SSTIFY Friday

Today's the day.

Today, I have a meeting scheduled with my principal. She asked about my "vision" for the program and I have some really cool ideas. I know she's going to ask me how my year went and I know she'll want an honest answer. I just don't know if I can do it. I don't consider myself a negative person, but this year was a "challenge" (read: shitty). If she wants an honest answer, I'm going to give it to her.....professionally, of course.....but I think she needs to know, right?

Right?

Wish me luck.

On to this week's SSTIFY. This was sent in by Xenia! Someone who actually took the time to email me an entry. Yeah, Xenia! She's got a very kewl blog as she reports from across the pond. Running Off is goin' global!   Even though she's an American, I'm gonna call her a foreigner.  See? Xenophobia (+30 points) can be funny!

Erasure reminds me of a guy on my floor my freshman year of college. He was the biggest homophobe.  Hated 'em.  Then, we started to realize 3 things:

1. He always went on and on about he hated gay people.
2. We never saw him hook up with, or date a girl.
3. He had every Erasure CD known to man.  Even the dance mixes.  

Hmmm......

Have a great weekend everyone!

A Nice Gift

If you hadn't noticed from the picture in my latest race report (and, really, why wouldn't you click on it for the full effect?), I'm sporting a new gadget on my right wrist (I'm left-handed). I was presented with a Garmin Forerunner 205 from my seniors and juniors. Are you freakin' kidding me????? I wanted a 305, not a 205, damnit!

Turns out that sometimes my students actually listen to me. One day, I was going on and on about how crappy the Nike+ Sportband is, how REI.com, had a great deal on Garmin Forerunners (sorry, the promotion is over), and how I was 50/50 on plunking down the money on one. Anywho.... I opted not to buy one because my family didn't want to dine on snack ramen and peanut butter sandwiches for a month and I left it at that.

Apparently, one of them (a cross country star and now my most favoritest student) got the group together and had everyone chip in some money. They presented it to me on their last day of class. Cool, huh? I was stunned.

The Garmin and I are getting along great, thankyouverymuch. There are some questions that I have:

• How to delete a lap that my precocious 4 year old entered by pressing the start/stop button
• How to manually enter a run. Occasionally, I find myself on a treadmill (damn lightning).
  
• Why Motion Direct is so friggin great.
  
• If I can load maps on the Garmin.
• If it will propel me to a 7:15/mile pace.

If anyone knows the answers to this, drop me a line.

So there was my silver lining on a very crappy year. It's nice to know that they do listen, they do care, and they do cater to my every whim.

SSTIFY Friday

I almost forgot that I have a race this weekend. It's the Boys Town Memorial Day Run. A 5 miler and, no, we don't have to run like this:

He ain't heavy, he's my running partner!

Hopefully, I'll have a glowing race report as I will have a cheering section for the first time! My wife and kids are participating in the 1 mile run/walk. Who knows what our 4 year old will do. She thinks she can run the 1 miler. It'll probably be a combination of both.

On to the SSTIFY of the day:

Say what you want about this song/video, but this was the song in 1985. Yes, in retrospect, it's a cheesy song. But look at the heavy hitters in this one video:

• Springsteen
  
• Stevie Wonder
• Michael Jackson
  
• Diana Ross
• Willie Nelson
• Ray Charles
  
• Bob freakin' Dylan
  

Most, if not all, were rock legends, at the peak of their careers (yes, even MJ), or both. The only blip in the group is Dan Aykroyd. WTF??? Did Quincy Jones say, "Well, he is a Blues Brother and we have to have a less talented white guy otherwise Huey Lewis might stand out."

Hope everyone enjoys their Memorial Day weekend!

The Well Has Run Dry

I tell my students that story ideas need not come the night before they are due (although that's usually what happens). I give them a reporter's notebook at the beginning of the year and have them jot down any story idea, crazy or not, that pops in their head.

I've done something sort of similar to that with this blog. Thanks to Apple's ingenious "Stickies" application, I'm able to jot things down on the ol' MacBook.* I do it just in case I run out of ideas and/or topics.

Unfortunately, that time has come.

The problem is that I don't think I can expound on any of these. They were a good idea at the time, but I must've been lacking coffee or overindulging with an adult beverage.

Maybe someone out there in the blogosphere can do it for me!

