Thursday, July 12, 2012

Still a Nerd!

My teacher posted the grades for the final!!  I had 94.  I was very happy and relieved to see that.  I was also a bit disappointed because I usually do better than that.  What can I expect when I blow off studying for an entire weekend.
My overall grade was 4.0!!  I also got a 4.0 for the music class I had to take so it was another 4.0 semester!!
Now I can forget about school and classes for a while.  I need this break!  

Runner Nerd
on a nerd break

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Sister's Reunion

I spent the weekend with all of my sisters!  I have 3 sisters; one lives in California, one lives in Maryland and the other one lives about 30 minutes away from me.  It's been over a year since I've seen my California sister.  The far away sisters flew in Friday and we all stayed at my close-by sister's house.  Our parents even showed up on Sunday and we all had lunch together!
My nephew and I in the back of my Brother-in-law's truck (no, we didn't ride there!)

  

My nephews, with whom I also got to spend time!

My parents, my sisters, my nephews and me
We all had a great time.  Saturday night we were looking for people we knew in high school on Facebook.  It all started because we were trying to find out why a high school classmate of my sister's passed away recently.  One thing always leads to another and we ended up looking for a bunch of people we knew as kids!!  We had several dinners out and more than one ice cream eating session!!  Before we knew it, it was Sunday night and my far away sisters had to pack up to fly out in the morning.  My CA sis had to leave for the airport around 5 am.  I came back home Sunday night.  Monday morning it was time to get the notes out and study for my final exam which was today.  I've never totally blew off all school work for an entire weekend, especially just before a final!  I did study Wednesday and Thursday before the weekend. 
I took my final this morning.  I felt very unprepared and wasn't too sure of too many of the answers. I don't like this feeling at all.  All I can do now is wait until the teacher posts the grades.  I am sure I will still end up with a 4.0; I had 98% going into the final.
I now have 7 weeks off!!!!!  When I do go back, it will be my final semester!!!!!!  I graduate December 15th!!!! It won't come soon enough. 
I missed running group tonight. :(   After school, I went to a friend's house to retrieve a lawn chair that we had left there recently.  I ended up talking with them for 3 hours.  They are going to Key West in August and have been there many times, I'm going in January so we had a lot to talk about!!  When I got home it was nearly time that I'd have to get ready to go and I was tired so I didn't go.  I did go out and run 4 miles a couple of hours later.  It felt good to go running without any school work hanging over my head!

Runner Nerd
nervously awaiting final exam grade


Friday, July 6, 2012

Leaping Over roadkill and Well Behaved Heel

The myofascial release work I had done on my foot/heel/leg on Monday seems to be helping.  I ran the Firecracker 5 miler on Wednesday morning pain free.  I made it through weight workout class yesterday and then met my daughter in town for some mother/daughter shopping afterward.  When I'm with my daughter, no isle of a store goes unwalked!  I ran 4 miles this morning and my heel behaved nicely! 
It still does have it's moments.  Wednesday after the race, I went to my car to put on a dry shirt and foolishly cut across the lawn of the fire station.  Walking on uneven ground can make my heel hurt.  I changed my shirt and went back to the fire barn to see if results were posted yet.  I was 4th in my age group and my friend told me that they were giving awards to 5 places!!  This is the first time I've placed in this particular race!!  I think the heat may have caused some people to stay away!!  I know it was over 80 degrees before the race started.  I got a pair of red/white/blue socks!!  I like them! 

This morning it was 92 when I set out on my run and 95 when I finished.  I felt pretty good.  My clothes were soaked!  I knew I had to get a run in this morning; it's likely that I will not get to run again this weekend.  I'm spending the weekend goofing around with my three sisters!!  I haven't seen my sister who lives in California in over a year. 

There must be a variation of Murphy's law pertaining to running.  I ran on the roads around where I live, rural and with little traffic once I get off of the road that I live on.  As I was running a 1.1 mile stretch of one of the roads, the ONLY car that came by was just as I was approaching a decomposing, stinky opossum roadkill!!  I had to get over to the side which was right in line with the roadkill and had to jump over it as the car was passing by!   The joys of running on rural roads!!
I also saw another lady out running; I never see anyone running out here around where I live!! 

Well, I'm going to get my running clothes out of the washing machine then study a little for my final exam then I'm off to see my siblings!!!!!! 

