February mileage

In January I only managed to run 65 miles.

This month I managed to more than double it.  Just barely.  131 miles for February.

In January I was forced to scale back on the mileage due to all of the snow and severe cold. This was probably a good thing because it forced me to take a break and start building mileage slowly for the spring instead of going out too hard too soon.

This month I've been trying to build up the mileage slowly.  I'm aiming to do my first ultra - a 50 miler - on May 18th, so it's important I keep it up.  I have to do it smartly, though, especially since I'm still running every single day.

Here's to March, folks.

Running in Central Park

Stevie and I spent last night with a friend of hers who lives near Central Park in NYC.

Notes from a Central Park 7 miler:

• Still a lot of slush on the paths, but clear roads.
• There was a marathon/half marathon going on in the park today.  If I had known about it I would have definitely signed up for the half.
• This is the second time I've come to NYC on the weekend of a half marathon and not known about it.  
• It was an utterly glorious day to be out running.  Temps in the low 50's, not a cloud in the sky, runners everywhere, all in one of the greatest cities in the world.
• There were runners everywhere, not just from the race.  The sense of camaraderie was nice.
• Despite the great conditions, I never quite hit that runner's high I was hoping for.  I've felt a little tired, sluggish and just out of it lately.  I was happy to finish the run.

On the rum with Cockspur

Not only do we bloggers enjoy giving out tips on any random topic that flits through our brains, but we also enjoy doing product reviews.  We'll shill anything, especially if it's free for us, and doubly so if we get to run a contest on our blogs.

Imagine my delight, then, to receive the following e-mail from Steven Shaw, the PR rep at Cockspur Rum, after he found my blog:

As much as I wanted those samples, for the benefit of my readers, naturally, I felt it prudent to inform him first that my blog actually has little to do with rum, despite the misleading title.  After a brief e-mail exchange revealed that I am but a humble distance runner and not some rum magnate, he politely rescinded the original offer.  English wordplay is not his forté, it would seem.

So I'm left to do my product review without the benefit of actually having tried the product myself.

Cockspur Rum: if it does its job as well as its PR rep, plan on bringing some backup to the party.

Drink Cockspur Rum responsibly, and rum wild, friends.

Winter running tips

Bloggers love to give advice.  We can't help it; it's the narcissistic side of us that insists letting the world know of our breakfast choice simply isn't enough.  We must bestow upon our groupies the precise knowledge of how they can attain our level of greatness.  There is just no other way with us.

• 6 ways to make your lunch healthier!
• How to hydrate better in the summer!
• 37 ways to improve 3 minutes in your marathon!
• 5 reasons why you're tying your shoelaces wrong!

Every blogger is a magazine writer at heart, and this is what online content looks like nowadays, so there is no stopping us.

That said, I've decided to offer my own sage advice on a topic that has become near and dear to my heart recently.  As mentioned, I have been running outside every day this winter, and we've experienced some pretty heinous weather so far.  Let me tell you the best way to beat those winter running blues and get out there and maximize your efforts in the cold snow!

Without further adieu...

Step 1: stop being a baby and go run outside.

There is no step 2.

Back in double digits

10 mile run today.

What more is there to say that hasn't already been said?  It was cold, there was a lot of snow on the ground, I slipped a lot but didn't fall...

You know you've acclimated when winter running starts to get boring.

Mileage increase

8 miles today in yet more snowfall.  My longest run of 2014 so far.  Slowly building up my mileage in preparation for an epic spring.

8 miles with a side of crazy eyes

On snow days

My grandmother got me this sign for Christmas a few years ago, and it's been hanging in the teachers' room ever since.

I think it might be time to take it down.  It's working a little too well this year.

Fool in the snow

I'll run in the snow 'till I'm breathless,

When I'm breathless I'll run 'till I drop.

The thoughts of a fool's kind of careless,

I'm just a fool waiting on the wrong block, oh yeah.

Light of the love that I've found...

Snow day #5 today.  Now we have to make up one of the days during spring break.  

I ran 5 miles in the snow this morning.  Not the light, fluffy variety we saw last month when temps were in the teens, but rather the heavy, sludgy variety seen when temps hover right around freezing.

In addition, I was pelted the whole time by a mixture of snow and freezing rain, prompting the decision to bring my old ski goggles with me.  First time I've ever run with goggles on.  Highly recommended.

It was extremely slow going, especially through a brief section of woods where I made first tracks in the snow, and by the time I finished I felt like I'd run double the distance I actually did.

Me: I'm running my usual 5 mile route.  

Stevie: Ok.

Me: If I don't come back, don't remarry.

Stevie: Got it.

While I'm not getting in the miles I could be if I had access to a treadmill, I have no doubt that the running I'm doing now is toughening me up.  Come spring time, I will be in amazing shape and ready to tackle some serious races.

Movie Monday: Portland snow runners

In what could be a skit on Portlandia, two runners out for a run in a snow storm get interviewed by local news.  They wax poetic about the snowy conditions, and as soon as they run off the woman bites it in the middle of the street.

