Run Log: June 2012

Just finished a run out on the Greenway Rails to Trails path in Ashtabula.  We went 3.25 out and then Mike stopped at the car while I ran another .25 out & back.  (I wanted a 7 miler today...he was happy with 6.5.  We're both nursing injuries ~ Mike his hip flexors and my my stupid heel.)  It was good to run together & not fight!
    WARNING: INJURY WHINE:  My stupid heel has hurt all month.  I ran 9 on June 9th ~ and after I ran 3 on the following Monday, I couldn't walk without rolling my foot to avoid a full 'walking' motion with my right foot.  Stretch, ice, stretch, ice, rest (oh, I hate rest), running on trails (I do love Camp Stigwandish), cutting my miles, ice, stretch...It got so it didn't hurt except when I ran.  Makes it hard to be motivated to run!  But I figured I was on the mend if I could run and then be able to walk without pain later in the day.  Today was the first day it didn't 'hurt' when I ran.  I could feel it, but each step wasn't pounding.  I'm sitting here with my ice bottle now ~ it's kinda flattened out, so it doesn't roll real well under my foot, but I'm sure it's helping.  There is such a fine line between resting to heal and keeping it working.  Both are important (probably resting more...but I keep pushing the working it).
The injury has taking some of the fun out of summer running ~ it's hard to be motivated (as I said) and it's been HOT the past few days.  BUT I have made it out to Camp Stig twice.  I've laid out a new 2-mile trail for the XC kids that is more spectator friendly.  I totally forgot how hard it is to run at Stig.  IT'S SO HILLY!  The first time I only ran the 2 miles.  The second time I made it 3.5 ~ but I was exhausted!  It's weird to be there alone.  It's peaceful, yet spooky.  Hard to explain...but I think I'd rather have a running partner with me.


June's totals:
66.5 miles for the month 
423 miles for the year
51 biking miles for the month
103 biking miles for the year
249.5 miles in my red & blue Asics ~ not shiny and new ~ and I'm wondering if new shoes would help my foot?!?  249.5 is not a ton of miles on shoes...(and that's about 40 cents a miles!)


Some interesting facts:

Longest run this month: 9 miles
Favorite place to run this month: Today's Greenway Trail run ~ gotta love that there's a pot-o-potty right where we park at Jewel's Dance Hall!  Quiet & peaceful & shady (even tho' it was overcast today)
# of bags of Candy Cane Kisses left in my cabinet: Still that ONE bag...I've been tempted to open it, but I've let it sit there...
# of boxes of Girl Scout cookies left in the cabinet: NONE ~ ate all I could get my hands on (and I don't think I shared with the kids at all)
# of books I read this month: 5!  Wow!   That may be a record.
Biggest YMCA pet peeve this month: I've run by the Y this month...that's as close as I've gotten to it.

Monthly mileage record: 80.5 miles March 2012 
Highest mileage ever-at-one-time:  13.1 miles ~ May 16, 2010 (Cleveland 1/2) 


PR's:
5K: 22:45 (Rabbit Run 10/30/11~ but I think it was a short course)
10K: 52:02 (Cleveland 5/15/11)
10-miler: 1:21:29 (Hermes Cleveland 10-miler 4/28/12)
half-marathon: 1:55:04 (Cleveland 5/16/10)
marathon: 3:50:05 (Akron relay {team run} 9/24/11)

