Well, September, in just a few weeks in fact, we’ll be officially in “fall” again. I know people that love the fall, I’m one of the weird ones that don’t. And honestly, I don’t consider myself a pessimist (maybe a cynic at times, but never a pessimist). I usually can see the glass as half full, or at least more often half full than half empty, but with the fall, yes, it gets pretty, the leaves look great, and the break in humidity is great for running, but it’s not like spring, we don’t have the humidity then either, and the days get warmer and you look forward to 50 degrees and running in shorts, but after you get used to summer and running in shorts in 90 degrees, running in shorts in 50 again feels cold. One morning this week I saw my breath in the air leaving for work, and the two mornings I have run, I went in shorts, but chose long sleeves for the top…and it will just get cooler…and then of course the dark…in the spring the days are getting longer, in the fall they are getting shorter. I guess what this all comes down to, and what makes it hard for me is that I live in Minnesota, of course, and here the fall is very short, and it leads into winter, and winter is very long, cold and dark, none of which I like. So while yes, the weather is great for running, the leaves are pretty, it’s leading to something very soon that I don’t like and it’s hard to enjoy the month or so of fall that we get because of that. That makes sense doesn’t it?
For this week I got a happy surprise on Tuesday. A friend of mine happens to mention recently about being on the Nike campus once…when I ask how, she mentions that’s where her friend that lives in OR works. Umm…does she get DISCOUNTS? I asked…and I wasn’t even thinking of my shoes because you know, I get an OK deal on them most times, but the Nike Tempo Track short. They are my favorite. I have 8 pairs and I still want more because they are comfy and they have so many fun colors. Well, turns out she can get the normally $28 shorts for $16…I said yes, get me some. I said around $100, basically about 5 pair, and I happily went through the 22 colors on Nike’s site, got it down to around 10 that I really wanted and put them in order saying any 5…I got the package and wore a new pair on Tuesday with my group run, we did fartleks, and let me say, that was tough after that race on Sunday!! I got home and was going to put the new ones away and counted and found 5 in the bag…but I had worn one of the new ones that night too…when I looked through them, one pair had been marked clearance there for $9, so my guess is since they were so cheap, and actually the others were cheaper than the $16 she had thought they were, she just got an extra pair. Shipped they still were only $100…so 6 new pair of Nike Tempo Track shorts, shipped to me (well my friend, but easy enough to pick up from her) for $100…what a great day!!
Oh yeah, and on the other part of my post…school is in session full swing now. I have two classes and have now been to both of them. So far so good…we’ll see how it goes!! So far I really like both profs though, so that’s a good thing.
And I’m winding up the week…this will be my last high mileage week before taper. My plan has me doing about 65 miles, which will be my highest mileage week ever. If I get my run in tonight, the distance that I have planned, there is no doubt I’ll end up in that range…the last 20 miler is on Saturday morning, the back half of the marathon course (out 10 miles the wrong way and then back 10 miles over the hilliest part of it) and I won’t miss that run. Other than that it will probably be a weekend of homework…what more can you do after a 20-22 mile run anyway??
Guess before I post this I can post my pathetic interval day...I won't make excuses for it, it just wasn't in me today. But if I were going to make them, I suppose the race on Sunday, the fartleks on Tuesday, running this morning and the downpour that started halfway into my first mile repeat all could've played a factor (the ran let up after about my 2nd or 3rd one, but by then I was drenched and miserable).
Mile 1 - 7:22 (did lose signal so think this one was long this time)
Mile 2 - 8:06 (really bad signal and felt horrible)
Mile 3 - 6:39
Mile 4 - 7:10
Mile 5 - 6:58
Mile 6 - 6:45
The last 4 were better, but two of them, mile 4 and mile 6 were down a really nice hill...so that's why 6 was as good as it was. I did manage a total of 12 miles even with the rain, but might have killed my MP3...ah well.
Showing posts with label grad school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grad school. Show all posts
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Long Run Weekend
After having a fall back week two weeks ago, and then an even shorter week last week after having my foot worked on, this week I was just determined to get more running in. I wanted my mileage up, but, in particular, I was shooting for a better long run than I have had. Actually, a long run in general was necessary.
