McLean Falls

Last Saturday, Will and I took the scenic route to Invercargill.  I had my hopes set on seeing the Cathedral Caves, but the access road is closed until November. Grrr.  So, instead we stopped at Kaka Point and McLean Falls.

It was a lovely day to be out and wandering around.

When is the last time that you saw a sign with a picture of a smiling skull warning you of danger?  (Possums are a terrible nuisance in New Zealand, by the way.)

The ~15 minute walk to McLean Falls was pleasant (with the exception of a few sandflies).  I would put this detour on my top picks for things to do/places to see in this part of New Zealand!

The weather turned as we headed back to the carpark and so we weren't able to stop for more sightseeing.  But, on Sunday we got out and took a small trip to Riverton... home of the Southland Marathon starting line.  I was quite happy just strolling around the beach out there and admiring the sky.

This weekend I'm returning to the Pineapple Track for a mini hike in preparation for my first totally-planned-all-by-myself tramping trip next week!!  It'll be Labour Day weekend in New Zealand and I decided I'd spend it on a challenging yet rewarding 58k (36 miles) circuit that may include a jet boat trip to the track access.  Cool, huh?! I'm STOKED!

Blood Money

Last weekend was the most miserable I've been since I moved to New Zealand.  To earn some extra cash I joined a study that is looking at the bioavailability of a medication.  Unfortunately, I am a needle-phobe and the study required 18 blood samples per weekend (plus extra trips to the clinic for lab work during the week).  It wasn't exactly the ideal way to make a quick buck, but there aren't many options for making money around here.

See, this past July I struggled to make my student loan and income from the research assistant gig stretch.  It was pretty stressful and a smidge embarrassing to have money worries as bad as they were.  So, this semester I've been hellbent on making sure I make the student loan stretch farther without sacrificing what I really love to do - tramping.  I find that a weekend hike is the best bang-for-your-buck around since it combines sightseeing, mental therapy and physical activity on a really affordable budget (~$50 covers petrol and food costs which are the big expenses since I have a Department of Conservation hut pass).  I can't give that up.

I asked around for ways of bringing in income which didn't involve high heels and a stripper pole (I'm not very coordinated and I am accident prone).  Someone mentioned a local company that recruits volunteers for drug trials and so I looked into it.  I figured a couple hundred dollars in exchange for giving up two weekends was as good of a deal as I'd get - that is, if I could handle a cannula in my forearm for two 24-hour periods and "bleeds"starting at 15 minute intervals.

From 8pm Friday through 8am Sunday this is where I spent most of my time:

The first weekend I was a mental milkshake.  The stress of the discomfort from the needle in my arm and the soreness that accompanied 18 blood draws had me on edge...

All the vials to fill over 24 hours:

I went through waves of nausea after each blood sample was taken.  Then I'd think how unfair it is...  I helped someone through graduate school (he had student loans, but we also had my income and it was more than just the money - he had me there to support him, talk to him about tough days, celebrate the accomplishments), but now I'm having to do it on my own... Thinking that I'm selling myself to research because I need money that bad.  That's when the water works would start.  I'd try not to get too worked up because crying would trigger a mild headache.

Just before midnight on the first Saturday, I was fighting the urge to go home - surely it wasn't a good idea for me to continue if I was getting so upset?!  Yeah, I was a little dramatic that weekend.

To keep me from quitting the study, I'd just think about the money and how good it'd feel to see my bank account statement after I was paid.  It was really difficult to believe it would be worth it, but somehow I managed to stick it out.

Thankfully, I have the memory of a goldfish - by Thursday I had forgotten how traumatic I thought my previous weekend had been and how sore my arm was on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  I walked into the clinic this past Friday night feeling ready for the weekend ahead.

The cannula made my arm pretty sore since it was in the same spot as last time, but I managed to stay much calmer this time around.

In fact, I only cried 3 times instead of the previous weekend's grand total of 18 times! (I honestly wasn't the only one complaining about a sore arm this weekend, but I just happened to be the only one who cried over it).

The experience got me thinking about taking a look at available scholarships (free money would be sooo much nicer!), but I'm pretty limited to what I can apply for since I'm not a New Zealand resident.  Thus, I have a feeling that I'll be doing another study like this in the future.

Unless I win the lottery.

