It was nice to run with a group again and have the random conversations that go on during a group run.  We ran past one guy’s house which was basically on campus, so we asked if he has issues with people parking in front of his house on game days and so the conversation went for ten minutes or so.  Then we discussed someone who had their Turkish coffer grounds “read” and apparently she has fortune and many suitors in line for this year.  Not a bad year.  It was only a four mile run, so not too much time for too many conversations.  More getting to know each other.

I am going to follow the plan as much as possible, although it isn’t the plan I had in mind.  Actually, it looks a bit easier than I was going to do, but I trust the coach.  He’s been the coach for a few years now and it is a successful program, so I’m pretty sure he knows what he’s doing.  What’s nice is that being part of the program, we have access to our workouts at Workoutlog.com.  You can see the training runs, log them there, and even sync up with your Garmin.

So today is a rest day and tomorrow is a two mile run.  I think I can handle that.

Nothing too crazy. Five minute warmup, 25 minutes of free weights, and then 20 minutes of Zumba. I got the Wii Zumba game for Christmas and let me tell you. I am not very coordinated. At times I would just stomp around in place. It was a pretty good workout, though. Got my heart rate up, and was entertaining, especially given my lack of skill, coordination, and ability to dance.

On deck for tomorrow is a 3 to 5 mile run. Depends how I feel when I get to the gym.

The run was good, with me taking more walk breaks than usual.  My legs needed it.  They felt heavy and achy.  I think I didn’t have enough water yesterday.  I did have three beers last night, but I don’t think that would be enough to really screw my run.  It could be that I was up until 1:00 in the morning.  Who knows?  I just know I needed to walk a bit more than usual, but my overall pace was still really good.  Even with walk breaks, I was running 10 to 11 minute miles.

My plan for the next three months is to run Tuesdays, Thrusdays, and Saturdays and then do weights and the bike on Mondays, Wednesdays, adn Fridays.  Sundays will be my rest day (and probably the day Alan goes for a ride).  I’m looking forward to seeing how the weights and bike impact my running.  Hopefully it will be a positive impact!

I considered just joining a running club as there are a few down here, but just randomly showing up for one of their weekly runs is intimidating, to say the least.  So I started looking around for training programs.  Chicago seemed to always have some sort of training program going on, even in the middle of winter, so I just assume that all areas are like that.  Not so.  However, I did find two programs that start in the next week or two. 

One program is for women who want to get into running.  Great idea!  I love it!  But I am already into running.  I could run 10 miles tomorrow if I wanted (will probably do only 5 miles so I can be done early and Alan can work on remodeling the bathroom).  So, I didn’t think that was the right fit for me.  Plus, I like the co-ed natured of the running program I did in Chicago.  Having men around seems to help limit the cattiness that can creep up in a group of women, plus it’s nice to have a male perspective on the long runs with our silly conversations.

The other program I found is very much like the programs CARA offered in Chicago.  It’s a 12-week program to train for a half-marathon.  If anything, the goofy thing is that the goal race is the Marine Corps Half-Marathon which is the same day as the Tobacco Road Half, but it’s in DC, whereas the Tobacco Road race is in Cary, NC, a short drive from my house. 

The training program has two runs a week, one on Wednesdays and one on Saturday mornings.  I will be skipping the Wednesday run as it is at 6:00 in the evening, right when we sit down to dinner.  But I am really looking forward to the Saturday morning runs.  Runs are at 7:00, which is a great time.  I’m a morning person, and a morning runner, the only bummer is that the run is in Carrboro which is about 30 – 45 minutes away.  If the experience is anything like running with CARA and making the friends I made in Chicago, the drive will be well worth it.

Anyways, this guy was a great professor.  Loved philosophy, was really into it, and I had three great classes with him.  I checked him out on Rate Your Professor.com and he’s still at my alma mater and still in the Philosophy department.  And apparently, he still has insomnia, which he had when I was in college some 14 year ago (egads!).  Some of the reviews say something like, “This guy blames insomnia on . . . ” but it isn’t blame, perse.  He really had some issues, and still does, with sleep.

