Thilled To Be CAE

I secretly hoped and prayed that I might pass the CAE exam, but told everyone else -- and myself -- that I didn't think I would pass. But I passed the test!!!! I keep reading the notification letter over and over, just to confirm.

I am thilled to be CAE. This is a major career accomplishment.

It's Over

We were all told that nobody knows how they did at the end of the exam, and I certainly find this to be true. I can see that I'll have fun tormenting myself about this over in the coming weeks as I remember questions and my responses and wonder if I answered them correctly. I'm not expecting to pass. 'Twas the weeks before Christmas and visions of scantron sheets with red slashes dance through my mind. My mentor for the exam suggested that if I didn't pass, I should hit the books and try again during the next exam, stating that the material would still be fresh in my mind. If I choose that option, I'll take this goal underground.

I keep a running long, and I almost wish I'd kept a studying log because I'm curious as to just how many hours I've spent studying in preparation for this exam. The one good thing is that it's over.

Another Countdown

Kyrie Eleison
Down the road that I must travel
Kyrie Eleison
Through the darkness of the night
Kyrie Eleison
Where I'm going will you follow

--Mr. Mister

I'm knocking off domain after domain as I count down the weeks until the CAE exam on Dec. 7. I'm a little burned out on studying, which is one of my latest challenges. My study group is one of the things that keeps me going. The actual group meeting is simply a review for me as I get an outline of a domain I've already studied. I also know from talking to other people that I've done far more studying than most, being the perfectionistic individual that I am. But then again, I can't imagine just getting started in studying for this test with the sheer amount of specific information that must be kept in mind.

Things are getting a little crazy. I have an IEP meeting coming up for one kid, and the other decided he wants to join the Marines. We're a passionately anti-war family and we're hoping that he doesn't just go down to the recruiter's office and enlists the day he turns 18. My other hobby is completing college applications in hopes that he actually goes to college.

My exercise life has been practically non-existent. I haven't run regularly since the end of September. Then I took a week off from all exercise before and after the race. Now I'm having a hard time getting going again. For the first time since I started running 1.5 years ago, I've contemplated quitting. I took so much time off that I feel like my base is gone, which is discouraging. My PT said that I could do "two miles" and I didn't bother to ask whether that was each time or once a week. Part of me feels like going out on a run to see the leaves turning colors as the season changes. Another part of me feels like curling up on my couch with a twinkie, soda ... and my books. I want the stress relief and the endorphins, but I'm frustrated with my leg aching and having to start over again.

I'm having a hard time explaining to my co-workers what I've been doing during the weekend after they talk about their social events. I usually spend most of my weekends with my nose in a book. At heart, I am a book nerd who thinks that the printed word can tell us everything about the world. Perhaps I should say that I spend a lot of time with my buddies (the Association Law Handbook and Professional Practices in Association Management, not to mention a few others) and I had some fast times (flipping note cards to review key terms and topics), then during a pensive moment, I did some writing (to take notes). I'm even thinking of this as trying on the life of an adult grad student.

And then there are my nefarious distractions. I've discovered that YouTube has all of my favorite '80s videos. I grew up with beginning of MTV, but this is better than that! I can watch my favorite video anytime, without waiting for it to come on, and I can play it five times in a row!! It's amusing to see another generation figure out the Kyrie Eleison means "Lord, have mercy" and it's spoken three times during the Catholic mass, as Richard Page does at the beginning of the song.

Week 9: Facing Fears

It's getting darker earlier and it's difficult get in a run unless I can out there around 6:30 p.m., which is challenging because I run on the days my kid has tutor. Even though I say I'm going to use the treadmill, I haven't done so yet. I hate the thought of spending so many months training on the treadmill...but I also hate running in the dark.

My knees began to ache after Thursday's run. I had a long run of 8 miles scheduled on Saturday and I was almost afraid to run. I seriously contemplated taking the day as a cycle or rest day. Then, I decided to jog a bit in front of my house, just to see how my legs felt. Convinced that they felt alright, I went to the park. I did the IronGirl route x2 running slow and taking a lot of walk breaks, especially in the first few miles around the first lap, just as the experts suggest. I even took some stretching breaks. Once I warmed up, I began to feel OK and my pace picked up. Toward the end, felt tired and my joints felt tired. I topped it all off with a cold water bath. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

On Sunday, I went for a short bike ride because the outdoor pools closed, and I have no access to the pool for now. It was a really nice, perfect ride on a late-summer morning and the traffic was really light. My new bike shorts feel really comfy! But later, my joints and achilles tendon just felt sore, particularly after sitting down. It's as if my body starts to lock up when I sit down and don't move. It could be that my body just isn't used to the mileage. But when I feel like this, I start to seriously doubt whether I'll make it to the starting line.

