Laps of Reason and the myth of the extra hour

Yesterday I ran a race.  This is nothing new.  I've run lots of races and I plan on running many more.  This one was different, though.  It was called the Laps of Reason ('e' left off intentionally).  It was a three hour lap race on a beautiful rail/trail conversion in Danville, PA.  Each lap was 4k (about 2.5 miles) and it ran similar to cyclocross where we were to finish as many laps as we could in 3 hours.  I went into the race without a lot of distance preparation.  I ran a half-marathon in May, but since then haven't done any runs longer than 7.5 miles.  Based on my few longer runs this fall (school really gets in the way of training), I figured I could handle 10 minute miles for the duration and get 7 laps (17.5 miles).  I was right, but my first four laps (10 miles) were run in 90 minutes, averaging 9:00/mile.  I actually finished a half-marathon distance faster than I did when I trained for it in May.

Of course, at this point, I started thinking, "I could do 8 laps for 20 miles."  Let's put this in perspective.  I once ran a marathon, but it has an asterisk next to it.  I made it 17 miles before ever so gently pulling hamstring and quad muscles in the same leg.  Being the culminating activity for a marathon class my senior year of college and I had to finish to remove an incomplete from my record, I walked the last nine miles to finish in just under the cut-off time to be listed in the official results.  So even though I finished a marathon, I didn't run it and the 17 miles I did run were the farthest I had ever run.  In the intervening 14 years, I've only had a handful of runs over 10 miles.  But I felt great and the pace seemed easy and my body wasn't telling me anything different.

Fast forward half a lap and my body found it's voice.  My mile times were still ok, but I was thinking of stopping (one of the neat aspects of the race - run as long as you want; then stop).  I made it through lap five and then lap six hit me.  The miles finishing lap five and starting lap six dropped to 11.5 and 10.5 minutes each.  I recovered in anticipation of lap seven and made it through.  As I finished lap seven, I saw the clock:  12 minutes remained.  I groaned.  As long as you start a lap before time ends, it counts.  I stopped to get my bracelet for finishing a lap and drank some Gatorade.  I had run 17.5 miles and still had time to do 2.5 more.  I couldn't stop.  My body sure wanted to.  For the first seven laps, I averaged 9:30/mile.  The last lap averaged 11:56/mile, but I did it.  I ran 20 miles

Right now I hurt.  My knees hurt.  My hips hurt.  My shoulders even hurt.  But I ran 20 miles in just over three hours.  Six more and I've got a marathon...

As far as that "extra hour" from leaving daylight savings.  It doesn't exist.  If you have kids, you know exactly what I mean.

40's and rainy and nothing better

I went for a run today.  This in itself was nothing unusual.  I go for a lot of runs; at least I try to.  I haven't been running in a while.  I checked my log when I got home and there were three weeks with 0 miles, one week with 3 miles, and another week before that with 0 miles.  I had been all geared up after my first cyclocross race (which was amazing), but then my inability to bifurcate kept me from doing the next race in the series.  After a series of weird and depressing situations at school and less than perfect weather, a week without running turned into a month.

Yesterday I took a day off from school.  No particular reason, I just wanted a day.  That would have been a perfect day to run.  It was even sunny.  I didn't run.  Today I did.  I almost didn't, but I did.  Again, the weather was less than perfect and I was about two steps away from not getting changed and heading home, but enough had been enough.  There has been too much crap going on at school and I was on the cusp of a long running drought that would last through winter break into next year.

So, I went for a run.  It was about 40 degrees (F not C), drizzly, and awesome.  You get to a point where missing runs starts to mess with your head.  The obvious cure is to get out and do something, but your head is so messed up, that it seems like too much trouble and you get stuck in a vicious cycle.  But the moment you break that cycle, all hold it had on you is gone.  28 seconds into the run, it felt like everything that had been hanging over my head was washed away by the cold near sleet rain.  30 seconds or so later and all I was thinking of was how good it felt to be moving.

Don't let life get in the way of what you want to do.  Life is what happens when you're not paying attention.  Living is what you do.  I let life happen for a month and it got me in a funk.  Now I've got another cyclocross race coming up in January, a nice 5k the day before my birthday in February, and, hopefully, the Humdinger in March.

