Whee!

Too much relaxing and not enough internet.

Biking with my dad - Monday.

Persuading GoodWill to take a ridiculous amount of bad fiction and a full set of leather-bound art books and another of Shakespeare - Tuesday.

Oh, plus some more biking.

But an evil cold loomed, clouding the leisure forcast - and my eyes, ears and sinuses.

So on to rehab at the cabin, logs in the walls and in the fireplace.

Junk food is good for a cold, isn't it?

No more than some walking in the fields for the next two days.

But the evil cold lingered on.

So I kicked it in the head. With some biking on Friday.

Achoo! Achoo! Achoo! Snort.

Ok. I didn't KO it. But it's on its way out.

Enough, anyway, to enjoy an almost 5-mile run - in short sleeves! - this afternoon. Well, maybe jogging.

Plus 20 minutes on the bike.

Since I talked on the phone the whole time I was biking, I don't think I was working that hard.

For that matter, I was awfully chatty with the guard at the Washington Monument.

And on the Mall.

Interesting how my legs can't go fast enough to make me breathe hard, at this point.

I thought my lung capacity would be the first to go.

No mention as to how fast I was going, you will notice.

I still won't tell you!

My Own Snowflake 4 Miler

Ok. Three snowflakes.

First snowflakes I've seen in Cambridge this year.

I did not try to walk across the Charles. Though I did see two terribly cute ducks, one trailing behind the other, near the opposite bank.

You'd think more people would be out, escaping their families, Christmas mid-morning.

But it was eerily empty by the Charles.

Except me. And my thumping. Heavy strides.

4 miles.

Then a fabulous strut back from Medford this evening.

Yes, a strut.

There was a soundtrack involved. Thanks, Suave!

The Charles

I finally got to see it again!

And it felt so great to be outside. The lone sculler on the water, fluttering past those fat ducks riding high in the water.

And unfrozen Charles at the end of December?! Crazy to see that.

A bike escort at my side, to ensure that I wouldn't freeze if I fell over and couldn't get back up.

(I was nervous: this was only the second time I went running outside since my terrible muscle pull.)

only 4 miles but a smile just grew and grew.

How the outside can transform your mood!

The Sleepinator

Or, the world's lamest Super Villain.

Apparently, doing nothing all day makes a person tired. Instead of having trouble sleeping and waking up 5+ times a night, like I've done for years, I have become a sleep machine.

Tuesday night, 11 hours. Only woke up 3 times. Went right back to sleep afterwards.

The Sleepinator.


I will snore you to death! Except I don't snore. Really. I don't. I will have to work on that.

It might have had something to do, though, with the 10 miles plus one hour of biking plus the 15 minutes of weights I did on Tuesday.

Hey, when the internets aren't working and job applications are pressing down, a girl's got to do something!

What else could my Super villain alter-ego do? Sleeper holds are SO 20 years ago.......

I Wasn't Going to Exercise

Another reason why I stopped running along about the 5k mark yesterday, besides the boring factor, was that my right quad was pulsing. It would feel fine. Then, it would start pulsing tiredness - like it was tweaked a bit. Then, back to fine.

Weird.

So, no exercise, right? Except Suave had to be walked to work. He might get lost, otherwise.

And then, why not walk back?

Since I didn't get much work done, why not walk to meet him?

At 2.41 miles one-way, that ended up being more walking than I bargained for - even at trundling pace.

I did pass one person. Hah. I've still got it.

About 7 1/4 with the walkies. Then, some more walking to the store. Did that burn off those last three donuts?
Unlikely. But sometimes you have to take one for the team.

Really, It Was (Just About) The Same......

My little brother and I went to the gym.

We got on treadmills next to each other. All set to run it out.

Well, he was.

He did about 13 miles on the treadmill.

I did about 3.

That's almost the same, right?

I decided to stop when I started cheating and put the incline down to .5% and then to 0%.

I noticed that he didn't have the incline on most of the time. That was why he did so much more.

Right. The only reason.

So I trundled off, head tucked in defeat, to bike for an hour while he ran the rest of it.

My only consolation: I was running faster than the lady next to me and the lady across from me.

All that means, though, is that some people run pretty slowly.

At least Suave and I got a (slow) walk in beforehand, too.

Freedom!

And, the Freedom Trail. Very fitting for my first day of freedom in Boston.

Did you know that the battle of Bunker Hill was mainly on Breech Hill, the Monument is not on Bunker Hill, and that the Revolutionary forces actually lost that battle?
Oh, and that the Boston Massacre actually killed only 5 people, most of them rabble-rousers trying to foment a mob?
Or that people would generally entertain guests in the master bedroom?
The only part we didn't walk was to the USS Constituion. I've been to the tall ship in Baltimore and they make you take off your belt and go through a metal detector before allowing you near the ship, here in Boston.
Walked to the start, through the trail and back, then back to Suave's house.

