Lucky Numbers

Maybe I'm just a numbers person, but every time I pick up a race number, I try to think about what I like about the number.  Maybe it's  the number 3542 and I'll think 7 times 5 and 7 times 6 or 7(500+6).  My number for tomorrow's half marathon is 714, which is awesome on its own, but sit's the house number for my uncle, aunt, and cousins in Colorado.  When I went to pick it up, I had to find out my number at one table and then go to another table to get the number.  The girl (and it was a young girl) wanted to write it on a post it for me to take on the 10 foot walk to the number pick-up table.  Obviously, I don't need a post-it to remember an address to which I've written many a letter.  

It got me thinking...do other people think about their number like I do?  And then I thought, how do they assign numbers?  I've been looking at last year's Eugene Marathon results (more on that in a bit).  When sorted by bib number, it seems as though it's based on when you register and last name.  Eugene did assign someone the number 13, but not 666.

Tomorrow's half is not meant to be a race for me, but a chance to practice hydrating and fueling in a race setting, trying out the potential race outfit.  Right now, it's 78 degrees here and it's expected to be at least 80 tomorrow about 86 on Monday.  That is wicked hot.  Thankfully, it's quite cool here in the mornings, so I think we'll be okay from 8-10 tomorrow for the race...probably no more than 60.

About Eugene...in looking at last year's results, it seems that most people run the first half faster than the second half.  And the people who are finishing around the time that I plan to, seem to have run the first half about 15-20 minutes faster than the second half (1:40s for the first half and then finishing around 3:40).  What's going on in that second half?  Now, the course has been changed slightly since last year, so maybe it won't be an issue anymore (as the elevation profile is unchanged), but I'm still a bit worried (even the top finishers ran the first half faster than the second, although the difference for them was less than for the 3:40 group).  I have two weeks to obsess about my race strategy.  Lucky me!  If you have any thoughts, let me know.  I've signed up to run with the Clif Pace team, so that's good and I'll have a pace band ready.  I also am totally prepared if things unravel and I just need to "Finish Strong" (as we say at school).

T-minus nine workouts.  Giddy-up!

Monday The 13th

Woke up one hour late (did not hear my alarm at 4am or 4:30).

Got to school 25 minutes before first period (had to sqeeze in a long-ish run, shower, breakfast, and bike ride).  Had to stop sweating, remember what I needed to teach today and set up a junior class meeting.

Taught the wrong lesson (I switched yesterday & today...good thing it doesn't matter)

We had a crazy kind of schedule today (in order to do a 3-more-weeks-finish-strong-pep-talk) so i never knew when the periods ended.  And when I thought it was time for 4th period, it was really lunch.

I found out I had to sub 5th period while I was teaching 2nd period.

I tried to go into my office, apparently hadn't opened the door wide enough, and walked into the door...in front of a whole class of 9th graders

I was going in my office later on and somehow, I knocked a clock down from the wall above me.  It just narrowly missed my head.  Again, this in front of a whole class of 9th graders.

I remembered some more files that I lost in my hard drive FAIL and got really sad.

Thank goodness for Adam Samberg videos.  And my students teaching me "FTW" means in texting and what the skanky leg dance is.  Well, maybe I didn't need to know that last one.  Oh, and ran wicked fast this morning...and I wasn't even trying.  So, it's not all bad.

This Is Just To Say

I have not 

hung out with you 

in quite sometime

And you are 

probably upset 

about the glaze of dirt 

and pollen 

that has formed on you

Forgive me

my bike is more appealing

it can go places you cannot 

and I love the wind 

against my face

My homage to William Carlos Williams

Charles River Dreamin'

When I was home last week, I went into Boston to have lunch with JP (yay) and see my favorite sites.  I went to Boston Common, my old Whole Foods (for some delectable chocolate caramel matzah that they do for Passover), and my old/new boathouse.

We used to row out of an ice rink (that is empty when it gets warm).  A bunch of years back, the club started raising money for their own boathouse.  It's finally done and already in use.  If there's one thing that will get me back to Boston in a hurry, it's the lure of CRI.  I miss being on the water

The view looking east-ish, towards Cambridge.  Look at the dock!  Look at that launch!

The boat storage.  This is the entire first floor of the building with huge doors that open up on either side to get the boats in an out.

The other boat storage.  this one is a glass building.  So pretty.

We/they finally have the fake dogs for the docks so the geese don't make a mess everywhere.  That's legit.  I think I can say "we" as it's one of the organizations that I continue to support every year. 

Ahhh...this place is cool.  It reminds me a lot of the ark at Congregation B'nai Shalom (anyone?).  If their membership doesn't go up once people see this, then that's just crazy!