This week I've been struggling with a particularly difficult domain on planning, evaluation and research, and I've been having a hard time putting all of the information together and wrapping my mind around it. Sometimes, the vocabulary seems to be used in different ways.

At the beginning of the online class, I made a graphic organizer using the Inspiration program that contains my affirmations, as suggested. Now, as the going gets tough, I'm learning the importance of affirmations.

Week 7: Shifting Gears

So far, everything is going good with my workouts, and I don't feel so sore. But let's wait for the end of the week for the final judgement on that.

When I was cycling yesterday, I focused on sitting in the seat and shifting gears so that I wasn't pushing a high/hard gear going up hills or an incline or pedaling with no resistance on the downhills. I'm practicing the coordination needed to for gear shifting with both hands and I haven't quite got it down yet. This was one of those serendipitous discoveries that I made that my web search later showed was the right thing to do.

I'll be shifting gears in other ways. For my online class, we’re supposed to read anywhere from 75-178 pages a week and the instructor suggested that class participants to allow 6 hours a week for reading. Hahahahahah. I've never thought of myself as a slow reader, but it always takes me longer to read, process, and remember material. I am so very thankful now that I spent the summer reading, highlighting, and taking notes on most of these texts. If I had to read everything beginning now, I would drown. My focus will be on reviewing and remembering, rather than just trying to do a first read. I'm frustrated, though, because we did a practice test and I'm still had difficulty with many questions--even those that were more fact-based. And then there's the questions based on the reading and I can't recall where I read it. Yikes. It's not enough to read something and vaguely remember it because the test involves knowing details. One also has to know what is on a particular form--and what is NOT on that form.

The class is going to take a lot of time, and I think that as a compromise, beginning in September I'm going to move my running back to the treadmill in the predawn hours. It takes less time to go from my bed to the treadmill, and it frees up valuable time in the late afternoon and early evening.

Week 7 went out without event. I went for a 7 mile long run on Saturday, but ended up doing about 7.75 miles because I miscalculated the distance around the park when using the IronGirl route and making a complete circle. Lesson learned: it's actually closer to 8 miles and this knowledge will come in handy for my two 8 mile runs coming right up. All seems well on the running front.

Week 6: Yin and Yang

The week started out good with an easy 40 minute run with generous walk breaks. I swear, it doesn't make that much difference in time if I take walk breaks. My knee has been good, for the most part. I was working at home, so I took the opportunity to run at about 7 a.m. in the park. It always amazes me the number of people running in the park on a weekday, during rush hour when most people are commuting to work. There's some equipment sitting in the middle of the lake, but I never took much notice of it before. Today, I saw the equipment in action and realized that the algae is periodically removed from the lake.

This week, I did three workouts--run, bike, and run--on consecutive days. The whole thing is making me incredibly sore, and I'm a bit discouraged. I took Saturday off due to muscle soreness, skipped the swim workout, and then closed the week by running on Sunday (after volunteering at IronGirl). I'm also frustrated with wearing the knee band, which seems to help prevent knee soreness on longer runs. When people see me at the end of a workout with that band on, more than once I've been asked "Are you OK?" Yes, I'm OK!

I'm trying to figure out how to juggle all of the workouts so that I can complete everything without falling apart. I believe that the developers of the training plan envisioned that people were going to be doing a very leisurely bike ride or a very slow swim on their cross training days. Instead, I'm able to bring some conditioning to both sports and I'm an experienced swimmer, so I may be doing these workouts at a greater intensity and overdoing my crosstraining. Maybe juggling days will help and watching the overall intensity level of crosstraining will help. Maybe, just maybe, my body might adapt someday.

Phase I of my CAE prep came to a close. This weekend, I didn't do any real reading; instead, I'm reviewing my flash cards prior to my online class starting. I think I'll also go back and tackle the new edition of PPAM and take notes on the marketing book. Every time I turn around, I find a new book that's recommended reading, and now a book on core competencies in professional development is recommended reading before ASAE's course. I quickly ordered it and I'll tackle it when it arrives on my doorstep.

