Monthly Archives: August 2010

Would you date me…

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…if I ate like this in public?

(I ganked this photo from Facebook. New friend Ryan took it.)

Today began the first day of Half Marathon training for the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon on November 6th, 2010. My plan (an amalgam of various Runner’s World programs, rearranged to suit my schedule) called for an easy run.

As I couldn’t fit a run in until the afternoon, it was in the mid-80′s with a heat index of 90º by the time I got outside. To make this run “easy,” I started doing run-walking. By the end, I was able to finish without walking, so I am pleased.

  • 10:58
  • 10:31
  • 9:52
  • 9:12 (Maybe this mile was a little harder than “easy”…)


I eat too much on the weekends.

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I took advantage of yesterday’s cooler temperatures and banged out an 11-mile run. I’m not running that many miles each week, but I feel okay about my base mileage. Half Marathon training starts tomorrow. Whee, sub-2!

Here are my splits from yesterday’s long run:

  • 10:39
  • 10:06
  • 10:00
  • 10:08
  • 9:50
  • 9:56
  • 10:19 (Garmin didn’t auto-pause.)
  • 9:40
  • 9:50
  • 9:49
  • 9:47

I’ve learned that it takes me legs a few miles to get into the groove of things. Almost every run has negative splits. This means I don’t go out too fast, which is good. However, I want to use my natural “running strategy” to my advantage for the rare occasions that I decide to race. Obviously, slow warm-up doesn’t work from 5Ks.

In the afternoon, I attended the local Sweet Corn Festival (Don’t laugh!) with people from my new department. It is Midwestern “fun” in all its glory.

You can buy butter-drenched, mediocre sweet corn.

…Then you can made sad attempts to wipe the grease off of…everything.

If you’re not excited about it yet, there are scientologists, chomping at the bit to convert you:

In the evening, we attended a housewarming fête at Brian’s new house. As usual, there was a gregarious gauntlet of people standing around the kitchen:

I baked a peanut butter fudge cake (Recipe linked.) for the evening. It involved dense chocolate cake, covered in peanut butter and a layer of thick chocolate frosting.

It was intensely chocolate-y and rich, but I think we all felt a little sick after eating huge slices. (It didn’t help that we had all eaten Dan’s spinach dip and Sarah’s brownies beforehand.)

I’m not sure why Rick posed in this fashion, but I think it sums up the feeling of my distended, post-cake stomach.

The evening ended with Cooler Ranch Doritoes (EWWWW! I hate!) and a demonstration of fist-pumping by Sean, who recently returned from a semester in Paris.

This morning, after a cathartic run and strength workout, I made a very Korean lunch:

Bibim guksu (비빔국수) is a cold noodle dish with soba, spicy sauce (pepper paste, sweetener, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, etc.), and a variety of toppings. Today, I used chopped lettuce, cucumber, carrot, and hard-boiled egg.

It was pretty delicious. I felt very Korean, enough so that I had to whip out a miniature flag.

Time to grade!

Do your weekends include a lot of eating? I’m really trying to work on not eating until I feel gross. It’s not a very pleasant feeling.

New and old faces.

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Well, today concluded my first full week of Fall Semester 2010. I am so far from “getting the hang of it”–it feels like I’ve started grad school all over again…and I’ve been here for two years already! I don’t know how the actual new TAs’ heads aren’t exploding.

Lena’s knee has put her out of commission for awhile, so we haven’t been doing much running lately. Fortunately, she was enthusiastic about meeting up for a beverage-and-work date at the local coffee shop. Actually, this photo makes it look like she hated every second of my presence, but really, I just caught her off guard.

Later, the boyfriend and I attended a cookout for students in the Linguistics department. I want to make friends with the people in my new program. Here are some new friends:

(Jin is Korean and offered to translate for me.)

I ate a hot dog that was fresh off of the grill. Holy crap. It was hot. I burned my mouth. :(

Look who else showed up! Chris from the French department. I didn’t see his mug all summer, so it was good to catch up with him too.

Though I may come across as having a very outgoing and social personality on my blog, I actually sit out on a lot of social activities. Since so much socializing in college revolved around drinking, I never got used to going out. I don’t like alcohol, and being in situations that revolve around drinking makes me somewhat uncomfortable. I don’t have a moral issue with it. I just don’t enjoy it, so I don’t do it.

A few of the girls in the program want to get together to go out and show Jin some American drinking games. They invited me, but I feel somewhat awkward since (1) I don’t know drinking games and (2) I don’t like to drink. Nevertheless, I really don’t want to be the one who stays home all the time, as was often the case in the French department. Really, I just need to get over my discomfort and hang out with people more often because I’m sure they are all quite fun.

