Back to School and Running

Well hello everyone! First allow me to apologize for being two weeks into the quarter and not telling you I made it safely back over the passes of Washington to find myself safe in Cheney, although I’d venture to say our weather situation now is much worse than it was two weeks ago. I hope all of you on the West Side are enjoying the copious amounts of snow that has fallen on you over the past week, we finally got some this week as well, after what had so far been an abysmal winter season! I don’t enjoy the snow as much as I did when I was a kid, but I did play in it today with one of my roommates!  Anyways I hope that you all had a great Christmas and New Years! I know I did! This year’s break was a bit odd as I had a lot more time after New Year’s which I got to spend in a wonderful classroom! I was in observing a friends classroom, 4th Grade, for a school requirement here. I really enjoyed being with the students and allowing her to have an extra set of hands in the room. I spent a good deal of time helping with math and writing, as well as just connecting with the kids. A good experience.  Upon my return I wasted no time returning to the daily motions of my life. A reminder of the classes I have this quarter are as follows: Bloomsday Preconditioning, Geology (Surficial Processes), Weather and Climate, and History of Math. Those new to my newsletter will soon find out how much I enjoy Bloomsday Preconditioning, it is a 7 AM running class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday that I have taken for the past few years. It’s a great class despite how crazy it might sound! Geology is a follow up to the Geology class that I loved last quarter! So far it’s been a fantastic course! Weather and Climate is enjoyable in the fact that I get a weather update from a guy who is typically spot on with his weather predictions (I had him for an Oceanography course last year). Last week I was spouting off things that my professor had said about the ensuing weather that has tormented all of us this week. He had stated that it wouldn’t be more than some drizzle, we might have gotten some snow here, but you on the West Side, you were going to get your common rain! He was wrong obviously, something that I would attribute more to the very hard nature of weather predicting and the constantly changing systems that make up the weather, than his ability to read the charts, but I digress. History of Math is a course that I took last year and did quite horribly in. Ever the need to continue the education though I find myself once again in the course this time hoping to do much much better.  The first two weeks of this quarter have been a good start, not strenuous, but fairly manageable. I started back working again, but with limited hours two days a week, as that’s what best fit my schedule as well as my bosses. I have actually only had two days of running in my Bloomsday class because this first day is always syllabus day, a special set of circumstances the following Friday (I will get to those), the holiday this past Monday, and a cancellation today. Running hasn’t been really good for me the past month and a half or so, I am slowly again working back after a knee injury, although I will tell you I feel much better today than I did a week ago, I think because I actually forced the stretches on me instead of putting them off a bit after my workout. I will continue to do them right after I run, hopefully getting myself into the routine of doing this and getting back to what you all know as my crazy running self.  The special circumstances I mentioned above were braces. The first Thursday of the quarter I got a tooth pulled and braces put on! Just on the bottom and hopefully not on for too long. I have adjusted to a different type of eating and am coping just fine! However I did have to miss a day of Bloomsday Preconditioning which is always sad.  More on the running front to sort of lay out my races ahead. I have signed myself in recent weeks for Bloomsday in May, and secured my spot in the Coeur D’Alene Marathon after having to put it off last year due to my right knee injury. With just over 4 months to go until this race I am comfortable with building my base up enough compete in this one with ease. I am right now signed up for 3 marathons in 7 weeks. This qualifies me for the Marathon Maniacs, a highly esteemed group of fellow runners, who are as the name might imply Maniacs for the Marathon. Something I am obviously. The other two I am signed up for are the Seattle Rock and Roll in June and the Missoula Marathon in July. This adds two more states to the two I have already competed in, bringing my total up to 4. Other races coming up are a Resolution Run 5k held in a week on campus and the St. Paddy’s Day 5 miler that I hope I can find a ride to this year.  I feel as though I may be forgetting a usual piece to this letter. If I am I apologize and hope you will all bring it to my attention and hold me accountable!  Be safe! Drive safe! I believe the weather is calling for a warming of the temperatures across the state so rain is probably in your forecast to wash away all that snow!  See you all soon, Brandon nobachingdown.wordpress.com Brandonnobach.wordpress.com

Merry Christmas!

Wow!

Where has the time gone? I’ve been home a week and a half and haven’t stopped going! I am sorry that it has been so long since you have seen an update from me in your in boxes (or here on the blog if you read this here)! Anyways let’s get to the meat! I finished strong in the quarter. I don’t remember what the last update mentioned about anything the one on the blog is from November 7th, and a lot has happened since then! Of course since I am home that means that the quarter finished up and it was one of the best quarters for my grades! There had been some doubt as to how well I would actually finish in Geology after having done well on the last two tests (overall a 75%, 98%, and 94% on tests with a 95% in the lab). That 75% is the one that I was worried about bringing me down a little bit. Each of those percents being worth 20% of the total grade left 20% to the final. Well overall I finished with a 4.0, most likely because of the improvement on the tests from the first one, and a full 100% on the final! 80/80! I was excited you guys should be too! My education classes also went well. I finished with 4.0′s in all the classes that gave grades (Management and Assessment) and passed my 200 course (pass/fail grade).

