Seattle, Here I Come!

Road trip begins in an hour. 

Cannot wait. 

And yes, I will be posting pictures when I get back. 

SB2K12

I’ve been on spring break this week…hence the radio silence. (Although lately, this radio silence isn’t much different from my usual blogging.) Over the past several days, I’ve been enjoying every minute of my downtime. My advisor was wonderful enough to even tell me, “I don’t want you doing that much work over break!”  Needless to say, wonderful news. My spring break has so far consisted of…

Saturday: I went on a wonderful hike with a few friends, followed by a good ol’ evening of microbrews and delicious food (homemade pizza! baked apples! cookies! did I mention beer!).

Sunday: My last long run before my upcoming half marathon, a whopping 11.4 miles. That my longest run while training for this race, and while it’s wasn’t a huge jump from my other longer ones, it took a lot out of me. I’m talking feet and legs that were aching for a good 24 hours afterward. I think it probably would have been worse had I not iced afterwards and rested on Monday. 

Monday: Laundry. Sold some clothes (yay $16!). Read (for pleasure!) a lot. If anything else happened…I don’t remember it. 

Tuesday: Hung pictures that have been leaning against a wall since August (what a difference!). Went to a Science Pub with a couple of friends to see Brian Skerry, a National Geographic photographer, speak. Followed by fro-yo. 

Wednesday: More laundry. Cleaning my apartment. Finally finished my taxes. 

And plans for the next two days include….Seattle! I am so excited. I’ve lived in Portland for over a year and half now, and I still haven’t been up there. I’m taking a road trip with two friends of mine. We’re staying with my friend’s brother, and pretty much just going with the flow while we’re there. It will be so nice to get out of the city for a little while!

And of course I can’t forget…this Sunday is my second half marathon, the Race for the Roses in Portland. I’m feeling really good about this race!

Training Update: Week 11!

This is it…the final week leading up to my half marathon! I’m looking forward to taking it easy this week so I can rest up for the big day. 

This past week:

• 18.5 miles run
• 30 miles biked

I really need to get back on the yoga train!

Monday Check-In

Obsessing Over: Nothing—it’s spring break! 🙂

Working On: Maybe getting out of my pajamas in the next 15-20 minutes and coming up with a game plan for the day. 

Thinking About: How sore my feet and legs are after an 11.4 mile run yesterday, and how I should probably stay off of them today, but won’t. (Oh brother.) 

Anticipating: Going to Seattle this Thursday! Yippee! While I’m super excited for it, I also don’t want my spring break to fly by too quickly, so I’m okay if the next few days drag by.  

Listening To: Nothing at the moment. 

Drinking: Water!

Wishing: I could be better about blogging. Eek. 

Training Update: Week 10

I realize I never posted this on Monday…oopsies!

Last week in numbers:

• 35 miles biked
• 15.3 miles run

Part of the 15.3 miles was the Shamrock Run 15K! I need to do a separate recap post about it (with pictures!), but for now, let me say this: It was awesome, I felt amazing, and I’m SO happy I did it! I’m also feeling a lot better about my half marathon that’s coming up in less than two weeks! Eep!

Finals Week

I posted this last week while whining about how much work I had left to do. Two days into my finals week, let’s see how I’m doing…

• Writing a 15 page paper for my developmental psych class
• Transcribing two hours worth of interviews for said paper 
• Preparing a 10-ish minute presentation on the paper that spawned this 15 page paper
• Finishing a massive take-home exam for my psychometrics class (8-10 hours of work)
• Studying for a short in-class exam in the same class
• Proctoring an exam for my advisor’s undergrads on Monday morning
• Six Two meetings left
• Creating a mock codebook for a meeting next Friday
• Grading 15-20 15-page papers next week
• Giving feedback on a friend’s thesis

I’d say I’m doing pretty well! As of today, I’m past the worst of it. Now there’s just several smaller things to tackle before Friday rolls around. 

(And oh, how I will be dancing for joy on Friday.)

Monday Check-In

Obsessing Over: Not too much this morning—I’m in a nice little calm place that I’m hoping will last the rest of the day. 

Working On: Figuring out what I can work on today while I’m proctoring an exam for my advisor. I don’t think the students would appreciate me tap-tap-tapping away on my laptop the entire time, so I’m going to have to figure something else out!

Thinking About: The amount of work I have to do in the next 34-ish hours. I have a feeling I’m going to be up late tonight. 

Anticipating: Friday afternoon. Come 2pm, I will be checking out for a good 36 hours before doing anything productive over spring break. 

Listening To: Pandora—Fall Out Boy station (which happens to be reminding me of highschool). Currently playing: Linkin Park, “Bleed it Out.” 

Drinking: Chai. I think I’ve successfully kicked the coffee…but now I need to buy more chai. 

Wishing: It was Friday. 

Shamrock Run PDX

I’ll be running the 15K tomorrow morning. Race time: 7:45am. 

There’s currently the possibility of snow in the forecast for tomorrow morning. Yikes. Either way, it’s probably going to be in the 30s when the gun goes off tomorrow morning.

I just keep telling myself that I ran cross-country and track and field in Michigan.

This can’t be that bad…right? 

Time to get my race gear situated for tomorrow!

One More Week…

Classes = done.

But am I “done”? Not so fast.

Finals are next week, and the following things are standing between me and next Friday (i.e., Spring Break!):

• Writing a 15 page paper for my developmental psych class
• Transcribing two hours worth of interviews for said paper
• Preparing a 10-ish minute presentation on the paper that spawned this 15 page paper
• Finishing a massive take-home exam for my psychometrics class (8-10 hours of work)
• Studying for a short in-class exam in the same class
• Proctoring an exam for my advisor’s undergrads on Monday morning
• Six meetings
• Creating a mock codebook for a meeting next Friday
• Grading 15-20 15-page papers next week
• Giving feedback on a friend’s thesis

Phew. I got this. 

Monday Check-In

Obsessing Over: Trying to feel less stressed and feel better overall. 

Working On: I should probably try to start my taxes today. Oy. Other than that, I’ll be doing laundry and working on some reading and data analysis today. 

Thinking About: My half marathon training—how it’s been going, and how I’m going to approach running/training after these races are over. 

Anticipating: The end of finals week next Friday can’t come soon enough. 

Listening To: The CBS morning news. 

Drinking: Some French roast coffee. This is only the second time in the past week I’ve had coffee. (I’ve been switching back over to tea—and I partially wonder if that’s why I’ve been so exhausted lately!)

Wishing: That this data analysis I need to do and the paper I need to write would do themselves. That’d be great, wouldn’t it?