Heading Back to School

Now I can say that I'm going back to school NEXT WEEK! Yikes! My first class in the Master of Library Science program at North Carolina Central University is on August 23, a week from Tuesday. As expected, I'm both excited and nervous, but mostly excited!

For the past few weeks, I've been taking care of some things on my larger to-do list, things that I've been putting off for a while. Having the start of grad school looming large has been a nice deadline, really. Mostly, I've been getting doctor's visits in, ones I've been neglecting, like getting my teeth cleaned and a mammogram (but not at the same time, thank goodness!). It feels satisfying to be on the other end of appointments like that, peace of mind that will help me focus on my studies a little better, I hope!

Meanwhile, I'm staying busy at work at the library, which will continue as I take classes. Also, I've signed up for the City of Oaks Half Marathon on November 6. I just finished Week #4 of my current training schedule, and so far it's going well, which means I haven't gotten injured! :-)

George and I continue to shop around for a new church home, so we visited a new-to-us church in Raleigh this morning. The funny thing about it was that we heard the today's minister last weekend at a different church, where he was the guest preacher. Today he was back at his home church, and we heard the SAME SERMON today that we heard last Sunday!

March Madness

Well, I've injured myself again, for the second March in a row, and I'm not happy with myself! Why? Because I think I did it to myself with overtraining. Best I can tell from online research, I've done a number on my right hip flexor. *sigh* And I have a half marathon scheduled for Saturday. It looks like I'll be taking it easy. But, in the big scheme of things, I'd rather take it easy now than miss training for the Outer Banks Marathon, which is still 7+ months away.

Meanwhile, Duke is playing in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Basketball Tournament tonight. Tip-off is at 9:57 PM EDT, which is exactly my bedtime! ;-) Good luck, Blue Devils!

Work Meets Running

I'm running in the Run for the Oaks 5K tomorrow morning, and they have a corporate team competition. I stepped out on a limb and solicited other interested runners at the library. Now, three of us are going to brave the rain tomorrow morning in Raleigh! I'm excited! The rain will be a bit of an adventure, or at least a good story to tell later.

Last night I went to the Athlete's Foot at Cameron Village to pick up my race packet. The man behind the table made a comment that he recognized my name, that I must run a few races around here! :) I didn't mentioned that I'm a back-of-the-packer. TMI.

I picked up a new pair of running shoes while I was at the store, but I'll save them for after the rain.

More Holiday R & R

I've really enjoyed the first week of my vacation. I've gotten a lot of time with family, some with mine and a lot with George's, and that's been nice.

One of the odd things that's come from the time together, though, is that my being a vegetarian has come to the surface during three different meals with George's family, and the comments have been against my shying away from red meat and chicken. Part of what's so odd to me about the issue coming up this week, is that I've been a vegetarian for over two years now, and I've never gotten any "feedback" from them until this week. I need to think carefully about how to respond the next time it comes up, because I don't want to come across as contentious, angry, or finger pointing at them about eating meat. I became a vegetarian for health reasons, and have lost 100 lbs and all my diabetes and blood pressure medications, thanks to the vegetarian diet. His whole family has witnessed my transformation, which is part of why I'm baffled by this sudden "interest," more like concern, in my giving up meat. I've always tried to work my diet around whatevers being served at their home or available on the menu of whatever restaurant the family has gone to, and I've never complained about the food choices. I've enjoyed their company along the way, and have been appreciative when veggies have been available. I hope the comments will pass soon. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can handle this and keep the family peace?

Another "odd" thing that's come from the past week is that George, his brothers, and first cousin have taught me how to play a game called Star Munchkin. It's a fun game that involves strategy, and interaction with the other players, sometimes helping--but sometimes ganging up on opponents too. So far, each game we've played has been pretty lengthy. Over the weekend, it's been a pretty good investment of time. There's another round of the game on tap for today; as much as I've enjoyed learning the game, I may just let the guys go at it this afternoon! :)

I've also been reading a lot the past week, and have finished a few books so far. I may finish another this afternoon, especially if I don't get sucked into Star Munchkin again! I've gotten some good ideas for reading material from Goodreads.com, and have gotten back into the habit of utilizing the local public library. I've ordered a few books from Amazon.com over the holidays, but mainly I've been putting books on hold through the library's online catalog, and having them routed to the library branch closest to me. Problem is, I've seen so many things I want to read, and put holds on them, that I've got a pretty sizeable stack of books from the public library to work through. That normally wouldn't be a "problem," except that I've done the same thing at the university library I work for! In a nutshell, I'm realizing I may have a book addiction! I love having books around! At least I don't feel like I have to OWN a lot of books, though I have quite a few. I do enjoy having a lot of books around to choose from when I finish one book and need a new one to start. I also like having several books going at one time, usually a variety of fiction and non-fiction, so that I can pick up whatever I'm in the mood to read at the moment. I didn't always read that way; I used to finish one book before I started a new one. Now, I love the variety...though sometimes I'll get on a kick to finish more than one book before I add to the "in-progress" pile.

