Lately…..

At present I feel like I have a ton of things going on. Lately, life has been hectic and exhausting but that is to be expected when you want to accomplish goals.

For those of you who don’t know, I have elected to take the research track for my graduate program and write a thesis. The topic I chose is, “Why Are the Majority of College Coaches Men?” This is a working title but the basic foundation for my thesis is investigating why only 23% of head college level coaches (all sports) in the United States are women. Within the past 6 months I found myself pondering this question for many reasons, but mostly for personal reasons. This topic is something that I am very passionate about at this point in my life. This project excites me and if I gain nothing else out of my experience in graduate school, aside from researching this topic, that is okay with me because I plan to make a profound difference, at least in my own world, by researching this. I am a woman, I am an assistant coach at the college level, I have great plans to advance my coaching career to be a head coach at a DI university one day, and the odds are not in my favor. The odds are not in my favor but I do not care because one day, some way, somehow I will accomplish this goal. I will accomplish this goal because I BELIEVE I can. This is basically how my thesis was born. I will be working on this project for the next 2+ years so I may mention it from time to time.

I will be done with my 3rd quarter of graduate school on June 18th so I have 10 days to do a lot of projects, but tonight I needed a break.

I am training consistently again. Mileage is in the 40s. I am feeling good minus the strange stomach bug I have had since Friday, but that is a temporary setback.

I have a goal race for the fall and I am super excited about it! I am not ready to publicly announce it on the internet yet. Sometimes you need to keep things to yourself and a few close friends so that they remain meaningful. Stay tuned internet, this secret race will shock you!!

I just got done making gluten free cinnamon buns–I have not gone gluten free to be trendy. As it turns out, I have a gluten intolerance that triggers my migraines so I need to avoid gluten, along with bananas, peanuts, peanut butter, oranges, and many other things. This is sad but it is not the end of the world. There are ways around this, specifically trying new foods and making baked goods at home. So far, I have been gluten free since March and I have had less migraines. I know it may never be perfect but it has improved.

The past few weeks I have been taking a seminar class on working with at risk youth while simultaneously volunteering at a local youth track camp. I took this class because I am not a “kid person” and I wanted to challenge myself to do something I was uncomfortable doing. The class, so far, hasn’t been too bad. The same week the class started my sister-in-law mentioned that she had signed my niece up for a youth track camp. I then found out that they needed volunteers so I figured, why not volunteer?! I get to see my niece experience track and field for the first time and Lyndsey also volunteers at this camp, which I did not know prior to volunteering. The track camp has been rained out several times but hopefully the next two weeks are dry because I really enjoy it. These two things (the camp and the class) are completely unrelated but it just worked out that they were occurring at the same time. I am still not a huge fan of kids (I like my niece and nephews, they are the exception to my dislike of children) but this exposure has been helpful. One of my good friends recently had a baby and I think the baby is cute, which is a big deal for me. I typically walk around saying, “cats not kids”. So, these experiences are helping me come around to children even though I still prefer that other people have them while I have cats.

The local craft store in my town is going out of business. This is sad because it has been around for decades, but great because everything is on clearance. I finally framed my first masters degree that I completed in 2011. I bought the frame for $2.27!!

We got new windows and I actually open them now because they don’t stick and they aren’t a struggle to open. Our old windows were original to our house and the house was built Cin 1930. Hopefully, it is warmer in here in the winter.

When I have insomnia I usually try to watch something on netflix until I fall asleep. I just finished The Office and I am currently looking for new suggestion. 

One final thing, I want to publicly state that I am currently running unattached and I am no longer affiliated with a club. I have been asked about this too many times to count in the last 3 weeks so I am just putting the answer out there for all to see and that is all I have to say about that.