Spring break is sadly starting to come to a close for me. It has been a great break though, and I do feel ready to head back to school and tackle my last five weeks as an undergrad student. I am so ready for graduation… at least I think I am. I’m sure the day of graduation I will be much more emotional about leaving my school.

My Adventurous Tuesday

Anyway back to spring break. Two words: Elephant Rocks.

Elephant Rocks State Park is located in Belleview, MO and it is so much fun! It’s a park with a ton of huge granite boulders you can climb on. There’s also a trail you can walk on. Basically, in the words of a man I overheard at the park, “It’s a natural playground.”

I went to Elephant Rocks on Tuesday with my boyfriend. I didn’t go on a run that day, but my Fitbit did register some of that time I spent hiking and climbing around on the rocks as a workout, so I’ll take it. According to my Fitbit I did the equivalent of walking up 25 floors. I also took 7,245 steps that day (I know, I didn’t hit the 10,000 step goal) most of which were taken at the park.

After spending about three hours at the park, my boyfriend and I left to go to a skate park. However, in the area that Elephant Rocks is located, cell service isn’t great. Therefore, my boyfriend couldn’t pull up Google Maps to direct him to the nearest skate park. So, we just drove back the way we came until we got cell service and I could pull up Google Maps for him.

As we drove back through Caledonia, MO, we stopped at Old Village Mercantile for ice cream. This cute store makes their ice cream in house. They also sell fudge, coffee, and a ton of different types of candy, as well as other gift items for sale, like the cute mug I bought. If you are ever in that neck of the woods, I would definitely stop in there.

So, after eating a delicious ice cream cone (I had one scoop of cookie monster, and one scoop of the coffee flavor they had. I can’t remember the exact name) we headed to the skate park.

I did not know how to skateboard before Tuesday, so my boyfriend very patiently showed me how to stand on the board, and how to lean in order to turn a certain direction. He also should me how to “pencil” to help me turn faster, but I wouldn’t say I could do that yet. I can successfully skate in one direction though.

Once I felt comfortable enough to get on and off of the board by myself, I told my boyfriend he could go skate around the park if he wanted to. He went up and down ramps and he honestly looked super cool just skating around the park. Meanwhile, I just very comfortably skateboarded in one direction until I got to the end of my path, hopped off the board, turned myself around, and skated in the other direction. I really enjoyed skateboarding and I hope I can do more often. Next time I might even feel comfortable enough to go down a simple slope. Basically, I’m officially a skater girl.

So, yeah, that was my very adventurous Tuesday. We were outside almost the entire day, and since its March we didn’t even think about sunscreen. My face looked a little rosy afterwards, but it’s pretty much back to normal now. My very fair skinned boyfriend, on the other hand, got a nice sunburn on the back of his neck, and on most of his face.

Other Highlights from Spring Break

I got my oil changed.

I know that doesn’t seem super exciting, but I really hate going to get an oil change, so the fact that I did it is a pretty big deal. Honestly, I should’ve done it before spring break, but here we are. I took it to Walmart, and they told me it would take about an hour before they could get me in. I didn’t have any time sensitive plans for that day, so I didn’t mind the wait. I spent an hour unsupervised in Walmart, and I only managed to spend about $5 on top of the oil change. That’s a miracle. Either that, or I’m getting much better at controlling myself when it comes to impulse purchases.

Either way, I bought something that I have been wanting for at least nine months now… a dotted journal! I originally started seeing pins on Pinterest for bullet journals, and they looked like so much fun. I am not very artsy, or good at drawing, so I was really hesitant to buy one of these journals for myself. I have also been really happy with using the planner that I had, so I really didn’t have a need to make a bullet journal planner.

However, while killing time in Walmart, I decided to go through the aisle with all the cute notebooks and pens. Which, typically would be a very dangerous thing for me to do, but today when looking through all of the dotted journals they had, I saw cute one for about $3. I knew I’d been wanting to bullet journal for a while, I figured it could be a fun way to keep track of my runs. So, I picked up a two pack of some nice felt tip pens and committed to the purchase.

I only got two black pens, because the color pack didn’t come with a black pen and I knew that’s what I would primarily be using. I did consider also getting the colored pens, but that would’ve been another $5. Since I wasn’t sure how I would like the bullet journaling process, or if I’d even keep up with it, I didn’t want to spend the extra $5. I figured I could always come back if I get really into bullet journaling, but for now I have what I need.

Then, today I went to the St. Louis Art Museum with some of my friends. I had never been there before so I was excited to go. The museum is a beautiful building, and they also had some really interesting exhibits. Overall, it was a pretty nice visit.

I spent the rest of my spring break working on scholarship applications, and chemistry homework. I did also play Minecraft with my boyfriend on Saturday for a few hours, and took at least three naps.  All in all, it was a pretty great spring break.

Wait… Isn’t this a Running Blog?

Don’t worry, I did make time for a couple runs this past week too. On Monday, I knew I had a lot that I wanted to get accomplished over spring break, but somehow I still slept in and didn’t really get anything accomplished. I did force myself to run a little bit though. I told myself I would just do a quick 10 minute run on the treadmill and we’d call it good for the day.

I changed into a t-shirt and shorts, turned on the TV, went to Netflix (thank you Smart TV), and turned on The Office. I then got on the treadmill and proceeded to run.

I couldn’t actually hear the TV though while the treadmill was going, so that made it pretty difficult. Luckily the subtitles were on, and I’ve seen The Office in its entirety at least twice, so I could still follow along with the episode. However, not being able to hear the TV really affected my mood. I didn’t really have anything to distract me from the running, and since I really didn’t feel like running that day it was really difficult to keep going.

I ended up staying on the treadmill for about 11 minutes, and completing one mile. Overall, it wasn’t awful, and I was proud of myself for running when I didn’t want to – even if it was only for a short amount of time.

On Wednesday, I really went after it. Again, I ran on the treadmill, but this time I made sure I had music to listen to. I also ran earlier in the day, so I still had quite a bit of energy, and the Today Show was on. I love the Today Show, so watching it while on the treadmill was the best. Since I had earbuds in and music going, I couldn’t hear what was going on during the show, but I still liked watching it. Also commercials proved to be very beneficial for calculating time without looking down at the clock on the treadmill.

During this run, I did more of an interval thing. I started by doing a one minute walking warm-up. Then I would run for about two minutes and thirty seconds, and then walk for thirty seconds. This pattern of running and walking continued until I hit 3.1 miles. That’s right, I did a 5k on the treadmill!

This is also why I was saying the commercial breaks were so helpful. Commercials are about 30 seconds, so when I was running, instead focusing on the time on the treadmill I would just force myself to watch the commercial. For some reason, time seems to go by faster when watching a commercial than when watching a clock tick on the treadmill.

I also did stop for a water break after I completed two miles. There were also a couple of times towards the end when I felt like I needed to take longer than a thirty second break. In these cases, I would take a full minute to walk.

I felt amazing when I finished though. I mean, I know it was on a treadmill, so there weren’t any hills or anything, but I haven’t run that type of distance in a long time. It felt good to know that I was still capable of doing it. Especially since I plan on competing in a half marathon by the end of the year.

Wrap-Up

Wow! I haven’t had this long of a post in a while! I hoped you enjoyed it. I appreciate your support so much! I had so much fun this week experiencing my adventures and I’m so glad I have you to share my stories with. I hope you can go out and find adventure in your week as well. I can’t wait to share my running and weekly adventures with you next week!

Week 6:  
Miles run this week: 4.1
Miles run total: 15.1
Overall mood: Adventurous