#15

Elizabeth Berg is such a smooth & sentimental writer.   Her work is mixed with hope mixed with love mixed with loss ~ Melancholy.  Never Change (book #15) was not a great 'summer read', but it was a good read.  Heavy topic ~ death.  Heavy topic ~ loneliness.  Heavy topic ~ change.  Berg touches a chord inside of me. Her characters ring true to the loneliness I think we all feel at times {or maybe it's just me}, the connections we need to make, the question...what does MY life mean in the scheme of the whole world?
Quote time:
p34: A young woman I knew who had breast cancer told me that after she was diagnosed, she couldn't go to movies anymore.  She used to love them, but she found that they took her out of herself, and reentry was too hard.  "It's better to just stay aware of it, keep it at a slow boil," she said.  "If you forget, however briefly, it's like you have to deal with the shock of being diagnosed all over again." {I remember when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She said the absolutely hardest thing was saying, out-loud, "I have cancer."}
p46: You never know.  You never know what's going to happen from one day tot he next.  I can vouch for that.  So can Chip.  So could anyone, really.  Oh, it's overwhelming, sometimes, how much we really are all sharing the same, leaky boat.
p133: (talking about signatures in a yearbook)...and telling her to "never change."  As though it were a choice.  As though one of our greatest lessons isn't that change is the only constant.  The seasons tell us, everything in organic life tells us, that there is no holding on; still, we try to do just that.  Sometimes, though, we learn the kind of wisdom that celebrates the open hand.  Then we know that letting go of everything is the only way to keep the things that matter most.
Like I said, not a good summer read.  Serious.  Left me in kind of a funk at the end...asking myself, "What would I do?"
fl:The Tuesday before it happened was a perfect summer day.  ll: I get up, dust off my jeans, and call Frank. It's time to go home and get ready.

Whoops

Where to begin?  How's about how I found out...I pull in the garage, and Mike says to me, "Hey, check out your bike."  So I go over to my bike to see the front wheel totally warped...like it had been run over by a car.
"Hey, Patrick."
"What?"
"Got anything you want to tell me?"
"Huh?"
"Like, I'm sorry I hit your bike?"
"I only nudged it."
WHAT?  YOU ONLY NUDGED IT!?!?
The bike shop guy even asked if I was sure he'd only run over it once...
Luckily it was only a $25 fix...and he'd just gotten $25 for mowing a lawn.  Convenient how that works.

Then, Mike backed into the 6 brand new windows he left in his bay of the garage.  He realized it when he heard the glass breaking.  MY BRAND NEW WINDOWS...not even in the house yet.  Too bad that won't be a $25 fix.

I'm hoping there won't be a third "whoops"

#14

I feel like it's finally summer ~ because I was able to read a book quickly!  #14 is The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez.  Another great YA historical fiction {& a BOOK FAIR find}.  The greatest exodus of unaccompanied children ever in the history of the Western Hemisphere happened when Castro came to power in the late 50's early 60's.  Over fourteen thousand Cuban children were sent to the United States to escape being sent to Russian "boarding schools" to learn to love the revolution.  This is another part of history I didn't really know about.  Can you imagine sending your kids to another country and not knowing for sure if you'd ever see them again?  The unthinkable became reality when Castro became leader of Cuba.
This is the story of a girl, Lucia, and her brother Frankie who were sent to the United States, alone. The reader is given a rich background to a country that has been an unknown to my generation and details how a people can turn against one another and allow 'evil' to take over.  Themes of standing up for your beliefs, the power and importance of freedom, no matter the cost, the meaning of family and friendship...important for young adults to think about...  The lesson  ~ home is where the people you love are ~ rings true no matter your culture, religion, race.
Great read that left me in happy tears.
fl: I watched as a white heron circled the beach and then headed north toward the open waters of the tropics.  ll: It was good to be home.