If you’re a non-drinker, what do you do when you’re invited to social drinking events? Usually, if we’re going to a bar, I just eat peanuts and drink water. (Really, I think Kim is the only one who understands what I’m talking about here.)

Ha, now that I’ve written this, my friends will probably see and stop inviting me to anything ever again. I sound like the least fun 20-something. Ever.

Wednesday haikus

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Semester: Day Three.

Busy learning AND teaching.

It gets better, right?


I went to the gym

to do an early workout

Caught up with Liz B. :)


When I’m not working,

I go into the kitchen

to snack on some kim (김).

[Kim is dried, roasted seaweed.]

Although I’m busy,

I can always find time for

Bodger photo shoots.


Some Pictures of Omma

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Omma gave me these during our meeting. I scanned them awhile ago, but I was waiting for the right time to share them on the blog.

(On the right.)

This is the only one in which I can see the resemblance:

What do you think?

Here’s an amusing tidbit (maybe just amusing to my American sensibilities) from her last e-mail: “In Korea, there is an old saying that if a woman is a good cook, she will never get dumped by her husband. I’m glad that you can cook well.“

Fall semester kick-off.

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This morning, I dragged myself hopped right out of bed and convinced myself to go for a three-mile run. Fortunately, the weather was cool, and my legs felt surprisingly good. I managed to drop the pace after the first mile and ended up with these splits:

  • 10:10
  • 8:47
  • 8:19

Wheeee! A speedy run was the perfect prelude to my first day of classes.

Korean was disappointingly full and crowded. However, look what I can do:

(Practice writing Korean consonants…I’ll get corrected tomorrow.)

I start teaching tomorrow. How exciting!

Last day of freedom

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Though I got out the door kind of late this morning, I managed to pound out a successful 10-mile run.

  • 10:37
  • 10:14
  • 10:30
  • 10:08
  • 10:04
  • 10:05
  • 9:51
  • 10:00
  • 9:52
  • 9:47

Not too shabby, considering that I only planned to survive five. Nothing makes you feel accomplished like a Sunday long run.

Later, I added to my sense of accomplishment with a homemade pizza pie:

My half had cherry tomatoes, while the boyfriend continued to astound me with his metabolic feats of pepperoni consumption.

I am really proud of my pizza-making abilities now. I can only make one kind of crust (thick and crusty), and my toppings are kind of boring, but I think it’s delicious! Plus, it is cheaper and (I hope) healthier than gross delivery pizza.

Just call me Italian Pizza Chef Mica:

Okay, the semester starts tomorrow morning. First day of introductory Korean, whee! (And…phonology, which I still can’t define.)

I hope to kick tomorrow morning off with a bang short and sweet run, but if I lay in bed and whine about getting up, I won’t be too hard on myself.

The boyfriend’s AG win.

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This morning, the boyfriend ran a local 5K. It involved leaving the apartment at 5:40am, which was a struggle for both of us.

After yesterday’s long pool running session and subsequent lower body strength training, I decided that racing a 5K was a bad idea. While waiting for the boyfriend to warm up and finish the race, I ran five miles:

  • 10:15
  • 10:27
  • 10:10
  • 9:52
  • 9:52

Yikes. It was a slow day for me.

However, it was a fast day for the boyfriend. He won first place in his age group with a 20-minute 5K. I was so proud that I almost yelled a bunch of embarrassing things when his name was called.

The highlight of my day was meeting blog-reader Elizabeth, who recognized me in the crowd and came over to say “hello.” Way to go, Elizabeth! You are assertive, friendly, and personable. Those qualities will get you far in life.

Check out the boyfriend’s shiny medal:

We tried to take one in which he is “biting” it for quality testing, but he just looked…deranged:

When in doubt, bring in Bodger!

Also, I bought yellow nail polish today:

Sadly, it looks like my teaching/course schedule will prevent me from working at the beloved running store this semester. Fortunately, they recently started a blog, for which I have been doing some writing. Here is today’s entry on sports bras.

Pool running friends.

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For the last day of TA orientation/training, we didn’t have to show up to our offices until 1pm. Instead of taking advantage of the low-key schedule, I was up and in the semi-warm outdoor pool by 6:30am for 70 minutes of pool running.

…Why? Why would I ignore sleep in favor of running in place for an hour?

Because Jessica’s doctor cleared her yesterday for running-like and biking activities.

After all…

Have you ever tried pool running? I think it’s actually pretty enjoyable when I accompany Jessica. This is probably because I can talk her ear off and she is forced to listen to me. Mwahahaha.