Yep, that's what 2.5 hours of couch time on Saturday afternoon will do for you. I hate to "waste" my Saturday afternoon sleeping or reading, but I always find that if I give in and chill out for a little bit, I feel sooooo much better. In fact I felt so much better I cleaned up all the kitchen cabinets and wiped down all the easy to miss surfaces like the top of the fridge. And I'm ready to go and in a much better mood today.
Today we have church, our last membership class (yay!) and the youth Super Bowl party. I'm also planning on getting in some yoga, piano practice, dusting, vacuuming, and going through my sewing/craft stuff. And I don't feel any resentment toward that list. YAY for rest.
Otherwise not much is going on. No run today. I feel energetic enough to do one, but I'm not sure my body is ready to handle 5 days in a row with my increased mileage. Plus my run yesterday, even though it was slow, felt unusually hard. I just need to throw myself into yoga and cleaning, and I won't feel so lumpy.
Hope you all have a great Sunday!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Zombie
Is hopefully not what I will be today. I was up until 11pm last night hanging out and playing games with friends, and now I'm back up even earlier than normal weekday time to run and get ready for our class. I think I should get some points from someone for this.
The class is called The Old Testament: Getting the Big Picture, and it's being taught be one of the junior pastors at the church who is finishing his PhD in Jewish studies. Don't know any more than that. I think it has the potential to be interesting, but sometimes in a class like that you'll get a participant who gets fixated on some minor detail and asks 3498374 questions and you just can't get beyond it. But hopefully that won't happen.
Otherwise today is a normal chore/catch-up day- dust, vacuum, phone calls, grocery store, Target, piano etc. Hopefully it will not involve a nap, but I can't rule out the possibility. Also, (thanks for the dress advice earlier, btw) I might pull out the dresses I have and do a little fashion show to see if there's something I already have that I want to wear. The workout will be 5 or 6mi on the treadmill and either yoga here or maybe going to the hot yoga class.
Last night's dinner out was at Swagat. D found out about it through his computer science list serv so we figured it was probably pretty good. And it was. I asked for my dish medium spicy, and it was in fact medium spicy rather than totally bland, which seems to be what is considered medium spicy in most of the Midwest. I got the shahi navratan korma: nine fresh garden vegetables cooked in a creamy sauce with almonds, cashews, raisins and spices, and we shared some naan bread. Very tasty.
Hope everyone on the East Coast affected by the blizzard is staying safe and warm. Have a good Saturday, all.
The class is called The Old Testament: Getting the Big Picture, and it's being taught be one of the junior pastors at the church who is finishing his PhD in Jewish studies. Don't know any more than that. I think it has the potential to be interesting, but sometimes in a class like that you'll get a participant who gets fixated on some minor detail and asks 3498374 questions and you just can't get beyond it. But hopefully that won't happen.
Otherwise today is a normal chore/catch-up day- dust, vacuum, phone calls, grocery store, Target, piano etc. Hopefully it will not involve a nap, but I can't rule out the possibility. Also, (thanks for the dress advice earlier, btw) I might pull out the dresses I have and do a little fashion show to see if there's something I already have that I want to wear. The workout will be 5 or 6mi on the treadmill and either yoga here or maybe going to the hot yoga class.
Last night's dinner out was at Swagat. D found out about it through his computer science list serv so we figured it was probably pretty good. And it was. I asked for my dish medium spicy, and it was in fact medium spicy rather than totally bland, which seems to be what is considered medium spicy in most of the Midwest. I got the shahi navratan korma: nine fresh garden vegetables cooked in a creamy sauce with almonds, cashews, raisins and spices, and we shared some naan bread. Very tasty.
Hope everyone on the East Coast affected by the blizzard is staying safe and warm. Have a good Saturday, all.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Nudged
I'm up a little early so I can run a little early and be at work a little early for a conference call with collaborators in Iceland. I thought about trying to get out of it, but then I decided I'd save my "Get out of a conference call free" card for sometime later.
My run yesterday was pretty good, but definitely not as peppy as Tuesday's. The plan for today is 5mi easy... maybe stretched out to 6mi depending on how I'm feeling. The original plan for this week was to do 37 or 38 miles, but I may scale back to 35 (which is what I would have if I did 5 today and 5 tomorrow). I'm thinking that 35 miles would be a good place to hang out for a few weeks before I bump things up rather than trying to bump all the way up to 40mpw right now. I want to get there before I do the 1/2 marathon in May, but 40 is a lot of miles on the treadmill... especially when early Saturday commitments are making me do my long runs before work during the week.