I've also gotten a good bit of running in over the holidays, including a 7.15 miler at the American Tobacco Trail yesterday. My running goal for December was to run 100 miles, and it looks like I'm going to break that mark soon--a good thing since the month is coming to a close soon!

Old Habits, New Habits

A few weeks ago, I started posting weekly goals here, and then reporting on my progress. I haven't done that in a while, but some of those weekly goals have continued to become habits. Some of the other items have fallen by the wayside, for some reason or another, so perhaps it's time to reassess.

On the plus side, I've continued to finish at least one book a week. If I push a little, I'll complete more than one. I've continued to have fun tracking my reads on the site Goodreads.com, which has helped me to keep on going with this goal. Since it's a social networking site as well as a book-tracking site, I've "friended" several friends on Goodreads, and it's been fun to see what they're reading as well. When I go to others' homes, I'm often drawn to their bookcases--to me, the books on someone's bookshelves tell me something about them.

I've also continued to increase my running mileage as I train for the Coach Bubba 20K in Durham in February.

I'm keeping up with my family tree data input on a weekly basis, even if it's just a few names a week. I know I'll never totally be done with my family tree, but making progress brings me satisfaction.

Meanwhile, my weight loss plans have plateaued, and I haven't kept up with trying a new dish (cooked by yours truly) each week. I've also unsubscribed from the FlyLady emails (for apartment cleaning), which got to be too much to keep up with. So, these are things I'd like to concentrate on in the future. Maybe the trick is to integrate things more slowly, or to try different approaches.

City of Oaks Half Marathon

Last Sunday, I ran in my first half marathon, the City of Oaks Half Marathon in Raleigh. It had been a goal of mine for quite a while, and I've been training specifically for this race for several months.

George went with me to the race Saturday morning, and was at the finish line to take pictures of me, (mostly) smiling for the camera. When I finished, I was exhausted, but otherwise not as emotional about finishing as I thought I might be. I was relieved and happy, but mostly exhausted.

A couple days ago, the company that had photographers on the course posted their pictures for the runners of the City of Oaks races (half and full) to access. When I looked at all those pictures of me actually running the course, I choked up! Seeing pictures of me out on the course, and reliving it a bit, was different from seeing shots of me finishing the course.

The picture posted here was my favorite. I like the trees in the background. I'm thinking, though, that maybe I'll try to wear something cuter the next time I'm in a race with photograpers and pictures for sale. ;-) I am glad I wore my pearl earrings, though. It was a way to "dress up" for a special occasion, which this was.

My full report of the City of Oaks Half is on my running blog, and can be read here.

Quick (sort of) Update

Since I decided to some up with some goals for the week (AND post them to this blog), I must admit that I've felt more focused, just a day after coming up with and posting my weekly goals. I was starting to feel a little stressed and frustrated about how busy this month is turning out to be, and I think I was feeling worn down and a little out of control, at least as far as my schedule was concerned. Ever felt like your schedule was controlling you instead of you controlling your schedule? I was feeling a hint of that.

Goal setting is such a basic thing, and I've done it before, of course, but it's been a while since I've done it for my general life and made the goals public. I have my work goals, of course, as part of my annual evaluation. I have running goals when it comes to participating in road races. I have general ideas in my mind of where I want to go in my life, and sometimes I'll talk with George or others about my goals and dreams. Somehow, though, writing goals down, especially for others--strangers in the blogosphere to see, even, takes them to a different level.

One thing that spurred me to do this was something Scott Smith said on one of his podcasts, either "The Motivation to Move" or "The Daily Boost." (I subscribe to both through iTunes and listen on my iPod.) On the shows, he often asks, "Have you done your homework?" On one recent episode, it really hit home when he asked that question, and talked about doing something weekly toward your bigger, life goals. (I've heard him ask that question any number of times, but it made an impression this time.)

I've made some progress on my goals already, eventhough it's just been a day. I've lost .4 of a pound so far , read several pages in a book I'm working on finishing next, run 7.25 miles so far this running week, and got into bed at 11:01 PM last night. All of that, in addition to work and a meeting last night.

