Step It Up!

Today I decided to forgo a shorter long run (tapering) for a stair run with the Towpath Turtles.  We met at the William McKinley Monument in Canton to run the steps.   I first did this workout with the Turtles two years ago, and I love it now.  Notice I said NOW.  I remember arriving in the parking lot to see this:

This doesn't look nearly as scary as when you are at the bottom of the steps looking up.

First we warmed up with a two-mile run.  As we ran, I told the new Turtles that if I could enjoy this workout, anyone can.  It's the pain I feel a few days later that I don't enjoy.  I figured that I could do lots of yoga this week to recover, and I can shake out the legs with two short runs before the Medina Half Marathon on Saturday.  After the warm up run, we got down (or UP) to business:

This looks more intimidating, right?

We did ten laps up and down the steps, with an interval around the parking lot on laps 5 and 10.

To me, it's scarier to go down than up.

One thing I have learned, thanks to Sheila, the coach of the Turtles and One Life Coaching, is that it is so important to build in strength and general fitness in my running routines.  Of course, I would have burned more calories doing my traditional long run, and it would have felt easier, but running stairs --and yoga and lifting weights and core-building and strength training-- it all pays off in the end.  I will be so happy that I chose to mix up my workouts when I hit mile 11 of the Medina Half Marathon.  That is when I will remind myself that my body is strong and ready and I should trust my training.

I am not sure that I will ever be HAPPY that I choose to do planks and push-ups, but again, trust in the pay-off.

Have a happy Memorial Day weekend.  Let us all take time this weekend to remember the brave men and women who gave their lives for our freedom.

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Race Review: Rite Aid Cleveland Half Marathon

Today  I woke up at the ungodly hour of 3:00 am.  Normally when I wake up for a long run on Sundays, I console myself that it's STILL allowing me to get up later than I would for work (I get up at 4:30 am on school days).  Not so today because today was the Rite Aid Cleveland Half Marathon, and because I always worry about getting into the city in time for parking, I had to leave my house by 4:30.  I got a great space in the huge Cleveland Municipal Lot, and I was really happy until a jackelope backed his truck into the next spot SO CLOSELY NEXT TO MINE that I couldn't open my door.  Seriously, Dude?  There were 60,000 spots in that lot; you couldn't skip a space at 5 am?

Anyway, I didn't have any trouble waking up because I was so excited after being at the expo on Friday.  Of course I set out my outfit the night before:

This is EXACTLY how I look when my body isn't in my clothes.

AND my son pasted on a temporary tattoo that I got at the expo:

Let's get to it, shall we?

The Good:  There was a lot of good in this race.  It was well organized, with plenty of port-a-potties.  The course was very interesting, with some funky neighborhoods (I'm looking at you, Tremont and Ohio City!) and some incredibly rich neighborhoods (I'm looking at you, Clifton).  The supporters were really enthusiastic in some places, and the signs were clever.  My two favorite signs were in Tremont.  The first said,  Run like you stole the kishka!  You definitely have to be from Cleveland and/or adore Franky Yankovic to understand this one.  For those of you who are not familiar with Eastern European food or our favorite polka player, check out this version of it:



The second sign is for those of us who have a love/hate relationship with George R.R. Martin.  It said, Hodor like you just Hodor!

Made my day!

Other "goods":  The beer line was better organized this year.  I actually got a beer this year, but because I was so exhausted, I only drank half of it.  I'm so ashamed.

The swag and the medal are awesome:

The Bad:  The pre-race weather was FREAKING COLD and windy, but of course nobody can control for that.  Welcome to Northeast Ohio!  I wore a long-sleeved shirt, but I only brought a gunky towel with me to cover up before the race.  I shivered in the wind off of Lake Erie for an hour and a quarter.  My fault; I really need to start buying throwaway clothing at Goodwill.

Also, although there were plenty of Port-a-Potties, there was no hand sanitizer.  ICK.  'Nuff said.

Lastly, I saw many people trying to pop a GU before the start time, but there was no pre-race water available.  I think it would have helped me since I waited so long after my 3 am breakfast.

The Ugly:  Well, that would be me.

Don't get me wrong:  I think this is a perfectly respectable time considering I have not been able to run 13.1 miles in a year.  Also, this is a respectable time considering I took five months off all cardio and endurance to heal a broken foot.  Every time someone asked me about a time goal, I said that I would be happy to finish the race.  This was a lie; I always have a secret time goal, and this time I dared to hope that I could PR my Medina time (2:12:21).  I know. . .stupid.  The thing is that I think that I COULD have pr'd if I had played this right.  Once again, I set out too quickly, and I was fluctuating back and forth between 9:30 and 10:00 for the first 9 miles (except when I walked through a water stop or fueled).  This was wrong.  I had originally intended to follow the 2:10 pacer, and I didn't follow through.  In fact,  my hubris led me to believe that I would PR the race because I was feeling great until mile 9.  

