A Day in the Life . . .

I've been meaning to get this entry posted for a couple of days. I've just been a tad busy. I wanted to tell you all about my wonderful day on Friday!

I was too nervous to sleep on Thursday night, which would've made bootcamp super difficult since I only had about 3 hours sleep. So, I missed camp on Friday. At work, we have flex-schedules. We can come in anytime between 7-9:30, so long as we work 8 hours. I was at the office at 7:00 so I could leave by 3:30. During the morning I was really busy. This was great since it helped to keep my mind off of the bar results. However, after lunch, I couldn't concentrate. All day I'd been working on creating Georgia forms for our system, at this point, I was so stressed out my fingers wouldn't even type the correct keys! I broke down on the phone with my Mom, my Aunt, and my ex-boyfriend. (Don't give me that look! We're still good friends!) Finally, I was able to leave the office!

Unfortunately for me, everybody in the city of Atlanta decided to leave work early, too! It was pouring rain and traffic was a nightmare! As soon as I got in the car I became nauseous. It was horrible. I called my ex because he was always very good at calming me down and we talked until I was about half-way home. (Just a quick side-note . . . but would you believe that I'm normally very good about handling stress?!?!)

As I pulled up, the mailman was just getting out of his truck. I checked my box, just in case, but it was empty. So, I turned to the mailman and told him "You have very important information for me, so I'm just going to wait." He asked me what I was waiting on, searched, and pulled out the envelope! He handed it to me and I honestly wasn't sure if I could open it. I was shaking so bad! I told him "I don't think I can open this!", to which he replied, "K, you know you passed, open that envelope!" I opened it up and read the first few words, which included the phrase "I am delighted . . .", at this point I squealed very loudly and hugged my mailman for dear life! I was crying and shaking, practically just beside myself. As soon as I got into my car I called my Mom, who could barely understand me because I was so emotional! After that, I made lots of phone calls telling the news. It's amazing the amount of relief I felt. It was such an overwhelming rush of emotions! Friday is definitely a day that I will never forget.

A group of my classmates and I had decided the night we finished the bar exam that we would meet at Hand in Hand at 6:00 on Friday. So, I headed there to meet up with them. Although less showed up than actually passed, it was so great to see them! My two study partners (as well as their wives) were there. This wasn't the big bash. It's scheduled for Nov. 18! Three years ago when I started working with my study partners I told them I had a very expensive bottle of tequila that I was saving for a special occasion. We decided to save it for when the three of us passed the bar. So, Nov. 18, I'm opening the bottle of Don Julio Blue Agave tequila that I've had for 8 years! I can't wait!

The rest of the weekend was great too. My Mom and Aunt came down on Saturday. We shopped a little and then had dinner at SoHo Atlanta. They gave us a huge dessert platter since we were celebrating the bar exam and my birthday! On Sunday we had lunch at Goldfish (yummy!) and then a little more shopping.

Yesterday's camp was a great one for me. It was a sprint workout, but I just felt very strong. I know I'm not the fast runner, but I felt strong and pushed myself on all the sprints. Today, was rougher. We did the long run (mine was probably close to 3 miles) and my stupid left arch started cramping about about 3/4 mile in. I was so frustrated and in so much pain. It really slowed me down. However, for the last 1/2 mile I worked to catch up with a couple of runners and I actually passed them strong! I just forced myself to forget about my arch for a little bit and was able to finish strong. My shins and left knee are sore tonight, but I've been icing them. Hopefully, they're better in the morning. Friday is the post-test and I feel fairly confident that I can get my time down to around 9:30 (Famous Last Words!)

In other news, I officially signed up for the ING Atlanta Half-Marathon today. I also worked out my training schedule. I've given myself 12 weeks, starting January 7. However, I'm still going to be running and working out until then. My next bootcamp session, and the final one for this year, starts Monday, Nov. 6 (I signed up for that today too!).

I'm also doing a 5 mile run on Sunday. The running store where I bought my shoes sponsors runs and they're doing one Sunday morning. I'm looking forward to it. Aside from jumping into bootcamp, this is the first time I've done a group run like this.

I think that about catches me up!

Celebratory Post . . .

Just a quick post to announce . . . *ahem* . . . I have passed the Georgia Bar Exam! I found out about 4:00 this afternoon. I should be getting sworn in on Monday morning with my two study partners. I'm over the moon! I'll share the story of opening the letter later since I'm mentally exhausted right now. It will be coming soon. My Mom and Aunt are driving down tomorrow to spend the rest of the weekend with me. We're celebrating my pass and my birthday tomorrow!

