never not training.

On the way home from Peace River, I realized that it was the first time in months that I was not training for a race. I didn't like that feeling at all! How dreadful. So of course I went online today to see what was available. I signed up for the Halloween Howl - on Saturday, October 27. For ONCE it's a race on a Saturday. Finally! For some reason it seems most races are held on Sundays which really is inconvenient. I'll be running a 10 km race there. Goal: 1:07. If accomplished, that will be 8 minutes shorter than my last 10 km race, and that's something.

School is almost back in - September 10. I am enjoying the time off, but it's not entirely off as I'm spending it revving up for fall at the church. There is still so much to do, in so little time. I'll be starting early tomorrow, as I'm meeting with a friend for coffee at 9:30 and then another friend for lunch at 12:30. Turns out I'm popular! Ha, not really. In reality, one friend lives in B.C. and I'm catching her on the second last day of her visit, and the other is a missionary friend who is frequently out of the country, so her time is prime. It just so happened that I scheduled them both in one day. :)

Today was my second trip to costco - good lord, is it EVER not busy there? Thankfully, though, I saw some random acts of parenting.

I'm excited to start working out with Chantelle again. We'll be starting up soon, right now we're working out the schedule. She's considering doing the Halloween Howl 10 k with me. Christine is also considering it.

I'm working on meal plans for when fall is in full swing - believe it or not, I'm putting the plans on spreadsheets. I have the "chicken", "beef", and "other" spreadsheets with our favorite recipes listed and what book & page to find them on. Then all I have to do is make one shopping list for the week, and then get all the groceries on Saturday when Tyler is usually working anyway. I'm such a geek. But, organization is going to be even more key for the fall. I've gotten into this comfortable "shop for groceries every day" routine in the summer which I thoroughly enjoy, but it won't work in the fall. The only thing I refuse to do is buy frozen meat. Frozen meat tastes so much worse than non-frozen meat, and I'm really not a fan of meat to begin with. So, while I still will have to go to the grocery store more or less every day, it'll only be for meat, so I won't be wandering about.

Wow, this blog really is a random amalgamation of thoughts.

This upcoming weekend we'll be in Fairmont with my family (mom, dad, lyden) and Danny! (my cousin visiting from England). Tyler and I bought Danny a little gift when we were in Peace River to help keep him occupied at the condo. I really hope he likes it. Tyler has convinced him to watch some Star Wars with him, so that's awesome. I'm looking forward to that Star Wars ACTION!

I'm also looking forward to some runs in Fairmont. I'm really looking forward to just doing some relaxed runs without worrying about races. I know I can do a 10 km race, so when I go for my weekly runs it's just to clear my head, do some praying, and blow off some stress (which I'll need to do, spending all that time with the family! OH BURN! ... just kidding, mom). Every run will contribute to making the Halloween Howl easier. And I guess that's what it's all about.

I'm planning to make my training schedule much more varied this fall - swimming Tuesday/Thursday, bike OR run (or both) on Monday/Wednesday/Friday @ the gym, and long runs on Saturday on the bike paths. Apparently doing that cross training will make my running faster. The only reason that matters is that I want to be running 1/2 marathons in 2 hours or 1:55 before I consider doing marathons.

Anyway, I guess I should make dinner. Tyler should be home any minute :) We're going to have a nice quiet date night tonight - dinner, maybe some cards, and perhaps a movie! - I got "Finding Neverland" at Costco for $9.99 today. :)

RK

yesterday's work out

Here's what I did last night:

Workout Wednesday July 18
Warm-Up
3x100m 1. 100 m Swim
2. 100 m Kick
3. 100 m Pull

Drills
8x50 m 1. Swimming in a box
2. Wrist flick
3. Body roll
4. Catch-up
5. Near catch-up
6. Swimming in a box
7. and 8. Choice

25 m easy swim

Interval Set
5x100 m timed interval.
Use a time that gives 15-20 seconds rest/100 m

Total: 1225 m

It was a good time. I'm feeling more natural in the water all the time. The breathing thing is getting easier, but it's still a challenge. The new drills "catch-up" and "near catch-up" were really difficult, and I got quite frustrated cause I couldn't get it RIGHT AWAY! At least coach mentioned in an email to the class afterward that those drills take months to years to perfect. So oh well. Perhaps I'll get better in time. I'll practice Sunday.

