All posts by hannahviolin

I am a violinist. I also enjoy running, working out, reading, and hanging with my friends and cat.
Weather

It’s a beautiful day

We don’t get many of these here. It’ll be unbearably hot soon and we will all be complaining wholeheartedly.

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I met up with Vanessa for coffee at Benton Park Cafe (It was supposed to be at another place that was, naturally, closed on Mondays. I ALWAYS forget that most places seem to be closed on Monday.)

Then we went for a walk around the park. It was beautiful! (and will be part of the Benton Park 5k course in June…thinking about costumes of course…)

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We thought this was a funny sign. The idea of fishing in the pond seemed humorous, and especially all the regulations…and the fact that once you hit 64, it just doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

Saturday night I went to the Symphony Concert. It was “Beer and Pretzel” night, which meant, free beer and pretzels. Seemingly unlimited as you just had to ask at the bar for your free beer…and we felt one was enough. I’m not a huge Budweiser fan (by that I mean, I prefer beer that tastes better) and the choices were Bud or Bud Light. A free beer is a free beer though, and props to the company for donating! The pretzels were from Companion Bakery and were the same pretzels we got at the end of the Go Race.

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I thought that beer and pretzels were VERY funny.

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Cheers to the St Louis Symphony!

If you are local, I hope you were able to get outside today!  If you aren’t local, I hope you are having nice weather as well 🙂

I had a lovely run after teaching this evening too. Note: Running seems to be WAY easier when I do it several times a week.

Product Reviews

Nature’s Bakery and Influenster VoxBox

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As a blogger, I can’t resist occasionally taking advantage of opportunities to try and review new products (I’m a musician too, we LOVE free stuff…or at least free food!). Unfortunately the trying is easier than the reviewing! So I’m a little behind but here’s a few products that I’ve been trying lately. I’ve read some good books recently too and I’ll talk about those in the near future.

1. Nature’s Bakery:

I was sent a bunch of their fig bars to try out. These are actually really good! Leslie and I both tried a few as snacks while she was here and I bring one occasionally with me to work.  My favorite is the raspberry flavor, but I’ve liked all of the flavors I’ve tried. There are two to a pack and they are like fig newtons except more natural and more delicious! This link takes you to the nutrition information. I appreciate that it’s a fairly short list of ingredients.

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2. Influenster VoxBox:

As part of the Influenster program I was sent a box full of various samples. It included Vaseline Spray and Go lotion, Colgate Optic White Whitening system, Nectresse sweetener, Dickinson Witch Hazel towelettes, and Belvita Breakfast Biscuits.

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I actually haven’t tried ALL the products, but I’ve tried

Vaseline Spray and Go Lotion: it’s pretty neat, and I was already using the pump version of the product so I was thrilled to get a free sample!,

Colgate Optic White whitening toothpaste and mouthwash—with the amount of coffee I drink, I need a constant whitener! I like the texture of the toothpaste and I do believe it is working.

Leslie tried the Nectresse in her coffee (I don’t really have any use for artificial sweeteners and only use sugar for baking) and liked it so much she took the whole box home with her. IMG_5750

I did NOT know that! Each packet of nectresse contained a fun fact.

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Though I received the above products for free I was not obligated to post a positive review.  I was not compensated beyond the free products. All opinions are my own.

Food

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

This is not my original recipe idea. I don’t know where I got the idea for putting salsa over chicken in the crockpot, but I have given the idea to lots of friends…so I’ll just call it mine—that’s the internet way, right?

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I took a picture that you can “pin” to your recipe boards and share with your friends!  Mmmmm…raw chicken. (Honestly, the finished product doesn’t look much better, but I am telling you, this is delicious AND healthy!)

Here’s the basic “recipe”:

Make this in a crockpot or slow cooker.

Take a jar of your choice of salsa (remember the salsa will greatly influence the flavor so use something that you like!).  Pour it on top of three to four frozen chicken breasts.

Cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Shred chicken and serve over rice, vegetables, or on a tortilla.

Optional add ins: Corn, lime juice, cilantro, black beans, the possibilities are endless! 

For the above picture I used a jar of Market Pantry green salsa  (the Target store brand). I really enjoy Trader Joe’s green salsa (I guess I like my green salsas) but really any salsa will work.

 

Deep Thoughts

I dreamed a dream

I saw something on a friend’s facebook page today—it was a wonderfully written post about the Boston attacks…it was very long and both personal and not personal. And ended with this sentence, which I thought was exactly what I’ve been thinking…

“When a major street in a major city in this country is closed for a week, not just because it is a crime scene, but because they have to remove the blood and body parts from the sidewalks, then maybe it is simply time to condemn ALL violence everywhere, unequivocally, and leave it at that.”

