Day 230

The last few days were a little rough, but I guess we cannot appreciate the good days without some shaky ones thrown in. Other than a blip related to some Facebook drama, there was nothing that stood out as particularly bad, but I was not enthusiastic about much the first few days of this week. (Also, some good even came out of the Facebook drama.  I have since deleted the Facebook app from my phone and am loving the time I have reclaimed for other purposes over the past two days!)

I spent most of my day in New Orleans at the Mid-South Educational Research Association (MSERA) annual meeting, and I presented the literature review I wrote in the spring as part of a paper session this morning. I loved it, and I can't wait to write and present more things in the future. I also attended several sessions today that were interesting in both content and method. MSERA was a good warm-up for next week's national conference with the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). My spring is also filling up with races and conferences; I probably need to go ahead and block off some weekends to rest at home before I overcommit. At least all of my commitments are things I love.

My friend Gina took this photo of me presenting. 

I skipped out on the business meeting portion of the conference and decided to head back to Baton Rouge so I could go for a run and attend the November HESPA meeting. Realizing that it was going to be pretty dark and that my time was going to be tight for fitting running, changing, and driving to campus, I decided to go run on the treadmill at the UREC. I need to do some hill training to prepare for the Semper 5ive and Historic Half in May, so I set the treadmill to give me some small hills. I kept my pace between 11 and 12 minutes per mile, but what was especially exciting was that I ran the whole time without stopping! I love run/walking and have no intention to stop doing intervals, but it was nice to prove to myself that I can hang for 4.5 miles of continuous running if I ever need to. That made me feel good.

With a good workout and productive day under my belt, I am feeling optimistic about Friday and looking forward to a wonderful weekend.

Something that made today great: I had a lovely pho lunch with Gina and Alicia, and I ran into Kripa (former LSMSA student) at the restaurant!
Time I woke up: 6:15 am