Dead Cow in the Road

This weekend's tramping trip brought me to Mavora Lakes Park and Snowdon Forest.  I can't say whether I enjoyed the scenery or the company more!  Two spunky Portuguese ladies and a happy Italian chick certainly made for a fun time.  I even learned a new phrase - la fantastico zucca zanzara! (Yes, the fantastic pumpkin mosquito).

Day 1 - 10k walk to Careys Hut on a cheesy easy four wheel drive track that hugged the North Mavora Lake...

...and was partially blocked by a dead cow.  Gross.

At the hut we were greeted (?) by at least eight adults and two kids (it's a 4-person hut).  Let's just say it made for a restless night's sleep between the person with sleep apnea (ohmygod it's scary to hear someone stop breathing, make a few gagging sounds, and then bust out some loud snoring) and the child who decided to start whimpering in the middle of the night because... it was dark.  Hmm....  At least the views outside were lovely!

Day 2 - 10k walk back to North Mavora Lake car park...

Then a quick drive over to the Kiwi Burn swing bridge to cross the Mararoa River.  Kiwi Burn Hut is located on a "simple" 3 hour loop.  I use quotes because it was a well marked track and there wasn't much elevation gain, but it got tricky when we were about 300 yards from the hut - oohhhhhh! It was so close, yet so far!  The ground was saturated and at points my leg sunk into the depths below up to my knee.  I lovingly refer to this area as The Deceptive Field of Hope (or something like that).  

Once inside the 12-person hut we were happy to find that we didn't have to share with anyone!  I celebrated by cracking into my new FAVORITE tramping treat - Lindt's blueberry intense chocolate. Delish!

Now, being a Heinz 57 American, I opted to have no part in meal preparations (honestly, my mangled heritage is utterly useless for instinctively cooking anything that is not supposed to be bland, super fatty, super salty or super sugary - I just cannot compete with ladies from Portugal and Italy!), so I was responsible for keeping the hut warm.  We were all quite pleased with my fire building and we stayed toasty all night long.  

Day 3 - Easy as pie 1 1/2 hour walk from the hut to the car through beautiful mossy forest.  So pretty!

It'll be interesting to see what happens to this area in the future.  There are plans to build a monorail to create some sort of fancy schmancy experience to get tourists from Queenstown to Te Anau.  A Kiwiburn terminus would be built right in the area that I was tramping this weekend.  Frankly, the idea seems like crap to me... the group that we shared Careys Hut with all came in on 4 wheel drive vehicles.  Just their four vehicles were enough to turn me off to the idea of having more noisy vehicles in the area (part of the plan for that project mentioned above involves 4-wheel-driving through the area).  It really killed the experience of enjoying nature in a peaceful way when the group zoomed by us on our way to AND from the hut...and we were left to inhale exhaust fumes after the cars were long gone. Ick.

Anywho, plans are in the works for my next tramping trip.  Now that spring is here I imagine I'll be out and about quite a bit in the great backcountry of New Zealand!

Things A-Brewin'!

Last weekend I went to Dunedin's first Craft Beer and Food Festival.  It was a hit!  It was SO awesome to have breweries from around the south island in one spot to sample deliciousness after deliciousness.

Emerson's made a special festival brew with Whittakers chocolate - this stout was so yum!  It had just the right amount of chocolate in it (I love the taste of stout, so too much chocolate would have made me sad).  My favorite beers came from Velvet Worm.  Hands down.  They totally rocked my taste buds.  I've had cravings for their Periportous Pale Ale ever since I left the festival!  The Eve of Jupiter Red Ale was also pretty darn tasty.  The word on the street is that Velvet Worm is served up at local restaurants and thus I am on a mission to suss out exactly where I can get more (Dunedin Malt House looks like a promising spot to get my fix if I'm not looking for nibbles to go with my pint).  Golden Eagle Brewery's Big Yank American IPA really impressed me - I may have been nostalgic and felt like I was right back in the States when I sipped it (overstatement? Maybe. But give 'em a try if you can get your hands on this stuff!).  The last beer stop of the day was at Twisted Hop.  They had a heated mulled cherry beer that was sooooo delightful in that c-c-c-c-cold stadium.  The day finished up with music by Sola Rosa - man, were they FUN!

