Re-grouping!!!

1, I signed up for 10k race next Saturday. So game is on. I am sure I can PR. Come on, I can do 2 20min efforts. CAN I???
And how hard will it be to PR since it will be my first 10k road race? :) Because I was told by someone that 10k and 10 000m are very different. And even if they were the same, I am sure I can PR.
I was not sure whether to wait to sign up or not, but then I saw on the website that you cannot pick up the packet the day before unless you sign up before Dec 2 (I just hope then meant on or before Dec 2, since today is the 2nd). And I do not want to deal with picking up the packet at 6am in the morning...Waiting in a line in very early morning and all that before a race. Just does not seem right to me, especially since this one is little bit further than other two races and I have to bike 6 miles this time. It sucks. I wish I had car for similar situations.

2, Races in the US are soooo expensive! But to be honest, I have no idea how much races anywhere else cost. I just know that the race I want to do in December at home is 5Euros. But considering the fact that I have earned almost 10x more doing the same job for the same company in the US than I have earned in Slovakia, there is no wonder it is so cheap.
But let's just say that I cannot race more than once a month and even that is a huge stretch on my wallet.

3, My classes will be over this time next week! YAY!!!! Can't wait. Now I only need to survive finals period.
Semester will be over and I will go home for Xmas but I am not that excited. I am kinda indifferent, I would not mind staying here and doing my thing. I talked to my mom today and she told me that she can't wait to see me, which means that she will probably want to hug me, a lot. And my sister who is more hugs-friendly will not be there (she is going to Brazil with her roommate, traitor) so I will be the only child in the house:(
We are going to spend the holidays in a vacation house my parents have. It is by the lake and in mountains so if it freezes and we get snow I can go skiing and skating with my dad, but if not, it is just boring. And it means no bike and swim for over a week, grrrrr! But the place is tons of fun in summer.
And my grandmom might come with us. Spending 24/7 with my mom AND my grandmom... Don't get me wrong, I love my family but enough is enough:)

4, I have a phone interview tomorrow (or something similar, I am not sure what it is supposed to be) for internship with the Michigan company I already worked for last summer. Keep your fingers crossed. Although going to Michigan for winter is not one of my dearest dreams, it is better than nothing. Plus I LOVE the company.

5, One other person had a similar bug I did last week and she told me she had the same problem with workouts. LSD was ok, but once she tried something that required more and prolonged effort, she was done. And I have the same problem. So it is only the bug.
I am not going to (or at least try to) freak out about missed workouts because there is really nothing I can do about it:(

6, Since easier aerobic activity is fine, I swam and ran today.
My first planned and thought-through triathlon swim workout! It was not anything spectacular, only some kick and stroke drills and easy 100s (or were they supposed to be harder?). And let me tell you, it will take me couple more lengths to get good enough so that the lifeguard does not want to jump after me any moment because he can't distinguish whether I am doing drills or simply drowning. But it was fun. My poor legs and arms. But that's what they need.
And I did it in a 50m pool. UCLA is awesome in this respect. I have never swum in 50m pool before. I usually go to only 25m/yards pool because those are right in the middle of the campus. This one is little bit further. I had time today so I went there. Well, I did not really have time since I have 1 paper due tomorrow, 2 home take finals due Monday, 1 presentation on Wednesday and a 30-page long paper due Dec 20th. But who cares? Good thing is that all my in-class exams are over and now is it only this "easy" paper/presentation/home-take stuff.

I also run 6 easy miles.
And I took the heart rate monitor with me just for the heck of it. I was doing my usual easy pace run and once in a while look at the watch and it was always in 80-85% range, which is kinda high, right? I am no expert though. But I have read that above 80% is considered moderately hard.
I do not know at what pace I was running but it seems that if I wanted to keep the HR below 70% I would have to walk, or rather sit on a coach and watch the most boring movie ever - silent black and white French movie with English subtitles. Does not make much sense, but believe me, such movie exists. I have once watched it and probably won't do it again.
In addition, my max HR is probably little bit higher than 194 since I have been exercising in past few (20+) years.
And I am not that great about hard/recovery/in-between paces in general. My marathon pace was the same as my easy recovery runs pace:) You see, I told you, I am not an expert.