ARR Summer Series Race #1

Today Stacy and I ran the first race of the summer series put on by the Arizona Road Racers. We did the series last year and while it was hot and sometimes miserable, it was still fun. Plus, they have the best race shirts and the price is insanely cheap for five races. This race was at Papago Park and it was a GORGEOUS morning. After weeks of high 90s and up to 108*, we had a 66* morning with a cool breeze. I was feeling a bit discouraged because my running lately has been pretty sucky so I wasn't really looking forward to actually running.

But, the race went pretty well. My shins were a bit stiff and tight but didn't hurt or make my ankles tight. The last mile was tough because I was running faster than my cardiovascular fitness was ready for! Also, they did a staggered start where each age group started 30 seconds apart with the slowest ones going first. So from about the 1 mile mark to the end, I was constantly being passed by the faster people. It was actually quite demoralizing, especially when I was really struggling mentally and physically toward the end.

According to my GPS, I ran 3.13 miles at a 9:47 min/mile pace. Here's the breakdown:
Mile 1: 10:03
Mile 2:  9:43
Mile 3:  9:38 + .13: 9:17

I was very surprised because my legs felt like I was going much slower than that, especially the first mile. (I thought I probably was running around 10:40 that first mile.) Looks like I need to average just under 9:40/mile to break that 30 min mark. I'm not sure it's in the cards the rest of the season with the heat but we'll see! Stacy killed it - finished in 26 something. She's awesome!

Mission Accomplished!

It was a big job because I also dusted my bookshelves and reorganized my books, but it's done. I even updated my c.v.! Always nice to organize after the school year is over.

Before

After - Why does that bottom shelf look so crooked? I don't think it really is.

Blerg.

I'm not sure what's going on here. I've just been wiped out yesterday and today. Like seriously fatigued. I don't know if it's lingering effects from helping Andrea move all of those boxes or if I'm low on iron or what.

Tomorrow I'm running a 5K race - the first in the Arizona Road Racers summer series. The weather is going to be AWESOME and I'm bummed because my running is crap right now. I know if I was still running like I was at the beginning of the year I'd finally break that damn 30 min. barrier, but my running has been sucko since March and I'm out of shape and it's not going to happen. ARRRGGGHHHH. Next week I'm starting my pool running regimen.

Goal for the day (always nice to make your day's goal at almost 1pm) is to clean off my desk and organize my library books into keep/return.

Wednesday, really???

This week has been flying by and nothing is getting done. I'm semi OK with that because Monday was recovering from the conference, Tuesday was a bit productive and today was productive but not for me! I helped Andrea take a gajillion boxes to the post office to send to her new apartment in Austin. We also went out to breakfast with Jeff, Bean and Marga. Man, I still really hate that everyone is leaving!!! These are my people! It's also weird to think that at this time next year, I'll probably be getting ready to leave - if all goes well that is.

So, I'm wiped out. The heat (over 100*) plus carrying boxes down from the 3rd floor, plus taking them out of the car at the post office was enough to wipe me out for the rest of the day. At least I got my workout in.

Nerds on the Beach

Ahhhh - my happy place.

I got back last night from South Padre Island and the 2012 PAT-Net conference. I didn't have a great conference experience because I only attended two panels but my presentation went really, really well. I would have gone to more panels, but the organizers were talking about moving my panel from Sunday morning to Saturday afternoon (this information was relayed on Friday night) so I spent Saturday morning prepping my presentation. Then it turned out that we didn't change the panel after all. It was pretty irritating and unorganized. BUT, there were like 20 people in my panel which is a record for me - like by 10 times! And they seemed to like my presentation about using Marx's theory of alienated labor to create a similar theory about being alienated from the body or from your health. Almost all of the comments and questions were for me and they were all positive and really showed that I hit a chord with the crowd. I was floating afterward it was AWESOME! I also wonder if I could publish that idea. I was thinking it was maybe lame, but the response I got was great. Plus I came up with the idea of surplus health which I think is worth exploring. I also had a suggestion to think of surplus health in terms of behavior rather than measured outcomes which might be a way to go. We'll see! I do think the field is ripe for some theory and another person on my panel was talking about theory in public health, but he did it in a very boring, instrumental way.

I also talked to my advisor and he thought the project I mentioned earlier sounded like a good deal and that I should not worry about revising my comps and just work on my proposal. That's great news. I just have one more person to hear from about my last comp and if he doesn't have any major revisions, those are done but for the defense. Another milestone! YAY!

In non-academic news, I finished reading Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff. Well, started and finished yesterday. It's a page turner! I really enjoyed it. It's a non-fiction account of a plane crash during WWII in New Guinea and the survival story of three people and the amazing rescue. I was seriously riveted the entire time. Go read it!

The First Day of the Rest of my Academic Life?

So today I had a meeting with a professor I contacted several weeks ago because we seemed to have similar interests and I'm desperate for a project for my dissertation. We had a good meeting back then and she asked me to send her some writing samples. That's when I panicked. My writing is good, but she's a quantitative researcher and most of my stuff has been theoretical and qualitative. So I sent her two papers, one of which was my one peer-reviewed paper and wondered what she'd think of an academic paper that talked about power, cleansing, shit, citizen engagement and Facebook. Yes, you can connect the dots between all of those things! Well, at least I can. :) Anyway, I hadn't heard anything and was just thinking that she must think I'm a complete idiot when she emailed me on Friday saying she had a possible project for me. I was cautiously excited but a little nervous that it wouldn't match my interests or skill sets.

Well, it looks like my fears were completely unfounded. In talking to her about the project, it quickly became clear that even though I'll have to do some research that would not be in my dissertation or would be a very small piece, there is space for me to do some qualitative work and it sounds like I can pretty much design it from the ground up. We talked to the woman from the agency that we would be partnering with and she sounded open to really anything I wanted to do (within reason of course) as long as they got the piece that they needed. There would be funding and everything!! Now I just have to talk to my advisor and figure out exactly what's possible and what's doable.

So, unlike anything else I've done in my academic career, this development could literally shape at least the next 2-3 years of my career at least and maybe even more. Yikes!! It's crazy to think about. If this is the project, this is what I'll be presenting on in interviews. It's becoming very real - the possibility of finally being out of school. The other thing that is really great is that the work I do for them will have deadlines to help me stay on track. That's a gift all by itself!

So now I really have to buckle down and figure out the theoretical framework and methodology of I want to do so when I meet with the agency lady, I can lay out a couple of ideas and see what will stick. Even though there's a lot of work ahead of me, it's such a relief to even think about having a project.

Blogging Take 2

So, I really didn't like using tumblr and how it would tell me that there were notes or likes but I couldn't see them. What's the point of saying my post has 5 notes but then when I click on them, there's nothing there???? I'd like to find a way to export my posts to here but we'll see if I even bother. I felt like I did some good writing there and would prefer not to lose it all.

My goal is to write here every day. Some days it'll be a journal of life, other days it will be reflections on my academic stuff so that part will be boring. I wonder if I can make certain posts private so I don't subject anyone who might stumble across this to boring things about Bourdieu or health policy. I know that my mind works better when I can write about the things I'm reading in a more dynamic way than just taking notes. I was just going to use a Word doc, but this should allow me to categorize and search which will be helpful, as long as I write!