Highlights and Lowlights

For those of you who are curious about my studies:
So I lied...This blog was not effective at holding me accountable putting my ideas regarding my summer studies down on paper/the computer screen.  However, that does not mean that I have not been thinking about it a lot.  In fact, I think I might have a workable project for this fall.  If you have any idea what I'm talking about tell me what you think… My idea is to bring cross country runners in to be tested, preferably ones that will compete in the same races, and measure body mass and surface area, maybe do full body comp, and then test their VO2max.  Then for each race calculate their pace in terms of percentage of their vVO2max.  Then calculate their distance from the average percentage of vVO2max of all the participants.  Then for each race do a regression of the surface area to mass ratio and their relative pace.  I want to look whether the race temperature/weather and course conditions influence that regression line.  The problem would be that individual variability in training adaptations throughout the season will surely confound the results.  That's as far as I've gotten.  Hopefully I can come up a with a way account for that without over complicating the study.  Maybe looking at performance pace compared to the velocity of anaerobic threshold would be more pertinent than max oxygen consumption.  I apologize for thinking out-loud, guys, I just kind of want to get a little feedback.

For those of you who have no interest or no clue what I'm talking about:
These past few weeks my life has been especially blog-worthy, but of course that usually means that I have little time or access to post.  So in the interest of my time and yours I will attempt to summarize the highlights, and low lights :)

Northern Wisconsin trip:

Highlight: Running (what else?!) The combination of the northwoods, lake views, cool temps, a cleansing rain, greatly-missed company, a sprinkle of running gossip, and a delicious post-run reward were just what my training desperately needed.
Lowlight:  Not triple crowning our highly contested games of Barbie, Polly Pocket (yes, both of these are in fact board games) and Apples to Apples.  After Poindexter and I destroyed everyone by beating them to the prom by at least 20 minutes, I was only able to exchange gifts for party balloons fast enough to come in second, despite that fact that Kaitlin was riding a cat and I was in a fancy convertible, and as always, no one understood my humor in apples to apples.

Grinnell Iowa trip:

Highlight: Meeting Joe Vigil and learning some super helpful information about biomechanics was cool and all, but I think the highlight goes to winning a free pair of Asics.  The guy next to me won so the misconceptions of probability were against me but I WON! right as I was commenting on how I never win anything.
Lowlights- discovering how cool Grinnell College is…don’t tell anyone I said that.  Haha, no really Will Freeman definitely impressed me, their campus is unreal, and the running there beats just about anywhere except of course the Arb.  Good thing Grinnell is Iowa and most people wouldn’t be caught dead living there ;)

Boundary Water trip:

Highlight: Swimming, a lot.  Normally I have to aquajog for hours on end when I’m up there which is preferable to aqujogging anywhere else, and to not working out at all, but now I can swim! not well but I’m getting better.  We stay on a lake with lots of island so I could swim between then and feel like I was making progress!  And the weather and the water were wonderful!
Lowlight:  Escaping to my tent the first night.  While I was unsuccessfully trying to catch up on sleep, the bugs apparently transformed into brilliant galaxies of stars.  My wonderful little brother thought it acceptable to notify my sister in the other tent but not his lovely tentmate.

Appleton, WI trip:

Highlight: Cuddling with my bestie and our favorite blanket the night before the beautiful bride married her perfect match. Another highlight was learning that some guys actually do talk to other guys about girls and love, and not just butts and love-making.
Lowlight: Leave it to a storybook wedding to expose those little emptinesses you work hard to forget.  In a moment of weakness, slightly regretting focusing my life on sports and running instead of working on making myself attractive to boys (or more preferably men), I was jealous of my best friend, and the man who now has her full heart.

And to hopefully cover me for a couple weeks:

Expected Highlight:  Goal setting- by the time I start school and coaching I will have a finalized training plan and plan for moving forward toward completing my masters degree, I’m pumped for working hard at both but need to give my excitement a little direction.
Expected Lowlight:  Realizing how I have taken advantage the free time I’ve had this summer, and finally making attempts to appreciate not having overwhelming responsibility before my life explodes with activity.

Chasing a little more summer,
Laura