stops in Denver: the Tattered Cover Book Store and the REI flagship store! We both had our respective fun at each place. I LOVED the REI store. I wanted to buy one of everything!

I said goodbye to Bill :( and got back to Aspen around 10:30 last night. Now I have 3 more weeks to climb, play, practice, and run! I'm really excited for Chris Dudley (principal trombone with Baltimore) to get here so I can study with him and play in orchestra with him on the Respighi concert!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Aspen Mountain

I went on a really great early hike this morning! I was limited since I had to work in the office at 11am, and luckily I found a few friends who didn't mind getting up early! I woke up at 6, left Marolt at 6:30 and we were hiking by 6:55. Ironically, we took the route that starts with the Ute Trail, so it was a hard climb from the beginning! I was carrying about 5 bottles of water since Russ's backpack broke, so I felt slower than normal. We got up the Ute in about 40 minutes, took a breather and then continued up the trail.

Top of the Ute


We saw a lot of skiing signs, trail and lifts. It's clearly a mountain made for skiing!

We were climbing altitude fast, and soon we could see a large part of the surrounding mountains, including Independence Pass.


It always looked like we were *almost* there since you couldn't see the top of the Gondola until you got to the top. Oh, the Gondola is a fancy ski lift that people have to pay to ride up the mountain.
BUT if you hike up the mountain, you don't have to pay to go down! This quickly became our plan as we got more tired ascending the mountain...and as the time crept closer to 9:30.

We got a full hour to soak in the sights at the top of the mountain, which became a full 360-degree view of the surrounding mountains. It was GLORIOUS!



Since tourists and other wealthy people ride to the top all the time, there was a really nice restaurant and cash bar up there, complete with nice restrooms and water fountains--a rare thing to have at the top of a mountain:) We rode the Gondola down (which is really strange-to put in 2 hours of solid hiking and then get back into town in only 15 minutes!), walked to our car, got a breakfast burrito from Johnny Macguire's, and got back to Marolt by 10:50. I took a REAL quick shower and got to the office just in time for my shift. And here I am now, in the office!

The Gondola Ride:


This week I am playing Brahms 4 with the Chamber Symphony. I'm really looking forward to it because it's a really good group! Also I have performed Brahms 1-3, and this will complete my cycle.

I'm running a Komen 5k Race for the Cure on Saturday morning in Aspen! If you'd like to sponsor me (literally a few bucks would be great!), go to my fundraising page!

http://events.komenaspen.org/site/TR/Race/General?px=1006208&pg=personal&fr_id=1030

I have a modest goal of $30. Chip in if you can! It's for a great cause!

Update: Since I have such generous friends and family, I have raised my goal twice: first to $50 and now to $100. Thank you for all of your support!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Plugging Along

This morning marked my fourth ascent up the Ute Trail! We're not racing up the mountain or anything, but our time was the quickest yet today: 35 minutes. It's a really good workout, mostly for my lungs apparently, because I'm not sore afterward. Running, on the other hand, has been really rough. I just cannot catch my breath, even for a 30 minute run. I guess I will have to work my way up to it. I'll try again tomorrow morning.

So far, I'd say I am on track with my goals for the summer. I'm practicing a lot every day, playing lots of different types of music with various groups, and getting better at the trombone! Plus I am biking, hiking, or running almost every day! The cool thing about being at Aspen is I don't have to make myself do any of those things. The program is designed so I have multiple musical outlets, and I am surrounded by great players and great teachers all the time. Plus when you look out the door and see Aspen Mountain, how could you resist climbing it? :)

Last night a combination of luck and persistence got me a free ticket to see Gil Shaham and Lynn Harrell play Brahms! It was a "special event" in Harris Hall, which means that since the hall is pretty small, they don't open it up to students. If I wanted to go, I would have to buy a ticket for $65 or wait in line before the concert and hope that the box office would give me a leftover ticket. My friends who worked box office hooked me up and gave me a ticket just before the show started. It was fantastic! Gil played the violin sonata no. 2 and Lynn played the cello sonata no. 2, then they played a piano trio together. All Brahms, all written in 1886. Here is a bit about Gil from www.pittsburghsymphony.org:

Violinist Gil Shaham is internationally recognized by audiences and critics alike as one of today’s most virtuosic and engaging classical artists. He is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with celebrated orchestras and conductors, as well as for recital and ensemble appearances on the great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals.

