One More Distraction

Ok…so I haven’t posted because I haven’t run. I did catch that cold and so I have been trying to be good. I was going to run yesterday, I was feeling “well enough” but I got guilt tripped out of it. (you can't go running till you are better...yes I can...you shouldn't...I'll be fine...I wish you wouldn't....FINE!!) GRRrrrr….we won’t go there right now.

In the mean time the boys at work entertain me…..

Silly Boy: (yelling from the other office) HEY RunnerGirl!! RUNNER GIRL!!

RGFL: WHAT!?!?!

SB: (Still yelling….God forbid they come to me) It’s official you are the commish!!

RGFL: WHAT?!?! (Now I’m going into the other office)

SB: We have elected you commissioner of the fantasy football league this year!

RGFL: I wondered if we were going to play this year with J not working here anymore.

SB: Yeah but since he is gone we need a new commissioner so you’re the new commish. It’s going to be a live draft. We will go to the pub and draft one day after work and drink beer.

RGFL: (I have no problem with beer and football in the same activity) Ok! That sounds good

SB: Ok set up the league…or maybe we should do it on paper.

RGFL: PAPER!?!?! Who plays on paper anymore?!?! No way!! I’m not commish if it’s not on the net.

SB: Ok have it your way…

What follows is a discussion of who has priority to play in the league based on prevous years of play and time in the office…not to mention the all tooooo important coolness factor.

Boy2: How ‘bout JC.

SB & RGFL: Nah he never plays

SB: What about….(etc… till we have a list that we can get 10 people from)

So some people rise to power…others have it thrust upon them while they are quietly working in the next office. This may be the last time they let me play in the FFL. Wish me luck!! Yet another distraction…

Look for me to run tomorrow and Friday.

Week in Review

Saturday 7/15:
Distance: 1.5 miles   Time: 18:00 min    in side 4:00 pm
Temperature: ?? °F    Humidity: ??%      Pressure: ??.?? inches

Wednesday 7/19:
Distance: 2.0 miles   Speed: ~5.2 mph    in side 7:00 pm
Temperature: ?? °F    Humidity: ??%      Pressure: ??.?? inches 

Saturday 7/22:
Distance: 1.1 miles   Time: ???          mostly cloudy 8:00 pm
Temperature: 82 °F    Humidity: 83%      Pressure: 29.93 inches 

Well as I promised here is my catch up post. Lemme explain….no, there is too much. Lemme sum up….

1. Congrats to the newly titled Dr. S. for successfully defending his Ph.D. I’m proud of you.

2. My friend at the fire academy is doing well but has the “Big Final” coming and he is “Big test” worried. I know he will do fine. But you have to respect the all or nothing type tests.

3. The semester is done and I really need to get the last of the labs graded and files completed and grades in. BLECH!!

4. As the semester ends my tutoring business picks up…everyone needs help for the finals ya know.

5. I now seem to also have a cold!! I hate colds in the summer. They are the worst!!

Ok so for now on I’ll try really hard to keep up.

Running to catch up.

Something to Read

Life sometimes hands you distractions...some large, some small, some good, some bad. I have run a couple of times and not posted. I will I promise. Probably on Friday. I have to sit around in my house in the morning and wait for the termite guy to come to spot treat. Until then....by request....here is something to read:

www.lifehacker.com

Look up:

the google text message thing,

and shirt folding trick.

If you are a computer geek there is a lot for you. If you like tech toys there is stuff for you too.

Enjoy....I'll be back in a few days....more or less distracted is yet to be seen.

Gotta Run...

One More Day!!

I have not run since last Thursday.

I did not get to make a new distance attempt to run 4 mi on Saturday, I did not run it Sunday to make it up. I did not run on Monday because that throws everything else off for the week. I didn’t run 2mi yesterday morning as I would have, and I won’t attempt the 4 mi tonight instead of the 3 mi that I was originally planning.

I do hope to run the 2 mi that I would normally run tomorrow. That is a good ease into it distance after a week. Then attempt the 4 mi on this Saturday.

My shoulders are tight, my head is spinning, and my new ‘neakers are lonely.

Is it possible to gain 100lbs by not running for a week?

I had a schedule change last Saturday due to a friend needing a ride after dropping of his truck at the shop. Same friend has suggested that I not run and take a break rather than my theory to just ignore the shin splints. Grrrr….I’m finally able to up my distances and now I should take a break?!?!….Grrrr. (Note: said friend can already run 5 miles at a time.) So when my friend found out that I missed my launch window for my run on Saturday he said he felt bad, for about 3 seconds, then he said he didn’t want me to run anyway so he didn’t feel so bad. Now, add that to the fact that yesterday’s normal short run was scrapped a long time ago for a one day scheduling conflict and I figured I might as well take the week break and wait till Thursday to run.

Oh yeah….The same friend put a nice bruise on my other leg Sunday at fighter practice. Thanks Buddy, now both legs feel beaten. (It’s all part of the game….It’s just funny he did it)

To be completely honest….my right leg feels much better. I think it might have helped to take a break. Shhhh don’t tell my friend. (Remember: He is a boy….and boys are eternally dumb)

ONE MORE DAY!!….Then…..RUNNING!!!!



(For those who don’t know….Fighter practice: Full contact medieval martial art combat with armor and sticks….yes you get hit, no there is no weight classes, yes it’s co-ed, yes the boys hit hard.)

