Aaaaaaaahhhhhh

Miles: 28.4 + 6.4 =34.8

A quick recap of our last week, at which point you'll understand why this has to be quick.

Last Friday:
8am: husband left for weekend trip to Maryland
2pm: had a meeting with my advisor in which I was asked to write up the proposal for a third paper in less than a week
5pm: discovered that our daycare provider thought she had 7 weeks of paid vacation time in her contract, which was not our understanding at all

Saturday:
9am: called Child Care Resource Service to get a list of licensed daycares in the area, discovered that they are closed on Saturdays and you can't get the information from their website.
all day: watched Elliot and worked feverishly on proposal for advisor during nap time and after Elliot's bedtime.

Sunday:
I do not work on Sundays. Instead I went to a basketball game with N and had a really good time.
Brendan came home

Monday: called Child Care Resource Service back and requested information on daycares. Stayed up late working on proposal.

Tuesday: finally got proposal sent to advisor around 11pm.

Wednesday: got packet of information from Child Care Resource Service. Went through it flagging places that looked promising.

Thursday:
8:30am: dropped off Elliot
9am: met with a potential daycare person
9:30-5: ran around campus like a crazy person, from one meeting to the next (seriously, I was at 4 different meetings/obligations, all of which were in different buildings, between the hours of 11am and 3:30 pm)
5pm: gave daycare provider 2 week notice

Friday:
9am: met with another potential provider
10am: dropped off Elliot
10:30: met with yet another potential provider
11:30 finally got to work, worked like mad person
2pm: meeting with advisor. Outlook--write grant proposal by Sunday, write Chapter 1 of my dissertation by Monday morning. No pressure, but it has to be good so I can finalize my committee and schedule the prelim, which by the way, might have to be during the vacation we were planning to take.
5pm: daycare provider told us she is closing her doors and will not be open effective immediately. Translation, we have to find someplace else by Monday morning.

Right.

This and that

Miles: 25.2+3.2=28.4

Work has been CRAZY recently. I'm nearing completion of my proposal, and am busy being strategic, editing, meeting with committee members, trying to find a prelim date, and getting ready to apply for various funding opportunities, all of which have deadlines in the near future. Coordinating deadlines, vacation, work schedules, and faculty availability is more complicated than I anticipated. Then there's the 20 hours a week I get paid for.

Elliot now has four teeth, two on the bottom and two on the top. Unrelated, but I got him to nap in his crib today! This is exciting because he almost never agrees to do it. The trick might have been sweetening the deal with his favorite blanket. He took his first assisted steps a few days ago. He's still timid about cruising, but there is definitely progress.

Miles and life, again

Mileage: 21.8 + 3.4 = 25.2

On life, good grief but I am busy these days! I've been making good progress on my dissertation. I have several meetings later this week and beyond to discuss the next steps. I've had a lot of encouragement recently, and am so grateful for it!

Mile and life

Mileage: 21.8 or so.

In other news, we've been busy around here! My office moved to a different building last weekend and the beginning of this week. Elliot is pulling himself up on everything he can reach. It's adorable and a little frightening sometimes (oh! cords in a power outlet! maybe I can pull up on that!). And I'm *this close* to finally scheduling a prelim. Woohoo!!

Ok, gotta get back to the D.

Just miles

Mileage update: 18.5

It's too early for spring, which makes our recent warm weather that much better. I even left my coat in the car today when we got to church.   

The shins

From time to time people tell me that they've taken up running or are considering starting. I always celebrate the first successful 5k with them, and sympathize with the new runner aches and pains. When newbies want to stop running, it's almost always for one of a very few reasons:
1. Shin splints
2. Joint pain
3. The realization that it really hurts to power through the period when your cardiovascular capacity catches up to your ambition to run.

All three of these things pass after a few weeks. If joint pain doesn't pass you might need to get it checked out, but it can often be treated or ignored until it passes. Once you've been running for a while, another set of things crops up that can stop you or at least slow you down. There are a lot of sports-related injuries. Some popular ones are IT-band issues, acl tears, and stress fractures.

After taking close to 6-7 weeks off from running, Meg and I jumped back into it with a vengeance a few weeks ago. A little over a week ago, I started getting odd shin pain. Since shin pain affects new and seasoned runners alike, I can't readily tell what the problem is. It could be a very odd shin splint (since we just started back), or a stress fracture (since we started back really hard), or just new stress from a changing gait. Consequently, I've been ordered to stay away from my running shoes for a week to see if the pain stops. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Stay tuned.

Mileage update

Mileage update: 15.3 miles.

5k plans update: We decided not to run the 5k portion of the Illinois Marathon/Half-marathon/5k because the entry fee is rather high. There are many other local options though, so I feel confident that we'll find something appealing. Talking with Meg about it yesterday I realized that I have no idea how to train for a 5k. I'm consulting Runner's World and some online training schedules. It's also meant to be fun, so I doubt there will be much hardcore effort on this one. Plus, I prefer distance over speed, and speed is the whole point of a 5k.

For those of you on the long list of people hassling me about uploading recent pictures of Elliot, I offer you this teaser. My son is a total goofball and I love him.