Mr. Shaham’s 2006-07 season highlights include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and U.S. tours with both the Chicago Symphony and Orpheus. In addition to recital tours in Europe and Japan he will appear abroad with the orchestras of Berlin, Copenhagen and Moscow, and with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra as part of their 70th Anniversary concerts.

Mr. Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel where at the age of 7 he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music and granted annual scholarships by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, while studying with Haim Taub in Jerusalem, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic. That same year he began his studies with Dorothy DeLay and Jens Ellerman at Aspen. In 1982, after taking first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition, he became a scholarship student at Juilliard, where he has worked with Ms. DeLay and Hyo Kang. He has also studied at Columbia University.

I actually omitted about 3 paragraphs from his bio since it's so long...there's much more online about him, especially on Youtube. There's a lot online about Lynn Harrell too. It was cool/weird to be part of the exclusive crowd that had subscription tickets to the concert. Everybody is so wealthy! It's an older, retired crowd with lots of money in their pockets. I'm not used to it! I'm accustomed to lots and lots of poor college students occupying every concert hall and restaurant that I'm in. If it weren't for the people of Aspen, this festival wouldn't be possible, so I'm really glad that they support the music as much as they do!

I've been working parking crew every few days, and I am looking forward to my first paycheck tomorrow! Once I cash the check, I'll be able to go out without feeling the guilt of using my credit card. Can't wait!

Lessons with Per are going really well. I'm learning a lot.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Week 1, complete

Wow, what a busy week! The Aspen Music Festival has a LOT of stuff going on all the time--it's amazing! There are concerts everyday, many of them with world class conductors and/or performers. I played in the 4th of July band this weekend. It's a free concert for the community, so the crowd was huge, and very excited to celebrate their country! They were literally cheering on their feet at least three times during the concert! (We played a bunch of marches and other patriotic tunes.) We only had two rehearsals, which was nice. This week I am playing in the Contemporary Ensemble. We are playing "Khorovod" by Julian Anderson, performance at 4:30 on Saturday. It's a tricky part.

I got placed in a brass trio with two great musicians; Xavier on horn and Rachel on trumpet. Our coach is Kevin Cobb and we have coachings every Saturday. I think it will be a fun group! We have trios picked out by Beethoven, Nelhybel, and Sanders. We will play a fanfare at intermission on one of the Festival Orchestra concerts, and perform on the "Brass Bash" later in July.

Also taking Warren Deck's section master class, which has already proven to be fantastic! He will coach us on low brass section excerpts from the orchestral repertoire every week. This week I am playing 1st on Bruckner 8.

Apparently Bill Clinton was at the Festival Orchestra Concert last night! I didn't see him, but there was a sighting.

Happy Birthday, Bill!
(Kloppenburg, not Clinton)

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Recent hikes

We went on two great hikes this week. The first (Tuesday) was called "Difficult Trail" (although not that difficult). It followed Difficult Creek, and started on Difficult Lane (not making this up).





JJ, Bryan, Russ and Xavier, my hiking buddies!


Lots of pretty flowers on this trail...



This morning Bryan and I went up the Ute again--38 minutes! Next time will be even quicker. I'm glad I brought my camera, because we saw a rainbow at the top!



Downtown Aspen (above and below)




Can you see the rainbow?





Clearly, I wasn't the photographer here...just imagine my eyes open, and the picture is complete:) (I <3 Ithaca!)

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Just when I was getting comfortable...

...I have to leave:( I am flying to Portland for Casey's wedding tomorrow! The only reason I am regretful about the trip is because I will need to get acclimated again when I return. Oh well, it's worth it--Casey's getting married!

It's amazing how much can happen in the course of one or two days around here. Everything is new and good--I wish every day of my life were like this! Yesterday I went for my first run in Aspen in the AM. It was fine, I just felt a bit winded. The 8AM weather was perfect for running-crisp, warm, and sunny. Later on yesterday I was bored, so I went for a bike ride! I really enjoy my bike-it's more of a road bike than I have ever had before. I moves really well with me, as long as I keep my balance:) I explored the rio grande trail so I could know my surroundings a bit more, got lost at least 5 times, saw some amazing millionaires' houses, saw a few river surfers , and somehow ended up downtown, where I lost the trail and made my way back home. It was a great ride, and I hope to have many more. I'll take my camera next time.

