Category: Health and Wellness

Homemade Lemonade

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

… When life gives you lemons …

At home, we have a lemon, lime, and an orange tree in our backyard, pressed up against the fence. During the big storms, my mom ties the trunk of the tree to the fence to prevent the weight of the fruit from falling the tree. The lemon tree is one of the most prolific trees I have ever encountered. When my mom came up for tea over the weekend, she brought me another bag of lemons.

When life gives you lemons, I actually know a really good lemonade recipe. More importantly, it’s sometimes necessary to sit on a porch with a friend, drink a long, tall glass of lemonade, and enjoy yourself.

Homemade lemonade and candied lemon zest: 15 minutes (plus time to cool). 

  • Start with eight beautiful lemons. Wash the outsides well. Squeeze the juice of all eight lemons, set aside.
  • Cut the rinds of two lemons into small, 2″ pieces.
  • Combine 2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of water, and lemon rinds in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Stir and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

 

 

  • Remove the syrup from the stove. Cool the syrup. Strain the syrup from the lemon rinds.

For lemonade: Stir equal parts syrup together with lemon juice.  For a pitcher, add 1/2 cup each, to taste; then fill with water and stir. For a single glass, add 2 tablespoons of syrup and lemon to a glass of ice water.

For lemon candies: spread the candied rinds on a platter (a plastic cutting board works well, or a bowl. Toss with sugar; let cool. (If you have a sweet tooth, these are like candy!)

Enjoy!

Turn upside down, look again: a philosophy of handstands.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

How many times do you flip upside down and look at the world from a different perspective?

Literally – how often do you turn upside down?

Short of taking a thrill ride at an adventure-park, or bending over to pick up the trash, most people rarely turn upside down on a regular basis. The closest we might get to a 180-degree turn is propping our feet up on the coffee table or when we lie down in bed at night to go do sleep.

I think handstands should be done every day.

Handstands–that delicious reversal of direction whereby your head is close to the ground and your feet go flying in the air–are marvelous.  They are also very important. Here are ten untested reasons why handstands are brilliant – and why you should take the time to turn upside down once or twice today.

In work, in life, and in play: sometimes you just have to turn upside-down.

Reason #1. They are fun. This alone is the probably greatest reason for doing anything, ever. Follow your fun. Do something fun once a day, at least. I love handstands. They are spectacularly awesome. I try to do them everyday.

Reason #2. Turning upside down lets you look at the world from a new perspective. We always challenge each other to think outside the box, to be creative and get a fresh perspective, and to craft new opinions by putting existing ideas together in unusual ways. At my job as a designer, we spent a lot of time critically analyzing what works, what doesn’t, and how to improve the product by thinking about things in a new way.  This is a simple way to do something right away that lets you see the world in a new way.

Reason #3. It’s good for blood flow and breathing. Imagine your feet, suffering from all of that gravity working against you. How many times do you get off your feet? When you do a handstand, you switch gravity in your body.  You turn everything in your body upside-down, putting pressure on the opposing side of your organs and lungs. The breath deep in your lungs expands and releases air better. Anything trapped down in the bottom of those lungs (imagine some of that dirty, dank, filthy city air trapped in your lungs…) can fall down and shake it’s way out of your lung space.

Reason #4.  It helps with all the other circulation systems. Your lymphatic system is probably cheering you on.  While your blood circulation deliveries all of those marvelous nutrients to the reaches of your body, your lymphatic system (the waste system) picks up all of the debris and garbage and filters it out of your muscles and into the different excretion systems of the body. The lymphatic system is much like the circulation system–just in reverse. And turning upside down promotes both blood flow, as well as lymphatic flow.

While we’re on the topic of biology, let’s talk about all those squishy organs stacked in your midsection. Your gut is a big pile of cool organs: your liver, pancreas, stomach, intestines, and other stuff, all packed inside you like sardines in a can. Your stomach mainly rests on top of those organs, which in turn sit on top of your  intestines. Ever seen a diagram of the human body? Well, when you flip upside down, you reverse all the pressures on your insides. (Take that, stomach!)

Image from life, stories & memories.

Reason #5. It makes you happier. Screw the oxygen bank–the best way to get a rush of happiness is to deliver a massive increase in blood flow to the head.  Oxygen = euphoria.

Reason #6. It makes you giggle. You play when you do handstands. It’s not like running or swimming, which are perhaps more arduous, linear tasks that feel like you’re working to deliver forward motion for a continuous amount of time.  Handstands you can just do. And you can do them almost anywhere. (Trick: If you want to do a handstand, but you’re nervous about it – find a place against a wall to do them. )

Reason #7. It’s like exercise, but it’s not. It’s wayyy more fun. Although after trying to do about 10-15 handstands, you’ll probably be very tired. There are a lot of ways to be healthier, and some of them can be simple and fun.

In fact, you can do many different varieties of handstands.  There are headstands, elbow and forearm stands, one-handed handstands, splits, and handstands against the wall.

Image from http://www.yogachrissy.com

Reason #8.  It reveals how completely uncoordinated (or coordinated) we are. Sometimes, coordination is nearly impossible. And you fall. And it’s okay. Handstands are somewhat tricky, and it you might need a spotter or a wall to help you out.  But the fun fact about being uncoordinated? It makes you giggle (so refer back to #6). And you’ve got to learn by doing. Thinking about it won’t get you anywhere.

