Countdowns…

24 hours until M gets back from Istanbul. 22 hours until I finish a finance midterm. I’m sure these won’t conflict in terms of my concentration levels.

3 days until Halloween. I’ve already eaten more candy that I did last year.

Three weeks until my birthday. Buy me stuff. What I really need is someone to pay my rent or tuition, but I’d settle for various consumer goods. I am especially in need of some new pants. And size 13 socks.

7 weeks until the end of this semester. I am very tired of having class every night, but need to get used to the idea that I have several more years of this.

8 months until our lease is up. I’m not moving without significant persuasion. Unless we hire movers.

10 years until I can legally run for president. Donations would be appreciated, but are not tax-deductible.

26 years until I pay off my student loans. This had better be worth it…

Also, new post on the other blog….

Spring Training

I went running yesterday morning.  For 55 minutes.  Without walking.

This was a major accomplishment, seeing as how lately I am unable to walk up more than two flights of stairs without getting out of breath.  There is something embarrassing about sitting down in a classroom and being that person who’s breathing heavily but trying not to sound like it for the first ten minutes of class.  So its time to get back on the wagon of being healthy.

(sidenote: why is the phrase “on the wagon” used to refer to doing something that’s considered difficult, like when an alcoholic stops drinking?  They are “off the wagon” when they start up again.  It makes no sense to me, its a hell of a lot easier to be riding on a wagon than running alongside.)

Starting next week…

Aside from a few aberrations, I haven’t worked out in a year and a half.  I generally have a pretty hard time motivating myself to do so without some sort of challenge before me, so I’ve been trying to pick something physical that I can try to attempt.  Here are a few options I’ve been weighing:

1) Run a trail marathon in October.   This would get me out doing some running, without necessarily requiring more than a few hours a week of training time.  Probably the most relaxing choice as well, since most of my training would consist of running on little paths through the woods.

2) Race a half-ironman in August (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13 mile run).  While quite a bit more intensive training wise – probably like 10 hours a week, the training would give me an excuse to buy a pass to the gym and some shiny new bike parts.  Plus it sounds more badass than saying “well, I like to prance around the forest in my little shorts”.  This assumes you think that speedos are badass.

3) Finish a full ironman in August-September (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26 mile run, whew).  This would be a little crazy – closer to  15 hours a week working out, some weeks closer to 20.  On the plus side, unlike the first two options its me doing something I’ve never done before, and its something I’m afraid of, so it would very much be motivating.  I have mixed feelings on the time commitment though.  Epitome of badass manly man activities, frequent speedo wearing notwithstanding.

4) Run an ultramarathon sometime late summer.  Basically a trail race that is something longer than a marathon, probably something in the 30-50 mile range.  Also something I’ve never done, higher up on the badass factor (pshh, marathons are for wimps), won’t take too much training time, maybe 6-8 hours a week.

5) Start playing volleyball again, ideally with a fun team of apathetic individuals),and force myself to go to the gym and jog a few days a week.  This option has the bonus of not involving excessive amounts of tiredness, plus the beach volleyball league I play in is one of the few organized sports where the predominant concern of all playing is that no wild hits knock over the beer cups.  Downsides include sand in my shorts and the resounding guilt that I feel when I’m the dumbass that spills all the beer.

6) Rock climbing, orienteering, hiking, canoeing and other random things combined with volleyball…a lot of fun, not too much effort, and I’d still have time to play volleyball.

7) Give up on working out and spend my free time with my butt planted on a couch watching Simpsons DVDs and drinking beer.