In reality, there are many more goals I could've added to this week's goals list, but I figured I'd set up a short list and see how things go. There can be a fine line between a goal list and a to-do list. My to-do list wouldn't be so entertaining, and there are other venues for that.

While I've got goals on the brain, I've done a couple of things podcast-related. I mentioned that I set up a blog as a placeholder for show notes down the road. Well, I did it here on Blogger, and I learned yesterday that it was tagged and blocked as possible spam, so I had to type in a password-thingy to have it reviewed. Sheesh. I'm not sure why a URL called goingtheextramileopodcast.blogspot.com sounds spam-like. We'll see that the Blogger powers-that-be say.

Meanwhile, I've signed up for a podcast account at podbean.com, and my url is http://goingtheextramile.podbean.com. Since "Going the Extra Mile" is the name of my blog about my personal journey of running, weight loss, and better health, I thought it would be a good name for a podcast too. I'm still a while away from starting a podcast, but it feels good to get started.

10 on Tuesday: 10 Great Things That Happened This Summer

Here are my answers to a new meme (the 10 on Tuesday that I do sometimes). I enjoyed coming up with this list (in no particular order, by the way); it's a really nice recap of my summer.


1) My department moved to another building, and I really like the new building and location (better than I thought I would)!
2) The Olympics--I especially enjoyed watching the swimmers (especially Torres and Phelps)and the runners (especially the men's and women's marathon finishes). I had a hard time staying awake for most of the gymnastics events, and could've done with less volleyball, but all in all, I really enjoyed watching the Olympics this summer.
3) I joined the Galloway training group and started training for a half marathon.
4) I ran/walked 15 miles one Saturday morning with the Galloway group. This is the farthest I've ever gone.
5) My parents and sister visited ERUUF one Sunday when I was the worship associate, and they got to hear me speak.
6) I finally got to visit Merchants Millpond State Park.
7) I was interviewed by two different Korean news teams doing separate documentaries on the health benefits on eating rice.
8) George and I celebrated our first year of living together and renewed our apartment lease.
9) George and I took a vacation to Winston-Salem, enjoyed being a tourist there, and visited with several friends and a cousin.
10) George and I also visited Oxford and Roxboro together on daytrips as part of my NC Odyssey Project. We do make good travel buddies; maybe we should sign up for "The Amazing Race!"


Okay, so what would make YOUR list of 10 great things that happened this summer? :-D

10 on Tuesday-10 Simple Things That Make You Happy

Here's another meme from the weekly "10 on Tueday" email I receive, and it's a nice one to think about on a rainy Tuesday!

Here's a list of 10 simple things that make me happy. They're the first things that crossed my mind. Now that my brain is cranking, I keep thinking of more (not a bad thing)! These are in no particular order (although hugs and kisses from George remain high on the list on any given day, not just on Tuesdays!):

Hugs and kisses from George
Rainbows
A good book
A fire in the fireplace
Hot chocolate with marshmallows
A handwritten letter in the mailbox
A good run outdoors
Running a personal best time at a road race
Being in the mountains
The smell of cinnamon-apple cider simmering on the stove


Okay, so what makes your list of 10 simple things that make you happy?

Now There's Some Inspiration!

I recently stumbled upon a new (to me) running blog that included a mention about an 81-year-old Maryland man who finished a local 5K road race in 27:06! Needless to say, that impressed me quite a bit. I'd love to be able to talk to that person and learn his secrets of longevity and an active lifestyle. I hope I'm still going that strong at 81! A link to the newspaper article is here.

I was thinkng about running in a 5K road race in the morning (there are a couple of possibilities), but my nose is still stuffy and I've been sneezing this afternoon. A few weeks ago, I did sign up for a 1-mile road race, the Magnificent Mile, on Sunday afternoon. I think I'll just get a slow, easy (and maybe short, depending on how I'm feeling) run in tomorrow morning, and do the 1-miler Sunday afternoon.

The End of a Short Vacation

I head back to work tomorrow after taking last Thursday and Friday off of work with George. We didn't do as much as we'd planned, but it was still a nice break.

Thursday morning I decided to get my 10-mile run in while George had an appointment in Cary. I went to Shelley Lake for the run, and ran into Donna, another Galloway groupie. It was fun to run into a running acquaintance by accident, and it was a good run, to boot.

Thursday afternoon, I joined George, his brother, and his dad for lunch at The Food Factory in Cary. I hadn't been to the Food Factory before, and enjoyed a veggie wrap.