Reason #9. You get to meet people along the way. In San Francisco a few weeks ago, my flight was delayed for two hours.  Antsy and with nowhere to go, my brother and I started a handstand competition in the airport, up against one of the long walls in the alleyway. Before we knew it, we had several other people lined up for the count – including a precocious 6 year old who out-handstand-ed all of us (and proceeded to do a few break-dancing tricks, too). Handstands reveal your inner play and gives you something fun to do while waiting.

Reason #10. You don’t need anything but yourself to do it. You can do them anywhere. Like I said, handstands are awesome.

So, where are you right now? Do a handstand in your office. I dare you to. Too afraid? Go outside (brr, winter cold!) and try one in the snow or the chilly wind. Laugh a little bit. Take yourself less seriously. It’s a day for fun. And I guarantee you’ll work just as hard even while also doing handstands once in a while.

How to eat better (how I try to stay healthy no matter how busy)

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I got an interesting email from a friend currently going through an arduous graduate program. Almost as an afterthought, he said, I have a question for you: How do you eat? How do you stay healthy, especially when you’re only cooking for just yourself? How do you make time to eat well when you are so busy? It’s a great question, and something I never thought to write about on my blog. It’s a little off topic, but certainly a good question, so I’ll try to answer it.  Planning food – and staying healthy – can be kind of a pain, especially when half the time my mind is telling me I’d rather be doing something else.  I find keeping my energy up is really important, so I need to make sure I have lots of green stuff and protein in my life – but I don’t like thinking about what to eat or when to eat. I also hate spending ridiculous amounts of money to eat well. So here’s what I’ve learned.

How do you eat? Do you eat well? Do you feel good? Half of the battle in exercise and fitness is eating well. It’s also imperative for start-up entrepreneurs, people new to the working world, and anyone trying to do too many things. Eating well helps you work well. The themes that run through this – and a lot of what I do to stay healthy – are as follows:  be efficient, set up systems, pay attention to what works (and repeat accordingly), and spend a little time planning ahead.

Breakfast.

  • I have to eat within 30 minutes of getting up in the morning. Depending on if I work out or not, I need to eat either a small (150-200 calorie) carb breakfast (before swimming), or a larger (500-800 calorie) protein breakfast (after swimming or a normal day).  If I don’t eat in the morning, I’m hosed for the rest of the day.
  • I like to take a pack of eggs and hard boil them (and peel them first!) and keep them around as a source of protein. I also buy in bulk Zone bars and Luna bars and keep a box of each in my car. Usually I’ll eat one on my way to the pool or to the track. If I’m not hungry, I don’t eat before working out, as long as the workout is less than an hour. I also really like Odwalla’s superfood (green juice blend) and the Odwalla protein superfood smoothies. (Although you can make your own with Miracle Greens and Orange Juice as well).
  • Other favorites for breakfast (I eat strangely in this department): Spinach. (Seriously, try it, and let me know how you feel – I feel amazing after eating spinach). Sometimes I stop in the store and grab a bag of spinach and a pepper and apple and eat them for breakfast. I also enjoy almonds, peanut butter, and cheese (not together – separately). Oh, cottage cheese or oatmeal is also good.
  • The goal for me is to eat something that fills me up for a while so I don’t think about eating again so quickly. If I eat plain carbs at 6, I want to eat again at 8, 10, 11, and 12 – and most of my day is spent trying to figure out what to eat next.  If I eat almonds, protein (from cottage cheese or oatmeal or eggs), I can usually last until 11 until I’m hungry again.

Lunch.

I could save more money by being better in this area, but I’ve settled for what works in reality: I rarely pack my lunch. I couldn’t name a day in the past several months that I actually got up early enough and made a sandwich and took it to work. It’s just not on my mind late at night before going to bed, and not something I think about at 5 in the morning when I often wake up.  It’s also not a habit I’m particularly in need of changing – I don’t like doing it. With the exception of a cooking day on the weekend or one weeknight, I don’t cook that much at night and I’m awful at packing lunches. Here’s what I do instead:

  • Buy premade, but healthy. Instead of trying to keep my fridge stocked (it always goes bad because I end up not making my lunch), I go to Trader Joes’ and pick up pre-made salads (delicious!) or pre-made sandwiches – about a week’s worth. The cost per lunch is usually around $3 or $4.  The trade off is this: If I forget to buy lunches in advance, then the only lunch options by my work are in the $10 range and up. If I were to make my lunch, which I don’t, so it’s not really even a comparison, I would hypothetically save a bit more.  However,  the amount that I “would” save making a lunch is disproportionate to the amount that I spend if I forget my lunch on just one day, so the mid-range is actually the most effective long-term option in reality.
  • Buy the goods but don’t make it yet. I also like to buy sandwich components – tomatoes, avocados, turkey meats, cheeses – and keep those in the fridge at my work. (If you don’t have a fridge nearby where you work or eat, buy a small one, or find a cooler – it expands the options of fresh food immensely). I also like buying vegetables and pre-cooked beans and grains as well – steamed lentils, beats, green beans, carrots and hummus, celery sticks, and apples are all yummy. I keep a variety of those in the fridge at all times.

Dinners + Meals.

