7 June - 13 June (IL)

Monday

3 mi run. It was pouring rain outside so I did this on the treadmill. Felt pretty good.

Tuesday

Rest day, so no run. However, we did bike to downtown, around to a couple of different places, and back home, for a total of ~18 mi.

Wednesday

2 mi run. iirc, I came back and did some weights afterwards.

Thursday

3 mi run. I felt good today because I stepped outside and thought, "Ahh.. it's hot.. this run is going to suck," but it actually went really well! Maybe I'm getting used to the heat a little bit. Weights in the evening, as I watched part of stage 6 on TV.

I think we officially moved in completely today. We unpacked the last of our stuff and got IL drivers licenses. Wow what a surprisingly great experience that was! I looked up the address of the DMV online, and I figured we'd go downtown and spend several hours at least... but we went through in less than an hour! And what's better, unlike CA and TX, they print out your new ID and give it to you right away.

As we were leaving, we saw a blood donation center, and since this week we can finally give blood again (1 year and 1 wk ago we were in malaria-prone areas of Mexico) we decided to drop in. Charlie gave blood like the manly man he his; unfortunately I had to bail. So I apparently have really small veins that are hard to find. Every time I give blood or get an IV, the nurse makes some comment about this. She does, however, always manage to find one. At this clinic though... so the lady spends a long time trying to find a vein in my left arm, and eventually decides to go for one in the middle. By this time my arm is already pretty uncomfortable from the tourniquet, but you know, whatever.. there's a little discomfort involved in giving blood, right? Anyway she gets the needle and stabs it in there... no blood. She pulls back and tries again... still nothing. She literally digs around in my arm for about 30 seconds (felt like forever), my arm is totally numb, and eventually I say, "let's just try the other arm... please?" She pulls out and tourniquets the right arm and starts feeling around. After a little while she locates something, calls a coworker over for a second opinion and asks--and I quote--"Do you think this one will hold?" Okay... the other lady feels it. "Oh yeah, if you can get it then it should be fine. Do you think you can get it?" My nurse turns to me and asks if I want to just come back later and try again on the left arm, as I had casually suggested earlier. I figure, if I have no confidence in her anymore, and she has no confidence in getting that right arm... I'll just say I'm coming back "next week" (I'll be in TX next week). Oh, and as a last painful reminder to never come back to this place again, she manages to wipe the alcohol swab right over my puncture wound as she's cleaning up. Gee, thanks lady.. you're so thoughtful.

Friday

1.5 mi run

Saturday

No run, did some biking instead. I went up north to deposit graduation $$ in an ATM, and then downtown to check out the main CPL library. Worked out to be about 20 miles. I got some audio books for the trip down to TX, plus Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. Perhaps by coincidence, someone had left a prayer card in the book. It reminded me of those billboards in Kansas and Oklahoma that are placed right in front of a porn shop and say "JESUS LOVES PORNOGRAPHY KILLS" or whatever. Not that Alison Bechdel qualifies as pornography...

Sunday

4 mi run with some weights afterwards. watched ricco kick ass on a mountain stage. finally starting to feel like i'm back in shape