Thanks for your kind comments about being tried. I knew I was not alone, but it was nice to hear other people say it :). I'm actually feeling much better this morning, leading me to think it wasn't so much a sleep problem as a "post long run fatigue" problem. Focus at work yesterday was waaaaayyyy better, and I'm hoping for more of the same today. I feel so much better at the end of the day when I know I was really productive. That's the way I want to feel entering the weekend.
Last night's dinner was also kind of pretty. I made tilapia sandwiches from a Cooking Light recipe.
I guess I could have gotten a little more up close and personal with it so you could see what it really looked like. I need some serious practice at this food photography thing.
Tonight we're planning to go out to dinner (Indian maybe?) and to game night at a friend's house. Tomorrow will be another early morning doing a seminar at church about The Old Testament (some people have an inner child, D and I have an inner old person).
TGIF!
My run yesterday was pretty good, but definitely not as peppy as Tuesday's. The plan for today is 5mi easy... maybe stretched out to 6mi depending on how I'm feeling. The original plan for this week was to do 37 or 38 miles, but I may scale back to 35 (which is what I would have if I did 5 today and 5 tomorrow). I'm thinking that 35 miles would be a good place to hang out for a few weeks before I bump things up rather than trying to bump all the way up to 40mpw right now. I want to get there before I do the 1/2 marathon in May, but 40 is a lot of miles on the treadmill... especially when early Saturday commitments are making me do my long runs before work during the week.
Thanks for your kind comments about being tried. I knew I was not alone, but it was nice to hear other people say it :). I'm actually feeling much better this morning, leading me to think it wasn't so much a sleep problem as a "post long run fatigue" problem. Focus at work yesterday was waaaaayyyy better, and I'm hoping for more of the same today. I feel so much better at the end of the day when I know I was really productive. That's the way I want to feel entering the weekend.
Last night's dinner was also kind of pretty. I made tilapia sandwiches from a Cooking Light recipe.
I guess I could have gotten a little more up close and personal with it so you could see what it really looked like. I need some serious practice at this food photography thing.
Tonight we're planning to go out to dinner (Indian maybe?) and to game night at a friend's house. Tomorrow will be another early morning doing a seminar at church about The Old Testament (some people have an inner child, D and I have an inner old person).
TGIF!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Sleepy
Although I am (fortunately) not on some crazy sleepless schedule like Sara, I don't have the super human ability like Matt to stay up late every night and still get up at 5am. I love being up early, but it's pretty much impossible to insure that I'll be asleep 8 hours before 4:50am (really 4:30am when the alarm goes off for the first time- not that I even hear it anymore), and the ball of accumulated sleep debt continues to pick up a little more as it rolls through each night. So it's Thursday, and I'm starting to feel tired. And (unless I can get out of it, which is a distinct maybe) I have to get up earlier tomorrow to run before a conference call at work and at my normal weekday time Saturday so we can go to a class D wants to attend that starts at 8:30am. Now I'm sounding whiny. I'm lucky that I have a normal 8-5 job that doesn't interfere with sleep time, but there's so much to do everyday (and that I want to do everyday) sleep just gets nudged back, and I feel myself getting just a little more easily tired/cranky/frustrated every day with no end in sight because it's not some temporary schedule... it's my whole life... and I don't even have kids yet! I don't know how parents do it.
Anyway, I had a nice recovery day at spinning. Next week the class is going to have an "anti-Valentines Day" theme, which should be fun. Today will be 8mi on the treadmill with some fast stuff near the end perhaps.
Dinner last night was finally worth photographing. We had shrimp tacos, which I think has been featured in every Cooking Light since the magazine's first edition.
We ate these guys with salad and the very last of a bag of tortilla chips left over from regulation college football season.
Work effort yesterday? About a C. Not horrible, not great, and I know I really could do better. I've made a list of my "must do before the weekend" tasks that I want to have done so I can enter the weekend with a clear conscience. Hopefully that will motivate me to get those checked off.
And that's all I've got. Happy Thursday!
Anyway, I had a nice recovery day at spinning. Next week the class is going to have an "anti-Valentines Day" theme, which should be fun. Today will be 8mi on the treadmill with some fast stuff near the end perhaps.
Dinner last night was finally worth photographing. We had shrimp tacos, which I think has been featured in every Cooking Light since the magazine's first edition.
We ate these guys with salad and the very last of a bag of tortilla chips left over from regulation college football season.
Work effort yesterday? About a C. Not horrible, not great, and I know I really could do better. I've made a list of my "must do before the weekend" tasks that I want to have done so I can enter the weekend with a clear conscience. Hopefully that will motivate me to get those checked off.
