Summer School Day 4

I was getting a bit bored with this, but I was thinking that a conducive way to get my thoughts down is to write about what happened during the day while I was teaching. No names will be addressed and very vague information will be given. I am teaching summer school for five weeks. It is a half day. I teach students that are in the age range of rising Pre-K 4 to 1st grade. 

This is taken from my reflective journal. Writing in italics have been added for the blog.

I'm going to chalk this day better. I was able to do some small groups, and was able to enjoy working in those groups. It's still an ongoing process to find my groove. I'm feeling more confident and excited as the week has gone on. I feel that I need to continue to adapt to this group of students, and not think of my former class.

One thing that I need to work on is getting out of the Kindergarten mentality. The students are different emotionally and with their mentality. There are things that I did not factor in when I was teaching Kindergarten that I have to factor in teaching younger students. Apparently getting kids to eat their food (ie. main food, not snacks) is important, because of setting eating habits. This was something that was not introduced to me. I'm use to kids asking me to open something, I will. So when this upsets the standard process from the other teachers, I really don't feel that bad, because nobody has told me to do something otherwise. I feel a little sorry for what happened.

Summer School Day 3

I was getting a bit bored with this, but I was thinking that a conducive way to get my thoughts down is to write about what happened during the day while I was teaching. No names will be addressed and very vague information will be given. I am teaching summer school for five weeks. It is a half day. I teach students that are in the age range of rising Pre-K 4 to 1st grade. 

This is taken from my reflective journal. Writing in italics have been added for the blog.

At the beginning of the day I was in an IEP meeting till 9:25. When I got done, my friends who ride the bus had just showed up. Which to be honest is ridiculous. The buses have been operating late for arriving and leaving. When I came back from the meeting, the class was in centers and operating smoothly.

I feel that the read aloud I did, The Rainbow Fish, went well. We did an activity after it. I feel that if we weren't under the gun with time we could have continued for ten more minutes. 

The activity was for the students to draw a fish and then add scales. The students could rip up pieces of paper to make the scales and then glue them on. I have a picture of one students work.

It's still my learning process of being able to teach an adequate art lesson. Which is tough since I am not that big of a fan of art. 

The one thing I need to work on is finding something for my students to do after lunch. The boredom of reading books has caused them to act out.

Summer School Day 2

I was getting a bit bored with this, but I was thinking that a conducive way to get my thoughts down is to write about what happened during the day while I was teaching. No names will be addressed and very vague information will be given. I am teaching summer school for five weeks. It is a half day. I teach students that are in the age range of rising Pre-K 4 to 1st grade. 

This is taken from my reflective journal. Writing in italics have been added for the blog.

As another school day passes, I find it very cathartic to write my thoughts down. It provides an opportunity to not only document things, but gives me an outlet. As something that I have been thinking since yesterday, that I really need to find positives in negative thoughts. In summer school, what I believe is that this will present to me a transition away from not having my co-teacher. It will be able to help me get over that she is not in my classroom, and will help me in the transition. It has had it's moments in only two days! One thing that I really have to be conscious when I'm teaching is to not compare my new colleagues to my old co-teacher. I can't say, "she would have done that different" or "she would have it out already". This is the learning process for sure.

Another thing that I am learning, is still going through the feeling out process with my students and vice versa. What I need to do is make it through this week, and get all the routines and procedures down.

I am pleased that once again I am getting positive praise from the admin staff. One goal coming into the 2012-13 school year was to change how I was as a teacher. I felt that in my first year I was a shitty teacher, so the goal was to not be that shitty of a teacher. It was something (that honestly) I thought about everyday. I was visualizing what would be different. I was visualizing what was going to go through the first day and how I would react to things. Honestly it was a step in the process of what has fascinated me for a long time. I feel that there is some aspect of statistical analysis when teaching. The steps are finding it at a point where the classroom can run smoothly.

One fascinating aspect from today was that I was bitten by one of my students. I feel that from interacting with this student so far, that a different tone and style will need to be used. But frankly he will not get me down. I will break him down.

Summer School Day 1

I was getting a bit bored with this, but I was thinking that a conducive way to get my thoughts down is to write about what happened during the day while I was teaching. No names will be addressed and very vague information will be given. I am teaching summer school for five weeks. It is a half day. I teach students that are in the age range of rising Pre-K 4 to 1st grade. 

This is taken from my reflective journal. Writing in italics have been added for the blog.

Today was not that bad when it came to first days. It really was a learning experience. I'm not use to working with students that young, but it was one of those things that makes me better at the profession I have chosen. I was a bit ambitious with choices of centers. They were a bit to much academic, and did not hold the attention span of the students. In our next center rotation, I modified them to give them more hands on learning (legos, blocks). And it worked well. It's still a challenge with their emotional and maturity level. I was pleased with certain aspects, but there is still room to improve. It's an adjustment when you leave the end of the year, where things are smooth, well oiled machine, and you have to start all over again. This is something I talked to my co-teacher about in September/October of the school year, and it was meet with some sort of braggish notion on my part. But it holds true. Having to re-establish new routines and expectations.

Once again the read alouds I do, and the investment I put into them get my students hooked. I read the book The Snowy Day and dressed up in winter clothing. After the read aloud, I did a science experiment and put ice cubes (dyed with green food coloring) and dropped them in a jar of warm water.

June 3rd & June 4th

...yesterday was a workout that kinda knocked me down a peg. Then what happened after that is a feeling that I have not had in a long time. I was extremely dehydrated and crashed big time at 8pm. I then went to sleep, because I didn't think I could do anything else.

I did my tempo run in the afternoon. I had some anxiety of running in the morning and pushed it to the latter times. I should have ran in the morning. The temperatures were cool. I did the tempo run and knew that I would be hurting as I was running. The first mile was 5:34 and I never felt great. Then I followed it with a 5:47, which was where I was in deep pain. The third mile was like most of what I have been doing in DC. Full of wind to the face. I was pushing and not really having much in me. I ran the third mile in 5:47.

I then did my cool down and immediately had to scramble to find a bathroom. I made it, but felt awful during the cool down. Awful like I couldn't believe if I would make it back to my place. I did, but was running on fumes and hoped some food would get me back. It did not. I was crashing and after taking a shower and trying to eat something, went to bed.

