Endorphins!

I finally got my fix. Oh yes, I got my fix!

After about two weeks off (not counting last Sunday's 1/4 mile swim), going back at it felt AMAZING! After being pretty much shut down for that long, nothing can quite describe how pumped up I am right now, so I'm not even going to try.

Since I've been a bad blogger lately, here's a summary:

• Finals are DONE!
• Exercises for my knee are a go
  
• Swimming works again
• I don't have a care in the world
• I'M GOING TO HAWAII IN SIX DAYS!

I thought I could make a full post about how pumped I am right now, but nope, not quite. Just know that I am. This thing is turning around.

Life is good.

Turning Back Around

For a while there, it seemed like everything was working against me. I couldn't run, bike, or swim. Homework was piled up, and grading was just the icing on the cake. Luckily, all that is turning around.

The school work is finally subsiding (or will be on Monday). I'm starting to get grades back from midterms, too, and lets just say this semester is strongly resembling my last one. I have nothing to grade. Let me reiterate that: I have nothing to grade. I even got to go home for several days last week, which was phenomenal since I got to see my cousin for the first time in a year since he also drove to Illinois for the weekend.

To top it all off, I think this knee is getting better.

I made it out for a run this morning, which was great! I decided to only run around the block, which was about 3/4 of a mile. There's no point in pushing it. It was only a little test run to see how my knee reacted. It did react, a little bit. I could feel it a little bit at the top on the right side of my right knee, but it was a very dull pain.

More importantly, I didn't feel as though I regretted it afterwards. My body didn't say "ohhh, you shouldn't have done that!" I'm considering myself on the mend and am planning to swim Tuesday night, then run again on Wednesday morning assuming all goes well these next few days. Update: I woke up today (Tuesday) and my knee is hurting again. Back on the roller coaster, I guess? Ugh.

Despite the good news, I'm officially canceling my half marathon for the spring. Sure, I might be able to do it, but it's a really bad idea at this point and simply begging for a relapse. Everything else is still on, unless this knee takes longer than expected to heal.

And don't think I forgot: Happy St. Patricks Day!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good

I just ate tacos. And they were fantastic.

The Bad

Just kidding, there's more good, thankfully!

My knee is starting to feel a little bit better. I still don't see myself doing, uh, anything this week, but it's at least getting better. I went to the A.R.T. guy today. He thinks he can help, and I got one treatment today, but I'm going to sit on it a little bit longer. I'm kind of iffy about therapy (see "The Ugly"). I'm also making progress on my pile of work, so I'm hoping to make it home on Thursday. Maybe I will get a few days off!

Luckily, though, I've been in this "hyper learning mode." I'm not sure what caused it, but I'm finding everything extremely interesting lately, almost anything from my classes to biking to web servers to... other computer science topics I won't bore you with. Hopefully it sticks around for a while (like until I graduate)!

The Bad

The knee isn't perfect, though. When I shower the heat from the water makes it sore for a little bit. But no worries, hygiene is not going to end up listed under "The Bad"! Also, my sleep schedule is completely jacked up. The last two nights I was working on stuff until about 3am. When I don't work out I never fully wake up, but I also don't really get tired at night. I live in limbo, it sucks!

Also, I will comically put under "The Bad" that my computer is too fast. In one of my assignments I need to compare the speed of my program to another, but I can only time them so accurately. The result? Yep, everything takes 0.00 seconds and I can't see any more accuracy to make conclusions. Who wants to donate an old crappy computer?!

The Ugly

Right now, the ugly is very ugly. Yesterday I got a call from the one type of business nobody wants to hear from. Thats right, a collection agency. Wait. W T F?! I don't owe anything to anybody, do I?

Apparently I do.

My physical therapist has been trying (although not very hard) to mail a bill to my address, but has been leaving the apartment number off. So rather than call me (which he did several times during therapy, he has my number) he decided to pass it on to a collection agency who says "Hello! Give us $xxx.xx by tomorrow or the puppy your credit history gets it!"