-where do people find time to take pics and put on blog
-running peeve list
-running without the iPod (wrote that, to an extent)
-justifying a Garmin as business expense

Wow, I'm in a rut. It's either that, or these scintillating observations:

• Gatorade's G2 is really salty.
• I ran on our beloved treadmill this morning.
  
• It sucked.

Enjoy!

*have I mentioned how much I love all Apple products? C'mon Steve, I want the new iPhone!

SSTIFY Friday

Whoops. Almost forgot! I guess after my epiphany, it almost escaped me. I don't know how this got in my head this week, but it did. Enjoy:



For those of you under the age of 30, this show had it all:

• One dad was neat and organized
• The other dad was the crazy cool dad
• She loved them both!
• Non-stop wackiness ensued!
  

Absolutely no flaws in the show whatsoever:

• Neither of the dads asked for a paternity test.
  
• So they both paid child support?
  
• No one addressed the fact that mom was a whore.
• How the hell did the 2 dads know each other before having a pre-pubescent teen show up at their door?
• Wouldn't the judge have a conflict of interest if she lived in the same apartment complex?

By the way, here's Staci Keanan today:

Running With the Big Guy?

This morning started off like any other morning. I glared at my alarm clock and it glared back at me with H.A.L. 2000-like insincerity. I managed to stumble downstairs, ritually flip on The Weather Channel (hey, someone's pregnant, imagine that!), dress accordingly and head out the door.

Work is really stressing me out right now and, when I'm really stressed out, I usually say a prayer at the beginning of my run. I'm not an overly religious guy, but I find it centers me for the rest of my day. The context of the prayer was how thankful I was for everything and that I'd love some sort of sign from The Big Guy that what I was doing at work was the right thing.

Because of my attention span, during what was supposed to be prayer/meditation, I looked at my watch. I was set for a 9:15 pace. No big deal just wanted to enjoy the run and I didn't care about pace.

When I finished my prayer, it happened.

At Mile 1, I heard a runner coming up from behind me. That was very unusual considering it was 5am and it's a route that I run routinely and, in the 2 years I've been running this route, I can count on one hand the number of times I've encountered another runner this early in the morning. He came up beside me, we exchanged the customary "Good Mornings" and then he shot passed me. I'd estimate it to be about a 6:30/7:00 pace.

Usually, when someone passes me, I instinctively try to keep up. I sped up, knowing full well that I wasn't going to stay with him. He then veered off back into the neighborhood and I kept going on my route. Here's the strange thing:

I couldn't slow down.

I told myself that this was a ridiculous pace especially due to the hills on this route (yes, there are hills in Nebraska. Well, in Omaha at least.) I told myself I'd have to slow down for the return route.

I still didn't slow down.

It really didn't occur to me until about the 2.5 mile mark that something else could be working here. My legs just kept going, my breathing wasn't labored, I was in a zone. I kept dismissing it. I even thought it would be a good joke for today's post, "Hey, the cream I borrowed from Barry Bonds is really working!" For the last .75 miles, I was practically at a dead-ass sprint.

I have no idea what is going on here.

When I finished, I quickly glanced at my time and knew it was good. I didn't know it was a PR for this run.

30:06 for a 3.5 mile run
8:30/mile pace

Here are my splits:
Mile 1 - 9:08
Mile 2 - 8:15
Mile 3 - 8:30
Mile .5 - 8:18

I haven't run an 8:30 pace since my very first 10K. Mile 1 to Mile 2 is remarkable for me. Maybe it was due to the week off. Maybe it was due to the great weather (52 degrees, no wind). Or maybe it was something else.

I'm not an overly pious man. I do believe in God, I go to church on a fairly regular basis, I make contributions, etc. I'm what you would call a middle-of-the-road Catholic. Am I going to become a more devout Catholic due to this experience? Probably not, but what happened today on my run solidified my belief in a higher power.

I feel kind of corny posting this. Some of you may be rolling your eyes and even more may have not gotten this far in the post. It really doesn't matter. It's just cathartic for me to type it up.

I'm an Idiot

*The following post is a contribution to the Runner's Lounge Take It and Run Thursday.

My loyal readers, friends and family should know this by now:

I'm an idiot.