This morning I ran ten miles. It wasn't that bad, considering the effects of yesterday's run. I know that if my life depended on me running a workout, I would be dead 100 times. I ran the miles this morning, and didn't feel that bad. I just got done studying for my test. I did four strides and core for the first time this week. I'm planning on mile repeats tomorrow morning. That will be a go for sure.

June 3rd

...I woke up in the morning and was getting ready to go run. I didn't hear the pounding of the rain, so I didn't think it was that bad. I got out around 5:20 am and it was raining. Not that hard, but enough to warrant an umbrella. It had rained enough during the night to prompt massive puddles on the trail. The rain stopped at mile four and didn't pick up until seven and a half. That's when it started to pick up. It was over by the time I finished. I eschewed strides and core because I was soaked to the bone.

It wasn't a bad run. I did see two other people while I was out running, so that was reassuring. I am planning on running early in the morning to get study time in for my test on Saturday. I got home this afternoon and was starving. I had a bowl of cereal, orange, and some pita chips before my chicken dinner and then ate a cliff bar after that. So I was really hungry.

Mileage for the day was nine miles at 7:10 pace.

June 2nd

...today was going to be an overly ambitious start to getting into some tip top shape. It was going to be a long run, with a four mile marathon pace tempo run thrown into the mix. I was thinking of running eleven miles, then doing the four mile temp, and then jogging the last two miles home. That was the plan. I was hoping for a tempo pace around 5:50 to 6 minutes. And while that didn't materialize I can at least be confident in where my current fitness level is, and where I need to go to achieve what I want to accomplish.

I'll start with the run with began a little past seven in the morning. I was debating whether to drop my shirt off at some rock cliff around a mile in, but decided not to. I then got to two miles and knew that it would be better served to run without a shirt, for the first time in recent memory. I also stopped to tie my shoelace, not because it was untied (which I have to say is starting to become a problem with my shoe. It's happened twice this week. Although to be fair that's better than the last pair, that got untied nearly every run.), but rather because it was off a bit. I then continued with my run. I wasn't feeling that spry and was debating about pulling the plug a bit and just running to some distance and turning around. I felt that way until mile five and then I started to relax. I was close to sub seven or right around that for the miles. I ran new parts of Rock Creek in Maryland, which reminded me of McMullen in some areas. I turned around at 8.5 and was exactly at an hour. I stopped to get some water at mile nine, and then hit my temp a mile and a half later.

I started the first tenth of a mile running uphill and then the course goes back downhill (very convenient). I was trying to shake off the first part of that run and was able to get it down, but not low enough for me. I hit the first mile at 6:14. I continued to press on. I really wasn't in any danger of fading, but was having a problem dropping the times. I hit the second mile at 6:13. I then eased into the run and the third mile went by with a better effort, with a 6:06. Then I hit the fourth mile and it honestly didn't feel that I was working that hard, even though the pace dipped quite a bit. I ran the last mile in 5:48 to give my tempo time of 24:21. Not really what I was expecting, but a promising start, a baseline to see where I am. I ran to get some water and jogged back to my apartment building. I did four strides in the alley and had to fight with the wind on two of them.

I ended up running the seventeen miles in 1:56:23. The first eleven were at 7:02 pace. Not that shabby. My weekly mileage was 81.75. That's probably the first time I've ran eighty this year.

June 1st

...I woke up this morning and I felt exhausted. I really had nothing in me, but I went out for a run and knew that this would be a run where I just ran through it. I kept the pace slow and while the mileage was in the double digits, it wasn't that bad. I was able to pick up my pace as the run went on, and I was able to keep my stride in the same shape throughout the run.

Throughout the day I studied for a Praxis test and took a nap.

May 31st

...it's the end of May and it's the end of the work week. I have one more month of school left, leaving with twelve school days remaining.

I ended up doubling the runs today. I woke up at 5 to get a run in. My legs were tired from the workout from yesterday, but I was able to get the pace lowered throughout the run. I averaged 7:15 for eight miles.

Then during the day I went on a field trip to the Air and Space Museum. I had remarked that I haven't been in the museum in nearly 17 years. With the time of year that we are in now, it's overly crowded, and it was packed. Maybe it's because of my liberal arts degree, but I enjoyed the aspects of the museum of natural history more than this museum. The sciency sorts of things just aren't that interesting.

We did end up taking the metro to the museum, which meant that we were walking to and from the metro stations. That probably added my walking mileage to somewhere around three to four miles. Needless to say when I got home I was exhausted. I was tempted to take a nap when I got home, but I knew if I did that then I would be tired after waking up and not really be motivated to make something for dinner. I would call out for pizza. I ended up going for a run in the somewhat ninety degree weather. It wasn't that bad. I averaged 7:07 pace for four miles, and finished it off with four strides.

My mileage for May was the highest this year with 327.35. I'm still working things out and hope to improve over the summer.

May 30th

...running at five o'clock today, and it was an ozone alert orange day. Not particularly inspiring to do a workout in. There was already one factor against me. When I started my repeats there would be two more factors when I did the odd number repeats. The first quarter was on a gradual uphill and into the wind. With those three factoring in, I knew that the times I wanted to hit wouldn't really happen.

I was a bit disappointed not to run faster, but with the temperatures in the low nineties and the humidity present, but not on any level that I found awful. I ended up taking ninety seconds of rest in between each set. I ran six 800s and then did 2.75 of a cool down. I ran to a water fountain that extended the cool down. Then I did four strides in the alley.

My splits:
2:36- I was checking my splits after I got to the crest of the hill and it was about 5:23 pace at that point
2:33
2:37
2:34
2:41- this was the one where my goose was cooked. My legs were fried. Of course when I started the interval, there was a persistent wind howling in my face for the majority of the interval. I hung tough. I was about 5:33 at the quarter.
2:38

Overall not that bad considering the temperatures and my second workout in two weeks.

Tomorrow I get to go to the Air and Space Museum for a field trip. Fun time!