It basically works out to me paying the wrong person the deductible (ART guy got that) and the PT charging me more than the amount (which they swore up and down) they said they would. Unf. Ramen noodles, anyone?

---

That's whats up in my life. Thanks to everyone for the extremely encouraging comments! Here's some responses:

Christine - Don't go calling Endurance Trends 'little', it's going to be anything but little. Good luck with the 'little' degree you're working on, too. :)

Nic - The Relenting Runner is dead. He won't be back unless one of my legs literally falls off. Although, I do have a clever name up my sleeve if I decide to completely change my focus to triathlons...

PreFan - Never tried Accelerade. I usually stick with Gatorade, even though I know it really isn't the healthiest choice ('lethal' amounts of HF Corn Syrup).

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!

Lazy Week

This has to have been the most low key week that I've had, workout wise, this entire year. Everything is encouraging me to take it easy, so I have been. I'm not going to lose that much fitness by going extra easy on a planned easy week. In fact, I might even gain something!

I skipped biking on Monday and swimming on Tuesday. Last night I had every intention of doing my bike-swim brick, but then an ice storm hit and everything got canceled since a quarter inch of ice was on the forecast.

Because of all this rest, though, I'm back to feeling back to normal. No more sore throat. No more being drugged up all day long. No more blowing my body weight in snot out of my nose every day. Although, I will admit to feeling a little bit lethargic since I haven't worked out since Wednesday morning. Seriously, how do those non-runners do it? No exercise = no energy.

Despite my apparent laziness on the workout front, school has been keeping me crazy busy. Between giving my first exam and having some seriously challenging programming projects, my free time has whithered away to nothing this week. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to this weekend; it's gonna be a good one!

Complete Randomness

Today is another day with no coherent theme. It happens.

• Swimming last night was phenomenal. I think something clicked. For you experienced swimmers, it'll sound like no big thing. For the past week or so, I've been able to swim 25 yards, then usually take a break to catch my breath, and I could occasionally swim 50 yards, but the thought of 75 made me feel like I would vomit in the pool (I hear they don't like that). Last night, however, 25 felt trivial, 50 was doable, and 75 was challenging. But hey, its progress right?!
• I need to post about running basics for Amy & Tom but haven't come up with anything yet, hopefully I come up with something tomorrow!
• Last night I called home all excited to see what my parents thought about the Team in Training shin dig. They sounded kind of put off by the idea, which surprised me since my dad is in the medical profession. They're supportive of it if I decide to do it, but were by no means saying "All right! Great idea!" etc.
• I did better than average on my entry exam for my CS505 class, without taking the prerequisites. Americans represent! (There are 3 Americans out of about 40 students in this class)
• Tomorrow I'm attempting to wake up to run with some friends at 5:30am. Why did I agree to something like that? Something is wrong with my brain. The sun doesn't even come up until 7:30!
  

And finally, workout news for the day. This is a step back week, so the volume and intensity are getting pulled back a little bit, although I'm keeping the frequency of workouts the same. Monday I was feeling so great I had to go with it, but now I'm taking it easy until next Monday, promise!

Distance: 17.06 miles
Time: 45 minutes
Speed: 22.67 MPH
Average HR: 148 bpm

I'm wishing bike trainers weren't so expensive ($200 or so, I think). I'd much rather ride my own bike for my indoor workouts, plus I can trust the distance part of it, because Garmin calibrates it on my outdoor rides so it also works indoors. I have a feeling these numbers from the stationary bike don't mean anything compared to outdoor numbers, but they are at least meaningful when compared to other distances on the stationary bike.


Marcy - I'm feeling just fine "down there," the seat on the stationary bike is like a lazy boy compared to the seat on my usual bike! Also, thanks big time for the encouraging words about TNT! I'll find out more at the meeting on Saturday, but you have it about right. Raise X amount of money while training for the race, then do the race. I'll post more details when I get them on Saturday!

