No Excuse November

For a few months now I've been posting my minimal workouts on a site called Daily Mile. It's a nice online way to keep track of what you're doing, receive motivation, motivate others, and just generally share your goals with a community.

Feel free to join and keep track of my progress as well as track your own with your goals.

Until then, yesterday began what a friend of mine called "no excuse November." (Much better than those lame "no shave November" or any other weird month-long boycotts.) So, I worked out last night, will go again tonight after band practice and hopefully keep up some sort of activity each day for the rest of the month. Who knows, it might become a habit!!

I'm baaaaaack!!!!

OK kids, I'm back. Yay. Seriously though, as I was placing the New Year's and Chrismas holidays on my Outlook calendar today, I got to thinking about resolutions already. Yes, already.

So, in order to get a head start on those resolutions, I resolve to not again take three weeks off from the gym. I went last night and rode about 10 miles on the bike and did some chest/shoulders lifting. All I have to say is "ouch." It's a good pain, but pain nonetheless.

Stay tuned for more progress!

P020109PS-0339

P020109PS-0339
Originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream

So cool!!

Motivation

...is seriously lacking. I don't know why either. Somehow, for more than a week now, I've been in a slump. Despite the fact that The Librarian Diaries and I have been talking about seriously doing the half-marathon in St. Louis next month (almost literally), I haven't been to the gym in more than a week now. Nothing, nada, zilch.

I think at first it began has simply having too much going on in the evenings: Panther Service Day meetings, class, band rehearsal, homework, basketball games, etc. Then, after spending the weekend in Chicago and Decatur, my knees hurt. Nothing that bothers me during the day or anything, but it's definitely been an excuse.

Tonight, I had intentions of going, but as per usual lately, I was distracted. I got out of class early and decided to be a giant nerd and go check out Student Government instead. (There was talk of a feisty meeting in the DEN.) However, when I arrived, they had just adjourned and I spent the next half hour talking to my good friend and the org.'s adviser instead.

Tomorrow though, it's gonna happen...it has to. I'm running a 3K next weekend for St. Pat's Day weekend. It's only a little over a mile and a half, but since I haven't done anything active since last Monday, I know I'll be rusty. I'm sure I can run a mile and a half, but considering the half is a month away, I have some work to do to catch up.

Wish me luck!

Pet Peeves

...when people refer to the state legislature as the "state congress" or "congress" in general.

1. There is only one Congress and it's the U.S. House of Representatives
2. State legislative bodies are referred to as Legislatures!

Grad School Annoyances

Someone asked me recently how I felt about some of the other grad students in my program. Simple, I don't know, I don't hang out with them. A few I have classes with this semester, I had class with last semester so there are some I enjoy, but for the vast majority, I really don't know.

However, having almost three weeks of class under our belts now, I can safely make the following observations about grad school and my classmates:

1. A guy in one of my classes has a rat tail. I'm not even kidding. I hadn't noticed it the first week of class, but as I walked behind him (still seated) this week, I saw this glorious, braided, approximately 2 ft. long, rat tail streaming down his back. WTF. Jordan Knight called from 1991 and wanted his hair back.
   
2. We have a first-semester gunner. Now, I thought these people were reserved for conversations and things I've read about law school, but as we all know, these are the same people known as "suck ups, teacher's pets," or any other name for someone who talks too much, asks too many questions, tries to one-up the professor (seriously, why?), or tries to undermine or annoyingly challenge the views of anyone else in the class. Unfortunately for this guy, he probably made a lot of enemies when, in talking about how we were politically socialized, told everyone he used to listen to 6 hrs. a day of talk radio. Yes, I know what you're thinking, and yes, I mean Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and probably a variety of other idiots. Good for you buddy.
   
3. I have no use for the grad lab, mostly because I'm working during the hours it is open. If I need to use SPSS, I'll just go to the library or the 24-hr lab, thankyouverymuch. Also for the reasons listed above, I'd rather not spend any more time in the departmental areas than I have to. I do enjoy seeing my profs, especially those I had in undergrad and don't see often now, but working full-time doesn't exactly allow me hours to kill in the grad lab during the day. However, on one of my syllabuses (syllabi?), it states that additional reading is available on e-reserve and in the grad lab. Apparently this is not entirely true however because one of this week's readings is ONLY available in the grad lab...which I never visit. So, tomorrow morning - because I am a champion procrastinator - I will be there, copying whatever it is I should have read tonight and frantically coming up with a paragraph to turn in at class time in the evening.

In conclusion, why don't you help me out and just pray for classes (including night classes!) to get canceled tomorrow for this crazy snowstorm! Thanks!

Getting after it...

In order to make my 5K and half-marathon goal this year, I hopped back on the bandwagon with my "Couch to 5K" buddy, Robert Ulrey. This dude took the Cool Runnings "Couch to 5K" program and set it to podcasts. This way you don't have to time yourself, figure out when to run, walk, etc. He tells you when to do each and sets it to some motivating techno music.

Speaking of the music, I chuckle at it now, but it was extremely motivating about a year ago when I started using this plan. It was a bit of a rough patch and the song lyrics just kept reminding me that despite what had happened, I was stronger. Listening to it now reminds me of that and just makes me laugh a little to myself when I think about those times. 180 degrees.

Anyway, for some reason, although I got through the week 1 program with no trouble earlier this week, I just couldn't finish the last running interval. I felt lightheaded so I just slowed down and walked for a bit longer instead. My plan this semester is to run Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. I have an evening class on Wednesday so instead of waiting until the weekend for a rest day, I'm going to use Wednesday as such.

For anyone who is interested, here's the link for the podcasts and the program itself. If you're already pretty athletic or doing some running, here's another good beginner 5K training program.

Happy weekend peeps!