Friday, George and I drove up to Person County to have lunch at Clarksville Station and explore Roxboro. I blogged about the excursion on my North Carolina Odyssey Project blog, where I'm keeping track of my journey through all one hundred counties in North Carolina. My Person County post is here. Friday evening, we joined George's family for Shabbat dinner.

Yesterday morning, I enjoyed puttering around while the rain and wind from Tropical Storm Hanna blew through. (I love storms, as long as they aren't harmful!) Last night we celebrated a couple of family birthdays with George's family at Bonefish Grill in Cary. Little Talia turns 3 tomorrow, so it was fun to see her really enjoy getting birthday presents this year.

I've been having trouble with my red iPod Nano lately...the screen keeps going white. I've rebooted each time, but it's gotten harder and harder to get the index screen of songs and podcasts to show up. So, I decided I'd had enough of it this afternoon. I looked online and ordered a black 3rd generation Nano from Circuit City's website, and opted to pick it up from the nearest store with one in stock. I headed off to Cary (lots of time in Cary this weekend!), and came back with a brand new iPod! I've had fun figuring out how to fill it this evening. I think I've got what I need from the old iPod on it (it's still charging, so I haven't plugged the earbuds in yet).

By My Bed....

Although I don't NEED another running book at home, I decided I really wanted to check this book, The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women: Get Off Your Butt and On With Your Training, out for a little extra motivation. I'm about 30 pages into it, and while I generally like the author's writing style so far, I must say that the title doesn't really jive with that mindset I'm working on. I AM a runner, even if I'm not a very fast one. I LIKE running, always have (though I was away from it for a number of years).

Should I call myself a runner or a jogger? Does the term depend on how fast you run? Whether or not you've run in a race? What do you think?

Getting Ready for Tomorrow

Last evening I finally made it to Fleet Feet in Carrboro before it closed at 7:00. I was glad to find they did indeed have a small water bottle that I can carry in my hand for long runs. (On my last long run, I tried a hydration belt with a bottle in the back, and it drove me nuts!) I also received my new wicking t-shirt in the mail a couple days ago (something I found on Amazon.com--amazing what they have on their website now!), so I'm hoping I'm ready for tomorrow's 8-mile run with the Galloway training group. I've never gone 8 miles on my own two feet, so I want to be ready (especially with the predicted heat!).

I enjoyed riding around Carrboro for the first time in quite a while. It reminded me of the summer I lived in Carrboro while going to summer school at UNC. I strained my brain to remember what was there 20+ years ago, and what's new. One place I saw that I want to return to is Weaver Street Market. Last evening they had a band playing out front and lots of people sitting in lawn chairs and on blankets, enjoying the music. (There were also a number of people hula hooping to the music!)

Holy Cow!

I had the "Today Show" on this morning as I got ready for work, and they had the Duggar family on with their 17 children! During the interview, the parents announced that # 18 is on the way--holy cow! I've seen segments about the family on the Discovery Health Channel, and it is fascinating to see how they run the household, homeschooling all of the children. (Not sure what the 20-year-old oldest child is up to, school-wise.) In addition to helping maintain the home, each child seems to have hobbies, and all of them learn how to play the piano and the violin. I was fascinated by all of that.

In sports news, an 8th grader has been offered a basketball scholarship (once he graduates from high school) to the University of Kentucky. Part of me thinks, "Holy cow! That's so young to commit to a school and a basketball program!" On the other hand, he's got a goal in hand that should really give him some focus through high school--not a bad thing!

In personal news, tomorrow's my first training run with the Galloway training group. I'm very excited, but a little nervous too. I'm wondering how things will be organized, and if I can keep up with my pace group. When I think about being able to run a half or full marathon come November, I think, "Holy cow!" again! :-)

Jeff Galloway Training Program

I went to hear Jeff Galloway yesterday morning at the kick-off for the 2008 Galloway Training Group in Raleigh. It was very interesting and inspiring. At the end, I decided to go ahead and sign up! One of the interesting little side benefits of signing up there was that I got one of Galloway's training books (among other things), and was able to meet him and have him sign the book. Better yet, I met some really nice people while waiting in the line to see him!

For a more complete count of the morning's activities, check out yesterday's post at my running blog.

Rewards

I decided last week to start rewarding myself each time I get lose weight and surpass a number ending in 5 or 0. Earlier this week I passed a number ending in a zero, so I ordered three books from my Amazon.com Wish List. They arrived yesterday, and I've been having fun with them already!