Also, a big Happy Birthday to Helen who's been celebrating in England today. It's 11:16 here so technically, it's still your birthday! I hope you've had a wonderful day and that your trip is a lot of fun!

More later!

Naughty Girl . . .

So, I've been a bad blogger. It's been a week since my last entry. Sorry, I've been a little busy and under the weather.

This past weekend was fun. My aunt, cousin and I shopped most of the day Saturday and Sunday and managed to get in three good meals too. We all bought too much, but it was fun.

I started feeling sick on Sunday and felt really bad on Monday and Tuesday. Today, however, I feel much better. I'm still a little stuffy, but otherwise feel okay.

This week of bootcamp has been different. It's been so cold in the mornings (low 30s). Today, we did the NFL Combine workout, which is so fun and challenging. I had two instructors comment on my improvement over the last few sessions. I was also able to tell, at least with this particular workout, that I performed better than last month. Tomorrow is bring a friend day, which means the workout is "House of Pain" and I think Friday is the scavenger hunt.

Friday is the big day, what I've nicknamed my "Day of Reckoning." It's amazing what stress will do to your body. Yesterday and today, I've had random crying episodes, which totally suck. I also realized that I'm about 10 days late this month. I know it's stress and working out does help, but I can't workout 24 hours a day. Trust me, right now I wish I could! I'm trying really hard not to think about it, but at the same time, I'm trying to prepare myself for the worst. I realize that it's not that big of a deal. Thousands of people will fail this bar exam across the country and they'll take it in February and pass it. It's just going to be so embarrasing if I don't pass.

Anyhow, there are a lot of birthdays coming up in the next few days. Stacy (my lead instructor at bootcamp) is having a birthday tomorrow; Helen's is Friday; mine is Saturday; and Nancy's (another bootcamper) is on Sunday. We're all right in a row.

Quickly . . .

I'm so sleepy and so sore! Yesterday's workout was a really tough one. It was entirely sprints and I pushed myself so hard that I got sick. That was a new experience for me and one which I don't want to repeat. However, I now know exactly where that line is, so I can continue to push without going over it. Today was another tough workout. At the end, we sprinted up "The Bane" (for those just tuning in it's a massive hill that we run quite often. I hate it.), I did it four times, others did more and others did less. I'm not sure how long we were timed. My calves are still sore from the 300 calf raises we did on Tuesday.

I have family coming into town this weekend, so I'm looking forward to that. I assume we'll shop and eat. That's usually what women in my family do when they get together.

Rain, Rain, Rain . . .

I was really dreading bootcamp this morning. Not because I was tired but because it had been raining all night long and was set to continue raining all day! I knew the fields would be muddy and even though it was 60 degrees it would be chilly due to the rain. Was I ever wrong! Granted, I had on three thin layers of clothing, but I managed to keep the interior layer dry. It was a lot of fun being out in the rain (and in the dark).

The workout was a tough one for me today, and a new one for the camp. We stayed on the stadium bleachers the entire time! This, of course means, we ran lots of stairs (which I really don't like). We also worked our calves and did lots of lunges, squats, situps and pushups, combined with a lap around the track. I'm sure my legs will be sore tomorrow. They were literally jello when I left after the workout and they're still a little shaky!

So, next time it's raining, I definitely think I'll be a little excited. That is, unless it's super cold!

Tennessee . . .

Just a short little post. I'm in Tennessee for the weekend. I drove up, amidst a ton of traffic, last night.

No bootcamp on Wednesday or Thursday. Wednesday was a scheduled rest day, but Thursday was cancelled. Friday was a fun day, but it was cold! We did a stair run, shuffles, dips, push-ups and step-ups and then about a 30 minute run. My arches have started cramping up on me during my last few runs. I hope I can get that sorted out. Thankfully, my shins feel fine.

Today, I went for a run in one of the local parks. I actually ran into a guy I went to high school with. He was much, much taller than I remember him being! Afterwards, my grandmother and I went driving around. We stopped and had lunch at Aubrey's Restaurant and then drove into Townsend and into the Smoky Mtns. National Park. We had planned to drive over to Cherokee, North Carolina and over to Maggie Valley. However, traffic held us up. We ended up turning around near Gatlinburg and heading back into Townsend. We stopped at the Apple Valley store and I bought some homemade apple butter and dill pickles (not to eat together). We also looked at quilts. I found two that I loved, but they were so expensive! Instead of driving home the exact way, we drove over the Foothills Parkway to Chilhowee Lake. We saw lots of pretty fall colors, some of which I have pictures of.

Tomorrow, I'm heading to my Dad's to visit that side of the family. I'll get to see my nephew, which is always fun. After that, it's a drive back down to Atlanta and then the start of another week!

