Acid water can't stop me, almost

It has been raining the WHOLE day. I was hoping for nicer weather for my last 3 days here.
I hate rain. I don't like running in rain, biking in rain, swimming in rain, dancing in rain, I don't like anything that involves rain.

But little bit (ok, a lot) of water won't stop me, right? Eventhough it is acid water.

I did all I was supposed to do but it was not enjoyable as much as it would have been had it not rained.
2 hours on a bike in rain is not a lot of fun, but it is still fun, just not a lot of fun. And it is dangerous I suppose. I was supposed to keep my HR between 155 and 166 and there is no place to do aerobic ride like that other than PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). It is ok during weekends but there are quite a lot of cars on week days. And solo rider in a rain is a nice invisible moving target. I waited till 11ish hoping that the morning madness will be over. At the end, it was not that bad traffic-wise and I am alive.
Keeping the HR was hard at first, I had to ride over 20miles/hour to keep it over 155! I realized why when I turned around - wind. Tailwind made my ride out pretty easy, which unfortunately meant terrible headwind on my way back. Some parts I was hardly moving and I spent almost the whole ride back down in the drops.
By then I got a pretty good feeling of what effort translates to 155-166 range, so it was much better/enjoyable than at the beginning when I had to experiment and concentrate too much on my HRM.

I was soaked and frozen by the end though. So I took 20 min to change to dry cloths and defrost and off I went for my 7.5 miler. Which was pretty uneventful apart from the fact that I got soaked and cold again. I wanted to do 8 miles but the ITB started to act up a bit at the end so I called it a day at 7.5. (I have 10miler planned for Sunday, the longest I have run since the end of June, but if ITB does not feel good the whole time I might cut it short)

I took 30min hot shower to defrost and it felt good!

And now comes the whimpy part. I had to go to school to return some books to the library. And I took a bus. Horrible I know, I have never taken a bus to school. But I had already been soaked and frozen two times today and I was running out of dry cloths and shoes. I am a whimp, I know.
But I walked back. Now I have 3 pairs of wet sneakers and couple pants and shirts and jackets hanging around my room to dry.
I also have a new book. Borders in the neighborhood is closing down (I have heard that it was the 2nd one in the area in last year:() and they have 40-60% sale. I usually do not buy books because they are expensive and heavy and I can't take them with me when I move. But I figured that for my flight home I will probably buy a magazine and that will cost me almost the same as a book on sale so I went inside.

At first I was thinking about getting Run less, Run faster because everyone seems to be talking about it. But then I figured that I do not need it. To me it seems like a book for someone who is her own coach and need some info. For now I am 100% putting my running career into my coach's hands (no pressure there, of course:)) so I could not make myself justify spending money on it.

I did not find any books about mental strength for runners...so I got a book called The woman triathlete. Not that I am not putting myself 100% into my coach's hands (no pressure there, neither:)), but since I know nothing about triathlons, little bit of info for $10 won't hurt.

And I also got Running with the Buffaloes. I actually started reading it in the store and I loved it! So I bought it, although I know how it will finish:) (Adam Goucher wins XC titles, I guess everyone knows it because people keep talking about how he used to be a great collegiate athlete, but has never run to his potential afterwards and has been overshadowed by his wife and blahblahblah.) But there is a lot of good info in it.
When I was sophomore (or junior, I don't remember) our coach made us read Fast track by Suzy Favor Hamilton and I liked it a lot although it is more like info book, no story or anything. The freshmen were supposed to read Running with the Buffaloes. I wonder why the upperclassmen were not...Anyway, they seemed to like it so I wanted to get it and this was a perfect time.


You remember that race I won couple weeks ago and I was supposed to receive some great prizes? So I finally received sneakers in mail today. They are not the ones I was supposed to receive (these are cheaper) but fit perfectly and look very nice, but I am not sure whether they are real running sneakers. Nowadays running sneakers are way too fashionable and I cannot distinguish between what is good for running and what is just to make you look cool.
But truth to be told I was more excited about the hair cut. I can get sneakers for myself but I cannot get hair cut. I can get haircut of course, but not in "atelier" in Beverly Hills where George Clooney gets his haircuts:) So I sent email to race organizers and asked them whether there is a way to get other prizes to me by Sunday since I am leaving the US on Monday. And race director wrote me back that he can stop by tomorrow and bring me my prizes. I am really curious to see whether he indeed comes tomorrow. And even if he brought my prizes I might not be able to get that haircut since you need an appointment:( But I will try.
If I won't be able to do it, I just hope that my roommate will be able to use it instead of me because it would be such a waste.

And btw, I managed to get all paperwork for visa permission and sent it to the agency. Now I only need to wait whether they approve it and then whether I get visa. So another thing off my mind. I also need to get approval from my school and I have 2 days to get it (Mon and Tue) - unfortunately I will be traveling on those two days so I am little stressed about it. But I am hoping it will work out.