Reflections on a 5k

Last night I ran the first 5k race since 1995.  I can't believe it's been that long.  In the past 3 years I've gotten back into racing, but I've been focusing on things that required more guts and pain tolerance than pure athleticism.  It's a nice way to avoid the question of how far I am fitness and ability-wise from when I was running Cross Country in high school. 

Last night, however, there was no hiding behind the difficulty of the terrain, novelty of kayaking for the first time, or the grueling nature of any multi-sport event.  Last night was a flat 5k course at a perfect 60 degrees with no wind, precipitation, or oppressive humidity.  No excuses for performance other than lack of preparedness.

I started the race with a colleague from school that I stumbled upon before the start.  We both had the goal of finishing in under 24 minutes.  The start was a fast run down Market Street, which was really cool at night with the lights and over 300 other people.  It soon turned onto the dark streets of residential downtown Lewisburg and the gut check began.  I hit mile 1 at 7:58.  The fastest first mile I've run since the earlier mentioned cross country days.  I had to guess at the split at the time because of the lag in the official start and the time when I crossed the mat for the timing chip.  I couldn't see my watch well enough while moving in the dark, so I just went with it.  With about a half mile to go, I picked up the pace.  At that moment, I was so thankful for the last few weeks I'd spent doing 400 meter intervals at about a 7:20 mile pace.  The last bit of the race felt like these last few intervals and the all out one at the end.  I still had a kick, the intensity of which tells me that I could have gone faster over that last couple of miles, but the kick was there.  I had lost my partner early on, but caught back up at the end and we finished within seconds of each other.

I finished in 24:43.  I was 5 minutes out of medal contention and didn't meet my goal, but when I found out that the course was actually 3.2 miles long (not 3.125 that is more the actual 5k distance), broke down my time to see that I'd averaged about 7:43/mile.  I'm very happy with that.  I've been struggling to build speed these last few years.  It's a far cry from my all-time best of 18 minutes, and I don't think I'll see that again, but I think that I can get that pace down to 7 minutes/mile and maybe even get below 20 minutes again.

The junk run

For about the 50th time in the past couple of years, I started running again after a not insignificant layoff (sorry, George Orwell, but I just didn't feel like saying insignificant).  It seems like the 2nd run after a too long break feels like I'm emptying my body of junk.  The first run feels fine.  I've got so much stored-up fuel that there's no problem, but that second one hurts.  Given a three mile run, the first mile just feels stiff.  The second is where the pain lives.  Every single extra slice of pizza and every bit of junk that I put in my body since I stopped running a few months ago feels the need to express its disappointment in my decision to resume running.  Maybe it's my body exacting a petty revenge for its mistreatment.  I don't know.  What I do know is that if I give in during the junk run and stop before the sludge works its way out through my pores, it's a much longer road back to fitness.  However, if I push through that second mile and keep going, I start feeling lighter.  I stop shuffling along and actually stride a bit.  I'm definitely tired, but there is a change.

I had that junk run today.  It was made worse by the various thoughts running through my head.  Most of them were focused on my possibly rash decision to enter the Chilli Challenge Adventure Triathlon.  I meant to do a triathlon earlier this summer, but my clear lack of running as well as my obvious lack of bike and abject failure in getting a bike, I didn't.  Now, I'm semi-committed to doing this triathlon that not only includes biking and running, but also KAYAKING!  My last (and possibly only) experience with a kayak was during my honeymoon in Belize.  There were some sea kayaks on the beach for us to use, so we thought it would be fun.  Nobody bothered to tell us and we had no idea that we needed to drain the kayak before heading out.  Full of water, the kayak gained a lot of momentum rotating around its various axes and we were in the water more often that in the kayak.  The entire experience was topped off by my actually tipping the kayak over not sideways, but end over end.  So I've got that going for me, which isn't so nice.  I haven't been on a bike for about 6 years and haven't owned one the past 4 after running out of room on the moving truck and donating it to a student that helped us load the truck.  As I struggled to finish my measly 3 miles today, I realized that the run is almost 5 miles after a 2.2 mile paddle and 20 mile bike ride.  This ought to be interesting.

