The view from here isn't too shabby

The Navy 5 miler is on Sunday - my rust buster for the fall season.  Haven't really done any speed work (nothing on the track since June), and so I am just looking at this as an early effort to see where my fitness is at. They finally put up the course map this morning, and I am excited, because a lot of it is running around Haines Point.  It is flat, only a couple of turns, and I have run a number of races out there.  The view is gorgeous (right by the mall and Tidal Basin), and you can really just settle in to a groove and go.  When it went up on the website, I got a wave of butterflies in my stomach.  Few things do that like an upcoming race.  I honestly don't know how it's going to go - I could really surprise myself, but it's not like I have a stack of recent workouts to take comfort in.  No matter what, I am confident I will PR, as the only other 5 miler I ran was in May 2010 (Aurora House 5 Miler in Spencerport) and ran 37:00.  If I had an "A" goal for this race, it would be sub 33 minutes, and I think my "B" goal is somewhere in the 33:xx zone.  Who knows!
I did have some good cross training this week.  I'm in the process of running 5 days a week and cross training 2, versus the old days of 4:3.  This is good, because not only do I love running more, but the cross training just takes more time to coordinate.  I biked 12.2 miles on the stationary on Monday in 50 minutes - one of the faster (and longer) rides I've had on the machine.  And on Thursday, I got in the pool for the first time since Santa Cruz and got in my 2000 yards in just under 43 minutes - at the high end of my average pace for that swim.  Felt so good to get in the water.  I'm grateful that I am able to retain a degree of fitness that even if I'm not doing that sport for a while, I can come back to it.  I often do this with my cross training: I either bike or swim.  But they come in phases - I'll get wrapped up with one usually for a couple of months, and then pick up the other one, etc.  I don't know if there is any benefit to rotating through biking and swimming, but I've been doing it for a couple of years now, so...if ain't broke, right?

School is going well.  I'm TAing for a medieval survey that I've done before and love, so I'm happy to get another go at that.  I'm also teaching a class at my university for the first time, which has been a great experience.  It's an upper level undergrad seminar, and I've learned a lot about how to keep a 2 hour class dynamic - it is a lot of work!  Makes a 50 minute freshmen discussion fly by in comparison!  Not to mention that I got slotted into a sweet office for the semester - they put me in a professor's office who is on sabbatical, and his office is awesome.  There's a table, a couple, a huge mac, and a view of the National Basilica, which is amazing.  The professor's regalia (doctoral graduation robes) are also hanging in the office, and it's a good reminder of what I'm working for - the PhD.  I've gotten a lot of good reading done this week for my dissertation proposal, and I'm hoping to get some good writing done as well.
So the view from here isn't too shabby.  Aiming for clear skies, cool runs, and good medieval thoughts!