Good Words

#13

#13 ~ finally in the swing of summer reading ~ is Compromising Positions by Susan Isaacs.  Written in 1978 & the only reason I note that is because I had to take in the culture of society in the late 70's to make this story believable.  An unhappy housewife who sticks herself in the middle of a murder investigation & has an affair with the lieutenant in charge of the case who lets her become a 'consultant' to the case... I really had to reach to get the affair part...but I guess things like that were much freer & expected in the 70's.
The story itself was very good.  I enjoyed the 'who-done-it'...it kept me guessing, but, like I said, the relationship development was weak for me.  "Oh, the liquid brown eyes; yep I'll sleep with him', wasn't real development for me.  I liked the first Susan Isaccs I read better than this one. (which I believe is her first...so it's good to know she got better)
a note about Susan Isaacs writing:  I had never heard of salade nicoise until I read Any Place I Hang My Hat ~ where the long lost granddaughter and grandmother discover that they both take all the anchovies except for one, because they only like a little fish flavor ~ and then the same salad is mentioned in this book...and the one character takes off all the anchovies.  I find it interesting that she puts this same little salad and a reference to what to do with the anchovies in both of the books I've read.  I wonder if it's her 'thing' ~ and what a really odd 'thing'.
fl: As they would murmur at his funeral, Dr. M. Bruce Fleckstein was one of the finest periodontists on Long Island.  ll: "We can have some long, lovely afternoons together". "And maybe more," he whispered, grinning. "Maybe."

Chip Love

So the story goes:  I bought Subway for my worker boys' lunches yesterday & delivered them to Mike's truck.  I wrote their names on their respective samages, so they'd know which one to eat.  On Mike's I drew a red heart ('cuz I have a red Sharpie in my purse) with an "I <3 U".  He read my message to his lunch crowd and Bob said, "Here, you need to give her this chip."  So Mike brought it home.

Sweet.  <3

#12

That feeling of leaving a fictional world and having to join the real world is always so much stronger when the book is a really good one.  You don't really want it to end...so you read all of it...the author's note, the sources and suggestions for further reading...the acknowledgments...and then the last blank page, and it's done.
That's exactly how I felt ending book #12 Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool.  I bought it at Book Fair {Yeah! Book Fair} because I liked the cover & it was a Newberry Winner...great reasons to buy a book...and I was listening to a colleague tell the librarian how she owns and has read every Newberry Award winner, ever.  What kind of teacher would I be to pass a Newberry up?
I'm glad I picked it up.  GREAT writing.  I love stories that jump back and forth and you have to figure out how it's all related.  I also love historical fiction ~ being that my own father was born in Kansas during the dust bowl/Great Depression ~ this setting fit right into my knowledge base.  And as all great stories end in death {thanks Brian Piccolo} this one does too, but it also ends in life and in finding home.  A universal story of growing up and learning where you belong ~ no matter how long that takes.
Quote time: *btw ~ I used to LOVE folding the corners of pages to mark my place ~ felt like the book was part of me.  Now I struggle to do so...as I'm 'marring' the book...but I didn't have any extra scraps of paper around when I wanted to mark a quote...so I earmarked the page...felt rather rebellious.*
p35 ~ Then there were the keepsakes.  Little things kept for the sake of something.  Or someone.
p40 ~ "there's a river that when it's in Arkansas, you can say it like that.  The Ar-kan-saw River.  But once it hits Kansas, it's called the Ar-kansas River.  That's kind of important."  {yep~ that's the truth!}
p113 ~ "Elam bouzshda gramen ze." ... "It is Gypsy.  It means the person you encounter is often more than the person you see."
fl: The movement of the train rocked me like a lullaby.  ll: So for all the whos, whats, whys, whens, and wheres, look at the backside of "Hogs and Cattle" every Sunday to your new auxiliary writer―Abilene Tucker, Reporter About Town.

Block Party

This is the sign.  This sign is posted at all four corners of on the the busiest intersections in my town.  It's also at random locations down the main street (not Main Street, but the main street) that runs by all the fast food places, the grocery etc...
What kind of a town do I live in?  It's a nice little place.  Some would call it small town.  It has its share of good and bad; it's a pretty 'normal' place to live.
But the town over...in the next county, mind you...they are having a block party.  And they want the world to come.  In case you can't read the sign...what you have to look forward to at this block party:
"LIVE MUSIC  *  BEER  *  CORNHOLE  *  GAMBLING  *  BEER PONG  *  FLIPCUP"

? Is it legal to gamble at a block party?  Should you really advertise it?
I'm not going because I'm not real sure I know what the dress code would be for such an event.

