You've probably assumed I've forgotten about you by now. I assure you that is not the case. I'm sure you remember me talking about how the semester was going so slow and I had nothing to do. I wish that were still the case. The past few weeks have snowballed into an avalanche of work. While it's easy to assume that is due to procrastination, it isn't.
In one particular class, our final project was just assigned on Wednesday. We've known about the project the entire semester. The necessary material to begin the project was not posted until Wednesday. This isn't the first time a professor has warned my peers and me about the work involved in the final project. "Be sure you start this early, because it's a lot of work," they say. We inquire about it all semester and they say, "it's not ready yet." Then we get minimal time to complete it. Yay, engineering school.
Outside of that project, and subsequent report, I have a presentation and my Capstone report. This capstone report is the biggest thing I have to do and in the end, it's likely to breach 50+ pages. It's due on Thursday.
My knee is mostly all better. I took good care of it while it was an open wound and have been able to walk on it just fine for a few weeks. The fall I experienced, on October 11th, was a mini-trauma. As my dad would say, it made me "gun shy." I was hesitant to run again, because I didn't want to fall again. Sure, it didn't hurt that bad, but it was a major annoyance. And I fell so easily, it seemed probable to happen again. That combined with the amount of school work I've accumulated recently has been why I haven't run since that day...well, until today.
I'm working on this major report, and after I spend a few hours on it, I like to take a little break. This morning, I decided to spend that break getting back into running. While I'm well aware that my free time in the coming 12 days is limited, I decided to start back while I can. I can't be afraid forever.
If I'm not honest here, there's really no point. This blog was originally created to keep me in check. If I'm lying to my audience, I'm failing. So, I'll be honest and say I haven't lost much weight since October 11th. I've lost maybe four pounds, but I haven't gained any weight. While I'm disappointed in myself for taking an extended hiatus, I am proud of the fact that I was able to maintain my weight and not balloon back up. This raises my confidence that I'll be able to maintain my weight once I achieve my goal. I really don't want to pull a Kirstie Alley.
Knowing that I hadn't run in over a month, I assumed running would be harder than I remember. I went back to an earlier week in the C25k program. As it's been quite cold outside, I bundled up.
As luck would have it, the app didn't work properly. I did the warmup walk and thought the first run should have started. I looked at my phone and sure enough, it began 30 seconds ago! The alerts weren't working at all. So, I did the only thing I could and ran until I couldn't run any more, then walked. Rinse, repeat.
My heart rate was higher than I was used to. My body has been sitting in chairs typing programs and papers. I will say, though, getting active again feels pretty great. My calves are so sore right now, but it's worth it.
I have my father's company's Christmas party to attend tomorrow, and I'm quite looking forward to it. It'll be a nice break with some great people. Too bad all of my other time is being spent in Microsoft Word. On the upside, I do graduate in 13 days. It seems kind of unreal, that the end is finally here. Well, I call it the end, but I do begin Graduate school in January. Hopefully for just one year, though.
Outside of school, things have been pretty great. I'm making fantastic friendships and still being as sociable as possible with my existing friends. Christmas break will be a blessing.
I'm sorry for abandoning you! It was not a conscious decision, but just sort of happened. I hope to be posting regularly again soon. Thanks for reading!
Remember back on August 31st, when I said the following:
"I'm guessing that once things get going, it's going to go ludicrous speed, and then I'll likely be complaining about having so much to do."
Well, that time is now. I have been insanely busy for the past couple of weeks. If I can remember correctly, I've pulled four all-nighters in that time.
The past two weekends, I have gone out of town on trips that have been planned for months. Those trips left me no weekend time to work on school related items. My weeks have been busy and I've run as often as I could.
Last Tuesday, October 4th, I had a research paper and two homeworks due as well as my first exam in my Computer Design class. With the vague prompt and busyness of other classes, I had not made a whole lot of progress by the weekend before. I spent a few hours in Starbucks gathering research and trying to decide what exactly I would write about. I saved about 20 PDFs from IEEE's Xplore database on the digital chips inside various cell phones. I had a lot of data and no focus.
I came back from my out-of-town trip knowing that I would need to complete everything in a marathon session on Monday. My plan was to get a good amount of sleep on Sunday night, wake up on Monday, and keep working until everything was done, even if that meant not sleeping Monday night. That's what I did. I cranked out 9 pages of research paper and headed to Starbucks to grab some coffee and knock out the homework.
Starbucks has become a great study place for me. I enjoy their bold coffees-of-the-day and their breakfast sandwiches are both delicious and somewhat nutritious. The atmosphere is mostly quiet, yet casual and comfortable. The only exception being a couple of weeks ago when a kid behind me was saying ridiculous things, which is a story I'll tell later. Being a Starbucks Gold member (yeah, yeah...) I get free refills, so it's just value all around.
I drank two cups of coffee and upon receiving my second refill, the barista asked me if I wanted a free breakfast sandwich. I grubbed on that and wrapped up my two homeworks around 1:00pm. My test was to be at 4pm. I headed back to my apartment to print everything and get some study time in. The test was open book, notes, and laptop, so not much studying was needed. After completing the test, I feel like I did very well. Due to WKU and UofL's fall breaks being offset, I haven't had class since. I hope to get my test back tomorrow in class.
Now, rewind to the week prior. I had run on Monday and figured out that the St. James Art Fair was incoming. I never blogged about Wednesday's run. I don't remember too much about it, but I do remember what I mainly wanted to talk about. As I ran around/through Central Park, I saw many more trailers and tents. The funniest thing I saw were brand new shrubs and flowers everywhere. I've been running through Central Park for a couple months now and the floral decor had never been manicured. As soon as thousands of people come to Louisville for this major art fair, they get on it. It just humored me.
Continuing on to the following Saturday. (I realize I'm jumping around a lot, but my brain is all scattered right now for various reasons. Bear with me here.) This was the morning I was to head out of town. I didn't get the chance to run on that Friday, so I decided to head out for an early morning run on Saturday...5:15am early. This was my earliest run yet, by far.
I believe it was a pretty cool morning. I wore my new cold weather running jacket for the first and only time. Kentucky weather is absurd and has been in the high 80s into October, after getting into the mid 50s in September. I headed out for my normal route, assuming that the Central Park area would be okay to run through. As soon as I got to the Southwest corner of the park, there were two cops in their cars with barricades blocking the street. I ran on through, on the sidewalk.
This time, as opposed to Wednesday, there were trailers and tents everywhere! Side by side along every street. As I ran, I passed about 10 porta-potties in a row. I had a brief thought about someone coming out of one as I ran by and just slamming me in the face with the door. For the next two seconds, I ran more cautiously. I passed more and more cops, but they didn't seem concerned with me. I wasn't looking at them for approval, but running by assuming they would get my attention if need be. They never stopped me, so I kept running.
I made my way to Third St. and ran South as normal. The street was lined with white tents, and I was running on the sidewalk behind them. Occasionally, there would be power cords that I would have to dodge or a random trash can that isn't usually there. It was dark, and I had to be more aware of what was in front of me. I eventually made it past all of the art fair stuff and back to my apartment. It was a nice, refreshing run overall.
Fast forward to yesterday. I just got back from being out of town in Nashville and settled in. I had some plans for the evening, so I decided to get a run in mid-afternoon. I stretched and headed out around 3pm. I followed my usual route. I felt unusually tired throughout the first run. I chalked it up to a long weekend and pushed through it. I admired all of the fallen leaves of various fall colors.
I made it around the tennis courts and up the hill towards the police station. The one minute left bell had rung about 30 seconds prior when my right toe jammed into some raised concrete and I went down - hard. I landed on my palms and my knees, but mostly on my right side. I rolled over just after impact and laid out, spread eagle, for maybe one second. I got up, grabbed my hat that had flown off, and continued running. None of the five people that were around me stopped to see if I was okay or said anything at all.
I ran past them and the run over bell rang. I continued running for about 15 seconds, since I had lost all that running time falling. As I began walking, I looked down at my right knee, and saw something a lot worse than I had expected. My knee was all black and purple and there was about a 3"x6" spot of bright red blood. It looked really bad - a lot worse than it felt. I looked down at my right hand which had gotten eaten up by the rocks it landed on.
I put a lot of consideration into continuing with the running program. The longer I walked and gazed down at my knee, the more I decided that it was probably better for me to not run on it. Thus, I began my one mile walk home. I rolled up my shorts so they wouldn't get bloody. Everyone I passed on the sidewalk looked at my face, then down to my knee, and back up to my face. I simply smiled. It didn't hurt - yet.
I made it back to my apartment and the first thing I did was take a picture of it and send it to my mom. After that, I sat on the side of the bath tub and cleaned it with water and hydrogen peroxide. I applied Neosporin, bandaged it up, and headed out for my previously planned activities. Walking proved to be a challenge, but I just had to take it slow.
I slept with the bandage on last night and removed it this morning to clean it again and let it get some air. I plan on cleaning it before going to bed and applying the bandage again. I've been doing a lot of household chores like laundry and dishes, while writing this blog post, and the constant bending and straightening of my knee is somewhat painful.
At this point, I really don't know when I'll be able to run again, and I hate that. I'll just take care of it to the best of my ability and try to make some judgement calls. In the meantime, I may write some blog posts about non-running things. From my last post's list of things to discuss, I've covered everything but the doctor's visit and some of the Starbucks stuff. As this post is long enough already, I'll leave those topics for a later post.
Below are some pictures of my wounds. For those of you who can't stand the sight of blood or injury, stop here!
The first four pictures are from as soon as I got back to my apartment. The last picture is from after I removed the bandages this afternoon.
Since I missed so many songs-of-the-run, I want to include a special one here, in video form. Death Cab for Cutie is my favorite band and this song is the last on their new album Codes and Keys. The song is called Stay Young Go Dancing and the music video is pretty awesome, in my opinion.
I am sorry. I realize that I have not posted since Monday. I can assure you, though, this does not mean that I did not run. School has gotten crazy busy and I've been doing well to stay caught up. I'm going out of town, on a pre-planned trip, as soon as I submit this post. I have a research paper, two homeworks, and a test on Tuesday of next week...all for the same class.
I ran Wednesday but did not get to run on Friday. I was at the doctor's office and Starbucks most of the day, learning at each place. Starbucks has become a go to study/get work done place for me.
I was sad that I did not get to run Friday, and I really wanted to get that third run of the week in. I decided to do it early this morning. I went out for a run at 5:15am on a Saturday morning. I'll tell you all about it and more after this Tuesday.
Here's a reminder list for me to talk about:
Wednesday's run
Keeping up appearances
Starbucks
Studying
Kid on the phone behind me (this one's good)
Regulars
Yukon
Friday - Doctor and Starbucks
Saturday morning run
Cops
White tents
Obstacles
Porta-potties
St. James Art Fair
I believe that's it. I'm doubting that I'll be able to post on Monday, as I'll be doing research on DSPs and Microcontrollers in cell/smart phones.
Well, today has been an interesting day. I had my first exam of the semester at 5:30pm today. The form of the test was open note, book, internet, etc. There is no such thing as preparing for an exam like this. It's more of a thinking on the fly kind of test. This is my second class with this particular professor, and his teaching style is the exact same, so I know that I tend to perform well on these exams.
I got up today and went to Starbucks to grab some coffee and look over the notes and homework for another class. I've come a long way in regards to coffee. My first cup of coffee was at the lodge where we stay when we go to Kentucky Lake. I cannot recall the year, as my family goes there annually, but it was early 2000s for sure. That first cup, and a few more after, were more sugar and cream than coffee.
As I've gotten older, my coffee tastes have matured. I eventually grew to be able to drink it like my parents do: light cream and moderate amounts of Splenda. In the past couple of years, I've ventured out to drink bolder, more adventurous blends. Starbucks has been fundamental in my coffee maturation. I've made several barista "friends" at various locations. They have been more than helpful in teaching me various things about coffee.
Most recently, Starbucks re-released their Anniversary blend, which is very bold and spicy. Before I tried it, I could not place the spicy adjective in my mind as a taste for coffee. It was very evident once I drank it the first time. I liked it. I've ordered it, instead of their mild Pike Place, since. Today, they had replaced the Anniversary blend with the Italian Roast. Again, I ventured out and tried it. I really liked it as well. A great pre-test drink.
I headed to campus and met up with some friends/classmates. They too felt under-prepared, but also apathetic. There was no way to tell what would appear on that PDF in mere minutes, but regardless, we would give it our best. We made it to the classroom and sat down. The test appeared on Blackboard and we all began.
Fast forward 90 minutes. We met in the hall outside the classroom, post-test, and stared at each other with quizzical looks. None of us could regurgitate our answers precisely, but we had a feeling we performed well enough. I cleared my mind of the subject and headed home for a run.
Because winter is approaching, and I stayed on campus a little later than normal for a Monday, it was already dark by the time I got home. It was also kind of cold outside, so I wore one of my new running shirts, which is almost neon yellow. Great for a night run, eh? I thought so.
I huffed on my inhaler, did some stretches, and headed out.
I made it to Central Park and things were different. There was a Budweiser trailer with a folding chair next to it. I passed it and kept running. Next, I saw two funnel cake trailers and a corn dog trailer. There were also many canopies and various types of chairs. I'm guessing there is some kind of Fall Festival coming soon. As I wrote the previous sentence, I recalled the St. James Art Fair; it's the biggest, best, and worst art fair ever.
I looked it up, and sure enough, it begins this weekend. I could use up an entire blog post to rant about it. It's a truly awesome art fair, but living within two blocks of it makes for super annoying travel - similar to the 35 marathons/triathlons per year that require me to take a 20 minute detour to get anywhere I want to go in Louisville.
That might make for an interesting run on Friday.
I passed all the trailers and kept running. The park was dimly lit and the heavy amounts of rain we took last night made for several muddy places that I had to try to avoid in the dark. UofL actually delayed classes this morning, due to flooding. It's become a rather common occurrence. I passed the busy tennis courts and ran through the police station (there's a little archway to go through in the middle of it).
My speed slowed on the way back to my apartment due to the condition of the sidewalks. They were poorly planned and many of them have trees growing up through them. The tree roots have caused much rigid undulation in the concrete, which is rather easy to avoid in daylight. When I approached a tree tonight, I had to slow down a little bit to ensure that I didn't trip and faceplant.
Overall, the run went rather well. I had a little difficulty breathing towards the end of the last run, but not too bad. My run pace average was better than any week 5 day 2 pace yet, so I'm making progress. My walking pace was the fastest of any run yet. Improvement feels good.
Now, onto some homework. This week is the busiest of the semester yet and a research paper due next week is providing a lot of that busyness. I'll knock it out in the coming days, like I always do.
The song of the run is one of my favorites to listen to, quite loudly, while driving. It's Phoenix - Love Like a Sunset. There are too many good things about this song for me to describe, so just listen to it for yourself.
This is going to be super short. I'm already missing out on birthday festivities for a friend.
I ran again today. I still want to get comfortable running the two 8 min runs before I move onto the 20 min run. It will probably be another week at least. I'm still pushing myself with what I'm doing.
I wasn't really excited about running, which is funny because yesterday, I really wanted to run. Taking a day off, at this stage in my fitness level, I feel is imperative. I took my drugs and my inhaler and headed out.
It wasn't a very good run. I felt tired and lacking energy. I wasn't breathing as well as I had last time. Regardless, I pushed on. It was not a bad run though, just not as good as I would have liked.