Today is my last lecture in art history 203. I'm actually sad to see it go. It's been a lot of fun. I'm tempted to take another 3 week class right after this (if it's open) since it's been so enjoyable. Sick, I know. The final is on Monday. I expect to do well.

I still have another 3 or so weeks of my "Women and Religion" class, which I am enjoying tremendously but at the same time it hurts to study some of it.

RK

Kicking Horse & Aboriginals

You'll never guess what I found on campus: KICKING HORSE COFFEE!!!!! YAY! Now I can drink organic, fairly-traded coffee on campus. This is a great discovery.

I also came to a stunning realization the other day when talking to/emailing my brother. In my Women & Religion class, there is an aboriginal lady. This is officially the first aboriginal person I have ever taken a class with in my bazillion years at U of C. She's a middle aged lady, I don't really know what her story is. She's got the accent and everything, so it's not like my Indian husband who grew up in Calgary. Question to U grads: Have any of you gone to school with aboriginal persons? Lyden hadn't. I'm just wondering.

It's only noteworthy because basically I've gone to school with every other nationality/race, but this is the first aboriginal.

Why do I feel racist? I'm not being racist! Seriously!
RK

swimming and midterms

Well, yesterday evening was the second bout of triathlon swim training. I will say - it felt less brutal than Monday. Only 4 of the 8 in the class showed up, so there was more one-on-one with "coach" which was good, cause he was fixing our strokes. It turns out that I'm just an endurance girl - I was most content when we did our endurance exercises. Perhaps it's just from learning to put myself in "endurance mode" from running. I still find myself near hyperventilation from time to time - just getting used to the whole breathing thing is taking some work, but I'm getting it. I might go all by myself tomorrow, if I have time. Christine and I are going Sunday morning before church too.

So, I had my midterm in art history today, or as he calls it "test 1". There's only "test 1" and "test 2", so really, it's a midterm, but whatever. It's worth 50%. I thought I did pretty good on questions 2 and 3 (each worth 125 points), but I was pretty confused by question 1 (75 points) and question 4 (200 points). Question 1 looked absolutely unlike anything we had even remotely seen up to this point, so that was just random and hard. Question 4 was also very unlike anything we had studied thus far - I understood who the main characters were (Mary and baby Jesus, Elizabeth and John the Baptist), but WHERE they were was totally confusing and why they were surrounded by warrior saints was also quite random. I just made a bunch of stuff up on that. Maybe I'll get points for effort. The thing is, I studied lots for this, AND I haven't missed a single class, so if I didn't get it, then I'm probably not the only one.

I'm sure everyone bombed those question, so go team curve-the-grades! Hopefully it works out in my favor.

Tomorrow we're off to see Harry Potter in the IMAX!!!!! It should be pretty fun - me & Tyler and Lyden & Erin. That'll be pretty super awesome, if I do say so myself.

Well, time to get some reading done...

RK

New Software = No Fun!

U of C changed their student service software from "infonet" to "PeopleSoft". Today was my first run in with "PeopleSoft" as I attempted to register for my spring and summer courses. It was a serious drag.

By the end of it I could see the advantages of PeopleSoft, but learning a new system with no initiation or introduction is frustrating. "They" say we "young people" have no problem learning new things like that - well, either I've become one of "them" or I'm not so young any more.

On a lighter note, one of the grad schools I'm looking into emailed me back today and it seems that perhaps an M.Div is not in the cards. An M.Div is all good if you want to be a pastor, but I'm increasingly skeptical about holding that official post. The MCS they're offering seems to cater much more to who I am as a person and an academic. We shall see! Shockingly, they want a GPA of 2.8 and up. That shouldn't be an issue (I couldn't believe how low it was!). The scholarship race is much more competitive though: 3.8 is the requirement. I'll have to get working for that to happen.