Trying to keep it together

Pulling an all nighter is all about perseverance, will power, and personal pride. No one pulls all nighter's for fun. Sure, you might "stay up all night" working on something, but you still went to bed at 7AM to get an hour or two of sleep before going into work or class. A real all nighter takes a drive to do something truly silly for a goal that is never really worth it, but you do it anyway so you can wear it like a badge of honor. Those who have been there are inviting in conversation and discuss it with you like a combat veteran. Those that have tried and failed look on with awe and bewilderment, asking themselves the questions that haunt you during the long hours of the night: was it really worth it? How did they do it? Why are they that dumb to submit themselves to it?

It all began when my advisor convinced these technicians to come show us a piece of equipment. Now I had used this at other schools, but we were doing a "demo" to see how it worked so that my advisor could write a better grant to buy one and so we could get the machine to ourselves to run samples.

The goal was to convince them to let us keep it overnight to run samples. Other people in my department weren't optimistic, I admit even I had my doubts, but when the time came they came up with the idea to let us have it overnight to run the samples we wanted to run.

We finished that batch five hours ago, and now my lab assistant and I are working straight through the night to run as many of our samples as possible so she has data for her poster session next week...and so we can avoid a four hour road trip to and from Boston next week (which we still might need).

This is a little easier than my last all nighter in the fact that I haven't caffeinated yet...yet. Last time I had a red bull around 2AM and another around 4AM or 5AM and then coffee and other high caffeine drinks throughout the day. By the time I finally went to bed I had been up for over 40 hours and woke up into caffeine withdrawal and haven't had coffee since.

I'll probably take a 5-hour Energy at some point to make it through the morning/day. I foresee and early crash on this Thursday night and hating myself on Friday. But at least the samples will be finished.

104 days til Acadia: Heat running and some musings

Short run today, around two and three quarters miles (quarter miles?) and boy is it HOT! It was well into the 90's all day long. I was thinking that maybe I would take the day off, but since I already took Sunday off, I knew I just had to get out there and put some miles down...even if it wasn't even 3.

Now, according to some websites, the royal "they" say that 2 weeks is the appropriate amount of time to adjust to running in extreme heat. This of course doesn't mean it doesn't suck any less! The run was fine, and I think tomorrow I will extend it a bit by making it a loop, because it does feel like it goes by fast.

I haven't run this little in a while, though I do seem to run at a more even and consistent pace now, as opposed to before when I would essentially sprint the first mile and half or so, then crash for the second mile before I finally settled into a good pace. I'm running around 9 to 9:30 miles, which isn't fast at all, but it what it is is comfortable and feels like something I can maintain indefinitely...which I think I will need for Acadia...I think.

Also I realized today that most of my underwear is some shade of grey or blue. I don't know how this happened or how I didn't realize until now, but they are. I don't find this to be an issue of any sort...just interesting.

Now I have to pay my electric bill...

107 days til Acadia: Hot stuff and Lazy days

So last week I never went on that long run...I went to happy hour instead, and had a great time thank you very much! This then continued as a trip to NYC for the weekend (in which i did a lot of walking around...mostly ending up on the East side of Central Park and have to walk to the West side only to realize there is a giant lake in the middle...yeah, i missed that on the map) and then home on Monday.

And thus Tuesday was the end of my extended break. 4 miles Tuesday, 4 miles Wednesday, (break Thursday) and then 4 grueling miles today in which I realized the importance of continued hydration: i. e. DO IT! Today was warmer than it has been and I admit that I haven't been hydrating myself very well the past few days. This is something I will rectify for this weekend!

Other than that I have yet to breach 8 miles in one run and haven't done more than 15ish in a week so I've still got a lot of work to do before I am anywhere near ready for October.

115 Days to Acadia: why I hate running in the morning

Distance: 4 miles

Total Time: 42.08

Pace: 10.32

So yesterday I went running with a friend of mine in the morning. It was the first time since crew sophomore year where I had done a workout in the morning after having done one the previous afternoon. Needless to say I was less than pleased to be waking up at 7 to go running in the hot sun.

You see, in the mornings the sun, especially in the summer, is already out and only getting higher. So not only are you continuously losing shadow, but you are gaining heat. Not a fun combination. "But isn't the race at 8AM? Won't that be morning?" Well yes, but then I will have gone to bed at like 10PM the night before and gotten up super early and be ready to go.

Yesterday was not that case.

Additionally, my friend is a slower runner than I which is one of the reasons the pace was so slow. I was groggy, tired, hot, and sore, but even then the pace felt slow. Today I hope to complete a quick (quick being a relative term of course) 8 mile jog, which will make my mile total for the week 18.5, an ok mileage, but going forward I'm going to need some more!

