Oh Motivation, Where Art Thou?

Yeah. I'm still feeling lazy. I need to get my act together. Speedy's being less accommodating, which is good (but frustrating - I want to be lazy! Leave me alone! Don't make me get up to go run!) because otherwise it wouldn't happen.

We got a new dog, which makes it 2 people, 2 dogs, and 1 cat in the house. Yes, we're outnumbered. Speedy thinks I am nuts. I think the new dog is awesome. When I dropped off our dog at the kennel to be boarded while we were in San Fran, there was this other adorable dog there, so of course I had to take her in. Speedy was skeptical, but was awesome about it and agreed to go see her. He was also smitten, although admittedly not as quickly as I. So we're keeping her for a few days before we finalize things, just to make sure she gets along with the dog and cat. She does.

Speedy has made it clear that if I want to add any more pets after this I am strictly limited to goldfish. Not saltwater fish, or anything else cool. Goldfish. He knows the cat would have a field day with a fish tank. So it looks like no more pets for us for a while :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays) to everyone! I hope you have a holiday filled with good food, time with family and friends, and lots of laughter and love. As for me and Speedy, this is the last year that my grandparents will host the seven fishes dinner on Christmas Eve, so I plan to take in and enjoy every minute of it. Next year we will start a new tradition - not sure what yet, but something new.

Sorry for the complete lack of new posts. With all the craziness surrounding the holidays and trying to get things done, there has been approximately zero training in the past 5 days. And I've got my brand-new training plan staring at me. Fortunately, it's not being judgmental. Yet. If I continue this utter laziness into next week, then the stares may become more accusing. But for now it's all good.

Cheers!

Running Camp Has Started

So now that exams are done, I'm out in San Francisco with Speedy. Since I don't have my bike and I forgot my swim gear (imagine that!), I am just going to do lots of running while I'm here. 'Camp' started today, with an ~8-mile run along the Coastal Trail. It was a great run, although much longer than expected, but just what I needed to help clear my head.

Today was a not-bad day, cool and breezy, and cloudy but not foggy. There were some unbelieveable views along the run, of bluffs and an old fort and the Golden Gate Bridge and the ocean and the rocky shores and the crazy surfers who surf into the rocks. And of course because the water is probably freezing cold they've all got on thick wetsuits, hoods, and booties. They're nuts. But the views were great. I wish we had had a camera. We took the trail though this super-swank neighborhood and ended up on this street with amazing houses. I thought we had lost the trail at that point, so we stopped some nicely-dressed man and asked him where the trail went. His directions included turning at "Robin's house - Robin Williams." Ah, yes, of course - Robin Williams. I bet the guy who gave us the directions was also someone famous who we didn't recognize. Either that, or he just liked name-dropping. Seriously, though, these houses were gorgeous. They were all huge, of course, and beautifully maintained. It's clear that a lot of thought (and money) went into these houses.

The run was excellent in all others ways as well. We found ourselves running on pavement, trails, soft sand, and ridiculous hills and staircases. I took the opportunity to tell a roadie who was climbing a hill that he was a badass, but I'm not sure he heard me. We saw a ton of bikers. I think anyone who rides around here is a badass. There's nothing like these hills in Jersey.

It was great. I loved every minute of it (except maybe the really steep uphills). Lucky for Speedy, I like visiting here but wouldn't want to move here. I save that honor for Austin. :)

Whew.

Done. Finally.

Well, almost. I have to go drop off one final at school tomorrow, but it's done. I just need to bring it in.

Maybe now I can get off my ass and start working out again. I feel gross and lazy, even though the only consecutive days off have been yesterday and today. I think it's mostly mental, and once my brain clears out and I settle down a little I'll feel better.

I think my trip to SF will serve as a bit of a running camp for me. I won't be able to ride, and I may 'forget' my swim stuff, so I can only run. It will be good for me; since I've recovered I've been neglecting my running (although I did 5 miles this weekend!), and I am starting to feel it. I used to only run, none of this swim and bike stuff, and I wasn't super-fast but I was fast enough, and I felt like I could easily make progress with more speedwork. Now I just feel slow. The distances are coming back, but not the speed. So this weekend and early next week, lots of running. Maybe a short tempo run or fartlek. Just something to get my ass in gear.

Almost There!

