In which Physicsgirl is not chased by cheetahs...

I ran my second 5k race today: the Oasis ZooRun at (you guessed it) the Toronto Zoo. I'm all impressed with myself: I got up on time, ate a sufficient breakfast, left on time, made all of my transit connections, and even arrived at the Zoo a little earlier than I thought I would. And once again, I made it through the entire 5k without throwing up!

(Too bad I hadn't done any training since the Run for the Cure, two weeks ago. I'm less impressed with that. Never mind.)

Most impressive? My time: 26.21. Third in my age class, 16th woman, 87th overall out of about 1000 runners. Yeah, baby.

(Okay, so maybe I was third because all the serious runners were doing the 10k run. And now I'm obsessing about how well I would have done if I'd done my tempo and speed runs, but as I said, never mind.)

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride...

So Sunday I ran my first 5k, a whole two weeks earlier than I originally planned (or trained for). One of my coworkers asked me about joining the The CIBC Run for the Cure with some other teachers -- geez, you coach the cross country team for a few years and start a running club and suddenly everyone thinks you're a runner.

Anyway, my favourite part of the run was discovering just how many pink things people are willing to clothe themselves in: I saw pink wigs, pink leis, pink boas, pink ties (and as I write that I realize that there was an opportunity missed!), pink shirts, pink bras (on the outside, naturally), and a pink superhero. I also liked the guy who wrote that he was running for "Boobs everywhere: I love them!"

Now, I had been training fairly diligently up until two weeks ago, when I stopped training quite so diligently. In fact, the most training I have

And so it ends... mostly.

Today is the last official day of my leave by my reckoning -- leaving out the fact that I've already received my first 100% pay for this year (and very nice that was!), plus the fact that I was required to go to school last Wednesday morning (and then on to the ACC for a rah-rah rally), tomorrow is when this lovely year of mostly waking up when I wanted to, doing what I wanted to, going where I wanted to... ends.

But the blog won't. First of all, I need to catch up on my tales of my trip. Plus the tales of my being a tourist in Toronto, which I have made a small start on. I will be adding those retroactively. I've also got some projects planned that I may document here.

So this blog hasn't heard the last of me.

Be afraid.

Run Away! Run Away!

Because I am slightly insane, I registered to run a 5K race October 16.  This one, in fact.  I actually registered a few weeks ago and have spent that time saying "Huh, I should, like, train or something."

Well today, I started.  Yay me!  I haven't done any running since the last time I coached cross country.  Which was two years ago.  So I need to start from the beginning, and I have several "learn to run" plans pulled from various magazines and websites.  They all pretty much start off with "walk some, jog some," gradually increasing the amount of running time, and I put a bunch of them together for the plan that I follow with my "learn to run" students.  This is the plan I will follow for the next month.

Or so I thought.

The problem with interval training is that I never pay enough attention to the time and so miss the running/walking changes.  To solve this, several years ago I  made some mp3s with the different running programs on them;  now I'll be walking quickly, listening to Great Big Sea's Ordinary Day, and then I'll hear me saying "Jog for 2 minutes!" at the right time.  Genius, no?  This morning I set off, mp3s loaded, expecting to hear a 1 minute walk/jog cycle.  I didn't.  I heard a 2 minute jog, 1 minute walk cycle.  Which was unexpected, but I went with it anyway.  Except that I don't know what program I'm following now.  Oh well.  At least I'm running.  And I will continue running, right?

Maybe we could get something to chase me.

Click here if you would like to pledge some money in my name.  It all goes to the Toronto Zoo.

Storm before the calm...

I've been very busy with summer school and catching up on North American tv, so I haven't been working on my pictures or updating my European blog posts. Aged P is impatient. However, summer school finishes next week, so I will try to get my Provence and Paris museum week pix up Real Soon, with the rest to follow In The Near Future.

Meanwhile, I've been casting about for something to do with the rest of the summer. With my unexpectedly depleted bank account, due to the fact that I apparently had a leetle too much fun in Paris, and frankly because I'm not really fond of the travelling part of travel, any "foreign" adventuring this summer must be somewhat curtailed. I've decided, though, that I will still go visit a great city, and it won't cost me a dime.

I'm going to play tourist in Toronto.

...Win Some

As I was unpacking and sorting out my European loot, including the gifts for my family, I was struck by how little there seemed to be. Honestly, I thought I bought more stuff than that! And my suitcase kept gaining weight! Who knew how heavy nothing could be?

Anyway, I believe I have mentioned my slight addiction to earrings, and how I was going to feed it during my travels. Well, I didn't limit myself only to earrings, I have to admit. But earrings I got.

Before I get to the jewellery haul, I'd like to comment on how the jewellery roll worked out. It was great, although the mesh strips were still too long, or at least the fabric supporting them was not stiff enough because they drooped and the earrings kept getting tangled up. Also, the stuff sticking out the sides wasn't actually a problem. Yay, me!

Lose Some...

Casualties of travel:

1. The big red friggin' heavy suitcase: Used to have one of those clips at the top that would let you attach another bag. That seemed to have not made the flight over to Amsterdam. My admittedly old plastic Canada luggage tag didn't survive the flight from Athens to London. Flying is not good for things sticking to your luggage!

2. The collapsible red bag: Got a small tear in the front pocket on the flight from Athens to London -- nothing serious; I think it can be patched. Got a much larger tear in the side mesh pocket that can't be repaired. And now, when I tried to collapse it, I couldn't get the zipper to catch.  Oops.