10-30-2019

 

These pictures are also from yesterday. If you read my blog post from Monday, October 28 (scenic ghost town), you may remember that I mentioned the AQI forecast for the next day was supposed to be pretty bad. Well, it was, but I survived (so far). Pollution is typically worse in the night and early morning, so by midday the air was only slightly unhealthy.

The picture above was in the morning before class started. Note the open window. THE OPEN WINDOW. I don't think the air quality index (AQI) was 200+ at this point (although it was when I first went outside!!!), but it definitely had to be 150+. And I'm sitting in my seat like REALLY? Because people commonly take off their masks when they enter a building (not like many people were wearing masks anyway!!?!??!?!?) but WHAT IS THE POINT IF THE DANG WINDOW IS OPEN?

(if you are curious, you can visit this website for a more detailed explanation of AQI values)

 

And I had PE class that day. We've been completing a series of physical tests which kind of remind me of the FitnessGram (how do you spell that??) for those of you around my age who remember that from your pre-college school days. 

Last class we jumped using the long jump sand pit in the picture above, but we didn't actually run and jump, which was a little disappointing to me because I've never actually attempted a long jump before...we just stood at the edge of the sand pit on the long side and jumped as far forward as we could. Then we ran a timed 800 (two laps around the track). I know I passed the running part but I actually don't know about the jumping thing (I didn't hear the minimum jump length requirement or how far my jump was 😆).

This class we had to do a timed sprint (I'm not sure about the distance, but it was definitely less than 100m) and sit-ups, as many as we could do in one minute (again, I didn't hear the minimum number that we were supposed to complete, and the girl holding my feet down told me afterwards that I did 23 and was supposed to complete at least 26, so I didn't pass 😅 I think I might get to try again, but honestly I don't really care. I am the snob who believes in less reps with good form, so when it comes to anything timed or measured I'm just like ehhh whatever. Also some of the girls were doing situps so fast that they were SLAMMING their backs on the ground and it honestly look like it hurt!!!??? As you can imagine, I didn't want to do that.)

But Valerie, you just mentioned the pollution! And you still ran outside that day??

I actually bought a special mask from the internet for running (thanks Mom for putting in extra effort to make sure I got the mask before leaving 😁) and while I'm sure I looked extra stupid, I was glad I could run without dying. When I ran the 800 last class, I felt extra out of breath, which felt like it was from something other than being out of shape.

Anyways, back to the picture. The track was empty because I snapped the pic after class. Class is always dismissed around 11:30am, but the bus to the north campus doesn't leave until 12:10pm, so I decided to run a bit ^_^ I haven't run in a while, and it was nice.