Britt's Blog

As motivation for my running goals, I’ve started a map at Google. (Zoom out to see all the markers.)

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The markers indicate the furthest points I’ve been able to run to along my favorite running routes.

In the past, I have mapped out my routes so I knew the exact distance I was running. I timed my runs and computed my pace (which is dismally slow, incidentally). Currently, I’m just paying attention to time, trying to see how far I can run before it’s time to turn around and head home. When I actually looked at how far I can run on a map, I was really surprised! It helps that Beloit is kind of dinky. :)

I have two ways to strive for improvement: I can add on time to my run, and go for endurance, or I can try to run further in the same time, and go for speed. I think I’m going to be flexible on that account.

I’m also trying out a more flexible schedule. In the past I’ve run Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, because that’s what will fit into my work schedule. Now my work schedule isn’t as restrictive, and I’m trying the plan suggested at The Happiness Project, which is that you can skip exercise for one day, but never skip for two days in a row (with the exception of illness, of course.) I’m adding the rule that I will only run two days in a row, to give the ol’ bod some time to recover. Ideally, I’ll go run two days, take a day off, run two days, take a day off, etc., but there’s some flexibility there for if the weather is gross or I need to find an extra hour for work, or I’m just feeling like a day off. Of course, if the following day I’m still behind on work, the weather is even worse, and I just don’t want to get out of bed, too bad—I’ve already blown my day off!

The map will be updated as I make progress!

I never used to be a sickly person. Really! But on the way Beloit from Ithaca, I started to get sick, and ended up with a brutalizing, persistent sinus infection. Then a few months later, in October, another sinus infection. And a few months after that… sinus infection.

Aside from the very first one, which was probably brought on by finishing-thesis-and-moving stress, these are probably due to allergies. I’ve had what my physician described as “some pretty funky post-nasal drip,” more or less constantly, since moving here. Stupendously expensive nasal steroids and a Claratin a day did little to alleviate the problem.

Miraculously, a fraction of a cent’s worth of pickling salt and baking soda, plus some tap water, delivered by a neti pot, seems to reduce the post-nasal drip to nil, and, I hope, will prevent future sinus infections. Three cheers for nasal irrigation! For the phamraceutico-industrial complex: Boooo! Hissss!

But then came . . . dum DUM DUM! . . . otitis externa, otherwise known as swimmer’s ear.

Do not ask me how I contracted swimmer’s ear. I don’t swim anymore. I don’t get water stuck in my ear when I shower, or anything like that. The only plausible scenario revolves around the use and abuse of Q-tips.

Remember kiddies, the only thing you should ever stick in your ear is your elbow.

Because I was not sure exactly what was wrong, I delayed going to the doctor, hoping it would go away, and ended up with my ear canal completely swollen shut. A week of antibiotic eardrops cleared it up, though. It actually took a little bit longer for my hearing to come back to normal, but it did, and for a couple of weeks everything was fine.

Until the infection back.

I didn’t mess around this time, and got my butt to the doctor the morning after the pain set in. I had about half a bottle of antibiotic/steroid/sulfa-drug eardrops left over from the first round, so, under doctor’s advice, I’m giving them a three-day, three-excruciating-night trial to see if my infection has become resistant to those antibiotics.

Ear-aches provide spirited competition to migraines and dry sockets in my personal All-Time Championship of Pain. Damn do they suck. I’m popping Advil like it’s candy here. Luckily, a heating pad applied with firm pressure does wonders.

Objective measures (i.e. the degree to which I am able to close my jaw) indicate that the inflammation is reduced, but I have to say that subjective measures (i.e. how much I wish I were dead at three in the morning when it’s just me, the darkness, and the sharp, stabbing pain) are less sanguine. But if it’s anything like the last time, after a couple days of taking the drops, all the pain and swelling will basically disappear more or less overnight, so, here’s hoping.

What I’m still trying to figure out is why I’m spending so much time at the doctor’s office and the line at the pharmacy. I don’t know if it’s the increased stress, the dearth of healthy country air, some sort of evil Wisconsin-specific immuno-sucking allergen, or what all. I’m just sick of being sick all the time.

And it is (or rather was) midterm break, for the love of little green apples! Why am I cursed to spend my supposed break in excruciating pain? And we don’t even have cable any more. What’s the fun of being sick if you can’t lay on the couch watching gameshows all day? If you are awake at 3 AM, the only reasonable thing to do is stare at incomprehensible anime on G4 or something. My god, what do people who don’t have TVs do when they’re sick???

Hey, all. I’m back from Orlando, which was sunny and nice (or at least it looked that way through the windows of the convention center.)

I hobbed and nobbed, saw lots of talks about Cassini results and YORP and planetesimal/disk dynamical interactions, I got a haircut (first one in about 6 months) and got all excited at the prospect of starting to analyze some Cassini data.

This excitement has waned, somewhat, as I am posting to you direct from the wee cave I have hollowed out under the avalanche of grading that was waiting for me when I came back: 2 exams, 1 pre-lab exercise, 1 lab report, 1 homework assignment that were all turned in while I was away, plus a small mountain of assignments that I hadn’t finished grading before I left. Astoundingly enough, this all accumulated over just two weeks.

It has finally really sunk in that procrastinating on grading doesn’t make it any easier—indeed, it gets harder, because the longer you wait, the more you forget. It’s just easier, strangely enough, to make myself return papers the next time class meets. I did fall behind as I scrambled around in the last week to prepare for my trip to Florida, so I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all at the moment.

I guess I just need to get those exams graded and posted (which I promised my students I would do as soon as I got back) and then deal with the rest of the stack FIFO. Luckily, it’s Midterm Break, so I have a slim, but non-zero, chance of being done with all this grading by Monday.