Jan 30 2011

Sunday Somethings, 30Jan11

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 9:30 pm

Others writing the Sunday Somethings: Kerry

Something that makes me happy: Fruit.  For 6-8 weeks there i couldn’t find any at the grocery store, but now they are all coming back.  It’s not always in season or locally grown, but it is good, and i’ve missed it.

Something i am struggling with: Had a tough week motivation-wise with running.  It doesn’t make sense because this was my “recovery week” where the distance was a bit shorter and i wasn’t running as fast.  But still, i had a rough time with it.

Something tasty: Turkey and black bean chili.

Something i learned: Some interesting things about sugar and how it reacts in the body.

Something from the bridge table: I went to Wilmington on Wednesday night for a bridge tournament, planning to play for 4 days straight, or 8-10 sessions of bridge (one session = approx four hours).  I joined Lance and the rest of my team, who had all been there since Monday.  Unfortunately on Thursday a teammate got into his cups and was unable to continue playing.  Additionally, some words were exchanged and so Friday we came back to Raleigh.  I played just one session of bridge.

Some things i am doing towards my goals: Got my runs in.  That’s all i can say.

Something i am reading: Sugar Shock! by Connie Bennett.

Something happening around the house: Putting up some small shelves in a) our bathroom, to artificially create just a little more counter space, and in b) Lance’s office, so he can have some more places for his knick-knacks.

Something i am thinking: I’m paying closer attention to how different foods i eat make me feel.  I’ve always noticed a correlation between eating greens and feeling good, but i wonder if there are other correlations that i haven’t noticed (or haven’t wanted to notice) about how sugar affects me.

Something i am looking forward to: Snow-skiing on Friday, yay!  I think it’s been 2 years since i last skied, maybe 3.

Something i am hoping: That Nathan has a happy birthday!

Something random: Nugent is petrified of the park that’s about half a mile from our house.  He goes nuts if you try to walk him into it, straining at the leash to get away.  It’s so bizarre and i have no idea what would provoke this reaction.

Something planned: Busy week at work, a bridge club bored board meeting, a ski trip, 3 runs including a 10-miler the day after skiing.

Something captured: Alien dog poses with Kevin.

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Jan 29 2011

Running Totals So Far

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 4:00 pm

A rule of thumb from my running coach: let the number of miles you run during the week (during shorter runs) be longer than the one long run on the weekends.  I decided to look back over December and January and see how i did on that.

In December, i was training on my own, with the goal to get in 3 runs per week.

Week 1: 6.5 m during week, 4 m on weekend, 10.5 m total
Week 2: 7.5 m during week, 6 m on weekend, 13.5 m total
Week 3: 7.3 m during week, 7 m on weekend, 14.3 m total
Week 4: 8.0 m during week, 0 m on weekend, 8.0 m total
Week 5: 0 miles
Total miles run in December: 46.3

Yeah, so i fell apart during that last week between Christmas and New Year’s, with the snow and general laziness.  But in January, i started training with Coach B:

Week 1: 9.8 m during week, 5.5 m on weekend, 15.3 m total
Week 2: 9.5 m during week, 8.0 m on weekend, 17.5 m total
Week 3: 10.5 m during week, 10 m on weekend, 20.5 m total
Week 4: 8.0 m during week, 7.0 m on weekend, 15.0 m total
Total miles run in January: 68.3

Wow, when you sum it all up like that, it sounds kind of crazy.  I really ran 68 miles this month?  However, i can see that i’m doing well keeping the weekend run total less than the total of the two runs during the week.

After one month of rigorous training with a coach, i’m more psyched than ever about running my races in March and April.  I feel good.  The February schedule looks tough, with even more miles.  I’ll post another update at the end of the month.

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Jan 23 2011

Sunday Somethings, 23Jan11

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 3:56 pm

Others writing the Sunday Somethings: Kerry

Something that makes me happy: Being surprised by reading on Facebook that Lance won a significant tournament last week.  He stayed up late one night, won it at 4 am, and then did not wake me up or tell me in the morning.  I checked FB later in the day and saw he had updated it after he won.  Fun surprise.