Contrary to much of what this post seems to indicate, I do like cooking. I just don’t like doing it every day – in my mind, there’s no need to.  So I like to set aside a few hours to open up cookbooks, try a few recipes, and play music. Sometimes I hop on the phone and call my parents while the food is simmering, or I read a book in the sunshine while something is brewing, baking, or cooking. I love these days. Cooking is much more fun when I get to do it slowly, or do it with friends, and I really enjoy doing it on the weekends (not so much during the week, though). When I do love to cook, here’s what I do: 

  • Cooking days. Sundays, when I’m home, are often cooking days. I’ll cook 4 or 5 different options for meals, each for 2 or 3 people. Nothing too complicated, but I use all the space on the stove and take a few hours to cook. I might make a chicken bake dish, a loaf of bread, a pasta dish, possibly a big heavy pot of soup, and two or three different vegetable ideas (brussel sprouts with bacon or vegetable stir fry being a current favorite). Inevitably I’ll make brownies and cookies, too. This effort of cooking – several main meals – fills up a whole bunch of tupperwares for dinners during the week and lunches that I take to work with me (correction on above, when I cook, I bring a bag full of 5 lunches with me to work on Monday mornings to last the week).
  • Pre-made Food. Okay, Tuesdays and Wednesdays aren’t usually that exciting. I buy pre-made for dinner occasionally. There are a lot of quick meals that are nearly pre-made (frozen pizzas, etc). The two things to watch out for are the Saturated Fat content (read: any dough or breaded anything) and the salt (sodium) content. For example, those Trader Joes’ pizzas are dang good but pack a whopping 900mg of sodium in each of their mini-personal pizzas. This is Not Good For You. My favorite pre-made dinners are frozen burritos, potstickers, sushi, spring rolls, and casear salads.  
  • Potlucks and Friend Dinners. I love potlucks. While I don’t always enjoy cooking for one person, I LOVE cooking for lots of people. So I invite friends over to cook together – or I head over to someone else’s house for a potluck. Potluck dinners don’t need to be complicated – my friends will show up with a bottle of wine and some cheese  – and I’ll throw some marinated chicken and rice on the stove and call it a night.
  • Bonus: Places for Inspiration. Some of my friends’ food blogs are GREAT starts for inspiration. Genevieve writes a blog “Tastes and Tales” and Trucy keeps a log of great food around the city: Forrked.
  • Eating out. This is inevitable. I do it a lot. I set a little system and try not to do it more than twice a week for both health – and money – reasons. Some great tips for eating out: Share. Don’t get appetizers. Watch or hold the chips and bread. Or – enjoy it and eat reasonably the rest of the week. :)

Snacks.

  • Snacks. So Hi, – I eat a lot, by the way – I like to eat a variety of unusual snacks throughout the day. I don’t like having chips or anything bread-based as a snack, because I’ll snack my way through the entire bag in one sitting. I’ve learned this about myself, and so switched the stuff I have available.  If I’m going to be “mindlessly eating” (great book, by the way), I’ll fill my space with things that I can munch on indefinitely. Here are some good ones:
  • Apples. Carrots. Entire bag of spinach. Celery. Bag of dried plums. Bag of almonds, no salt, just plain roasted.  Pistachios (although the salt balance in these can get to be too much – but the shells make it hard for me to eat too many of them).  Mozzarella string cheese. As a treat, peanut butter or chocolate. I also keep a box of dried oatmeal that i can warm up in the microwave at any time – especially on cold days – plain oatmeal is yummy.
  • CSA or farm delivery. A good way to keep on top of your vegetables and fruits is having a scheduled delivery box from a local CSA.  In San Francisco, there are several options.

Last Thoughts.

Who knew I had so much to say about food?

  • Eat Plain. I don’t mind eating simple foods. For lunch sometimes, I’ll eat just one thing. Like a big bowl of unsugared, unadultered oatmeal. I suppose people might find this boring, but I like it.
  • Build Systems (or Habits). The key to most of these things … is that I really like systems, and I like not thinking about things and just doing them, most of the time. My habits – workouts and eating – are already built, so I don’t consciously think about whether or not I should or shouldn’t be doing something. Instead, I open my food cabinet at work and choose between options I’ve already decided in advance.
  • I don’t like being hungry, so I keep food all over the place. In my car, in my exercise bag, in my purse, in my desk drawers. It’s always hidden, and it’s usually “boring” food (I don’t keep candy in there – well – I can’t. If it’s there, I eat it).  Celery and peanut butter, almonds, carrots and hummus, or some dried fruit.
  • Drink Water. Half the time, being hungry is really being thirsty. I’ve been trained to drink 8 or more glasses of water per day.

Thanks for the question!  Hope that helps. Now, off to eat a bunch of almonds and drink some water … Got any tricks, tips or ideas that you want to share? Any ways that I could improve health-wise? I’d love to hear it! 

Guest Post | Reprint : On silence and the clutter of noise, by Dave Ursillo

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

“Devoid of the clutter of noise, we are nothing more or less than in existence; we are because we are and the universe is because it is. Engulfed in simple silence and nothing, the mind is quiet, the heart is open, and the Soul becomes clairvoyant; this is the bliss of nothingness.”

– May 2010, The Clutter of Noise and the Power of Silence

Sarah’s note: This is one of my favorite posts from Dave Ursillo, a writer and entrepreneur whose essays explore living, potential, and the vibrancy of experience.  To read more of his writing, check out his website, or read the original post here. My thanks to Dave for kindly allowing me to re-print his words here.