One book is called Start Your Own Newsletter from Scratch, by Jim Terhune. I got this book because I'm planning to start a newsletter for my McLamb family line. (Genealogy is one of my favorite hobbies.) It's a fairly short book; in fact, I finished it last night! It has lots of good suggestions, even if it is a little dated in terms of technology. (It mentions modems for getting online.) I got the last copy in stock, so I'm glad I went ahead and ordered it.

One of the books I got is a cookbook called 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans, And Grains. I've already earmarked several recipes I want to try! I love the fact that nutritional values (including sodium) are listed at the end of each recipe. Sodium is often left off of nutritional charts of recipes, it seems, so I'm thankful for it in this book.




The last book I got is about running! It's called Marathon Woman: Running the Race to Revolutionize Women's Sports, and it's an autobiography of Kathrine Switzer, who was the first woman to register and get an official number for the Boston Marathon, but the race officials didn't know she was a woman until she was running in the race (a race offical actually tried to run her down!). This was in 1967,when women weren't allowed to run in marathons! I'm a couple of chapters into this book, and I think it'll be a good read! I'd love to run the Boston Marathon someday, and am thinking about signing up for a marathon training program (thanks for the link, Susan!) that starts next month.

First Race Casualty

It looks like I'm going to have to ditch Saturday's 4 mile road race! &^+.}^!!(*&@! I've done a little internet diagnosis and seem to have a groin pull as a result of a long(er than I'm used to) 5-mile run/walk with a group on a Saturday, followed the next day by a hard-run 5k road race (which I ran in 35:30, a new PR for me!). That muscle area hasn't been the same since. I tried running again on the treadmill a couple days ago, and didn't make it but a couple of minutes.

So....I'm back on the elliptical machine, which doesn't cause me pain like running does, and have an appointment with a sports medicine doctor next Tuesday. (What kind of "-ist" is a sports medicine doctor--anyone know?) I'd hoped for a quicker appointment, but that was the earliest available in the local group of sports medicine doctors), and the soonest I could see my regular doctor is the day before, on Monday, as she's out of town. *sigh* I can WALK, it's just not comfortable, and if I've been sitting down for a while and need to get up and walk, ouch, ouch, ouch!

I'm trying not to be a baby about this and take advantage of cross training, but I am sticking my bottom lip out a little. I'm also avoiding my running podcasts for some reason. Could I be jealous of the podcasters because they're getting to run while I'm sidelined? Hmmm, not sure if that's totally it. Maybe I'm just being cranky, not being able to get in to see a doctor, not knowing what I can do to get well yet. Well, I do know from the internet to rest (okay, so I'm being a little impatient there), and use ice (gee, that's a little tough in that area). I am looking forward to hearing from a real person how I should proceed to get well and stronger for running.

Vacation's Over

Well, it's back to work this morning. I'm curious about what's going on at work and am looking forward to gettng things done there. I've got a busy week ahead, with three nightly meetings, but it'll be fine.

Highlights of this time off have been:

*Time with George
*Time with George's family, both local and from New Zealand, Boston, and Atlanta
*Having George's brothers and cousins over to play Apples to Apples and Zombie Fluxx
*Visits to Raleigh and Clinton to do genealogy
*Running outside in the Brier Creek area with my new Garmin Forerunner , and learning how to plug the Forerunner into my computer to download my workout info
*Working on genealogy at home on Rootsweb.com
*Christmas Eve service at ERUUF

Running

This morning I ran 4.54 miles on the treadmill, the longest I've run in 20+ years! I'm excited about my progress....and feeling a little sore and tired right now. It's a "good" sore and tired, though. I've signed up for a 4-mile race here in Durham in February. While I'd like to sign up for more races soon, I'm a wuss when it comes to cold weather! Still, I'm interested in seeing my progress on the road, since I normally run indoors on the treadmill (when not racing).

I'm on the verge of signing up for a fall half marathon, as a big goal for 2008. It's exciting to think about, but it gives me butterflies too. Can I be ready?

In My Dreams....

I had a dream early this morning that I was running in a 5K race and nearing a PR (personal record) when I came across a building along the course with a restroom in it, so I popped in. While I was in there, someone pointed out where the race expo was, but I didn't stay and look because I wanted to get back out and finish the race. When I got back outside I didn't see any runners, so I ran ahead and discovered I'd taken a wrong turn! I followed the other runners down the right trail, worried that I'd really fallen behind! My alarm went off before I finished the dream, so I don't know how the race turned out.

I listened to a running podcast yesterday that talked about weather. In one instance, it started snowing before a winter-time race, but after they'd marked directional arrows on the road. The first-place runner took a wrong turn, but corrected himself in time to win the race anyway! That wasn't happening to me in this particular race. :)