(no subject)
I usually never go this long between updates! Apologies -- I just purchased Civ V after not playing for years, and suddenly all my free time disappeared. Funny how that happens. (It's a great game, by the way...but it's looooong and if you're like me, it will rob you of sleep and productivity, so don't say I didn't warn you.)
Since I last checked in, Kelly turned 30, and we celebrated in style. We joined a new friend from our board game group and his girlfriend for a hike in the Gorge, happy hour at Edgefield, and then we split off and Kelly and I went to the Blazers vs. Jazz game that evening. I was super bummed because Gordon Hayward has been injured and didn't play, but at least my loyalties weren't at all divided, then. The Blazers won another thriller, and when the confetti fell from the ceiling, I told Kelly I'd arranged that for her birthday. The next day was Super Bowl Sunday, and we went to Linda's for a little soiree, but that was more bridge and food than football.
My work week was a little nutty this week. The underwriting company that we work with is doing a huge audit, so I had to sift through lots of files to find specific documents that they wanted. This is not easy, when an insurance policy is ~100 pages long, and I'm looking for a specific page, and I'm not really clear what that page is supposed to look like anyway...I usually only deal with the claims, not the policies. I don't really like not knowing what I'm doing, and that made it the most stressful week I've ever had at work. Still, really not bad. Just comparatively so. I did learn that most of these insurance policies have exclusions for things like terrorism and also "undeclared civil war." "Sorry, we won't be covering your accident. You see, it wasn't road rage, but an act o undeclared civil war." Seems like that could be a pretty vast category, if adjusters wanted to be assholes and just deny every claim. I've never known it to come up, though :)
Running training continues. I'm <2 months from race day now, and while I'm feeling fairly confident about it, I'm also starting to feel the effects of harder training. Twinges in my legs that I haven't felt before, lower back soreness...so I'm icing things and stretching thoroughly and hoping that my body will hang in there through the race. If the aches and pains don't go away, I think this will be my one and only half marathon. I'm just so afraid of injuring myself (especially without health insurance) that I'm going to take my body's signals very seriously. But I do like that I'm running longer distances, and hope I can keep at it, just maybe not quite as many miles as I'm putting in throughout this training schedule (20-25/week...still less than a single whole marathon, but more than human bodies were really built for). And I look forward to getting back to a more varied activity plan. Right now I do five days a week of cardio, but only one of those days is not running. Tomorrow I have an 8 mile run on the schedule.
Kelly and I went downtown today, specifically because I did not want to spend the whole day playing Civ. Well, I DID want to spend the whole day playing Civ, but then I'd feel shitty, so I decided I needed to go to American Apparel to get more awesome knee socks, and asked Kelly to come with me. This is safe, you see, because Kelly hates shopping. I can't get into too much trouble with her. Yeah, turns out that's not true. Kelly hates shopping for clothes, sure, but she's outdoorsy and athletic and needed to go to REI...where I managed to find a rain jacket that will be perfect for biking this spring. Then I remembered Nike was near the food carts where we had lunch, as is the rule when you go to downtown Portland, and I'd been meaning to get some new running shoes before they discontinue the line that I've been wearing for my training. And compression socks for running, because sometimes my calves get tight, and I've heard those are great. So we went into down for socks and a food cart lunch, and somehow I ended up spending my whole paycheck. It's cool, though. All that stuff was stuff I did legitimately need (at least a little) and would have eventually purchased. And hey, I didn't sit on my ass and play Civ all day! (I have still played several hours of it. Sigh. Eventually the magic will wear off and I'll be able to focus on other things. I hope.)
Anyway that's what's up with me lately. Basically more of the same. I play a lot of games, run a lot of miles, and go to work in between.
Since I last checked in, Kelly turned 30, and we celebrated in style. We joined a new friend from our board game group and his girlfriend for a hike in the Gorge, happy hour at Edgefield, and then we split off and Kelly and I went to the Blazers vs. Jazz game that evening. I was super bummed because Gordon Hayward has been injured and didn't play, but at least my loyalties weren't at all divided, then. The Blazers won another thriller, and when the confetti fell from the ceiling, I told Kelly I'd arranged that for her birthday. The next day was Super Bowl Sunday, and we went to Linda's for a little soiree, but that was more bridge and food than football.
My work week was a little nutty this week. The underwriting company that we work with is doing a huge audit, so I had to sift through lots of files to find specific documents that they wanted. This is not easy, when an insurance policy is ~100 pages long, and I'm looking for a specific page, and I'm not really clear what that page is supposed to look like anyway...I usually only deal with the claims, not the policies. I don't really like not knowing what I'm doing, and that made it the most stressful week I've ever had at work. Still, really not bad. Just comparatively so. I did learn that most of these insurance policies have exclusions for things like terrorism and also "undeclared civil war." "Sorry, we won't be covering your accident. You see, it wasn't road rage, but an act o undeclared civil war." Seems like that could be a pretty vast category, if adjusters wanted to be assholes and just deny every claim. I've never known it to come up, though :)
Running training continues. I'm <2 months from race day now, and while I'm feeling fairly confident about it, I'm also starting to feel the effects of harder training. Twinges in my legs that I haven't felt before, lower back soreness...so I'm icing things and stretching thoroughly and hoping that my body will hang in there through the race. If the aches and pains don't go away, I think this will be my one and only half marathon. I'm just so afraid of injuring myself (especially without health insurance) that I'm going to take my body's signals very seriously. But I do like that I'm running longer distances, and hope I can keep at it, just maybe not quite as many miles as I'm putting in throughout this training schedule (20-25/week...still less than a single whole marathon, but more than human bodies were really built for). And I look forward to getting back to a more varied activity plan. Right now I do five days a week of cardio, but only one of those days is not running. Tomorrow I have an 8 mile run on the schedule.
Kelly and I went downtown today, specifically because I did not want to spend the whole day playing Civ. Well, I DID want to spend the whole day playing Civ, but then I'd feel shitty, so I decided I needed to go to American Apparel to get more awesome knee socks, and asked Kelly to come with me. This is safe, you see, because Kelly hates shopping. I can't get into too much trouble with her. Yeah, turns out that's not true. Kelly hates shopping for clothes, sure, but she's outdoorsy and athletic and needed to go to REI...where I managed to find a rain jacket that will be perfect for biking this spring. Then I remembered Nike was near the food carts where we had lunch, as is the rule when you go to downtown Portland, and I'd been meaning to get some new running shoes before they discontinue the line that I've been wearing for my training. And compression socks for running, because sometimes my calves get tight, and I've heard those are great. So we went into down for socks and a food cart lunch, and somehow I ended up spending my whole paycheck. It's cool, though. All that stuff was stuff I did legitimately need (at least a little) and would have eventually purchased. And hey, I didn't sit on my ass and play Civ all day! (I have still played several hours of it. Sigh. Eventually the magic will wear off and I'll be able to focus on other things. I hope.)
Anyway that's what's up with me lately. Basically more of the same. I play a lot of games, run a lot of miles, and go to work in between.