That's all there is. There is no more. Until November.

Here lies the remains of the giant snow pile after one 90 degree day.  In the winter- and I'm sad I didn't take a picture of this and couldn't find one when I searched- the snow pile is so big that dump trucks can drive up it to drop off a load.

Now it's but a memory.  I'm not sure if there's actually even any snow left there or if that's all the dirt and debris that was mixed in with the snow.  Only a second 90-degree day will tell...

When setting goals

It's best to set at least a few that you area already 99.5% sure you can accomplish.

I give you... tripod headstand:

Even though my form is crummy- I'm basically using the weight of my butt to counterbalance the weight of the rest of my legs- I was able to balance long enough for Daniel to, "Get some pictures- and make sure one is from the side so everyone knows my feet aren't touching the wall."

Yep... this is what people do when it's too miserable to go outside.  Yesterday and today are what I *hope* are winter's last kick in the teeth.  The walk to and from the bus ride to my piano lesson involved no less than snow, rain, slushy (Does anyone know what the real name for this is?  Is it just "wintry mix"?  Some of you must know what I'm talking about.  It's where it looks like there's big chunky snowcone ice all over the ground.), hail and thunder snow.  While I was waiting for the bus, there was a particularly loud rumble of thunder, and I overheard this exchange:

Undergrad1: That doesn't normally happen.. does it?
Undergrad2: Nah, bro.

Even though it's not so bad right now, I'm glad to be going to the gym.  Where's my spring????  Bring back my spring!!!!

Dear The Weather,

We regret to inform you that there is a mistake in your Page-A-Day calendar.  The entry for November 19 was accidentally duplicated and inserted in your calendar in place today's entry for April 19.  Here is a copy of the the correct page if you'd like to print it for your use.

So your agenda items should include this

and this.

Instead of this

That's snow on the roof.

 and this.

More snow

We regret any inconvenience this error may have caused.  We are still the leader in calendars, planners, and stationery for natural phenomenon, and we hope you will continue to use our Page-a-Day calendars in the future. 

Thank you,

The Management

Signs of Spring

Is it here?  Could spring really *finally* be here?  Let's consult the checklist.

• Has it snowed in the last week?  Yes, BUT if all goes well for the next four hours, the answer will be NO!!

All gone!

• Have you gone outside without a jacket?  No, but I've gone outside with only a single jacket rather than having to wear multiple sub-jackets.  And... we are forecast for highs in the 70's!!!!!!! this weekend.
• Is the current temperature below freezing?  NO!  It's 40 degrees before 6am.  Heat wave!
• Are there signs of animal life?  YES!  The birds are singing.  The raccoons are coming out of hibernation in the storm drains.  The geese are stopping traffic.  

They live there.  Too creepy.

Not my picture.  I wasn't fast enough to get
a picture of a goose stopping traffic both ways on my
way home from work. 

• Have you considered not wearing wool socks?  Not quite yet, but I'm getting a pedicure this afternoon (and a hair cut) so there is the possibility of me not wearing socks.
• Is the heater off yet?  Ha!  Not until May.
• Are there flowers blooming?  Um... there are green things poking out of the ground.  I think that's what a plant is... It's been so long.
• Have you opened a window?  YES!  Now I can enjoy a cool evening breeze and keep the smoke alarm from going off while I burn dinner.

Raise your hand if you're glad it's not winter any more.  Put your hand down, and get out there and enjoy it.  Any other signs of spring you're glad to see?  It's been a long week (but productive) week at work, and I'm excited to start the weekend a little early this afternoon.  YAY for warm weather. 

Still here

Wow, it was a busy week at the statistics ranch, and it looks like it will continue to be that way until the beginning of May.  I feel like I only have so much brain power, and when I spend all day frantically trying to herd SAS output into Excel tables, I don't have much left over for blogging.  Plus it makes me feel really boring.  So yeah... I've been a bad blogger, blog reader, and commenter, and I'm not expecting that to improve much over the next month.  But you, dear reader, I still love your blog.  I promise I'm not neglecting you, even if I'm too boring to come up with a good comment.

