This semester isn't quite as intense, so I often find myself not doing anything productive on the weekends, then panicking Monday morning when I realize everything that needs to be done within the following 48 hours. It's like interval training, except it's for my brain.
My friend, Amy, convinced me to sign up for a sprint triathlon that she did last year. I've been wanting to do one for years. Last year I was going to do one in a reservoir near Sacramento but it dried up. I was afraid to do one out in the ocean since there are sea creatures (sharks), and seaweed that could touch my leg while swimming and lead me to believe I'm about to be eaten by a sea creature (shark). It's the second weekend in June. The swim is 0.25 miles, the bike is 12.5 miles, and the run is 2 miles. Mostly I'm nervous about the seaweed and sharks, and also a bit about the temperature. It will be June, I will be wearing a wetsuit, but I'm also very sensitive to the cold. I'm wondering if my feet and hands will go numb, making it hard to ride and then run. I guess we'll find out.
I also thought, since I just did a pretty good job on a very hilly half marathon down in San Diego, I should sign up for a flat one to see how fast I can go. See Jane Run 1/2 marathon in Alameda is a flat course for women and has some really tempting swag. At the finish, there are burritos, chocolate, and champagne, and you get to take home your own commemorative champagne glass, finisher's medal, tech shirt, and tote bag. It's also the weekend before the triathlon. So it goes.
I switched over to triathlon training this week, then signed up for the half marathon and then realized if I want to go fast for the half marathon, I will need to continue training for it. I was going to cut my running nearly in half, now I'm not so sure. So far the idea is to run on Monday, weight train Tuesday and Thursday, do a brick workout (two sports back to back- like bike then run) on Wednesday, swim Thursday, bike on Friday, and do a trail run or long run on Saturday. Sunday I rest. Yesterday (Friday), after my 21.5 mile bike ride, some of the grad girls dragged me to the pool. Two swims in for the week. My shoulder hurts.
Today I picked out a new trail to run in the open space preserve right above the trails I ran weeks ago. It was supposed to be fairly warm, so I wore my usual tank top and shorts. Thankfully I left the house wearing a sweatshirt because it turned out to be incredibly windy and quite chilly.
The preserve is open range for cattle grazing. Did I tell you about the time I was chased by two cows? It was scary. I have mentally prepared myself for dog, mountain lion, bear, and man attacks (and proven myself in the event of being chased by dogs as well as a couple scary encounters with men), but cow attacks I feel I had not sufficiently prepared myself for. Luckily when I quit running (generally speaking, do not continue to run if something is chasing you) and turned and faced the cows, they stopped running. We stared each other down for about 10 seconds, I back slowly away, and they did not follow.
Cows are big creatures. Really big creatures. They are the size of cars. When I entered the gate for the preserve and saw all the cows littering the hillside, right alongside, and on, the trail, I got a little nervous. Recently I've decided that I want to live as long as possible, as healthily as possible. Getting trampled by angry cows might not support that. I kept up a jogging pace (steep hills) until I got close to a cow, then slowly walked by, making my presence known without startling anyone. The cows didn't seem to mind much. They're probably used to people.
I took a wrong turn and ended up heading down to Alum Rock Park, which I've run in before. The wind was howling, my nose was running, and I turned and headed back up the mountain....slowly. Most of the cows were unimpressed with my uphill approach, so I didn't even need to stop "running" to pass. I also saw a group of turkeys. Two toms and two females.
Near the top of the mountain, a cow stood halfway in the trail, half on the slope grazing away. I slowed to a walk and announced my approach, something like "Hello cow, just passing by, excuse me...". As I got closer, the cow turned around, blocked the entire trail, and eyed me warily. Crap. "Hey, excuse me. Just passing by, can you move?" He didn't move. Yes, of course I could've shouted "Ha!" but I didn't want to spook the entire herd and send a stampede in my direction or in anyone else's. Fortunately he moved and I walked on, glancing behind to be sure he wasn't following me. I made it outside the gate and finished my run (crawl).
I got home, showered, ate, and thought about what a beautiful day it was. Far too beautiful to do anything else for the day besides eat my last chocolate bar and drink coffee. I got a text from my friend, Ashley. "So I'm going to head to the store to pick up a few things. Did you want to work on the radiation lab this afternoon or push it till tomorrow?" Ugh. I texted back "How about tomorrow? I'm kinda sick of this grad student shit."
Next weekend we've got an overnight field experiment. Ashley was in charge of trying to make wine gummies. Minutes later I received this:
"So you still want me to try out the wine gummies or should I just pick up two of these for us?"
I zoomed in.
"It looks like it's 3 glasses each. How much do you plan on drinking?"
We decided to split one, and save the wine gummies for another day. We're supposed to be operating meteorological equipment during this camping trip, so we need to maintain some sense.
I'm back in sweatpants, on my chaise lounge. The chocolate bar is gone, the coffee pot is empty. I might be ready for a nap.
