This is it, the last day of 2008. It's been an interesting one to be sure. The year in numbers:
Moves: 2
Apartments: 3
Broken trailer hitches: 1
$$ spent on gas: hahaha
Wisdom teeth removed: 4
MRIs: 1
Injuries: 1!! (an improvement)
Miles run: 761
Highest weekly mileage: 30
Average weekly mileage: 14.5
Highest monthly mileage: 96 (February...go figure, the shortest)
Average monthly mileage: 68 (not bad, now that I look at it)
Weeks of laziness (no running): 2! Both due to the hip injury
Months as a vegetarian: 18
New car batteries: 1
New computers: 1
New textbooks: 8?
"A"s in stats class: 1!!
"A"s total: 3!!
Publications: 2
Manuscripts in progress: 3
New bikes: 1
New pairs of skis: 3 (2 for me, 1 for Doug)
New baby cousins: 1 (Paige)
That's all I can think of for now - not a bad year!
Happy New Year, all...
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sitting in the airport as the sun comes up
That's right - the semester's over! I've actually been done since the 12th, but still in town until today. Now, I'm sitting at the spectacular Capital Region INTERNATIONAL Airport waiting for a flight to Detroit, where I will change planes and head to Newark. Happy to be headed home, but sad that once again, Doug and I won't be spending Christmas together. One day...
The semester wrapped up pretty well. I managed a 4.0 - even getting an A in my stats class, which is definitely new! Maybe I did actually learn something in that class... Next semester I'll be keeping myself busy with two classes and an independent study. My schedule doesn't look bad, but I know that independent study will take up quite a bit of time, and I'm really hoping to get some good research done over the course of the semester. Have to take advantage of not teaching!
Running has been interesting these past few weeks. I would guess that in the past month, there's been one day without snow on the ground - the day it rained and temps were in the 40s. Since then, snow has fallen almost every day, and we have over a foot on the ground (about a foot of that came all in one day). I've managed every run outside and there was only one day - with windchills right around zero - that I really just didn't want to go out there. Twice, the weather has kept me from going out. The first was this past Friday when that foot of snow dropped, and the second was yesterday when the wind chill was -15 with sustained winds at 29 mph and gusts to 45. That's just cold. In light of that, I've decided I'm going to need a gym membership when I get back from PA. I still want to increase my mileage, and at least need to maintain it, for good spring racing. If that means I have to break down and run on a treadmill, I guess I'll deal. I'll still get out as much as I possibly can.
Last weekend, to celebrate the end of the semester, we went cross country skiing up in Roscommon. It was a lot of fun! I have definitely found a new sport. We tried skate skiing - which Doug already has experience with - they were offering a 2 hour clinic for $5. It's tough! I'll give it another try because I did enjoy it, but it was really rather tricky. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting out there as much as I can and as a bonus, I found out Saturday that the local trails are open, so we won't have to drive 2+ hours to do it!
Hope everyone is doing well, and a happy holiday season to you :)
The semester wrapped up pretty well. I managed a 4.0 - even getting an A in my stats class, which is definitely new! Maybe I did actually learn something in that class... Next semester I'll be keeping myself busy with two classes and an independent study. My schedule doesn't look bad, but I know that independent study will take up quite a bit of time, and I'm really hoping to get some good research done over the course of the semester. Have to take advantage of not teaching!
Running has been interesting these past few weeks. I would guess that in the past month, there's been one day without snow on the ground - the day it rained and temps were in the 40s. Since then, snow has fallen almost every day, and we have over a foot on the ground (about a foot of that came all in one day). I've managed every run outside and there was only one day - with windchills right around zero - that I really just didn't want to go out there. Twice, the weather has kept me from going out. The first was this past Friday when that foot of snow dropped, and the second was yesterday when the wind chill was -15 with sustained winds at 29 mph and gusts to 45. That's just cold. In light of that, I've decided I'm going to need a gym membership when I get back from PA. I still want to increase my mileage, and at least need to maintain it, for good spring racing. If that means I have to break down and run on a treadmill, I guess I'll deal. I'll still get out as much as I possibly can.
Last weekend, to celebrate the end of the semester, we went cross country skiing up in Roscommon. It was a lot of fun! I have definitely found a new sport. We tried skate skiing - which Doug already has experience with - they were offering a 2 hour clinic for $5. It's tough! I'll give it another try because I did enjoy it, but it was really rather tricky. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting out there as much as I can and as a bonus, I found out Saturday that the local trails are open, so we won't have to drive 2+ hours to do it!Hope everyone is doing well, and a happy holiday season to you :)
Friday, November 28, 2008
Naperville Noon Lions Turkey Trot
I ran my first Turkey Trot last year in Carrboro and thought it was a fun little tradition. This year, when Doug and I made plans to visit his family West of Chicago, I started looking for a race to run. Turned out there was one in Naperville, not too far from the town his parents live in.
We had planned to leave at 6:30 for the 8:00 start, giving me plenty of time to get there, get my packet (with number and chip), and warm up. Unfortunately, we left a few minutes late and hit every single stop light on the way there. Once we arrived at the race site, it was packed. We drove around for what seemed like forever to find a parking spot, and then boogied over to the high school gym. Weaving through the crowd to get my packet was interesting, but I finally got it with 5 minutes to spare. The timing chips used in this race were disposable – no need to turn the in again at the end. Great in theory, except this meant I had to figure out how to put it on my shoe with frozen fingers. Finally got that and my mittens on, and headed off to the start. I think the race had started by the time I got lined up but no worries – it took me almost 4 minutes to get across the line.
