New Kicks

So.........  This year my right foot has been plagued with injury.  First, the achilles tendinitis in January, then this turf toe in April.  The injuries have led me to do web research on running mechanics, physical therapy, and............  gear!  Yay.  Getting me properly geared up to run has been a collaborative effort to say the least.  Haha!

On my birthday weekend, Uncle Richard was in town from Philly and Sarah invited us to all hang at her place.  So, on Friday we packed up Billy's panniers and rode bikes to Marin!  It was 90 degrees in Oakland and - I swear to God - subzero in SF, but we made it there safe and sound for a non-stop fun-filled weekend at Sarah and Dennis' place.  My Uncle Richard (who ran the Boston Marathon at 50 and has trained for and competed in plenty of other races) gave me a ton of good advice about running shoes and he even did a some research for me.

Well, not more then a few days later, the Moor's birthday gift arrived in the mail...   Of course, the first thing that came to mind was "Yayayay!  I can buy new running shoes!"  In a matter of days I was ordering these babies online.  I used the list Uncle Richard developed for me to try them all on at Road Runner Sports (they fit for new kicks).  So - here they are - the Mizuno Wave Inspire 11 and the Saucony Kinvara 5!

I feel faster just looking at them - hahaha - thanks, Marilyn and Bill!  The best mother-in-law and father-in-law on earth!

Catch Up If You Can

On Tuesday morning I met a good friend from college to jog along Shoreline Drive in Alameda.  It's a beautiful and bustling trail along the southwestern coast of the island that has breathtaking views of the San Francisco bay. We jog/walked and went about 3 miles in thirty minutes.  It was a great catch-up session where I heard all about her new pet sea turtle, her path to buying a home in the Bay Area, and tales of grandbabies and middle management and losing 50 lbs in a year.  Incredible!  When we said goodbye we agreed to a weekly meeting when the weather is nice.  This turned out to be a mini-brick (which means a bike and run workout back-to-back) which is fantastic - and it was oh so fun to see an old friend's face!

This week I'm looking forward to tagging along with Dan for a Thursday morning workout with the Vitruvian club at Lake Merritt *and* Billy and I are also talking about going on a long ride this weekend (somewhere between 40 and 60 miles) so I can barely contain my excitement for that.

It feels so good to be training again.  I can feel my body coming back one day at a time.

I'm baaaaaa-aaaack

After five excruciatingly long weeks of rest, ice and heat, yesterday I met an old friend who I haven't seen since our high school graduation for a jog along the beach in Alameda.  I am pleased to report that my strained achilles tendon (which landed me in bed rest since mid-January) has finally healed.  We did a 3 mile out-and-back and *man* it felt grrrrreat to be back!  I'm already looking forward to my next buddy run tomorrow morning with a friend from college who I haven't seen (again) since graduation.  It's so incredible to be able to get back in touch with these fit friends to gather a little momentum for hoisting this bag of potato chips back on the tri-training horse.  As long as I stay healthy for the next month I'll be training for the Oakland Running Festival - a half marathon - which takes place on March 22nd.  Woohoo.  That's all for now.  More later!

Photo Essay - Rue de l'Hermitage

 

Home Is Wherever I'm With You

Here is a cheesy slideshow of the precious time Billy and I spent together in France! *

Slideshow from Amy Moor on Vimeo.

* These photos were put in chronological order for the most part, so it's a total coincidence that this song weirdly corresponded to a bunch of the shots...  Also, I tried to use photos that we didn't already photobomb you with on facebook, but I was not entirely successful, so sorry for the dupes. 

For the best results, watch all the way through with your eyes glued to the screen.  For those of you who want a *real* challenge, try watching without blinking.  It's only five minutes!!  You can do it.  If you're new to this kinda thing, your goal is to stay in the room.  That's a super nerdy bikram yoga joke.  Haha!  :)

The Incredible Story of One Lucky Mitten

After the farmer's market this morning, I headed north on my bike to stock up on staples that don't grow from the ground here like maple syrup, muesli, and oat milk.  Once inside Auchan (European Walmart equivalent that normally makes me think deeply about the Russian anarchist group Voina, but that's a different talk show...) I noticed that one of my new gloves was missing!  I immediately retraced my steps back to the bike rack, but turned up nothing.

After coffee and shopping I retraced my bike route home scouring the ground for one bright green mitten.  Turning around the second time, I started hearing my boss at SweetWARE in the back of my head quoting Einstein "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  I'm having visions of Tom Robbins' Skinny Legs and All, my bright green mitten bravely striking out on it's own and making it's way in the world with other escaped inanimate objects.  This was craziness, and I loved these gloves so much...  I was determined to reunite this perfect pair.

