Scouting mission

Headed over to the school today and purchased my books.  To the tune of over $400.00 for TWO CLASSES.  At least it looks as if the A&P text book, which alone cost $200, is good for both semesters of the class.  Oh, and joy - for that class, we get to dissect cats.  Somehow that seems nearly as off-putting as dissecting humans, which I will get to eventually - the humans, at least presumably, agreed to give their bodies to science, and I can pretty much figure out where the cats come from.  But, it's not very helpful to get lost in that particular thought.  So, on a brighter note - look what crawled into my bag o'books, just about as soon as I set it down?

The buildings where I have my classes are adjacent, and really are a short two blocks from the train station.  The walk seems pretty safe, too (the city where the campus is located has twice been named most dangerous city in the US).  Hopefully I won't have to drag my books to classes every time - when I got home I weighed my back pack, and it was a whopping 22 pounds.  I don't recall dragging texts to class before, but maybe that's selective amnesia.  So I guess I'm pretty much set. 

:o

School starts a week from today!  Yowza.  I’m heading over to the campus tomorrow to buy books (gulp) and scope out the building locations.  I’ll be able to take the local commuter train there - it’s probably as easy for me to take the train as it is to drive, plus I don’t have to worry about parking (the lots aren’t free on this campus, and reportedly fill quickly - leaving meter parking in the city.  No thanks.).  I’m half really looking forward to it and half scared to death.  I can’t even remember the simple stuff - do I usually take books to class?  Is there homework BEFORE the first class (and how would I know)?  I seem to remember coming into at least a few first classes where the prof expected we’ve have already read something.  Do people still take notes the old fashioned way, or do they take laptops to class?  (Not that I have a choice - I don’t have a working laptop and I’m not about to go out and buy one.)  Anyway, it should be a big adventure - I figure if I make it to the right place for my first class on time, things will pretty much fall into place from there.

I hope.

My intermediate adventure - pet sitting.  Not that the sitting itself is a particular adventure - I know the critters I have to manage and they’re a good lot - but two of them are cats pushing 20.  In fact I’ve been left with a kitteh coffin and a burial cloth (per the respective burial wishes of their people) Just In Case.  They’re both in apparent good health, but at that age, you just never know.  I had stern talks with both kittehs in question this morning, giving them strict instructions not to kick off during the next week.   Hopefully that did some good. 

Workouts & runs are going according to schedule.  I finished my last planned go of Female Body Breakthrough, Stage 2 Workout B, which is as far as I plan to go with those workouts for now.  I liked Stage 2 much more than Stage 1, which (as written) was just too easy, coming right on the heels of NROL/W.   I made it work but it took a ton of mods; in retrospect I probably should have started with Stage 2 and used that and Stage 3.  Oh well, done is done.

I have five strength workouts left in my half marathon training plan, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet.  When I mapped out my plan I thought I might just continue with Stage 2, or perhaps  play with Stage 3 at this point, but I’m mentally done with Stage 2 and don’t feel like fussing with Stage 3 for just 2 1/2 weeks of work.  I might pull out an old workout I got from a trainer - it’s Something Completely Different, total body, 10 exercises, two sets each, mostly compound exercises with a couple of isolation exercises thrown in, or I might use Authentic Strength, an Art of Strength workout that I particularly enjoy.  I’ll probably flip a coin on Sunday and roll with that.

Also, I’ve been thinking I might continue lifting through my Insanity rotation, assuming that happens.  Nothing crazy, just two to three days per week to keep my hand in the weight room.  Might use Authentic Strength then, if I don’t use it next, or something else entirely.  I also expect to keep running to some extent during that rotation, because - woo! -  the November trail run I’ve been eyeing is ON (link is to last year's website).  It’s just a 15K (9.3 miles) but the terrain is supposedly pretty challenging.  The race is Sunday after Thanksgiving, which (if all goes according to schedule) is a week after Insanity ends.  I figure to take a full week off after that before I start rolling with Maximum Strength.

And somewhere in there, presumably, will be my belt exam. 