Runner Nerd
leaps over roadkill

Monday, July 2, 2012

The Joy of Plantar Fasciitis Massage

Today I got a massage!!  You know, a luxury day of pampering at the spa!!!! 

*****(I wish I could insert the little emoticon dude from Yahoo instant messenger who is rolling around laughing and laughing and laughing!!!)*******

Ok, so this wasn't a luxurious day of spa pampering; this was hard-core plantar fasciitis torture massage!!  AND....I get to go back in 16 days and do it all over again!!!  How did I get so lucky?
She said that my calf muscles were really tight and that my foot had a lot of hard spots.  I have no idea what she means by hard spots.  She sure poked and pushed those hard spots and I thought I was going to come off the table. 
I'm supposed to ice it.  Oops, I forgot to do that tonight.  I hate ice - it's COLD!  After all, I'm the person who loves this weather!!  (got as high as 97 today!)   I actually intended to do it but I kept putting it off.  Maybe tomorrow. 

I told the massage therapist that I'm registered for the Key West Half Marathon in January and she said that I should be able to have this PF problem resolved and be good to go by then. 

Tomorrow is my last regular class of this semester!!!  Next week is just the final exam!!  Tomorrow we have class at Mott Children's Hospital in the Neo-Natal ICU.  Class is only 3 hours long instead of the usual 6 hours!!  AND class is at 1pm instead of 11am so I don't have to get ready to go as early!! I'm happy!  (In case you don't know, I have always worked nights and I like working nights.  This daytime going to school has been hard on me.) 

This coming weekend I will be spending a couple of days with all of my sisters in Grand Rapids!!!!  It's been a long time since I've seen my sister who lives in California.  I'm really excited!!  The only thing is that my final exam is next Tuesday so I am going to have to study Wednesday and Thursday and then not study until Monday, not my usual nerd final exam prep routine. 

Well, I'm off to bed. 

Runner Nerd
survived myofascial release

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Observations of a Nerd

A couple of observations I made after leaving the library today:  (The following is from signs in front of businesses)

CVS Pharmacy had 2 liter bottles of Coke on sale for 79 cents.
McDonalds had Quarter Pounder with Cheese buy one, get one free.

I have no idea what a quarter pounder with cheese costs but I am going to guess $1.99.  So, for $3.00 one could obtain 2 quarter pounder with cheese sandwiches and 2 liters of Coke (includes MI 6% tax on fast food and 10 cents bottle deposit, but no tax, on Coke)  Each quarter pounder with cheese weighs in at 520 calories, 26 grams of fat, and 1180 mg of sodium. (from McD's website)  You tell me, how many people do you think will be stopping in and buying one and getting one free and then proceeding to eat BOTH of them???????  I know not everyone, but I'm sure there will be a good number of people out there today consuming 1040 calories, 52 grams of fat, and 2360 mg of sodium as their lunch, for some this will just be a mid-afternoon snack!!!  Combine that with the cheap 2 L bottle of Coke and they will have quite the ingestion of healthy, deliciousness that makes up the good ole American diet; oops, I mean, UNHEALTHY crap that spells - job security - for those of us working in health care!!!!!!

I wonder how many people got their 2 QPWCs and a 2L DIET Coke or Coke ZERO!!! (to keep those calories down!)

Ok, that's enough!!  I just had to laugh when I saw those 2 signs this afternoon!! 

Runner Nerd
needs to pay attention to the road and not the signs!!

Long Run

Yep, did a long run today.  I ran the incredibly long distance of.......5 miles!  I can't believe that I'm calling 5 miles a long run these days.  I am happy to say that my heel behaved!!  Yayyyy, heel!!  I ran incredibly slow but I felt good and not so out of breath as I've been feeling on runs.  Going uphill was tough but overall this was a really good run!!  Now I know that the 4th of July 5 mile run is possible.  I will sign up at packet pick up the evening of the 3rd.  Last year I thought I was slow when my time was just over 50 minutes.  (50:10, I think) but this year I will just be aiming to come in under an hour.  My run today was 54 minutes, so I'm sure I can be in within an hour. 

After my run, I drove home, showered, ate yogurt with blueberries and then I was off to the library back to my other life as the world's oldest college student.  I worked 3.5 hours solid which I needed to do without distractions.  I got a lot accomplished.  Yayyyy me!!! 

Runner Nerd
runner for 1 hr, nerd for 3.5 hrs.