Friday I had intentions of just staying in. A few things had the potential to come up, but with no calls by 8:30 figured I was safe. Yet at 20 after 9 a friend called me. My best friend in fact…you know, the one that knows where all the skeletons are buried…anyway, seems her boyfriend finally got it all together and proposed (after 4 years) so I had to go meet them to have a glass or prosecco and celebrate, and the place they were at had really good prosecco. Anyway, still got home and to bed at a reasonable time (obviously they had to have a private celebration). I was tired this week though apparently as I wasn’t up as early as I would’ve liked to have been on Saturday, and by the time I ate and headed out for my run it was almost 10…and finally summer like weather is here…which meant it was warm. I had brought some Accelerade along though, but I know I didn’t drink enough nor did I stop for water on my route. My goal is to have long runs hit at about 8:45, with goal marathon pace of 8:00 that’s reasonable, although ideally I’d like to start doing the first half at about 9:15 and speed up to 8:30 or so by the end…Well, anyway, I started out the run a few too fast miles in there, but hitting about right…toward the end I was really slowing down, some bad hills (a bit of walking up some of them) but I managed 15 miles at 8:56 average pace. I figure based on the bad weeks recently, 2 short weeks in a row, no long run in 3 weeks, and the heel issue, I wasn’t sure what to expect anyway. Training might get back to normal eventually and I did survive it.
Also last week I managed to get my academic advisor assigned, a meeting set up with her for tomorrow, and registered for my first class for this fall. Other highlights of the weekend, I managed to get my deck washed and prepped for staining this week. I cleaned out and up my car, got some work done around the house (although not as much as I should’ve) and spent some time with a friend who is going through a hard time…Anyway, hopefully I can get some stuff together and get my act back on track toward my fall goal…no more distractions!
Friday I had intentions of just staying in. A few things had the potential to come up, but with no calls by 8:30 figured I was safe. Yet at 20 after 9 a friend called me. My best friend in fact…you know, the one that knows where all the skeletons are buried…anyway, seems her boyfriend finally got it all together and proposed (after 4 years) so I had to go meet them to have a glass or prosecco and celebrate, and the place they were at had really good prosecco. Anyway, still got home and to bed at a reasonable time (obviously they had to have a private celebration). I was tired this week though apparently as I wasn’t up as early as I would’ve liked to have been on Saturday, and by the time I ate and headed out for my run it was almost 10…and finally summer like weather is here…which meant it was warm. I had brought some Accelerade along though, but I know I didn’t drink enough nor did I stop for water on my route. My goal is to have long runs hit at about 8:45, with goal marathon pace of 8:00 that’s reasonable, although ideally I’d like to start doing the first half at about 9:15 and speed up to 8:30 or so by the end…Well, anyway, I started out the run a few too fast miles in there, but hitting about right…toward the end I was really slowing down, some bad hills (a bit of walking up some of them) but I managed 15 miles at 8:56 average pace. I figure based on the bad weeks recently, 2 short weeks in a row, no long run in 3 weeks, and the heel issue, I wasn’t sure what to expect anyway. Training might get back to normal eventually and I did survive it.
Also last week I managed to get my academic advisor assigned, a meeting set up with her for tomorrow, and registered for my first class for this fall. Other highlights of the weekend, I managed to get my deck washed and prepped for staining this week. I cleaned out and up my car, got some work done around the house (although not as much as I should’ve) and spent some time with a friend who is going through a hard time…Anyway, hopefully I can get some stuff together and get my act back on track toward my fall goal…no more distractions!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Sex and the Grad Student
I'm typing this ahead of time, so bear with me as there will be a pre- and probably -post to the message!! But yes, that headline means what it says...actually true on both senses of the word. I am seeing (will probably have seen by the time this gets posted) Sex & the City tonight. So excited for this movie and to celebrate I'm having a pre party for some friends, we are going to have cosmos, some snacks (including better than sex cupcakes!) and a bottle of champagne, because we are celebrating!! That's right, the other part of the message. Starting fall of 2008 I will officially be a grad student! Yes, that's right, Thursday at 2:30 I had a phone call congratulating me on my acceptance into a very good MBA program in the area....there are really only two here (that really count) and I got into one of them!! I'm so excited (so much so we even drove by and parked by my school last night!). I have been wanting this for so long and now I finally get to start on it.The movie...was excellent. For those that love the show, definitely see it. For those that saw some episodes and kind of liked it, go see it and for those that never saw the show? Still go see it. It's a grea movie about friendships, how they can get you through everything...love, live, laughs...and for guys, hey, it's insight into the female psyche!
The celebration was perfect too. One other friend had to bail due to a recent accident she had, but there were six of us that went. We had cocktails (including champagne, Cristalino, if you drop the end it's Cristal!! to celebrate my news!) and snacks and then the movie. And then downtown to a more upscale bar where we hung out on the patio after having a dirty martini a la a favorite bartender. (only my second ever) And then flirtinis, just because!!