Something i am struggling with: I have had a severe sweet tooth lately!

Something tasty: Godiva chocolates.  Someone special gave me a box.

Something i learned: Many in mainland China consider Taiwan to be a part of China.  But Taiwan wants to be an independent nation.  It seems a bit contentious and political.  It becomes tricky when your software company ships maps of China, and you have people of both cultures giving opinions of how the map should be drawn.

Something from the bridge table: I held one of the best hands i have ever held this week. ♠ AKQT92 ♥ AKQT96 ♦ - ♣ 9.  I opened 1♠ and partner bid a game-forcing 2♣.  Holy moly.  After the smoke had cleared, we wound up in 7NT, the grandest of the slams you can bid.  It’s always fun to bid 7NT, and it happens so rarely.

Some things i am doing towards my goals: Kept up with my running tasks this week, including a 10-mile run yesterday.

Something i am reading: Beyond the Shadows, by Brent Weeks

Something happening around the house: Watching Ken Burns’ baseball documentary.

Something i am looking forward to: The Wilmington Regional bridge tournament.  I’m taking Thursday and Friday off to go play bridge for four days.

Something random: We need some bookshelves or some other solution – the piles of books without a home have become what i would call towering.

Something planned: It’s our big “kickoff” week at work to kick off the new year.  Lots of department-wide meetings and some evening work functions.

Something captured: Old “family” picture from fall 2006.  We all look so much younger!

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Jan 20 2011

Ever Feel Like You Don’t Know What You’re Doing?

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 7:40 pm

Have you ever felt like you don’t know what you’re doing?  Guess what, no one else knows what they’re doing, either.

Not long ago i ready an article that covers just this topic, and i immediately related to the first paragraph.

Have you ever received praise, or even an award, for being great at something despite having no clue what you’re doing? Do you feel like a fraud, wondering what sort of voodoo you’ve unwittingly conjured up to make people think you know what you’re doing, when the reality is quite the contrary?

That’s me.  Especially the part about the voodoo that i’m somehow conjuring to make people think i know what’s going on.

JangoSteve breaks it down with some pretty convincing visuals. Most of us start out with a pie graph of knowledge that looks like this.  (Note: the graph is not to scale, the red slice is much larger than shown.)  As you grow, your goal should be to take as much stuff out of the red slice as possible.  JangoSteve says that it actually doesn’t matter whether your new knowledge goes into the green or the blue slice, so long as you take it out of the red zone.  The red zone is what makes you dangerous, because in that area you’re making decisions where you have no idea what you’re doing AND you have no idea that you don’t know what you’re doing.

As we grow, we eventually do add more knowledge to our green slice.  If we’re doing it right, we should also add a lot more knowledge to our blue slice.  The blue slice is stuff that maybe we’ve heard of or maybe not, but we know when we encounter it that we’re *not* experts.  This is the slice that gets really big and is guilty of making you feel like a fraud.

My own take on it is this: at any given point in your life, you’ve mastered a few things.  Some of them were hard, and some of them weren’t.  Some moments of mastery are memorable and important to you.  But once you’re past it, you’ve “been there, done that” and it no longer seems momentous.  Riding a bike, learning to swim – when you were a kid, it was probably a joyous moment when you first took off those training wheels and rode your bike unassisted.  But after that, riding a bike was just routine.  And then the next thing looms as a big challenge you’re not sure how to face (like driving a car), until in turn that, too, becomes routine.

Many things in our lives are like this, i think.  Your green slice grows, but each thing in side of it may not seem like a big deal once attained.  Meanwhile, the blue slice grows also, and probably at a greater rate.  And thus, while you gain more knowledge, you also learn more about the world and what you don’t know, and it feels overwhelming, and so you are thus surprised when you receive accolades for something.

JangoSteve’s article says it a lot more thoroughly than i can, but i really liked the idea.  Give it a read!  I certainly thought it was nice to know that i’m not the only one that feels like a fraud sometimes!

