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April 28, 2007

recovery

So. Aside from the article that continues to refuse to write itself, and the (now from multiple kids) barfing in my house, the other worrisome component in my life is this left knee. I think it's better, I think.

I've been running 3 miles or so, every other day, for about 2 weeks. I've iced it faithfully for 20 minutes after every run, and I've alternated running with and without the neoprene sleeve. The pain has subsided to near nothing, returned and subsided, returned and subsided.

Today, which is supposed to be the second twenty on Hal Higdon's Intermediate II schedule, I made it 5 miles with the sleeve and feel pretty solidly recovered. The sleeve itself makes it hard to tell whether or not the knee hurts during the run, but now that I'm back it feels completely normal. No twinges from within, and it's not tender when I manually wiggle my kneecap with my fingers.

The problem, though, is that at this point I can't jump back into the training where I left off, and I can't jump back in where I should be on the calendar because I'll surely re-injure myself. So I'm back to Mr. Higdon's site, rigging together a 4-week schedule from the Beginner I chart. I'm not sure where that will put me when it comes time for the race in terms of finishing time (I'd like to finish under 5), but at this point I'm really just more concerned about finishing without injury.

It's moments like these that I wonder if I want to continue to train for and run marathons--while I enjoy the running immensely, and I really am not (obviously) concerned with breaking any records, it just seems silly to be constantly flirting with damage and suffering.

Posted by mryonker at 10:27 AM | Comments (1)

April 26, 2007

because I only blog when someone barfs

I've had my butt glued to this office chair for about 12 hours straight today (well, of course I did take and pick up little-J from school, the two big kids from piano lessons, and run to the grocery store--but when I've been in my house today I've been glued to this chair). I'm still wrangling with this book chapter/article thing that is totally kicking my butt. (Well, my butt would be thoroughly kicked if it were not glued to the chair. But anyway.)

If you are a writer-friend who sometimes makes yourself available to me via AIM and you have been online today, you have been accosted by me to finish or revise a sentence at least once. My pings have been frantic and free of phatics and niceties: "PLEASE FILL IN THE LAST PART OF THIS SENTENCE FOR ME!"

So, thank y'all for that. At any rate, I've come to a startling and scary conclusion concerning the difficulty I'm encountering in putting this twenty page chapter together: my whole dissertation will not fit in twenty pages.

I maybe should have had a clue, since the title of the proposal for this article, "Network Literacy: Definitions, Practices, and Implications," is pretty much no different than the tentative title to my dissertation, "Network Literacy: The Shifting Roles of Writers."

Duh. So what I'm up against is trying to condense an argument from a dissertation that I haven't written yet (and what I *have* written is scattered and mostly methodology stuff). It would be far easier to excerpt and cobble from a document that was already whole. Instead, I'm anticipating excerpts and having to make decisions about what to include and exclude, without knowing, at this point, which of those inclusions and exclusions are *right*.

In many ways this is a good exercise, but the lessons are pretty much lost in my frenzy to make a deadline.

Oh yeah--and now I've got another barfing kid on my hands. At least when I'm up tonight trying to write, I'll have an occassional distraction in emptying a bucket and sponging a face.

Posted by mryonker at 06:51 PM | Comments (4)

April 22, 2007

on not-blogging

I've been preoccupied with:

jail. In the last two weeks, jail and possible-jail have entered my life (not for me, of course, but for someone close). It's raised a couple of issues for me: 1) it seems like if a person had any sense it should be really easy to stay OUT of jail; and 2) that a person's definition of "sense" might become a problem in making jail avoidable. Sorry for the vagueness.

moving. B, after drumming up a handful of interviews, has been offered a sweet deal at a large corporation about an hour south of where we live now. If we were to move there, I would still be a half hour from SU. My commuting makes sense, since I normally only have to be on campus 2 or 3 day a week. We spent today scoping out the town, looking at some possible rentals just to get an idea of what we could afford. We found a great park, the hockey/sports arena, one possible dance school, and the Dunkin Donuts. :) Because coffee is important.

the marathon in less than 6 weeks. My left knee has been giving me hell for about two weeks now, and I've dropped my mileage down to damn near nothing to let it mend. I'm pretty sure I screwed it up the week that I was alone during the kids' spring break--we nearly double our mileage that week just because we could (D was on spring break, too), and I was a sad case by the weekend. I had to skip the first 20-miler, and skipped the 12-mile taper yesterday. Bleh. I coughed up the dough for new shoes last week and went and got myself a neoprene sleeve today. Looking back in the archives, I found that my knees gave me hell last year about this time, so I suppose I should not worry too much. Still, it's a bit depressing to know that I'm not training the way I should.

writing. I have an article due on May 1st, and it's taking everything I have to squeeze out one measely sentence (and then one more...). I suppose this week I'll turn into the hermit lady and let the house go to shit and ignore everyone and finish it. I suppose I could be working on that right now.