Today is a wedding so I have to run now, literally, my parents and a cousin are going to be here in an hour for breakfast so have to run and be showered and ready to get it started before they get here!!
The flowers were from mom and dad congratulating me. They were done by, well the nephew of my uncle that died last fall. He's not a blood cousin but that's how I think of him. He does excellent and unique bouquets. Floral Logic.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Coffee, A Mile and Sushi
I have to say, I really, really heart my laptop...I always knew it would be a great thing to have it to be able to go and work on things away from home, but until last night I had never really experienced it. Still trying to complete those darn essays, I decided I needed a change of scened (and distraction) so I headed to Spyhouse Coffee, a cute little coffee place in Uptown that has free wi-fi and just a nice atmosphere (not to mention a FANTASTIC latte, although I should've gone decaf). I got there around 6:30 and settled in at a table, logged on, emailed, IM'd and worked on my essays...at a table, not sitting on the couch with it on my lap, what a concept!! While I didn't get them completed yet, I'm still finalizing, redlining, correcting, etc...I did spend 2 1/2 hours on getting things worked on so there was progress. With any luck I'll be able to finish them by this weekend and have them submitted early next week at the latest. I know one of my letters of recommendation are in, just have the essays, my resume and one other letter to check on. Of course, having sat and drank a double low fat latte, I was a bit jittery and knew I wouldn't be able to sleep. Since it was around 9 and I was near my favorite watering hole, I opted to stop in, say hi and have a couple of beers to try to counter the caffeine. I ran into a friend, visited with him a bit and then got sucked into a game of pool (I warned everyone that I sucked and to prove that, after missing all but one shot, I went to bank off the side for an intentional miss to set up for my partner and managed to bank just right to knock the 8 ball in...ah well...I told my partner coaching me is not a good idea and it's been probably 2 years since I shot as it is!!). I got home around 11:30, attempted to get to sleep so I could be up for a workout, cause you never know, hottie might be there (he wasn't), ALMOST thought I was walking in just behind him, but it was a false alarm. I got a decent workout in and plan to run a 4-6 miler tonight (moved around to get my tempo in tomorrow when I'm more rested) in more warm temps (although I'll be away from work later than normal today so not sure it will still be a nice as it's supposed to be).
I got to work and realized it was the 13th and time to register for my 1 mile race as well. So I am officially doing one race here sometime in the on the map future. I am opting out of the 5K on Saturday, even though I really wanted to do it, but a friend wants to go out and I don't see her a lot and she really can't get out much so we are going out and it won't work to get up and do it. Ah well.
Finally, to the last part of my title...never thought I'd ever post something about sush, but I had to post this cause the picture was in the paper today. I might try sushi (not a big seafood fan and the idea of eating cold or raw fish is so NOT appealing to me) if I can have it served to me this way!!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Running, Trips and Weekend
Alright, I’m at work, and it’s going to be a busy, busy week…and I’m angry at myself for NOT booking my ticket to NY last week as the deal I had found, really good price, is now $20 higher (OK, not THAT big of a deal) but it was also better flight times and into and out of La Guardia vs. JFK…but what do you do? I guess I should book the other one I’ve found and suck it up, live and learn…prices are just going to go up right?
Running…last week I managed 40 miles. First 40 mile week in I don’t know how long. I was pretty happy with it. My plan included 10-12 for yesterday. I wasn’t sure which I would do, but while it was cold, I had the run going well enough that I stuck with it. I ended up doing 12 over the hills of my neighborhood at a 9:05 pace. This was 3 seconds per mile slower than last week, BUT, I did walk a portion of mile 10 (it ended up being 9:36) while messing with my MP3 to get to the right place in the book I was listening to. Had I not done that it would’ve been faster and that’s all I’m looking for…improvement each week. One of these weeks I need to expand the distance…I’d like to be regularly doing 10-15 miles until I start marathon training again. We’ll see. This week might be a good one for a cutback though, since daylight savings change will probably get to me by tomorrow or Wednesday and due to a special thing going on at work this week, I might be working some longer hours and not have the time to get out and run the way I’d like to anyway.
This morning I did get my workout in. 30 minute bike ride, 40 minutes of strength training…and no hottie to even motivate me!!