So neat to see all the fancy houses near to the river in Boston. Did you know, that if you are fancy, you have someone else decorate your house for Christmas?

Hundreds of Santas and elves on the breezy, bracing return. Confusing or small children but hilarious to observe.
The snowman was the cutest.
How does one lean of a Santa bar crawl?

I was almost crawling by the time we slumped up the last step. Walking is different than running on the muscles and hips.

All day.

About 12 miles. I'm recovering with donuts. It might be a half-dozen day.

2 For 1

Or, how I ordered ten pounds of candy corn from the internets

Actually, the two have little to do with each other. Except that I likely bought the candy corn for the same reason that I firs did not have the time and then did not have the motivation to post yesterday.

For it was the last exam.

My time management went out the window, again.

Starting with my work-out. Not being content with biking for an hour, I lifted some weights. Which, of course, prevented me from doing any materials review pre-exam.

Then, what happened to my forty minutes of editing time? Why did two minutes left find me inserting conclusions into the first paragraphs of my answers?

But I was done! Whee! I haven had this kind of free-free!-time since before grad school.

Wow.

So I made sure to take advantage of it by squeezing into my swimsuit on the way to the train station. 50 minutes of aqua jogging makes the train food that much tastier!

Whee!

Company on the Road to Nowhere

Yesterday, I was on the road to nowhere. But I had company!

Peace Corps and I ended up aqua jogging for 40 minutes. Neither of us were up for doing laps. Thinking too much about Contracts, today.

Did you know that Mongolians tend to swaddle their children for 6 months? They seem to come out just fine.

I tried to do some intervals while we were talking. I was semi-successful.

I have a feeling this isn't quite how one is supposed to aqua jog. But at least it's something!

Kind of like how I feel about my preparation for Contracts.

Hmmmmmmmm.

My Own Limo Ride

Taking a 3-hour Glucose test is terrible.
(1) It's actually much longer than 3 hours. You have to fast for at least 12 hours before the test. Then, you have to wait around for them to actually get to you at the lab. Then, the 3 hours starts.
(2) You chug a drink that tasts like melted orange popsicles. It's really cold, so it freezes your throat and gives you a cold headache. I think they might make it cold so it doesn't taste as bad, but who wants to chug an almost-frozen drink? It would be frozen, I think, except for the exessive sugar content.
(3)You then sit in a crowded lab waiting room with no tables and no internet. Oh, and no beds. Which you actually are missing. Because the sugar-on-an-empty-stomach-with-little-to-no-water (don't want to DILUTE it, do we?) makes you sleepy. Very sleepy. Not condusive to reading black-letter law on Contracts, certainly.
(4)They put a lot of tape over the gauze when they draw your blood. And they have to go back into the same veins. So you repeatedly have to rip tape off of your forearms. Which have hair on them. Think waxing but for no beautification purpose.
(5)Likely, if you need to take this test, you have some kind of sugar issue. Like reactive hypoglycemia. Or something related. So you are sitting on a plastic chair, trying not to pass out as you sweat profusely, feel anxious, nervous and faint-y.
(6) Then, you get to find your way home. With all the reading materials you brought to try to occupy yourself for 4 hours. Which you have to strap on your back. Which makes your legs - already dodgy because of the sugar reaction and lack of food - more buckly. So you start walking down the street, looking either like a sailor just on leave or a stumble-bum. Always awesome.

I could go on. But, I got my very own limo ride. For $1. Yes. $1.

The Circulator bus emptied out about 2 stops after I got on. It was just me and the driver. Awesome.
That almost made up for the lost work time. And I didn't even pass out in the back.

Running in the Box, Outside

Whoo Hoo!

Sunlight! Not filtered through glass! Do you know what that means, kids?

Yes! Vitamin D!!!!!

Good for all that ails you! And I didn't have to get it through milk. Yugh.

If I lived in Seattle, I'd have to have a sunroom.

I mean, a sun room. With lots and lots of artificial suns.

You might be more familiar with the term "grow lamps".

Yeah.

That's what exercise should be about.

Now, if only I could do all my work unfiltered. Think about how much sun I'd get, then.

About 4 1/2 miles around the Mall.

My pelvis hurts. But I passed a couple who were running. Heh. I'll bet they felt silly.

Then 20 minutes of biking.

Too many Christmas cookies.

The things we do to cut the stress.

Swimming to China

Or, how I am taught humility.

I am really the slowest swimmer I have ever seen.

Every single time I get into the pool, I get lapped.

Yesterday was no exception.

But I did some more jogging too. I've come to like that better, since no one can tell how fast you are going!