The Clutter of Noise and the Power of Silence | by Dave Ursillo

“See how nature–trees, flowers, grass–grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.” ~Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Our lives are cluttered by noise. The noise of life can be beautiful, relaxing and certainly inspiring, like the ballads of song and the sound of happiness embodied in laughter.

But when constant noise becomes the status quo of how we live our lives, moments devoid of audible commotion suddenly become awkward instances of discomfort; when we become addicted to surrounding ourselves with background noise, we lose the uniqueness of moments of quiet that provide us with exceptional clarity, inner balance and present-mindedness.

Engulfed in simple silence and nothing, the Soul within ourselves reemerges and returns us to our purer nature–if only for a moment.

Within these moments of quiet and nothingness, when we abandon and forget everything about who and what we are–our individual sense of the Self, our pasts, the circumstances of our lives in the present moment, and all that we expect and anticipate the future to become–a more pure, honest, and whole form of ourselves reemerges from deep within our souls. It reemerges, rather than emerging for the first time, for this purer side of ourselves resides deeply and hidden at most times, yet it remains an integral and potent component of our human nature.

Seeking Out the Quiet, Amid the Commotion

For human beings in society, the peaceful pace of nature called “silence” often and quickly becomes a discomfort. When constantly surrounded by the noise of everyday life–from the sound of the alarm in the morning, to the car radio, our iPods and MP3 players, music on our computers, to TVs and so much more–the constant stream of noise and sounds becomes the natural state of life. Every waking moment is consumed or accompanied by noise.

Although silence is the natural state of mother nature, for humans in society silence gradually becomes a series of unusual and uncomfortable pauses. Moments of quiet are even considered socially awkward when interacting with friends, family members and acquaintances.

We become so entrenched in noise that we forget what it is like to live, work, even sleep or simply exist in the midst of silence. This is unfortunate because during moments of silence and nothingness, a purer side of ourselves reemerges; in moments of blankness and quiet, and often without so much as realizing it, we embrace the present moment for all of its worth and abandon the common chaos and noise of everyday life. Devoid of the noise of life and “thinking for the sake of thinking,” in silence we regain the peace of mind of living in the moment–the unfamiliarity of living consciously and fully in the present time.

The Power of Silence: Living Fully in the Moment

The power that comes from moments of silence and quiet–those times in nature or alone to ourselves when our minds become blank and free–is that we arrive at a state of mind that allows us to fully live in the moment. Within these rare moments of silence, we are allowed to abandon the confines of our thoughts; the constant stream of consciousness and thinking that begins when we wake and merely pauses when we sleep.

Surrounded by little else than simple silence and nothing, we forget who we are and what we have become. Though led from the past and into today by that which has occurred unto and around us,in silence time loses all meaning. There is only the present moment. Within silence and nothingness, there is only the wind that rushes across the plains, nothing but the rush of waves sweeping the shores.

Devoid of the clutter of noise, we are nothing more or less than in existence; we are because we are and the universe is because it is. Engulfed in simple silence and nothing, the mind is quiet, the heart is open, and the Soul becomes clairvoyant; this is the bliss of nothingness. The gift is not given, for it simply is. The moment cannot be captured, for it simply is. The power of silence is opening ourselves to the present moment; a fleeting instance in time that we oft never realize; a fragment of our lives wherein the world becomes perfectly peaceful amid the quiet of nothingness.

More than Just Dreaming: Actually DO-ing. (And a short video: hello!)

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Dreams are things that we either unabashedly work towards — or we keep them close to our hearts, unwilling to chase them because they might not come true.

God, I’m terrified of publishing this.

I have a big confession to make.

I love the show Survivor. I would go on the show in a heartbeat.  This year, in my year-list of goals and aspirations, one of the things on my list was an insatiable desire to be on the show Survivor. Yup, the television show.

Survivor? Being on a show that blends teamwork, psychology, athletic feats, exploration, camping, and a little bit of television? Color that AWESOME.

To be fair: I don’t think I stand much of a shot of actually getting ON the show. But I wanted to apply, nonetheless.

Is it pragmatic? Is it realistic? Is it possible?

I’m not really sure.

Pragmatism and realism should be thrown out the window when you begin dreaming of anything you want to do.  If we were to ask, “does it make sense?” The answer would be: Probably not. But I caught myself – more than once – sitting on the couch and watching the team battles, realizing full well that I was sitting on the couch stupidly doing NOTHING about this inkling of a dream that I had.  And so, this past winter, I made a vow to myself that I would apply and at least TRY to be on the show. Reserving all judgment, I would spend a few days putting together an application.

A great mentor of mine says, “If you don’t apply, the answer is already No.”

That is,  if you don’t put yourself in the running, you’ve already taken yourself out of consideration. This is really important to note: If you apply 10 times and you get 10 rejections, this is NOT the same thing as never applying in the first place. After each attempt, you learn, you grow, you get better. Also, the chances are that you’ll get 9 rejections and then ultimately get a positive response. Work for it.

So I put together a video, much to the help of some great friends and a whirlwind day on a motorcycle in San Francisco. And here it is, a testament to my zany quest to check off my goals and make things happen.

So put together a video application to be on Survivor.