When I started running about 2 years ago, I had a lot of questions. After about a week of shin splints, my burning (pun intended) question was, "On what type of surface should I run?" Grass? Asphalt? Concrete? Limestone? Sunshine? (whoops that's Walking on Sunshine, isn't it?) Moon Rocks?

After Googling and looking on my then-favorite Cool Running message boards*, the consensus was that, if you can't find a trail to run on, running on the street is better than running on sidewalks.

OK, cool. After about 3 weeks of that, my outer-lower legs were killing me and I could NOT figure out why. That is, until I took a walk one night with my family. As I looked at the streets, I saw that they were sloped towards the sidewalks. Probably so the rain could run toward the curb and then toward the sewer.

Do you now see why I will never be a civil engineer?

The technical term is "cambered". My term for it was "leg wrecker". See, I ran on the street as close to the sidewalk so that I wouldn't get smacked by a Buick. If I ran in the middle of the street, I was good. I wouldn't recommend doing this after 6am, but, for us early-risers, it's not too much of an issue.

The pain went away after about 2 runs and I could run freely and worry about other injuries.

Like I said. I'm an idiot.

*I'm still bitter that Cool Running switched over to active.com. It just isn't the same and I haven't visited there since. I lost a year's worth of running logs and my very first race report.

Odds and Ends

(cue dramatic movie trailer music)
Announcer: In a world, where grown men run 13.1 miles for no reason.

Where cold season knows no end.

...and there's no end in sight.

Comes one man...back for more.

Raz

Z

Doodle.

That's right kids! I'm off of running hiatus! And I need to be. I won't go into specifics, but work is really stressing me out.

Not only is there a boatload of end of the year BS I have to tend to, but administration seems to be more concerned with test scores (ACT, AP, etc.) over the fact that enrollment for practically every elective is suffering because of it. My program is getting hit the hardest. My enrollment for next year is down 50%. When I asked them how I can get that back up, they basically told me they weren't too concerned about it and that they needed to concentrate on test scores. I wanted to go into the benefits of my program helping with test scores (writing, critical thinking, teamwork, etc.), but it would've fallen on deaf ears.
Editor's note: OK, maybe I did get into specifics there. Sorry.

Anyway, there's nothing like a quick run to get some of that out. I've extolled the virtues of running ad nauseum on this blog and others, but...really....there is no better way for me to deal with stress than a run. 3 miles, 3 blocks, it doesn't matter.

Here are some other observations, links, etc. that I can't really string together coherently, so here are the ol' bullet points:

• 2....count em...2 cramps in my calves right before I woke up to go on my run. One in each leg. Maybe some Gatorade and a banana before I head out.
• I like typing "banana". Sometimes I go too far, though. Bananananananana.
• Not only is running my stress relief, it also jostles out the phlegm that's been sitting in my chest for the past few days. Mmmmmm.....phlegm.
• Sprinklers? At 5am? It's 43 goddamn degrees out!!!!!!
• No iPod today. I'm in that kind of mood. I think I'll save the 'pod for the long runs.
• Sunrise! I see the sunrise! Spring is officially here!
• Vote for both I'll Run for Donuts and Half-Fast. Don't ask why, just do it damnit!
• Mental note: start homeschool blog ASAP
• Other mental note: "Don't ask why, just do it damnit" should be someone's campaign slogan.
  
• Nitmos made me laugh with his latest post. Unfortunately, I was eating a chicken salad sandwich while reading. I don't advise that unless you want a stray piece of chicken and/or celery shooting out your nose.
• I've been invited by our school's unofficial staff "running team" to run in the inaugural Market to Market Relay in October. For those of you too lazy to click on the link, here's the summary:
• Our team of 8 run from downtown Omaha to downtown Lincoln.
• There are 24 stages. Each runner has to run at least 3 stages. There seems to be a party at every stage, too.
  
• I get to carry a baton (when I'm running).
• I get to drive a van (when I'm not running).
• We may need a 7th and/or an 8th.
  
• Here's the catch: It's the week before the Des Moines marathon. Now, I'm considering running the relay and then running the half-marathon the following week. Thoughts/opinions are encouraged and, quite possibly considered.

That's all for now.

