I have my very first test on Tuesday, in Psychology. I've also been scrambling like a nut to get up to speed in A&P; we started with a HUGE reading load (because so much of the material in the first chapters was review of bio and chem - never mind that I last had bio and chem in the 80's and not last semester, as it's presumed one did, so I was really scraping rust of the brain). I am basically up to date with that now, and hopefully things will be a bit more sane from here on out. I'm still pretty excited about school and tend to babble at anyone who asks me about it, and since I just unloaded on my sister (who also went back to school, for a masters), you're spared any further talk for the day.
Training stuff has pretty much gone apace, although I missed karate this past Thursday because I was just mentally and physically dead by class time. Generally I find I can get through a class if I'm either mentally present or physically present - one will carry the other along until it picks up - but if both are shot, I'm more likely to do something stupid like walk into a kick or a punch that isn't even aimed at me, so it's best not to go. That was my last double workout (run + weights) day of half training, so I don't figure that will be a problem in future. And, yes, all of the runs and lifts have gone down as prescribed, including today's long run. Which was a damp one. I have to say, as much as I really don't MIND running in the rain, I find it hard to get myself out the door when it's raining before I even start. But I finished feeling really strong and good, and in the end it was the kind of run that just feels good to the core. I really do love these moderate distances, stuff in the 8 - 15 mile range. Also, my time for this run, which I was trying to do at an easy pace, was really pretty good, and suggests I might actually meet my time goal, although I have managed to divorce myself from it to some extent.
It's been interesting. First, I've wondered why I've been so hung up on what amounts to a more or less arbitrarily picked number. Which isn't really rocket science - I figure it's a combination of pride and a sense of personal expectation, which I don't actually consider bad things. BUT, I'm not sure I picked a training program that was necessarily setting me up for success. And I don't mean that as a cop-out; I don't expect to be far off goal unless the weather is utter crap - but I don't have any good training predictors of race performance, so I don't know if I've done all I should have to reach goal or not. My timed training runs were done to the best of my ability and at what I thought was a good pace; but what the f do I know? Anyway, done is done, I'm sure you're about as sick of reading about this as I am of writing about this, and as far as I'm concerned - I do my best next week and take the lesson learned. Which is: NEVER set a time goal for a race I haven't done before.
And starting immediately after that is Insanity. I know almost nothing about this program other than it's some kind of twist on interval training plus bodyweight exercise (I think), plus people who have done it say it's the hardest thing they've ever done. Which just sounds like a challenge to me, so I jumped on the chance to do it in a group. Since I don't really know what it's about, I don't have any specific goals for it; I plan to keep lifting twice a week through it and if I can, to fit in some runs here and there, and I'd like to maintain my weight, which remains in a good place. I may take some before/after photos for grins and giggles.
Oh, and I finally saw The Expendables. Had a bit more "plot" than it needed, but was otherwise the expected fights and explosions action guy romp. I don't know why Wendy gave up Jason Stratham, though. Damn!
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