i'm back! did i ever leave???

hey there! as you may have guessed from my relative absence on the blogging scene, the semester has begun. (have i mentioned before that i'm a ph.d. student in rhetoric?) alas, school may have curtailed my blogging but it has NOT curtailed my running. after some hills and valleys, training is going well. let's see, where to begin?

several weeks ago, i had an MRA on my pesky tumor and the tests came back "inconclusive." the tumor doesn't seem to be squishing my artery - GREAT NEWS! - but my calf still goes numb sometimes for no apparent reason. the doctor doesn't think i'm doing any damage but asked, "why don't you just switch to swimming?" thanks doc! that was definitely a bump in the road.

however, i'm putting my graduate education to work and, after reading about "the social construction of disease" in my biocultures course, i decided to make friends with my tumor and we've been running relatively well together ever since.

other than that, i'm into week 15 - FIFTEEN?!?! - of my training: my times are definitely looking better; my long runs feel great; and my FABULOUS coach bridget got me over a case of the MAJOR pre-race jitters. you know, those chuck 15 weeks of training out the window jitters.

thanks for the love! more to come...