And that's all I've got. Happy Thursday!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Sweet
That was what my long run was yesterday. It was only 10 miles, but it's only the second time I've done a double digit run since (I think) last March. Unlike on Saturday, I felt really strong and relaxed the whole way through, and I didn't have that post long run fatigue either. I felt totally normal for the rest of the day. Also, I like doing long runs during the week. I know I couldn't get away with doing an 18 miler on a Tuesday before work, but once the sun starts coming out earlier, I think I could definitely get up to 12, which is a fine distance for a long run since I'm not planning on doing any races longer than a 1/2 marathon. Whew. It feels so good to have running go well again. Especially after last year.
Unfortunately I did not "be all I could be" at work yesterday. It's not that I spent the whole day stalking people on Facebook or anything- I had a productive meeting and got a concrete sense of what I needed to do for a project, and I figured out how to make a new kind of graph in SAS, but I didn't really focus the way I should have. I had a really good week for focusing last week, and I know I can't be 100% on every day. Maybe the run fatigued my brain more than I realized. Anyway, I had some insight on what I need to get done today over night. Hopefully things will go better.
Last, I need some fashion advice. Our church is having a dance next Friday night (the 12th), and I have no idea what to wear. I was told that women mostly wear party dresses although you see a range of everything from "I wore this to Homecoming" to "I wore this to football practice". Note, this is not just for the high schoolers, it's for everyone, and we are going with some other couples from our young married group. I looked at the Ann Taylor Loft website because I have some gift cards and 20% off coupons there, but I didn't see anything that matched what I *think* I'm looking for. Any suggestions for good places to shop for such a thing? So many stores are coming out with spring clothes, but it is definitely not spring here (although it looks like the weather won't be too bad that day- forecast is for highs in the 20s).
Well, gotta get ready for spinning. Have a great Wednesday, all.
Unfortunately I did not "be all I could be" at work yesterday. It's not that I spent the whole day stalking people on Facebook or anything- I had a productive meeting and got a concrete sense of what I needed to do for a project, and I figured out how to make a new kind of graph in SAS, but I didn't really focus the way I should have. I had a really good week for focusing last week, and I know I can't be 100% on every day. Maybe the run fatigued my brain more than I realized. Anyway, I had some insight on what I need to get done today over night. Hopefully things will go better.
Last, I need some fashion advice. Our church is having a dance next Friday night (the 12th), and I have no idea what to wear. I was told that women mostly wear party dresses although you see a range of everything from "I wore this to Homecoming" to "I wore this to football practice". Note, this is not just for the high schoolers, it's for everyone, and we are going with some other couples from our young married group. I looked at the Ann Taylor Loft website because I have some gift cards and 20% off coupons there, but I didn't see anything that matched what I *think* I'm looking for. Any suggestions for good places to shop for such a thing? So many stores are coming out with spring clothes, but it is definitely not spring here (although it looks like the weather won't be too bad that day- forecast is for highs in the 20s).
Well, gotta get ready for spinning. Have a great Wednesday, all.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Snow, snow, snow
Today is a good day to remind myself about the good things about snow:
1. It's going to cover up all the nasty gray/brown crunchy snow that's been hanging around.
2. It can't snow unless it's (relatively) warm.
Ummm... that's what I've got for now.
It started snowing yesterday evening, and it's still going pretty strong. In fact, it looks like we're expected to get snow all week. Other than the monster snowfall we had in December, we've had a dry winter, so I guess we were due.
Hopefully this will not impact my plan to do my long run at the gym this morning. I think Tuesday and Thursday are the least busy days normally, and hopefully we won't get a big influx of snow avoiders. At least snow avoiders who want to use the treadmill. Elliptical snow avoiders are welcome.
Otherwise not too much exciting is going on. I finished SSSM yesterday and am planning to take a break from book reading so I can get to my Runner's World and January's issue of The Smithsonian. My abstract for the conference was officially sent at midnight last night. We'll see what happens with that. Last night's dinner was shrimp fra diavolo, which was pretty good. I don't know what my resistance is to taking my own pictures...
Stay warm and dry out there!
1. It's going to cover up all the nasty gray/brown crunchy snow that's been hanging around.
2. It can't snow unless it's (relatively) warm.
Ummm... that's what I've got for now.
It started snowing yesterday evening, and it's still going pretty strong. In fact, it looks like we're expected to get snow all week. Other than the monster snowfall we had in December, we've had a dry winter, so I guess we were due.
Hopefully this will not impact my plan to do my long run at the gym this morning. I think Tuesday and Thursday are the least busy days normally, and hopefully we won't get a big influx of snow avoiders. At least snow avoiders who want to use the treadmill. Elliptical snow avoiders are welcome.