Mile 10 was difficult because it was a gradual incline.  It didn't really look like a hill to me, but I was already hurting by then, and I noticed that many runners around me had started walking.  I can't walk up a hill; it smells too much like defeat.  Luckily for me, the marathon winner came by on the other side of the highway at that time, so I was able to shuffle up the hill while watching him.  At mile 11, I decided that I would never run another half marathon again, and I wondered why I had thought my two previous half marathons were fun.  At mile 12, the resolve kicked in again, but I knew my body was toast.  I brought the pace back up, but it wasn't enough.

I am happy with this time.  I am.  The question is, What will happen in two weeks at the Medina Half Marathon?  I can't wait to find out. . .

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Tapers and Tweets

Today I ran nine beautiful miles on the Towpath in Peninsula.  I started from Lock 29 with Renee, Kathy, and Carrie, and we ran for five miles before the Turtle training session.  Then I ran with my favorite band, Gogol Bordello, for the last four.




This is such a cute video, and it has the bonus of being one of the few "clean" Gogol Bordello songs I can post here.  I am in love with Eugene Hutz, the lead singer with the sweet 'stache.  My husband and I have an agreement: if Eugene ever calls for me,  I am outta here.

Anyway, I was running and zoning, and I passed a couple with my typical warning, "Passing on your left. . .unless I die first."  I thought I heard my name, but I was still in music mode, so it didn't register until I heard it a second time.  I turned around.

"Are you Stephani?" the gentleman asked.

"Yes," I said, wondering if the Turtles had passed a message on to me somehow.  You see, when my running peeps and I get separated on a path, we rely on people (usually the bikers) to relay messages for us.  We usually say things like, "When you see a woman wearing a neon pink shirt that says 'I'd rather be drinking,' ask her to turn around at the four mile mark."  So, it was for this reason that I thought I'd be getting a message.

"I follow you on Twitter," he said, extending his hand to shake mine.  Holy schmoly!  What are the odds of that?  Anyway,  I hope I remembered this correctly, but my newfound friend's name is Michael, and he found me by reading my posts in the Fairlawn-Bath Patch online.  Michael and his friend and I discussed the Cleveland Marathon, which is coming up next Sunday.  I will be running the half, and Michael and his friend will be run-walking the 10k.  They will love the 10k; I ran it last year and I had a blast.  Remember this review?

I am so happy that I met someone through running AND social media.  I used to think that Twitter was, well, for twits, but now I realize that I have connected with so many people from whom I learn many great lessons.  Thank you for reminding me of that, Michael.

I would love to meet up with anyone who is running Cleveland next Sunday.  When we all get more information on the staging area, I'll tweet out a meeting time/place for anyone who is interested.

Happy tapering, Peeps!

You know I can't leave you without mentioning Mother's Day, so here is Mike Polk's tribute to mothers.  Well, it's actually his Mother's Day tribute to MILFs.  If Mike Polk or MILFs offend you, don't watch this.  For the rest of you, this is hilarious.


Happy Mother's Day!

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Enough about Me; What Do You Want to Know about Me?

I am old.  How old am I?

I used to take pride in drinking everyone under the table.  Now I take pride in the fact that my dental hygenist told me, "I love when my patients take care of their teeth."

This is EXACTLY how I look with clean, sparkly teeth.  Hey!  My teeth are UP HERE!

I have an aol.com email.

You've got mail!

I use Facebook.

Don't you DARE try to guess my age group.

If you are one of my students, just the fact that Facebook is my main form of social media tells you that I am old.  Yes, I did all of those "Ten Personal Questions about High School" and "Three Things Nobody Knows about You" posts.

We live in an age of narcissism, and that is why I am going to contribute to my belief that you want to know all about me by answering some questions from the "Liebster Awards," sent by my blogging peep, Brian at Strides.  Check out Brian's blog; he has some great pictures of his hometown, London (Ontario), where all the streets and monuments have awesome Shakespearean names.  I'm a sucker for Shakespeare.

I am supposed to tag ten running bloggers to do this, but I am ashamed, so I will not do that.  What I will do is give you two more links to running bloggers I regularly read:

Check out David at Daddy Runs Fast.  He wrote a play about running called And Then You Die (How I Ran a Marathon in 26.2 Years), and he regularly posts different running playlists, which I love to comment on.

Also take a look at Caroline at I Heart Running.  She aspires to run a marathon in all fifty states and she is currently posting her progress in her new journey in veganism.