Weekend was pretty fun. Had a girls night out with friends on Friday, got a little rowdy but not too bad. Felt a little ill on Saturday morning, but was up, doing some cleaning and converting some CDs to my laptop…went to the gym for strength and a run but didn’t feel the strength so just ran and then went home to meet up with my roommate to hit a movie. We saw Definitely, Maybe which both of us enjoyed. Not quite as good as Love Actually (same people made both movies) but very cute…I got a little teary eyed at it…I had a bit of a panic attack on Saturday night…this I tend to come to expect during this time of year though. I guess panic attack is the wrong work, but a tinge of loneliness I guess was more like it, and the sadness I sometimes feel after drinking…I just cleaned and converted more CDs and it finally passed. Yesterday I didn’t feel I accomplished nearly as much as I would’ve liked, but oh well…this week and into the weekend hopefully I can get some big time cleaning done, as well as finishing the grad school essays I’ve been working on for the last month. Maybe I’ll leave the house and see if that motivates me to do something more!
Running…last week I managed 40 miles. First 40 mile week in I don’t know how long. I was pretty happy with it. My plan included 10-12 for yesterday. I wasn’t sure which I would do, but while it was cold, I had the run going well enough that I stuck with it. I ended up doing 12 over the hills of my neighborhood at a 9:05 pace. This was 3 seconds per mile slower than last week, BUT, I did walk a portion of mile 10 (it ended up being 9:36) while messing with my MP3 to get to the right place in the book I was listening to. Had I not done that it would’ve been faster and that’s all I’m looking for…improvement each week. One of these weeks I need to expand the distance…I’d like to be regularly doing 10-15 miles until I start marathon training again. We’ll see. This week might be a good one for a cutback though, since daylight savings change will probably get to me by tomorrow or Wednesday and due to a special thing going on at work this week, I might be working some longer hours and not have the time to get out and run the way I’d like to anyway.
This morning I did get my workout in. 30 minute bike ride, 40 minutes of strength training…and no hottie to even motivate me!!
Weekend was pretty fun. Had a girls night out with friends on Friday, got a little rowdy but not too bad. Felt a little ill on Saturday morning, but was up, doing some cleaning and converting some CDs to my laptop…went to the gym for strength and a run but didn’t feel the strength so just ran and then went home to meet up with my roommate to hit a movie. We saw Definitely, Maybe which both of us enjoyed. Not quite as good as Love Actually (same people made both movies) but very cute…I got a little teary eyed at it…I had a bit of a panic attack on Saturday night…this I tend to come to expect during this time of year though. I guess panic attack is the wrong work, but a tinge of loneliness I guess was more like it, and the sadness I sometimes feel after drinking…I just cleaned and converted more CDs and it finally passed. Yesterday I didn’t feel I accomplished nearly as much as I would’ve liked, but oh well…this week and into the weekend hopefully I can get some big time cleaning done, as well as finishing the grad school essays I’ve been working on for the last month. Maybe I’ll leave the house and see if that motivates me to do something more!
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Procrastination
So, right now I SHOULD be working on my essays for grad school...yes, I need to get them finished. I have had intentions of getting them in all February and STILL haven't finished them...And what am I doing right now?? Surfing the internet and typing a blog...oh well. I should've brought my laptop with me to my parents and I might have had one of them almost typed today when I was discussing it with my parents...I even thought about it more on my run this afternoon too...it's too bad my thoughts can't type for me...
I was at my parents for the weekend. After a slow trip down on Friday, I got to their house, changed clothes and went to meet them for a drink. Had a couple of beers and then went back to
their house and went to bed. Had a little snuggler with me (see picture on the right), then up early the next day and went to visit grandma. Was at her house for about 6 hours, visiting, had lunch, then went back to my parents where I took a nap and then went for a quick 4 miler before getting ready for the dinner and silent auction to raise money for the town foundation. A couple of beers and then a fairly early night and up early, visit with parents a bit longer then got on the road back to the cities so I could do a run. It was supposed to be 38 and it had to have hit that or higher...it felt really nice even with the light mist coming down. I managed my 12 in a 9:02 with a last mile of 8:41.
their house and went to bed. Had a little snuggler with me (see picture on the right), then up early the next day and went to visit grandma. Was at her house for about 6 hours, visiting, had lunch, then went back to my parents where I took a nap and then went for a quick 4 miler before getting ready for the dinner and silent auction to raise money for the town foundation. A couple of beers and then a fairly early night and up early, visit with parents a bit longer then got on the road back to the cities so I could do a run. It was supposed to be 38 and it had to have hit that or higher...it felt really nice even with the light mist coming down. I managed my 12 in a 9:02 with a last mile of 8:41. Now, I suppose...back to those essays and maybe the homework from my financial advisor, and a quick review of a couple of work related things I didn't get to on Friday...and maybe I should think about some "real" food (the Godiva hot chocolate, cheerios and fruity cheerios didn't quite do it!).
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