Spring Mornings.

I went walking this morning at around 7:30am. The sun was already fairly high in the sky. It's amazing how long the days are getting and how warm it has been. It's almost unreal, being able to walk about in shorts and a sleeveless top. :) I've been waiting for a while for these kinds of days and here they are, all full of birds chirping and warbling, sunshine and wind blowing through the leaves up in the tree tops.

That's another amazing thing; the leaves just seem to burst out in a day! The May Day tree in our backyard (and the cherry bush!) have blossoms blooming. :D It's all so beautiful!

Yesterday was around 30 C. It was hot! The Provincial track athletes had practice after school and running was brutal. At least we went up on the hill where there's trees and shade. My mouth was so dry and my head was throbbing a little bit, even though we were running at an easier pace. Hopefully it won't be really hot the day of the track meet!

My tummy's rumbling. Time fore lunch now.
I think I'll eat my lunch outside. :)

Rachel

Provincial Athelete.

I made qualified for Provincial Track and Field!! :D You honestly
don't know how happy this makes me. And how relieved I am! I was so
nervous yesterday morning but by the end of the day, so happy. :)

I placed 1st in both the senior girls 3000m and the senior girls 1500m
again and 2nd in High Jump. High Jump was a joke, I qualified by
jumping 1.35m. The intermediate girls were jumping 1.50m. I shouldn't
even be in it, it's going to be embarrassing at Provincials. Oh well.

It was awesome though, for the runs I would stay within the top three
during the whole run until the very last 200m, where I'd get into 2nd
place if I was in 3rd and by the last 100m, I'd kick in and sprint to
the finish line and leave them behind. I had a 3 second lead for the
1500m but I'm not sure about my lead for the 3000m, but I was told
several times that I was "amazing". My coach told me I am a
"machine". :P Some coach came up and told me that he knew it was going
to be me by the way I hold myself when I run and by the look on my
face. I was suprised and pleased to hear that my skill shows when I
run. So hopefully some scouts at Provincials will notice too!

In total, my school is sending 20 atheletes to the Provincial meet,
more than last years 12 atheletes. We won the Zone meet and will be
recieving the banner, which was what my coach was aiming for. This
would be the fourth year in a row getting the banner. :) Our school
dominates.

Yeah, it was a pretty awesome day. My legs were great, didn't feel a
thing except for some stiffness in my left calf muscle. I was relieved.

I am relieved. Very relieved. My physiotherapy appointment is on June
2nd and Provincials is on the 5th and 6th.

:)

Rachel

(Sent from my iPod!)

A painfully good experience.

Since when was getting a massage a painful experience? :) Yeah, even
though my physiotherapy appointment was painful, it was good. April
was nice and she talked me through everything and told me which leg
muscles were affected and how I should start stretching certain
muscles more. Mentally, I'm panicing because I feel like I just pulled
both my calf muscles again and Zones is on Wednesday. She told me that
I'll be fine by then but it's hard to imagine it when it hurts to
walk. Let's hope she knows what she's talking about! (I really don't
doubt her, I'm just not used to this. d:) I have to drink lots of
water to flush the lactic acid she worked out of my muscles or
something. I've drank 5-6 500mL waterbottles so far. xD My next
appointment is next Tuesday, two days before the Provincial Track and
Field meet, which I'll hopefully be competing at.

My mom has really been hounding on me lately and I really don't like
it. It's getting me angry which clashes with her anger and it doesn't
do any of us good. I'd wish she'd just back off!

I picked up a big, 65L hiking backpack today. :D It's so awesome, I
can't wait to use it!! It's black, gray and red. I love it, I love
it! :P

I don't think I'll go to my fire fighter meeting tonight. I'm not in
the mood or physically up to it. I need to run an easy 15 minutes
anyways (therapist's orders).

Rachel

(Sent from my iPod.)

OH YEAH.

I did really well at the County Track and Field meet, placing 1st in all three of my events (3000m, 1500m and high jump). :D But, as you can tell from my physiotherapy experience, I pulled my right hip flexor muscle going over some hurdles for tee hee's BEFORE I had to run all my events. Obviously it didn't hold me back too much! So I'm going to the Zones Track and Field meet on Wednesday, May 27. Wish me luck!

Head first.

Today is my County Track and Field meet. It would be a lie if I said I'm not nervous, but I'm going to try my best today. My first even is the very first event of the day and along with some other students running the 3000m, we're being trucked out to the track first. At least we don't have to sit in the bus! Man, I just hope I do well enough to make it to Zones. I should, I usually always make it to Zones. Provincials is my real goal this year. Two weeks until then.
I'm running the 3000m, 1500m, 4x100m and if I'm not dead by then, the 4x400m. And high jump, but I'm not expecting myself to do very well in high jump as I have never jumped over 1.37m and in Zones, there's girls who still scissor-kick that. Pfft.

garblegarblegarblegarble.

One more hour, then I'm off to the school. It's going to be wet and cold today. It usually is during Track meets. Except last year we did have blue sky for the County meet... Zones was usually wet and rainy. I'm bringing my tent this year, along with a blanket.
I got new running spikes yesterday! :D They're gold and black with the red Swoosh on the sides.
They make me very happy and they are so light! My first pair of spikes. :D


*sigh*

I hope it all goes okay. It should.

