Beamtime, Moving, Races, and Social Activism

It's been crazy busy recently.  I had beamtime over the weekend at the APS in Chicago.  It was very productive but tiring as usual.  I stayed up all night sunday night so I slept in then started moving my stuf yesterday.  I am hopefully moving for the last time on Long Island.  Yay!

I've registered for two races since I posted last: the Bike New York and the Montauk Century.  I'm so excited!  And when I came back to the department, Alex was pumped up about the Super Randonneur.  The ride series comes from the French randonee, to ramble.  A ride of that magnitude (200km, 300km, 400km, and 600km in a year) seems like anything but a leisurely ramble.  But we're going to at least try to do it.  If you complete the entire series in a year, you get a medal (oooohhhh) and are qualified to ride in this race in Paris that is the longest running bike race in the world (120 years).  I say race, because there's not a better word, but it's only timed in that you must complete the distance within a certain limit to officially "finish."

With all the recent attacks on women's rights by politicians, we've been itching to do something.  Something other than signing petitions that is.  And something fell into our laps--there's a rally in the city on February 26th, Stand Up for Women's Health.  I've never been to a social justice-type rally (I'm not counting the pro-life rally I attended as a child as I had not yet formed independent political opinions and I remember wanting to hang out with my 'friends' and I'm pretty sure my parents didn't want me to go).  Anyway, going to a political-type rally is even on my bucket list.  It will be the first thing I mark off since I made the list back in November!

My first 10k!!!

I speculated that the gym might be less busy on the weekends and I was right.  Yay.  I was still worried that I was going to be kicked off the treadmill about 45 minutes in, but I made it.  I did 6.2 miles in <67 minutes.  I would know the exact time, but I accidentally pulled the emergency stop cord when I was picking up my towel to wipe my face.  It was at 5.03 miles and I was so ready to just run one last mile at 6.0mph.  After I reset the machine, I was so pissed and upset I was about to cry--that lump in the thraot, hard to breathe feeling so I walked for 5 minutes fully thinking I would just stop early.  After I got myself back under control, I got like a 5th wind and boosted it back up to 5mph (and then 5.5 for the last few minutes) to finish off the 10k!  I had a stitch in my side for about the last 35 minutes, and it was kind of an emotional rollercoaster, but I'm done now.  I had a protein shake, lunch, and half of my toasted coconut chocolate chip vegan cookie, and I'm feeling loads better.

Workout unhappiness and the continuing snowpocalypse

So I think it is physically impossible for me to be able to do a pull-up by the time the Tough Mudder rolls around.  Why?  I haven't tested the absolute max, but I can do about 10 lateral pull down reps with 75lbs and 6-8 reps with 87.5 lbs.  I currently weigh about 160 lbs so even assuming my max single rep weight I can lift is 100, I'm still a solid 60 pounds from being able to lift myself.  So yeah, I don't think I'll really be able to pull myself over the wall.  Dammit.

The undergrads are back so that means the gym is super busy.  And it means that I can't stay on the treadmill for more than 30 minutes.  Soooo annoying.  I guess there's a slight upside in that it forces me to do more weight training which is a good thing for sure.

On a further annoying note, there are ginormous piles of snow everywhere and the wintery mix that keeps falling combined with the sub-freezing nighttime temperatures has made a layer of ice over all the snow.  The fields of snow now look fake, like they're made of ceramic.  It's never going to go away now.

Winter Forecast: Despair

Chance of looking out the window and sighing: 90%.  I am so over New England winters.

The only positive thing I can think of: I'm currently in the registration process for the 2011 TD Bank 5 Boro Bike Tour.  They close down the entire bike route--a traffic-free tour of NYC.  The skinny: 32,000 riders, 5 boroughs, 42 miles.  Sounds amazing!

But I'm still pissed about the damned weather.