This is part of a larger dream of mine to become a public speaker and teach people – audiences – about motivation, inspiration, and the psychology behind behavior and business decisions. To teach and speak about the intersection of business, design, and building great projects (big or small) is a huge dream of mine.  Yes, I’ll admit it: I sometimes like public speaking. Sure, it makes me nervous. Yes, I’m more introverted than extroverted and it completely exhausts me. Heck, it gives me stomach quivers and my palms get sweaty and I have sharp pangs of self-doubt. My voice gets shaky and I’ve bombed terribly before.

But I keep getting up. Something about it draws me back. I really like explaining things to people and I like doing difficult things and getting better at them.

So I put together an hold-nothing-back video for the sake of applying for the show.

The video is something a bit more arrogant than I like to be, but, well, I want to be on Survivor.

And as for the outcome of the video? Well, I probably won’t be on Survivor, after all. In fact, the season I applied for (Survivor: Redemption Island) is already in the midst of airing, and guess what – I’m not on the show.  My guess is that they don’t need another blond-ish gal from California.  But each time I get up, each time I practice, each time I rehearse: I get a little bit better. And better. And hopefully one day, I’ll be able to speak confidently in front of more people, in front of crowds, and teach whatever accumulated knowledge I have to people who are keen on learning. It might not be on Survivor. It might be somewhere else.

But for now, it’s me, the internet, and my short (and not very good) video audition for the show Survivor.

For many of you I’ve never met, consider this a hello across the internet.

I am still terrified to publish this.

Enjoy.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Jh8k4qjBM

 

 

2010 defining moment: running.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I run.

This year, I ran a lot. Ran for sheer joy, out of exhaustion, to escape my work life, to find new places, to learn, and to start or end my day. I ran to explore, to test my capabilities, to challenge my mind, and most often, just to be.

To simply be.

The defining moment of this year is not a single moment per se, but a series of moments laced together, all connected by a simple act and a pair of shoes lined up at my bedroom door, waiting for me each day.

Running.

It took a long time for me to realize that I was a runner. It took a lot of just running for me to acknowledge that I was a runner – 2 years’ worth of running, in fact.

Now I can’t imagine myself without running.

Just the act of stepping on the earth really lets you feel it, get to know it better. They say that the closer you are to the ground, the more connected you are to the earth. (Perhaps this is another reason why I love handstands and headstands so much…) But in the absense of inversion, running lets you feel the earth.

So many days I just closed my books and put up this sign:

Gone running.

*** *** ***

Tuesday, March 3, 2010. San Mateo.

My toes, covered loosely in my weathered sauconys, expand to grip the pavement below, softly splaying outwards as the impact rolls across the ball of my foot.  The thud rolls through my heal, knee and leg, bending and releasing in an evolutionary precision designed before my simple body walked this earth.

The vernacular ‘pounding the pavement’ sounds heavy, awkward, cumbersome. I’m not so light as to float, nor am I so quick as to scamper like a four-minute miler, but I move. I move efficiently, quickly, steadily.

Running rights the world, putting it in line with my breath, my step, and my feeling.

3 miles.

*** *** ***

Saturday, March 20, 2010. Santa Cruz

What the weather is, I am. When it rains, I run, and the dampness only bothers me until I’m completely soaked, and then it’s just me, the earth, and the running. If I wear the cotton pants, the weight of the water will drag my pant legs downwards and water will slosh in and out of my shoes. So instead, next time, I wear shorts. If it’s cold, I wear the nicer pants – the pants I bought for too much money at yet another store filled with products, products from all over the world, products that no body really needs and I feel guilty for buying them.

But I like them. They are definitely comfortable.

When I think too hard, the relentless drumbeat of my footstep brings my brain back in synch with my body, balancing my thoughts with my movements, all in the present.

5 miles.

*** *** ***

Saturday, April 3, 2010. Lake San Antonio.

Wildflower Training Weekend, San Francisco Triathlon Club. My first 25 mile bike ride. Long, wobbly legs after the hilly bike ride and we’re off, off running through the campground on jello-feet, thudding awkwardly along. I think I understand why they call this a “brick.”

7 miles.

*** *** ***

Tuesday, May 11, 2010. San Francisco.

Track. The weekly circular jogging group – learning how to train faster, quicker, and add speed. My first mile for time: 6:59. Track relays.

5 miles.

*** *** ***

Saturday, June 3, 2010. Pacifica.

Trail Run, Pacifica. 6 miles.

Too fast, too fast! The hills at the end were brutal.

6 miles.

*** *** ***

Sunday, July 11, 2010. Sausalito.

The world cup finale blares on the television. My roommates and I are too excited for worlds. We squeal, jump, and hold our breath for a heart-agonizing 2 hours.

I run off the steam. I run, imagining the soccer players and hearing the vuvuzelas over again in my mind, the buzz drowned out only by the wonderful world cup anthem that is my theme song for nearly the entire summer. I run, imagining the work effort and the dedication of each of the players to the craft of running, and I run, for the simple joy and freedom that is running. I don’t want to stop running.

8 miles.

*** *** ***

Sunday, July 25, 2010, San Francisco. Half Marathon.

I’m up early – very early, 3:30AM, driving across the Golden Gate Bridge from the North, heading into the city with 20,000 other people to participate in the San Francisco Marathon. I’m nervous. It’s my first half marathon. I’ve had 2 cups of water and carry a small amount of food with me. I have an ipod of music prepped for 2.5 hours. My goal is to finish under 2:15, but I’ve never run a half marathon before and I’m going to be happy with whatever comes from my body. I feel prepared. I stretch.