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Jan 16 2011

Sunday Somethings, 16Jan11

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 11:59 pm

Others writing the Sunday Somethings: Kerry

Something that makes me happy: Taking a nap on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Something we struggled with: Lance had something that strongly resembled the flu last week.  He was miserable for several days.  Somehow i’m still not sick.  I probably shouldn’t gloat about this, or karma will come back and decide i need to be sick after all.

Something tasty: I had my first ever medium-rare steak at the Bloomsbury Bistro Saturday night.  I loved it.

Something i learned: An acquaintance has Shingles, or herpes zoster.  Now i know what it is.  Short version: nerve pain that only occurs in people who once had the chicken pox.

Some things i am doing towards my goals: Staying on track with running, nothing else to report here.

Something i am reading: The Shadow’s Edge, by Brent Weeks

Something happening around the house: Lots of video games and reruns of The Office this weekend.

Something i am thinking: People who want to complain without offering solutions and especially without being willing to volunteer their own time to help solve the problem should just shut up.

Something i am looking forward to: The annual bridge club holiday party is this Tuesday night.  It should be a nice time.

Something planned: A trip to the dentist.

Something random: It might be time to revisit the Von Trapp family.  The hills are alive.

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Jan 13 2011

Running for Real

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 7:10 pm

In some ways, i feel like i’ve never really run before this month.  Now that i’ve hired a coach, she is making me run for real.

That’s a little ridiculous of course.  I have run three half marathons and numerous 5Ks, and logged hundreds of miles running on my own.  However, i will say that i never really pushed myself too hard.  When i ran, it was always a comfortable pace for me.  Usually just twice per week at most.  No sprints, no strides, no negative runs.  I didn’t hesitate to walk up hills.  I didn’t push myself to the point of pain.  I also didn’t run in the rain.  Or the snow.  Or in temperatures below 40 degrees.

I’m just getting started with running for real.  I’ve been running in 30 degree weather, as i now know how to properly dress so that this is totally comfortable.  I’ve also been running faster than i ever have.  Yesterday i did a negative run, 3 continuous miles where each mile is faster than the one before it.  I finished in less than 29 minutes!  And that was even after flubbing one section due to cramps.  I was astounded.  And i’ve only been officially training for a few weeks.

Here at the beginning is probably where i should expect to see the most noticeable gains.  Especially since i haven’t really pushed myself before, i just don’t know what my body is capable of.  Coach B is going to figure out what my current limits are, and then try to push them even more.  We’re just getting started.  It’s going to be hard (the negative run was super hard for me), but it will be worth it.

I am training for two goals simultaneously – the Run for the Oaks 5K on March 12, and the Tobacco Trail Half on March 20.  They are back-to-back weekends.  I hope to PR both races.  I’m not sure what my 5K goal should be yet; sub 29 for sure but maybe even more aggressive.  My half goal is 2:10.

This is exciting stuff for me, so you readers may have to put up with a few extra running-related posts this quarter.

Now, if i can just keep my plantar fasciitis at bay.  I feel it twinging in my right heel…