Now that I've tasted everyone else's beers, I probably should get around to brewing my own.  iMake donated Mangrove Jack's Series brew kits to the Otago University Brewers Association and so all OUBA members will have a crack with them.  Funsies!  But, before I do that I need to bottle the plum wine that I started back in March.  The color looks good and it doesn't smell funky, so I think it's ready to be consumed in the near future. Hurray!

Great Naseby Water Race

What a weekend in Naseby!  The weather was stunning for the Great Naseby Water Race - my first glimpse of ultra running.

I traveled out of town on Friday with friends - one of which was signed up for the 80k (49.7 miles) race.  When we reached Naseby, we stopped by the start/finish line to watch some of the 100 mile runners (oh.my.god. why would someone want to run that far?!).  It was hard to believe that we'd return in the morning and they'd still be running.

Runners of all distances ran the same 10k (6.2 mile) figure 8 shaped course.  This was fantastic because the start/finish line was located where the two loops intersected-spectators could see their athlete every 5k and athletes had access to their own nutrition and gear every 5k.

On Saturday we were up around 5:30am to take our runner to the start line.  I had never been to a race that started in the dark!  It was actually really neat seeing athletes and spectators donning headlamps to make their way to the start line.

The sky was amazingly clear - the stars were incredibly bright and the crescent moon was sitting pretty just above the tree line.  But, my enjoyment of the moment was short lived - holy hell it was freezing out there!  I was thankful that I wasn't running; to think... those 100 mile runners had been in that cold all night!

During the day, the air temperature was great for a race - I was able to stand in a t-shirt and shorts without getting chilled.  The sun was out the whole day and so the snowy mountains really stood out against the clear blue sky.

Our runner did his first 40 kilometers by himself and then his brother and I took turns running with him.  The original plan was to alternate pacers every 10k for a total of 20k each, but I ended up running 25k because the other pacer wasn't feeling well.  I hadn't run that far since the Christchurch marathon, but I made it through with few issues-the course was forgiving because it was on trails for long stretches and our runner alternated running and walking, which helped my knees cope with the distance.

The experience of watching the ultra reminded me of my experience with Ironman Lake Placid - enduring a lot of pain and digging deep for patience/strength to make it to the finish line.  Oddly enough, it got me excited to take a shot at an ultra marathon next year!  I've started training for the Northburn 50k race and so I have my fingers and toes crossed that I can make it to March with no injuries.

Back at it, like whoa

It's SUCH a great feeling to be back in Dunedin!  I've been extremely busy with thesis work, MInT study stuff, and finding a gig (or two) to bring in $$$ after the MInT study wraps up.  On top of that I've started getting back into running after a two month hiatus (injuries/illness kept me down, but I'm back!).

The MInT study has been following families for two years to compare two groups: families that did/did not work with a mentor to make healthy changes.  I've been responsible for booking measurement appointments and doing the measuring for height, weight, waist circumference and blood pressure.  We've got about three children left to measure and then the analysis will begin... All children were overweight (based on BMI) at the start of the study and now we'll see what happened to children's body composition and look to see if the type of intervention group may have influenced outcomes.

I've also been through a little bit of training to measure babies' length and weight for the BLISS study-this study will look at baby-lead eating practices.   I also got a job with a qualitative study where I'll be responsible for going door-to-door to interview people on quality of life related issues.

My own research has taken off recently.  I received a lot of good feedback after my presentation on psychological flexibility and women's weight changes at the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science conference in Sydney - it makes me super excited to continue my research knowing that so many people find it interesting in these early stages!

Related to that - I've almost wrapped up the entire analysis for these two questions:

• Does baseline psychological flexibility predict 3-year weight change/stability?
• Does baseline intuitive eating predict 3-year weight change/stability? 

I'll still need to analyze our data to look at baseline mindfulness and weight change/stability, but now that I understand our statistics software and how to run analyses, check diagnostics, blah, blah, blah, the process should go quickly.  All of this data analysis has also got our team thinking about what to ask with the 5-year Women's Lifestyle, Eating Habits and Wellbeing survey, which will take place in 2014.

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to explain a little more about my own research findings and share pictures of recent adventures around New Zealand.  In fact, on Monday I should have pictures from my first experience as a spectator at an ultramarathon! WAHOO!