I hate being thirsty, so I carry my water bottle with me. At the last minute, I ditch my sweater and give it to my friend at the starting line. 5:30 AM and the first heat takes off. 6:02 AM and my wave is off.

I run, steadily, telling myself to take it easy. (It’s hard – I’m really excited, and I’m a sprinter by training from 20 years of swimming). I relax into a pace that doesn’t feel too hard and I look at my splits – 9:30’s for the first 3 miles. Not too bad. I settle into a pace and strike up a conversation with someone next to me. We chat for a mile. 4 miles. I work into it – it feels great. I pick up the pace a bit, approaching the bridge. I still feel good.

Somewhere between miles 5 and 8 I miss a mile marker and I don’t track my splits very well. As I’m crossing the bridge back towards the city, I see the mile 9 sign. I check the watch.  1:31. I do some quick math – 9 minute splits? I realize that with a little bit more effort, I can nudge myself under the 2 hour mark. I pick up the pace again. 8:30 for the next mile. AWESOME. Mile 11, 8:45 minutes. Heading into some hills. The last 2 miles are an absolute struggle – my body starts to cramp up, and the training runs I remember doing were all shorter than this distance.

Finish time. 1:57:30. I did it.

Half Marathon.

 

A (San Francisco) Bay Swim

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

The other week, while walking the hills of Sausalito with my Aunt and Uncle, I asked my Uncle what he would say to his twenty-five year-old self if he could go back and give himself any piece of advice. Without skipping a beat, he said:

Do it while you can.

Don’t wait for the fun stuff, he said. Don’t wait or put off anything that you “might want to do someday.” The someday is now. You’re only young once, and most opportunities are only put in front of you once. This, from a guy who ran a 100-mile race and then proposed to my Aunt. From an original Centipede in the Bay-to-Breakers challenge. From an ultra-runner before ultra-running was cool.

I’ve been taking my Uncle’s advice a lot lately – from a triathlon to a half marathon to a whole bunch of open water swimming – and I find the more I do, the more excited I get about life. I don’t have time to watch much TV. I’m pretty tired by the end of each day – but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Water (and swimming!) are near and dear to my heart. I wanted to share with you some of the images and stories from our latest adventure – a 9-mile trans-bay relay swim across the San Francisco Bay. For readers not from the Bay Area, we started at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and swam across the Bay, past Alcatraz, past Treasure Island, and on over to the Emeryville Marina.

The  swim across the bay: the route

We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful morning of swimming out on the Bay. The weather predicted rain, but other than a short drizzle early in the morning at 5am, the rain let up and the wind stopped for the 3.5 hours we were out in the water swimming.  I drove my car down the 101 across the Golden Gate to pick up my teammates – stopping in various places in the city along the way, coalescing a group of people into one car. We were a pile of wetsuits and boots and mittens and parkas and gloves – just the normal fair for people about to jump into 60-degree ocean water.

Our team converged at the dock of Pier 39, near Fisherman’s Wharf. At 6am on a Sunday morning, the wharf is dead silent, with no tourists or people in sight. We met our boat captain at the dock, loaded up onto the boat, and took off for the Golden Gate Bridge. We left the docks at 6:50 am, and the sunrise was at 6:55am. As we turned around and readied our sleepy-eyes for the swim, we saw an unbelievable sunrise peering up at us over the Bay Bridge.

The beautiful morning sunrise over the Bay Bridge


Looking back at the San Francisco city skyline.


Beautiful open water conditions.

The swim started at 7:30am – with some minor delays from a sailboat that couldn’t catch wind, and therefore, was late to the start. There were 7 teams from around the Bay Area, with 2 individuals embarking on solo swims (for the entire 9 miles!).  At the start, my mom, my brother and sister, and my aunt and uncle (up early on another walk!) were out, cheering for our team.  After the horn started and we sent the first swimmer off, our team swam the relay in 20-minute segments, with a new swimmer jumping off the front end of the boat at the change, and the previous swimmer grabbing alongside the boat and getting hauled back up.

The start of the swim – taking off!  I’m the tiny yellow dot on the right-hand side.

The swim took us a total of 3 hours and ten minutes. My teammates were phenomenal, wonderful people to swim with. If there’s something I love, it’s being around people who love what they are doing – and my teammates love swimming.  We didn’t all know each other at the start of the race, but by the end of the 3.5 hour boat ride adventure together, we definitely shared a lot of great laughs and stories.

Nearing the end of the finish, the four of us jumped off the boat and swam into the finish line together.  One trans-bay swim, completed.  As a team, we raised $1200 for the BayKeeper, a local San Francisco organization that works to keep the bay clean.  We also had a lot of fun :)

Almost at the finish line!

 

My amazing teammates – members of the San Francisco Triathlon Club

Don’t wait for tomorrow if you can do it today. Embrace every adventure. In the words of my Uncle:

Do it while you can.

 

Lessons from … food poisoning?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

If posts have been a little bit scarce lately, it’s because I came down with a terrible bout of food poisoning (well, actually DYSENTERY, which is worse than food poisoning, and definitely much more disgusting).  I’ve since been recovering (and catching up) on what now seem like very very long to-do lists and tasks. If you don’t know what dysentery is, perhaps do a google search. It’s also known colloquially as “traveler’s diarrhea” — which, as I can now personally attest — is a pretty nasty predicament to find yourself in.

