Accidentally in Aldershot

That's right, unlike the lead singer of the Counting Crows I wasn't Accidentally in Love, but accidentally in Aldershot. How did this happen?

The husband and I decided that after weeks of flaking, mind-changing and illness to make good on our expressed intent to go for a Saturday morning run. The shame and guilt were starting to creep in by this point. We had to go just to break the cognitive dissonance. Anyway, shoes on feet and iPods to the ready, we set out to do a good 5-mile course through the neighbourhood and along the canal until we picked up the nature path that would put us back home. Little did we realise that a wrong turn at the end of the canal part of our route would take us 20 minutes out of our way...and all the way to the Aldershot roundabout that puts us 3 minutes from the chapel.

Of course, neither of us realised this grievous error until, seeing the road on the wrong side of us, we checked the exit sign on the roundabout and saw that it headed towards Reading and Camberley...and home. We'd swung 2 miles too far south. To add insult to injury, at the point where we made a wrong turn, we were 2/3 of the way home. Navigation FAIL.

There was nothing for it but to turn back the way we'd come and pick up the right path. Surprising myself, I made it all the way back home, actually running about 85% of the time. That's pretty good for the farthest distance I've ever run all at once. I mean, I've done some hardcore hikes - Angels' Landing in Zion National Park, not to mention the all-day excursions on our latest holiday to France - but to run for an hour and 40 minutes is intense even for me.

At least I know now that I can handle the distance for the Grim Challenge. The cold and the muddy dirtiness should just be an added bonus.

:-)

A benchmark...and a hidden half-mile!

In keeping with my new-found goal to train for the Grim Challenge, I decided to go all-out today in my workout. The leg press machine now officially has me pushing most of my own body weight. 70kg of the 73kg I'm ashamed to admit that I weigh right now. (I've stopped myself putting it in lbs. for those unfamiliar with the metric system. Why? Because maybe you'll be too lazy to Google a conversion formula, and then I can imagine a consoling, "it's probably not that bad," being said.) I suppose to be fair to myself I should say that while I *do* have some weight to lose, quite a bit of it is muscle. After all, to chest press 23.5kg and squat 70kg takes more than slender, willowy, toothpicky limbs.

A nice surprise was in realising that I've actually been doing more work than I thought lately in running to and from the gym. Sebastian conservatively estimated the distance from our house to the gym at a mile, but timing myself (and double-checking on Google Maps) proved that there's an extra 0.4 miles each way, putting my bare minimum distance on a day like today at 2.8 miles. Add in the 2.7 miles of incline training on the treadmill (insert usual nostalgia for StairMaster here) and 0.86 miles of intervals on the elliptical, and I've racked up a gratifying 6.36 miles of hardcore aerobic training today! As Han Solo put it, "you know, sometimes I amaze even myself."

The point of these shamelessly self-promoting updates is not for the sake of vanity: it's to prove to myself that I *am* actually getting better. This way, when the last days of anxiety before the Grim Challenge make me question my sanity, I can look back at my 4-miles runs and (hopefully) laugh a triumphant laugh that I've come so far from my starting point. I will then face 8 miles of mud and water and muddy water without fear...or at least with a fear that is drowned out by the endorphins produced by a long run.

Looking a Bit Grim

Now that the enormous turning point of the end of my formal education has passed, it's time to focus on another goal. While one of the goals will definitely be searching for whatever job or internship will have me, the current life-changing effort is to return to the idyllic state of fitness and slimness I achieved back in my senior year at Wake. The specific goal that will help me achieve this? Training for the Grim Challenge this December.

The Grim Challenge is, as the website will tell you, an 8-mile off-road course along the tank proving grounds in Aldershot. You run, crawl under camouflage netting, and wade through giant man-made puddles. Sebastian did the race last year and loved it. I promised him (in front of witnesses) that I'd run it with him this year. I may live to regret that promise.

So, in accordance with the website's guidelines, I'm working my way back up to running 5 miles outdoors without stopping. I used to do 5-6 miles most weekdays back at Penfold Street when I could run through Regent's Park and along the canal to Camden and back. Matters have declined a bit since moving into the 'burbs. But, today's run proves that it's not far to go. The intense weight training and swimming I can do at the gym should help as well.

Today's stats:

41 minutes

3.8 miles

Average speed: 10.8 minutes per mile...including the fact that I took 2 breaks to walk.

