15 May 2009

That Guy On The Treadmill

I'm writing from school today since I have an hour to kill before my next class.

School has taken over my life but I'm loving it. I'm certain I would not have savored this road in life let alone appreciated classes had I gone to school years earlier in life.

There is something so wonderfully cathartic to be learning. You feel outside of yourself, stretching, reaching, and progressing. With great amazement I find that life is coming closer to me and with each step forward I feel stronger and more invincible. I sound like a Metamucil advertisement.

In school, I'm currently writing a research paper on Garadasil, the HPV vaccination. I'm still getting my poop in a group and am feeling overwhelmed as I usually do with any project requiring brain power.

Blogging is easy to me. No brain power (as my posts suggest, just mouth-breathing). Research writing, not so much. The paper writing process feels backwards for me because I typically just sit and write and see what comes out. A good writer can do this but a good writer can also focus, organize, plan, and get outside the box with unfamiliar methodologies simply to hone their craft. Oh, and I'm honing, all right. I want to nail this paper. Honing, honing, honing.

Since I'm going through all this 'self-discovery' mixed with liberal growing pains, I've added exercise to my daily repertoire. Yes, I'm dumb.

The first several days of my brilliant change of lifestyle was a painful success. Now I'm in the groove and religiously running/walking my 2 miles every day. My apartment manager is usually there at the same time. If you don't know already, I'm a tad bit competitive. I have this innate need to be superbly good at what I do. This also translates in the workout room. I admit. I'm one of those.

I may not be as thin as the manager and have cool shoes but I still can outrun her. She steps it up whenever I get on the treadmill, which cracks me up. Then I *run* while she *walks*. Who is going to go faster?

This is so dumb, I can't believe I'm telling all the millions of my close personal internet traffic.

I'm made of German peasant stock so I'm stubborn as hell. My problem is where I tell myself I'm the next Prefontaine. The next day, I'm cursing my competitive streak when I can barely squat to tie my shoes.  I'm getting stronger every day. I'm pleasantly surprised to get out of bed and not creak like an old ship. This is the biggest change. The scale hasn't budged but the scale is the devil anyway.

~Bee is feeling the burn
Listening to: So What by P!nk

19 comments:

Heffalump said...

I keep trying to make it not be about the scale, but it's hard to ignore sometimes!
What I really want is to feel healthy and be able to keep up with my kidlets! And if a few pounds come off in the process, then all the better (although I would take inches over pounds...)

Utah Savage said...

Oh I wish I had your energy, but then maybe when you are about to turn 65 you can wake me from the dead to hear how your abs are doing.

Congratulations on that love of learning. I had it bad when I was young too. Loved taking university classes just for the fun of it. And I was a good enough student to have professors call me, tell me what they were teaching next and invite me to sit in to keep the fire burning, keep the mormon kids alert and learning by always asking the provocative question.

ancient one said...

I'm so proud of you.... you would think I'm your mama...LOL

Loved this post!

... Paige said...

We are so proud of our little running student :-)

The Lazy Iguana said...

I always found research writing to be.....dry. Bland. Not really hard - you are just digging up stuff other people said then restating it, but really boring.

So I would put it off to the very last possible moment.

sarahgrace said...

Gotta say, I'm actually really interested to hear what you learn about Gardasil, since it's a vaccination I know they are going to want my girl(s?) to get, and I'm not really sure it's necessary...

Good for you and your competitive streak- it sounds like it's helping you out actually!

Whistle Britches said...

You go girl!!!!

Lisa Wheeler Milton said...

I like that competitive streak although I might be ever so slightly more competitive myself.

Just saying.

(And kidding too. A bit. But I do the same thing when I work out, even when my doctor told me to cool it.)

I hope your paper comes together, smoothly.

Suzy-Q said...

I was gonna say YOU GO GIRL, but UJ already did.

ancient one said...

The email you sent touched my heart! Luv-n-Hugs

Jaina said...

Good luck with the project and paper! I did the whole Gardasil thing...those shots sting almost as bad as an antibiotic shot going in. Dang.

Stacey said...

I love the way you described your school experience. I feel that way too! No way would I be enjoying it this much, or getting this much out of it, if I had gone after high school. Kudos on the working out! You are one, motivated mama! :-)

Foo said...

I know exactly what you mean about writing papers. If you're blogging an anecdote, you do some mental pre-editing but having to organize a bunch of sources into a paper that makes some kind of sense seems so much harder.

Why? To me, figuring out what went where was difficult, because the topic tended to be something to which I probably wouldn't have devoted much thought, if I hadn't been required to do a paper on it. The actual digging for information could be be enjoyable (see "genealogy") and I really didn't mind doing the citations; but the matter of incorporating other people's thoughts into my own paper without plagiarizing always gave me heartburn – especially if the author worded things pretty much the way I would have done.

I'm just glad I haven't had to write a (formal) paper since college. Technical requirement documents are a pain, but they're usually shorter sections with a lot of bullet points. Technical documentation is a bit easier, because I'm usually writing about work I've just completed. It's fresh in my mind and, because it's coming out of my head, not too much different from blogging.

As to the treadmill, I never was able to run (or walk) on one of those things without feeling like I was about to get spat out the back. You'd think that, as a cyclist, I'd have great balance; but I don't. When I used to do the gym thing, I was always the guy on the stairmaster, hanging on to the rails for dear life, while everyone else was reading a magazine.

Danielle Says Hello said...

Just stopping by to give you a "go you"!!! So proud of you and your progress in academia ;)

Saur♥Kraut said...

So what did you decide about Garadasil? Would you recommend it for young girls or do you think it's overrated?

Anonymous said...

LOL, guess you can't say 'who's your daddy?' ^-^

Anonymous said...

congrats on the exercise! i've been starting a new program for myself, too - up at 5:30 am every day (including so far just yesterday and today) for a workout at the gym before work. definitely still in adjustment mode, with my body screaming at me, "why the EFF are you AWAKE what are you DOING TO ME?!?!" i'll get there.

Blank said...

I had those same feelings about college, too. Loved it, for all the reasons you so mentioned.

JLR said...

I'm so impressed that you've been running! I'm proud of myself when I walk to check the mail.

And I totally agree with you about the school thing. I didn't start law school until I was 27 (or 28, can't remember), and I appreciated it so much more than the people who had gone straight through from undergrad. Just those five years made a huge difference.

And I'm still so happy that you have the chance to go!

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