A lot has happened in my running life. I am once again battling knee injury, this time in the left knee. I can run every few days with a day or two off in between! So hopefully all heals up quickly! I have run my two Jingle Bell runs, Spokane and Seattle and those went off without any hitches!

I’ve gotten myself into the holiday spirit finally getting to hear some Christmas music with a few musical performances from friends (Casey Bodmer, the Children’s ministry at the church, and Kaylee Royer great job everyone!) I love this season!

Books! I have read through a few, most notably the Hunger Games. I didn’t head the advice soon enough! These books are simply amazing! I read the first two this last week and am hungrily (pun not intended) awaiting the third! If you haven’t read them do so now!

I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful new year! You probably won’t hear from me until I am tucked away in my apartment back in Cheney, battling the cold! Although it has been frosty here!

Take Care

Brandon

Brandonnobach.wordpress.com

Geology Test!

Hello Everyone!
Well it has been an interesting and crazy couple of weeks.

Many of you may have heard that I was back in Marysville the weekend before Thanksgiving. You all know that help in the summers and falls as a volunteer coach at the local high schools in Marysville. Well I was in town because of a loss on our cross country team. You probably heard of the accident that took place in Marysville and the loss of life that occurred. I was back in town for the funeral. The other two boys involved in the accident are doing well.

I was able to attend the district cross country meet that weekend as well and cheer on our girls as they attempted to make it as a team to the state meet, and also our sole representative at state this year Rachael as she qualified for the meet. I was also able to partake in our boys moving display of support for their teammate. I am extremely glad that I was able to make it back home for that weekend. It was exactly where I needed to be.

Life continues to be as it usually goes for me. Everything is going well, albeit at times stressful, especially this quarter. As you all know I am entering the education program this quarter and have had an assortment of paperwork to fill out in terms of where I might be placed (hopefully Cheney High for observations), and other things. Getting everything taken care of and also working on a schedule to set out my time left here at Eastern. This has been the most stressful part of the paperwork as I try to figure out where I can place classes that are only offered at certain times of the year. It would be wonderful to have one more Fall and Spring term available to me, for as of right now I am overloaded in both those quarters. I mentioned a possible summer term in my last email, and that is looking more and more like a possibility, although again, nothing has been set into stone at this point.

My other class, Geology is going extremely well. The labs get easier when I don’t have to do a lot of identifying of colors, but are overall a lot of fun to do. We just had our second test, which after the first test didn’t go as well as I would have liked I prepared more for. Having learned the style of the test (mostly fill in the blank and the short answers were easy to pick out what they would be) I prepared myself to take it and do well. I was in and out of the test on Thursday morning within 15 minutes. Now you may be saying, “Brandon, are you sure you did well in that short amount of time?” Yes. Yes, I am. I am fully confident in the test that I took the other day and am really looking forward to getting it back tomorrow. I do not believe that I missed anything, although I do know there was a possible margin of error for myself, I will let you know how it turns out.

Reading continues to go well as I bounce between books and never quite finish one. I did force myself to finish Jodi Picoults first novel though this weekend (I will bring it for you tomorrow Darcy). It was a good book and I was glad to be able to relate to a lot of the subjects that drove the narrative. Songs of the Humpback Whale has many geological and oceanic materials that peaked my interest, and are directly related to what I have learned and will learn in the coming years. I have now started another book by John Flanagan (author of the previous book The Lost Stories that I mentioned). This book is the start of a new young adult series that he is writing based on another area of the world his previous series, The Ranger’s Apprentice, was set. So far a few chapters in it is pretty good.

Running as always continues well. My knee injury is a thing of the past. Right now I am focusing on nothing in particular other than to simply build my base mileage back up again. I did end up hitting 100 miles for the first time since March in October, something that I was excited to do. I will probably do similar mileage over the next two months before delving into training for the Coeur D’Alene, Seattle Rock and Roll, and Missoula Marathons. With the completion of those three marathons I will be able to apply to the Marathon Maniacs, a group of other crazies like myself who run as many marathons as they can!

Well that’s a wrap! I hope each of you are doing well! I will be home again soon for Thanksgiving and then for a full month at Christmas time!
Brandon
brandonnobach.wordpress.com
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