I think I finally comprehend the meaning of studying and running. To my understanding, it's like yin and yang -- the equal and opposing forces of mental and physical that when combined in proportion can complement and counterbalance each other to bring about an equilibrium to life.

Week 5: The Mist on the Water

Training has not been spectacular. I began the week with a stretch & strengthen session. A heat wave this week made it difficult to exercise. On Tuesday, I did a 40 min run at a conversational pace - I truly felt that I was running in slow motion, at the rate of a fast walk. Even with very generous walk breaks to avoid the hills near my home, I ran about 12 mins/mile. This should be my long run pace. My knee felt a bit sore at the end of the run and my thigh muscles felt a bit sore that night, probably because of the previous day's stretch and strengthen.

Cycling is easier in the heat because it creates a breeze and there's the feeling of propelling oneself through the air. I went out longer than I should have, but in the middle of the ride, I got one of my foot cramps in my left foot with waves of pain, so I stopped to walk it off in a nearby neighborhood. My legs were sore afterward, especially around the right knee.

Thursday, my knees felt sore after sitting for a long time at work, and I didn't like the way my knees were talking to me, so I took the day off of running and used the time to study. The lesson learned this week is to back off and not overtrain; otherwise, I'll never make it to race day.

Right now is the countdown before my distance learning class begins. It was suggested that we read three books--one about employment law, marketing, and financial statements--prior to starting the class, so I'm trying to get through these. Then, the plan is to go back and read and take notes on any chapters I missed in the other books. I also need to schedule a regular time to review the flash cards, perhaps during breakfast, tutor time, and the last hour before bed when I'm tired and falling asleep while reading.

Friday night I ran at one of my favorite haunts, and I like going back to the park periodically so I can see the ecosystem as it goes through seasonal changes. The one thing that I'm going right is that I'm running slowly at a conversational pace, taking generous walk breaks, and kinesthetically establishing a long run pace. This makes running very easy. Still, at the end of the run, my legs felt sore.

I wanted to keep my weekend schedule the same, so I got up an ran on Saturday morning. Once again, I ran slowly at a conversational pace and took walk breaks. Even so, my time is only a minute slower at 12 min/mile. At the end of this run, my right knee was sore. I hope I didn't overdo.

I went earlier trying to beat the heat, but it was a cool summer day that made me think of the coming fall season. The lake was like glass. Sunlight was shinning on the mist on the water. As time went on, the mist largely disappeared, but when I left, I could see traces of the mist that I've seen before. At first, I thought the mist was due to the different air/water temperatures, but now I think that maybe there's mist was on the lake every morning -- it's a reward for getting up early for a run.

Week 4: Twists and Turns

I'm busy navigating twists and turns on both the running front and the CAE front.

After I spent most of the spring reading and taking notes on two books that are key CAE literature, they came out with new editions! One book doesn't seem to have a great deal of change. But the other book, a collection of topics on association management, has several new chapters, different authors on familiar topics providing updated information as well as a slightly format that features questions at the end of each chapter. I'll be dealing with this in the fall as I go through my online class. Right now, I just want to read/skim all of the books before the class begins. I have several other entire books to read. This should keep me busy.

On the running front, week three flowed into week 4 because I realized that I'd wind up a week short on the training program. Rule number one: Always begin your training program by writing down the weeks and calendar dates. I'd been too lazy to do this before now. But it wasn't a big problem because week 4 was the same as the preceeding week, except that the long run was 5 miles instead of 4 miles.

On Saturday, I tried to get to the park as early as possible in order to beat the heat. Everybody was there! It was like a big fitness party, which provided plenty of opportunity for great people watching. Member of the local running club were running around and a lot of cyclists gathered in groups for a ride. As I left, people were parked on the grass and some cars had kayacks on the roof.

The run went well and I was huffing and puffing along. In my zeal to try to get back into shape, I ran a very consistent 11 min/mile pace, which was good but way too fast. This is my race pace. My long run pace should be a conversational pace of 12:30-13 mins/mile. I'll have to focus on my mantra of "no need for speed" even if everyone seems to be blazing by while I'm waddling along. I also used my fuel belt, which seemed to work well. My knee was fine during the run, but when I got home after the run and began doing household chores, my right knee felt stiff and I had trouble bending it while walking down the stairs. I iced it and the stiffness resolved, but this is worrisome. I also ordred a knee support which I'm going to be experimenting with.

