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May 25, 2006
A particularly boring swim
When I walked into the MIT locker room this morning, my Reefs were back, right where I had left them! I guess someone walked off with them by accident and then returned them. So my faith in the MIT student body has been restored. My swim today went by really slooowwwly. I'm sure there are swimmers out there who think running is boring, but I really find it hard to stay motivated for very long in the water. Some days are better than others, and today was a bad day for me. I think part of the reason I get so bored is that I can only pull and not use the kickboard or do other strokes or anything (because it hurts to bend my knee.) It's very monotonous. I tried a few "steps" of pool running just to break it up but my leg is not ready for that. I find that most muscle/tendon injuries do not react well to pool running since it's the same repetitive motion that injured it in the first place. With stress fractures, I presume it is different because it's the impact that causes pain. Anyway, I tried to occupy myself by planning my day, thinking about the weekend, watching other peoples' smooth and strong strokes underwater, etc…and I lasted almost an hour. My arms were killing me afterwards.
I met Mary for lunch by her office, which is near the Cambridgeside Galleria. There are lots of nice places to sit outside around there, which was great for today since it was beautiful out. (Why couldn't I have been injured during the May Monsoon??) We had a nice time eating and chatting and it was so nice in the sun that I decided to read for a couple of hours on the MIT quad. I figured that was a good place to hang out because there would be accessible bathrooms nearby. I fell asleep at one point and woke up very itchy and sneezy, which I'm assuming had something to do with the fact that they were mowing the lawn nearby. Anyway, that was my cue to leave and I went to bike and lift at the gym. I felt a little sunburned and out of it while I was there, which wasn't the most pleasant feeling.
Afterwards, I met a couple of friends for dinner at Whole Foods (I seem to be boycotting the kitchen these days) which was fun and relaxing. Matt is at a Red Sox game tonight so I have parked myself in front of the television. Life between grad school and the real world is good!
Posted by becky at May 25, 2006 11:19 PM