I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and will have a safe holiday season. It looks like things are going to be a little more difficult in Rhode Island for the next couple of weeks, as we are being put on pause. This includes shutting the gyms down. It’s upsetting to me that the gyms are being treated as recreation and not health and fitness. I could see if there were outbreaks or cases reported at the gyms, but as far as we know, there haven’t been any. But, I’m not gonna go on about that. Adriana and I covered this at great length last podcast episode, which is Episode 41 if you haven’t checked it out yet.
I just wanted to check in, and keep consistent in putting out content.
We’ll start out with a little running news for me. I’ve found that if I my runs are less than 4 days apart, my ankle really flares up. And now that it’s getting colder out, it hurts even more. So I’ve been careful, and found a balance that is working for me now. I have been running once a week – usually on Saturdays, and my running has been improving. My last couple of runs were a series of three 18 minute runs with a 1 minute walk in between. Last week, I did 4.57 miles in that time, averaging 12:31 a mile. On my last run, it was 4.60 miles, averaging 12:25 a mile.
My goal is to get at least under 10 minutes a mile. I’m getting there slowly but surely. This is the first time in years that I’ve been able to run this late into the Fall, so hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself, and I can keep it up through the winter.
Additional Training
Since I’m running only once a week, I do other training exercises. Now this is going to be more difficult with the gym closing. But, I have already been doing exercises at home, so I’ll keep that up. Adriana has a list of exercises for me to do. I have also been using a cool app called Lose Weight, which I have mentioned on the podcast a couple of times. It’s just 7-9 minutes of short exercises that are great and not overwhelming. And I am also using an app called Plank Workout. Just like the Lose Weight app, it doesn’t take long. There are a few different front planks you do, and a side plank on each side, and a cobra stretch to close out.
And now Adriana will be doing her Corona Yoga on Facebook and Instagram, so I’ll give that a shot too. Last week when I weighed in, I had lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks. So I definitely want to keep going in that direction.
School Update
And on some additional positive news in my life, I just finished up another course in school, and got an A! If you are not aware, I am finally on the path I should be on, and am pursuing a Masters degree in Creative Writing. I have been going since August 2019. I take one course a semester, and they are 10 weeks long.
There was something that happened inside of me when I got this last grade. I listen to a lot of personal growth podcasts. And a lot of them have episodes on Imposter Syndrome. I could never imagine having that. I couldn’t understand how somebody could be good or great at something and not realize it.
Well, as I’m going for my Master’s degree, I’ve been getting A’s on everything. This semester I took Fiction Fundamentals. In this class, we had to develop a short story. It would be peer reviewed by the professor and fellow classmates a couple of times, then you make changes and improve it. The story I wrote was called “Earthquake.” It is a Young Adult (or YA) story that takes place in a high school. The main character has been getting bullied, and finally fights back, but then gets sent to the principal’s office along with the bully. As they are in the office, a devastating earthquake strikes, and the main character and bully need to team up to rescue their classmates that are trapped. I had experienced, nay lived through, nay survived the Great Quake of ’89 in the Bay Area of California, the one most people remember happening at the World Series that year. So I was able to use that experience to describe the earthquake itself.
Anyway, I got all high A’s, if not perfect scores through this whole semester. And back to the imposter syndrome. Instead of being proud and happy, my mind would go to a place where I thought the instructor must be mailing it in. I could probably write a bunch of scribble, and I’d get an A. Then on my final assignments of the course, the professor wrote this.
Well first I should say that every Thursday we had to write a discussion on a topic for that week. Then by Sunday, we had to respond to two classmates.
So on the last discussion post, I got another perfect score and this is what the professor said:
Overall, you did a great job with the front part of the post, Paul! Then he got into specifics about my post. He said:
I also really appreciated your responses to your peers, Paul! Throughout the course of the term, you were such a generous and compassionate community member to your fellow writers, and I always appreciated the depth of your exploration. Very well done!
And then on my final paper he said:
Overall, you did a great job with this final project, Paul! And a terrific job with the course overall! You should be very proud of everything you’ve accomplished this term. It was such a pleasure and privilege working with you in this course and having the chance to read your work and witness your story’s growth and development. I wish you the best success in all your endeavors, Paul! Be well and thrive!
For some reason, those responses had an effect on me. I realized that this is what I should be doing and what I was meant to do. I was thinking that maybe I am really that good. This isn’t high school or community college. This is a freakin’ Master’s degree and I’m killing it, and actually almost perfect. So, I finally accepted the fact that I’m good.
Now I’m on to a class called American Renaissance. I don’t get to make up my own stories in this class. But, it will be a lot of reading. I will be reading stories from 1820-1865. First up was Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hallow.”
Return to the ’80s News
I have exciting news on the ’80s front. I landed an interview with the great Stan Bush! He is a great rock musician who plays a ton of inspirational songs. He has a new album coming out, so we will be covering that. But for ’80s fans, Stan Bush is best known for the song “The Touch” from the 1986 Transformers movie.
His new album is called Dare to Dream. To give you an idea of how great and positive his music is (and not to mention how great it is to workout or run to), some of the song titles besides the title track are, “Born to Fight,” “The Times of Your Life,” “Dream Big,” “True Believer,” and “Never Give Up.” And they are as good as they sound. The album is on Spotify if you’d like to check it out.
So, I will be preparing for that podcast as well as putting out another Journey of the Rhode Runner podcast episode, and will be guesting on the Liz Laugh Cry podcast. And I will continue school, and continue working on my memoir which should be a lot of fun! And My Music Journey posts will continue soon. It’s going to be a busy season!
I’ll be back on here soon. In the meantime, I will see you all out on the Rhode!
