Long overdue, but brief update...more to come when my eyelids aren't quite so heavy!

You know what might be the most awful sound in the whole entire world?  The alarm clock at 4:30 in the morning.  Unfortunately, I am greeted with that excruciatingly painful noise all too often these days.  It’d be different if I could actually get my bum in bed by, say 8-8:30ish every night, but that’s just highly unrealistic.  To top it off, I get up that early to head to a “job” I’m not entirely crazy about.  And by job, I mean unpaid, 40-hour-per-week internship.  I think after I finish this first rotation (management), I will enjoy the process a lot more, but management of a hospital kitchen is just not high on my list of future employment possibilities.  Thankfully, I’m beginning to really enjoy my co-workers, and I do get fed delicious food on a regular basis.  For example, today while working in the bakery, I was fed a hot, fresh-baked biscuit for breakfast, chocolate chip cookies, and pasta salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing made by one of the chefs.  Then, while passing by the chefs’ work station, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to “taste-test” the pork loin and chicken and dumplings.  Needless to say, it’s a good thing the miles are picking up for me, or we’d have a problem.  Although I do enjoy the people I’ve had the opportunity to work with these past few weeks, I am still counting down the days until this rotation is over….after this week, I’m 5 weeks down and only 4 more to go.  Then I move on to my community rotation, which is my passion.  I’m very excited.  Especially for the 4:30 AM noise to go away.

My poor pup has a cold.  He makes this awful wheezing sound and then phlegm or something of the sort hangs out of his mouth afterwards.  He’s special.  His immune system may be a bit battered due to the increasing number of miles he’s been running.  Sometimes he gets big doubles in, with Scott taking him out for 12+miles in the AM and me taking him out for 8-10 miles after I finish work for the day.  He’s fit, but a bit snotty right now.  I think he just needs a few recovery days to kick this bug in the butt and he’ll be hitting the roads again.  He loves to run so much, though, that he is hard to handle when he’s not getting his daily run in.  He starts going crazy when I lace up my shoes and frantically starts searching for his leash.  Poor guy.  He didn’t even eat all of his food this morning.  But no worries, my severely overweight cat (who becomes very vocal and somewhat violent, what with the lunging at my toes every time I walk past, when his food dish is empty) has no problem finishing up Asher’s meals for him.

I can’t decide on a spring marathon, so that is still pending, but I am all signed up for the Rock n’ Roll half in Dallas at the end of March, so I guess at least I have a goal to get fit for that.  I did my first real workout in about 4 ½ months this evening, and while I’ll admit I have some work to do, I am pleased with where I’m at.  Not really knowing what to expect, but expecting it to feel somewhat tough, my goal was to run a 4 mile progressive run, starting around 6:45/mi and dropping 5 seconds per mile.  After that, I was going to assess how I was feeling, and if I were up to it, I would do 1 or 2 miles at my goal half-marathon pace.  Of course, for my first big planned workout in awhile, the wind had to be gusting 30 mph.  I love Oklahoma.  I did the workout on the Norman High track, and it was breezy, but do-able.  And my actual workout went something like this:  6:33, 6:25, 6:20, 6:15.  Then a jog to find a bathroom—hey, when your lunch break occurs at 10:30 AM, it’s tricky finding the optimal pre-workout refueling/snack time.  And then a mile in 6:07.  In a little over a month, I’m hoping to run a half-marathon at 6:10-6:15 pace.  I’m not in that shape yet, but after tonight, I think that goal is absolutely realistic.  I’m hoping all the training I did for Chicago will make the legs come back quickly after my forced rest period.  Overall, I felt better than expected this evening, especially with a week full of late nights and 4:30 wake-ups under my belt.  I’m optimistic and excited about my running again—finally!

I’ve been finding myself a wee bit homesick as of late.  I always expect myself to grow out of that, but I guess when you have a family as wonderful as mine, homesickness will probably never go away.  Add to that pretty amazing friends back home, and it’s the recipe for perpetual homesickness.  Anyway, I’ve recently begun plotting ways to see friends/my next trip home.  Unfortunately, I’m only allowed 3 vacay/personal days during my entire internship (9 months!), so this will be tricky.  Hopefully my parents will get the itch for warmer weather at least, and head down sometime this spring. J  In the meantime, I just need to do a better job of reconnecting with society here—I have some pretty wonderful friends around these parts, and darn it, I need to make an effort to hang out more often.  If only they will promise to not be offended if I fall asleep mid-hang out.  J

I’m looking forward to another weekend without an agenda—it will be weekend number 2 in a row like this, and I don’t see myself getting sick of it anytime soon.  And tomorrow, I may go look at some bikes—I’m seriously considering dabbling in some cycling and want to see what my options are.  Now if I could just make myself learn to swim, perhaps I could become a triathlete.  Until they make floaties legal, I guess I’m out.

Well, friends, it’s past 10pm, which means my brain stopped functioning, oh about 2 hours ago.  This update will have to do for now, but more to come!  Just had to let my mom (who may very well be the only person who actually reads this) know that I’m still kickin’. J