Reading, Running, and More!

Hey everyone!
Hope you are all doing well! I sure am!

Since you last heard from me quite a bit has happened in school, running, and reading!

School wise I have made my way through a test in each class, each went pretty well, I am still waiting for the geology one to come back. Astronomy was the first test, and that went pretty well. There was one problem that I misinterpreted and didn’t go as well as it could and should have, but as a whole things went well. It still continues to be the challenging course of the quarter, but it is interesting to learn about the constellations, and to be able to find certain ones in the sky that I couldn’t find before. Physics has been a pretty straightforward class. It is sort of a joke to be honest, as on the tests you get to use your book notes and homework (which is done in class for us). So obviously this test went really well. Geology is still going well. We have a lab with a stratiographic profile due this week. It continues to go well, and as I said the test hasn’t come back yet, but I know it went well.

Running has continued to be good. April is coming to an end, and I am a little over 100 miles for the month, with one more day of running left (probably 5 miles or so). Next weekend is Bloomsday! I am excited! I have finally decided on a plan of attack for my race strategy. There really won’t be one. As you all know my marathon plans are in full swing and I have been training for a string of 5 of them for a while now. I am going to go out and run 20 miles on Saturday and then just run Bloomsday, possibly staying with Duard who will be visiting Saturday and Sunday, or starting as near Michael who is crashing on our couch Friday night having arrived from the Virgin Islands, that night. It’s going to be a great weekend, busy, but great!

As far as athletic enterprises are concerned I am also embarking (starting Tuesday) on and Ironman adventure during the month of May. Those who have had conversations with me will know I have stated that I will never do an Ironman. This is true, to do all of that in one day (all of that being 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and 26.2 miles of running) is pretty close to insane. I have run two marathons, and I know that that would not be fun after the swimming and biking. I have teamed up with four friends and we will begin to compete in Ironmay, a competition to complete as many Ironmans over the course of the month as we can. I will undertake a good chunk of the running, while the others focus namely on the swimming and biking. I will update you all on how the event is going and goes throughout May and at the end of May!

Reading is about to become very frontal in my life. This quarter I already finished the 4th book of the Gregor the Overlander series. I forgot the final book at home over spring break, but my dad is bringing it to me this next week when he comes to visit! I also finished Jodi Picoult’s latest book Lone Wolf. It was a great read delving into the topic of vegetable states, and what constitutes one, and who should be the one in charge of making such a life altering decision, the son who abandoned you for 6 years, or the daughter who has been your life, but is still a minor at 17. Jodi Picoult often undertakes difficult topics and surrounds them with a wonderful story, telling it splendidly. Recently I worked my way around Amazon’s shipping policies to have one of the three books coming my way arrive early. I got it on Friday, and finished it yesterday. Brothers to the Death by Darren Shan finished up the vampire saga (no where near the Twilight realm). This Saga has 4 books (Saga of Larten Crepsley) that make up a prequel series to the larger 12 book series (that I read first) Cirque du Freak. It was obviously a great read and one I finished quickly. I have two more books coming this week the second book in the Brotherband Chronicles (Tuesday) and the final book in the Kane Chronicles (Thursday). Both continue series that I have been reading and come from a couple of my favorite authors (John Flanagan and Rick Riordan respectively). I am looking forward to reading them!

That is all for now, I have recently updated my running blog nobachingdown.wordpress.com if you care to take a look at that!

Until then,
Brandon
brandonnobach.wordpress.com
nobachingdown.wordpress.com

School and Running

Hey all!
I hope you all have had a great few weeks since you last heard from me! I know that I have been terrible at updating you all on my life, and I hope to try and do a bit better in the coming quarter.

A quick recap (because I don’t think I did it) of last quarter. It was easily one of the hardest quarters I have ever had with constantly getting minimal sleep, and studying at all hours of the day. It all ended well though. I passed all of my courses. I got a 3.7 in my Weather and Climate class (which was a bit of a surprise) because I didn’t have a lot of spare time to study for the final (I got a 70% on it), and it didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked. It was my highest grade though! My math course which got the most of my attention was my next best class with a 3.5. I attribute this to the great study group we had last quarter, it really helped because I was able to get through all the homework and myself help to teach the others. Going through it a second time wasn’t a bad thing either. Geology also saw a bit of a depletion because of the hefty amounts of time I spent with my math group. I ended with a 3.2 in the course, but I am not upset about that. I learned a lot and am ready to move forward into this quarter.

This quarter has started off pretty well. My most demanding class has been astronomy, but it’s been great to learn a little more about the place we live. I can now identify quite a few of the constellations in the zodiacs by sight, at least the one’s up now, as well as I have seen Mars a couple of times. Geology is going well with this quarter’s topic being historical geology. We have been taking a look at fossils of late and are learning a bit about the rock record. It’s been fairly low key so not much to say about it just yet! Physics is also a bit of a challenge, but the labs are what they were a year ago when I took the first sections of it and are a bit ridiculous to say the least, probably didn’t even need to be there last week to complete the lab.

Running continues to go well. My knees have seen little pain, the left is non existent. The right is often tight and could use some true deep tissue massages all the way around, but with some strengthening and massaging of my own I have seen little problem and completed a 16 mile run yesterday on a gorgeous day! I have also started a couple of courses that see some yoga, biking, and TRX (a suspension class based solely on your body weight to complete the exercises.

As far as a running schedule so you all know of the races coming up I have a race next Sunday the Susan G. Kommen Race for the Cure 5k in hopes of qualifying for Bloomsday Second Seeding. Two weeks after that is Bloomsday itself! I haven’t quite figured out my racing strategy for it. As much as I would love to go under my 48:10 from a couple of years, I don’t quite have the speed I did then (or a year ago) and also have focused on my long runs quite exclusively lately. At the end of May I hope into what is marathon season for myself. I start with Coeur D’Alene over Memorial Day weekend, 4 weeks later I hop into Seattle Rock and Roll at the end of June, and two weeks after that one complete the standards to join the Marathon Maniacs upon completing the Missoula Marathon in early July. I may run up in Bellingham a week later the Windhorse Half Marathon. In September I have set up a schedule to visit North and South Dakota (in the reverse order) for the Sioux Falls and Bismarck Marathons! Rounding out the season about 3-4 weeks later with the Spokane half marathon! Hoping for a personal record in that last one! That then drops me smack into 5k season, but we can get back to that in 5 or 6 months!

Quite a lot of racing ahead of me! Something I am excited for! I look forward to hearing from some of you!

Until the next time,
Brandon
brandonnobach.wordpress.com
nobachingdown.wordpress.com

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