In looking at the IronGirl Triathlon course map, which will be held in the same park in two weeks, I realized that I could extend my route around the lake from 2.4 miles to 3.4 miles by going down a different trail that winds around a baseball diamond. I'll have to try that. The map also helped me discover the route that all the cyclists may be using.

I closed out the week with a 40 min. swim, once again trying to use the low-impact sport to re-build my aerobic fitness. I swam at a moderate/fast pace for about 25 mins., using the rest of the time to warm up or cool down.

Running Through Summer

Now summer's here and the weather is really beginning to get hot. I added another run to my mid-week repetoire so that I'm running about 3 miles x 3 days a week. However, I can seldom have a "perfect week." Sometimes life just gets in the way of running and I wind up skipping a workout. If I do workout, then one run is usually very easy, with many walk breaks. I'm also back to increasing my long runs on the weekend. Last week I did 7 miles, and this week I did 8 miles--a record for me!!!!! My running schedule happened to coincide with my church's Run/Walk for Tanzania, which gave me some friendly people to run with at the park where I typically run. It was a real treat to run with other people. I went 4 laps around the lake. There are two duck families and it's been fun to watch the baby ducks grow up week by week as I jog around the park. It takes me about 1.5 hours to run 7-8 miles, and my husband got me a fuel belt, which I'm sure will come in handy.

I've been wanting to get back to my CAE studying and really put some serious time into this effort. But life keeps happeing. There's a board committee project that was more time-consuming than anticipated. The need to prep for an IEP meeting. My advocate quitting. Getting behind at work. A difficult author. Traveling for the holidays. Kids sports and tutor. It seem like I have less and less time for everything. I used to take classes at my local community college in preparation for a master's degree. Now, I can't figure out how I did it all. Maybe it was because I slept less. I remember during one summer class, I was more tired and fell asleep at every boring meeting and at church on Sunday. Maybe it was sheer determination. Where did the time and motivation go? The only fortuitious thing was that I planned out a study guide that called for spending 3 weeks on each area of focus. After all the distraction, I'm still on schedule. I haven't taken notes on all the chapters, as I wanted, but perhaps I can read everything once over before fall. Maybe I can put the piece into place again as I run through summer and the warm weeks fly by.

Clyde's 10K

I almost didn't run this race. The temperatures were in the low 40s and it was pouring rain the whole time. I hate rain. It's one of my least favorite weather conditions, and I've never even run in the rain before. I did all my pre-race preparations and then decided to go and sit in my car in the parking lot, and then make a decision about heading to the starting line. I decided to wear my capris shortly before leaving the house, as I didn't want to look unseasonal. But I decided to bring along my tights, just in case. As I sat in the car I could see many runners in tights, and I make a last-minute decision to put on my tights in the car. Nobody saw that, right?! It was the best decision I made. The tights saved the day! They kept my leg muscles warm and I didn't even feel the rain. I love my tights.

But the rain came pouring down. And when it did, I just closed my eyes and turned inward. After a desultory start, I actually began to wake up as the race went on. Three miles went by easily. I paced myself by a woman and her daughters that were running together, but there were two hills in the race, which were actually long inclines, and I lost speed as my pacers gained ground. After mile five, I couldn't believe that the race was coming to an end, and I tried to pick up the pace as I got to the finish line. I caught up to my pacers and tried to pass, but then my CI fell off and I had to stop and mess with it. I'll have to get an earmold made so this doesn't happen again. I came in strong for a finish in 1:08:26.30, which was OK. But most of all, I made it through the 10K easily and I discovered that I like this distance.

It wasn't until afterward that I really felt the effects of the rain and the cold as I began shivering. I never realized that my husband had been at the finish line cheering me on until he caught up with me at the restaurant that sponsored the race. It was really sweet of him to come out to see me on such a miserable day.

I finally jump-started my CAE studying by approaching it like a training plan for the half-marathon. Using the state association study guide as a template, I made up a plan for the next 21 weeks, outlining the number of weeks I'd spend on each of 10 domains. I'm gaining ground on each of two goals.