I get a lot of complements i the last few years about how I dress. I guess the key is to find things that are flattering to you and more or less in style.
I think 43 things is entirely too many goals to have. I haven’t look at these goals for ages, and I wonder why I even put them on there. I’m gonna delete most of my goals and focus on just the most important, or the ones I enjoy the most.
So I rode my bike on an errand yesterday. It was neither as terrifying or as difficult as I thought it would be—that’s why my bike had been sitting in my basement for over a year! Can’t wait til next week when my tires get fixed!
I can’t understand if it’s loud or too many people are talking at once, but for the past 10 months or so I’ve really understood most of what’s going on. Of course if I don’t understand, I can always ask!
If I make rules like this for myself, I usually end up failing. What’s better will be my new (rather undefined) goal, which is to incorporate more activity in my daily life, like walking more or riding my bicycle.
I’m an easily-distracted person, so I think for me it’s best to focus on one thing, rather than figure out how to do too many things at once. I’m trying to set aside some time each day to work on small things (e.g. errands, email), but the majority of time will be spent on something to help me reach my big goals, namely, finishing my dissertation right now. I have to choose aspect to finish, and continue until it’s done.
So about a month ago, my first paper was finally published. It took about a year, partially my fault, but also some things were beyond my control. During this incredibly painful process, I learned a lot—it’s making my second paper much easier.
Still, we academics don’t always get a lot of guidance on this stuff. It’s assumed that everyone knows the best way to do this. A friend recently sent me this article http://tinyurl.com/689hw6 which clarifies the situation.
Even though I took some time to rest my muscles before the race, I was still exhausted this week. So I only went running once, on a kind of exercise course—it was about 2.3 km, but every couple of hundred meters there were some exercises to do. The bad thing is that it was just two days before the relay, and that all my upper muscles were pretty sore from the effort.
The relay was, on one hand, pretty awful. Had to turn around after I’d left the house since I’d forgotten my start number, so I had to run from the bus stop to the start, still missed the start signal, and started a good 500 meters behind everyone, already totally exhausted. Ran too fast in the beginning and the end, got a stich in my side couple of times but still managed to be only 1 min 30 sec past my fastest times, so I’m pretty pleased with my performance considering everything.
So, although I did great last week, and I went jogging three times, I think I must have wore myself out. I couldn’t manage at all to go running this weekend.
So I went swimming for about 40 minutes on Monday morning. I lost track of how many laps but I think it wasn’t too slow. I read on the Polar website that it was ok to substitute the weekly long run (for endurance building) with an equally long swimming, biking, or whatever session—something in which your heart rate is a little lower but you keep at it for an hour or so.
So I plan to go for a little jog on Thursday, have two dance lessons this week, and otherwise rest a bit before the big 5k on Saturday.
I do hope I’ll be ready, though, for the 10k in June.
So another beginner runner wanted to go running with someone, so we went on the short (3k) course. I realized as we were going up some slight hills that I was pretty pooped from my other runs this week, but still, the weather was gorgeous and it was nice to have some conversation.
Anyway, I’m thrilled with myself—already three runs this week! Let’s hope I make it on Saturday!
So I went with Week 9 Session 3 this morning (6 X 5min r +1min w), but I felt very tired towards the end there—maybe I hadn’t yet recovered from last time. I used my heart monitor again, and yes, once again, as I got tired it became hard form me to stay below a heart rate of 85% of my max, especially because there are some hills towards the end.
I think it’s good to know this information, that I tend to train a bit too hard. Hopefully I can stick to my goals a bit better.
So I wanted a simple sports watch that just had a timer, so I could time some intervals. But somehow, couldn’t find a cheap watch to do that, and went all out. I bought a Polar RS100 running watch with a heart frequency monitor. I just hope I can get my money’s worth out of it, since I tend to buy sports stuff and end up never using it.
I used it for the first time this morning. It has a feature that calculates at which heart rate you should exercise (you do each for one minute—slow walk, normal walk, fast walk, slow jog, brisk jog), and it beeps like crazy if you go under 65% or over 85% of the maximum heart rate. It was actually quite difficult to stay under 85%, especially going up a hill or towards the end of the workout when I was getting tired, but this might explain why I’m sometimes so tired after running; I’m probably overdoing it. But I think it takes a few times before getting the hang of the features.
I ran 5 intervals of 10 minutes (at about 82-85% max heart rate) with a 1 minute walking recovery minute in between.
So the running was fine today (I had been nervous, since I hadn’t done any long trainings since I got back from my vacation) and so far, the watch has been a good investment.
I gave myself the goal to be finished with the paper this week. I’ve been actively writing it since January—time to get it done. I’m staying home this morning to work on it.
I completed Session 2 of Week 7 (a bit differently—I did 5×5min run, 1 min walk). I feel pretty tired, but I’m hoping it’s just because I hadn’t been running for 3 weeks before last Sunday. I’m trying to stay positive!
I really want to run the 10k on June 10—stay focused!!
So, I had been traveling two weeks and just got back the other day. I was inspired by a girl I’d met while traveling, who’d joined a triathlon club and really loved it—she’d been feeling great ever since she started. So I figured, it’s time I committed myself to running the 10k this June, instead of just the 5k I did last year, or putting the 10k off again and never doing anything new!
My first run after 3 weeks off was pretty measly—just about 12 minutes one morning. But I remembered the quickest way to get in shape is with intervals, so I back-counted the weeks until the 10k and decided I could start with the plan for Week 7 on my old standby running plan:
http://www.sportmedbc.com/Content/InTraining/Programs/Run10kIntro.asp
Since I’m still a bit jet-lagged, I started with Session 3 of Week 7 today. I think I covered nearly 5k, not bad for hardly running at all this year.
So I finally took a run that I really enjoyed.
I had been procrastinating about running again, although I am already committed to running around 5K in early May. Although I went last Saturday (see last entry) I wasn’t particularly motivated. But I went about 3k yesterday in 20 minutes, not bad for a second run in six months.
I hadn’t been jogging since November (?) I really don’t know, actually—with all the traveling I did last summer, I missed the Sept. 16 10k, and without a goal in mind, I kind of stopped running. Actually, aside from a little swimming and dancing, I haven’t been doing much activity, period. So needless to say, I’m pretty out of shape for my next 5K run in early May.
So I ran 3×5 minutes, with a 2 minute break in between—nothing stellar, but I’d told myself before I began, I would be happy if I just ran two steps.
So I’m not sure if I will be around for the 10k run this June or this September, but I will at least have it in mind.
So now I’ve been working on writing it for about a month, every now and then. There are only a few small things lacking in my rough draft, and I’m still not so sure about my discussion, but I think it’s coming along pretty well. I’d like to give it to my supervisor next week and finish it by the end of March.
I really haven’t been doing a good job of this, but this week I just barely made it:
M—Swimming
T—Swimming, Salsa
F—Lindy Hop
Ok, I think this is really pushing it, but I’m going to count the dancing anyway :-) And I am especially proud of the swimming, since I managed that before work! But I need to actually write it up in 43 Things to make sure I keep doing it.