Yes. The not-blogging.

Posted by mryonker at 10:10 PM | Comments (2)

April 17, 2007

everything's a narrative

Chick with the Orange Running Hat blogs, in two parts, her Boston marathon (in which I believe she PRs).

Mommy, PhD posts Annabelle's birth story.

Lee captures the story of my life every morning.

Posted by mryonker at 06:07 PM | Comments (1)

April 12, 2007

an explanation

I just want to offer a quick excuse for my silence here as of late:

This week was the kids' spring break, and my family left me. Well, didn't *leave me* leave me, but everyone but me traveled south to my mom's. I have been alone for almost an entire week.

I was supposed to have a writing-fest, but unlucky for me, this was also the week that I collected and returned 3 classes worth of extended research papers--what amounted to about 600 pages of reading and grading.

Happily the grading is done, but the only writing I have been able to finish has been another substantial revision to the prospectus. And there has been a good reason for my inability to get anything else done: I don't know what to do with myself when I don't have other people to take care of. I don't know how to take care of MYSELF by myself. I forget to eat breakfast. I lose track of where I'm supposed to be. I don't know what day it is--one day I nearly forgot it was a teaching day. Luckily I have friends: running with D has been a godsend in that I actually have a reason to get up in the morning.

Left to my own devices, I've done things like:

stop at Arctic King (our favorite local ice cream stand) on the way from from work for dinner. What was dinner, you ask? A Hoffman hot dog and a 24 oz chocolate milkshake.

watch movies "to keep me company." Which movies, you ask? Only movies I've already seen: The 40 Year Old Virgin, The Italian Job, and Tristan and Isolde. My theory is that having the TV on makes me feel less lonely, but playing movies that I've seen doesn't require me to give all my attention. The problem is that James Franco essentially requires *ALL* my attention. He's required all my attention FOUR times already. (See what I mean? I'm useless! and crazy!)

sleep on the couch. I've become so lazy I can't drag my fanny upstairs to sleep. Well, that's only half-true. I'm also a teensy bit scared to sleep upstairs by myself. (What is WRONG with me??)

spend hours on YouTube watching (what else?) trailers and interviews with James Franco. (Pathetic, really.)

bug all my friends to hang out with me. I have successfully wrangled a ham dinner AND home made meatballs out of my dear neighbor D; a great celebratory fest and blueberry pancake breakfast out of C in honor of her exam-finishing, a salad-sharing eve with T, and lunch with Rainbowhair and Runningburro.

So you see? I've been busy with very important stuff. I'm off to make a batch of Rice Krispie treats--all for ME!

Posted by mryonker at 04:21 PM | Comments (3)

April 05, 2007

this is not a post about how I hate snow

The melancholia hangs on. H is still spending her days on the couch, shivering under a blanket, her eyes bloodshot and her energy nil. Little J is better-ish--not as hot but still sluggish and cranky like a grizzly who woke early to find the stream still frozen and no fish to be had.

Or like the grizzly who woke (on time) in March and then had to weather a blizzard the first week of April.

I did not run this morning in a fit of protest against the plow's passing of my house.

Chinese take out for din. Since the stream is frozen and there's no fish to be had.

Posted by mryonker at 05:13 PM | Comments (2)

April 03, 2007

fever

Again, I have sick kids.

Big J with his allergies. H and little J both running fevers--little J's fever scarily high, especially at night, so for two nights I've done a lot of half-sleeping, sponge-bathing, motrin-administering, and a lot of worrying.

Add to this: papers to read, a book chapter to write, clases to run, and sanity to preserve. And the question always is, which will suffer?

The sanity. :)

Posted by mryonker at 10:20 PM | Comments (3)