One is Silver And The Other Gold

Distance: 2.0 miles   Time: 22:43 min    Inside 8:30 pm
Temperature: ?? °F    Humidity: ??%      Pressure: ??:?? inches (falling)

This was a pretty good run. I would have written about it last night along with several other plans to get things done I had, but a friend called and since we are terrible about keeping up (we talk about every 4- 6 months or so) we were up till 2:45 in the morning. She is my best friend from high school and while now we do not talk as often as we should and we don’t know most of each others friends, we have some people who overlap and we know the names of those others. We keep track of parents and talk about our domestic projects….she is doing this to her property…I am doing that to the house. It’s nice to catch up and we get off the phone after hours of conversation promising that we will keep in touch more often…..and we will, for a little while….then we get busy. We talk in July for her birthday….(She still has her call coming later this month) and we talk in October for mine. We never forget that. We often go to the same event in March. In between….it’s hit or miss, but when we hook up again, it’s like we just picked up our favorite book right where we left off.

Then there are newer friends. Also with birthday’s in July….Happy Birthday MagnetBabe!! I’m having lunch with her today. We met in grad school….many years after high school (like 11 for me) We lunch most weeks when one or the other of us doesn’t have people in town or when we are not out traveling our selves. She helped me move into my home and comes to my super bowl parties. I got a phone call the morning after she got engaged and I could not be more excited for her and her fiancé. I suppose in 11 years we too may call a couple times a year on birthdays or holidays. We will pick up where we left off each time like it was yesterday. But for now….I have a lunch date for my friends Birthday.

Yea!! Birthdays!!



(Shhhh...Iknow this post really wasn't about running but I think I have shin splints in my right leg and that is why I have been sooooo sore, but I'm not admitting that out loud... then I'll have to deal with it)

Good Bye Sue

Another Wednesday and another long run. This was easier than the other 3 miles in the gym. My right shin is still not super happy but here I sit with ice on it as I type.

Today would have been an ordinary day. Just a regular day after a holiday. Go to work, then to teach at the CC then to the gym for my run. Just as planned. But this morning I got a text message. Ms. Sue Wolf had passed away last night at 7:30. It was no longer a regular day.

Sue was the office manager at the USF Physics Department since the beginning of time. (Although she was not that old) I didn’t know the department with out her. She was there when I got there as an undergrad and there when I left with my Masters. She used to set up Friday happy hours, and played one season on our softball team. (got an ugly bruise on her shin from a ball with a bad hop) Sue ran that department, she was queen bee. If your professor said this and your graduate advisor said that….the truth was what Sue said.

A couple months ago Sue was diagnosed with cancer and was told it was already too late. Much of what happened after that was kept private out of respect for her and her family. She loved them very much and somehow took even more care of them than she did of us if that was possible. Sue was a force of nature at the university and she will be terribly missed.

It was an honor to have known someone who worked as hard and cared as much as Sue did.

Distance: 3.0 miles   Time: 36:54 min    Indoors 8:30 am
Temperature: ?? °F    Humidity: ??%      Pressure: ??.?? inches 

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

Distance: 1.5 miles   Time: 16:34 min    Partly Cloudy 8:30 am
Temperature: 80 °F    Humidity: 86%      Pressure: 30.15 inches (falling)

YEA!! It’s the fourth of July!! One of my favorite holidays!! (Halloween is my very favorite) Here are a few past 4th of July highlinghts….

July 4, 2006 – I am going to go see Superman Returns on the IMAX in 3-D. (I haven’t seen it yet so don’t ruin it for me

July 4, 2005 – Cook out with Randy and then movies on the couch. It was a nice quiet fourth and lazy day off (Big party to attend was on the 3rd)

July 4, 2004 – I took a weekend trip to Charlotte, NC to see the little brother and his wife. We had a great time. Cookout, Baseball, Fireworks what more could you want, and those were just the activities on the fourth. (If you ever get to Carowinds Theme Park I highly recommend the BORG Assimilator!!! It’s like flying)

July 4, 2001 – Went to a party as the Designated Driver and came home with a KITTEN!! Really!!! Loki was a party favor from a fourth of July party. Thanks to J and K for encouraging me to take him home!! I’ll never forgive you two. Everything nice I ever had has been broken.

There have also been several years where the party has been at two houses and I just hopped between them. One was at the home of some friends from the Physics Department, including a July 3rd party last year. And the other at the home of one of my baseball buddies!! These parties always begat endless stories of the people in attendance, usually a burning monkey, and fire breathing.

Grrrrrrr!!!!

Distance: Grrrr miles   Time: Grrr min    Partly Cloudy 8:30 am
Temperature: 82 °F    Humidity: 80%      Pressure: 30.18 inches (falling)

Well, I have apparently hit my limit. Last week I ran every run. This upped my weekly mileage from 2-3/week to 9.5 miles. I was doing well and went out on Tuesday for the 1.5 in the morning and missed Wednesday’s 3 mile but did it instead of 1.5 on Thursday. Well yesterday I went to TGI Friday’s and had to walk a few steps to sit at the table behind the bar. My shins HURT!! I had no Idea. Well this morning I got the full Idea!! I think while I am sleeping someone is coming into my room and beating my shins with a baseball bat!! I started my 3 miles this morning and had to turn around and walk back after about a mile. Not just my shins but my right knee too!! I must be over compensating or something. I can’t cross my legs with out the pressure hurting my right knee and shin. Today’s run was short but at least it was something. The next scheduled run is a short one on Tuesday morning. I will take lots of ibuprofen and put ice on my leg till then. Wish me luck.

It’s just frustrating because none of the runs were that bad. I just upped the number of times I got out a week. And I was really enjoying it. (even if it was hard to get up for the mornings) I’m sure I just need to get used to the extra miles.

Sitting now to run later….