Friday, January 2nd
I sinned, I did a long run today (half hour I think).
Followed by drills (A skips, B skips, running A’s), following by a few strides (the latter sentence of course I don’t consider a sin).
Main reason: I’m in Athens to see some friends, and they were doing long runs, so I did one too.
Peer pressure… !
2 questions
if the answers are no, yes then who cares? 
You have a point, but my OCD has another 
Ok, I’m ready, the answer is: all good =)
Saturday, January 5th
OFF
Sunday, January 4th
35min isometrics
Dilemma of the weekend: Carry on VIOLIN or TENNIS rackets to Italy this coming week?
After much debate and weighing, the tennis rackets actually have won. Bobby (the violin) will spend some more alone time. He must hate me by now actually, I’ve been treating him like a forgotten friend since my teacher died. But I will get back to him full-time when I feel like it. Right now I really don’t.
Other things are in my mind, much stronger…
… you’re funny John
{Introduction: sorry for my English}
What a nice song .
Stefanie I hope you enjoyed the 3 days you spent in Athens. I also wish you your romance be something very good, health and very strong. As I know the “other side” feels the same and even more .
About your training now. As I see your “long run style” is very good. Did you ever think to be an mid-distance athlete? 
This is getting interesting ;).
Thank you Dejan =)
You never mentioned that in person.
I’ve never really considered it, except for my university track coach who trained me for middle distance - which I disliked - (and she had me race 400s and 200s… brilliant :o)
Monday, January 5th
[i]Today being the last chance to see some friendly faces at the indoor track downtown, I decided to do some training there.
I will surely miss my unofficial “training partner” (when i’m on the track), a top Greek 400m guy.His coach has been very kind to me, I also trained with her for 5 months back in 2004.
The two of them are very funny, quarrelsome, gossipy, and superstitious… a pleasure to train with =)
My friend was doing 80m sprints, during the second set he felt suddenly extremely tired, describing it like his eyeballs fell out of his sockets.
Coach: “the evil eye has hit you !!!” So she proceeded into dismissing the evil eye, by saying 7 "Our Father"s. Then they both started yawnin; a clear sign that the evil eye was successfully going away.
Sprinting session got finished there. [/i]
I did:
Much socializing in between everything. Funny how everyone seems so so nice when you only see them after a long time! =)
In the weight room, to kill time while my ride finished his session:
No isometrics today.
On another note, my family got two puppies, half German Shepherds, I am in love with Laika and Loui, they are three months old and they are BEAUTIFUL … and I get to play with them only till Wednesday… 
Tuesday, January 6th
Packing day. Believe how strenuous this is. Half a day thinking about it… one hour doing it… Then re-thinking about it, discussing it, re-doing it, dismissing things mom kept giving, deciding between watercolors, oil paints, and egg temperas for first-need art supplies. Which reminds me… i packed no paper! Oh my.
I fit my rackets in the luggage, I hope they don’t break.
And for music, the pocket harmonica will suffice…
And today reminded me I have brand new wonderful spikes I need to break in soon… Hopefully soon enough to make Stef track-happy.
Today was packing day for L as well …3 days 
Wednesday, January 7th
3mile run on the track to start with.
Boringgg…. I kept track of my laps by moving one lane to the left after every lap (started on lane 6), and then back out again. So technically I ran more than 3 miles, wow.
Travel day.
Long plane delay …… almost a 3 hour wait due to a snow storm in Milan.
But I went home and slept instead of waiting there. And ate some more home-food, because I knew it would be a while until my next mommy-cooked meal =(
My sister is so much fun… how on earth are we not going to hang out now …
Did I mention she broke her cast 2 weeks before it was due? I am trying to get her to avoid her compensation pattern limp and speed up her healing process, but I think the doctors have convinced her that this will take at least 6 weeks.
Uncomfortable plane ride, my stomach has been a mess the past few days. I have been ignoring it, only today was too sharp.
Met some nice people on this flight (all Greek). A pharmacy-student, another something-student, a third political science student, and a Man (don’t know the Man’s name).
But the Man was funny.
The luggage took about an hour to arrive. I learned during the wait though that if I were to take a taxi, to tell the taxi driver in advance that I know how much the ride would cost, otherwise he would rip me off badly. But no thank you anyway, the shuttle bus saved me 80 euros, and avoidance of negative energy creation =)
There’s freakin much snow in Milan! It snowed 45cm today. When I was in Athens, one of the days was a short-sleeve weather day.
[i]After the luggage arrived, I looked for the shuttle, which cost 7 euros.
Then the Man showed up, and he asked me if I knew the price.
I said 7 euros.
Then he himself asks the driver what the price is. The driver asks “how many people are you?”
Man turns to me, half smiling, half pissed, and says “how one earth does he charge, by the kilo?”
Man tells the driver “we’re more than one”. (just to see what answer he gets).
Driver says “5 euro”.
I ask the Man laughing “hey, why don’t I join your group”.
Man tells me our bus was illegal cause the driver handed no tickets.
Driver also refused to give change, and if he had to, he got all upset and yelled. I don’t understand what he is going to do with all those five-euro bills now. But they formed a thick thick pack…
Another guy with OCD… ha.
Funny ride =)[/i]
[i]At the Central Station a man tried to steal my bags. I karate chopped him and left him unconscious.