Nancy - Thanks for the words of caution. I've thought about it quite a bit, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it right? I feel like I know a lot of people all over the place, even outside blog land. Also, my family is quite large, has had quite a few run ins with cancer, and is generally rather generous. Although I do see myself having two disadvantages. First, I don't know anybody closely with Leukemia, so I don't have a great story to get emotions going. Second, with me most people won't think "wow! I can't believe Doug is doing a triathlon!" so they may not think its that impressive.

Jess - You do realize you, a college professor, just (jokingly) asked me, a college student, for money, right? Just wanted to make sure! ;)

Taryn and POM - Thanks for the good words about TNT! So far, I haven't heard of a single person having a poor experience with them. I don't know about you guys, but I'm all about meeting "cool peeps" as POM so accurately put it!

What up Doc?

This post is just a bunch of random bits of information. Even though most my posts turn out that way, this time its on purpose!

• I made the decision to switch to the PhD program. Although I still have to apply, I see no reason they would reject me. But that does mean I have to jump through the hoops of getting recommendations again; oh the joys!
• My healthy diet is turning into habit. Yesterday, my Aunt sent me cookies. This huge tin of wonderful chocolate chip cookies! I ate 3 of them when they got here, and they're absolutely amazing. But, I have no urge to eat them. At all. I see bananas or cookies and consistently choose a banana. I look at my workouts the next few days and feel as though I can't afford to put crap in the tank. A good shift, but even I'm taken aback by it a little!
• Today is a rest day, which means I'm bored out of my mind; I don't feel like I need it, but I scheduled it so I'm taking it! I've had 10 workouts (13 if you count ab workouts) in the past six days, and I'm not feeling it at all. Adapting? Maybe!
• I'm scheduling a massage for next Friday to work any kinks out of my legs that are starting to show their heads; I figure its good for me physically and mentally, so why not? I'll call it a "treat" for working so hard lately.
• Tomorrow has seven miles on the schedule; the farthest I've run post injury! I'm optimistic about it, as always! My hip is feeling stronger than ever, and I'm ready to push it a little bit farther. 9 on the 9th, here I come!
• Finally, an endorsement for Vanilla over at Half-Fast. He's organizing a "Shave Your 5K" challenge. The idea is to see who can cut the most time, or percentage, off their 5K this year. See his post for the official rules. Go participate, even if its just because of his swawesome logo!

Okay, thats a lot more random than I thought I had; but its too late now; I hope everybody has a great weekend!

Winter Goals Progress

Productivity seems to be a major theme lately, and thats the case again today!

I woke up at 8am and jumped on the exercise bike downstairs. The windchill was around 20 and biking in that would have been begging for frost bite, so I think I took the best route, even if I do hate working my tail off and getting no where! As much as I dislike it though, the bike told me my fitness is definitely increasing! Back when I first started on the exercise bike, my best, all out efforts, at the peak of marathon season, would get me around 24 miles in an hour.

Here's today's stats:

Time: 1 hour
Distance: 25.34 miles
Heart rate: 155 bpm

I was pushing pretty hard, but I always felt like there was something left in the tank. If I hadn't run out of Gatorade, I definitely could have kept at it for a little while longer.

After that today was a big homework and study fest. Tomorrow I have an entry exam for my database class, and if I don't do well its very strongly suggested I drop the class; especially because I haven't taken the pre-reqs! I feel prepared, but we'll find out if thats the truth tomorrow!

