One of my goals for 2013 is to finish a half marathon, and I’m excited to say that I am one step closer to getting there. I am registered for the Nike Women’s half in San Francisco!

I chose the Nike half because I figure if I am going to run that far, I want it to be fun and be surrounded by other people. I also know people who have run it and loved it, and I was able in talking a friend into doing it with me. I’ve never run more than a 10k, so I’m a bit nervous to have to go more than twice that. But thankfully I have all summer to get ready.

Now I just need to hope that I get my knee healthy and ready to start building some miles.

Images courtesy of Run Nike Women Series.

Welcome to my beautiful new home. It’s been months in the making and I am excited to share it with you all. I will continue writing about sustainability, fitness, food, and much more. On the new site you can easily search through the archives, explore your favorite topics, keep up with my latest work, and join in on the conversation.

I have many exciting things on the horizon that I can’t wait to share with you all, so check back soon!

In the meantime, feel free to explore the archives, dive into a category, and learn more about me.

Want to follow via RSS? You can add http://treading-lightly.com/feed/ to your subscriptions.

My family doesn’t really do “typical” or “normal” very well. Instead of the usual Mother’s Day brunch or large family event, my mom asked if we could all go on a bike ride.

While I originally thought of May as the month I would build my monthly running milage, my body might have other plans for me. I’m currently battling a bit of tendonitis in my knee, and I have to first rest and rehab before I can really be running much. I’m hoping that by the second or third week of the month I will be back to slowly adding miles, but it doesn’t look like it will be the massive running challenge I had imagined.

But that doesn’t mean that my May Miles challenge will go to waste. Instead I will use it to increase my swimming and biking miles. As frustrating as an injury can be, every injury is an important reminder or lesson, and it provides an opportunity to improve. For me my lesson was to listen to my body sooner instead of waiting for it to develop into a full-blown injury. And since my legs can’t pound the pavement as much as I used to or lift heavy at CrossFit, I am taking the opportunity to get back into swimming for the summer months and work on some technique and upper body strength at CrossFit (all while doing some super fun rehab exercises to get back in action). And with such beautiful weather, who could be upset about going for a swim?

Confession: I am afraid of spiders. For the most part I am a logical being and I understand that the likelihood of death by a spider bite is incredibly low, but that doesn’t stop me from believing death is imminent every time I see a spider. With that said, I had to confront some serious spider phobias on my last hike.

Getting to Almaden Quicksilver Park was an adventure in itself. I had been there before for a fieldtrip, but we had entered through a surrounding neighborhood that I couldn’t remember anymore. We ended up going through the entrance at the far side of the park which meant that the trails we hiked on where fairly empty. This was great in that it’s nice to hike with your friends and not be constantly surrounded by other people when you are trying to just be outside in nature by yourselves, but it’s also incredibly unfortunate when it appears you are hiking straight into the Land of Spiders and no one appears to have knocked down any of the webs for you.

My poor friend Alec turned into our spider shield as my roommate and I crouched behind him for at least a mile total of the trail (that’s definitely one disadvantage of being tall). The morning sun lit up the webs perfectly so we could see every terrifying strand handing down from the trees across the path and creating intricate patterns above our heads. At one point the nerd inside of me (and the part of me that really wanted to say forget it and go home) started quoting Ron from Harry Potter. Thankfully no one listed to me and once we made it out of serious spider territory the hike was great.

We even journeyed off the trail (just barely) and climbed a rock that looked interesting.

But the best part was finally settling down to eat an amazing salad and some cookies on the floor (we were too dusty and dirty to sit on anything nicer).

I have always loved to swim. I was swimming before I could talk, and it’s one activity that has always been calming and fun for me, whether I am swimming competitively  to stay in shape, or just to catch up with all of my thoughts. I’m never bored in the water, and I rarely, if ever, pass up on the opportunity to swim.

Today felt like a great day to swim, especially since the weather has been nice and I upset my knee a bit last night (I had poor form on a max weight squat clean and tugged on something in my knee. It’s fine, just a little swollen and tender, but I’m going to give it at least a week of rest before I squat even body weight). So instead of going for my typical run, I pulled out the bathing suites (yes, I am one of those swimmers that wears two suites, a weird habit I picked up on the swim team) and slathered myself in sunscreen.

Unfortunately I spent so much time cleaning up the kitchen that my swim was seriously rushed. Due to some car trouble (my driver’s side window gave up on ever coming back up, leaving my car breezy and open for the taking) I only had 30 minutes to get my mile swim in. Yikes.

I definitely have not swum that far, that fast since I had a swim coach yelling at me from the deck. I know I will probably be sore tomorrow and I will be annoyed with myself for doing a miles worth of sprint sets when I have to work on only my arms at CrossFit tomorrow to keep resting my knee, it felt absolutely amazing today. I feel graceful and powerful in the water. It’s the one element where I can’t trip and fall over and no one can see all of the weird faces I make. I also love not being able to hear anything except for the water moving past my ears. You can’t beat a great swim, even if it was brutally quick.

I got this month’s issue of Runner’s World in the wake of Boston (the problem with having your mail forwarded, it’s always insanely late). Most of the magazine was full of cheerful essays about what running the Boston Marathon meant and projections about how it would play out. But in the aftermath of the bombing, I couldn’t bring myself to read any of them.

Instead I got caught up in a story about why women run (“Why Do Women Run?”), and I found myself oddly frustrated with the whole thing. The ultimate answer given was “because they’re human.” Really? I was dissatisfied with their answer, so I started to think about why I run. They should of said because:

1. Running builds confidence.
2. It pushes the limits of what you thought you could ever do.
3. It makes that voice in your head that doubts you shut up for a while.
4. It’s relaxing.
5. It has no expectations for you, and I have no expectations of my performance or ability.
6. It’s fun.
7. It can be competitive or another way to spend time with a friend.
8. It takes you places.
9. Runners are a community that looks out for one another and encourages each other.
10. It’s nearly impossible to not feel good about yourself after a good run, or any run for that matter.

To read more about my April Adventures, go here.
To see more photos from our hike, go here.