SPRING BREAK! WOOO hoooo....?

Finally. Spring break. The college student's mental vacation to kick back, relax, have a good time, and enjoy the spring weather.

Right?


Sure, whatever you say.

Last night we got 4-5 inches of snow, with a couple more on the forecast. Great way to kick off break, eh? Oh well, it'll keep me inside to actually get work done. That's the optimistic part of me this morning.

Here's my superfun plans for break:

• Finish database project
• Get reasonably far in animation project
• Start compilers project
• Grade stuff
• Grade more stuff
• Send out more TNT letters
  
• Go home if I have time

Sounds like a plan, right homies?

I'm actually not ALL complaints, because I actually find a lot of this stuff interesting. Just not as interesting as, say, riding my bike outside. Or running without bundling. Or hell, running at all, since I'm forcing myself to take a full week off due to my knee (next run is Tuesday). I'm about halfway there and I'm already desperate for some endorphins, but you could probably tell that just by reading!

To top it all off, last night I emailed a professor to clarify something in our project. It was a legitimate question about something ambiguous in the way the project was worded. His response? Very condescending, misspelled my name (come on, it's in my signature), etc, etc.

Finally, on a positive note, I've been doing a lot of planning for the Garmin type project I mentioned a few days ago. The name of the project is going to be ... *drum roll*... Endurance Trends. I'm also going to make it a little bigger than originally planned, but that part's going to be a surprise a little bit further down the road, stay tuned!

Snow Day, Swimming, & Progress

Okay, so its not an official snow day with the university, but its close. This morning class was canceled, and the corresponding exam was postponed due to the insane amounts of sleet/ice we got last night.

The snow started around 6 last night, but then close to 11 it switched over to ice. All. Night. Long. It is still spitting ice right now, but it should be switching over to rain fairly soon according to the radar and temperature.

My run this morning is going to get postponed a little bit, as well. Rather than slipping, falling, and breaking my hip I thought I'd wait a few hours and let the rain melt some of this stuff off. Sounds like a good idea, right? I think so! Although even if it doesn't switch to rain, you'll find me out there running in a little bit. I am NOT going to be a gerbil for 6 miles today!

In other news, my swim on Sunday was absolutely amazing. It started out so-so, with my coach telling me to work on the usual things: Don't turn so much to breathe, arms at 11 and 1, smaller breathes, relax your arms, etc, etc.

Then, it clicked. I don't know why or how, but I stopped turning so much to breathe; I didn't have to turn so far, it felt natural, I wasn't worried about swallowing water. My arms were relaxed, I was relaxed. I was finally confident enough to start an interval even when I was out of breathe. I was able to push myself in the pool, just like when I'm running.

Then, my swim coach said five words to me, "You look like a swimmer." I thought nothing of it. I'm in the water. Swimming back and forth. Of course I'm a swimmer.

Not so fast.

The two people in the lane next to me heard it too. They told me thats one of the biggest complements she gives. Both Ruth and Treacy can recall the first time Coach ever said those words to them. Pretty huge, huh?

Progress.

You know what progress does.

Breaking in the new kicks

Today I got to break in my first pair of new running shoes in almost five months; I can't believe its been that long! Last time I got a new pair, a hip injury followed suit. Damn those Mizunos! This time I went back to my old faithful shoes: Asics!

I went with the 2130's, which replaced my old 2120's that I've been eeking out as many miles as possible on. But the new kicks are sweet, no discomfort at all and eliminates nearly all the pounding; just what I need.

The run this morning was great, to me. We got an inch or two of snow last night, which wasn't enough for it to get in my shoes, but was enough for me to make my mark in the snow. Theres just something about leaving the first footprints in a fresh snow; I love it!

My hip is hanging in there just fine, even after four miles at a respectable pace. The splits were:

7:27
7:22
7:35
7:25

And in other news, I'm still managing to hold off the illness that everybody seems to be getting. Hopefully I can stick with it; the 10 hours of sleep is probably helping. I better keep doing that! (Hey, let me believe what I want to!)

Tonight I gotta jump on the bike in the basement again. Although the snow was fun to run in, it completely ruins biking for the next week or so. Blargh!

I hope running is going well for everybody else!