Fast run and test prep

Went for my first run after the Humdinger last week (felt like I needed some time for the bleeding to stop). Knowing there were no killer hills made me feel lighter on my feet than I've velt in a long time. I ran the fastest 5k since I started running again last year. It's anywhere near as fast as I used to run, but it was a step in the right direction (a bunch of them really and they basically led me in a giant circle...) and I didn't feel terrible afterwards. I just signed up to do a 10k trail run on the oldest rail-trail conversion in the country. This is a distance I've never run before. After my fast 5k I sort of wish I were doing that distance instead, but I'm interested to see what I can do with a longer distance without any rock climbing and foot-skiing along the way.

The Humdinger was unbelievable this year. Somehow, they managed to fit more uphills into the course. There was a lot of snow of varying conditions all along the trails, and there were some downhills that were so snowy and steep, that we were actually sliding the whole way down. Gravity still works and was doing its best to take me down. It nearly succeeded once, but I tucked and rolled and came back up in stride. That felt good, considering it was about 5 miles into the race. My brother surprised me with a visit and ran it with me. He was nice enough to stay with me when he probably could have finished 10 minutes faster without much effort. The end of the race was a blast too. They covered a short, steep hill with plastic and snow and turned it into a giant slip-n-slide to the finish. That with beer and chili post-race was a great way to end it. I'm definitely going back next year.

Were' approaching that time of the year again - state testing. This year, in their infinite wisdom, the state has decided that 8th graders don't need to learn during April. Instead, we are having 3 tests in math, 3 tests in reading (concurrent with math), 4 tests in writing and 2 tests in science. That pretty much takes up the entire last 3 weeks of April, with the first week being our very abbreviated spring break. At the end of this week, we have about 2 class weeks left before the math tests start, so we'll be ramping up the test prep. Good times.

Cell phone in classroom convert

For the past 3.5 years I've been on the front line waging war against students with cell phones in my classroom. From the accidental ring to the kid playing during testing, I've come to know the cell phone slouch very well. Much like the war against drugs, I'm starting to feel that it's a losing proposition. Rather than spending all of that time and effort enforcing rather unenforcible rules, I think we need to focus on education and productive uses of cell phones.

I spent the day at a CSIU workshop on technology in the classroom. The first couple of presentations were ok, but nothing exciting. The first wasn't even on technology, but reading. The second focused on using spreadsheets and web apps, again, nothing too exciting. After lunch, however, I met the man who changed my mind on allowing cell phones in the classroom. He made some excellent points about cell phone use and I'm not saying that I want kids texting and talking during class, but as proliferous and ubiquitous as they are, I might as well harness their potential. We saw some great polling sites (Wiffiti and Poll Everywhere) that can be used in the place of expensive classroom response systems that are free and use texting as their means of response. We saw other applications that turn the phone into a mobile podcast recorder (Yodio) that can be used to record presentations or other such things. Our school currently has a policy that cell phones are not allowed out of the lockers. I'm sure that parent pressure is going to end up changing that policy as well. Education is about attracting student interest and keeping them engaged. Anything that I can do to keep them actively engaged with the material is most likely a good thing. If that means relying on cell phones, I'm all for it.

On another note, I had a great run today. Healing from my nasty cut has not been fun. I now have a very thick scab on my left shin and just wearing pants and having them rub along it creates a very unpleasant burning pain anywhere the scab is touched. On Monday, I decided to see how running felt. Being too cold for shorts, I had to wear the running pants and I figured their mesh interior would really be painful. More than that, though, I was worried that the pounding would produce unbearable pain. I was very surprised that neither happened. I went for a brief run and went on to worry that I missed my training window for the Humdinger on March 6. I went for a 5.6 miler Tuesday and it felt a little rough. I went for a 7.2 miler today and it felt great. I did the return trip about 3 minutes faster than the out and I finished with an overall good pace and feeling strong. My goal is under 71 minutes and beating my former student again.

I finally saw Avatar last weekend. It was the most expensive movie I ever saw. Not only were tickets an extra $3 for the fashion glasses, but we also had the $30 for the babysitter. I liked it. I'm not sure it was worth $50, but I liked it and 3D has really come a long way since the last movie I saw. I'm not sure if every movie needs to be 3D, but it did make things a bit more immersive. The best part may have been the Clash of the Titans preview.

