End of Semester, 15 Km, and X-Mas

I have just about wrapped up another semester of school. I am in the middle of my 19th year of school, and can't believe I still enjoy it. I have given my students their finals and have written 40 pages worth of reports. I have given many presentations, and just have one last 3 hour written exam on Monday. It feels great to have another semester behind me. The way I see it I only have about 12-14 semesters to go until I am finished with my post-doc. Well -- now that I put it that way, I am a little freaked out. I just take em' one at a time. I went to my first Master's defense the other day and it was interesting and unerving to see the difficult questions asked to the presenter. It will be a wild ride until I am in the hot seat, but I welcome the challenge. I have a lot of work to do, and plan on getting a head start over X-mas break.

Well my injury in early October was a costly one, and I lost 4 weeks of training time. I also was so busy that I honestly couldn't justify the time to running. So I started up again in November. I have been spotty at best, because of my time constraints. I finally found someone to train with, and will be running with my EQ president. He is pretty fast and pushes me hard. We did a 15Km on Monday and it was a quick one. We finished in 1:13:00 so that was a great time (for me, I held him back). We had plenty of 4:20 K's but to be competitive we need to be closer to 3:50 K's or 35 minute 10 K's. After the run I felt pretty good, but on Monday evening I began to get pretty tight. I feared runner's knee again, last bout of RK cost me 6 weeks. So I used rolling pins on my legs, and stretched, iced, and heated for two days straight. I think I have it under control. It was a close one though. I don't want any more injuries. We will run again Saturday for a faster 15 K. I will probably try a shorty tomorrow just to see if I am up to it on Saturday. I am so anxious to get into the 20-50 Km range I just push too hard and train unwisely. It is a case of having my will power out-preform my scrawny body. I have recently read an article on "Streakers" People who run every day consecutively for 30 plus years! Inspiring, and I am probably just crazy enough to try it.

Well with X-mas around the corner we went out and got our tree yesterday--a petite but plump and happy douglas fur. The kids were exstatic and were bouncing off the walls all night. I think it turned out nice. We also went into downtown today, to buy some ornaments for our mom's. There is a store here with 4 floors of ornaments. So we got our mom's Swedish ornaments. We also stopped off at a 19th century castle along the way. It was brilliant. We ended up having a great time as a family. The weather was brilliant and I haven't missed the snow at all. Well that should catch you up to my doings. I can't wait to do some X-mas baking but I have opted to watch my waistline this holiday so moderation will be key. I hope I have the will-power to stop from eating too many delicous sugar loaded desserts.