Motivated to Succeed

11:45 AM - My youngest brother is now 15. He and his friends stayed up really late last night. A couple of them brought over an XBox 360 and a Playstation 3 so they were playing that. Also, my sister Su and her boyfriend Rocco are up for the weekend. It's really awesome to have everyone around. So cool to hang out with my parents too. The only one missing is Miss Emma! :( Nuts! Hopped on the bike before attempting mounds of homework. It's really tough to hang strong for a full hour. I don't know if I could do any more on the stationary bike at one time. So did an hour on the wind trainer while I read The Secret Life of Bees. I am now more than halfway through! Might try to do a second ride later tonight for 30 mins or something if I can muster up the strength!

Total Time: 1:00:15 Total Distance: 20 miles

6:30 PM - After taking a test and getting dinner, went on the wind trainer for 30 minutes to get a quick ride in while I studied for another test tomorrow and a presentation on Tuesday. Felt good. Feel bad though if Brent started to read Secret Life of Bees because I recommended it. haha.

Total Time: 30:10 Total Distance: 10 miles

So I want to try to build a base with running and biking. I think what I am going to do is try to do what Sasha suggests at the homepage of the running blog. I'm going to try to see if I can do 3 days of jogging a week. See what that distance is, and then add a 4th day for a few weeks, and then work up to the 5x 6 miles before thinking about any long runs. I just really want to give a 1/2 or that 15k in November a good crack and shatter a PR. I hope I can! I think I can.. I KNOW I CAN! :)

8:05 AM - Sunny; Temp around 20. Went to the school to go jogging. Started off good, but then my knee started to tighten up and hurt again. The left knee on the outside started to hurt around the 2 mile mark. I wasn't tired, but the knee kept me from running :(. Thankfully made it back to the car in one piece.

• Mile 1: 9:29
• Mile 2: 9:14
• Mile 3: 9:20
• Mile 4: 9:05

Total Time: 38:00 Total Distance: 4.09 mi Average Pace: 9:17

*Going to try to get more sleep, eliminate caffeine starting today (only drinking decaf coffee might be rough but I'm going to give it a go), and try to eat more healthfully, maybe not as strict as the Paleo Diet, but going to try to eat my fruits, veggies, and whole grains!

9:30 PM - Long day of classes. I was discouraged with the pain in my knee, but Emmy suggested I do some arm exercises and crunches. I did 20 mins of arms and 200 crunches, followed by Marion's IT Band suggestions. I really hope it helps!

10:00 AM - Super windy outside today (wind gusts projected to be 50mph+). Hopefully we don't lose power because I have a TON of work to do. Today was a good ride. I did 1h30mins of solid riding, drained a 24 oz bottle of water and finished the last 150 pages of  Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. I know it's been called a "chick flick" and such, but the book itself touches on a lot of moral issues that we still face today, even though it is set in the historical backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement of 1964. I really got a lot out of it, and I feel that it touched me in a way. Was a necessary break from all the school work. Thinking about it I must look like a goofball biking and balancing a book on the handlebars. haha.

Also another plus (+) from today was that I finished the fourth revision of a reflection paper I've been working on for two weeks. Kind of funny that a two page opinion paper would give me so much trouble. We had a 3 hour writing seminar though two weeks ago in my methods class, and it's "unleashed a fire" to try to shore up my writing which was called by my professor to be a bit "passive and verbose" at times. Now on to the endless stream of other papers and projecs. Yuck.

Total Time: 1:30:20 Total Distance: 30 miles

6:30 PM - Work was done with, so I zipped home and proceeded to rewrite the demographics section of a paper (about 4 pages single spaced); had to reread about 30 pages of demographics and redo it from a Middle School perspective rather than a High School one. Grr, for the one Middle School class I actually have to take for my degree. Figures. Then called one of my group mates and talked a bit about where we are at and where we need to go with it before Tuesday. Group projects in grad school are stupid. One of the group members lives 20 miles east of me, one 40 miles south of me. hmm.. And I think we all have jobs. I swear professors are oblivious to real life.

The bike ride was what I needed. Hopped on the bike and was reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals. It's such a moving book (especially for a history buff like me). Right now I am still early on in it, as I've had school books and Sue Monk Kidd's book to read. So I am still in the election of 1860. Just reading about the four men all vying for the Republican nomination in 1860 is mind boggling. It's amazing to think how far the country has come and how much it has changed in just 149 years. It got me thinking how much it might change in just another decade or two. I hope to see the day when all people are accepted as the people they are, not what society sees them as. A person should be self-defined, not socially constrained in the parameters of mainstream policy.

Total Time: 1:00:20 Total Distance: 20 miles