I’m all for finding lessons and learning from the things we go through in life. But this might be a stretch: what could possibly be the lesson in a five-day stint of horrible, awful, and quite literally gut-wrenching dysentery? On the worst of days, I felt like shouting, Are you THERE God? ‘Cause it’s ME, SARAH. And I can’t seem to keep any food or water in my system, thankyouverymuch.

To prove (to myself, perhaps) that even the worst days are filled with life lessons and things learned, here’s a short list of the best and most inspiring notes from what ended up being a very immobile five days. I’m all for finding the positives. REALLY. There are positives in EVERYTHING.*

Rule number one: It can always get worse. What started out as a mild temperature and body aches (small flu? I thought, Oh, it will just be better in a day or two), quickly escalated into physical body shakes, cramping in my extremities, painful muscle contractions, a horrendous temperature, and the worst bout of “food poisoning” and nasty bacterial infection that I’ve ever had. Sometimes you really DO get sick.

Don’t wait too long to find out what’s wrong. I don’t typically like to take sick days or time off of work unless I’m really sick, and when I first felt bad, I thought I could manage by taking one day off to rest up and get better quickly. I even had my sickness planned out: In my mind, I gave it 24 hours – 48 hours to rest and figured I’d be back up on my feet within two days. Unfortunately, I took a day off and promptly slept for 10 very fitful hours. I probably should have camped out right next to the bathroom, because by the time night rolled in, I was spending more time in the bathroom than anywhere else. And yet I didn’t go to the doctor for another 12 hours. With hindsight (there’s your first bad pun), that was a BAD CALL.

Sometimes you have to let people help you. The next morning, day #2, I woke up feeling like a semi-truck had rolled up on top of me. It hurt to wiggle my toes or lift up my arms. My first thought to myself was “What is WRONG with me?” I picked up my car keys and padded to my car in my pajamas in a fever-induced stupor. My roommate leaned out of the second story window, took one look at me, and said “Holy shit, girl: are you OK?”  When I got behind the driver’s seat, I realized that I couldn’t get on the freeway because my body wasn’t capable of driving faster than 12 miles per hour, hunched over behind the steering wheel. That, and I was afraid that if I went more than 10 minutes without a bathroom, I would make a very nasty problem inside my brand new car.

I flipped a u-turn after going a block (it was so hard) and drove (crawled) back up the hill to my house, got out of my car and found my way to my front door. Somehow in the time between leaving the house to try to find a doctor, and not making it there on my own, my temperature had gone up from 101 degrees to 102 degrees. Boy, was I hot. And boy, was it painful to move.

Once inside the house, I sat down on the floor inside the front door (so perhaps I was not technically “inside” the house, but just propped up in the doorway) and I stared at the hallway for a while. Some time passed. I don’t really have clear memories of these moments. I figured that I needed to see a doctor, but it seemed like an insurmountable task. The stairs – devil stairs! – looked like a cross between Mount Everest and some other difficult mountain that I was too fuzzy-headed to picture. Damn stairs. I pulled myself up off the floor and climbed up the stairs to find a roommate. By the time I reached the top, I was dripping in sweat: sweat on the forehead, sweat in my armpits, sweat in every crack on my body. Gross.

I couldn’t find my roommate. I wanted to cry. I climbed all the way up the stairs, and nearly suffered a heart attack from my extraordinary exertion, for that? Thankfully – very thankfully – my second roommate was home and took one look at me and picked up his car keys to drive me to the hospital. I think I mumbled something about “wouldyoutakemetothedoctor…icantgetthereonmyown” and he drove me the 5 miles down to hospital nearby.

I’m not sure how I would have done that on my own, because by the time I got to the doctor’s, they measured my temperature at 103.5 and my dehydration levels as dangerous, and all I remember is falling asleep on the warm patient bed with nearly no clothes on and having them stick me with needles to get fluids back into my body. (Again: many thanks to my roommates for helping me out so readily.) LESSON LEARNED: We cannot do it on our own. Sometimes we really need to lean on other people for help. And I am exceptionally grateful for the help lent.

Sometimes things are beyond your control, and you gotta just let it happen. We don’t PLAN on getting sick. I don’t chart out my weekly calendar and circle a few days and say, You know what? I think I’ll make it harder on myself by getting sick on Wednesday and Thursday, and pile up a lot of work for the weekend. But life doesn’t go according to my calendar, and if it did, well, you know it would be pretty boring. Sometimes, I have absolutely no control over my schedule – or, for that matter, my bodily functions – but that’s probably a bit of an over-share.

If it hurts, it doesn’t mean it’s good for you. A lot of times I like to remind myself that difficult/frustrating/hard/challenging things are good for me. These dreadful tasks “build character,” as Bill Watterson always says in Calvin & Hobbes (yeah, and the world used to be in black and white). Character, Schmarachter. Sometimes, if it hurts, it doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Some things are truly bad, and you ought to do your best to figure out what’s wrong and get on with your life. In the literal and the figurative sense, I went through a huge cleanse in a matter of a few days. Every possible thing was eliminated from my body, and my world stopped for a moment: I couldn’t work, think, move, breathe, exercise, or plan. The only thing I could do was sleep, sleep, and, well, you know, that other thing: go to the bathroom.