This evening I did another ab workout; these are really starting to get to be habit, which was one of my winter goals! I can really see and feel the results, so I'm all about keeping at it. On the topic of my winter goals, all of them are going well:

• I stuck with my physical therapy religiously, and now my hip is pain free
• I've started to regain some of my muscle mass, but it fluctuates like crazy because I'm having a hard time eating enough to keep up with my workout schedule
• Ab workouts are a habit, as mentioned previously, and it feels like its paying off!
• Mileage is rebuilding slowly and steadily, although I don't plan to get my running mileage back up to 40 this winter since I'm balancing biking and swimming too. Although, if I follow the rule of 3 miles biked counting as 1 mile ran, I'm back in the 40-50 mile range per week!

Tomorrow morning I'm going out for a tempo run. Yeah. Thats right. I'm going to run hard for the first time in 15 weeks. The plan is one mile warmup, 3.1 miles hard, and then cool down the rest of the way back to my apartment.

I don't really have a precise goal pace in mind for tomorrow, although I would like to bring my tempo pace down to 6:06/mile in the next month or two. No I don't want to run a 1:20 half marathon this year (6:06/mile). No way. Honest. You can trust me.

(I had my fingers crossed)

Teaching an old dog new tricks

Yep, its doable! Today the UPS guy delivered my Garmin cadence sensor for my bike, and now my Garmin does new tricks!

I got it all hooked up to my bike after class, and tested it out a little bit in my apartment (pedaling backwards, not around my kitchen table). Seems like it works, now I have even more numbers that should help me train just right on the bike!

Last night I went swimming for the first time in over a week, and it went fairly well. I only swam for a little over 30 minutes, but right now I just need to get in the habit of getting in the water again. Also, with my time split between swimming, biking, and running now, my energy level is a lot lower when I'm actually in the pool than it was before break. Over time, my endurance will get better, though, just gotta be patient while my body gets used to the workload.

Today was finally a rest day, and I needed it! My legs were starting to feel rather worn out the past couple days, but this day off is just what the doctor ordered. I'm still going to do a core workout in a little bit, so the day isn't a complete bust.

Following the rest day, though, is a pretty grueling weekend. Saturday I run in the morning and bike in the evening, then Sunday I'm swimming in the morning and running in the evening. Lots of busting my tail, but my carefully calibrated schedule seems like it will let me balance school and working out ump-teen times a week!

TIIIIMMMBERRR

Okay. I'll admit it. It finally happened. I fell today. I accidentally completed the cyclists "Rite of Passage," and here is how it happened:

1. Approach intersection
2. Unclip both feet to stop
3. Stop successfully with both feet on the ground
4. Drink Gatorade. Ahhhh, thats the stuff!
5. Clip in left foot
6. Wait for the only car on the road to go through intersection
7. Tip over
8. Start laughing so I can tell myself the driver is laughing with me, not at me
   

And thats about how it happened. I'm still not even sure why I tipped over. I wasn't stopping, and I wasn't even starting yet, but down I went. I didn't get hurt, it was really in super slow motion, but there was nothing I could do to stop it!

Besides that, today was a great ride. Nearly every driver I saw today gave a friendly wave, every dog was completely uninterested in me, and the weather was perfect! I really need to bring my camera along with me one of these times, but I think I'm going to wait until Spring when its really beautiful out there.

I was a little bit slower than Monday, my legs were a little tired and just not feeling it, but here's the stats:

Distance: 21.16
Time: 1:17:06
Speed: 16.5 MPH
Average Heart Rate: 158 bpm
Garmin Data

In other news I taught my First. Class. Ever. tonight! It definitely could have gone better, but it was my first time so I'm not being too critical on myself, just thinking about what I can do for improvement. I covered a huge amount more than I thought I would; 75 minutes is a long time! I also need to slow down and elaborate more. Live and learn, right?

Bill - If you became an ex-runner because of me, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. At worst, get a bike and use cross training to replace your easy days. Do you even have easy days? :)

Marcy - Don't be a big sissy, or I'll steal your lunch money! Also, you really don't want to call me Emeril, that would imply that I didn't screw up a frozen pizza and noodles back to back a few weeks ago!

Ready, Set, ....