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Jan 12 2011

11 Thoughts to Start 2011

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 8:20 pm
  1. I’ve been in a blogging funk lately.  I actually have plenty of things to say, but the physical process of getting on the computer and writing them out in a comprehensive fashion seems daunting.  I’m hoping this quick post of 11 things should kick start the blog.  These aren’t necessarily resolutions or anything related to starting fresh; just 11 semi-random things.
  2. This morning it took me and two of my neighbors nearly 25 minutes to scrape and de-ice my car.  I’ll hazard a guess that if it had been just me doing it i might have saved at least 5 minutes (these two neighbors move a little slower these days) but it was still a big job.  Thanks, neighbors!  That was really sweet of you to help.  Now that Lance and i have cleared out the garage, it might be wise for us to remember to actually use it when ice storms are predicted.
  3. I think i should consider staying away from lengthy fiction trilogies.  I get sucked into the story and don’t want to do anything else productive with my time.  And that’s for books that i wouldn’t even say are that great.
  4. Quite a few people i know or whose blogs i read have created book lists of books that are lying around the house that they need to read.  I should do this.  It will keep me away from new fantasy trilogy time-sucks.
  5. I made a new friend slash bridge partner last week.  We spent the weekend together and played bridge in Pinehurst.  Nugent doesn’t like her, but i do.  We are pretty compatible at the table and i think we both want to find other opportunities to play.  She doesn’t live around here, so that basically means meeting at tournaments.
  6. Nugent was funny when he was trying to run on the ice.  He and i took a walk yesterday at noon to see how the main roads were; they were mostly fine.  Our neighborhood road was not that great though.  I watched the mail truck spend 10 minutes spinning tires before getting past our house.
  7. I am super thankful for my health.  Lance has been sick a half dozen times in the past few months.  It’s been a mixture of allergies and real colds.  I haven’t gotten any of it.  I feel bad listening to him sneeze and sniffle.
  8. Running is going quite well.  I know how to run in cold weather now which makes a big difference.  Also, the training is kicking my ass but my oh my am i getting results.  More on that later.
  9. I’m planning to go on the one-day ski trip my company sets up.  It’s in February.  I haven’t skied in two years, i believe.  Maybe three.
  10. I am not going to renew my membership in Toastmasters this year.  I have a few reasons, but mainly i don’t have time to focus on it.  It was a priority for 2-3 years, and i was very involved in the club.  But now i am focusing on other things, and Toastmasters just isn’t a high priority.  Roles are often assigned before meetings, and while i’ve attended and filled my assigned role when necessary, i’ve also backed out of a few assignments, and i hate doing that.  I’ll probably go back to it at some point, but for now it’s going on the backburner.
  11. Sometime soon i hope to figure out what day it is.  The week long break over Christmas threw me out of whack, and i only started figuring out the days towards the end of the week.  Then, yesterday’s ice storm happened and now i’m back to not being totally sure what day it is.  Maybe i’ll get back to normal by the weekend.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for listening!  Here’s a Christmas Day photo from my grandmother’s house, with our white Christmas in evidence in the background.

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Jan 09 2011

Sunday Somethings, 09Jan11

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 11:59 pm

Others writing the Sunday Somethings: Kerry

Something that makes me happy: Defending a bridge hand well.

Something i am struggling with: Quite a few sore muscles, especially my right calf muscle.  I’m trying to be gentle with it, and i hope i haven’t done any actual damage.

Something tasty: Grilled cheese sandwiches.  Can’t remember the last one i had, but i had to come up with a quick vegetarian alternative to turkey sandwiches on Friday night when our houseguest turned out not to eat meat.  Fortunately she eats cheese.

Something from the bridge table: Played with a new partner this weekend in the Pinehurt sectional bridge tournament.  Despite mediocre results in the pairs game, i think we played well together and we both want to try to find other dates to play.

Some things i am doing towards my goals: Coach B’s training plan is pretty tough.  I plan to write more about it in a separate post.  But so far i’m sticking with it!

Something i am reading: The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks.

Something happening around the house: I feel like i haven’t been there in days.  We were just gone two days, but i don’t know what’s been happening around our house.  Except i think there are some stray cats that are living in our bushes.

Something i am thinking: I’ve been prompted on several different fronts about how the Somethings have been missing, so here they are.  I’ll try not to skip another week.

Something i am looking forward to: Writing some blog posts about all these things that i’m thinking about.  I’m just not sure what to write first, so i don’t write anything.

Something random: A slightly bizarre “female moment” – in the break room at the office, i’m refilling my water bottle.  Two men, ages about 35 and 50, are standing there discussing the edible-ness of some leftovers in the refrigerator.  They can’t decide, so they ask me.  “Audrey, there wouldn’t be any problem eating this right?”  “How long has it been in there?”  “Um… two weeks?  Maybe three?”  I suggested he might want to throw it away.  One of them decided to sample it anyway, spit it out, and tossed it in the trash.

Something planned: Qualifying for this year’s GNT.

Something captured: Sunrise at Shelley Lake on Saturday morning.  My new bridge partner and i got up super early and ran before heading to the Pinehurst tournament.  It was a beautiful sunrise, and we even saw a few snowflakes!


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