This morning some RA buddies and I went for a quick hike up the Ute Trail. It was tough! It was like the steep part from normal hikes, but it lasted for the entire hike. The hardest part was that I couldn't get enough oxygen, so my heart was beating really fast and I couldn't catch my breath. But other than that, it was great! The view from the top was beautiful. I think people get to the point where they can ascend the trail in about 30 minutes, and get back down in even less. It's a great morning "jaunt" that I will be doing more often.

I visited a Rec Center today with some other RAs. It's only a mile from my dorm and it has a pool, a lazy river, a hot tub, a climbing wall, an ice rink, free weights, and a cardio room. I thought it sounded like a fun idea because I could take advantage of the pool and the climbing wall. Unfortunately, the membership fee is pretty steep, so unless the RAs can register as a family, I don't think I'll be joining. I know, I have enough activities to keep me busy anyway;)

Tomorrow I will meet Erin and Jack & Jeri in Arvada before I head to the airport. Maine, here I come!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Day 2

I got a bike today!

So apparently there's this guy (named Chris?) who works for the festival. He fixes up about 200 bikes and makes them ready to ride. As student RAs, we went to his tent today, picked out a bike, and signed it out for the summer! For free! I got a sweet road bike. We rode downtown to get student IDs. It was so nice to ride around in the sun and look up at the mountains.

It turns out there are a few other runners on the RA staff; Meredith is training for a marathon and Brightin has run 3 marathons: Philly, Boston and another one. She was actually in Ithaca the same time as me, studying at Cornell and running on their track and cross country team! I will hopefully go for a run with her soon.

Playing is feeling better, touched on William Tell and La Gazza Ladra today. I also spoke with Michael Powell and John Rojak about a possible playing opportuntiy with NRO in a few weeks. It was exciting to chat with them; it definitely got me pumped for the festival to start next week!

So far, I am having a blast!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

One busy week!

Wow, what a whirlwind of a crazy week! I have been all over North America this week, and I am happy to be in one place for a little while (but not for long!)

The Women’s Brass competition was over quickly, but it was definitely a good experience. I wasn’t completely happy with how I played, mostly because the pianist and I weren’t together on two separate occasions, but I recorded it and I was really happy with the improvements I had made; not to mention that I replicated them in the performance, namely intonation, clarity of style, and overall consistency. The preliminary round was behind a screen, which was a new experience for me: to play a solo with piano without a visible audience. But hey, it meant that I could tap my foot without anyone noticing, so that’s a plus☺ So once I resolved that my performance wouldn’t win me first place, I started packing up, hoping that Mary and I could hit the road on Tuesday afternoon. Unexpectedly, I won second place!! I was pretty surprised and delighted! The prize money will cancel out the entrance fee I had to pay to compete, and I can put the placement on my resume. Hooray! Now I need to enter more competitions…

After a long trip home, and a late arrival in Bloomington, I spent the next two days resting and getting ready for my next big trip. It was tough to pack for two months in Colorado, especially since I didn’t know what to expect in terms of weather. But I did my best and brought way too much stuff. ☺ I drove for about 12 hours on Friday, which included a 60 minute shopping break in Target, and spent the night in Salina, Kansas. Let me tell you, a hotel room has never been so rewarding! I scored a king size bed, threw my stuff wherever I wanted, and watched TV in bed. Needless to say, I slept real well that night.


Proof I drove Kansas.

Saturday morning I hit the treadmill for 30 minutes first thing to make sure my legs were still functioning after the car ride. They were. Boy, did that treadmill feel strange though. I haven’t run on one of those in years. I was sure I would fall while I was looking at myself in the mirror. (Its not every day I get to see myself running!) Well I didn’t fall, but I did experience a minor disaster a little while later: I locked my keys in my trunk. 30 minutes and 60 bucks later, I was back on track, although a bit behind schedule.

The drive to Denver wasn’t too bad because a night of rest separated me from the other half of Kansas (as Bill and I found out back in March, driving the entire length of Kansas in one day is not for the faint of heart!). Plus I had lunch with Erin to look forward to! I met her at Cheesecake Factory (a family favorite) and we had a great time sitting on the terrace in downtown Denver. What a cool city! I could definitely live there.