At least she turned out to have a good sense of humor about it all.

School's out for winter...

Another two hour delay this morning.  I'm losing count at this point at how much school we've missed due to inclement weather.

The rain was falling steadily and the temperature was hovering right around the freezing point, and the view from one of our windows looked like this:

I thought about going back to bed for a bit, but instead ran 5 miles through the rain and several feet of slush.  I was soaked by the time I returned home.

Snow day #4

Woke up this morning and showered and shaved like any other Monday morning.  Then it occured to me to check my district's website.

We were supposed to have off next Friday for a four day weekend.  Now we're down to a three day weekend.

I went running anyway this morning.  A very slow five miles in the slowly accumulating snow.  I'm already at 15 miles for the month of February.

January mileage

My first month of the year is in the books, and it isn't pretty:

I set a goal to run 2,104 miles this year.  To do so, I will have to average 167.8 miles a month.  I only hit 65 this month.

This past week was particularly rough.  End of second marking period + midterms = lots of grading and little running.

I'm trying not to stress too much.  2,014 miles is a pretty arbitrary goal, and it's not like I get anything for it if I succeed, so I don't think I'll beat myself up over it if I don't make it.

Also, I'm planning some big races this spring, so once warmer weather returns, and training picks up again, I should be hitting 200 miles a month easily.  And in the meantime, my running streak will keep me in the habit.

Movie Monday: Somm

Take a moment to review everything you know about wine.

All set?  Good.  Now watch this movie and realize you actually know next to nothing:

I don't know much about wine, myself.  There's a reason this blog isn't called "I Thought They Said Wine."  Other than the obvious fact that it doesn't rhyme with "run."

I know wine comes in red and white and is made from grapes.  I also know that planes fly and yellow snow is not to be eaten.  The truth is, the true scope of wine's dizzying varieties is beyond my grasp, much like wielding the full power of the English language is beyond the grasp of a toddler.

But I loved this movie.

It details the efforts of four young men as they study for and take the exam to become a Master Sommelier, the highest possible ranking in the world of wine.  The exam is given once a year, takes three days, and covers everything under the sun related to wine: history, regions, languages, food pairings, service, theory, etc.  As they say in the film, it's the hardest test you've never heard of.  Since the first exam in 1969, only 214 people have ever passed.

It should come as no surprise to you, dear reader, that I started to draw comparisons to Boston. The worlds of recreational distance running and extreme wine tasting are about as similar as Justin Bieber and Queen Elizabeth, mind you.  But that drive that causes people to see a challenge and be instantly drawn to it is what makes this documentary so relatable. Everyone's Boston is different, but the dedication, sacrifice and hard work it takes to get there are always the same.

What is your Boston?

Winter running

5 miles in the snow at dusk tonight.  My longest run since the marathon in November.

We got a few more inches of snow today, so the majority of the run was in loose, unpacked snow on top of the snow we already had earlier this week.  I was sliding all over the place the whole run.

And yet I will still take a run in tonight's conditions over running in the miserable humidity from last summer.  Running every day has really forced me to acclimate to winter running in a way I was never able to in the past.  I don't allow myself to not run because it's too cold or there's too much snow.  I just have to suck it up and get out there every single day, regardless of the conditions.

Though I fear being stoned by my fellow NJ citizens for having this view, I will say that I am absolutely loving the intense winter we've been having and hope it continues for many months to come.

I hate running

One of my 8th graders wears this shirt to school sometimes, and I usually pretend to give her a hard time about it when she does.

Today I finally asked her if I could take a picture and put it on my blog.

Snow running

I don't belong to a gym and I don't own a treadmill.  So when I set a goal to run every single day of the year, it is no joke.  I have been streaking since November 26th, and every one of those runs has been outside.

Only one mile today, but one long, hard mile in 4 degrees and a foot of snow.  Running 2,014 miles in 2014 is not going to be easy.

Snow Day #3

We've been nearly socked in by the level of snow we had today.  It started at around 10 o'clock this morning, so we had a half day today, and I just got the call that school is cancelled tomorrow.  That makes one two-hour delay, one half day, and now three snow days.  After tomorrow, we're all out of snow days for the year and will have to start making them up.

Stevie is now doing an uncanny impression of me from earlier this year when I was complaining how we hadn't had a good snow day in awhile, because now that we keep getting them they keep coming at terrible times (our marking period ends Friday and midterms are next week).

Now she's noticing how I keep track of my years by school year instead of calendar year. Stevie stop reading while I type.

Now she's laughing.

At any rate, the snow has not kept me from running.  I still made it out today for a very cold and windy mile.

It was like Tokyo Drift out there, both in the car and out.

Stay warm my friends.

Weekend in New York

I've just come back from an amazing weekend in New York City.  The Goethe Institute hosted a weekend seminar for new and newer German teachers all across the country, with a focus on using technology to incorporate authentic resources in the classroom.  I'll spare you the details of the seminar itself, but let's just say they paid for everything as well, including transportation, hotel, dinner at a nice restaurant on Friday night, and a food stipend for Saturday.  As a public high school teacher, I'm not used to feeling so wined and dined.