Path? Through the neighbourhood until I could pick up the Blackwater Valley Path. It's nice to have a scenic place to go running...seeing nothing but city streets is depressing.

"The Grid" is real, and it knows where you live.

Our Relief Society is having it's "extra curricular" meeting outside of normal church meetings this week. Our activity this autumnal Thursday evening is to discuss the various cultures of the women present in our ward. As one of only 2 American expatriates in our congregation (and the only one of us under the age of 80), I've been asked to present on my culture.

Firstly, I'll enjoy getting to talk about America, but unlike Europe we don't have one single ethnic culture that corresponds nearly coterminously with our borders. Trying to talk about "American culture" would take ages to decently give face time to each minority in the melting pot. Even to discuss my own experience of American culture involves talking about Irish, German, and Scottish immigrants, as well as slavery, the Civil Rights movement, and two tribes of Native Americans.

In discussing my own background, I've been using Google to double-check a few facts for my own pedantic need for absolute accuracy. I'm officially a bit creeped out. I looked up my mother's maiden name in conjunction with the town where my grandmother lives in coastal North Carolina. Lo and behold, after the Google Maps reference to a street in that town that bears our family name, the first entry was for mylife.com. The two first entries in the short text under that link? The names and ages and towns of residence of my uncle in MA and my grandfather, who passed away recently. That my own family is so ridiculously easy to Google is a bit surreal. It's not like I'm looking up the Kennedys or the Bushes or the Clintons.

Once the weirdness subsides I'll get around to making my interactive aide for the cultural presentation: a very American apple pie.

Occasions that call for Handel's "Messiah"

Hang the streamers! Let fly the confetti! Cue the choirs of the angelic host with tabors, pipes, fifes, drums, harps, and cymbals! Find me an 18th-century German to compose a breathtakingly majestic oratorio! The dissertation is finished!

Finished. Fin. Terminado. Fertig. Gorffen. Done.

The final touches were put on this morning: the spelling checked, the footnotes proof-read, the bibliography completed. All the Greek has been correctly translated, all the hairstyles adequately described, all the trade card illustrations related in detail, and all the hairdressers mentioned by name. Well...almost all of them.

What started off as a paper on the simple topic of hair became a paper on how hair reflected the Neo-classical movement in Georgian England. That paper became - after a confidence-savaging meeting with my advisor - a paper on how the visual symbols of Neo-classicism were used by hairdressers in Georgian England from 1780-1815. I discussed what classicism and Neo-classicism were, what men's and women's hairstyles looked like at the time, the descriptions of hairstyles in fashion magazines, the use of snivelling language in advertisements, and a short poem written by hairdresser Alexander Stewart on his rage at the Hair Powder Tax of 1795.

Did you know the modern business card dates back beyond the 1700s? Check this article on the V&A website. Much as I was writing about hairdressing and not printing, it was really interesting having studied techniques like mezzotint, stipple engraving, and etching last year.

Did you know that the modern fashion magazine has its roots in the late Georgian era? I'll write a post about that one soon. How about the fact that some hairstyles in the 1770s and 1780s used to include such random items as model ships and wax vegetables? It's true! This particular blog, BibliOdyssey, was a goldmine of contemporary caricature prints and other printed sources. (The post in the link has some spectacular caricature prints of the sort of tiny-ship/wax-veg hair I'm talking about.)

Looks like it's now off to Mailboxes Etc. for some highly extortionate printing and binding. Hey; at least it means I'm finished!

Pictures: 10

Sources: 36

Pages: 55

Footnotes: 129

Words: 14,929

Taking my dissertation to be printed: Priceless.

A random observation

When did I realise I had female friends who did figure competitions? Not just one, but two! It takes my breath away how amazingly disciplined these women have to be, and that's after my hardcore senior year of college when I lost 15lbs in a semester! Now that I'm married and the gym isn't an easy walk from my house, I have trouble sticking to what used to be an easy 5-day a week schedule of exercise. Not to mention that our non-cooling refrigerator doesn't let me keep the supplies to make salads for most of my dinners. (Poor wilted lettuce. I hate to throw you away.) Besides, when you're the one cooking hash browns or mac and cheese, it's hard not to partake.

Nina and Danielle, my metaphorical hat is off to you both. Keep being amazing!