After my visit with Erin, only one thing stood between Aspen and I: the Rocky Mountains. As I set out on my final leg, a little red flag went up in my mind. I had been hearing an intermittent rumbling engine sound since just before Denver, and it was back. That combined with my car’s sudden inability to accelerate normally up hills made me worried, because I knew I had a bunch of “hills” ahead! I filled my gas tank and called Dad, who advised that I get it looked at. So I took my car to Wal-Mart (thank goodness they were still open at 6pm on a Saturday night!), and the guys that helped me there were great! To make a long story short, I was completely out of oil and they suspected that my car was having trouble adjusting to the altitude change. (To which I said “Well, I feel fine!” and J.D. said, “your car’s computer isn’t as advanced as yours!”) They fed my car 3 quarts of oil and I was on my way. Luckily the noise was gone. I crawled into Aspen at 10pm (mountain time), and I was ready to pass out! The residence director gave me my key and showed me to my place. Soon after, my roommate arrived. Her name is Kathleen and she is a flute player from Virginia. We spent a little while getting to know each other and unpacking before we turned it in. I was soooooo tired!


This is the outside of our dorms

This morning we met the other Res Life staff and loaded pillows/blankets into the students' rooms. Following that, we took a tour of Aspen. It's so amazing! It's a cozy little town set in a beautiful landscape. I was overwhelmed. Plus the campus, dorms, and performance hall are spread out within Apsen. I'm going to have to learn how to get everywhere myself. Here are some pics that I took on a walk this afternoon with Kathleen.






After taking two days off and ascending in altitude, my playing is a bit out of whack today. This RA staff is great: they all need time to practice, so it is built into the schedule. We all need to practice during the day, so we do! It wasn't feeling too great to play much today, so I didn't. I take the advice of Peter Ellefson: "take your time getting back to the horn." No problem, Pete!

Because of the altitude, I also have to wait a few days to run :( The walk was enough for today. It wiped me out!

Sorry for the gap between posts! I will do my best to update more often!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Bonjour from Toronto!

We made it! The drive from Bloomington to Toronto took about 10 hours, with an hour or so extra for food breaks. Mary was an excellent co-pilot; I never got sleepy once! I did eat my first McDonalds hamburger in yeeeears though. And I have to say, it wasn’t too bad. I got one of the fancy Angus burgers, which cost like $6.00 Canadian monies. The bun was some sort of ciabatta roll. In fact the entire menu at the Canadian McDondalds looked different, kind of like they took the McDonalds name and did what they wanted with the products. Anyway…

Crossing the border into Canada was quite simple after we navigated through the detour. (My GPS wasn’t taking us the right way, and I must have made about 6 U-turns, not kidding). There wasn’t a line, and the dude just asked us how long wed be there, why we were there, and if we had anything besides personal belongings. I almost blurted “We have a trombone and a tuba!” but I managed to restrain myself. All in all, it took about 1 minute to cross the border. We noticed, however, that the Canada to US line was about 2 miles long…we are hoping that we don’t have to deal with that on the way back!

We visited the Canadian welcome center, where they gave us a map of Toronto, directions, and $ exchange. For some reason, I didn’t think to bring more than $10, so I didn’t have any money to exchange. I’ll just have to use my visa card to buy food and stuff. Then we left the little border town of Windsor and headed “up the coast” to Toronto. I was surprised, the country side was just as barren as Kansas! It was super flat, and the highway exits didn’t have food or fuel to offer from what we could see. We were getting real hungry for dinner, so that’s one of the reasons we settled for McDonalds-it was the first thing that appeared out of the empty lands. (I bet they planned it that way.)

Once we got to Humber College, on the west end of Toronto, we were very ready to get out of the car! I get pretty sore from long car rides, so I couldn’t wait to walk around. We ran into Ericka and Katherine, the other two ladies from IU, and checked into our rooms. The accommodations ended up being pretty nice- I have my own bedroom, and it is connected to a common room with a little kitchenette and a bath. Ericka’s room is off of the kitchen. I wish I had something like this when I was living on campus!!

I opted not to play yesterday morning before we left because I wanted to try and take about 24 hours off the horn, and I was sure glad that I did!! We all went to the practice modules after finding our rooms, and I took a nice long warm up. It felt great. The fatigue that had been building up in my face over the past week or so was gone. Yay for a day off!!

Sadly, my Ethernet cable that I brought from home doesn’t work, so I have limited internet access, meaning I can use the internet when Ericka lets me borrow her cord. I could buy another cord, but it’s really not worth $10 to have a cord for a few days, since I don’t need it at home. My mission this morning is to get a password for the building’s wireless network so I can use it down in the lobby. I tried last night and the student behind the desk didn’t know what I was talking about- sorry, “aboot.” ☺

Today’s activities include finding breakfast and a grocery store, going for a run, warming up, and rehearsing with my accompanist at 4:30. It’s a pretty easy day.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Rounding the corner

The IWBC is just a few days away! Mary, Ericka and I gave a preview concert last night, and it went over very well. I think we were all glad to have a dress run of our competition material. I listened to the recording, and heard a lot of little things that I can improve. I also got some good input from John and Pete. Thanks to everyone who came to the recital!