I brought Stevie along with me for the trip, and we arrived in New York on Friday morning. The hotel was in Lower Manhattan in Soho, and after checking in we had lunch in Chinatown where we were the only white people in the restaurant.  We then headed to the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero, which I had never seen before.

On Saturday night we went to see "Matilda" on Broadway, my birthday present to Stevie a few weeks ago.  I am not much of a musical person, but overall I enjoyed this show and can highly recommend it.  Having wanted to see it for months now, Stevie was beside herself the whole show.

After the seminar's conclusion today, I spent the afternoon walking all over Manhattan. Among the highlights: someone had dragged a piano out to Washington Square Park where I enjoyed a concert for a spell.

I had grand plans of going for long runs while in New York, along the river and in Central Park, but both days I woke up too late to run anything longer than two miles.  My route mostly followed Lafayette Street where the hotel was located:

As always, I come home from New York chastising myself for not making it up there more often.  I live so close to one of the greatest cities in the world and I only manage to make it there once or twice a year.

And here is a picture of the crowd.  Someone suggested we pose looking stern and sufficiently German, though a few missed the memo:

Flashback Friday: High School Romance

From my junior year scrapbook

When I was a junior in high school, I dated a girl whose idea of romance was me walking her to her class after lunch every day.  I did my best to lovingly oblige, knowing she looked at it as a sweet gesture, but in fact the whole enterprise was just a tad inconvenient.  My class after lunch, you see, was on the other side of the building from hers. With only three minutes between classes, I was somewhat strapped for time as it was.

My next class also happened to be AP German.  Add the fact that I didn't want to let my favorite teacher down, to a teutonic inspired neuroses about being late, and you have a daily battle to get to that class on time.

The solution was to set my watch to the school bell, and through trial and error, I determined exactly how much time I needed to make it from her classroom to the German room.  And so my girlfriend and I would walk leisurely after lunch towards the choir room, then linger outside whispering sweet nothings as teenage couples are wont to do.  But she only ever had half my attention, for my eye constantly darted between my young paramour, and the seconds on my wrist ticking away...

At the appointed time, and with an explosion she came to accept, I took off in a madcap dash through the school.  Leaping down flights of stairs, careening blindly around tight corners, scaring the wits out of stragglers in the hallways, I burst through the door of the German room with a ferocity that never failed to startle my classmates.  My German teacher remained unfazed.  Teenagers, it would seem, could no longer surprise him.

It started as an answer to a question - how can I make the most of every last second afforded me? - and it soon morphed into something more.  A daily challenge, a test of my physical limits.  How close could I cut it and still beat that bell?  While the romance of that spring didn't last, that spirit never left me, and the memory of those runs through school never died.

Some habits die hard.  While I don't sprint wildly around the school anymore - I don't think the administrators would look kindly on that sort of thing - to this day I still time my watch to the bell.  To the consternation of my students, I am able to teach to the last possible second before the bell rings.

And in my races, I still try to retain that same spirit, the one that pushes me to see what I am made of, as if that bell is only seconds away from ringing, and I am still moments away from my classroom.

Hansons Marathon Method

Last night I went to my first meeting of the South Jersey Athletic Club.  The club had invited Jen Miller, local freelance journalist and high school friend of mine, to speak about her experience training with the Hansons Marathon Method.  Jen also wrote an article for the New York Times last spring on the same topic.

I was only passingly familiar with this training plan, having heard about it through other bloggers and a few articles here and there.  The method was developed by the brothers Hanson several years ago:

Nope.

Nailed it.

Turns out there are some striking similarities between the Hansons Method and my own, which I've stitched together over the course of 10 marathons.  

• Running six days a week.  I've done this for just about every marathon and had no idea it wasn't normal.
• No crosstraining.  In the Hansons Method, they stress that the only way to get better at running is to run.  Screw all the other stuff.  In my plan, this wasn't exactly by design.  I was just usually too tired and lacked the resources to train another way.
• Running while tired.  The Hansons Method specifically wants you to run tired.  Again, this wasn't by design in my plan.  I usually ran after work after I'd been on my feet most of the day, and was running six days a week anyway so there was little time for recovery.

The biggest differences are the long run, and the amount of speedwork done.  Hansons has you topping out at 16 miles (I topped out at 22), but the miles you do put in are frequently done at race pace.  There's a reason nearly everyone I've known who has done Hansons has used the word "grueling" to describe it.

The reason why I'll continue to stick to my own plan, even as I strive for a sub 3:00 marathon, is because I believe that experience counts for a lot.  After having covered 26.2 ten times over the years, my mind and body have come to understand what that distance requires in terms of strength and tenacity.

The club members, incidentally, were very nice and welcoming, though I was by far the youngest person there.  I plan to keep going to events in the future and become a dues-paying member and hopefully make some new running friends along the way.