But what really struck me was what students were complaining about in their reviews.  They were things like:

• He grades too hard, I studied for every test and still got a B
• I studied for three hours for the test and got a D
• the whole grade is based solely on 4 exams, which are graded harshly
• Do the readings, because if you don’t you won’t do good in class
• Low tech lecture teaching style that can be very boring over 50 minutes!
• attendance is not mandatory but you definitely should go if you want to understand the material
• this class is not an easy A, but then again I skip often and don’t read all the material, and have a C

What the hell has happened to higher education?  Are these students the product of “helicopter parents” or perhaps the product of an upbringing where they always got their way and never failed?  Did they get a trophy for coming in dead last place, and therefore don’t understand you have work for things in life?  I remember college, especially the higher up classes, and studying for three hours did not suffice most of the time.  I also remember being challenged, having to read the material in order to get a good grade, and being expected to think and push myself.

I am frightened at the prospect of working with these people in a few years!

The specific memory I had was us sitting in the bathroom, smoking around the toilet (we didn’t smoke in the apartment, only where there was an exhaust fan, hence, the bathroom) and working on a book my dad had gotten for the whole family, How to Think Like Leonard DaVinci.  The bathroom was pink.  The whole thing!   Pink tiled walls, pink sink, pink toilet, pink tub, and silver and pink floral wall paper.  Perhaps the best feature were the sliding glass doors around the tub, monogrammed with the letter, “C”.  A friend freaked and was like, “Oh my god!  Is that for ‘Cooney’?”  And to ease her mind, I told her it was for Chicago.  I don’t think she believed me.  Weirder still was the window in the bathroom that was not a window to the outside, but to what we simply referred to as, “The Weird Room.”  That’s for another post.

But I just remembered sitting around that pepto-bismol pink toilet, smoking my cloves while Alan smoked his cigarettes and we each worked on the accompanying workbook for the DaVinci book.  My dad had given everyone a copy for Christmas and said for his birthday (which is in July), he wanted everyone to do the workbook by July and come to my folks house to discuss.  Not sure what happened, but we never did finish it and Dad never brought it up again.  We still have our workbooks and I’ve always thought about returning to it.  Maybe I will this winter.  Could be a good evening activity as the weather starts to turn.

The article does say, “Maybe you should get tested if you have this horrible family history where everyone gets prostate cancer before the age of 50. But for most men, testing is harmful.”  Well, there is not a history of prostate cancer in his family, before 50 or not.  And quite frankly, I don’t like the idea of my brothers not getting tested, especially with as aggressive a form of prostate cancer my dad had.

You want to know when I might agree with this kind of recommendation?  When it comes from insurance companies.  It obviously is cheaper to test a bunch of men for early detection, rather than waiting and really incur some steep costs.  Same goes for annual mammograms and pap smears.  If the insurance companies continue to pay, then there is truly a benefit.

Another article just released: http://news.yahoo.com/panel-advises-against-prostate-cancer-screening-024452851.html

My husband, brothers, and some family friends are putting their razors away for the month of September to raise awareness (and funds!) for prostate cancer, which took my dad from me this past July.  To learn more or to donate, go to http://septembeard.org/team/195/.

I ran six miles this past Sunday (skipped my 8k race on Saturday compliments of Irene). I ran five miles before work yesterday and will be doing the same tomorrow. What’s different this time with training is that I am including weight training. I try to life Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. As my mileage gets higher, I may skip the Friday lift day and do some cardio crosstraining like the elliptical or bike.

I have to admit, my back is killing me! Now that is in part from me playing with Nate yesterday, pushing around one of his walker toys, leaving me all hunched over. But with the upper back and shoulder weight exercises combined with the fatigue that sets in with running for over an hour, I’m achy.

But I will also say that I feel great! It feels good to be running again. It feels good to work my body, and to free my mind. Here’s hoping I make it to the starting line!