I was reading something a few weeks ago (maybe more) and the author was talking about how movies with sex scenes are rated more harshly than movies with extreme violence. And to her that is crazy—that an act of love between two people is considered something children shouldn’t see, but ridiculously graphic acts of violence, not as big of a deal. (Yes, I said “act of love”. Don’t mock me.)

Just more random thoughts! I’ve been feeling really on edge all week. I’d love to come here and post a picture of my oatmeal and coffee and chicken that I ate (and my instagram followers have seen those things!), but it all seems so TRITE and ridiculous.

But I challenge you to take what I said in my last post and really think about it. I don’t ask much of my readers, so this is important.

“What if, though, what if, we all tried our hardest to relate ANYWAY? What if, when something like this happened to people that we felt we had nothing in common with, nothing we could even relate to, except that we are all HUMAN…what if we felt as strongly every time? What if we tried our hardest to want the best for people not only just like us, but utterly unlike us? Just by virtue of them being people?”

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Maybe music will save the world. It saves me all the time. I got this just the other day and I’ve been really enjoying it while driving around. Bill Preucil was my teacher for graduate school (and I still consider him my teacher—if I ever refer to my violin teacher, present tense, that’s who I’m talking about) and to me there is nothing more beautiful than hearing him play. We all need more beauty in our lives, I think.

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I should probably leave this post with a funny picture. Sunday night we had people over to watch the Master’s. I guess one of our friends put his beer in the freezer to chill it and then forgot. I like the name of the beer. Sunday night was simpler, wasn’t it?

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Deep Thoughts

Maybe it is music that will save the world

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I have so many thoughts about what happened in Boston…it’s hard to wrap my brain around them and write or even think coherently. So I’m not going to do that. I’ll just say some random thoughts, because that’s what I do best, and that’s how I’m feeling.

We all feel more strongly when something like this happens on our soil. It’s different when it happens overseas, because then it’s happening to “someone else.” Here, it’s US citizens, families, runners. And people can relate more. What if, though, what if, we all tried our hardest to relate ANYWAY? What if, when something like this happened to people that we felt we had nothing in common with, nothing we could even relate to, except that we are all HUMAN…what if we felt as strongly every time? What if we tried our hardest to want the best for people not only just like us, but utterly unlike us? Just by virtue of them being people?

I got an email notification of a comment to moderate on a post I wrote in December after the shootings in Newtown, which reminded me of what a wonderful quote from Dr King I found that helped me at that time.

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I think it definitely applies here as well. Let’s not add more violence to the violence.

After learning about the explosions the other day, I had to pull myself together and teach violin lessons.

Music brings people together—people from all walks of life and all backgrounds. As Pablo Casals once said, “Maybe it is music that will save the world.”

My thoughts go out to all the people affected. It’s an awful time.

Running

Go St Louis Race Recap

Shortly after finishing this post I saw on twitter the horrible news of the bomb explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Words can’t express the horror I feel. I think of how I felt last weekend, waiting at the finish for Leslie, and how I’ve waited at the finish for many races…and how I’ve run many races…and the horror that fellow humans inflict upon one another. I don’t really have coherent words for any of this, except that my thoughts are with those affected by the tragedy, and I hope that there will be swift justice for those responsible, as little as that helps.

Ah, the long awaited race recap for that race last weekend that I just barely made it through.

Let’s see. I read somewhere that people like to see the finishing time at the beginning. 2:56:47. AWESOME.

Okay, but let’s put all the cards on the table. I ran a half in January as part of my training for what was supposed to be the marathon. Then I got the flu, a cold, a stomach virus, took an audition, and ended up spending a few weeks just wallowing in self-pity and generally being sad and pathetic. (aka I turned into a cat.) I wouldn’t have run this race at all (not have RAN, have run) if Leslie hadn’t been visiting and running the full. I figured I owed it to her to do the race, since I’d already failed her in that we were supposed to be both running the full.

And let me be clear. I wasn’t undertrained. I was, for all intensive purposes, un-trained. I just looked at my calendar, and between the race (Rock and Roll Arizona) mid-January and this race, I ran a total of 4 times. Two of which were the week of the race, and were primarily walking. I did continue going to the gym to lift weights on a fairly regular basis (approximately two times a week, except for a few weeks in February) so I wasn’t completely out of shape…

I’m not saying these things to make excuses. There are no excuses. I’m simply setting the stage for what was going on for me at the time. Honestly, Chris was concerned I would severely injure myself during the race and thought I was both crazy and stupid to even attempt it. But I’ve sloughed through quite a few half marathons in the past few years, and I knew that while I wouldn’t set any land speed records, I’d be able to finish, because I had so many times already.