Ok no, the above was a joke… [/i]
I went to my temporary hotel, and then I got scared. Nothing wrong with the hotel … I just felt homesick. So to familiarize myself in my new environment, I started doing isometrics, 35minutes of them. It didn’t really help.
Good thing there’s a large mirror in the room, I stared into it and wondered why I’m wasting minutes of my life being frightened. I found my powers into the reflective image of my face and also thanked God for a precious friend who made me feel heaps better =). Although I constantly strive for situations of unfamiliarity (or life finds them for me – all the time……), I still appreciate some kind and caring words…
Of course I talked with my mom as well, but I try not to worry her with my own worries, although she miraculously read my un-comfort and had my favorite psych-sister call me again later. And then again.
I wish I had internet. :mad:
So let me summarize the rest of training:
35min isometrics
Thursday, January 8th
[i]
No training today, just a lot of walking around, doing tons of bureaucratic things, that I highly despise, but did not let them bring m down > I turned myself into an apathetic mode with a flavor of confidence, and things worked out.
The most interesting part was talking with the secretary of my department who knew nothing but Italian.
I am really not in the mood and state to learn a new language, but apparently it is inevitable (I know they’re not working on their English anyway =).
My short term memory is really messed up since last year, so I cannot remember that easily new words that I hear…!!! I don’t have Alzheimer’s and I’m not that old, I swear!
Things are very unsettling at the moment, and I am more homesick. But I am growing.
(The last phrase I just threw in there to make me feel better). [/i]
Friday, January 9th
[i]More paper work. I don’t even remember what I did today. I just remember that there is more paper work to be done on Monday… Ahhh… Codice fiscale, then a tax form, then open a bank account, then at the Uni to fill another form. Are there people to hire for this kind of stuff??
I met a Brazilian guy today, his tip of the day was: “Stop everyone on the street and talk to them. Someone will help you”.
Actually that was funny, because today people were stopping ME to help me… One guy saw me reading my map while trying to find a street, and he asked me if I needed any help. So nice![/i]
A little later, another helping man… I was again reading my map, a smiling man stopped me and started talking so fast, I had no idea what he was saying… He knew some Greek words too. And English. He explained he was trying to be funny before. I never found out the joke!!
He wanted my phone number to call me later, good thing he asked in Italian, so I just pretended I didn’t understand =D
I went to the Small Collosseum arena for some training. The whoooollllle track was covered with snow, except for the outer lane. Neat =)
5 laps jogging
10x10m @50%
10x10m @75%
10x10m@100%
(all good =))
4x60m@90-95%
4x60m@<90%(trying to find some better form)
(I couldn’t feel my fingers by the end of this, but that’s ok… )
p.s. Don’t ask about my training plans just yet…
Classes start if not next Friday, the following week.
I am still homesick. But that’s ok…
I should start drawing again soon.
Track saves…
You are an amazing, brave young woman Stef, I have no doubt your parents are very proud of you.
I was thinking the very same thing! Keep smiling all is good
Hey watch out with all the compliments, guys. We don’t want Stef to go all soft and mushy on us. 
I think every 19th page of my journal, they are allowed … and needed…
Thank you !
Considering how everyone on this board feels about you, I don’t think that further compliments can be held off for another 19 pages.
:o so nice…
After all, all this positive energy helped; today was a much better day (From the second half on…)
Saturday, January 10th
Let me prioritize though: TRAINING:
At the university track (this track has the two inner lanes shoveled, and they did a bad job with the backstraight ).
Soooo cold. I was glad for my gloves.
I decided to do some conditioning, tempo-style.
I met some very nice guys at the computer room today, I found out they play ping pong, and theres a ping pong room in the building, so I immediately organized a tournament for tomorrow
Sunday, January 11th
I went for a leisure-long run ,for the sake of checking out what"s on the major street I live on for the time being… (i have NO idea where the apostrophe is on this computer… and ANY computer in Italy…)
20min run to the park, then I stopped and walked for 10minutes there.
I don"t know what kind of neighborhood I was running in, but there must have been a lot of running fans there… people calling out italian phrases while I passed by… I wouldnt think I were the first running person they saw in their lives.
15min run back
(I think I didn"t enjoy my “going” experience, and decided to cut this short… )
Very cold.
Ping Pong session postponed …
[i]I ve been sleeping a LOT lately… Last night was 11 hours. But that s less than John"s son, who slept for 24 :rolleyes:…
Early day tomorrow… [/i]
I had more to say, but I forgot.
Monday, January 12th
Early morning. My room is COLD. The only time I feel warm is when I am doing isometrics.
So I started my day with
10min isos (arms)
Walking about 5 hours all morning :eek:
I felt jumpy all the way… where have I found the energy?
Afternoon Track: this makes me happy…
> Warm up with some skipping, arm swings, 3-4 striders, no jogging…
> w/spikes on:
10x10m @50%
10x10m @75%
10x10m @100%
(all good) > all walk back recoveries
> 2 x 60m @>95%, slow walk back recovery
then walk a lap slowlyyy
> 2 x 60m @>95%, slow walk back recovery
I think I decided to enter Indoor Greek Nationals: February 14-15th. I might book my ticket tomorrow…
Do or do not do…