Today I took my third exam. This was the one I was really dreading; it was for a philosophy-based class and, after 2.5 years of law school, my aptitude for the abstractness of philosophy was seriously diminished. But I read my notes about 500 times to prepare, and I think I had a decent grasp of the material. None of the questions knocked me on my ass (or, at least, I don't think they did - I'll see when the grade comes) so that was encouraging. One more left; I'll probably take it on Wednesday.

I signed up for a training plan from multisports.com. I tend to overthink things (what? A law student overthinking? No, that never happens....) and I find that trying to figure out what to do any given day/week causes me an unnecessarily large amount of stress. And the 'get up in the morning and decide what I want to do based on the weather/how I feel/alignment of sun and moon in relation to Saggitarius' would never work for me. So I took the plunge. It's reasonably priced ($75/6 week plan) and seems to be just what I need right now. I get the first 6 weeks on Friday. I'll keep you posted!

Oh, and yes, I renamed my blog. The link is still the same. Since I started running regularly about 4 years ago, I latched onto the phrase 'Cheaper Than Therapy' as a tongue-in-cheek explanation for why I like to work out. And with the proliferation of tri-related blog names, I thought I'd change things up a little.

Ow, My Brain Hurts!

I've been trying to post for like two days and I can't get my brain to work well enough to draft a readable post. So here's a list:

1. Speedy made some changes to the measurements of my trainer bike, and also swapped the saddle for my tri saddle. Yay for Speedy!
b.
3. Two exams done, two more to go.
iv. Not so much with the training this week. Monday - trainer ride (I was supposed to run but it was cold and I wimped out), Tuesday - trainer ride again, Wednesday - swim and lower body weights, Thursday - run, Friday - Spinerval, Saturday - off, today - trainer ride and probably upper body weights. If I didn't have the option of going down to the basement to get workouts in right now, I'd probably get nothing done in terms of training. Go me. :)

One Down, Three to Go

One down. I had three hours for this final today, and took 2h57m. Or something like that. I think my heart was going to jump out of my chest towards the end, I was pretty worried that I wasn't going to get it done in time. But I did, whew. And then it took like 2 hours for my stomach to un-knot itself after that. Yay for being Type A! Sigh.

The worst thing about taking finals (yes, the worst, even worse than the studying) is that I'm totally fried for the rest of the day after I take one. And with three more in the next 9 days, I'm not sure I can spare that much studying time. As an example: After my final today, I went for a swim. I was planning to do something like 2x200, 2x150, 2x100, 2x50, and instead I ended up doing something like 150, 200, 150, 100, 100, 50, 50, 50. Or something like that; I'm not really sure. Why? Because, #1 I could not count laps for the life of me, and #2 I kept messing up my watch timing so I couldn't even count on that for accurate laps. My body was working fine; the swimming itself was not the issue. The problem was the thinking that had to go along with the swimming. I'm pretty sure I spent 75% of my rest time looking confused and playing with my watch, trying to figure out where I was in the workout. It was really quite pathetic.

Okay, Deep Breath . . .

Saturday: 4.5 mile run with Speedy and RocketDog. I felt a bit sluggish, but I really can't complain because it's my longest run since the injury. Whoo-hoo! It's sort of funny that my "long run" right now is 4.5 miles, but that's okay - gotta start somewhere.

Sunday - 1 hour on the trainer

Today - probably a trainer ride.

This week and next - Finals. Yikes. Two this week and two next week. This means my workouts will be less regular and more rushed, but I'll keep getting (most of) them in. After that, I've got a few weeks of relaxing, hanging out with family, and working out to my heart's content before school starts again. But I have to get through the next two weeks first.

To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch . . . to know even one life has lived easier because you have lived. That is to have succeeded! -Emerson

Okay, I'm Not Done.

I think this sums things up pretty well. Being a liberal arts major during undergrad (I know; it's the bane of Speedy's existence) I don't really get the math ones, but overall they're pretty funny.

But to add to the snarkiness: (I felt bad so I took it out.)

Today was a swim. I wanted to do 3x500, but that wasn't working so well. The first one (with a buoy) was okay, and the second wasn't terrible, but I didn't feel like I was incorporating the new catch work so well. So I broke the last one into essentially 10x50 with very short rest. That worked pretty well, and I felt like I was able to use the technique work I've been doing much more effectively than I could during the 500s. Tomorrow is a run; 4.5 miles - the longest yet!