Ironman Lake Placid 2013

I went up to Lake Placid to catch the Ironman triathlon and volunteer with friends from the Broome County Triathlon Club on the bike course.

At the bike aid station we were responsible for handing off water, Powerade, gels, bars and bananas to athletes as they zipped by us.

Caps had to come off all these bottles!

A kiddie pool of ice kept the drinks chilled.

Prepping the Powerade:

 The group waits for athletes:

After the shift, I went into town to look for BC Tri Club members who were out on the race course.  I saw this spectator rocking a fancy orange/pink ensemble: 

Watching the Ironman finishers reminded me that all the effort and pain of training and racing is so worth that feeling of accomplishment at the finish line.

I can already sense that I'm running out of time in New Zealand and so I'm not sure how feasible Ironman New Zealand would be - financially and time-wise.  I brought my road bike back to New Zealand with me, but I think I'll use it for cross training because I've decided to do a little 50k race that will take place in March.  =)

HOME! Boston to Binghamton

I arrived in Boston at 10pm on a Saturday night.  I was absolutely knackered from traveling and lack of quality sleep over the past week.  Thankfully, my friends Peter and Scott were at the airport to welcome me back to the States and treat me to some DELICIOUS pizza (funny thing - I couldn't eat enough pizza when I was home! I craved it all the time). 

View from Peter's apartment:

This is a view from a park in Peter's neighborhood:

Memorial/tribute to Boston Marathon bombing victims: 

I spent a few days in Marblehead and Ipswich and visited with my Salem State College friends before I drove home with Beth.  I was SO excited to be back in my hometown!  It was great catching up with family and friends and exploring the city.

My high school: 

In honor of

Rod Serling, class of 1943

creator of "Twilight Zone"

award winning dramatist

playwright and lecturer

1924-1975

American Civic Association Memorial Park: 

As I took a picture of the memorial some guy drove by wagging his middle finger out the window and yelled, "Hey lady! Take a picture of this!" Oh, Binghamton. You're so classy!

Chenango River:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade: 

As I took a picture of this, four guys walked by and one introduced his friend as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s son and asked if I wanted a picture with him. *facepalm* I declined the invitation.

Court House:

Interesting what you notice with fresh eyes:

Washington St walking bridge to the south siiiiiide!

Monday Afternoon Club, Phelps Mansion: 

Thank you to all the friends and family that made time to catch up with me!  I wish I had more time to spend with you. xo Sara

AUSTRALIA!

Time to get back to blogging!

It's been several weeks since I presented at the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science World Conference in Sydney, Australia.  I presented my analysis of the association between psychological flexibility and body mass index change/stability over 3 years in a sample of middle-age New Zealand women (basically, baseline Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II scores did not predict BMI change (gaining/losing weight) nor BMI stability (staying within 3% of baseline BMI).  The presentation had a few hiccups, but the rest of the conference was FANTASTIC.

I had the opportunity to listen to speakers like:

• Joseph Ciarrochi
• Steven Hayes
• Kelly Wilson

I was particularly interested in the talks related to interventions delivered online and via smartphone apps.  Jonathan Bricker's work was particularly interesting - his smartphone app really caught my eye because it uses ACT for smoking cessation and his presentations gave me a few things to think about as I get ready to start developing a web-based intervention for weight gain prevention.

I spent most of my days at the conference, but I stayed at a hostel in nearby Coogee (I honestly cannot recommend the hostel for a variety of reasons...travelers to Coogee would do themselves a huge favor by avoiding the place I stayed at).  Despite the less than ideal accommodations, the beach was pleasant to walk around before heading off to the conference.

I wasn't able to spend much time in Sydney, but I did treat myself to a harbor cruise - that was cool!

It was a nice way to wrap up my travels in the southern hemisphere before my trip home - the first visit in 1 1/2 years!

Next stop - San Fran then Boston!

*Crickets*

There hasn't been much action with the blog lately, but (hopefully) I'll be back at it in no time!  Long story short, my laptop got left behind in the Sydney airport and I also needed to replace my camera.  I assumed that figuring out how to get my laptop back was going to be my biggest worry of the trip, but here I find myself... 7 hours away from leaving for New Zealand and I don't have a flight from Auckland to Dunedin. *facepalm*

Yeaaaaaaaah, soooooo...