There have been a few fun and/or interesting things that happened in the past week.

Not my actual carotid artery, but that's
what it looked like.

1. I got to see a part of my anatomy that few people have seen before: my carotid artery.  One of our sister studies is doing carotid IMT measurements on participants, and they needed volunteers to get some practice images, so I signed up.  Basically, they ultrasound both sides of your neck to look for plaque buildup in the artery before and after it splits in two.  I'd never had an ultrasound done before so I was surprised by how uncomfortable it was.  Not painful or anything but on the order of getting your teeth cleaned.  One side went pretty quickly and easily and gave a nice image like the one to the right, but my bifurcation (where the artery splits) on my right side was really high, so the examiner had to ram the ultrasound wand up under my jaw to try to get a good image.  But it was worth it to watch the video they captured of my heartbeat and see the blood pulse through the artery.  Yay, science.

2. In what sounds like a plot from The Office, I carpooled to Appleton on Friday night to see the opening of an art exhibit a coworker put together at Lawrence University (which is beautiful, BTW).  I know nothing about art, so I don't have much to say about the whole thing, but I really liked some of the pieces and it was fun to do something different.

3. But we got home really late on Friday night and I decided to skip going to race in Black Earth.  It was a beautiful day, and I wanted to chill and enjoy the sunshine and just do my normal long run around town.  Between travel and other commitments, I don't have any other races on the schedule for this spring, so I'm going to let my training happen as it will and take advantage of the opportunity to do more yoga and strength work.

4. Despite the snow storm we had on Friday (nature's cruel April Fool's joke) it seems like it's genuinely trying to be spring now.  We are forecast to crack the 60s this week and are finally getting a meaningful amount of sunshine.  Little green things (flowers?  I think I remember what those are.) are starting to sprout.

Time to get moving!  Hope you have a relaxing Sunday.        

  

Anti-mindfulness

I have a yin yoga DVD that's 70-minutes of hard core hip stretching.  You hold the poses for several minutes each.  It's intense, and I feel like it helps my recovery after a long run, but... it's kind of boring after you do it a few times.  So yesterday I turned it on with the volume on just high enough that I knew when to change the poses and did the routine while reading a book and drinking a Diet Mt. Dew.  I actually liked it a lot better that way.

I'm also trying to ignore the fact that the weather has gone all winter on us again.  That rain I was complaining about on Wednesday?  That turned out to be a mini ice storm.  And yesterday there was the following exchange at the computer science welcome weekend pizza party I crashed:

Prospective Student:  So is there anything bad about Wisconsin?
Me: Um... the fact that it's snowing on March 26...

Despite the fact that it was 10 degrees with the wind chill when I left for my long run yesterday, it went really well.  I upped the intensity by running 10 minutes easy and then picking up the pace for 20 minutes and repeating until I was done.  I finished 12 miles (including the long hill up to my apartment complex) in 1:47:27, which was an 8:57min/mile overall pace and may be the fastest I've ever done a long run.  All the "fast" portions were done between 8:30 and 8:40 min/mile pace.

The weather should be much less craptacular for the next week.  We're climbing back up to highs in the 40s (and 50s!!!), and there's not too much rain on the horizon.  I'm excited for next Saturday when I'll be running the Black Earth 10-miler for the first time.  Should be a beautiful day.

Time to get off the computer and get ready for church.  Hope you have a relaxing Sunday!

Mini Taper

Yesterday was my last "real run" of the week before the race Sunday, and sadly it was on the treadmill again.  We got about 6 unexpected inches of snow Tuesday night, and it was still snowing pretty hard by the time I caught the bus on Wednesday morning.  Fortunately it warmed up a lot, and the sidewalks and roads are clear again.  For now*.  We are forecast for rain/snow on Saturday, but hopefully the course won't be too icy.  Can I say it again?  I'm sick of winter!

So is this guy- for sure.

