Training for a Marathon is Hard

Okay so I know this deserves a big fat Duh. Of course it is. But I managed to romanticize my training in the past so much that I forgot that it can really suck. Today I did a 9 mile run. There was a time this would not have been a big deal but it sure felt like one today. I haven't run this far in over a year and a half (pre-injury). It was brutal. I was exhausted and spent a good half mile struggling with basic math to make sure I got the right mileage. My legs were tight and I had a side cramp, but I didn't break stride and tried to keep my mind detached. I guess those are the keys. At some point, your body just takes over and all you can do is keep willing it.
Next week is the 10 miler, we'll see how it goes.

Badger Girl Goes to the Continent

Ashley and I bought are tickets today. Europe, here we come! Well, actually on September 2: Paris, here we come!
We leave LA on September 2 and come back on September 18.
So far, we plan to fly in to Paris and meet Rebecca in Rome on September 7. We'll spend the next week in Italy and then head back to Paris to fly out.
So, I would like to begin soliciting for the following bits of advice:

-Ways to save money traveling, eating, and staying
-Places to stop on the way from Paris to Rome AND in Italy
-Things to do in Paris and Rome that don't cost very much money
-What type of luggage to take
-Any other pieces of advice

A Recent Fall

When I was running 2 weeks ago, I fell. Not stumble or trip, I quite literally hit the ground rolling. Luckily it was a dirt path, luckily I rolled into a ball and didn't try to brace myself. I ended up with only a scraped knee, a sore shoulder and hip, and an incredibly bruised ego. The good thing was I realized I could survive a good tumble.

Since then I have been anticipating the fall. I can picture myself tripping while walking, running, or crashing off my bike. In my mind, it's like the typical comic fall. One minute up, then next minute flat on my face, laugh track plays.

Of course I have been pondering the meaning of this because that's what I do. I realized today as the anxiety and stress completely overwhelmed for the nth time this quarter, then I feel like I am falling all of the time. My life has felt like one big crash. As with the running tumble, I realize I can survive it.

In the lecture for which I teach, we had a guest speaker. We were looking at an amazing play, Riviera's Cloud Tectonics. The play deals with diaspora and trauma associated with settling. One of the characters is pregnant and she has come to America and is trying to settle (which is such a simplification of the play totally ignoring its brilliant manipulation of time conventions), but where I am going with this is that the speaker said as we try to settle in our lives, we are all pregnant. We are pregnant with possibilities and its very traumatic to uproot and then find a place to settle and sort out all these possibilities. I have been pondering this as I ponder how the heck I ended up here (in California) and what I am doing (getting my PhD). I look out with watery eyes from reading so much in so little time and I see a palm tree and I think: What is going on? How did I end up here?

So I'm traumatized and pregnant, basically.

This will be a good quiz to see who actually reads this closely and who skims.

I do feel traumatized but I don't know if it's the stupid quarter system, the classes I am taking, the surrealness of being of running outside in a T-shirt and shorts while my friends and family are dealing with seriously sub-zero weather.

And I am not pregnant but the possibilities are slightly overwhelming. What am I supposed to be studying? What does that mean? What classes do I take? What exactly am I going to argue in my presentation next week? When was the last performance of the Chester Mystery Cycles? Is 1604 still Medieval?

And thus ends my rant. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little better.

The Cake You Can Have and Eat it Too

Now that is kind of a dumb saying, isn't it? If you have your cake, why wouldn't you eat it?

So I am not going to Prague. It was not in the stars for me. OSU would have charged me out of state tuition which put the trip way out of my league. Though I was initially disappointed, I have come up with an alternative that may supercede the original. Badger Girl Goes to the Continent With Friends!

I am hitting up Europe with Ashley and Becca. Ashley and I will head out a week or so (depending on our anxieties in the moment, the so has been known to extend) early and then meet up with Becca in Rome for a week of exploring Italy and possibly Switzerland. Details are vague but they involve Paris, Italy, Germany, and whatever else may come.

Next week Ashley and I are going to buy tickets. Then the joy of planning. Which is actually not sarcastic at all, planning is sometimes the best part. :) Particulary in the early stages when the sky and not my purse is the limit

Today I down loaded a Learn Italian podcast. Originally I intended to listen to it while I ran. Today I was the crazy lady speaking Italian so I may limit the lessons to when I am in the privacy of my own home. We'll see though. As a graduate student, I feel justified in exercising my right to eccentricities.

.

I also promised cake. Here is a great recipe which cuts down fat per serving from 12 grams to a meager 1.9.

1 box of chocolate cake mix
3/4 cup fat free or lowfat vanilla yogurt
3/4 cup of room temperature coffee or water
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of an egg substitute

Mix it all together. Pour into loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 4o minutes. Let cool 4o minutes before removing from pan.

It's the best cake I have ever made. Enjoy. :)