Remind Me Why I'm Doing This...

Day one is in the bag! 

The day started at 5:40, I had to finish cleaning the apartment, loading the car, closing out utilities and the finally dropped the keys off at the leasing office. By 7:35 I was on the road, Spark in hand ready to see what the day would hold! 

Ignore the short and chipped nails
 - focus instead on that beautiful Pink Lemonade Spark, love of my life right now!

And by 7:40, just two miles into I-84 (we're talking Lloyd Center here folks!) I was a mess of tears, sobs and snot! I wanted someone to remind me why I was doing this. I even had the thought "You don't have to do this. You could stay, or drive somewhere else. No one would ever know." Haha, clearly I am not always logical in my hysteria. Go figure. 

A few supportive texts from Haylee and the sun of Eastern Oregon brought my smile back out...
oh hey, look at the guns that showed up too : )

Suns out guns out! 

Once I had my groove back, I felt up to a little talk radio. Luckily I had downloaded over 100 podcasts on Sunday. The first one I chose was perfect - RadioLab's Musical Language. It was all about our perception of sound, how speech is related to music and how does our brain process sound/language/music? 

Seriously nerding out right now!! 

I was inspired and had so many questions. I have been interested in aural rehab since watching this documentary.
 Can't wait to listen to the podcast again when I have time to write them all down.
 (Side note: when I looked up the podcast to link it to this page I discovered it first aired on my birthday in 2007. Meant. To. Be.)

Oh wait, as if that wasn't enough nerd for ya... 

 Just before I got to Idaho I saw a semi with an Operation Smile advertisement. After class with Mandulak I have a new appreciation for and affinity with Cleft Lip and Palate. Exciting to see the word getting out ~ CLP is the number one birth defect in the United States. It is not just a "third world problem." 

The PriPri (yes, I am that Northwest Girl -- I proudly drive a Prius) is the best road trip car ever! Coming out of the mountains
 into Idaho we got the best gas mileage ever. I know what you are thinking, "10 minutes at 100 mpg?! That girl is craycray."

Well, yes, I probably am, but these are the real deal numbers!

Whoops, need to clean the screen, embarrassing!

It definitely wasn't the longest drive of my life, but I was wiped by the end! Hadn't slept very well the night before. I kept waking up with the thought "Start cleaning and let's get going, or else you will be late." What the heck did I think I was going to be late for? 

Irrational fears anyone? 

Day One: 435 miles and  a new time zone!

I got to Meridian, ID pretty quickly. The first day and last days are going to be the shortest drives of the trip, which is just as good. Once I got settled into the hotel I changed into some work out clothes and intended to run the 2.5 miles to the local crossfit gym. Of course it couldn't be that easy -- disaster #1 -- I couldn't find my phone anywhere. After 5-6 back and forth trips between the car and the room I finally found it in the most logical place. On the roof of the car. Thank goodness it was still there!! I had just enough time to drive to the gym, introduce myself and dive into the work out.

CrossFit Meridian! They were awesome and so welcoming, thanks guys! 

This was my first time working out at a gym other than CrossFit Pearl District and I was really nervous. As per usual I had nothing to worry about. The owner was very nice and welcoming. After giving me a tour he introduced me to the guy running the 6 o'clock class and I felt ready to join everyone. Their warm up was different than I am used to, 7 minutes of 10 each of 6 different movements (think, air squats, jumping jacks, push-ups, etc).

I was really happy that they lift heavy before the WOD. We did 5-5-5-5-5 Front Squat at 85%. We never did %ages at CFPD, but luckily by one rep max front squat is 105. So I did 5 sets at 85lbs. The coach complimented me on my form and used me several times as an example. How nice is that? Praise is always nice, but in this case it felt especially rewarding. 

My hard-work is paying off!!! Wahooo. 

Oh, you want to know about the WOD too?! I was looking forward to some different programming, but they were doing Fran, one of the standard WOD's that all CrossFit gyms do periodically. I was not looking forward to thrusters or pull-ups, but I put a smile on and faced Fran like a CHAMP. It was my first time attacking it as prescribed! 

For those of you not familiar to CrossFit, the above means you do 21 thrusters then 21 pull-ups,
followed by 15 of each and then 9 of each. The work out is scored by time.
I went real slow -- finishing in 14:11.  Its hard to see but I added my name and time to the end of the list! 

You do the work you get the cred. 

Before I left Jeff warned me I should get used to doing stuff at 65 with the 45lb bar, as not all gyms indulge their ladies with the 35lb bar. Welp, Meridian was one of those gyms where I was forced to use a 45lb bar for the WOD. The grips were so spiky, they poked painfully into my newly healed hands. 

Wishing I had taken Jeff's advice. Besides the spiky grip, the 45lb just felt awkwardly large compared
to the sleek 35lb grip I'm used to. I guess I'm just learning the hard way. 

Trying to show how spiky the grips were. My poor hands were not happy with me! 

Ultimately it was a great experience. I am proud of myself for conquering my fears and
entering a foreign gym, completing a WOD I hate at the prescribed weight. Holler!  

So sweaty! Challenging WOD and it was still 95 at 6pm,
gotta get used the heat sometime.

After a shower I was ready for dinner! A quick yelp search led me to Muse Bistro and Wine Bar. Their website was cute and the menu sounded so tasty. I was jonesing for the chicken with veggies. However, when I arrived there was no one there! The front set of double doors were unlocked, but the lights were off and like I said, not a soul in site. Creepy. I did not try the next set of doors, I boogied out of there and reluctantly crossed the street to Applebee's. 

At least the Olympics were on.

The only things resembling a living creature near Muse! 

Idaho treated me to a beautiful sunset. Annoyingly I could get the car turned
around and parked in time to get a good picture. But this came out artsy enough! 

That's all I got for you guys tonight! I have an early day tomorrow and almost a 12 hour drive to Cheyenne, WY. Should be the longest day of the trip, so I need my rest! 

Good night and thanks for reading : ) 

PS

I almost forgot!! I got an email today from a friend from high school. She told me she had checkout out the blog and notice in my Like It Is page (my interpretation of a "My Philosophy" page) that one of the images is a graphic she designed for Run Pretty Far.

Awesome graphic Cassidy designed for Run Pretty Fast.
What a talented woman! 

Obviously I had to check out their online store  and let's just say that as soon as I have an address in Tampa I am going to be ordering some gear!

This looks right up my alley... also looks a little like Cassidy's handwriting.

Phew.

Now that I have given credit where credit is due I will finally crawl my sorry butt into bed.