But running has been good.  Monday I ran 6x400m (outside!) in 1:43, 1:46, 1:39, 1:47, 1:40 and 1:47.  I went back and forth over the same stretch of ground, and, although it looks totally flat, you can see from my splits that there was definitely an easy way and a hard way.  Tuesday I did weights but backed off any really heavy lifting, and yesterday was 8mi fairly easy on the gym treadmill.  I'm back at the gym this morning for more higher rep, lower weight upper body work and maybe an easy 2 or 3 miles depending on my time.  I'll rest tomorrow with maybe some easy yoga, 4mi easy on Saturday, and ready to run fast (and hopefully not slip and roll down Observatory Hill) Sunday.

*And hopefully our snow clearing public employees are not going to go on strike.  

Spring cleaning

Good thing I started this post on Sunday when it wasn't dropping buckets of snow.  Otherwise I would have titled it perpetual winter cleaning. 

We have entered this long winter/spring season where it's not sooo cold that you can only wear your warmest clothing, but it's not warm enough to put the sweaters away for good.  I don't have a huge amount of closest space, so in the past I've put my off season clothes in Tupperware bins under the bed.  But then I spend all "sprwinter" digging things out because of a cold or warm day.  So I decided it was time to get everything out from under the bed and into the closet or my dresser for good.  And because space is so limited, I needed to do some serious thinking about what I should keep and what could be sold or donated.

Before- winter style.  Scarves, hoodies, everything all crammed together. 

Everything laid out for consideration.  Winter stuff on the bed; spring stuff in the bins.

Blank canvas.  Kind of reminds you of a dorm room closet, no?

The finished product.  I hung up all my summer dresses with my dress pants (right).  Camisoles, sweaters (by color) and purses in the middle, and tops and light jackets on the left.  Shoes on the bottom.

Pants, shorts and hangout sweatshirts were moved to a drawer.  Yes, my side of the bed is kind of a deathtrap.

Warm weather/ gym workout clothes were consolidated to one drawer.

And this was one of the biggest differences.  PJs, hang out t-shirts and socks went in one drawer.  That meant parting with a lot of random race t-shirts.  I wear technical tops from races (as long as they aren't too big), but I rarely ever wear the t-shirts.  Goodbye!

Cold weather running clothes.  They get their own drawer, too.

I also tried to make better use of our hall closet.  I hung up my scarves in there so I could actually see them, rather than have them crammed in between items in our bedroom closet.

The "try to resell" piles.  I made about $75 last fall reselling some clothes that I really didn't wear, so I'm going to try my luck again.  Goodbye blue petite length pants.  Why did I buy you and wear you for 2.5 years?  You were way too short.

And the donate pile.  Goodbye Tevas from my freshman year of college.  You have been wet so many times, your bands give me hot spots when I wear you.

It really is nice to be able to see all my clothes all at once.  For one, it dispelled any notions that I didn't have much to wear.  

Second, I'm planning to hit up a big sale at ATL on Saturday (30% off everything plus I have a gift card from Christmas), and it gave me some idea of what I might really need.  I'm good on tops, but I actually only have two pairs of non-jean summer weight pants, so I'm thinking these guys look pretty versatile.  Another possibility is some new capri pants.  I have two pairs that I really like and have worn forever, but I bought them when I was about 10lbs heavier so while they technically fit, I really put the drawstring to work.  Depending on prices, etc. I'd like to try to find at least one whole outfit- maybe with a top with long sleeves that is not a solid colored sweater?  I'm never very good at putting things together, and I end up being the queen of solids.  

I'll definitely have show and tell when I get back.  For now it's time for yet another snowy trudge out to the bus and a spin on the treadmill.

What a tease

The weather.  Seriously.  After a cold, snowy weekend, we had a beautiful day yesterday- high of 40!- and today we are back at "feels like 9" with a high of 20.  