May 29th

...I went running close to six o'clock today. I had a meeting at work at five and didn't get home to about a quarter to six. I went out and ran, the weather wasn't oppressive, but it is starting to get warm. The humidity wasn't that bad (or maybe I'm just use to it being omnipresent). There wasn't much of a breeze to talk about, but I was pretty exhausted after the run. I was more dehydrated than anything. It was one of those feelings where I could taste the salt coming off my skin.

I ended up with the pace for ten miles under seven minutes. I'm not sure of the exact time, since the garmin was acting screwy on the way back. I ended up doing four strides in the alley after the run. I'm planning on doing 800s tomorrow, when the weather should be hotter. I'm hoping for low 2:30s and some 2:20s when I'm doing them. I'm not sure of the rest. I'm enjoying running once a day in the afternoon. I think my body is getting use to it. My legs no longer feel like jelly at the beginning of the run.

May 28th

...I woke up this morning and the pain that I had been suffering on the top of my left foot had persisted, so I opted to run after I got home from work in the late afternoon/early evening. I also was hoping that I could start to get better accumulated to the heat. I've been running with my shirt on whenever it's been hot, but the last couple days the weather has actually dipped down into the forties and low fifties.  Today it wasn't unbearable to go out and run. The temperatures were probably in the eighties, but there was hardly any humidity. Which coming from Charlotte, I'm glad that May is a month that is not considered summer. I know that in about a month I'm not going to be able to run with the weather not being so oppressive.

I wanted to actually run in the later afternoon, instead of doing my runs in the morning. I was planning on doing it next week, but with the pain in my foot coming up, I'll do it right now. It's not so bad. My goal for this week is to get close to eighty miles.

During the day, my left foot was giving me a slight pain and I was debating whether or not to actually run. I decided to run a quarter after five and there really wasn't any pain at all. I ended up running at seven minutes and five second pace for eight miles. I ended with four strides in the alley. I'm glad that I finished my run, because I could see ominous clouds overhead. They had been there for most of the run, but held off right till I got done with the last stride.

At school today, my co-teacher was out for the day, and honestly it's a testimony to my students, but there really wasn't a slip at all from them. It's really about the system and routine that has been put in place. I have fifteen days left my friends and it's going to be sad to see most of them leave. Actually after I get done writing this post, I'm going to write the last day of school's lesson plan.

One year ago

A year ago I ran the Vermont City Marathon. I also wrote about here on the blog. Neither of them were very good. I was off 10 minutes on my goal time. And I wrote most of the blog post dying from eating some tainted beef from Chiptole.  Looking back on my training log it should have been pretty obvious that I wasn't going to be running the time that I expected to.

Anyway it's time to start back this blog again. I may not have the readers as I did on the first version of Dinner's for Suckers.

After a week of easy running and taking my mileage down, it was time to get the mileage back up. I wanted to do a three mile tempo, to give myself a baseline of where I was. This was going to give me an idea of where my fitness was. One goal that I had in mind was to not dip into the well. Whatever my time was, that was what it was going to be. So if it was six minute pace, then it was six minute pace.

The weather was really nice and it was great to be out there when it was somewhat cool outside. I hit my miles in 5:35, 5:40, and 5:28. The second mile, running it in Rock Creek, is always a tad slow. I have to run on a little sidewalk over a bridge, where there is a quick turn, then run up some hills, and then cross a street. Other than that I felt fine. I didn't panic when my pace was 5:51 for mile two. Mile three was smooth. I know I could have really pushed it ten to fifteen seconds faster, but that was not part of the plan.

I ended up running ten miles. Time for the tempo was 16:43. Not a bad place to start off. I finished with four strides.

Pike's Peek 10K race recap: Welcome back sweet prince!

...I guess I have to start somewhere. Let's go to December 21st of 2012. I was riding in the car back to Charlotte. I had the flu. I was in the car for almost 10 hours. It was not fun. There was a thought of checking into the hospital that day. The next day I was loaded up on flu medication. I watched the Panthers play the Raiders. It was a pretty bad game. But on the medicine it was A GREAT GAME.

I tried to run on Christmas and got about a quarter mile into the run and realized I made a big mistake. A half mile into the run I stopped to cough for about three minutes. I tell everyone that it was 5 minutes, but it was three. But five minutes sound so EPIC.

It took me until the beginning of the year to get over the flu. I then did a run with Matt on the first Saturday of January. It was around mile 9 or 10 when he said something like, "this is probably where getting over the flu is going to make your legs heavy". I really wanted to tell him I've felt like crap since mile 3. He went off to do his workout at mile 11 and a couple miles later for probably the first time in my running life, I had to stop and walk during the run. After that my IT Band flared up and it took me about three weeks to run again.  After that it was another month to where I was close to being back.

In that time my running was been a big pile of disappointment. I did an 8k on a hilly course. Myself and a bunch of other runners took a wrong turn and made it almost a 10k. The pace was 5:50. I then ran an 10k two weeks later. And it was another fail. The wind hampered me for the first half and I finished in 35:22. A couple weeks later I ran the St. Patrick's Day 8k and couldn't get over the feeling that my legs were heavy and ran a 27:14. Then I ran the Van Metre 5 miler and ran 27:30. Another disappointing race. It seemed that the story of my running life for the last year or so was one of disappointment. It started with the Vermont City Marathon, where I thought I was in good shape and then all holy hell of flukes made it a bust.

The marathon took my legs out of me, and the summer was a bust. I picked things up in September. But after that kinda lost the fire and didn't end the year well. I was frustrated that I had all this good training, miles, and workouts, but nothing really showing it. Whether it was a course with half of it into a 20 mph plus wind, or just something flukey.

And then it leads us to this week. Two Friday's ago (not this Friday because that was last Friday, but the Friday before that) I was feeling a bit under the weather at the beginning of school. My voice felt off and I had a general sense of being off. I found out that one of my students was home, due to flu like symptoms. Well that explained it. I tried to get a run in the next day. Ran the first mile in 7:21, it felt like I had been strained and I went back home. I took some medicine and felt better the rest of the weekend.