Fun House Mirrors, Ghost Stories

Being as I’m about to be a student again (twice over! I’ve decided to take a psych course this fall, too.  It’s just before and on the same campus as my A&P class.  I pretty much have to take it because a) it’s required and b) while I did take psych years ago, I got a not to stellar grade in it – why is it that the lone TWO courses in which I received less than stellar grades over 20 years ago are now highly relevant pre-reqs for my continued education? – so I thought I’d best take it over.  But I digress), I decided to do some shopping for school clothes the other day.  I wasn’t really looking for anything specific, other than short or no sleeved shirts that seemed appropriate and maybe some non-jeans pants, since I have exactly two pairs of them, one of which is part of my official karate travel uniform.  (Yes, we have a travel uniform; grey trousers, white shirt, blue blazer, and red men’s tie – even for the women.  Must be worn to all special trainings, unless special dispensation is given.) 

I came home with two bras, a pair of running shorts, and three very non-descript tee shirts.  Woo!  I also came home with a renewed sense of WTF? when it comes to dressing room mirrors.   I don’t really have serious body image hang-ups.  I’ve been with this bod for a long time and I do have an actual mirror installed in my apt., so I do have a clue as to what I look like, generally.   There are things I’ve always liked and things I’d love to change, except they’ve never changed and I’m cool with that, too.  So imagine my surprise when I looked into the dressing room mirror, and had to do a double take.  My shoulders looked about as broad as I do high, and the overall effect was that I looked about two feet tall.   WTFF?  I don’t look two feet tall at home, and IRL most people think I’m taller than I am (not quite 5’3”) – I’ve always had people several inches taller than me tell me they think I’m taller than they are.  So I kinda had to wonder about that mirror….  I know this isn’t an original thought, but wouldn’t you think WOMEN’S dressing rooms would have the most flattering light, and the best mirrors, if there are such things?  The point is to sell clothes, not give women complexes, no? 

I’m happy with what I got (love, love, love the shorts, especially) and I’m kind of glad that the majority of the remaining clothes in the store were fugly enough that I didn’t feel as if I were missing out by just grabbing a few t’s.   Spared the wallet, for sure.  The money I didn’t spend can go to textbooks.  (Just priced those out – jeezy creezy!)

OK, ghost story time.  I think I might have mentioned in my previous blog (and I know I’ve mentioned in one forum) that my folk’s house, the house I grew up in, has a ghost.  We don’t know who it is or why he hangs there; we just all seem to know it’s a he, and we all “experience” him in the same way.  He’s not mean or destructive; we usually hear him walking around the first floor during the day and on the stairs at night.  (I know.  Sounds creepy.  But after 40+ years of peaceful co-existence, it’s not.) 

My folks recently had some work done to the house, an energy up-grade.  New furnace, new central AC, new weatherproofing, the whole lot.  They got a fantastic deal on it, plus a tax rebate.  They were subsequently contacted by the state (which subsidized part of the upgrade under a green program that is about to go by the wayside) to arrange an energy audit, mostly to check up on the contractor’s work.   The guy came out and spent a couple of hours there, doing an energy and safety audit.  For some reason, he decided to go into the back yard and take some photos.  My folks have a gated fence toward the middle of the yard; it separates the yard into two sections.  This is an artifact of days LONG gone by when we had an above-ground pool in the back half of the yard.  Well, the guy was standing by the gate (which has a trick latch, due to a clever cat’s figuring out how to open the regular latch), when the gate swung open and slammed shut.  The guy jumped about a foot into the air.  He then tried to take a picture of the back part of the yard, but couldn’t; he aimed out, but the photo was of the ground.

Freaked him the hell out, and he made some comment about a ghost.  My mother replied that the ghost had never done anything like that before (he hasn’t).  I’m not sure if the guy was trying to pull someone’s leg, or if he was in retrospect glad he didn’t find out about the ghost until after he’d been in the attic & basement.

Dare I say - it's cooler?

