runventure

Mountain Pavement

The title of being a “runner” is an interesting beast…and it usually comes with a qualitative adjective of some sort. In a way that makes sense, there are a lot of aspects to running. In other ways I find this silly. If you run, you’re a runner. Period. Of course, everyone has their own perception of what is required to become a runner and therefore want to be identified accurately. Okay, fine. But what about those of us who are a little mash-up of everything? Do we really need the adjective to justify our pace, goals or endurance? Eh. I hope not.
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runventure

#GameOnPGH — My Marathon Game Plan

Soo…last week I went on a tangent about who I am as a runner vs who I sometimes pretend to be. I’m still sticking with that “running for fun” mentality but in the name surviving the Pittsburgh Marathon I’ve decided to pull together something that resembles a training plan. Since this past weekend was the official kickoff of #GameOnPGH in Pittsburgh it only seems appropriate that I cobbled together my training with Monday being “Day 1” for me here in Colorado.
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travel thoughts

Reality Czech: A Rural Workaway Experience

When I decided I needed to put my “tourist card” to use for the last few weeks I had in Europe I started looking into Workaway opportunities in a variety of countries. A few days after I started my search I had myself set up with a Workaway host in rural eastern Czech where I’d be helping out on a small homestead. I wasn’t sure of all the details and didn’t ask a ton of questions — I think the overwhelmingly positive experience I had with Chalet Martin had me dropping my guard a bit. Luckily it all worked out great…here is the full story, as I wrote it with pen + paper in my bunk in my downtime during my stay at David + Anna’s small farm.
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travel thoughts

Vienna: City of Stone

On my flight into Vienna, Austria I mentally prepared myself for another tourist filled city, just in case. Of course I was seriously hoping Vienna would feel a lot more like Zurich than Zermatt but I figured if I kept my expectations in check I’d be able to avoid the crushing frustration that came with my arrival at Zermatt. In the end, all that preparation was for naught…I almost immediately fell in love with Vienna. Yea, love. My infatuation for Vienna even put Zurich in second place.
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runventure

My Version of Running

When it comes to running I like to float around this lazy river of denial, pretending I have the burning desire to become a type of runner I have never been…a dedicated run-nerd who loves speed work and is motivated by the numbers Strava spits out at me. Eventually I come to my senses, but not until I completely freak out, forget how to run and doubt my ability to walk. The fact I still think I could one day become that type of runner is sad, but at least I’m well versed in the feelings of self-doubt and worthlessness these ambitions breed so I can give up on my crazy wannabe runner notions and fall back in love with my lazy crazy before it’s too late!
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friends + feelings

My 2015…

According to my Facebook wall the end of the year is nearing…it’s full of photo collages + links to everyone’s “Year in Review”. Just for funsies I dug through a bunch of weird ads to offer up my life to an app so I could see my year in review, according to Facebook. As the screen blinked “analyzing” I got excited…maybe Facebook would remind me of some crazy day I completely forgot about. I wanted to relive that moment! Instead, it gave me a lot of selfies and nothing I had the chance to forget about it. The selfies probably say more about me than I care to admit but I was far more disappointed by how much this silly FB app missed…so I’m making my own little recap of 2015, based on the moments that were really important to me.
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runventure

Mountain Life

I moved to Colorado nearly five years ago. When people as “why” I always respond with “for the mountains”. When we first discussed moving out to Colorado the plan was to live in the mountains…but that quickly became unrealistic thanks to the cost of living, lack of jobs and our personal expectations for our lives. Luckily, Denver was a solid second best option for us. Since we made that move a LOT has changed in our lives and if you told 2011 Heidi that she’d be living like 2015 Heidi is actually living she’d probably crawl into bed with a bowl of ice cream and cry. This isn’t what I expected for myself…but I love it. A lot.
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runventure

The Uncertainty of New Roads

There are some really awesome stories about Austria, Czech and Switzerland that I really need + want to share but let’s take a quick second to bounce back to one of the main topics of this blog — running. As you may have picked up from my most recent “currently” post I’ve signed myself up for a marathon. A road marathon. The Pittsburgh Marathon, to be exact. #GameOnPGh! I’m excited about it…and hating myself for it. Today marks Day One of my official unofficial scribble of a training plan. Instead of hopping out of bed when I woke to the sunrise at 6am I stuck headphones in and watched John Oliver between dozy naps for two hours.
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friends + feelings

Currently

Uh. So. Hi? Yup, still alive over here, just loving the internet-less life a bit more than I expected! I’m in the process of getting back into the flow of “real life” with real responsibilities, a steady schedule and a place to park my car for more than one night at a time. Having a ton of free time has been surreal but I am honestly looking forward to more coordinated chaos with a some higher expectations for my productivity. No promises on my ability to be very good at meeting any expectations but it will be nice knowing they are there, waiting for me! Until then, I’m going to keep doing what I do best…currently…
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travel thoughts

Playing Tourist

I have spent the last seven weeks settling into life at Chalet Martin in a small town in the Swiss Alps. I’ve slept in the same bed, cooked in the same kitchen, stashed my shoes on the same shelf + shopped at the same market for almost two months. It’s like I’ve been legitimately living in a tiny mountain town in Switzerland…exactly the experience I planned for when I left the States. It’s been nice. It’s gotten comfortable. It’s time to change. Yea, I know. Why fix what’s not broken…but I’m almost out of time to wander Europe so rather than stick to the comfortable I’m headed beyond the borders of Switzerland.
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