Then last week I did a workout on Tuesday. I had the day off from school and it was just a total frustrating feeling that I was working way to hard and feeling labored and the first two miles of a tempo were at 5:39. Chalk it up to my illness or whatever. On Thursday I was planning on doing three miles at 10k pace with 2 minutes rest. I did the first one in 5:16 and then the second one in 5:20. I do the repeats around the zoo in Rock Creek. On the second one there was a Girls on the run group that took up the trail. I wasn't really in the mood to say anything and they were meandering. So I kinda just went my own path. Nearly ran over two girls and messed up my stride. Oh well. I started the third one and immediately a huge gust of wind hit and I was running uphill. After the uphill I was a quarter mile in and running 5:43 pace. F THAT. I pulled the plug and was done. I really wasn't sure what to expect on Sunday.

I was in the porta-john before the race and I heard a sound that I never really have heard before at a race. It was the sound of a dog barking. There were dogs out there sniffing for bombs. Why give jobs to dogs, when people could sniff them out? THANKS A LOT OBAMA! I didn't really worry that much about that or really cross my mind about anything vile. I just went about my business. It's just the way things are going to be.

I then did my warm up and I wasn't feeling that great. My legs didn't feel that great. I then did two half ass strides before the start. Apparently the field was stacked (and looking at the results it was). We went off and I settled in to a nice pace. I knew I was going fast and adjusted accordingly. One thing that I will not understand is why do the elite African women go out like 15 year HS boys? They go out so hard and then get dropped so soon. You shouldn't sound like your laboring after a mile into the race.

Now onto the course. You run about 300 Meters and then turn left. That's the only turn in the course. The course is mostly flat. But there are some hills. Nothing major, but enough to give your legs a work. They appear at the end of the course. And of course there was the wind. It wouldn't be a race in this area without some sort of wind. Nothing to bad, but enough for you to know that it was there.

My splits were:
5:14
5:13
5:17
5:18
5:25
5:23
1:00

To be honest I really didn't have a plan going into the race. I was just going with what I knew I had and hoping that I could hang on. I started to feel it on mile five. Mile six was all about getting to the finish.

I was really aware of making sure that I was running straight, shoulders up, breathing controlled, and opening up my stride. That was an effort that lasted through the entire race. And here is the thing, during the race with what I was hitting at each mile, the momentum carried on. The whole effect just snowballed into something bigger. I got to the third mile marker and it was 15:44 and I knew that I was going to be close to a 5k PR (I checked it and it was in the 16:17 neighborhood).  I knew that there was a good chance of running a 10k in the 32s.

Now I was hoping for a run in the 33:30s range. That's kinda what I figured. I thought best case was low 33s. But now here I was running and the idea of running that time was real. I was dreading now running a 33:03 or something like that and being disappointed. The fourth mile was just a hair over 21 minutes and then I realized damn I am moving. That was a 4 mile PR and I feel good. Mile 5 was where I started to hurt. I fought through it and when I got to the 5 mile marker, the guy calling out the splits was off so I wasn't sure where I was. He called out 25:59, but that didn't sound right. It was probably 26:27. I was calculating what I needed to run to get under 32 minutes. I was in a battle with two guys. One with headphones and another guy. We were all trading spots. At mile 6 all I saw was the first number and it was 31 and damn it was go time. I wasn't going to risk it. Of course the two guys passed me, but as I was finishing I knew that it was going to be under 33 and I was going to have room to spare. The final time was 32:54, my watch had 32:53.

After the race I was all smiles. Can't say that has happened at all in races that I've run or even coached. I even gave some half hearted fist pump. The time that I ran, honestly, I didn't think I could run now and probably not even at the end of the year. But I took advantage of the situation and that's all that I could say. One of my goals was to not give up in races or workouts, fight through them when it gets tough, and I got that today.

I ended up finishing 42nd overall, just to give you and idea of how tough it was the winner ran an average pace of 4:34. Two elite women beat me. But looking at my average pace of 5:18, that's close to my 5k PR pace. It's still one of those things that I still can't believe.

The race starts at the Shady Grove metro station and ends at the White Flint station. I decided to just job back to my car. At times it did not seem like a great idea. But it was nice to do a solitary run and just have thoughts to myself. Nothing really went through my head.

Part 2 tomorrow

What goes up

...I was thinking this same thought while I was doing a workout on Tuesday. "Man I am feeling really good". I was running 6 x800 and was hitting them around 2:33. I was taking about two minutes of rest and was feeling it. It was a good feeling. Then later that night I found out I could run the half marathon on Saturday and was ready to go run it and go for a fast time. Then later that night, I woke up at 1:30 and felt awful.

I hadn't felt this bad since I had the flu in December. I thought maybe I could pass through this and be in the clear by 5 and then go out for my run. That didn't happen. I felt worse as the minutes passed. I ended up sleeping in the bathroom for a couple minutes. The cold tiles on the floor made me put towels down and sleep on them. Finally I went back to bed. I stayed in bed, but felt awful. I then knew it was about to hit. I went back in the bathroom and then dry heaved or wet heaved. Oh if this is it I will be somewhat displeased. And then full release. A tannish mixture with spaghetti noodles evacuating rather violently. I was feeling the effects of food poison. I had to believe it was the food that I had that evening. A chicken and pasta pre-made Harris Teeter meal. And with that I was done.

I made it to work and felt better (but a slightly exaggerated term) as the day went on. I got home around 4:30 and was debating whether to run, and realized that it would be an awful idea and went to bed to take a two hour nap. The next day I waited to the afternoon to run. I went out about a half mile and realized that this wouldn't be a good idea.

It wasn't until Friday that I ran 8 miles where I was feeling better. I'm still not feeling 100%, but at least I don't have that pit in my stomach feel anymore.

B-Mac the clown: St. Patrick's Day 8k

...for the past couple days I've been thinking about something that has really gotten to the forefront of my head. It's something that has really consumed my thoughts when I'm not daydreaming, when I'm lying in bed about to go to sleep, it's something that pops up and I express it those around me. My co-teacher even said it was something that I had been thinking about, because it was the first thing I said to her. And it has been something that I have been thinking about for the past four days. It's something that I have to say, I have to be 100% sure. And right now I'm not 100% sure. I'm more like 80% sure. And that's not good enough. It's something where it's 100% or not.