Ok, here are the questions Brian gave me, and here are my responses:

1. Tim's or Starbucks?  Haha!  This is a Canadian thing, right?  Starbucks, of course.  This week is Frappucino Happy Hour Week.  I can't believe I haven't bought ONE half-price Frappucino ALL WEEK.

2. What's your favourite distance, and why?  The longest race I've run is a 13.1, and that distance seems to be perfect for me.  It allows me to enjoy the race WHILE I'm running it, and it pushes me to set time-goals.  Someday I hope to try a marathon, but it will have to be when my kids are old enough to spend more time alone while I'm training.

3. How many hours a week do you blog?  I have two blogs, this and Blended Learning Implementation: A Living Journal of our Blended Learning Journey.  That's a horrible title for a blog, isn't it?  I assure you it is more interesting than it sounds.  In it I write about my successes and failures in being a guide rather than an expert for my students.  Anyway, this was not the question.  I spend about two hours a week on this blog, and I post every Sunday.  The other blog. . . I write when I feel it.  Then I usually spend about two hours per post.

4. How supportive of your running is your significant other?  I would say he is resigned to it rather than supportive.  He doesn't yell at me or pout (anymore) when I do my long runs or when I decide to run in the evening when he gets home from work.  He works around my running schedule within reason.  He jokingly calls me "The Kenyan."  I will say, however, that he has NEVER come to any running event I've done, even when I once asked him to come to my first half marathon.

5. Run in the rain? Or the treadmill instead?  Rain always.  I don't own a treadmill.

6. Does your job provide "training" benefits or incentives?  Nope.

7. Any notable difference between male bloggers and female ones? It just occurred to me I only nominated females....  Hmmm. . .I would say from my brief experience with following bloggers that male bloggers seem kinder than female bloggers.

8. Love numbers or hate numbers? (I hate 'em!)  The only numbers I care about are minutes per mile and overall time.

9. Consider your OWN celebrity crush. Go for drinks with them or go for a run with them?  I like to run, but I'm not crazy.  Drinking comes first.  I'm sure any celebrity I'd like to run with would crush me.

10. If you had to give up one or the other, would it be blogging or running?  I'd give up blogging, even though I love the creative outlet it has given me.  I hope to never give up running, as it keeps me from killing those I love.

Wow--that was a lot, wasn't it?  

IF you are so inclined (anyone), feel free  to answer these questions in the comments:

1.  Longest distance run without music?  Victory or completely normal?

2.  Worst pre-race meal consumed?  

3.  Worst post-race meal consumed?

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Walking on Sunshine

This morning I ran almost seven miles in Sand Run Metropark.  It was beautiful, hilly, and fast.

This morning I saw eight deer.

I'm not going to write about those experiences.

This morning I joined some of my students to participate in the Medina Walk out of the Darkness Suicide Awareness Event.  A large crowd showed up at 9 am on a chilly but sunny morning to walk 4.5 miles.  That crowd raised over nine thousand dollars.

Most of you know I am an English teacher at Medina High School.  This year I am teaching a Blended Learning Rhetoric and Composition class.  Blended Learning is a combination, or "blend," of face-to-face classroom instruction and online instruction.  Part of the philosophy that I embrace about Blended Learning is that it facilitates community involvement.  I want my students to strive to be good citizens of their school, their community, their state, their country, and their world.  If you'd like more information about Blended Learning, check out my shared blog on the Blended Learning Journey in our school.

I'm getting to our walk in the sun in a minute. If you can hang on, I'd like to show you part of our community project: a video to promote suicide awareness:




I can't watch that without getting a little teary-eyed.  Teen suicide has knocked the tar out of our community in the last year and a half, and my students decided they wanted to do something about it. Along with bringing community members together to film this video, they raised five hundred dollars and donated it to the Battered Women's Shelter of Medina.  This community walk was a way for us to think about those we lost and talk about ways we can contribute to the solution.

We walked for 4.5 miles through streets, parks, and neighborhoods, and we talked.  I try not to lead my students, in class and out, because I want them to learn to lead themselves and others.  I try to listen rather than talk.  This was a perfect opportunity for me to listen.  The students talked and laughed about Prom.  They poked fun at each other and at me.  Then, as often happens on walks or runs, they got serious.  One student told me why she was glad that she took my course.  She told me what she learned and how it made her feel.  Another told me that she felt that our class had bonded more than any of her other classes at the school.

Every one of those students told me that they were so glad to get up and walk together in the sunshine at nine in the morning.

It was perfect.

Bright smiles, glowing faces

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Lunging the Turtle

This morning I attempted a divided twelve-miler.  Shall I break this one down?  "Attempted" means I didn't reach twelve miles; "divided" means I did seven miles with Leigh, took a gel, changed my shirt, and finished the rest with the Towpath Turtles.  "Twelve" means. . .wait, why am I parsing this? Are you dwelling on my pain?  You're a sadist, aren't you?  AREN'T YOU?