Rachel

Sometimes good-bye is a second chance.

Hay thair.
Woodnit bee annoiing if I spelt lyke this?

I promise that won't happen. :)

So there's a possibility of my sister and me spending three weeks in
Idaho this summer! How awesome would that be?! We'd be staying with
someone I've been friends with since grade two. She's an such an
awesome person. :D And where she lives is really pretty. Great camping
out there too. I can see it being an amazing three weeks if we get to
go. 'Just waiting for the okay from my folks!

Today was the ideal Spring day. It was warm and beautiful outside,
even if it was a bit overcast. My sister and I went biking on the
trails on the trails and hills and then by the river when we decided
we should go swimming. It seemed like a splendid idea at the time as
we were both hot from biking and it was quite muggy. After we went
home and changed, I took us to a spot where the river made this little
pocket and it looks pretty deep. It looked like an awesome place to
jump into. So, naturally, I ran and jumped off the bank and submerged
myself in the water.
If you haven't swam in glacier river water during the spring run-off,
I'm not sure if I recommend it. Unless you'd like your body to refrain
from functioning properly due to FREEZING COLD water. And I mean
FREEZING! :P
Holy crap, I've never expirienced anything like that ever. I think the
river was even colder than the ocean in April when I went in 2004.
This was beyond cold, worse than the mountain lake that my family has
been going to for about ten years. When I went under, my body froze
and refused to move. And when I did surface, it was like I had to
force myself to inhale because the cold was forcing all the air out of
my lungs. "What's wrong? Oh, BREATHE! Come on, breathe! Why the hell
can't I breathe?!" O
nce your chest clears the water, your fine but when you go back in the
same thing happens. It was intense. :D

Yeah, then I went running again today for half an hour. It was a good
day. :)

And you know what the weather is suposed to be like tomorrow after
such a warm day today? Snow. AHHH. It's raining right now, let's hope
it doesn't turn to snow overnight...

Man, I really hope I can go to Idaho! I want to go soooo bad. We'll see.

-Rachel

Sent from my iPod.

Patience.

Patience sucks. Especially when it comes to graduation.
COME ON, ALREADY!

Today I went running for 45 minutes. It's kind of weird thinking that I was actually running for that long, but I had my watch to time me so I know I did it. It wasn't a tough run, just really long and easy. Working towards Track and Field while at the same time, giving my legs a rest from the fast, intense work outs. When you have that much time doing something as mindless as running can be (sometimes it isn't), lots of thoughts pass through your head. A lot. Most of my thoughts were silly, pointless things. It's amazing though how one can clear their mind on a 45 minute run. You would think someone could clear their head in 45 minutes doing any other thing, like sitting by a window or outside, staring at the clouds or something, but it's not the same. I don't know, it's hard to explain. It just seems like your stuck with your thoughts on a run. Don't ask why you're stuck with them while running and not while you're simply sitting and looking at the sky... It's weird!

I know I've already mentioned it before and I'm going to say it again: running is my balance. My day feels more complete when I run. Sometimes I really have to kick myself out the door to do it but I always feel better afterward. Sometimes I feel like I want to give up running all together but I always end up coming back to it. :) Running is my escape?

You know what annoys me? Angles. To be more exact, picture angles. How someone can make a person appear "better looking" when their picture is taken from a certain angle. I guess when I say "better looking", I really mean thinner. Pfft, now-a-days, thinner is better looking to most, is it not? :| I took one of those pictures of myself today. I like it although I'm annoyed by it.
Rawr.

(picture of me with no make-up, y'all.)

(it was taken around the same time as my new profile picture.)



-Rachel

Spring! Good to see you!

I just noticed green buds on the Mayday tree in my backyard. :) The
grass is looking greener and I've seen butterflies fluttering about.
'Nothing better than butterflies! :D

At the moment, I'm lying in the backyard. I wasn't up to going to
school today. Not to mention with all the tech work I did this
weekend, I didn't have much time to do my homework. I probably could
have finished it.

There's a Robin hanging around, I can near him. I also heard and saw
three Canada Geese flying over the river from my sister's bedroom.
It's nice having more birds around. There's also a little finch-like
bird that's been warbling all morning. It's really pretty. :)

I think I'll take Bud swimming this afternoon.

Man, the sky is really blue today.

-Rachel

Sent from my iPod

Have you seen my ghost?

Have you heard the song, Weighty Ghost by Wintersleep? I quite enjoy it, but my dad finds it pointless. :P

I want to post a blog, but possible subject matter escapes me. And I'm tired.

Some things have been on my mind and don't seem to want to go away. They have nothing to do with the present but have come back to the surface of the pool of thoughts which are floating in my head.

Argh.

Meh, just wanted something to do, I guess. It's supposed to be beautiful tomorrow. :) Nice and warm. And sunny. Maybe it'll force me to drag my camera around. If I get the time, that is.
(I'm doing tech all weekend for a dance recital... which means hours and hours inside a small booth.) A job's a job, and I really do enjoy it. Getting to watch all the dancers is really fascinating and makes me wish I could have joined dance when I was younger.

I suppose I should go to bed then, eh?

'Night.