It's also one of those things that I can't really say on this blog what it is, due to it's nature. It's something that I would be loathed to write about it in an email. It's something that I wouldn't even think about sending a text about it or writing about it on a direct message on twitter or facebook. Honestly the only way I would talk to someone about it, from the outside world, is through face to face contact or over the phone. It's one of those things where the slightest trepidation could result in dire consequences either way. If I'm right and wait then it's on me. If I'm wrong then I've shattered the illusion of normalcy. It's not a thing where you can hedge it. My gut is telling me what I hope is not the truth. I'll talk to someone that can do more about it tomorrow.

And then it got me thinking to something else I was talking to my co-teacher about, and that was Joe Paterno. I honestly believe that he was full of it from the beginning. Coming as a former coach, you should know, that all coaches have some sort of psychopathic symptoms. We strive for something that is unattainable but you still fight for it. It's a quest for perfection. Everything running in the right direction. I had a team that had an individual state champion, a top ten finish in a track championship, a third place relay team, and I was still miserable and thinking about what else I could have done. And going back to JoePa and the dereliction of his duty, not as a coach, but as a human being. It's one of those things where you wonder what you would do in the moment. Granted he did what he was suppose to. But it was the bare minimum. Being in a situation, I don't want to look back in a couple months and regretfully think, why did I do that?

...oh pardon me. Were you thinking that this was going to be like all the other blog posts, the status updates, the jokes that I tell. And that's the problem that one enters. I was reading a profile on the Newtown shooter and it got me thinking, all the people that were being interviewed about him had only meet him for a brief moment. Imagine that your life was summed up by someone that you talked to for five minutes.  It's the projections that we give out to people. It's how we want people to see us. The insecurity, the whatever we call it, we don't really want people to truly see how we are. Nobody knows us except for ourselves. It's the projection that we put out and become comfortable with. It's one of those thing that we do to ourselves. That's what happens. You tell crass sophomoric jokes enough, you get stuck with a label that defines you. No matter if this is how you truly are. You become it. That's what happens. No matter if that is really the true personality. It's something that we put up with, because it's the only way we know how.

-the happiest clown with the biggest frown.

...now for the race recap

I would say the highlight of my Saturday was:
a) writing lesson plans
b) finishing my laundry
c) turning my ottoman chair sideways into a makeshift couch.

I'm going to say it was c, because not having a couch is one of the glaring holes in my apartment.

You know what else, daylight savings can eat a hog.  I truly love having an extra hour of sunlight, but the morning felt like I was walking on a barren alien planet. Where am I? Why is it so dark now?

I hopped on the metro, got my packet, and stood around like I knew what was going on, when in reality that's not true. I ended up spotting Megan Needlo in Freedom Plaza. She was with her parents who were visiting DC. She looked at how I was dressed, in my grunge skateboard shorts and a try sports long sleeve shirt, and was wondering if I was going to run the race. Once again I do not look like someone who runs or maybe I should quote Jay Cutler for this "DOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNN'TTTT CAAAAARRRREEEEE".

I did my warm up at 8:10 and did the first mile of the course. I really wasn't feeling that great. My legs were a bit heavy, but anyway I was going to give it my go. The gun went off and I wasn't feeling awesome. The pace was face and I wasn't feeling awesome. I would say at the .75 mark of the first mile, my right shoelace came untied and I wasn't feeling awesome.

I hit the first mile in 5:18. Eh it was ok. I wasn't really running with anyone. At this point in the race my right shin was absolutely killing me. If this was a long race, like a marathon I would seriously consider pulling out. It was painful the entire time. I would say that it effected me and my time.

Now here is something that grinds my gear. Either my garmin measured the second mile off or it was off. My garmin measured at .94. I looked at the Jingle All the Way race and the second mile was measured at .98 so it is off. Anyway that mile was clicked at 5:08 for .94. Then the third mile was measured at 1.04 and in 5:37.

At this point my shin was killing me. I got passed by the first place woman and three guys. It was haunting not to have much. Also at this point my left shoelace came untied. Both shoes untied. Typical. The fourth mile was measured in 1.03 and I clicked 5:46. Then I hit the last mile and got some dignity and pulled in with a 5:26 and finished in 27:18. My second fastest 8k and 1 second faster than what I ran at the beginning of the September. There is room for improvement. There is room for new flats. I thought that maybe the pain I have been having in my shins when I race was not doing hard workouts on the road, but that's not the case now. Probably has to be due to the fact that these shoes are worn down and three or four years old.

Here are some pictures from the race:

Last U-turn and about a 1/4 mile from the finish.

Right after mile two.

George Washington Birthday Classic 10k Race Recap: The Perpetual Metaphor for my life

...I'm thinking during the second mile (or maybe it's the third mile, I'm not really sure) "man I'm not running well at all, my time is going to be poo". That was about it for the negative talk. I was around some sort of putt putt course and just continued to stick with it. I wasn't sure what my overall time was going to be, but I was damn sure that I was going to stick with what got me there. I was going to fight through the pain.

Overall it was still another disappointment. To be honest. The time wasn't what I wanted. Making excuses could come up. But really this was something that I was not expecting. I am realistic. I am aware of where I was. I am sure that this is the beginning of the year. But it's another race where the effort does not equal the overall result.  And that's the frustrating thing.

...I picked up Matt from his apartment and then we drove over to Alexandria to get ready for the race. Oh it was cold! Not cold, but windy cold. The wind that hits you and gets in your bones. It was that cold. We did our warm up on the course. It was an out and back course. The wind was going to be in our face for the first half of the race. We ran up a bridge that was a minor hill. It wasn't that bad. It had a long gradual downhill, which mean that there was a long gradual incline on the way back. I went into the race, not going with the singlet again, and instead a long sleeve dry-fit shirt.

It was cold waiting for the race to start. Once we got going, the overall lead group was there and was slow. I was right in the group. I was feeling good. The group started to spread out. I ended up being strung out from the group. I hit the first mile in 5:35 and there really wasn't a group around me. There was a guy in front of me. And then the first place woman and another guy behind me. My goal for mile two was to close the gap and get with the guy in front of me.