Beach Games

What if my boss was like Michael Scott from "The Office? These days, I have two bosses: my school boss (TD) and my weekend boss (JD).  Today, the weekend job gang was having a beach BBQ as we are closed on Easter.  Of course, I was in.  After the miserable gloom of Saturday in Boston (40 and rainy), the Pacific was calling my name.  My students don't need graded papers, do they?  Now, would it be like that episode of "The Office" where our boss had us play games to figure out who would get certain positions on staff?  Well, I think she wanted us to compete by running and going in the water, but it was chill-ay!  It was a beautiful day in my neighborhood, but as soon as you go over the hills, that's where the cold air hides.

Here is the scene from Half Moon Bay:

Here's Ms. JD, so proud of the hole she dug for the grill.  This is when the sun was still out.

Here's JD's soon to be hubby.  He was our grill master!  He is also proud of his grill hole.  You need to put your grill in a hole in order to keep the wind from spoiling all the fun.  You can see how much clothing was needed eventually.

JR...fresh off his lent of no meet.  The open faced double patty.  Mmmmmm...  JD's burgers were darn good.  I had two myself.  But not at the same time.

I don't have pictures of AP's dog, that she put in a jacket, so as to look human, so as to fool the Park Rangers, who don't want dogs on the beach.  I did request that next time, she have one of these on hand (click on the picture to go to the website):

Yay for coastal living!

My Downhill Is Uphills

You know how people say, "Things are going downhill" and that means that things are getting worse.  As a runner, that's so hard to understand.  I had a disasterous week...most of the trouble coming whenever I ran uphill.  The downhill is totally easy...in fact, that's when my mood improves.  Here's one thing I've learned...I don't do well when I travel and try to run (I'll keep that in mind for Eugene).  I don't know what it is about the uphills in other states (Mass and GA both own me).  I like to believe that the hilly course I run out here is pretty burly.  The roads I run are coveted for cyclists and I often get cheers of encouragement or thumbs up for the climbing I'm doing.  So, why does Whitney Street do me in?  That's bogus.

So, here's how the week went.  Monday: bad run--could not run the tempo or the distance that I wanted, Monday night: red eye, Wednesday: bad run--again, no tempo, short on distance, Thursday: okay run...still had to walk up some hills, but I ate up the hills on my repeats (what gives there?) and a wild turkey did strut right out in front of me), Saturday: great for 17 miles...tough for the last six,  Saturday night: flight home...arrived at 12:45 am PDT on Sunday, Sunday: fairly quick four miles, despite the soreness.

Other lessons learned?  Just keep moving forward.  I'm not dwelling on last week.  There were plenty of places to make mistakes.  Not enough sleep, red eye, hydration malfunctions, and the like.  All in all, I had only a brief meltdown durant-running.  It was on Church Street and very, very brief, given the meltdown that could happen on your third failed run in a row (I think I got emotional about seeing my high school behind my old temple's building).  But, my long, long run on Saturday went well, given the fact that it was so cold that it felt better to stop running sometimes and warm up.  I felt good for about 17 miles, felt so-so for the rest, felt fine after it was over, had no problems sitting on a plane for way too long (exit row and the cutest 17 year old ever...we talked college and high school and essays for half the trip), and my usual Sunday "shake-it-out" run was easily.  I've also learned that maybe it takes marathon training to make me a better 5K and 10K runner.

Oh, and to top it all off, my water bill was higher this month, despite all the graywater I've been saving and using to flush the toilet.  My explanation: my roommate has asked that I don't "let it mellow," if you catch my drift, so more water in general is going down the drain than usual.  And I haven't totally mastered the water-in-the-bowl flush.  I'm sad about this.  It's really hard to make a difference environmentally.  Especially when you don't get the support you'd like from others.  Boo!

T-minus three weeks.  I'm off to the beach!

Change Comin' On

My first exposure to Bob Dylan was ten years ago.  And ten years later, and Bob Dylan can still nail my emotions like few other artists (although I did change the words to one song to say "feels like my soul has turned into oatmeal" instead of steel...it just made more sense for a 19 year old).  And in three weeks, Dylan's putting out a new album!  I've already got mine on pre-order.  I know the recent albums pretty well as I've listened to them all right when they came out (although the mix of "bootleg" albums confuses my mental timeline).  Recently a friend was asking me about the chronology of some albums, and as much as I like Bob Dylan, I have no idea off the top of my head of the order any of his records.  I tend to remember things if I can picture hearing it/seeing it/learning it (I can't remember anything about my field hockey career that I don't have a picture for or any baseball statistics that I didn't witness personally, but I can tell you all about imaginary numbers because I can see the stuff on the blackboard when I learned about it in ninth grade).  