Running-I guess it's not a good idea to take off 3 days in a row! I didn't run Mon-Wed, and these past two days have been rough! Sometimes it's hard to find a good route from my place on 17th street, so I am definitely looking forward to a change of scenery in Aspen. Alan Page, an IU alum, told me that the hiking and running in Aspen is fantastic! He went there a few years ago. I can't wait!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Sunday Runday

Ironically, The Cadets always called it "No-Runday Sunday"...which meant we ran every other day of the week...:D

http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/in/bloomington/627127585264551530

Just took a nice mid-afternoon run through downtown, via the B-Line (4.5). It was a nice day to opt for a 2PM run; 75, sunny/partly cloudy, 55% humidity. I was able to keep a decent pace for the first half for sure, but when I turned around I hit a head wind. Which, I found out when it stopped, was a blessing and a curse at once. Overall, the run felt better than most runs lately, which could be attributed to the time of day, or my day off yesterday...or anything else;)

Yesterday I practiced quiet a bit, working on the feeling of freedom and ease in my body while I play. Two days until the Ft. Wayne Sublist audition, 3 days til my rehearsal with Kim, and 4 days until my recital with Ericka and Mary. My face feels good and strong, which should indicate that I am taking care of myself. I really want to do well at the IWBC! Back to work!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Note to self: 1 Fantastic smoothie recipe

Banana
Strawberries
Strawberry-Banana yogurt
crushed pineapple
blueberries
vanilla protein
ice
=
YUM!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Barbeque and a novel idea

I had my first (ever?) tofurkey sausage today at Sean's inaugural gathering on his new porch. It was pretty tasty! No run today, but we are planning out run for tomorrow-a long one I think. Our idea was to bring my camera on my runs so I could post pictures from my various travels. As soon as I devise a clever camera carrier, the posting will commence.

Continuing my work on the IWBC (International Womens Brass Conference) competition material. I have a recital with the other IU ladies on Thursday 6/10 at 6PM in MA454. We are all playing our competition rep. Come listen if you live nearby! Also getting ready for a Fort Wayne sub list audition on Tuesday 6/8.

Today I went to Trader Joe's and stocked up on microwaveables for Aspen. It was so much fun! I did it because A) I love shopping at Trader Joe's and B) I've heard from multiple sources that the grocery stores and eateries in Aspen are mucho-expensivo. Even though I have a meal plan, I'm bringing my own pantry to break things up.

Long run tomorrow!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

another unavoidable bad idea

Noon run today at Bryan Park. Is it possible to go backwards? Both in my training progress and in actually running? Needless to say, it was not easy. 3.5

Sunday, May 30, 2010

what was I thinking?

http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/in/bloomington/784127526401557210

I hope I learned my lesson! I started a 5 mile run at 9:45AMthis morning, and it was rough!! I'm pretty sure it was at least 85 out, and the sun was bright. The hills around campus and on 17th were an extra challenge. I gotta get up earlier!!

A bit of excitement for me on my run was an encounter with a drum corps! Once I heard the tinny, ever-present sound of the Dr. Beat, I knew what it was. They were warming up at the IU Memorial Stadium. I still don't know what group it was! I've checked a bunch of the midwestern corps' schedules, but none are out here yet. After a shower, a trip to Brownstown for a Memorial Day hang, practicing, and a lesson, the corps was still out at the stadium as I drove home at 7PM. (Of course!) It reminds me of how little freedom I had as an individual in the Cadets; every day is full of work! And I loved it! I hope I can figure out who they were...

Saturday, May 29, 2010

kewl d8

I am currently at Anatolia with my hawt boyfriend. woot lolz!

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello and thanks for checking out my new blog! I created this page to keep my friends and family updated on my summer adventures, which will take me to Toronto for the International Women's Brass Conference, and to Aspen, CO for a summer music festival. Check back to see what I've been up to!

This blog is also to help me track my progress this summer, in my study of music and my running/hiking activities. I thought that if I wrote down my goals, and monitored them...publicly....then I (and you) might hold myself more accountable! My goals for the summer are, loosely, to get and stay fit, and to get better at trombone. I'll define those more later.