As of Wednesday night I was still trying to decide on a goal for this race and finally, before falling asleep, decided just to have fun and run well. My back has been bothering me, I’ve been tired, and I was talking myself out of a good run. When that race started and was so crowded, all I could do was try to weave around people. Several times I almost fell and at one point it crossed my mind that it was a good thing I had crutches in the trunk of my car – I might need them. I kept jumping over curbs, running in the grass and on the road, slipping between people. Somewhere in the first mile I remembered Mike telling me that the key to 5ks is to hold back in the first mile, hammer the second, and suffer through the rest. So, I started telling myself to hold back and stay calm. First mile – 7:59.
The second mile was more of the same, though a little bit less crowded. I picked up the pace and tried to find a clear path. When I passed the mile marker, I was shocked – 6:12. No freaking way – I asked a guy next to me if he thought that was in the right place, and he thought it was short – I agreed. I had run that mile faster, but not that much faster. This suspicion was confirmed later on.
I had a little more room for the third mile, but not much. Since I knew that mile marker was in the wrong place I really wasn’t sure how far along we were, so I didn’t know what to think of my time. We turned one corner and I heard a lady tell her friend we were almost there – this was the last street. I was still under 20 minutes, so I tried to pick it up and see how well I could do. Turns out that last street went on for a while! More dodging and weaving and I crossed the line with the last 1.1 in 10:03 – yep, short second mile.
Chip time: 24:25 (7:52 pace – my first time under 8:00!) – a PR by 1:28! I finished the race, grabbed water and a banana, and walked over to meet Doug and Kona. The first thing I said to him was “I can do better.” It was tough, but without the weaving and actually having time to warm up, I know I could do better. I’m now really looking forward to the summer racing season…
Kona and I finished up with about a mile cool-down, and went back to Doug’s parents’ to eat and enjoy the rest of our Thanksgiving.
We had planned to leave at 6:30 for the 8:00 start, giving me plenty of time to get there, get my packet (with number and chip), and warm up. Unfortunately, we left a few minutes late and hit every single stop light on the way there. Once we arrived at the race site, it was packed. We drove around for what seemed like forever to find a parking spot, and then boogied over to the high school gym. Weaving through the crowd to get my packet was interesting, but I finally got it with 5 minutes to spare. The timing chips used in this race were disposable – no need to turn the in again at the end. Great in theory, except this meant I had to figure out how to put it on my shoe with frozen fingers. Finally got that and my mittens on, and headed off to the start. I think the race had started by the time I got lined up but no worries – it took me almost 4 minutes to get across the line.
As of Wednesday night I was still trying to decide on a goal for this race and finally, before falling asleep, decided just to have fun and run well. My back has been bothering me, I’ve been tired, and I was talking myself out of a good run. When that race started and was so crowded, all I could do was try to weave around people. Several times I almost fell and at one point it crossed my mind that it was a good thing I had crutches in the trunk of my car – I might need them. I kept jumping over curbs, running in the grass and on the road, slipping between people. Somewhere in the first mile I remembered Mike telling me that the key to 5ks is to hold back in the first mile, hammer the second, and suffer through the rest. So, I started telling myself to hold back and stay calm. First mile – 7:59.
The second mile was more of the same, though a little bit less crowded. I picked up the pace and tried to find a clear path. When I passed the mile marker, I was shocked – 6:12. No freaking way – I asked a guy next to me if he thought that was in the right place, and he thought it was short – I agreed. I had run that mile faster, but not that much faster. This suspicion was confirmed later on.
I had a little more room for the third mile, but not much. Since I knew that mile marker was in the wrong place I really wasn’t sure how far along we were, so I didn’t know what to think of my time. We turned one corner and I heard a lady tell her friend we were almost there – this was the last street. I was still under 20 minutes, so I tried to pick it up and see how well I could do. Turns out that last street went on for a while! More dodging and weaving and I crossed the line with the last 1.1 in 10:03 – yep, short second mile.
Chip time: 24:25 (7:52 pace – my first time under 8:00!) – a PR by 1:28! I finished the race, grabbed water and a banana, and walked over to meet Doug and Kona. The first thing I said to him was “I can do better.” It was tough, but without the weaving and actually having time to warm up, I know I could do better. I’m now really looking forward to the summer racing season…
Kona and I finished up with about a mile cool-down, and went back to Doug’s parents’ to eat and enjoy the rest of our Thanksgiving.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Out of steam for today.
I sat down at the computer to write my review paper, but I'm tired and have run out of steam.
We had snow again today, it's actually still snowing as I type this. When I checked at around 6 PM we'd had almost 2 inches, and it has snowed steadily since then - it's all pretty outside. My walk home from school was cold but I didn't mind - it makes me feel like such a little kid, but the snow just makes me so happy! Mondays are my usual day off running, but I wanted to get back out there so I changed as soon as I got home (after 8) and took Kona out for 40 minutes. We had a great time.
We had snow again today, it's actually still snowing as I type this. When I checked at around 6 PM we'd had almost 2 inches, and it has snowed steadily since then - it's all pretty outside. My walk home from school was cold but I didn't mind - it makes me feel like such a little kid, but the snow just makes me so happy! Mondays are my usual day off running, but I wanted to get back out there so I changed as soon as I got home (after 8) and took Kona out for 40 minutes. We had a great time.
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