Wrap Up

The end of another school year.  I just finished year 22 of teaching ~ wow ~ I've seen a LOT in those 22 years, but this year may have been the most challenging.  I had such a WIDE range of disabilities and attitudes and motivation levels.  And I think I am more sad to see this year end than most of the others.  Maybe I feel that way at the end of every school year.  I will miss each kid.  They are all unique and add so much to every single day.  {I think I'm getting a little too mushy here}
But I'm also sad to see my 6 years of having one of my OWN kids in the building end.  I've had a kid in the car with me for so long, it will be very empty next year when it's just me.  Stopping at McDonald's won't seem as special without a kid happy to go there.  Seeing my kid in the hall, even if he wouldn't acknowledge me, was such a blessing.  I knew he was ok because he was there with me.
Mike keeps talking about all the beginnings the boys will be having and all I can feel are the endings.  I am excited for the people they are becoming.  I'm very proud of all they have done and WILL do in the future.  But it's just gone by so very fast.  And now things are starting to be OVER.  That word just keeps bouncing through my head...OVER...OVER...OVER.  So final.
But I will focus on the positive:
Patrick earned his second year varsity letter for tennis.  Of course Coach Vidmar said some very nice things about him at the banquet, recalling the time he was down in the first set 3 to 5 and came back to win 7 to 5. Won the second set 6 to 3 (I think) and then Patrick and his opponent decided to play a tie-breaker instead of a third set, without anybody mentioning it to any coach.  When the coaches realize what they were doing, they insisted on the boys playing a third set.  Patrick won that hard fought set 7 to 5...Coach remembered Patrick saying how tired he was!  We also found out that Patrick "Midnight Rider" Barton was not named that because of the sunglasses he wears, but because Billy thought that it was Patrick Henry who made the Midnight Ride to tell people the British were coming...{that was Paul Revere, Bill}.
Jacob was honored for his 4.0 Middle School GPA at the annual Honors Breakfast.  He looked pretty fine in his first tie. {What does it say about us that the first time he wears a real tie is to an 8th grade award ceremony?}

School Ended:
The Last day picture was taken by a different tree, because it was raining and I didn't want to get wet ~ wasn't raining hard enough for it to get wet under this big tree.  Both my boys are in high school now.

And now, It's Summertime.  Time to get organized, read a book, sit by the pool, go to the beach...the days stretch out before me...I love the freedom of summer.

Student of the Week

A little bit of bragging time...Jacob Barton was named Student of the Week!  I was so proud when I heard his name called over the PA.  Actually, what I said was, "He's been here 3 years and gets Student of the Week.  I've been here 16 years and I'm still waiting."  To which my students reply, "But you're not a student!"  Then Jacob brings the certificate down to my room ~ so show me what he received it for...   

In case you can't read it, it says, for "overcoming parental influence".  nice

#11

After many nights of reading a book I originally checked out for spring break, I finished book #11, Any Place I Hang My Hat by Susan Isaacs.  I'm not entirely sure WHY I couldn't stay awake to read this one, because I really enjoyed the story.  A very driven and successful woman who was raised by her kleptomaniac of a grandmother while her father spent most of her childhood in prison.  She was searching for her teen-age mother who had gone to the store, when she was just a baby, and never come back.  It's a good story of learning to overcome issues of the past while accepting that they make us who we are today.  And it had a happy ending, which is always a plus in my book :)
I have to admit that this book had some challenging vocabulary for me (time to read more adult books and less YA, I suppose): penultimate, kopek, extant, pejorative...(those are just from the first two pages)  It was the first time I wished I had a kindle so I could use the built-in dictionary feature.  Had to use my context clues skills and pull from the recesses of my brain where I keep formally known vocabulary words!
I will read more Susan Isaacs.
fl: I stepped off the elevator right into the entrance gallery of the co-op.  ll: "Yes!" We said I love you a few thousand times more and then I told him the honor was all mine.