I hope the next run is better. Now off to a birthday party!
The song of the run was quite surprising. I put this song on my playlist about 3 weeks ago and it hadn't played yet. It's from a German band formed in the late 80's. The particular song is off their album Neon Golden (2002). It's The Notwist - Off the Rails. It's quite different from anything else I've ever listened to, but I really like it.
It feels like it's been forever since I've run. My last run was on Friday and a lot has happened since then. I had a full day Saturday, with friends. Sunday, I met an awesome new friend for lunch, who happened to be in Louisville. After that I drove home, to Owensboro, for a family gathering/remembrance. Monday, I attended a funeral, for my cousin Rob, ate dinner with family, completed my homework, and prepared to return to Louisville on Tuesday morning.
Rob had battled some vicious cancer for the past three years. It invaded nearly his entire body, and he had a leg amputated a few months ago. He fought, and fought hard, for a long time. He ended up in the hospital, again, and the doctors gave him 2-3 days to live. He fought for another two weeks.
I, sadly, was not as close to Rob as I would have like to have been. Each of my parents are the youngest of their siblings, and I am their youngest. Naturally, this led me to being the youngest of all the cousins in my generation. Rob was 17 years old when I was born. I was never really given the chance to be around him. My family lived all over the eastern US for the first 7 years of my life. By the time we had moved to Owensboro, my generation had all gotten married and started their own families.
I truly wish I had gotten to know him better. I can only remember being with him five times; only two of those in the past seven years. The one thing I vividly remember about those five times is smiling, a lot. He's definitely one of the greatest people I've ever met and he could make anyone smile.
It seemed like everyone knew him. As I grew up, I would learn about my own teachers, who played baseball or football with him. Others I met had dated him or just generally adored him. He was just that kind of guy. I've never heard a bad word spoken about him. Monday, at the visitation and funeral, I saw several people I never would have guessed I would see there. They too were surprised that he was my cousin.
I have never laughed more at a funeral than at Rob's and I'm sure he would have it no other way. Rather than a sorrowful sadfest, it truly was a celebration of his life. Many stories were told and many laughs were had. We're all sad to see him gone, but happy that he's no longer suffering.
On Tuesday, I drove back to Louisville and went to my two classes. I hung out with friends afterward and just tried to relax. Today, I went to class at 5:30, for no apparent reason. We have a test in that class on Monday, so the professor didn't want to introduce any new material. That, I thank him for. Instead, he walked around to the various students in the class to see if we had any questions about any of the material or our projects. Neither my team nor I did, but we were unsure if he would review for the test afterward. He didn't. I sat in the classroom for 90 minutes to say, "No, no questions right now."
I left and decided to go for a run when I got home. I have some simple homework due tomorrow at 4pm and some stuff to do around my apartment, but it was a good time for a run. I decided to do week 5 day 2 again - the two 8 minute runs. It was't so bad last Friday, but having not run since, I was semi-worried. I puffed (?) my inhaler before getting ready, to allow it time to work.
I got ready and headed out.
By this time, it was nearing 7:30pm. With the days getting shorter, the sun had nearly set. Another night run, eh? Luckily, the weather was nice. Since I'm not an idiot, and I don't run on the roads, I wasn't worried about car visibility in the least. If there's one thing I am, it's observant. Some people say, "It's not you I'm worried about, it's all the others." I get that, but if I know where all the others are and where they're going, I'm safe.
The first run wasn't too bad. I had some slight issues where people walking on the sidewalks, with or without dogs, would be unaware of my existence - even if they were walking towards me. Common courtesy would be to make room for oncoming people. People walking 4-wide down a sidewalk should collapse to allow others to pass. Sadly, most people today are not courteous.
As I passed the tennis courts, several games were going on. No offense to the people playing, but I can see now why the pros are good. I haven't played more than maybe an hour, but I know - tennis is hard.