Alright guys, this next semester is staring me square in the face now! Break buzzed by, but I'm finally starting to get out of this mental vacation I've been on the past month. Today was unlike any I've had for the past couple weeks: crazy-productive!

My alarm went off at 8am. So I hit snooze. It went off again, so I turned it off, put my head under the covers and finally crawled out of bed around 9. Bad start, but I can still save it!

I jumped into my running shorts and flew down the stairs, up the hill, up the next hill, and into the wind. Four and a half miles later we have....

7:21
7:15
6:55
6:53
3:53 (for 0.56 miles)

It was a great run that got me ready to rock for the rest of the day.

BAM! Haircut!

BAM! Spent $300 on books!

BAM! TA Meeting!

BAM! Scheduled due dates, etc for the class I'm teaching!

BAM! Setup my website for my class!

BAM! Setup the laptop for class tomorrow!

BAM! Ate dinner!

BAM! Wrote a blog entry!

BAM! Said BAM! ten times!


If I can keep this crazy momentum going, I think I might graduate by next Thursday (as opposed to May 2012). That is, if people don't kill me from saying BAM! all the time!

Delaying the Inevitable

Yesterday my sister woke up feeling sick. Today, both my parents were feeling a little under the weather. I still feel okay. But its practically guaranteed that, save a miracle, I'm going to be getting sick in the next few days. Ugh!

I'm doing everything I can to hold it off. I've been drinking lots of orange juice and water to boost my immune system and flush out my system. My hands have probably been washed more today than they have in the past week! Also, I spent as little time in the house as possible today.

I made a trip to the nearest running store, which is 60 miles away, to get some new running shoes since my current ones are wearing out. Then I further postponed coming back to this germ-hole by browsing around Borders for a while, looking at cycling and triathlon books.

After secluding myself by reading a book on swimming, I did the only logical thing and took a trip to the pool for the first time in a few weeks. I'm trying to incorporate some techniques the book talks about in order to make my stroke even more efficient. So far I've gotten my freestyle down to just 15 strokes per lap; a HUGE improvement over the 27 it took me a few months ago!

Tonight I have to start getting ab workouts going again. I've been slacking big time on the goals I set a while back! The stability ball and medicine ball I got for Christmas are really encouraging me to get on top of it now.

And, this just in... (Literally. I got an email while typing this.) I'm officially teaching next semester. Really teaching. Last semester I just taught a lab, but now I'm actually going to be lecturing a classroom of students. I'm excited and worried about it. Its a great opportunity, but how much time is this going to require? I'm hoping it doesn't keep me from training as much as I want to!

And, some responses to comments:

Bill - I use the Garmin Forerunner 305. I love it and how it tells me every possibly thing I could want to know about my running. If heart rate data isn't important to you, the 205 is a bit cheaper.

Vickie - Yeah. That weather sure is fun! Wasn't as bad as the Illinois winter last year, but I'm sure Michigan had it even worse! Luckily I shouldn't be back to Michigan until its nice and toasty again.

Marcy - Yep. I'm definitely trying to make you jealous! But I've earned this break big time, I'll go back to being a sleep deprived college student soon enough!

Everybody else - Thanks so much for the encouraging comments lately! But be careful, your enthusiasm only pushes mine to increasingly dangerous levels!

Relentless

It's more than a number of miles. It's more than taking on the heat, cold, rain, snow, ice, and wind. It's a mindset; and one that I've missed. But its back! And I'm back!

These past few months the theme has been "don't over do it." It was a theme I needed, but all and all I think it started to make me weak. I noticed this on the bike the other day. The game plan was to go for an hour, and after just 15 or 20 minutes a little voice kept telling me it was time to quit. Over and over "don't over do it", "you might hurt yourself," yadda, yadda, yadda.

Well, I've had it with them. I told them to can it. Forget relenting. I'm relentless again!

Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm still going to increase my running nice and steady, but the other parts of my training are going to start increasing in intensity. In the past, biking and swimming have been cross training to me; but thats not the case anymore. They're a part of my training that needs the same amount of effort as before; not just recovery days anymore!

These past few days have been good days. I've been working out every day, sometimes twice. Running hasn't been aggravating my hip, I've even run two days in a row without any pain whatsoever. With the rest of my time I've been pretty lazy, but I've earned the break after busting my butt these past few months.

But what did busting my butt result in? All A's, 4.0. Hells yeah! I've earned this mental vacation!


SLB - I think its too late to put a trainer on Santa's list. Although, we have one at home that I'll be using for the next couple weeks if the roads are bad. I have enough other biking stuff on my list to keep Santa plenty busy!

Bill - I've never heard that I look like my dad. Honest. I don't hear it from everybody that has ever seen us side by side! A lot of people say the same about me and my sis. Last year at her Christmas party a friend of hers greeted me with 'LOOK! ITS BRENDA WITH A BEARD!' By the way, how does Sunday morning sound for our run? I'm thinking 4-5 miles.

D-O-N-E

Thats right. The semester is over. Completely. Holy crap!

Grading, check
Finals, check
Sanity, check

Now I just need to wait for grades to come in. Oh the waiting!


I made it out for a run this morning, but I feel like going out again. Its how I like to wrap up every semester. I ran 15 miles right after graduating college; it was great! I guess I kind of blew it by running this morning, huh? Oh well. I'm not gonna go out again, can't risk the hip! I'll get business taken care of at the pool tonight; my ankle better behave itself or we're gonna have some SERIOUS problems! It never hurts when I run, though, so I'm not complaining too loudly.

The hip is holding up nicely. I made it out for about 3.5 miles this morning to shake the cob webs loose before my final final. I've adopted a strategy this semester that has worked pretty well for me. None of that sleep deprived, studying till the last minute crap that everybody else does. I've been getting a solid 10 hours of sleep, a nice lunch, and exercising before my exams. While everybody else crammed in last minute stuff, I was reading the excerpt from "Again To Carthage" in December's Runner's World.

Splits this morning were:

7:35
7:14
7:08
3:10 (7:25 pace)

Great run, hip didn't hurt at all. Doesn't hurt now.

Tomorrow I drive back home and am stopping at Eastern Illinois on the way to see some old friends and a few professors that nudged me to go to school at University of Kentucky. Then I get to surprise my parents who aren't expecting me until Sunday night!


Nic - You have yourself a deal, my friend. Chicago '08 the barrier will be broken side by side!

Marcy - According to my Garmin, it wasn't THAT fast. Not as fast as Bill anyways; that speed demon!

Bill - Yeah, I'm getting pretty close to muttering those sacred words myself. Maybe next week sometime... I can't get ahead of myself! Soon, very soon!

Something in the mail!

Yesterday I finally got my video from the Chicago Marathon. It was supposed to ship a month ago but got delayed for some reason. Regardless, its finally here! Which means you get to see the finishing shots:

I'm pretty happy with the finishing shots, although I was hoping it would be a little higher quality. Most of the rest of the video is really great quality, then anything I appear in is kind of pixelated. I guess they don't want us taking screen shots of it instead of paying $60 a picture for the official pictures of the race.


The weather here in Kentucky is pretty freaking crazy lately. Two days ago it was in the 30's. Yesterday it was up to 70. Today its down in the 40's. I wish it would just make up its mind so I could get used to it one way or the other!

I had my amazing run yesterday, thanks to the weather, but last night my swim was pretty crap-tastic. I got through the warm up (which is still basically a full workout) alright, but then my left ankle started hurting. I kept trying to massage it out, but it just got worse every lap I swam. I decided to call it a night early. The weird thing is, it doesn't hurt at all when I walk or run. I'm just counting it as an off night, I'm giving it another shot tomorrow.