The 10K That Almost Didn't Happen

* I forgot about the Teen Angels. Probably because I was 6

It was looking bleak my friends. The entire week, I had been battling a cold (WTF??? It's May!). I woke up on Saturday morning, looked outside and saw rain. Not only that, but cold and rain. It did not look good. My head felt like a block of snot and I almost had to eat my entry fee and stay home. Until:

Wife: Weren't you going to run this morning?
Me: It's cold and rainy.
Wife: What about the treadmill?
Me: Uh...oh yeah.

I completely forgot. OK...well...uh...maybe tomorrow morning will work. 37 degrees, 20mph winds at 7am. Hmmmm, cold and windy vs. treadmill.

I plod downstairs and press start.

What a view! My daughter's Princess Tea Set on the floor is breathtaking and my dog licking himself for the 10 billionth time was fascinating! And when he wasn't licking himself, he was wondering why I wasn't running with him.

At least I have the TV down here (not our only TV, but you get the idea). I flip on the TV and start going through the shows that I've DVR'd. OK, so there's one advantage of having a treadmill in the basement.

I was a little leery of the race today. I was still nursing my IT band and I was hoping there weren't any problems. There weren't. And do you know why? No hills on this course! Score 2 for the treadmill!

My splits were pretty even and I finished my 10K. Here are my results:

10K - 53:34
Shows watched: 30 Rock (2) and Top Chef

For the record, this race would've been a lot more fun out on the open road, but I don't know how the hell I'm going to get my TV/DVR out there for the next race. Big thanks to Nancy for getting my sorry butt down the steps and getting this race in! (figuratively speaking, of course)

SSTIFY Friday

Went to the doctor yesterday. See, I have trouble breathing....when I'm not doing anything. Running, teaching, etc.? No problem. When I sit on the couch, though, my breathing goes shallow. Weird and frustrating at the same time. After a litany of tests, this pulminologist suggests that, since I'm able to run without any breathing problems, my condition is probably stress related and asks me if I do yoga. I tell him that I don't and that he recommends either taking a class or getting a DVD. The class is logistically not an option, but if anyone knows of a good "Yoga for Dummies" DVD, post it in the comments.

On to this weeks STIFFY:

This week, you get 2 for the price of one! That's right, I figure since I purposely missed last week, I'd hit you up with two this week.

And I thought Jared was annoying:


We're going in the way back machine on this one, kids. My daughter was dancing to this at daycare yesterday, complete with all the disco moves:



Have a great weekend!

Just Suck It

My first product review....
There it was on the back cover of Runners World. It beckoned me.

"The Nike+ Sportband. You need this. It's cool. It's sleek. It's sexy."

So I pre-ordered it.

And it got here.

And I used it.

And now I'm returning it.

For the low, low price of $65, I was promised that all I had to do was slip the sensor into my Nike shoe, put the band on my wrist, run like the wind, and Nike will do the rest. Whoops, don't have Nikes*, so I got one of them fancy schmancy sensor pouches for it. No matter. Now all I had to do was put on the band and run. And run, I did. 8.02 miles according to Nike+. 7.0 miles according to Google Maps and the little disk markers on the trail. OK, I guess I need to calibrate it.

I ran .50 miles on the track at school. Readout on the watch: .50 miles. Sweet, I guess I don't need to calibrate it.

Took it to my half marathon. In the back of my head, I thought about bringing my Timex, too, but, hey, the band is calibrated now.

I know it felt like 16.8 miles, but I'm pretty sure it was 13.1 miles for the HM...unless the race officials are a bunch of sadists. The other problem is that, after the 1 hour mark, it didn't give me seconds anymore, just the hour and the minute. No big deal, but since I was close to my 2 hour goal, I'd really like specifics.

Plus, you can only read it in the daytime. There's no backlight and I usually run first thing in the morning. That's kind of a problem. I damn near smacked into a mailbox to see if the damn thing was working.

Exceptionally frustrated, I went on Nike's forums page and searched "Sportband calibration". the result was 250 replies. Not good.

See? This is what happens when you screw with Apple and try to do this on your own, Nike! Apple is the best company to work with. If I had Final Cut Studio, I'd produce an entire movie about my love for Apple! Apple! Apple! Apple!**

So it's going back to Oregon and I'm now sans-"the latest gadget", which is fine with me....for now. Oh wait, I see Topher just got a Garmin Forerunner 305 for Father's Day for cheap at REI. Hmmm....

