Sunday, July 18, 2010

16 miles and Exam Stress

So yesterday we had our long run. It was 16 miles. If you remember last time I ran 16 miles it was on my 21st birthday and I cried through miles 15 and 16. I thought "hey whatever it's the first time I've hit these miles, that's okay". Well yesterday I was crying by mile 12 and didn't stop until I finished, and actually didn't really even stop then. I think 16 miles might be my "wall distance" or at least one wall that I need to get through.

My group leader however did make a good point that given other circumstances, it may have just been a "bad run". For example, I barely slept the night before (I was nervous about a wedding I was in yesterday), the temperature was absolutely ridiculous outside (as well as humidity) and the fact that I am extremely stressed about the first part of my CPA exam which is supposed to be on Wednesday (more on that later). So, I'm going to try to chalk this up to just a bad day, bad run, bad whatever and get past it.

Map....


Not even going to go into the splits they were pretty bad :(

Second half of this post is about this crazy exam that is the reason I've been seriously slacking on any kind of blogging-buddy commenting :( I need a 75% on each part of the 4 parts of the CPA exam in order to get licensed. I signed up to take the first (and hardest) section on Wednesday of this week (I signed up more than a month ago thinking I'd be ready). Well... I'm not ready :( and I don't think I'm close enough that 3 days will fix my not-readiness. I took a practice final-simulation exam today and got.... *drumroll please...*


68 percent.... blahhhhh. This was a good exercise for me though because I was able to see that I'm not uncomfortable with ALL the material, just like half of it LOL. At least now I can "hone in" on the sections that I'm doing really bad on (example lecture F3) and hopefully get that score up to a 75 percent. You can pay $70 to reschedule your exam and I think that's what I'm going to do unfortunately. Goodbye "massage budget" for the next 2 months.... I need to pass this thing :(

So that is my life right now. studying, running, eating, sleeping, and repeat....

p.s. I HAVE been reading your blogs and am so inspired by all of your progress. Especially my Chicago Marathon buddies getting "up there" in their distances!

12 comments:

  1. Just do what you need to for YOU...and only you know what that is. No apologies.

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  2. 16 miles is a tough distance no matter what! Hope you get your test stuff figured out.....tests suck! I'm on my last class before I get my degree and the tests have been tough. Not nearly as tough as a CPA test, I'm sure.

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  3. 16 miles is great. No need to be ashamed of any part of it. The conditions didn't sound ideal, with the heat and humidity, and that does wear on you.

    That's good too that you are taking the no-pressure approach to the CPA, at least not the I-need-to-pass-this-now-or-else approach.

    Keep at it!

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  4. 16 miles is 16 miles. How many people do you know can run that?

    Take care of what's important to you. The rest will fall in place.

    Good luck!

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  5. Sixteen is massive...so don't poo-poo it! I agree that life stress does running no good so you need to take care of that and the rest will fall into place. Best of luck on your exam, Lauren!

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  6. gotta watch that crying... it can lead to dehydration j/k... like everyone else says 16 miles is a lot of miles and it shouldn't feel easy... be proud of your accomplishment!

    Good luck with the exam... pulling a 68% to a 75% shouldn't be too bad.

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  7. My Mom is a CPA...are you SURE you want to get into that field? I swear I don't see her for 4 months in the winter haha. Good luck, I know those types of exams are crazy and take a lot out of you!

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  8. Oh man! I hope things get better and the exam goes smooth!!! You must be like really smart if you are already taking the CPA exam and you are 21!

    My cousins are both CPAs and I think they took it after graduating college. Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about! LOL

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  9. I'm behind on blogging and commenting too. One day when I tried to make some comments blogger kept giving me error messages. Such is life.

    I'm very impressed you're both studying for the CPA and training for a marathon. Two things that make me want to cry thinking about them :-P

    In all seriousness, the first two half marathons I did I wanted to cry around miles 11 or 12 until the end. The third race I trained harder for and didn't have that problem. Your threshold is going to get higher. I'm sure of it. You're making a huge jump going from short runs to a full marathon...which is AWESOME...but I think mentally it's got to be tougher.

    Have fun at your upcoming half marathon! I think the Rock n' Roll will give you a huge boost mentally! Races are such a blast.

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  10. Sorry to hear about the run, but you completed 16 miles. That's why you're training, so you can get your body used to these insane distances. I am yet to do a 16 mile run so I'm actually uber jealous right now :) Good luck with your exams. I'm sure you'll rock it!

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  11. A lot of runners are experiencing the same bad runs in high heat and humidity. Forget it and move on. Slow down those long runs a little on insane weather days and fall is on the way

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  12. I've never run more than 13.1, so i'm impressed with 16.

    practice exams are good. you know what to focus on. you can do this!

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