End of March Roundup

Who's got two thumbs and wrote two blog posts in the month of March? This gal!

Again, all I have in me is a list of things that have happened this month. I intend to write soon about swimming in the Masters Provincial Championships, but you know, promises, promises.


1. It's still Winter...kind of. 



Some of us are more fazed by it than others.

It helps if you have a warm nest next to the heating vent.

I'm now supposed to be going for "fitness walks" in order to strengthen my foot for physical therapy. Last weekend BoBo and I headed to Springbank for a wintery walk. It was cold but we made it 2 miles!

BoBo still doesn't really get selfies.

2. John and I tried out a new cafe in town - Edgar and Joe's Cafe -  located inside the Goodwill local headquarters, adjacent to an actual Goodwill store in the same building. It was a pleasant place to study with lots of space, natural light, and free wifi. We'll definitely be back. Also, if you're London: breakfast all day.

3. Another one of my Interlochen classmates is getting famous. Allie X (or, my classmate formerly known as Allie Hughes) lives in Toronto and also, now, L.A. She released a couple of singles and I think they're  pretty fun! You can listen to them here. I should dig up some old photos from us in our Halloween costumes in junior year of high school. 

4. The Triathlon Club had a girls' night a couple weeks ago. It was wild - WILD, I tell you! Actually it involved dinner at Mongolian Grill and then froyo. At the froyo place I found this board game: 

I regret so much that we didn't play it. Also, it turns out that all those ladies train so much that by 8:30 we were all too tired to do anything else so we went home to go to bed. In all seriousness, I love that there are so many fit and strong ladies in the TriClub. The executive board is almost all badass chicks.

5. We also had the Triathlon Club end of the year banquet last week. There were elections for next year's board, a fun side show, and pad thai! And, I won the (female) swimming award! I was so touched by this. My coach, Alex, has made an enormous difference in my swimming this. And so has my lane-mate, Dan. I've gotten faster just by trying to keep up with him!

6. Please enjoy these promotional videos for Calgary ("Hello Calgary!") and, separately, Ontario ("There's no place like this!"). "This is Ontario, Y'all!" That made me laugh so hard. I heard about the Calgary one on This American Life and it immediately made me think of the Ontario commercial. It also makes me think of the time Fort Wayne commissioned of those new town mottos. They came up with this: "Fort Wayne - Still Room for Dreams."

7. A few weeks ago I joined a group called Barley's Angels, a group for women who are beer enthusiasts. I attended a group event at Brewhaven where we made two different kinds of beer and learned about the beer making process. I loved it! As a music theorist with a composition background, I'm very accustomed to male-dominated environments and I often feel comfortable in them. But it was nice to have an all-women group that was led by a women who knows a lot about beer. There was no mansplaining to endure. My friend, Grace (below), introduced me to the group. Brewhaving also seems like a neat place. It's out of my price range to go there as an individual but as a group it was pretty great. It also convinced me that I would never want to make beer at home. WAY too many variables and it's too easy to contaminate something and screw it all up. But I enjoyed going through the process with their equipment and expertise!

Here's Grace stirring the malts in our brown bitter.

The tank from above. The grains are in those bags hanging from the side. The malt and syrop are in the center/strainer looking thing.

In one of the storage rooms they had this cool medieval print of a monk making beer.

We finished the day with a canning demo. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the canning day, but I'm going to pick up my beer soon. I'm looking forward to trying it!

 8. I'm one chapter away from a complete draft (though early draft) of my dissertation. Here's Rameau's signature. I think it looks a bit like a bird looking through a hoop, if you look at it just right.  I've been outlining it like mad and editing chapter 1. I'm still not sure if I can defend in the summer or the fall, but I it will become clear in a couple of months (or rather, it has to, if I'm going to defend in the summer).

The temperature highs are supposed to be above 30F all this week! Fingers crossed that Spring is actually coming!

Gym Christmas Day 10

Gym Christmas Day 10!

Work out: 4 mile run at Springbank Park. I left my watch at home and vowed to stretch during the run if my foot hurt. This was the first really wintery run of the season, and I was glad to have my phone on me in case I slipped. And since I had my phone, I've included some photos of Springbank, my favorite running route.

GYMGO: I crossed off another Grab Bag day. If I work out with someone else, then I'll have another GYMGO soon. I know you're relieved.