*for those keeping score at home, my new shoes aren't Nikes, Brooks, nor Mizunos.
**I'm waiting for Steve Jobs himself to offer me something because of this post. Daddy needs an iPhone!!!!
***Footnotes are fun.

I Learned Good. A Race Report

For my 100th post, here are the things I learned from running the 2008 Lincoln National Guard Half Marathon:

Lesson #1: The day before is almost as nerve wracking as the race itself.
Are these vegetables fresh? I hope my neighbors don't have a wild party tonight. Maybe I shouldn't run this red light. Maybe I should hold off on my 4th Jack and Coke. My daughter has a bloody nose. I hope she's not getting sick. Good parenting aside, these are the things that went through my head on Saturday. Now I know how Howard Hughes felt.

Lesson #2: 4:30am is really early.
My alarm was set for 4:30am. I woke up at 4:27am and I wasn't about to milk the last 3 minutes. I got up and stumbled downstairs.

Lesson #3: Starbucks isn't open at 5am on Sunday.
Grrrrr. Gas station coffee here I come. Grabbed a vanilla creme from the local BP and was on my way to Lincoln.

Lesson #4: Lincoln is about a 45 minute drive from Omaha.
Actually, I knew that. Anyone that can use Google Maps would know that. I just never realized how much crap can go through your head in that amount of time. There were relatively quite a few cars on the road. A lot of them had "26.2" stickers on the back. A couple of license plates even said "Run Guru" and "42.16K". What kind of cult have I gotten myself into?

Lesson #5: I have a lot of nervous energy before a race.
I got to downtown Lincoln and went to the NU coliseum (home of the amazing NU volleyball team) and milled about. I like to people watch and this was like a runners bouillabaisse. All sorts of people doing the same thing I was...just taking it all in and stretching at the same time. I kept seeing more people coming in with shorts on. That got me to thinking that maybe taking off the sweatpants would be a good idea. I went back to my car, took off my pants (if I had a dollar for that statement....) and forgot....

wait for it....

....that I had red shorts on.

Along with my red shirt.

And long black socks.

I was damn sexy!

Lesson #6: I don't like to run with an iPod during a race.
There's too much to take in and, quite honestly, I think I'd have missed out on little things such as:

• Elvis between miles 1 and 2 cheering us on.
• The guy/fan who yelled, "Has anyone seen my wife?"
• The woman that said, "All he wants to do today is stay home, watch TV, and drink beer." To which about 5 guys (including myself) said, "What's wrong with that?"
  

Lesson #6: Lincoln, Nebraska is a lot hillier than you think.

See those peaks? I felt like I needed a goddamn sherpa after about mile 8 or so. My IT band started to tweak up the hills and it got so bad that I had to change my gait a couple of times. Did I stop? Hell no! Did I want to stop? Hell yeah!

Lesson #7: Driving the route before you run it really helps.
Did I do that? Nope. It's Lincoln. How difficult can it be? It's a grid. Numbered streets go north/south and A Street, B Street, C Street, etc. run east/west Well, it wasn't difficult, but I kicked at the wrong point. I thought I had about a mile left, so I kicked. About a half mile later, I pass the "12 mile" marker sign. D'oh! Unfortunately, that's not the only time this has happened.

Lesson #8: I can accomplish anything.
That's how I felt at the end of the race. During the race, I reflected on why the hell I even wanted to run a half-marathon. After I finished, though, I realized that it didn't matter when or why I trained, just that I did it. I wanted a 2:00:00 finish or better. Quite honestly, I was going to be thrilled/surprised with that.

I finished 2:01:20

I'm happy with it, but I still want to know how I could've shaved a mere 1:20 off my time. Which brings me to my last lesson.

Lesson #9: I'm not done yet.
Although I accomplished the half-marathon, it still feels like I'm not "there" yet. I'm not one of "them". I want the marathon and I'm gunning for it next. Des Moines is in the crosshairs. If I can't do the marathon, at the least I'll do the Des Moines half and crack 2 hours.

Since this is my 100th post, I want to thank everyone - family, friends, and fellow bloggers - who' has made running enjoyable, inspiring and very funny. After reading everyone's writings/comments, it's nice to know that I'm not alone on the roads.