Things I did today

Excellent weather for this race! 72 degrees, cloudy and slightly breezy. Can't ask for more than that! I ran with Tim Jenkins, and he slowed his pace to match mine - I'm a very slow runner and haven't yet managed to run a full 3.1 miles without walking segments. (He usually runs that around 36 - 38 minutes.) They posted his chiptime incorrectly in the results page, which is a bit disappointing. He timed our race with his Garmin, which matched my chiptime, but they entered his chiptime as 5 seconds slower. 2019: 48:44 Also a bit annoying is that they didn't give the time down to the millisecond. However, I was pleased to run less than 50 minutes. I'll continue to train with the goal of beating my best time of 45:12 in 2017. And now it's back to reading for the evening.

I'm feeling good about tomorrow. I've stretched, I ran on Tuesday, I got enough sleep today and hopefully this means I can continue to get enough sleep tonight into tomorrow. I spent a nice, easy day enjoying Minecraft (I wanted to finish building out my first house, expanding my garden, and mind the chicken coop) and now I'll get some chores done (dishwasher is currently running) and read some of Duhigg's book that I've been reading on the weekends. Looking forward to a quiet and relaxing weekend after the run.

I spoke with a friend of mine last night who works in higher education. We compared our experiences with what felt like 'normal' and even though we are the same age (nearly literally, her birthday is a week after mine) she felt like she was one of the eldest in her department - almost all of her interactions are with students and student volunteers. She laughed that she once in a while felt out of place because of the age difference - she was usually 10 years older than people she worked with. On the other side, I finally am no longer the youngest in the IT department, but am 10 years younger than most of my coworkers. I don't feel out of touch, but sometimes feel out of place. I wouldn't have it any other way, though. My brothers and cousins are between 10 and 14 years older than me, and growing up in a rural area meant that there wasn't a collection of similarly aged children to interact with outside of school. I got used to being mostly by myself, or interactin

Last night, I happily ran 3.1 miles (jogged, with a minute of walking segments interspersed) getting ready for Saturday's North Hills 5k. It was a flat route, so the total exertion was less than what Saturday's hilly route will be, but I was pleased with a total time of 48 minutes and 22 seconds. I'm feeling confident that I'll be able to run the 5k with minimal walking segments, and I hope to be around 50 minutes or less - though any time I finish will be better than people who just sit on the couch. I've run this 5k several times. 2016 - 51:06 (first time, as I was in the middle of the Couch to 5k program) 2017 - 45:12 (Was running at least 50% of the time, and happy with my progress) 2018 - 48:15 (Had an illness that would lead to overexertion and dizziness) I still struggle with some of the overexertion, but it is better this year than it was last year. I'm consistently running quarter mile or half mile segments before needing a minute to walk, and

In going through Charles Duhigg's book The Power of Habit, I've learned that a habit starts with having a cue, executing a routine, then getting a reward. However, there is more to it. Plenty of times habits have been created, run through several times, but then dropped. It isn't necessarily because the cue wasn't good or the reward wasn't appropriate. There was no craving for the reward. Ice cream could be a good reward if you really like ice cream. Else, while it would be a nice treat, if there is no desire to have more, there is no push to go through the routine. Once you start craving the reward, it will be another cue for you to go through the routine and get the reward. I don't yet have a craving attached to the habit of playing piano. A year ago, I was running 3 or 4 times a week, and when I had two days off, I felt antsy, and wanted to run. I wasn't sure what I craved - perhaps I craved being outside, or stretching my legs, or having more total mi

All habits are built on a cue - routine - reward structure, both good and bad. And it can be easy to start a good habit and break a bad habit as long as you understand the cues and rewards and replace them with something that aligns with your current desires. I want to be known as a piano player, but that means I need to practice a lot more than I have been. I have a nice keyboard that I like playing, but I often forget that I have it because it's in the part of the living room that I rarely look at or go to. How do I change my environment so the cue is apparent and more desirable than watching TV on the couch? There are a few ways to accomplish that. First, I could move my piano closer to where I usually look in the living room, and I could also change the cue that I have for watching TV, making that routine harder to start if I have the cue. If I move the piano closer to the couch and unplug my TV, will that be enough of a disruption to one habit and ease into another habit t

Most of my bad habits stem from one large bad habit. Procrastination. I often consider how much time I have between the deadline and now, and estimate how much time the task will take. I then subtract the task time from the total time, and then I know I can procrastinate for X amount of minutes before I must start the task. Heck, I'm doing it right now . This post isn't going to be released for another two days. But, I could be doing things like taking out the trash (should do today), making a backup of my computer files (overdue), or or sorting through the CDs my parents brought down that were mine (no strict deadline, but they're in the way). This task of writing a post is more engaging than doing those other tasks, so I am prioritizing it over the other things. Also, I want to make sure that I continue the habit of writing every day - I just don't want to have it be another flash in the pan idea like my other blogs that fizzle out within two or three months. He