The hip is hanging in there perfectly, even after my too-quick run yesterday. It didn't pipe up at all last night or even today. Sounds like I'm really starting to recover now! I'm still planning for this to be a repeat of last week, then next week I'm going to add in one extra run. Slowly but gradually I'm going to build back up to where I was. So I can kick Bill & Nic's butts.. eventually! The next time Nancy directs a race, they're gonna have to watch out!

All I have left with school this semester is one final. A final I need a 50% on in order to get an A in the class. And its over material I know inside and out. I'm pretty much out of here for the winter!

Don't say it on an airplane!

So, um, yeah. About that test this morning. The one given by "jerk-face," lets just say I am to that test as President Dubya is to Iraq. I bombed it, but with a smile on my face!

Realistically, my grade on the exam doesn't matter, so long as I scraped up at least a few points. Even if I get a B in the class, its over ridden by the A I'll get in graphics, so it won't hinder me getting into the PhD program should I decide to take that road. Because of this, I went into the test with a pretty nonchalant attitude, despite the fact that I studied 20-30 hours the past few days.

The test was redunkulously hard. Seriously. There were huge questions about stuff he mentioned practically as a side note in class.

But, theres nothing to do about it now. So I'm taking the road less traveled and instead of being bummed, I'm relishing in my smart-ass answers to the questions I had no clue on. My only regret is not taking the time to say various things I thought of on the walk back to my apartment!

The pressure is off now that I have that one behind me. I only need 50's and 60's on my last few exams to stay in the A range, which shouldn't be a problem at all! And ALL my grading is done, to boot!


On the exercise front, today is an off day. I'm just being a bum. Monday is always a rest day anyways. This week I'm planning to hold off my progress on the running front. I want to do a repeat of last week just to rebuild a little bit, then I'll start adding more miles over winter break. Hopefully this endless rain storm disappears sometime this year so I can get out on the bike and put in some more miles!

I'd Like to Say I'm......

No, I can't say it.. not yet. I can't jinx the progress I'm making.

But lets look at the facts. In the last seven days, I've run 8.77 miles and my hip is feeling wonderful. Although I've had weeks with higher mileage, this is the highest pain free mileage I've had since the beginning of September!

I'm hoping I can keep this progress going, and as long as I don't do anything stupid I think I can keep it up. Once I get up to 5 miles I think I'll be able to mutter the words I won't let myself say just yet.

On a less positive note, I lost my sunglasses. And no, not some cheap-o pair from Walmart, these were the $120 pair I got from my parents for my birthday in 2006. My wonderfully comfortable sunglasses I barely notice are on my head. The ones I could have a seizer with and they wouldn't move a millimeter.

I'm really, really hoping they turn up somewhere soon, but my apartment isn't that big and I've searched the entire thing up and down. And my car. I must have dropped them after my ride Saturday, because thats the last place I remember having them. One way or another, I think they'll turn up or I'll give in to buy some new ones. Update: Found 'em! They were in my car. Fell off the opposite side of the passenger's seat.

Since I'm not one to dwell on the negative, here's a few positive things. I rocked that assignment that demolished my Thanksgiving "break." I still feeling completely on top of everything in school, only 1/3 of an assignment left this semester! Not to mention everything that I said was going right in my last post.

Here's to progress.

Accomplishments

These past few days have been crazy busy! Between swimming, biking, running, classes, grading, and projects I've hardly had a moment to relax. But the great thing about it is the sense of accomplishment that comes along with it. This post is mostly just me patting myself on the back, but I think I deserve it!