Thing I've eaten today: I just had my post-run snack, a serving of cottage cheese. I try to make sure I only eat it after a run or work out. Otherwise I'd eat it constantly.

Before I get to the Springbank photos, here's what I did this morning: made some graphs of Rameau's fundamental bass. My paper is due on Friday, and since I don't have access to Finale, I had to make some figures by hand. I don't own a protractor (surprise), so I used this old can of tuna snack mix to draw some circles. Do you like to draw tedious but relatively simple graphs? Then a career in music theory might just be for you!

Back to running...This is at the start of the route. 

I've mapped out many a distance from this yield sign. It's a great place to start out-and-back runs.

This is almost 2 miles from the yield sign. The route includes asphalt and some dirt trail. It's my favorite place in London.

Halloween Haunting 5K/10K

Today, John and I ran the Halloween Haunting 5K and 10K, respectively, in Springbank Park. The short version of the story: it was excellent!

John was almost certain that he would PR, though he wasn't sure by how much. We huddled together until it was time for the 5K to start, since it was about 40 degrees, cloudy, and really windy. The forecast called for rain, so we brought a beach towel to use after the race. But I ended up walking around with it wrapped on my head until the 5K was over. John said I looked like I'd decided to dress up as a Muslim for Halloween - if Muslims cover their heads with beach towels with dogs printed on them. 

I think the Boston Pizza mascot faked its own death to get out of running in the 2K fun run with the kiddies. Here he is getting up, after a few minutes laying lifeless on the ground. 

                                  

After I watched the kiddies do the fun run, the first 5K finishers started coming in. I tried to get some photos of his finish, though it was tough to operate the camera with frozen, numb fingers.

                                     

I met John after the finish and confirmed that he had PR'd, with a time of 21:48! 

Then it was my turn to take off my fleece, warm pants, gloves, and dog-towel head covering, and become the IU cheerleader I've always wanted to be. I called to John before the start that my costume belonged to a faster runner, i. e., someone who would spend less time on the course than me.

John got some good pics of me at the half way point, and I tried to show some school spirit. 

During the weeks since the half marathon, I'd just been easing off the mileage, trying to do my physio exercises, and running about 1 long run per week of about 7-8 miles. The 10k distance has sort of been a thorn in my side, since I've never been able to go under an hour, despite good training. It's always taught me that race day can be unpredictable: weather, injuries, a cold, all things that have kept me from running this distance as fast as I wanted. Last week, John and I both had nasty colds, and I only ran about 5 miles for the whole week - blech. I figured that this race was just for fun, and I didn't want to worry about my time. 

But like any normal (re: crazy runner) person, I wrote down the splits for a 59:50 finish, and decided to see how I felt when I got to the race. 

Today, I think the odds were really in my favor. I just focused on one KM at a time and tried to hit the split I'd written out for myself, and for the most part, it worked really well. It was a challenging pace by the end, but I felt like I could hang in there. By about the 5K mark, I started running with this other women about my age, wearing devil horns. She and I hung together and agreed to try to finish under and hour. When we rounded the final corner and the finish line was in sight, she said, "I'm sorry," and started to pull away. I told her not to be sorry and cheered for her to go on. I thought I could probably hit the last marker without her. 

And I was right! The clock time was ahead of my watch by about 20 seconds, so the display looked as though I finished right on 60 minutes. 

But the chip time was the same as my watch: 59:38! 

                                           

So let that be a lesson: when trying to PR, pretend you don't care, lay in bed sick for 8 days, wear something freezing, and it'll totally happen!

I remembered while piecing this costume together that I once had another IU cheerleader costume. In case you happened to miss its appearance on facebook:

                                  

Based on the (fantastic) haircut, I'm guessing that's from 1989. Win. 

After the race, we used a buy one-get one free coupon I had for the Alibi and had diner-style breakfast food. Eating at places like that really hits the spot after a race!

And, side note: 

                               

Yesterday I decided to eat a big bowl of leftover spaghetti for lunch (add that to my perfect pre-race prep list). The noodles were cooked but plain, so I decided to throw on some salt, pepper, and parm for toppings. Then I remembered that we are cellaring my green tomatoes, and I went to check on them. Turns out, it totally worked! I got about 5 medium-small tomatoes for this pasta, which I just cut and threw into the pot with the noodles while they heated up. They still have that fresh, summery taste. I have three more small ones that still need to ripen up, so I'm hoping that the same magic happens to them. Cellaring tomatoes! Who knew?!