A Moment to Brag . . .

As I said yesterday, today was the day of 110 push-ups. Except, that it was actually 125 today! I did all 125 on my toes! I am very proud of myself today. This workout is one of the toughest for me, so I was happy to do well on part of it.

Other than that, today has been a bit of an easy day. I did research at the courthouse, which is super exciting. Tonight, I'm catching up on some of the television I had to record last week. I'm also determined to get into bed early!

Improvement . . .

So, I didn't blog about this over the weekend because I was pretty frustrated with myself, but it's better now . . . so here goes. Friday's post-test for me was bad. My mile time was 10:22, my situps and push-ups stayed the same and I actually went up a little on my sprint time. I was very frustrated! Today was the pre-test day of the new camp. My mile time was 10:07, which I'm still disappointed in because I wanted to be under 10:00. However, I did 26 full push-ups (on my toes) in 1 minute and 30 sit-ups in 1 minute, and my sprint time went down to 10:28. So, I'm happier and I'm determined that at the post-test (which is 30 days away) to have my mile time at 9:30 or better.

This group is pretty mixed which is nice. I'm anxious to see how some of the less fit people improve over the month. I had huge improvements my first month.

Tomorrow is the pyramid workout, which is so tough. My goal for this camp, because I blogged most of the workouts of the last one (and how I did last camp is still fresh in my mind), is to gauge my improvements on these workouts too. I'm very confident that I'll do better!

My New Shoes . . .

Yesterday I went to Big Peach Running Co. for some new shoes. My Nike's are beat from camp. Anyhow, Big Peach offers video gait analysis. They put you in a pair of running shoes and record you running on a treadmill. When you review the video with them, you find out whether you over or under pronate (where your feet roll in or out too much during your strides), or whether you have a neutral gait. This helps in your shoe selection because you are able to purchase a shoe which properly supports your individual feet. I learned that I over pronate (my feel roll in) just a little bit. Other than that, everything about my foot is pretty normal! I've never worn Asics before, so I'm anxious to see how they do during my runs and at camp. I'm also hopeful they will help with my shin splits. I should have close to a netrual gait and therefore proper alignment when I run. I don't like that the shoes are so white, so I look forward to getting them dirty this week!

I also bought some Jelly Belly Sport Beans in orange and blueberry, and picked up November "Runner's World" magazine. Now, I get to stare at another handsome athlete for the next 30 days. Last month was Dean Karnazes and this month it's Lance Armstrong! Speaking of Dean, he ran marathon 22 of 50 today and ran the marathon course in 3:20:04, which is his fastest time so far. You'd think running a marathon every single day would tire your body and you'd run slower, but evidently not!

I think Shannon and I are going to hang out later today. I'm trying to catch up on the shows I Tivo'd this past week. I only have "Nip/Tuck" and "The Nine" left to watch. I am really enjoying "Heroes", "Ugly Betty", and "Dexter". Although, I've been told that "The Nine" will be my favorite. It's supposed to be really good.

The Long Awaited Update . . .

So, I've been a little absent online the last few days. Most of that is due to starting the new job. It seems to be going well, at least from my end. The trip to Louisville went well and everyone in that office is very nice. Currently, I'm still the only one in the Atlanta office, so it's been quiet. Thank goodness there's a radio! I'll have company this week at work as someone from the Louisville office is coming down, so I'm excited about that.

Yesterday was the last day of bootcamp. However, we start a new session on Monday which I'm all signed up for! For that reason, I'm going light this weekend. I might go for a run tomorrow if the weather's nice. We'll see.

Last night, we had an end of bootcamp type get together. It's always fun to sit and talk with everyone, and to see everyone in normal clothes. It's especially fun seeing all the women dressed up, make-up on, and hair fixed, because we don't see that at all at 6:00 a.m.!

I'm going to do a little shopping this afternoon, but have plans to watch the Tennessee v. Georgia football game this evening. I really hope Tennessee wins!

Hopefully, I once I adjust, I'll be back to posting regularly here. It might take a few days!

Back . . .

I made it back to Atlanta around 6:00 tonight. I'm worn out from the drive, and must be up at 5:00 a.m. for bootcamp in the morning.

Tomorrow is my first day at my new office! I'm excited! I plan to update tomorrow night about tomorrow's workout and my trip.

Kentucky . . .

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I'm safely in Louisville. The drive wasn't too bad, about 5 1/2 hours. The weather was great today, it was a beautiful day to drive. I have wi-fi access here at the hotel, so I should be able to update. Hopefully, I can find a safe place to run while I'm here.

Wish me luck for my first day at work tomorrow! I'm a little nervous!