Ok, I've settled down.  Let's move on.

It was a gorgeous morning, perfect temperature for running in a simple long-sleeved shirt and either capris or tights.  I chose to run at Lock 29 in Peninsula, which is a common starting place for runners and bikers.

Beautiful shot of the Cuyahoga River at Lock 29

 It is also a common ending place because of its proximity to The Winking Lizard, one of the best places I know to blow your fitness on beer and wings.

I have written about Leigh before in my post called "Pace?  Isn't That a Salsa?"  She is still about half my age and at least forty pounds lighter than me (see, I've lost weight or hyperbole since that post!), and she still kicks my ass.  I had a plan, though.  This time I brought my phone, and I made sure to take pictures so that she would have to slow down or stop.  I am tricky, all right.  Here is my first shot:

Say hello to my leetle friend!

This is the first deer we saw on the path.  She didn't even want to move when we came up on her.  She just looked at me like, "Please!  You're in MY HOUSE now!  YOU move!"

Leigh and I had a great talk (I made sure she did most of the talking--I am tricky, all right), and we kept the pace at around 10:20. . . except when we didn't.  Anyway, we had a fun run together in a beautiful environment; I was thankful to be able to run, and I was thankful to run with her. I kept thinking, Well, I will make sure to run more slowly in the second part of my run.

Fail.

I was excited to see the Towpath Turtles today as I haven't run with them in quite a while, and four of us got caught up in conversation, and, well. . . I had to resort to my stalling tactic:

Look, Guys!  A bale of Turtles!

They didn't fall for it, so I had to run extra fast to catch up to them. . .and so it goes.  Jen totally took advantage of the situation after the turnaround and sprinted past me, calling back, "I've got to do this while I can!"  Thanks, Badass.

In short, I came up short--11.67.  I didn't even have the energy to push it to 12, and geez, I end up making up that distance by going back and forth in front of my house ALL THE DAMN TIME!!!

Lesson learned:  Do NOT go too quickly on Long, Slow Distance Day.  

Finally, I leave you with Mike Polk's Easter message (if Mike Polk OR Easter offends you, don't watch this):

Running with Integrity and Responsibility

My simple definition of integrity is the act of doing what you say you will do.  Responsibility is assuming consequences for your actions, good or bad.  I have interacted lately, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly, with people who show precious little of either quality.

Are you feeling a twinge?  Are there times where you haven't followed through on something you said you would do?  Are there times you have denied responsibility for your actions?  

Before I continue this post, I will tell you upfront that I am not going to speak specifically about the interactions I've had with people who lack integrity or fail to show responsibility (except for if it's about my kids or my husband--I am TOTALLY calling them out).  I am going to speak in general terms about situations in which I often encounter these problems.  If you find you are angry, or you feel that I am calling you out. . .maybe you need to think about your actions lately.

I am a teacher, so I am quite used to lack of integrity or responsibility.

Usually, these lapses from students don't bother me because students are kids, and kids are stupid still growing and hopefully learning from their mistakes.  I became a teacher because I like kids, and I want to help them be as great as they can be.  Adults, though, they are another story.

Stephani (you ask), what does this have to do with running?

Well, ask yourself if you know someone in these circumstances--better yet, ask yourself if YOU have done this:

1.  Have you ever scheduled a group run and then didn't show up or cancelled because you just didn't feel like going?

2.  Have you ever announced to everyone you know (Hellooooo, Social Media!) that you were registered for a race, slacked on the training, and then backed out of the race?

3.  Do you ever skip runs for no good reason and then wonder why you can't improve?

4.  Do you neglect cross-training and complain about getting hurt?

5.  Do you eat too much and complain to everyone that you don't understand why you haven't lost weight?

6.  Do you injure yourself and, against the advice of everyone you know AND your doctor, continue to run until you get REALLY hurt?

7.  Do you complain about your bad luck when it comes to any of the above circumstances?

There have been times when we all have compromised our integrity in some way.  That is why responsibility is so important.  Own up to the consequences of your actions.  Admit that your behavior can often determine what happens to you, good or bad.  Did your peeps ask you how you PR'd that race?  Don't say it was luck; tell the truth.  Your hard work and determination are what helped you to PR.  Do you make time to work out as often as you need to?  Don't brush that off by telling people it's because you aren't as busy as they are; tell the truth.  You realized that your physical and mental health are important, and you made it a priority in your busy schedule.

When we force ourselves to examine our lapses in integrity, we strengthen our responsibility muscles, and that exercise will in turn build our integrity.  Remember, Peeps:

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