The walk came at just about the right time and I used it to breathe. I could breathe easier during the first run than normal, but walking breaths are always superior. As the last run approached, I tried to get one last good breath. The run came and I ran. With these longer runs, I'm covering more distance now than before. I have to take longer routes back to my apartment so I don't get there too early. It's new scenery, and I like it.
I run with my mouth open, which I feel is normal, but I just wanted to clarify. More than once tonight, I would be running along then suddenly feel something weird in my mouth. I've gotten into the habit of chewing gum as I run to promote keeping my mouth wet. This was not gum I was feeling. I spat it out. It happened again, but this time I felt it hit initially. I could tell it was a bug. Eww. Now, I'm not scared of bugs or anything, but I'd really prefer that they stay out of my body.
The last run was going well. Towards the end, though, I was getting tired. Getting so used to running then not being able to for a few days makes coming back rough. I did it though. I pushed myself until the end.
I got back to the apartment, showered and stepped on the scale. I hadn't weighed in a few days and I was eager to see the results. 278.8lbs. That makes for 36.8lbs lost since the end of June, while basically taking August off. There's a lot more to go, but I'll take it.
When I got home from class today, I stepped on the scale, fully dressed and carrying my backpack containing textbooks and my laptop. I wanted to see that weight. As it ends up, I weigh less now, with all that in my backpack and on my back, than I did when I started this journey. I took the backpack off and just held it in one hand. Knowing that I've lost more weight than it weighs is astonishing to me.
I'm unsure of when I'll run again. I plan on it being sooner than later, but with school getting busier with homeworks, tests, projects, and a research paper, it's hard. I'm hoping it's Friday. We'll see.
The song of the run is City and Colour - What Makes a Man. I'm continually amazed by Dallas Green's voice and musical talent in general. He could sing literally anything and it would sound so good. I hope you enjoy it!
I intend for this to be a short post. I have things to do!
I called Dr. K yesterday, upon taking my last dose of Singulair, to discuss a refill and the other drugs we talked about. She had left the office already. I left a message and was to expect her call sometime today. I missed her call, due to not being in the room with my phone (that rarely ever happens) and she left me a 1 min 47 sec long voicemail.
She was basically making assumptions based off what the receptionist had taken down as my message, and, while I'm glad she was thorough, her concerns were void. The receptionist must have forgotten to add the part where I said the Singulair was helping. Dr. K was worried about cramming all of these drugs into me just to see if it works. She considered that my problems are cardiac related.
I called her back upon listening to her voicemail. I had to wait on hold for about 12 mins, but I was glad to actually be able to speak to her personally. I informed her that the Singulair was working, and I could hear her feint sigh of relief over the phone. She was glad to hear that and glad that her cardiac concerns were no longer in the forefront.
She told me she would call in prescriptions for Singulair, Flonase, and Ventolin HFA (Albuterol). After hanging up with her, I heavily debated going back to sleep. I feel like I'm on a 3rd shift sleeping schedule. It's the worst. I got in bed, under the covers, then talked myself out of it. I had to get my drugs, run, and prepare for the night.
I went to Walgreens and dropped $76 in approximately 3 minutes.
I returned to my apartment, drugged up and prepared for today's run. The two 8 minute runs had me worried, but I was determined to give it a shot.
I headed out and it was pretty windy. Running into the wind isn't as easy as you would think, especially with as much surface area as I currently have.
I just kept running and running. The first run wasn't all that bad. I walked for 5 minutes then started the second. I was on my way back towards my apartment, but I knew with the longer run, I could easily get there before the run was over. The light being red on Hill St. helped to detour me eastward. I meandered around Old Louisville for a couple of minutes, then made my way back towards my apartment.
I was breathing a lot better today. The last run was rough on my legs, but I wasn't having too much trouble breathing. This run certainly pushed me though, and I'll probably do it again before going to that 20 minute run.
The song of the run was Death Cab for Cute - Marching Band of Manhattan. Again, my favorite band. A great song to cooldown to.