Happy Dance

Around mid-July I found out that I passed my comps! From what I can tell, the handful of people who read this probably knew a long time ago that I passed, but I wanted to post here about it anyways because HOT DAMN I PASSED THE COMPS!!!























John found out that he passed in the morning, and I didn't find out for about 5 more hours. I was a complete, nervous wreck after that. The thing is, we have different committees, so the fact that he heard didn't mean anything about when I might hear or whether I passed. I thought it might take another couple of months for my results to come in, and I tried to make peace with the idea of not knowing until September.


We ran a few errands (I finally got a new hamper! It completes the big furniture-rearrangment we did in the middle of July - more on that later), and then decided to go to Springbank Park for a long walk. Before we left the house, I obsessively checked my email one last time, and there it was!
"I've just sent a message to the Associate Dean informing her that your Advisory Committee has read and passed all three parts of your comprehensive exam. Congratulations!"


So we went to the park and John practiced using fast shutter speed while I jumped up and down.
Then we went out for ice cream that night to celebrate.





John's kindly holding my cup while I take a photo.































It's so hard to get John to take a normal picture.






































OhthankGod. Wepassedthecomps. Whew! On to the directed studies and the proposal.

Springbank Park in Winter

John and I ventured out on the 26th to take a walk in Spring Bank Park. It's my favorite running spot in London, and you may have read about it here and here. Here are the photos we took to document our cold adventure:



























I thought the light looked just right to take a whole bunch of pictures just before dusk.



























It was cold, but the parks dept. laid down enough salt that the path was relatively clear.



























We hardly needed our YakTrax, but John really wanted to try his out, since I got them for him for Christmas.
Here's an upclose shot:



















I love this picture of John on the run:
























View from the bridge:


















And from the other side:


















My favorite path:

Halloween Haunting 5K and 10K

A couple of weeks ago John and I ran in the Halloween Haunting 5K and 10K, respectively.








John told me this is his "sexy face."















Like always, I had plans to take pictures of all the runners in their costumes. I even saw a dog dressed as a bumble bee and also wearing a giant, red, bow tie. But alas, I forgot that the camera I had was missing its memory card. And so I only snapped a few photos at home after the race.



























This was my first 10K. I've run probably 10 or so 5Ks, but the 10K was a whole different animal. My friend Carla was right - it's so mental, and during the race I tried to remember how much I had mentally prepared to run for more than an hour. I tried to break the race into shorter segments, which wasn't hard given the course. This particular race course was shaped like a lollipop, and the 10K meant two laps of that lollipop, and too much repetition for my taste. Still, the weather was nice and cool, and the costumed volunteers at the aid stations did a great job of cheering.



















I was really hesitant about running this race at all about two weeks before. My left knee was giving me lots of trouble and I wasn't sure if it was smart to try to run. But about a week beforehand it seemed to improve (thanks, foam roller! I love to hate you!), and I went for it. I took about 5 or 6 walk breaks of about 2 minutes each, but I'm still pleased with my overall time - 64:13. If all goes as planned and I can train for the next one without any hitches, I'd like to break an hour. But just completing it and feeling good is my #1 goal.

















John had an excellent day at the races and finished the 5K in 23:53 (good Lord!). As I write this he's reminding me that he, too, can run faster and would like to get to a 21 minute 5K time.

What have we become? People who like to run, I guess.

The next local event isn't until late February. That should give us lots of time to train and get ready to beat our Halloween times.

Springbank Park in the Fall

I don't think I've ever posted pictures on the blog about Springbank Park, but it's where John and I go to run most of the time.


























In addition to the paved parkway that snakes all over town, they also have some wooded gravel and dirt trails that run along side it.



















I went with John while he did a short run and took some pictures. My hope was to get good end-of-day light on the gorgeous fall colors there.



























The sun went down a little sooner than I expected, so I didn't get as many leafy pictures as I hoped.














But I am pleased with some of the pictures I got of the sky as the sun was going down.

















John and I are running a 5K and 10K respectively there this weekend, and I hope to have some more festive, Halloween photos after the race.