boston

we are officially moving to boston. oh boy.

wish i could see the light at the end of the tunnel, there must be a bend in the track...

A little belated but, we matched. We will both have jobs next year. We'll find out where on Monday.

Lot of stress this week and only the first half of the week had any really good workouts.

Monday - morning spin followed by a nice short run
Tuesday - awesome 3000m swim. really feeling it. love my new suit.
Wednesday - shoulders, arms and abs in the morning, spin in the evening
Thursday - tried out a road bike for the first time (was pretty freaked out by the kind woman who let me try her bike. made me worried about the whole triathlon thing. remembering my brothers' multiple falls back when he was a serious cyclist didn't help any. nor did frayed laces' recent accident) and then went for a crappy swim before a stressful meeting (dissertation related) which put a damper on the rest of my day.
Friday - was up all night waiting for the news of whether james and i were matched to job sites. was so tired during the day and went home on the 3 hour break i had midday and instead of working out i slept. made it for a 2 mile walk and a 30 minute elliptical later in the day. but it sucked. and my eating sucked. hoping to right myself on monday when my future feels more certain.
Saturday - didn't sleep last night either. dragged myself to spin this morning before a saturday at work. spinning was actually pretty good. we did an olympics themed ride. it was fun. not hard, but fun.

Hope to be back on the horse on Tuesday.

a solid week in purgatory

Monday 2/8  Chest and Back, Ab X in the a.m.
                     30min spin in the early afternoon

Tuesday 2/9 4 mile run in the a.m.
                    1200m swim at lunch - trapped in a lane with a splasher/flailer = not fun = short swim

Wednesday 2/10 Shoulders and Arms, Ab X in the early a.m.
                           Cardio (arc trainer) 30 minutes in the evening

Thursday 2/11 60min spin - group class - lots of hills in the saddle, not my favorite thing. good news, my lady parts seem to be getting used to the saddle.

Friday 2/12 Legs and Back, Ab X in the a.m.  (only body weight exercises)
                   Couples Valentine's weekend Power Yoga in the evening with James

Saturday 2/13  weather holding up so James and I went for a 5mile snow/trail run. Had that uncanny experience of being unable to believe that only 2 months ago I ran a half marathon and now feel like a blog of painful un-fitness.

Sunday 2/14  couldn't wait for the pool to open at 2pm for scheduled 2400m swim so pushed up tomorrow workout         Chest and Back, Abs.  first day without cardio all week.

I need to think about the current plan I'm working. For the past 2 weeks, by the time the weekend rolls around I feel tired and unmotivated. These are the days when I have the time to really go for it... Not sure what to cut from my week. 3 lifting days, 3 run, 2 spin, and 2 swimming is feeling like a lot. Hmmm... maybe it will feel better when all of these activities don't have to take place indoors. These blizzards have been really making the outdoor workouts hard to pull off.

5 days til our fate is sealed. 8 days until we find out where we will be moving!

rockin' the triathlon training

I've gotta say...I'm loving triathlon (-style) training. This week had rocked so far. On Monday I started the day with P90X Chest and Back lifting workout in the morning, followed by Ab Ripper X (and it does truly rip up your abs - often even causing strange digestive phenomena). I then went about my normal day. I cut out of work at 4 and went to a spinning class for an hour before returning refreshed to work for another few hours in the evening. On Tuesday I had my first run without significant pain since the half marathon in the beginning of december. I kept my pace pretty slow and switched over to run/walk combo after mile 3 when my post.tib. started barking a little. I had only planned to do 2 miles so I nixed my tentatively planned Plyo workout and just enjoyed my nice day at work. I almost went to the pool when I finished up with my last patient at 6pm but got sidetracked and didn't leave the department until after 7 and then it was a little late for me. In addition, my upper back, shoulders, and chest were pretty rocked from the combo of heavy lifting and spinning the day before. Yesterday I woke up still significantly sore through the shoulders but diligently dragged myself to the gym at 6am to do P90X Shoulders and Arms workout. I only made it through half of Ab Ripper before calling it quits, vowing to do more core later. Made it back to the gym to spin (solo) around 5pm. Kept the cadence high and resistance low. It was just what my legs needed after that first run back. Today I knew what I had to do. I had to put Dissertation before Training. I have a tendency to do whatever I do between 7am and 12pm really well. And take great pleasure in it. But then the pleasant sense of accomplishment tends to facilitate this weird and frustrating stagnation in the afternoon. Today it was more important that I actually make some headway with my dissertation analyses than getting in a double workout (despite have a run and a swim on the calendar). Miraculously and finally (and I do mean finally - like 6 months finally) I got down to business. After 3 hours of up and downs, fits and starts, frustration and elation I actually got through the step of my data analysis that I have been stuck on (read: avoiding and paralyzed by) since August. And it was only noon. You know what that means? I drove to the commuter lot, parked, and ran over to the Natatorium pool just in time for lap swim. Every lane had someone in it, most were already doubled up. A young man (cute, with a slightly stocky swimmers build) offered to share his lane. As I did my first few hundred meters of warm up, he repeated flew by me. So much for a pleasant and non-competitive swim :-)  I told myself that dealing with his wake would be good practice for open water swim (not the same, i know). Then I realized what was going on. He was doing very short drills. 50m, rest, repeat. Also, he was doing flip-turns. I was not. So I let it go. After about ten minutes we fell into a pattern. I was swimming continuously and he was doing 50m's on the :00's. It actually ended up being great for the next 20 minutes and I swam :57 50's through 1600m. He left the pool around my 1500 mark. Too bad though, as the pool emptied out and after I took a 1 minute breather after 1600m my pace fell markedly. I mean seriously, I don't know what happened. how does :57 turn into 1:03-1:05. I decided not to worry and just plugged along until 2400m. By this point the pool was empty and I was able to even practice my flipturns a bit before toweling off and running back to my car. I probably only ran 1.5miles. Can't decided whether I should make it a true double and get back out there after my afternoon meetings. I guess I'll decided after some lunch. I need some serious fuel right now.

4 miles in the time it normally takes me to run 5. i'll take it.

more on triathlon/p90x madness after some stretching and breakfast.


4.1miles 38:11min

past, present, and future

in the past 8 weeks:

• 10 cities
• 27 interviews
• 182 rank ordered pairs of job sites (for the crazy matching process that is about to take place)
• 10 lbs of pure fat, frustration, and impotent rage
• 1 nagging foot injury

in the coming 12 weeks:

• February 3 - Rank order list due to National Matching Service
• February 19 - James and I find out if we matched
• February 22 - James and I find out where we matched (and hence where we will be moving and when)
• Dissertation analyses must get done. Thursdays are about to become protected stats time. Must make this happen.
• P90X (round 2) begins today Febuary 1
• Triathlon training begins today February 1
• After the match I will find and register for a sprint and/or olympic distance triathlon in the vicinity of my new job!!!

In the meantime, I'll be working on not having a nervous breakdown. Wish me luck...

in the midst of hell its nice to remember when things were better

This arrived in the mail today. Team Manic Defense!!! Good times. Good times.

Now if only I could get my life back in order.