Fortunately I was able to take advantage of the warm weather yesterday to get in a good speed workout outside.  I warmed up and did 6x800m with 2min rest in between.  Interval times were 3:40, 3:42, 3:35, 3:38, 3:42, 3:41 min, which is off of the FIRST prescribed pace of 3:26 but in the McMillan range of 3:32- 3:42.  Today is leg day at the gym and tomorrow I'm scheduled for 5mi tempo.  It's going to be on the cold side again tomorrow, but that affects actual interval running more than tempo running.  Plus it guarantees there won't be a massive thaw-freeze cycle to gunk up my sidewalks.

Work has been busy, but I feel like I'm keeping up with everything.  I think leaving all my mental energy at the office makes me feel boring and less interested in coming up with fun and/or interesting post ideas.  There is a lot to be done between now and the beginning of May.

Hoping you are someplace warmer than me...

   

Thank you

My prayers for an outside run or two this week may have been answered.  The wintry mix we were supposed to get yesterday and last night never came, the sidewalks are pretty clear, and the overnight lows are inching back up into the 20s.  This morning is still a gym morning, but I'm hoping for a good outside run tomorrow.

I did try to take advantage of the inside weekend to start on a project I've wanted to work on for some time- a snowflake afghan.  This is not for me- I still 85% hate snow- it's going to be a gift for a co-worker who has been amazingly wonderful and helpful to me the last 2.5 years and happens to love Christmas decorations.  Although we still aren't exactly sure when Daniel will graduate, we know our time here is (probably) limited so  starting the blanket now gives me awhile to actually finish the whole thing.  

Here's the start.  The first piece always takes the longest while you're figuring out what you are doing.  I'm about 75% finished with the second one, but I had to rip out the second to last row because of a mistake.

And the pattern with the finished product:

 Only 29.25 more snowflakes to go.  I think that's do-able in the next couple years :).

Time to get ready to start another week!

RIP Running Outside

At least for the next few days...  Madison got slushied yesterday, and it's supposed to snow all day today*.  Hopefully the roads will get cleaned up pretty soon, but I'm thinking that tomorrow will probably be a treadmill day.  Even though I had a good weekend, this should be a busy week at work and I have generalized anxiety about going back.  Meh, not much else to report.  Might as well get a jump start on the day.    

*Wintry mix ought to be the name of a Christmas party snack food, not a winter weather advisory.

Am I really in shape?

My interval times yesterday was so good, I'm either in really good shape or something weird happened with my Garmin signal.

We've had really high temperatures during the day (which I love) but are still getting below freezing over night, which causes the huge puddles of water to freeze into giant sidewalk glaciers.  I'm not talking about a little puddle of water; I'm talking about a 10-foot long sheet of ice that covers the entire sidewalk.

 
Needless to say, it's basically impossible to run over these things at a good pace without risking a fall.  Fortunately there was about a .8mi stretch of bike path and road in front of our apartment complex that was basically free of sidewalk glaciers.  As long as I was willing to slow down at one section and do to some hairpin turns, I was good to go on my repeats.  I figured I'd push myself as best I could and be happy with anything under an 8min/mile considering the stopping and turning.  I felt great throughout the whole workout ( I did 8mi total) and, even though it was a lot of back and forth over the same ground, I was able to keep focused and push myself through each interval.

I was totally floored when I got back home and checked my Garmin.  1:10:58?  For an 8mi run?  That's super fast for me.  I felt like I was going at a good clip during the warm up and cool down, but I had to stop and walk a few times to navigate icy spots.  And then there were the interval times: 7:15, 7:22, 7:38.  What the what?  I find myself making excuses for why the 7:38 was "so slow"- I had to do two hairpin turns on that one- but the truth is I would have been thrilled with three 7:38s on a good day with no turning.

So were these times real or a figment of my Garmin's imagination?  On the one hand, I felt really good, I pushed myself during the intervals, and I have done some good speed sessions on the treadmill.  On the other... they just seem too good to be true.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see how other workouts shape up.

It's supposed to be really warm today (like 49 degrees- woot!) and tomorrow (55- let's all have a party) but rain some overnight or tomorrow morning, so I have no idea what conditions will be like.  I'm supposed to do a 6mi tempo run tomorrow, and I really want to get out to do it- even if it means going back and forth over the same stretch as yesterday- but I'd be fine with doing a treadmill run if it comes to that.  This morning is lower body weights at the gym and a little elliptical.

