New Training Period

This week, I officially start to train for my next race, which is the Blue Ridge Relay on September 5-6. The route is divided into 36 legs. I will be running legs 4, 16, and 28, which total about 18 miles. I'm going to train like I would for a half marathon, with a couple modifications towards the end of the training period in order to get ready for things like running twice in one day and running at night. Since I've already provided detailed accounts of two past training endeavors, I'm not going to do that for this race, unless something comes up that I think is particularly interesting. Like doing a track workout in the heat. Yep, that could be really fun!

This is a YouTube clip of the Zatten Concerto for trumpet and strings. The composer is Roger Petrich, our awesome music director at St. Thomas More, and the trumpeter is Paul Neebe, who is an awesome trumpet player (Juliard educated, no less!). Paul plays quite a bit at St. Thomas More, and I've had the pleasure of playing oboe and singing with him several times. The Zatten concerto was performed on May 29th by Paul and the East Chapel Hill High School orchestra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaXaeRIqPo8

Back from Seattle

Ben and I spent the greater part of last week on vacation in Seattle. We had a blast. Neither of us had been to the Pacific Northwest before, and we definitely hope we can go back sometime. We did a lot of touristy things, like visiting Pike Place Market, the Seattle Aquarium, the Woodland Park Zoo, the Experience Music Project, the Pacific Science Center, went kayaking, took a harbor cruise, and drank lots of coffee. Below are some pics we took-enjoy! Also, I've linked the stuff we did to their respective websites in case you too are planning a trip to Seattle and are looking for things to do.

Downtown Seattle with with the Space Needle poking out in the background.

The Seattle skyline from the harbor.

Me and Ben on the boat taking a harbor tour. Yep, we are wearing jackets because the high temperature was in the low-mid 50s all week. It was AWESOME!!!

Pike Place Market downtown.

Some really big fish at one of the stalls at Pike Place Market.

Me and Rachel the Pig at Pike Place Market.

The original Starbucks coffee shop downtown. The original logo is a little more provocative than the current logo.

The marina at the Agua Verde Paddle Club where we went kayaking.

A heron at the marina.

A view of the Experience Music Project from the monorail.

Apparently the gorillas were having a meeting when we visited the Woodland Park Zoo.

A duck in the bear exhibit!

Ben and the duck posing for a photo.

Me feeding a bird in the birdhouse at the zoo.

Me and an octopus at the Seattle Aquarium.

Ben taming the wall octopus at the aquarium.

Wedding Anniversary Festivities

Today, Ben and I are celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary. We started the day by eating lunch at Weaver Street Market in Carrboro. Then we browsed the samples at A Southern Season. We ate dinner at Spice Street, and then went for coffee and dessert at Caribou. Next week, we'll be going on vacation to Seattle to celebrate both our wedding anniversary and our graduations from UNC.

Laziness

Well it's summer, at least if you're mind runs on the academic calendar. Graduation was 2 weeks ago, my master's thesis is completed done and submitted, so I am very much on summer vacation. I am trying to make the most of it by being really lazy. Now, I must say that this is not hard for me to do at all, because I am really really good a finding trivial things to do to pass time, like playing Tetris on my computer, surfing the NBC Olympics website (Go Team USA!), sleeping late, and the like. But I have done a few productive things, like getting the oil changed in the car, grocery shopping, and cleaning the house once. And I'm still going running 5 days a week and doing resistance training; gotta keep in shape for the Blue Ridge Relay in September. The laziness will be slightly interrupted in June because I'm teaching a PE class during second summer session, and I will probably also shave down my master's thesis into something that could be submitted for publication.

In the meantime, I don't feel terribly bad about my laziness because my advisor, Dr. B., told me to make sure I get lots of rest this summer because all the craziness will start again in the fall with the PhD program.

Graduation Pictures

This past Sunday was UNC graduation. Ben and I aren't officially getting our diplomas until August, but we still walked in our departmental ceremonies. Ben is receiving his PhD in physics and I am receiving my MA in Exercise and Sport Science (Exercise Physiology). Below are some pics from the event.

Me and my parents

Me and Dr. Bob McMurray. He is the specialization coordinator for the Exercise Physiology group in our department.

Me and my advisor, Dr. Claudio Battaglini. He was my master's thesis advisor, and he will be my PhD dissertation advisor. Dr. B. also won a departmental award for excellence in undergraduate teaching, which he has already won several times.

Me and Ben, all dressed up in our regalia.

Running Free

Last Saturday I tried something new: running without wearing my stopwatch. I had heard of people doing this for a change of pace (heehee, no pun intended) as a way to just enjoy a run, so I thought I'd give it a try. It was actually quite nice to just go out and run, and not be bound to the pace readout on my watch. To gauge my effort, I imagined a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) scale and tried to keep the effort in the "somewhat hard" range (it was a easy run day, so I wasn't really concerned about pushing it too hard). I did the same thing yesterday, so I think that I may try running like this once a week.