Here's what I got:

• Biked 33 miles. You guys know the story.
• I'm really getting down my swimming drills. Going back for more in a little bit!
• My 3.1 mile run today simply felt monumental. I don't know what the big difference between 2 and 3 miles is, but this run felt very significant. Nothing hurt, and it still doesn't! Rock on!
• I am 100% caught up on grading until more gets turned in on Friday.
• In my classes, I'm the only one who doesn't look like they could drop dead at any moment due to the sheer amount of stress. Taking time to take care of myself really pays off.
• My final graphics project is pretty much complete. And I'm really, really enjoying this stuff. I'm hoping I have some time on break to do a little more with it. You guys know what it means when I get excited. It means you get to hear about it. But a pictures worth a thousand words, so here is a little look into what a first semester graduate student in graphics can do.

Some basic shapes, who said math wasn't beautiful?

Reflections and shadows

A scene combining everything, including some transparency

Everything is winding down. Sort of. I have one project left to do, and then finals. I'm determined to still find time to swim, bike, and run as much as usual. So far sticking with it has been paying off big time.

Dead Week Cometh...

Next week is what we like to call "Dead Week" here at University of Kentucky. Every class has a final project due, and final exams are the following week. Everybody is stressed and is essentially a walking zombie for the entire week. But I'm not worried.

In fact, I don't plan to cut back on any of my swimming, biking, or running because of school. I have two large projects due, and a good amount of grading. However, its all under control. At least I think it is. In my classes, I'm one of the only ones who doesn't look completely and totally stressed out. And I'm also willing to bet I'm the only one who has been working out almost every day! Coincidence? I think not.

This entire week I haven't missed a workout, and I've been eating pretty well too. All in all, I think its actually helping me get things done, and resulting in having more energy. I feel like all my time has to be structured, and I need to get "x, y, and z" done before I go swim, etc. I have less time in the day to work than everybody else, but I'm getting much more done during my productive hours! Hopefully this trend continues!

Today my hip is feeling wonderful. Practically perfect. I really feel like getting out for a run, but I'm going to lay low today and follow my every other day rule. Plus I'm going swimming tonight anyways, and as tempting as it is to run there and back, I'm going to give my hip a break until tomorrow.

Tomorrow, my shiny new lady in red is going to lose her metaphorical virginity. Sure, I rode her yesterday morning, but that was just foreplay. Tomorrow is the real thing. Right now the plan (although not set in stone yet) is to ride in the evening after class for ~20 miles with Bryan and maybe Mike. If they aren't game, I'll head out on my own. I'm debating a run in the morning, an easy 2 miles; something I know my hip can handle. I might cancel it since I have the ride in the evening, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

I'll Call it Progress

These last several days have been absolutely crazy.

Its mostly been due to school. I had an assignment the professor claimed would take him about 40 hours to complete. Needless to say, my Thanksgiving break wasn't much of a break. But its finally over. The cold I caught last week is done too. I'm no longer blowing twice my body weight out of my nose every day, which I think is definitely progress!

My TFL was a little sore after my monumental 1.5 mile run on Friday, so I took a couple days off. No shame in that. I'm feeling great again today and am going to go out for another run this evening after class. As long as I can keep running a little bit and recover from it, I'll be able to say I'm on the road to recovery!

I did a little thinking on my drive back to Kentucky last night about what could be causing my TFL to get sore from minimal amounts of running. The TFL is on the side of the leg, so it shouldn't be used too much for propelling me forward. As far as I understand it is mostly designed to keep things stable, but correct me if I'm wrong. Then I started thinking about what could cause me to use my TFL more, what would make it wear out so fast?

The only answer I can come up with is that I'm pushing off at an angle. If my body or leg is rotated too much, I might engage my TFL more when pushing off. On my way to class this morning I noticed my left leg was turned in slightly, so I'm making a conscious effort to undo it. I know with runners who pronate they say NOT to try and reverse the pronation, because it will only cause more damage. Is this similar, or does it somehow fall in another category?

I'm hoping I'm onto something here, but it could just be my sleep deprived brain (3 hours of sleep last night, woohoo!) telling me stories. Either way, I'm going to try concentrating on this one detail during my run tonight, and we'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Here's to progress,

-Doug