I'm starting to appreciate how much the heat was really knocking the shit out of me and probably just about everyone else.  It's been cooler this week, and I've found I have notably more energy all around, and probably the only thing that has changed is the temperatures.  And it's not even THAT much cooler - but it's enough to make a difference.  I'm sure it all starts with sleep, and I sure as hell do sleep better when it's cooler.  But my runs have been a bit faster, and my recovery has been quicker and better from each one.  I'd chalk that up to conditioning, except the runs keep getting longer, too, as well as being a bit faster, so the workload this past week was still on the upward curve.  (This coming week is an easier week, with one fewer scheduled run and a shorter but faster long run.)   

Today was a pace run, and because I have really been wanting to do the route for a while, I did a very slight variation on an old classic hill run.  (The hard part remained the same; the gettin' there part was adjusted to make the run the appropriate length.)  I've been doing this general route since about 1980, give or take a year.  (No, that's not a typo.)  It's lasted because it's a great run, obviously, and to me it's become a bit of a measuring stick.  Being able to complete the run without feeling like I'm going to die means I have what I consider to be a good base of running fitness.  Today I wanted to do it as a pace run (one of those things again), because what the hell?  I've more or less given up trying to "regulate" pace, and it was a nice morning, so I figured I'd just go at what felt like a good pace and see if I came in around/below half pace.  I figured if I came in around the magic 9 minute mark, and the run felt decent, that my training was pretty much going well, despite whatever wrenches the heat was throwing into the system.

To my pleasant surprise, I did much better than that, coming in with about an 8 1/2 MPM pace (AND not feeling wiped out).  I know in the world of competitive running that's not much of a pace, but for me that's pretty darn good and I think bodes well for actually making my goal with the half, provided the weather cooperates.  Tomorrow is a 10 miler, and I'm looking forward to doing the course I've mapped out, a mostly trail run through three adjacent parks.  I've run them all separately but have never strung them together like this.

The weight work is going well.  I've been enjoying this stage of FBB much more than the first stage; I suspect if I ever do this program, I won't bother with that first stage unless I'm coming off a very long layoff.  But I'm not in danger of that any time soon.  It very much looks as if Insanity is a go RIGHT after the half (slight bummer there - I sort of wanted a short break, but I'm not controlling the schedule for this one).   I believe that's a two month program.  Afterwards I want to get into Eric Cressey's Maximum Strength program, which runs four months.  And yes, I do have some vague plans for After That... 

Voyage of the Damned

Yesterday was the dojo canoe trip.  We do this trip annually (and in some years, a few of us have gone multiple times), and pretty much always have an awesome time, although the character of each trip seems to vary.  Usually I kayak the thing, solo, but this year one of the gals wanted a shipmate, as her husband is abroad for work and she didn't want to go alone with her two girls (ages 10 and 12, or around that), so I teamed up with them.  My goal for the day was to do as little work as possible, since I had to do a 9 mile long run prior to the event.

I didn't actually think that would be an issue.  When my sister and I were young, we often spent the summer at my grandmother's house at the shore.  There was a lake on the property, and she had a boat, and we were out on the water all. the. time., usually capsizing the boat, trying to sink it, towing it around, and sometimes actually sitting in it, fishing.  Also, whenever we went canoeing as a family, sis and I ALWAYS paddled.  Whether we were more a help than a hindrance, only my parents know for sure, but paddle, we did.  So I figured I'd help with the steering but basically sit back and watch the trees go by.

Not.

Not only did I paddle, I had the back end of the canoe.  The first half of the trip wasn't bad at all.  We were on a windy little river; the water was low due to the relatively low rainfall we've had this year, and the hardest part was steering around trees that had fallen into the river over the winter.  Then - heh - we merged with another, bigger river, the channel broadened considerably, and the work began.  We were going against the tide, as it happened, and into the wind, not the best combination.  A couple of times when I had to steer hard, the wind would catch us broadside and we'd actually go sideways.  Actually it was pretty funny, but I think I was the only one who found it amusing.  At one point I wanted to stop paddling for a moment to grab a drink, and as soon as I did, we started going backwards.  I thought that was funny, too, but no one else did.  So, long story short, the girls sang and had water gun fights with everyone who came near us, and the mom and I worked our asses off for a couple of hours.  Afterwards a few of us expressed our appreciation for the wonderful shoulder and lat workout (ha!) and discussed perhaps tubing next year in lieu of canoeing.