Well, we'll see how this afternoon goes.

Oh! Also, I now have a new reason to graduate on time: a 1962 Pontiac Tempest Le Mans Convertible. My mom's boss has one that has been siting in his garage for around a decade and I explained to her that (not this coming winter/spring) next summer/fall I should have a job and that by the winter/spring of 2012 I should have enough money to buy it off of him if he still has it.

One more reason to finish my research and get a job.

117 Days to Acadia: a "blah" run in the rain

Miles: 4

Total Time: 40.24

Pace: 10.06 per mile

After lab today I was feeling really tired. I woke up early to go running with a friend who bailed on me...while I was sleeping. So I still woke up really early, only to toss and turn for another hour and get up for real.

So this afternoon I was tired, plus I had a big, greasy, heavy lunch so I was just sleepy as all hell. But I knew I had to go running, even if it was to just put some miles down. So I gathered my self together around 6pm and went for my run, in a light drizzle.

Now I knew from the start I was going slow. What felt good though was the fact that I felt like I could run for an eternity at that pace. Which is good because it is around the pace I want to do the marathon at.

So, now it is off to bed so I can get up and run in the morning!

To Acadia I boldly go!

So...the other week I did a 7 mile race and I had made the claim to my friends Maggie and Hannah (who ran it with me) that if I could complete the race in under an hour I would run the Acadia National Park Marathon with Miss Margret. I, however, failed.

Final time: 1 hour 1 minute 26 seconds. It was a little soul crushing to go the whole race and come so close to my goal, but it was a fine time considering I only trained for like a week and a half and it was only my second time running a distance that far...but it is still only 1 minute and 26 seconds from my goal.

So Mags (yes, I call her by multiple names) poked fun and said, "So I guess you're not doing that marathon, huh?" And I thought...for about 2 seconds, and decided I would do the marathon anyway.

So now I am running a marathon in October. Luckily I live with two former cross country/track kids so I am pretty sure I can get in shape for it in 3 months. My suggested goal is to work up to and maintain 40 miles a week. That is about 6 miles a day, running every day. I am going to work around that to long runs on weekends, shorter runs during the week, which is what most people do.

But...I should be recording my times to keep track of progress and to know how many miles I am doing. As such here is where I start keeping track:

Monday's Workout: 10 laps around the track (2.5 miles) with 10 sit-ups and 10 push ups before each lap.

Lap 1: 3.12

Lap 2: 3.19

Lap 3: 3.30

Lap 4: 3.27

Lap 5: 3.26

Lap 6: 3.38

Lap 7: 3.51

Lap 8: 3.41

Lap 9: 3.39

Lap 10: 3.25

Total: (I already cleared my watch, but I remember it being 35-ish minutes and change)

The movies I saw this week

MacGruber: Piece of shit. Not even remotely funny. Maybe it was just not my type of comedy, maybe some SNL skits should stay on SNL, maybe studios should stop putting all the best scenes in the trailers. The story was recycled (former military bad-ass now lives in a monastery, but the government needs him for one more job) and many of the things that were supposed to be funny got old real fast (like taking the lunch box sized radio out of his car every time he gets out). I had doubts about this movie going in, but my friend said is was hilarious...last time I take movie advice from a film major! Don't waste your money on this film!

Splice: Actually pretty good. I wanted to see a movie Saturday afternoon, but didn't want to go see one that my house mates would want to see later (since I was going alone) so I went on metacritic to see what the score was and read a review or two and it was getting really good reviews. So I went and I enjoyed it. I don't want to give away anything about it, but I came out of the theater feeling a little creeped out and a little dirty (sex with things that are not 100% human is a little freaky).

Prince of Persia: Beer+Action movie=Good time. The formula never fails, and neither did Prince of Persia. It was a summer block-buster that delivered on action and was incredibly fast paced. There just was no lag, there was always something going on and it really kept the story alive and flowing. Also there were neat little plot twists along the way which made the movie fun.

Killers: Almost good... mostly alright. This film looked like a dumbed down Mr. & Mrs. Smith and it sort of is exactly that. The acting was surprisingly flat, but the dialog was truly good considering the fluff that the film was. The action scenes were surprisingly well thought out and well shot. Catherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher are not action stars, but in terms of romantic comedy the film did really work. I would recommend this as a date film because it covers a lot of territory about relationships from meeting to getting married to dealing with parents. I would have liked it more had I had a date. Instead I was hung over and looking for something easy to do for a couple hours and it filled the time nicely.