Cutting the stress of the day by slicing through the water.

There was a rectangle of sunlight in the water in the shallow end.

I kept swimming towards the light.

Warm and cozy.

5 on, 1 off

Wow. Ivy League was right. So was Gorges.

The full aqua jog workout is hard.

Not effort-wise, really: I don't think I was sprinting hard enough for that. Sure, was breathing hard but no gasping-down-and-reswallowing-my-soul type of hard.

No. It was hard because you are stuck, basically treading water, looking at the clock or the tiles on the pool.

There was a window washer on a rappell line. I watched him for a while.

His job looked interesting.

5 minutes on high leg rotation, one minute off. for 34 minutes, including warm-up.

Then, some laps.

45 minutes.

It would have been more painful but I had the Dormant Commerce Clause to get back to.

Peace Corps said she did a 200 meter sprint on the erg as an alternative to that, the day before.

When you are choosing the erg over a subject, that's bad......

Back to it today.

Soothing the Nerves

1....1.....1....1....1.....1

2.....2......2.....2....2.....2

Counting away the stress.

It sort of worked.

Sort of.

Today, I was also counting off the minutes.

Tricked myself into doing 45 minutes. No more. That was quite a trick.

On to next steps, tomorrow.

A Complete Turnaround

Whinnnnnneeeeeeeeeee

Whinnnnneeeeeeeeeee

It rhymes with "Tiny"

And it's what I was this morning.

"The water will be cold." "I should really sleep more." "I don't want to get dressed."

The water was cold, at first. But 5 back-and-forth laps in, it didn't feel quite so bad.

Then, I tried doing 1/1 fast slow intervals. But I couldn't see the clock. So I went to the end of the deep end slowly, and then back faster/with my legs straight.

Muscle-building, maybe?

Even better, Peace Corps decided she would aqua jog for the rest of the time. So no need for inteverals and you kinds of forget what you are doing.

A whole hour in the pool! And, a happy me afterwards! Here's hoping that will translate into the focused studying left for today.

Taking It Outside

I might have to do it.

Trying to watch some really boring news show while sweating away on the treadmill, I decided this.

Plus, everything sorta feels worse on the treadmill: the sweat is sweatier, the aches are stronger, the cramps stay for longer.

Maybe because there is nothing else on which to focus?

I did another 4 miles at 8:49, though. All I could stand. Plus, I started getting some wrap-around cramps from my back, around my right side and into my abdomen.

Likely just back cramps but it made me nervous! So, after 4, I walked a bit then did 20 more minutes on the bike.

Getting a social fix this afternoon, I actually went to History's house to make gnocci. I think I might have to try to go on that Wednesday morning run.

Fingers crossed that nothing seizes up........

Why Was That So Much Fun?

Thank you, Ivy League! You're still my favorite.

Not only are you cute but you give good information!

I kept getting conflicting information about the whole aqua jogging approach. Some said "run laps". Some said "stay in the deep end." And then, the workouts.

"Try to walk across the pool for 10 minutes, if you can."

"Stay in, doing intervals, for 2 hours."

Um.

But, Ivy League directed me to a Scott Douglas article. So much information about what you are supposed to do, aqua jogging, and how you are supposed to do it.

And his suggestions seemed more up my alley. A bit more than "try to walk across the pool for 10 minutes."

Plus, Ivy League endorsed the program. Well, he endorsed the efficacy of the program. He actually suggested that I not try to follow it right now, as it is rather rigorous.

I half listened.

After warming up, I started doing 5 minute intervals, with 1 minute rests/slow-downs.

I'm sure I didn't go as fast as I should have during the intervals. But I did make sure to go faster during them!

Then, after doing 2 of them, I was starting my third when Peace Corps swam over with another belt.

She was willing to aqua jog with me! I had been happy enough that she agreed to meet me at the pool when it opened! Nine am but that's early for most law students, apparently.

Certainly, we had the pool to ourselves again for most of it.

Wow. That made the jogging fly by! Ok. Not fly. But crawl much more quickly.

I didn't keep doing the intervals because I was having too much fun chatting. But I still felt like I did something!

Then, some quick laps afterwards.

Note about aqua jogging. If you try not to move - like the people who recommend it for keeping competitive runners (i.e. - better than me) fit during injuries - it really works your back and glutes!

My running still is not quite so up-and-down, like you have to be in the pool.

Now my butt hurts a bit. But I am happy that I did the workout. And that I had such great company.

And that, according to the internet, it seems to keep up your conditioning pretty well.

It won't be perfect: I can't use the pool during Christmas break, and I know that I am going slower and much shorter than I would be outside. But I'll still take it!

And then, collaboration in issue-spotting went well, too!
What a great day so far!
The article:

http://pfitzinger.com/labreports/water.shtml