Did my weight workout this morning, sans my glute add-ons (my nod to carry-over fatigue), and it went better than I expected, all things considered.  I'm a little under five weeks from the half, and the schedule is roughly three hard weeks, one relatively easier week, and a taper week.  Wow.  That seems like practically no time at all!

Because it's been a while

A couple of photos of the kittehs....

Forrest and Jack.  Luckily for whatever they're staring at, the screens are intact.

Junior and Jack.  Because you didn't think that furniture was for me, did ya?

Junior enjoying a paper bag.

Forrest, in the bag.

Actual news:

• Workouts continue, basically on schedule. Today is a rest day, and I'm very happy for it.  I'm sore from yesterday, and I'm not totally sure why.  I upped my weights all around yesterday in the gym, and I was at the dojo for quite a while - stayed late after class for some extra work and I guess that's it.  I'm also freaking starving today, and while I've been trying to kind of carefully tame that beast, I'm getting on toward the f-it - look out! point.  Which I'll have to address soon, because I have to bake a cake (for my mother's birthday) tonight and I don't really want to want to dive into the batter (any more than usual, that is).

• Have done some more PT school research, and it does seem as if the education stuff has all been pretty much standardized.  There actually is no specialization at the grad school level; however, afterwards, what I would do is to aim myself towards the sports physical therapy section of the American Physical Therapy Association, which seems to set the standards for practise in that area.  The grad schools themselves, I'm finding, vary little in the content; the main differences that I'm seeing is in the arrangement of the courses and clinical rotations, and in the number of total credits, and the difference really aren't that pronounced.  There are also, of course, difference in price, and the biggest difference I'm seeing is in in-state vs. out of state tuition.

• It also seems the undergrad requirements have been pretty much standardized, which means the physics thing is going to be an issue at each school.  Meaning, I guess, that I'll have to call those I want to apply to individually and see what they would require that I do.   But first, to narrow down that particular list...

• And sorry for the bullets; blogger is pissing me off today, blending my paragraphs together.  

Peace - through candy coated chocolate

Yesterday I was pressed into action as Aunt Redcat.  As it happened, I wound up kidsitting my newphews along with my father while my sister and mother did Something Girly.  (Yuck.)  I do love my nephews, but they can be a real challenge - both are autistic.  The older one (just turned 7) has Aspergers, the younger one(age 5) is PPD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified).  They're both really good kids overall with above average to genius level IQ's (however well you can judge at this age), but they have lots of issues with social interaction and in dealing with frustration.

Things started out fine - in fact I thought for a while we'd get off easy, as they played separately but in the same room.  Then the older one had a meltdown because something happened on the computer (for the life of me, I don't know what, but it had something to do with IndigoPokemon and something he apparently built that went away, or something like that).   There was jack shit I could do about that so I somehow got him interested in doing something else, at least for a while.  Then he decided he wanted to play with his brother on the DS (whatever DS stands for - it's a Nintendo thing), and his brother decided he wanted to play alone.  Well, damn.  World War 87 broke out.   Older Boy had an utter fit and fell in it and Younger Boy, at an apparent loss for what to do, went into implosion mode.  After what seemed like forever but was probably less than five minutes, I had a brainstorm and asked Younger Boy if he'd let Older Boy play with him if he brought him three (why three?  I don't know) M&Ms. 

He said yes, got his M&M friendship offering, and they played happily every after until Mom got home.  I shit you not. If only the world's problems could be solved so easily.

This morning was a decent workout morning.  The schedule called for a 4.5 mile easy run, and I did just a bit more than that; it was nice not to push pace at all given the continued lovely humidity.  Then I went over to the dojo for some training.  It was just sensei J and myself so we actually geared up (another lovely thing to do on a humid morning) and did some full contact work, then finished up with some ground work.  Tonight I teach the kiddies solo and have my class.  Funny, I seem to recall just last week thinking I was going to get a break from the kids for a few weeks - and now it happens that I'm teaching them three out of the next four weeks solo.  Wha?