Otherwise not too much exciting is going on. I finished SSSM yesterday and am planning to take a break from book reading so I can get to my Runner's World and January's issue of The Smithsonian. My abstract for the conference was officially sent at midnight last night. We'll see what happens with that. Last night's dinner was shrimp fra diavolo, which was pretty good. I don't know what my resistance is to taking my own pictures...
Stay warm and dry out there!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Resolution Review
We are one month into the new year, I thought it was time to look back on my new year's resolutions and take stock of how things are going.
1. Put stuff away after I use it- This one has been going really well. Our apartment doesn't get dirty as much as it gets messy, and having a neat space is so so so much more relaxing than having a big pile of clothes on my dresser or sink full of dishes waiting for the end of the day. I'm very happy with this one.
2. Focus more at work- This has also been better. I think listening to music helps when I have to do more of the "boring" stuff as does not checking the internet when I have little bits of down time when a program runs. It's better to have distinct breaks rather than this constant flow between "working" and "break time".
3. Pushing myself- I think this has also been good. I've been doing a lot more speed work and pushing myself to try faster paces than before. Not so much variety with the food ('tis the season), but I have made a fair number of new recipes.
4. Have more fun with more people. This one is... okay. We have done social things but no real inviting. I need to get out of the habit of always waiting to be invited to do stuff.
5. Take more pictures- BAD. I don't know why I'm averse to this, but I know I'm going to look back and wish I had more pictures of this time of my life. I need to get on it!
6. Stay in touch- Hard to say. We saw a lot of people over the holidays so I don't feel "out of touch" right now. We'll see how I do in the coming months.
7. Music- I'm taking piano lessons!!!!!
8. Waste less time- I'd say this was a B effort, too. For the most part I've been coming home, doing yoga, and cooking without any blah on the couch time, but I have my moments. Especially after 7pm.
9. Read real books- Um... I think I've read two things that can be considered a "real book" so far in 2010. And I'm almost done with Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters. I think I'll always have a place in my heart for trashy reading. I just have to keep it respectable some of the time.
10. Blog- I have been posting almost every day, but I haven't done anything to make the layout less ugly. I know I need help, but I'm afraid I don't want to pay the going rate for someone to make this thing be attractive. It's on my "someday/maybe" list.
And that's that. Other than picture taking, which gets a big F, I think it's been going well.
I'm planning on a 7mi run with 10x1min fast here in a few minutes. This week's goal is 37mi with a 10 mi long run on Thursday or Friday. Hope you all have a great Monday!
1. Put stuff away after I use it- This one has been going really well. Our apartment doesn't get dirty as much as it gets messy, and having a neat space is so so so much more relaxing than having a big pile of clothes on my dresser or sink full of dishes waiting for the end of the day. I'm very happy with this one.
2. Focus more at work- This has also been better. I think listening to music helps when I have to do more of the "boring" stuff as does not checking the internet when I have little bits of down time when a program runs. It's better to have distinct breaks rather than this constant flow between "working" and "break time".
3. Pushing myself- I think this has also been good. I've been doing a lot more speed work and pushing myself to try faster paces than before. Not so much variety with the food ('tis the season), but I have made a fair number of new recipes.
4. Have more fun with more people. This one is... okay. We have done social things but no real inviting. I need to get out of the habit of always waiting to be invited to do stuff.
5. Take more pictures- BAD. I don't know why I'm averse to this, but I know I'm going to look back and wish I had more pictures of this time of my life. I need to get on it!
6. Stay in touch- Hard to say. We saw a lot of people over the holidays so I don't feel "out of touch" right now. We'll see how I do in the coming months.
7. Music- I'm taking piano lessons!!!!!
8. Waste less time- I'd say this was a B effort, too. For the most part I've been coming home, doing yoga, and cooking without any blah on the couch time, but I have my moments. Especially after 7pm.
9. Read real books- Um... I think I've read two things that can be considered a "real book" so far in 2010. And I'm almost done with Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters. I think I'll always have a place in my heart for trashy reading. I just have to keep it respectable some of the time.
10. Blog- I have been posting almost every day, but I haven't done anything to make the layout less ugly. I know I need help, but I'm afraid I don't want to pay the going rate for someone to make this thing be attractive. It's on my "someday/maybe" list.
And that's that. Other than picture taking, which gets a big F, I think it's been going well.
I'm planning on a 7mi run with 10x1min fast here in a few minutes. This week's goal is 37mi with a 10 mi long run on Thursday or Friday. Hope you all have a great Monday!
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