Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Morning Run, Upcoming Race, and UT's done it again ...

I guess I'm going ahead with the training plan I mentioned yesterday. I woke up early again this morning for a run. I wasn't particularly fond of the fact that it was already in the mid-70s (and climbing) and humid when I went out, but oh well. Aside from my normal warm-up and cool-down, I logged a respectable 3.14 miles in 36:48. That's a 11:43 pace, which is almost a minute/mile slower than yesterday, but I'm quite pleased with it anyway. It's been months (or possibly years) since I've attempted running several days in a row plus I'm proving to myself that I can be a consistent runner off the treadmill. I did have to slow to a walk to get drinks, but I think I'm getting better about how far I run each time. My shin seems to being holding up. They no longer ache when I'm running, just after I've had some time to relax. Abnormally, it's my thighs that are plaguing me now. They felt a little stiff during the third mile, but now they're outright sore and aching every time I have to walk up or down stairs. I'm going to be optimistic and say that my thighs just got a workout sooner than they had expected to and are cranky about it.


Apparently my mom decided she wasn't even going to TRY to deal with the heat and humidity this week. While I was off on my run this morning, she ran around the house closing windows and turned on the air conditions. I'm not particularly a fan of the a/c, but I get cranky when I'm too warm to sleep (hmm ... sound like someone else? Dad!!!). It's always a big decision to turn on the a/c in our house. Without it, we're miserable. With it, our sinuses (mine less so than when I was younger) go complete bonkers. It usually comes down to "does dad want to loose sleep over being too hot or so stuffed up he can't breathe." A fun decision, let me tell you.


Maybe I'll brave the heat and humidity tomorrow and get a trail run in? It'll be a short(er) one, no more than 2.5 miles, but the metroparks don't open until 7, and if I ran at the park closest to me, I'd probably run a trail that doesn't have much cover. In fact, it goes through sand dunes (one of my favorite parts of living on the Oak Openings Ridge)! I'd get to wear my new trail shoes, at least. I haven't had a chance to put those puppies through their paces yet!



Is my Garmin here yet? No? Dang. Is my Garmin here yet? No? Dang. Is my Garmin here yet? No? Dang.


Oooo! Big news! I finally registered for my first 5k yesterday. I will be running the Happy Trails 5k at Wildwood Metropark on June 18. I’m literally bouncing up and down excited now! The only thing I’m wondering about now is, besides am I going to be able to run the whole thing (I registered as a runner), should I put off playing with my Garmin until AFTER the 5k? Common sense says to stick with what I’ve been doing, but everything else tells me to use every tool at my disposal. I guess I need to decide if I’m just going to be happy with finishing or do I want to put the pressure on myself to finish in a certain time. Hmm. Deep thinking, here. Hope I don’t hurt myself. Lol.


The crap that happens at this university never fails to surprise me with its level of stupidity. I finally got to talk to Karen (the only person working records management for the grad school and clearing graduation for the ENTIRE university), last week and discovered that the reason she didn’t have my Plan of Study form was because it had been sent back to my advisor. It would have been SO much easier if someone could have just told me 2 weeks ago when I called. So, I went in early yesterday morning to track down David and ask if he had checked his mailbox lately (if you knew him, you’d know why THAT was the important question to ask. Lol). As it turns out, he had already had the form for almost a week and was just waiting for me to come find him and ask about it. Typical. He was “cleaning” his desk when I went up to talk to him. I’m lucky my form didn’t get lost again.


Anyway, the reason my POS got sent back was because I didn’t list Hydrogeology in my courses. If my eyes could roll any further back in my head, they would. I took Hydro as an undergrad and my committee filed the paperwork waiving that requirement for me! The prof I took the class from is on my committee, for pete’s sake. Right away, I asked mom to IM Karen and ask if I could come talk to her about the form, since they’re friendly. I used the excuse that my phone was dead (which it wasn’t) and we don’t have one in the lab (which is true, actually). I just didn’t want to call and pester the woman and lord only knows if the person at the front desk would even put me through to her! And I definitely didn’t want to walk over to UHall in this heat just to discover that she wasn’t in her office. I don’t mind using my mother’s connections on campus (and sometimes peoples’ memories of me as a kid) when it makes dealing with the university’s BS easier. It worked out, though. I went over and had a nice chat with Karen and it’s taken care of. Really, that was the only reason I went to campus yesterday.

2 comments:

  1. So, what you are saying is you're going to graduate? :-p
    Glad to see you have a blog too... I'm following you now! hehehe
    I miss you too! I'll try and keep up with your healthy little journal here!

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  2. Yes, I'm graduating at the end of this summer. All that's standing in my way is writing a literature-review-type paper and defending it to my committee (which I have until the last day of the semester to do).

    I've had a blog for YEARS, but because I used it as more of a sounding board, I kept it limited to people who had accounts on the same system. I thought it was time to grow up a bit and grow out of that blog. I'm TRYING to act like an adult. lol

    I may be down your way later this summer. I promised Nichole I would call if/when that happens so we can all try to get together or lunch or something. :)

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