Sometimes “tomorrow” is the only thing you’re capable of. There are a few times in our lives when “tomorrow” is the only thing you can respond when faced with tasks at hand. And, sometimes, it’s okay to wipe clean (bad pun again – sorry)  the calendar and do nothing for a day. Sometimes, it’s the only thing you’re capable of. Sometimes the nicest things we can do for ourselves is breathe, put the to-do list aside, and let tomorrow be tomorrow.

Given my amazing inability to do anything, when I started to feel microscopically better on day #3, I then had to figure out how to pick one – and only one thing – to do for the day. The first day’s task was quite exhausting: what movie will I watch on television? (Turns out it didn’t matter because I was too exhausted to actually watch the television).  All joking aside, I learned a very important lesson: When you aren’t able to get everything done: you have to pick. If you just could do only one thing a day, what would it be? What would you let slip to the wayside? Which ONE dream is your most important, fantastic, amazing goal? I have recently been making the mistake of saying yes to too many things, and I was unable to prioritize which projects and tasks are truly important, and which ones were busy work or can be delegated, eliminated, or postponed from my current workload.  Under extreme circumstances, when you can only choose to do one – or maybe two things – how would you spend your time?

In a related vein: it’s okay to say no – especially when you’re not well. I learned a huge lesson about myself — and my inability to say “no,” even during times of duress. I have an exceptional desire to perform well and to show my bosses and managers that I can do a good job – sometimes to the point of making bad decisions for my personal and professional well-being.  It’s hard to set boundaries and limits, and I became poignantly aware of how ridiculous I was being when I found it hard to say “no” to work, even while lying in bed, too sick to move! At some point, it’s OKAY to say NO and to give yourself time to rest. Trust that your peers and your fellow professionals will help you out during sick times. They will. Just as you would help them out when they are sick. Note to self: it’s okay to let someone else do the work sometimes.

Sleep is your best defense mechanism. Sleep can make everything better. I didn’t realize it was possible for a human body to sleep more than 20 hours a day, but I learned, it’s possible. Dehydration can be debilatating: and it can take a few days to get your body back up to speed.

Sometimes life only gives you 10 seconds of notice. Dysentery, if you’re not familiar with the term, is probably one of the more awful things that can happen to a human body. Your body makes way to eliminate everything (I mean everything) from your insides, and it does so with NO NOTICE. If you have to go to the bathroom, RUN, SISTER, RUN.  You just might not make it. On the upside, how well can you deal with sudden changes? How quickly can you adapt? AND, if you DON’T MAKE IT …. well, that’s a funny story. But I’m getting off-topic again.

You might still have to make critical decisions, even when you’re unwell. Sometimes we wish that all of our obligations and responsibilities would disappear and go away. Unfortunately, as you gain experience, expertise, and responsibility – in professional work, in your freelance positions, or in other arenas; you may find it difficult to bow out of responsibilities that you would like to just hide from.  It is still your obligation to crawl out of bed, open up your email accounts, and put a “sick response” on your vacation responder. When you can, email a short note letting people know your status (although perhaps not too much detail).  Here are a few tips for helping your brain during it’s excessively hazy-fuzzy state:

  • Stick to the facts. Don’t try to explain or elaborate or write well when you’re physically incapable of forming coherent sentences.
  • Pass the buck if and whenever you can: If there are people you can call on to help you out, call them. Give yourself space to get well.
  • Keep it Simple, Stupid: This rule (KISS) works for a lot of things. Keep it simple, if you can.
  • The ultimate test question: What would you do if you were working for yourself? If you have to make a professional judgment call, even when unwell: it helps to ask yourself what you would do if you were working for yourself. Sometimes it’s easy to shift the blame to your project managers or interim bosses, but that’s not always the best call. In this situation, I still had to find a way to get a few projects done for the most critical of deadlines. Not an easy task, but the right judgment call.

And sometimes you look like shit, and it doesn’t matter. AT. ALL. I’m glad that there were no cameras around. Because I’m sure I looked like a hot mess of a disaster.

And lastly: things are always better when you can laugh about it. I heard a lot of *terrible* jokes the past few days, and I’m convinced that humor is sometimes the best way to get through tough times. I couldn’t physically laugh the first few days (hurt. too. much), but now I’m gladly partaking in a few belly laughs. And with that, I’ll leave you with a few good one-liners:

Have a good trip? “Cause you must be WIPED.
Isn’t it nice to have all that BEHIND you?
Must be nice to have such a good CLEANSE.
How are you holding up? ‘Cause you sound like you’re thoroughly DRAINED.

Bada-bing, bada-boom. Hope you’re groaning with me. More posts to come soon. *BARE* with me as I catch up on my life. :)

* All humor aside, there ARE several other positives that I am very grateful for: I am very thankful for having health insurance, for local hospitals, and for the ease of rehydration through IV therapy. I am SUPREMELY grateful for the marvels of modern medicine, one of which is the wonders of antibiotics. Without antibiotics and rehydration capabilities, most people die from dysentery. I am, without a doubt, SO grateful to live in a country where all of this is available. I am, of course, cognizant that my episode was a “mild” experience compared to the experiences of many who don’t have access to the health care that I have.