Hope the weather is improving wherever you are.  Have a good Wednesday!

 

Bad Project

I don't work in a lab, but this video expresses my feelings about a project I've been working on:



I inherited it from my predecessor (who fortunately does not speak Thai), and it has been nothing but grief and frustration for everyone involved.  We sent out the paper to coauthors and had a meeting yesterday where it was determined that we needed to run the analysis differently.  This is a complicated project, and we are on about our 8th different way of running the analysis.  I've been awake since about 3:40 with low grade stress about running this paper- again- and getting to all the other work I need to finish before the first week of May.  I guess at least it gives me time to catch up on blogs before I have the bus comes.

Workout:
Hitting the gym for weights and probably some elliptical.  I need spring.

Go Packers

Not that I had a huge vested interest in the game, but my co-workers will be happy and that makes me happy.  I actually watched most of the game- which was pretty exciting- but none of the commercials are standing out to me.  I'm sure they're all on YouTube by now.  Any suggestions for one to watch?


It was hard to get up this morning, but I'm excited to go to spinning again for the first time since last April(?).  We're hitting the point in winter where I lose the will to exercise and eat healthfully so any bit of novelty is greatly appreciated.  A reprieve is in sight, though.  It's going to get really cold again Tuesday-Thursday, but after that we are forecast for several days in the 30s and Sunday it should get up to 40.  I'm not expecting it to continue to stay that warm, but it will be nice to be able to get out a little bit and hopefully it will take care of some of the snow mountains around the city.

That's all I've got.  Have a good Monday, everyone.

  

A Different Friday Night Out

Last night Daniel and I volunteered at The River food pantry with our church small group.  It's an organization on the far east side of town that provides hot meals, clothing, food, basic medical screenings (like blood sugar and blood pressure) and literature about paying bills, etc a few nights a week.  If you are in Madison and are interested in doing a service project for low-income community members, it's a great place.  You just show up at 5pm- no special training or screening needed- and they'll put you to work.  Daniel was the air traffic controller for shopping carts entering the food pantry area, and I worked in the clothing room just keeping things from becoming a giant mess.

Each volunteer gets a break sometime during the evening to have some of the hot dinner being served.  The whole operation was well run and everyone was in, served, and out by 8pm.  The hot dinner was actually the thing I was most impressed with.  I thought we were going to get Hamburger Helper with sides of mac n cheez, potato chips, and off-brand Oreos for sure, but actually we had ham and bean soup with 3-bean salad and a green salad.  Not only was it pretty healthy, but it tasted good.

Three things that last night made me acutely aware that I take for granted:
1. I'm very thankful that I don't have to wear second-hand underwear.
2. I'm very thankful that if I'm still hungry after the small hot dinner at the food bank I can get a sandwich.
3. I'm very thankful that I don't live in my car- especially on a cold Wisconsin night.

I definitely plan to serve there again and donate clothes and housewares there.  And think back to this list when I'm tempted to complain about the never-ending winter.


What's something you know you take for granted but are actually very thankful for?

If it has to be winter

You might as well make the best of it.

Have a Happy Friday, all.

Okay, winter. That's enough.

After 12 inches of snow in the last two days, our new fun winter gift is 1 degree temperature this morning.  Which means that everything that wasn't cleaned up yesterday (which is a lot) is now frozen solid.

We slept in and puttered around the house for awhile before we ventured out to clean up the snow.  I just focused on cleaning off our porch and the first floor porch so people could open their doors all the way and *hopefully* no one will slip this morning.

Daniel did the heavy lifting.  He blazed a path down to the parking lot (you can see it in the pictures below) and then cleaned off our parking spot.  Because of the wind, the snow was in huge drifts (up to 6ft I've read).  Here's a few pictures to give you an idea how deep it was in some places:

Here are the stairs up to the apartment buildings from the parking lot.  You can see that it comes up almost to the top of the railings.