Flash forward three hours, I'm walking and looking.  After no more than fifteen minutes of walking up the street like a crazy person with one glove on (which apparently is the international sign language for "I've lost a glove")  I hear a woman from across the street yell "Madame!"  Yeah?  She's sitting at the bus stop about to catch a bus going the opposite direction.  You will not believe this.  She goes, "Have you lost a glove?"  I reply, "Why yes, I have!"  What a coincidence!  I cross the street and she explains that she picked up my other glove on the bike path a few hours ago and took it home.  She happens to live nearby and can get it for me and it will only take a second...  We walk together for a minute (I'm feeling much less crazy by now) and I agree to wait on a bench outside the entryway to her building.

A few minutes later, an old woman wearing kinda outlandish jewelry and a disheveled hair cut cops a squat next to me and almost sets her scarf on fire lighting her cigarette.  She asks me if I'm visiting someone here.  I tell her I'm waiting for someone.  Not much time passes before I see two people in scrubs leaving the building, which is when I ask the woman next to me if this is a hospital.  She says, "YES, this is a psychiatric hospital."  Uhhh...  The crazy is starting to creep back.  Haha!  Now, I'm sitting here wondering if this lady is going to come back with a rubber ducky declaring "Here's your glove back!" ...or just forget about me entirely.  Wrong on both counts.  Wonderful woman #1 restores peace to my universe and I walk home (so overjoyed) with two warm hands.

Musee des Beaux-Arts

I never made it to the market on Sunday!

Today, I set off on foot to find a farmer's market.  I didn't get lost per se (haha!).  I just went in a direction and tried to take in all the details (the sights and sounds and smells) of my surroundings.  There's something about the way laundry hangs out to dry here, the way hedges grow behind mossy stone walls, the narrowness of the streets and the way they weave through the town that just gives the impression that the people came first, then the homes, then the roads.  I can't quite describe the architecture, but it's uniquely French.  Structures are built with a concrete creativity.  The patterns in the bricks, the contrasting colors of the shutters and the doors, and the artistry of the rot-iron fences display restraint, but still seem at ease with the cycles of natural life around them: the rust, the rot, the browning branches...  It's hard to put into words, but I will take some pictures eventually to show you what I mean.  I already have a portfolio of entrances coming together in my head.  Blah blah blah there is beauty everywhere here blah blah blah!

I ended up snaking through the circuitous streets and staircases of Saint Cyr only to arrive smack dab in front of an organic beauty salon that I google mapped yesterday as a possible place to ask about hot yoga.  It was closed - boo!  So, I crossed the bridge into the center of town and stumbled into the Musée des Beaux-Arts.  For five euros I was able to roam freely through the gardens and up and down the magnificent staircases of this impeccable building.  I admired the permanent installations, but really enjoyed the exposition and the artwork of Olivier Debré.

This guy is a serious PIMP.  He paints outdoors with a broom!  I whispered words to myself such as, "formidABle, SUper, GENial" and really meant them.  There were maybe seven or eight huge wall-sized abstractions of emotion and poetry on canvas.  In the same room with his work was a mobile hanging over a brightly painted piano.  I walked meditatively through this room for a while thinking deeply about Billy, his work, and our life together.  I can't say I wasn't moved to tears...  :)

The museum closes down for lunch at 12:30pm so when the clock struck noon, the volunteers were almost shooing me out the door.  Haha!  Maybe, also, I looked a little lost or out of place in my gym clothes, but I seriously got asked 3 or 4 times if I was looking for the exit - LOL.  I bought another batch of postcards (which went out already) and asked at the front desk of the museum if there was a farmer's market (un marché en plein air) in the area that day.  Snobby pants said it wasn't until tomorrow...  I spent the next four hours wandering the cobble stone streets of the artist quarter.

Good finds:

-Creperie - Seriously smells like heaven...  I can't wait to go!

-Printshop - YES!  Finally printed/photocopied/prepared flyers for being a personal chef.  

-Women's fitness center - Ella Fit! - where they're giving me my first yoga class FREE on Wednesday

Made my way back home by bus, and, in the evening, met with the entire staff of the Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire Volley Ball Club.  The leadership asked me to coach the men's team.  The two guys I've met so far on the team really love the sport of volleyball, so I'm looking forward to it being a fun and rewarding experience.

First practice with the entire N2 team tomorrow...  More later!