The second mile was in the wind. It was a boring stretch of the course. Flat. The guy in front of me gapped me by a lot. That was the frustrating thing. I couldn't get over that. I was putting in the effort and I couldn't do a thing about it. I just don't have that gear. It's incredibly frustrating. The second mile was also slow 5:56

The third mile was also slow. It was 6:06. I just started to laugh when I was look at my watch and see the split time. I knew I wasn't going that slow based on effort. Right at the turn around the wind really picked up and I laughed again. On the turn around I could tell the first place woman was right on me and moving. Once I got on the turn around there was no more wind, but no feeling that the wind was pushing me.

On the fourth mile the first place woman caught up to me. Usually in races this would happen to me, and I just let the person go by me. But that's not going to happen this year. I am going to embrace the pain, and I'm going to suck it up. We ran together for the mile. People that passed us on the other side cheered her on, I trolled by telling them thanks. Knowing that the cheers were not for me. The fourth mile was a 5:35. I could feel that I was back in the groove.  I ended up putting in a surge and dropped the first place woman.

The fifth and sixth mile were the same for time and not really anything important happened. I didn't close the gap and didn't let anyone get close to me. I ended up running a 5:29 for each mile. I finished the race in tenth place and ran a 35:22. A disappointment because I wanted to run under 35. The wind was a factor, but I really wanted to get under that number. It was a frustrating race overall. Not really where I wanted to go.

I looked at the positives. In that I ran 5:50 pace for nearly six miles in the last race that I did. I ran 5:41 pace for ten kilometers. That was good. I am getting stronger. I've ran for a solid month in a row. My mileage is picking up and I can finally do quality workouts that build on my strength, instead of acquiring strength. Here's to the next race.

Rounding it out

...I had set my alarm ten minutes earlier than normal this morning. It was set to go at 4:50 am. I wasn't sure what the weather was going to be like. I saw that it was 47, but you never know. I was able to get lucky and run with a short sleeve shirt. I jogged the half mile to the track and hopped the turnstile.*

*I was explaining this to some people at work. My logic went like this. Yeah the track is locked, but I just climb the entrance. There is an older gentleman, like 50-60s, walking on the track. I see him out there so I assume that everything is going to be ok.

I did my workout. 12 x400 and 14 x 200. A workout to get my ready for a 10k that I am going to run this weekend. I did the first two 400s. The second one was 80 and I was cursing myself. After that things started...to fall into place. I was extremely consistent on the times I was hitting, 77's. I know this isn't the fastest that I have ran 400s in a workout.**  I felt the pain coming and resisted it. I welcomed the fatigue. I welcomed everything that was happening. I hadn't had this feeling in a long time.

**What I like to call the Spring of B-Mac 2011 is when I was phenomenal shape. I do remember that there was one 800 workout, like 8 or 10 by 800 where I averaged 2:26 for them. That was when I was in great shape.

Going back into my log and averaging out the times for this workout compared to the one last Thursday, I ran a full second faster. That was great. Then there were the 200s. No longer was I bending over, hands on hips. I was ready. Oh I was feeling it, but I was feeling good. Averaging 36s for 14 of them. I feel that the time to run fast is right there. Injury and illness free will be two BIG factors and I hope that I am lucky in those two departments.

The track has become a home during these winter months (November to present). I am able to run close to what I was doing, but I want more. This is the year I run under 16 minutes for 5k. This is the year I run under 27 minutes for 8k. This is the year I run under 34 minutes for 10k. Not great times to be honest, but those are the goals that I will be working for this year.

Picture of the Roosevelt HS Track (during the summer time?) where I run my workouts.

Still rising

...I'm sitting in my apartment with not much left to do. Other than review what I am going to be teaching tomorrow, I've basically finished all the work that I had on my to do list.* I'm at the point where I have ran twenty two days in a row. I've done three workouts this week and was able to raise my mileage to almost 54 miles.

*There is also the fact that I can't find my umbrella. Like seriously where did it go? I have no idea!

There has been some slight pain in my left IT band, but nothing that has caused me any concerns. Or anything that would prompt me to take a day off. In fact it really comes and goes. There are some lingering pains when I sit down for to long. Or there are some pains after I wake up. I've felt that this week has been a return back to the schedule that I was keeping until the middle of December. Then I got sick and didn't run for a week. Then I was in Charlotte for two weeks. Then I ran for about three days in DC and then I got hurt, and it was a long comeback to just run two miles.

Now I am back to maybe what I would say is 80%. There was a feeling in the middle of January, where I threw up my hands (figuratively) and declared that the 2013 race season was over. I did the 8k (or closer 10k) race and felt like things were getting back to respectability. With the two track workouts I did, I think the feeling of being in shape is slowing on the way up.

The workout I did on Tuesday was 8 x 400 and 10 x 200. I averaged 77 for the 400s and 37 for the 200s. I totally felt wiped out from this workout. I haven't had that feeling in a loooong time. But it was a good feeling. The workout I did on Thursday was 10 x 400 and 12 x 400. I got off to a rocky start with two 82's to start off the 400s, that is why the average was 78 and for the 200s it was 37. Take out the slow times when I was getting my legs under me, I average 77. Then on Saturday I did a nice steady state run on Beach Drive, which going out is a deceptive uphill. Add the wind and it wasn't that pleasant going out 4.5 and then on the way back it wasn't so bad. I averaged 6:34 for 9 miles and ran under an hour, which is something that I wanted to do. I'm pleased that the effort is starting to pay off.

Next week I'll toe the line for the George Washington Birthday Classic 10k. My goal is a rather humble one of running under 35 minutes and a top 15 finish. The upcoming week is rather unusual. I get to go to New Jersey on Thursday to observe a school in Newark. The fun part is that I get to board a train at 4am to get to Newark!

On the professional front, I basically have an unofficial contract renewed at my school. It wont formally be offered until late March, but after going over my mid year evaluation it will soon be a formality. I had the meeting for my mid year on Friday after school. I was in the mind to do some sort of celebrating, but that ain't me. It never really was me and I really don't have it in me to be something or someone that I am not. I just go about my business and do the things that please me. Whether that's playing video games, reading, or doing some work. I do the things that satisfy myself.  I ended up working for most of Saturday and Sunday morning.