Rough week, no action

To celebrate my birthday, raise some money for a good cause, and reinforce my image, I participated in the Lewisburg Polar Plunge last Saturday. It was great! We had a big snow the night before, temperatures were below freezing, and all was set. We got there a little late - children are very good at causing that, so instead of being part of the mass plunge, I was part of the slow post mass plunge trickle. It was so slow in fact that I was the only one entering when I went in. I rushed in the mighty Susquehanna and reaffirmed the force of gravity as I plunged in up to my neck. It felt good though. I got up and then felt a bit silly as I was the only one in the water surrounded by people in wet suits with the shore packed with all of the voyeurs. Being the only one in the water, and feeling said silliness, I walked out. As I walked out I look down at my leg and noticed a long scrape, apparently from a helpful river rock that decided to stop me from falling all the way to the bottom of the river when I first went in. It didn't seem bad and I figured I'd have quite a bruise. As the circulation in my legs restarted, more and more blood started finding it's way out of my body through what was clearly not a scrape, but rather a nice gash. By the time I got back to the car (running behind the stroller as my son let everyone know how displeased he was with being strapped in), I had a nice blood trail on my leg.

It's still a very ugly, red, painful blemish on my shin and I haven't run for a week. I could handle a week off if the Humdinger weren't in 3 weeks now and I was just hitting my stride increasing my mileage to be ready for the 7 mile trail run. I have to start running this week, regardless of how much it hurts. It really only hurts when something bumps it, which my daughter kindly pointed out to this evening with a well-placed, albeit accidental, kick; it still throbs. But because it doesn't hurt from the stresses of moving, I think it will be ok.

We finally had some decent winter weather this week as well. Not only did we get a good snowfall last Saturday, we had another Tuesday night and an actually justified snow day on Wednesday. I got my son on his first sled ride that ended with a good face full of snow.

Tears a'plenty

I was bombarded with three separate cases of tears today. On the best of days, I usually don't deal well with tears in my classroom and, compassionately, ask if the person would like to go out in the hall (or stay in the hall) for a bit until he/she feels ready to return to the room. It's not that tears actually bother me, rather they don't bother me to the point that I don't want to seem callous and just push on through them without acknowledging them - which is what I'd rather do. This seems a better alternative.

Case 1: We have a group of Marines come in and give demonstrations with gear and MRE's (it ties in with endothermic and exothermic reactions being covered in science). One student came in and was overwhelmed by emotions seeing the soldiers there. We'll call this student Chris (identity and gender anonymous). I took Chris out in the hall, but Chris was able to return and enjoy the presentation. I was not the source of the tears.

Case 2: I kept a student at the beginning of lunch. We'll call this student Pat. Pat has not been the best of students and has been doing very poorly from apparent lack of effort. I guess I stuck in the conversation long enough, trying to get a response that had a semblance of authenticity, when, much to my dismay, the crying began. Pat is not the student that I would suspect of turning on fake tears to get out of a tough discussion. If that was the case, Pat really sold it with actual tears and bloodshot eyes. I guess I was a bit of the cause this time.

Case 3: Report cards came out last week and it would be an understatement to say that grades were less than stellar. This year and marking period in particular seem to come as a surprise to 8th graders who have never had to put in any time outside of class before and it takes many the rest of the year to adjust. At least they do before hitting high school. This student, we'll call Sam (short for Samson or Samantha?) did very well the first marking period, but went quite a bit down the second. Sam came asking what Sam could do (Sam did not actually refer to Sam's self in the third person. Sam is not obnoxious) to bring up Sam's grade. I may have exaggerated a bit because there may not have been actual tears, but Sam was on the verge. I hope Sam does better this marking period.

Three cases of tears in one day. I'm not sure if this compares to my friend in grad school that made a parent cry (you know who you are and we'll see if you read this post), but it was quite a day.

The Humdinger is approaching and I'm thinking of shooting for 63 minutes. That would be about 9-minute miles. Last year I did 11-minute miles and that was tough. I think I'll be in better shape and better prepared for the tough course this year.

Tale of the Brat Thief

I still can't decide if I'm upset with the events of last night or proud. I made a couple of brats that I had roaming in the freezer and cut them up to eat with some pasta. I was working on something else and when I turned around, about half of the brats were missing. My daughter was there and said, "I love brats!" and proceeded to continue pilfering my stash. I lost my cool a bit as I didn't have any back-up brats and told her to stop. She took the plate to the table and the next time I turned around ate all but two little pieces. I was really looking forward to those brats, but the enthusiasm she was exuding about them may have made up for not eating them. I quite proud of how much she likes brats. She even chooses them over hot dogs.

