It's the little things that make me productive (hopefully)

Yeah I know, I need to post about my half, and yes other fun/awesome/super interesting things as well. It'll happen soon enough. What I really want to do now is mention some little things that have happened the last few days that make me hopeful that my complete lack of progress at work (oh hi conference presentation in 2 weeks) will turn around. Little good things make for good days and research gets done on good days. right?

I went shopping Monday and bought two pairs of shorts, two skirts, and a pair of jean capris. Probably the first time in a LONG time that I focused on bottoms and got it done. Am I happy with my waistline? no. Do I need to wear bottoms in the summer? yes. So I went shopping and you know, they don't look too bad. First time in Ann Taylor LOFT and it felt great to step out of the gap/banana republic world. I'm even hopeful that between LOFT and Ann Taylor I might find a source of new long length jeans (but they don't carry 'em in stores so poo poo). Oh yeah I should mention, I'm 5'10" aka 32" inseam ain't gunna cut it.

I also busted into a NY&C yesterday after work with hopes of wrapping up the summer bottoms wishlist by buy a pair of linen or cargo capris. No dice, however the sale section did have work pants and TALL ones. I bought a pair because they were 14 dollars (originally 50). They don't 'fit' per say... well truth is a size up was legit big, and this was just a wee bit too tight. Consider it motivation??

And one last purchase. I've been on the hunt for running shorts because I've finally accepted that too hot for capri pants. I'm having a hard time finding cheap shorts with actual slits in the leg holes not this fake seaming/mesh deal. I don't understand how you run in them! I tried on a few and while moving my legs around it starts pulling in my thighs. Yuck. Well I want to run and I need shorts, so into Champs I go and I bought two pairs of booty running shorts. Let me repeat that, booty running shorts. I broke them in this morning and I realized a few things:
a) my butt looks pretty good in 'em
b) they ride up a little but no front wedgie and my butt didn't fall out
c) I don't give an F what I look like cause it was crazy hot/humid and any person that looks at me is probably too busy thinking about how much of an idiot I am being outside in this heat to bother noticing the shorts.

And with all this buying there's one last good news... I found 20 dollars in the Wegmans parking lot. WOOHOO!

So on to productive research?

Lots of Little Victories!

OK so this post comes to you at a time when I'm feeling pretty awesome. The last post was a bit low, I know that, but really this up and down is how I've been feeling lately so let's just roll with it. I think it might be part of getting used to a change in lifestyle and outlook. Sometimes there's bliss and you're on cloud nine and sometimes there's doubt and fear that it's not going to last (or worse yet that you're just fooling yourself).

In the spirit of being happy I'm going to list a few things that have happened in the last few weeks that definitely fall into my be active goals. I also thought it'd be nice to add a little 'why it makes me feel good' to the end of each.

- While out for a run, a 40-something year old man caught up to me as I was waiting for a stop light to change. He had been behind me for a while and as he ran by he said "Great pace!". I l-o-v-e runners. Even the fast ones aren't nearly as scary and 'holier than thou' as I thought they'd be.

- The BF finally got me out on his old road bike and we went for a 40 minute easy ride around the neighborhood. The bike seems to fit well and we're hopeful with a few tweaks that I can call it my temporary bike baby. Cycling is a passion for my BF and I'm so excited to get the chance to share it with him.

- I was in DC visiting both MD Senators and 5 MD Congressman on 4/7, aka the day before the possible government shutdown. It was pure luck as the trip was scheduled months ahead of time. I was there with a group of scientists asking our representatives to recognize the importance of basic science research and to continue to make funding it a priority. Having the chance to be a part of history is pretty overwhelming.

- I have logged my running miles onto the social site DailyMile for the last year-ish but just recently I've started to branch out and use it for the social connection with other runners. Friend requesting random people who seem to have similar goals or who are just plain inspiring has been really fun! Plus I think I mentioned already but I l-o-v-e runners.

- OK this is something happening tomorrow but it still counts. Tomorrow I get to go to my very first O's game since living in MD (and I've been here 5.5 years). It's something I've wanted to do for a while and as an added bonus they're playing the Twins (the BF is from MN and that's where my dad lives!). It was the BF's suggestion and I gotta say it will never get old having a significant other who wants to be active/social/adventurous.

- And as a final woohoo me I'll go back to running. Just yesterday I ran 3.05 miles at a 8:17 min/mile pace. I'm SO CLOSE to my new goal of 8 min/miles for short runs. It's incredible! I now go out for 'easy' runs which are 9:30-9:45 min/miles 2-3 miles total just to warm up the legs and have a post run stretching session.

Here's to hoping the next few weeks bring equally big smiles to my face. :-D

Being Active

I go back and forth with how best (and honestly) to answer this question... How active am I? Truly I can't be that bad. I like to see my friends, I like to be outside on nice days, I like to be in shape, and I like to be in new environments. Lately though, I dunno, I'm not really being active but I'm having this really big hurt for it. I think I need to prove to myself that either a) I'm active and underestimating it or b) I'm not active and I need to step up by game.

So let's see how things go.

Here's a big one. Running. I'm training for my third half marathon (May 7th) and so far so good. I'm hitting the mileage. I'm also speeding up. I have no idea how but I've shaved a minute off my mile time since training last fall. Actually it started with wanting to maintain the 9:00 mile pace for 2 miles. I did it right away. Turns out that big challenge was something I actually could do all along. OK so this means it's possible to get my ultimate goal, a sub 2 hour finish. My god would that be sweet.

I do digress though. The point of bringing up running is that I'm doing it, I'm liking it, and yet I'm not feeling 'active'. It's probably a bunch of running blogs that I've been reading lately. People training for this ultra event or that tri or just overall putting in 8-10 milers because that's just what they do to clear their heads. It makes me and my 9:00 mile seem... lazy. And I hate to say that because this is a huge accomplishment for me. I'm not an athlete with crazy training schedules and self identity tied to the sport. I guess I just sort of see high mileage that is ever so easily thrown into every day life as something to be envied. That's being active. May someday I can get there.

Of course it all makes me want to speed up too (8:30 for 2 miles anyone?)