Maybe I'll blog more often. Maybe I'll get more spam comments.

Langley 8k Race recap: GLORY BOY edition

...I was running at McMullen on January 1st. Some women I passed (maybe once or twice) made the comment to me, "Boy you're fast". Now sometimes I would sheepishly grin or say something that was like, "DERP yep", but this time I was thinking, "you are right I am fast"!

So often I had seen people or running clubs try to steer away from the notion that they don't cater to the fast runners, but to everyone. These are complaints from slower individuals. That maybe the club focuses too much on those who are running fast, and not highlighting the other individuals. And it really gets to a point where people have to sometimes defer their abilities. I got to thinking about that. And would I want the work that I have put in and the result that I got, to not be championed more than say a middle of the pack runner. Well my answer is F THAT. 

I'm not putting in 30 minutes a day to strengthening my IT Band, and to come back to where my fitness was, and not have some sort of accomplishment that I am better than most runners. If that makes me  GLORY BOY, then you know what then it does. It's not like I was a great runner growing up. Or a great runner in college. Or a great runner overnight. It was something that I had to attain, through years. And after that I believe that I can crow that I am better than the vast majority when I enter a race.

Of course my non GLORY BOY status of PRs through the years:
HS: 20:45 5k; 5:30 1600
2001: 20:00 5k
2002: 18:45 5k
2003: 18:30 5k
2004: 18:12 5k
2005: 17:47 5k
2006: 17:25 5k
2007: 16:39 5k

And at that point I became a GLORY BOY. It took time and it took effort. I wasn't a good runner, and it didn't use the motivation that there were others that were better me. I put in the effort. So what am I trying to say, I'm not really sure. But if you're good at something, you should be able to express it and not have to worry about hurting others feelings. We don't do this in school. We triumph the academic abilities, we should do in athletics. This isn't a hobby that I participate in. I spend to much time and effort for it to be a hobby. A hobby is collecting stamps.

Now to the race. On December 19th I took a day off from running because I had the flu. From that date till February 2nd was 45 days. In that time I took six days off because of the flu and eight days off because of my IT Band. That means out of those 45 days I ran only 31 days. Now out of those 31 days I ran only 17 days where the runs were quality (meaning I was running where it wasn't baby steps to test out my body). In six and a half weeks I had 17 quality days of running. I decided on Wednesday to enter the Langley 8k. I looked at last year's results and saw that the winning time was 30:00 and that the course was described as hilly. Not sure where my fitness was and not sure what hilly meant, I entered the race after feeling good for almost 13 days of running in a row.

The entry fee was 5 dollars. Now when I come to a race, I don't care for a bib or race t-shirt. But I do care for a lead bike and some police on the roads. And that should be a harbinger of things to come. The race started at 10 in McLean, VA at Langley HS. Whose nickname is the SAXONS. I am assuming that their mascot is the Monopoly man. Now when I got there a) it was cold, b) I forgot my gloves, and c) there were members of the drama?/fashion club? setting up something at the auditorium. There were weird runners and then high school girls mingling around. I was looking somewhat normal. I had to go to the bathroom and decided to navigate the labyrinth that was the school. I made a wrong turn and one of the girls came up to me and said "do you need some help". And right there I aged about 10 years. I'M NOT OLD I CAN STILL PARTY.

I did my warm up and it was about 20 something outside. I followed the course and it was going to blow. Oh it was hilly. I came to a fork in the road and had no idea which way to turn so I took a right. Ah Christ! Is what I thought. If we have to run this part it will suck. Basically it was like they made an 8k course behind the Harris Y, but it was much more hillier. I ended up feeling that despite not having expectations, I should be able to run under 30 minutes.

I went back into the HS and was stretching, trying to get warm. I saw someone that looked familiar. Was it Boriana? I wasn't sure. And I wasn't going to say HEY BORIANA and then find it wasn't her. But it was her and we chatted for a little bit.

The race started a little after 10. I wore the trysports long sleeve shirt and was off. My hands felt like bricks of ice. At the start about three Hispanic guys shot off. I really had no idea what to expect. I wasn't feeling that great, but not feeling awful. I ended up running with these two guys for a mile and a half. One guy was saying he was running this as a threshold run which made me want to say DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE, he did remind me of a poor man's Lamperski. Anyway the hills came and go. We ran on roads where the volunteers did a somewhat adequate job. We came to a turn around. I saw Boriana as the third women, I shouted to her "you got this Boriana those other girls are hurting" but it probably came out like this "yogtisborngirlshrutsdfhskjg".

Now at this point is where we were suppose to turn right, instead we went left and that's when the fun began. I remember one point I looked at my garmin and it said 4.25 and I knew there was no way in hell we were that close to the finish. I knew we made a wrong turn when I saw one guy ahead of me, stop and have his hands up in the air. Well let's see how far we are going to run now! The thing about this race was the lack of road closure. In that I ran on some parts where there was no shoulder and cars were right next to me. That I crossed one street at my own risk. Oh that is great!

Anyway after realizing that I was going to run longer than anticipated. I worried. I really didn't have that much in me did I? I was proud that my stride held up for the entire time. The course was extremely hilly. I came back in the school, followed the way everyone else went, which was wrong. After that some guys behind me started to yell after they were finished that whoever measured the course RAWR RAWR RAWR. This would have been the perfect time to troll them and say "it's up to each individual runner to know the course", but I didn't. Instead I did about a mile cool down and left.

I ended up running 5.85 miles at 5:50 pace, which given the lack of fitness I have is good. I figured that in the month of February I'm going to race myself back into shape. If I had run an 8k, it would have been just under 29 minutes. Not to shabby with the hills in this course. In fact I never felt tired or fatigued due to the hills. My stride never went south. So that means it's just around the corner. I guess I have work to do, but as a GLORY BOY that's what I signed up for.