Okay, enough of the TL:DR bit. On to some pictures!

The expo was on Friday and Saturday. Usually I like to go to these things on Friday because I dislike crowds, but that wasn’t possible, so Jen, Leslie and I went on Saturday morning.

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We got our bibs. I love how they have our names. It seems great in theory, but turns out to give you a lot of stress on the course, wondering, oh, hey, did I ACTUALLY know that person yelling my name or did they just read it?

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Leslie thought that shirt might be a bit small even for her.

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And then I decided to sign up for a half in October (Rock and Roll St Louis) since there was a discount and you got a free tech shirt for doing so. Yeah. I’ll train for that one, I promise.

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Leslie is an awesome blogger companion because she understands how to take good pictures!

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The shirt is pretty much like the shirt from the race the other year, but oh well.

The rest of the day we just relaxed and tried to keep off our feet. The night before the race we made pasta with red sauce and a lightly panko and parmesan crusted chicken. It was a great pre race meal.

We rented Lincoln on the DVR to watch. It was a great pre race movie because Leslie actually fell asleep 15 minutes in. Perhaps it’s a sign of anti-intellectualism, but we switched to a different movie. There was no real suspense (I knew how it would end) and there was just a lot of talking…

Okay, race morning. I got up around 4:45 and Jen was meeting us at the house at 5:50. We caravaned down to the race area and parked in the same lot we parked at two years prior. It cost $5 but was worth it for the ease of parking.

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Chris was concerned I’d be mad that he didn’t get up with us, but honestly, it wasn’t like I was going to PR or even do remotely well on the race, so I didn’t feel he needed to ruin his sleep pattern. This was a self portrait.

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Bench photo! After we parked, we hit up the porta potties and then found a bench. We figured we’d be on our feet enough so we might as well sit for a bit. I was (oddly) placed in the highest corral of the three of us, but they decided to sneak up there with me. I was definitely seeded incorrectly, as I was planning to do a 3 1/2 minute run, 1 1/2 minute walk interval, and Leslie was planning to run at 4:00 marathon pace (you do the math, I’m too lazy right now).  My goal was to not die and finish in less than 3 hours.

Anyway, the race started. It starts downtown and goes towards Soulard and through the Budweiser factory, and then back downtown, towards Forest Park, where it splits with the marathon. They continue through Forest Park to Clayton and then back and then finishes downtown again. It’s (to the best of my knowledge and recollection) entirely uphill. Even if it seems parts of it are downhill, really, no, it’s just all uphill. I don’t know how they manage, but I’m impressed by that.

I started out just fine. My legs were shocked by the fact that I was running. And then they started hating me, around mile 4. I thought, oh my god, I’m an idiot and I’m never going to be able to finish this race, I should just give up. But they didn’t feel any worse for a few miles, so I kept trying to do the intervals my watch was beeping at me. By mile 7 or so  I had to make the running intervals shorter and the walking longer, and by mile 10 I switched it entirely. It was pretty awful, and I hated feeling like a loser, but that’s what you get for not training, right? I won’t bore with you any more details about how awful and slow I was. I managed to run to the end though—all uphill to the finish (that’s NOT an exaggeration either.).

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I collected as many snacks and water as I could carry and met up with Jen. We went to the car to change shoes and then went to go watch for Leslie to finish.

She was a little behind schedule, and we started to worry that either we’d missed her, or she had gotten lost, and finally Jen had to leave for work. That’s when I saw Leslie coming through—we were probably 1/4 mile from the finish.

I ran into the street and started yelling for her—I took some pictures too.

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She pretty much ignored me until she was right there—she said she didn’t see me and had been ignoring people yelling her name for hours. I started running with her (yes, in flip flops) for a bit and asked how she was doing—the answer was POORLY—I guess she was having quite a lot of hip pain and had been struggling for the past ten miles or so. I realized I was getting towards the finish line and asked if she wanted me to keep running with her (I hear that sort of thing can be inspirational) but she said, no go on and I’ll meet you on the other end, so I left her to struggle to the finish.

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That’s her in the middle, running uphill to the finish. Nice, right?

I limped around all the barricades to meet her (that took a lot of energy, honestly.)

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I was proud of Leslie, even though she was upset by her performance. She trained well, she did her best, and even though she had some hip troubles towards the end, she persevered. I trained poorly, and persevered too, so I guess that’s something.

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Here’s the shirt: pink for girls, blue for boys…I’ve already expressed my thoughts on this…

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And the medal.

What’s the moral of the story? I don’t know. I was sore that day and the next day, but fine afterwards. I guess the moral is: I can finish a half without training, but I shouldn’t.