Tuesday night was one of the best nights of volleyball I've played in a while. Even though it was in a gym with a concrete floor and the end lines were the walls, it was a lot of fun. We played what was probably one of the best teams, and it turns out that we may also be one of the best teams. We split the 4 games and could have won all 4. I felt a lot more comfortable this week getting use to playing 6's again after three summers of doubles. This is going to be a fun season.

I even went for a run the following day and felt good, not unbearably stiff. Anyone who read my last post saw that I found a new shoe store. It's really my new store. I decided that shoes were too big and contacted them to see if they could do anything for me. They have a 30 day return policy, regardless of the condition of the shoes. I'm glad that I decided to boycott Dick's Sporting Goods. I tried to buy shoes there and couldn't get someone to help me. It was clear that I was looking for shoes and wasn't just looking casually. I had my 1-year-old in a stroller, so I was definitely motivated to find a pair and make a purchase. You don't go trying on shoes for fun with a 1-year-old. As I stood looking at the display, holding shoes and looking intently at the sales people, the only response I could get was a curt notification that they only had that shoe is size 14 as one guy rushed to help someone else. I waited for a good 15 minutes and couldn't even make eye contact with anyone. No one even gave me so much as a, "I'll be with you in a minute," or, "Are you being helped?"

Anyway, I'm heading back to get some shoes that actually fit on Saturday and may get some more wool socks. I love those socks. I want to get some SmartWool clothing too. A friend of mine clued me into a site called Steep and Cheap that has some amazing discounts, so I'm watching that because I can't afford $70 for a running shirt.

Big game on Monday. I'm hoping the Vikings are for real and we see an Adrien Peterson extravaganza as he leads the Vikings to a rout of the Packers. Buffalo wings will be made and the kids will go to bed so I can watch this game.

More volleyball and wool socks

Started a new volleyball league last night. It's been a long time since I played 6's, especially with a full team. It's been even longer since I played on a a gym floor (note to self - need to dive less). That being said, last night was a lot of fun. It helped that we won all four games. This will be a good cross-training activity to give the short-twitchers a jump start and give me some speed back when I run.

I finally got some new running shoes. It's been three years since I bought my last pair, but I have to confess that I didn't really use them until this past January. Our local store closed down and I'm boycotting Dick's Sporting Goods, so I went on a search for another local running store. I found one, but it's 45 minutes away. If you are in the area, check them out. It's Elite Feet in Montoursville. They were very helpful, but I think I may have gotten the shoes a little too big. I'm not sure. The last pair was a little too snug, so it may just be a reaction to actually having some room in the toe box. I also wore my new socks, my first pair of wool running socks (Smart Wool to be specific). The guy at the store said I would be amazed at the difference between them and cotton socks. I have to agree, they did feel pretty good. The only problem is I only have one pair.

Today was the first full day of Autumn and we reached 84 degrees in my classroom. We got an email on Monday saying the AC would be off for the week. Anything above 75 and it gets difficult for anyone to concentrate in a classroom. We were spoiled up to this point. The new system put in over the summer (or fixed or whatever...it worked) kept the temperature in my room below 72, often below 70. It was really nice. Today, not so nice.

New Marathon Plan

Grandma's is too far away and will cost too much to run. More specifically, it will cost too much to travel and stay for the weekend in Duluth. So, I have decided to run the local marathon in May instead. The River Towns Marathon will be on Saturday, May 8, 2010. I'm putting my goal out there right now. I want to run it in under 4 hours. I think that's a realistic goal. I would love to do it in 3 or even under 3.5, but I'm just not sure I can do that at this point. Closer to the actual date, I'll reevaluate this goal and see where my training is. 9 minute miles would put me at right around 4 hours. 8 minute miles would put me right around 3.5 hours. I have not raced any 5k's lately (I plan on doing one in September), but I can't seem to get a training run of 5k in 8 minute miles, so I'm not sure that I can get that pace for 26.2 miles in May. We'll see.

Grandma's Marathon 2010

Well, now would be the time to commit. It's scheduled for June 19, well after school is out and planning now leaves no good reasons not to do it. Do I commit now? If I wait, I won't do it. If I do it, I'm doing it right this time - no pulled muscles at mile 17. The 34th Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN will be held at 7:30 am on June 19, 2010. Who's in?