And here's the drift we were greeted with when we first woke up.  It actually looks kind of small in the pictures, but when you stand in it (or try to take a basket of laundry through it), it feels very deep.

Everything is open for business as usual again today.  I'm headed to the gym for a run and we are both back to work.  Stay warm out there!

Snow day

A day too late...  The weather was much worse yesterday- I guess it could pick back up but it doesn't look like it will- but classes are cancelled, state government is closed to the public, and no buses are running- so we are not going anywhere.  Edit: I just talked to a coworker who said it's incredibly windy and there are huge snow drifts everywhere so maybe a snow day was warranted.

Unfortunately I don't technically have the day off.    According to the UW website:

Employees designated as non-essential are advised to use their own discretion regarding their health and safety, and that of their family members, before coming to campus.

Non-essential employees are required to use appropriate leave (i.e., vacation, personal holiday, furlough, etc.) to be excused from the work day Wednesday.

Kinda stingy with the free time off, UW.  Oh well.  Last night we decided that if the bus was running we would plan to go to work/school, but if it wasn't then we'd stay home, so home I am.  I have two furlough days I have to take this spring anyway.  This might as well be one of them.  

So what did we celebrate Storm of the Century Eve?  Um (don't kill us, family) we went to the Badger men's basketball game.

I'd never been to a college basketball game before, so when a coworker (who is probably wondering if she will ever get home from Cincinnati right now) offered us her tickets, I said yes.  There was a lot of debate about braving the weather, but because we could take the bus back and forth we decided to go for it.  It was an exciting game and the Badgers won, which made it worth getting sprayed in the face by snow and packed on a bus with 75 undergrads who were excited about classes being cancelled.  

Nothing special planned for the day.  Probably some yoga and shoveling because running and the gym are out.  Stay safe and warm out there if you are currently being blizzarded.

Snow watch

So yeah... we're just hanging out... you know... waiting for the storm of the century.  Not to be confused with the other 5 storms of the century we've had so far this winter.  The university is open today (crossing fingers for a snow day tomorrow) and nothing on the metro website indicates the bus is not running, so it's a "normal" day for me.

If you are stuck at home now and you've done your Easter candy shopping early, here's an activity to entertain you for oh... a few hours.



Workout:
I had a good treadmill interval run yesterday and am headed back to the gym for weights this morning.  I also got news that the triathlon team is starting spinning on Monday mornings again, so that will add some much needed indoor exercise variety until the weather gets nice.

Saturday Stroll

This is my third "real winter," and I've tried to be better about getting out and enjoying some of the benefits of sub-freezing temperatures.  Yesterday Daniel and I decided to take advantage of the relatively warm, non-windy weather and walk across Lake Mendota.  After a brief discussion, we elected not to walk all the way across the lake- I think it's about 5 miles in diameter at the widest point and presented the problem of how exactly we would get home.  Instead we cut across Mendota Bay and hiked from Picnic Point to the Union Terrace.


View Untitled in a larger map


Here's a few pictures from about the half way point.

The capitol and isthmus part of the city:

Back toward the west side of campus where we'd come from:

The far side of the lake that we elected not to walk to:

Me + capitol building:

Walking across the lake was actually kind of hard because there was about six inches of snow we had to wade through.  It was not very slippery- more like walking through really loose sand.

Our walk allowed us to get up close and personal with some of the crazy ice fishing culture.

This is either a trap or just a warning ice fishing hole plug:

And in case you were worried about us falling through, there were ATVs driving around out there, and this is the kind of heavy equipment the fishermen were using to make their fishing holes:

The union from the water side:

It was great to get out in the afternoon just to be outside.  It feels like forever since I'd done that.  I've also gotten in three outside runs in the past three days.  Sadly we are forecast for more snow and cold the rest of the week (low of -8 on Wednesday- boo!).  Gotta get the vitamin D while I can!

Hope you are having a good weekend, too.  I *think* we have the comment situation fixed.  Fingers crossed.