In Sleep

...today is the last workday of my vacation. Monday I have to go back to school. That means on Sunday I have to shave again. That means on Monday I have to wake up at 5am to go run. That means on Sunday I have to go to bed around 10 pm and not the midnight hour that I have been pulling off the past week. That means on Monday I have to prepare my body for the flu to come back. That means on Sunday I am going to sleep filled with anxiety and wondering what the next day is going to bring. That means on Monday I have to wear nice work clothes (BUT THEY LOOK SO NICE). That means on Sunday I have to make my lunch and iron my clothes.  Welcome back to reality.

One thing that I have been able to do during this time off is that I have been able to troll around on the old FB. I got a message from some guys for a group run a couple days ago and viewed it and responded to it. Now here is the interesting thing, I saw that my old private message were still on FB. Let's see how long these go? Oh they go all the way back till I got FB back in 2007. Some of those messages I read. Some made me laugh. Some made me go, oops! Some made me think about things.

It's interesting to read things from the past and see how they turned out. Oh let's see not friends with that person anymore. Oh let's see I don't talk to that person anymore. Oh let's see I TOTALLY REMEMBER THAT CONVERSATION AND WHAT IT WAS ABOUT. Oh let' see I TOTALLY WANTED TO SLAY THAT BRO, but you know things didn't work out the way it should have.
Of course there is always a recourse to thinking about these things. For some reason I never deleted them and didn't delete them after reading a couple of those things.


...I took a nap a couple years ago. It was during a time when I wasn't feeling that great. I woke up and for a split second I wondered if things that had happened were actually a bad dream. I woke up and for a split second I thought, yeah it actually was a dream. There was probably a few seconds where I was happy, and then I realized that no in fact it wasn't a dream. That all those things happened. That was probably crushing. There are times that when I take a nap (and those are usually on the weekend, when it can happen) and during those times I drift into la-la land and sometimes, sometimes where I'll wake up and forget where I am. Am I in DC? Did those things happen in real life or a dream? I'm not really sure sometimes. They can be good dreams and bad dreams. Throughout my life I remember all the good and bad.

Run 8 miles @ Rock Creek Park

It was cold this morning. The temperature was about 34 degrees, but it felt colder than it did yesterday. There was some frost on the ground, the saving grace was that there was hardly any wind. I did get the satisfaction that when I was going out to my run I saw some people in my building getting ready to go to work. "Have fun at your job". Is what I wanted to say, I decided to silently troll them.  I finished my run to do four strides.

Back in the Saddle

...I was just going to originally going to post something that mostly related to the run I did this morning. But seriously would that be lame? Perhaps. Possibly. Anyway I was cleaning my apartment and stumbled upon the clothes I got for Christmas. OH IT'S SO NICE BEING RICH. There were two buttoned up shirts. Here is the thing I hate about these shirts. The pins. The endless endless pins. Oh my god, I was so scared that I would forget one and then when I put on the shirt I would be stabbed and bleed to death. There was one shirt where the pin was hidden and it took me forever to get it out.  It should also be noted that both these shirts look good on me.

Run 9 miles @ Rock Creek Park. Workout 5 x 1 minute hard

I was going to do a fartlek workout this morning. I wasn't sure if the endurance that I lost after being sick would be a big hurdle for me. I warmed up and hit the two mile marker at 7:02 pace and then went into my workout. I did the first minute close to 5:30 pace. I wasn't worried about my speed, I was worried about what would happen after the first hard minute. There wasn't a significant drop off when it came to my endurance. I felt good during the workout. I ran to the turn around point and ran back to my apartment. My right inner hip started to bother me a bit, but it was fine the rest of the day. I got back to my apartment and did four strides in the alley. NO GLORY BOY STRIDES.

One

...it never fails. I was driving up to DC this morning (and can I say that this drive only took 6 hours and 55 minutes, which has to be a record of driving from Charlotte to DC) and on my Ipod Metallica's One came on. Oh you know what happened next? I cranked up the volume to 20. ONLY THE LOUDEST FOR THE BEST IN THRASH METAL!!!

On my Ipod I have a lot of Mozart, so I get to hear some Don Giovanni opera singing and then some more concerto music composed by Mozart. And then there is the staple of the pop punk that I like so much. I'm going to have to say that in 2012 my favorite song and maybe the best song of the year is from Masked Intruder called "Wish you were mine". Why do I like it so much? Oh it combines doo wap and pop punk. Would that sound good? OH IT DOES. And never mind the fact that Masked Intruder is four guys that wear masks and nobody knows their identity. The last time a band did this it was revealed to be Green Day. But I don't think it will be this time.

Run- 8.6 miles @ Ballantyne Commons Parkway and parts of Ballantyne Corporate Park.

I went out for the run and it wasn't that cold this morning. I was able to run with a short sleeve shirt. And you know what I saw as I was running on the streets??? Kids getting ready for school. HEY KIDDOS HAVE FUN AT SCHOOL BWWWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

/does not pay attention to the fact that CMS lets out earlier in June

Good Mourning

...sometimes when I write sometimes I figure that people take what I write extremely seriously. That what I am writing is what I am thinking, and that any actions that I write about are in fact things that will happen or I want to happen. There have been moments that when I write morbid and dark thoughts and I want people to think I want those things to happen to me. That when I write these things that deep down I am hoping for some disease or death to take hold of me. That this would be a release from the living. When in reality it's not like that at all. In fact I really don't care that much.

There's a song from the Alkaline Trio where the lyrics are something that like this:
 "Step 1 slit my throat/ Step 2 play in my blood/ Step 3 cover me in dirty sheets and go laughing down the way"

I would write about this lyric and of it's ilk, in the hope that people would look at me like I was dark and maybe disturbed. But in fact I am actually lame and not really that into whatever I am writing. It's one of those things that I want people to think OH I THINK BRIAN MIGHT BE IN TROUBLE. But that's not the case, and really nobody really responds to anything like that. So if I every did go down the rabbit hole, I don't think people would really care or that they would stop and ask for help.

Run: 9.25 miles @ McMullen Greenway

My stomach felt nausea this morning. I ate some enchiladas last night and this morning the combination of cheese and the chicken and whatever else was in them wrecked havoc on my stomach. I ended up running at the greenway probably for the last time (in my life??????) for a while. It wasn't that cold out and it threatened to rain, but it wasn't that bad. I head up to DC tomorrow.