So, if I grew up with Bob Dylan from the early days, I'm sure I would remember which albums came when.  But, "Blood on the Tracks" springs to mind my sophomore year dorm room, sitting at my gigantic desktop computer, with headphones on...listening and relistening until I knew all the words.  But I was also listening to new variants on the same songs, which messes up the timeline even more.  I do not picture the year of 1975, when the album came out, when the feeling was that "there is no politician that can move anyone to hope" (Peter Hamill New York 1974).  Can you imagine that time?  Of course, I'm speaking to those who did not experience it.

The artists that I tend to enjoy the most are those who change with the times (and I'm fine with their voices changing along with it).  Dylan's new album includes a song whose title I stole for the title of this post and the song totally hit me.  You can listen here.  There's a new interview with Dylan that is linked to on that page and his comments highlight why he is still relevant to me.

BF: But the new album is all about love--love found, love lost, love remembered, love denied.
BD: Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it.

If you're hurtin' for some Bob Dylan, go to his website where you can hear a clip from any song on any album).  Pretty sweet.  That makes me wish I had a job where I sat at my desk in the office, so I could have this soundtrack playing all the time.  I know there are a great many people who cannot listen to Bob Dylan...complaints about his voice are the most frequent.  I like someone who can belt it just like the next person, but if I need to commiserate with someone who I think has really seen it all, I go to The Master. 

Inspired

Four weeks plus one long run to go.  This is when you start to get antsy.  When you start to wonder when the bomb is going to drop on your running and send things downhill. 

I don't have motivation problems around running (just around grading some school projects), but before I run, before I go to bed...as much as I need, I watch and read things that inspire me to keep running.  I look back at my old race results, read running magazines, and watch commercials starring my motivators.  Some of them are...

Deena Kastor.  Granted, she has a whole team helping her, but she is a model for how to come back from an injury.

Kara Goucher.  Check the latest Runner's World.

Lance Amstrong.  I used to have this poster and it was one of my favorites.

Bernard Legat.  This guy is just great.

Blown Away

It is darn windy here today.  My laundry was blown all around the yard.  We had to play Apples to Apples inside at lunch (we had 10 teachers playing!).  My bike rides were very hard.  My legs are tired from working so hard.

I told by bike obsessed mentee that I wanted advice on buying a fixie.  Next thing I know, I have a Google Doc of every part I should get with price and website.  How sweet is that?

My school will not have to make any staffing cuts for the next year.  Whew!  No cost of living increase, but the state of California is not including one in their distributions to school, so 

My California refund came today!  I never thought I'd see the day.

Can interests rates get any lower?  I'm getting 1.5% on my savings while still paying 3.8% on my school loans.  Gross!

And a few fun links for you...

1. Heads up guys and gals, this Saturday (April 4th) is World Pillow Fight Day! It’s a great and fun way to release and relieve the stress of the week. I’m thinking that world peace would be a reality if we did this every weekend, followed up by a cold beer and a hug. 

Check to see if there is a pillow fight in your area at www.pillowfightday.com, or make one of your own!

2. The un-road trip.  Going across the country without a car.

3. Rube Goldberg that I hope my students never see.  Love the pi poster though!

Punk'd

Ha!  After being burned so many times by April Fools jokes that I was looking for something to do today.  Our students are asked to complete 100 PE hours a year.  I think that my 16 mentees have a total of 96 for the year.  Anyway, here's what I put out to all the kids today and they totally took the bait.  It was awesome!!!  It's payback to the Fool Gods for that one year when NPR tricked me into believing that people were going to be able to keep their zip code if they moved, just like a cell phone number.  I ranted about that for a good 20 minutes.

Dear Students:

As a result of so many Huskies not completing their mandatory 100 hours of physical activity, the Board has decided to institute required Gym Class to replace IL [study hall].  In true Summit fashion, we are leaving the decision for the sports up to you.  Due to the limited budget and the state of the economy, we are limited to low-cost high-caloric burning sports.  Please rank your top five of the following sports from 1-5, with 1 being your first choice. 

Thanks,
Ms. D, Athletic Director

 

______  Indoor (dry land) Swimming

______  Medicine Ball Drills

______  Wrestling (Thumb and other)

______  Structural Beam Obstacle Courses 

_______  Ballroom Dancing

_______ Marching Skills

_______ Step Aerobics

_______ Step Aerobics en Espanol

_______ Magic Card Shuffling and Dealing

_______ “Dumpster” Diving

_______ Ninja Training

_______ Indoor Croquet

_______ Write-In: