Ready to get Muddy!

After an incredibly lazy morning watching Travel Channel, Roomie and I finally peeled ourselves off of the couch to start our list of race preparation activities.  This included packet pickup, after which we were thrilled to see that our bibs match our homemade shirts EXACTLY!

I mean, this has to be a good sign.  College Roomie and I also stopped by this local bike rental place to rent a mountain bike.  We had been planning on using her bike, but when we took a closer look at the course map and saw that it included some tough hills and things, we figured her hybrid bike may not be up to the challenge...

This bike totally rocks.  Of course, it needed a little decoration...

Mostly so that we recognize it in the crazy transitions!  Next, we decided to continue rocking the blue theme with some awesome blue nails...

 Finally, shoes and helmets are laid out and ready!  Yay!

We are pretty darn pumped.  Although I haven't ridden a bike in over a month probably (I wouldn't recommend my training plan...), I think this race is going to pretty much rock.

Hello Hotlanta!

This morning I got an EARLY start...by early, I mean 3:40am.  Yup, someone (ahem...me...) had the brilliant idea to book a 6am flight...oops.  I was just eager to get to ATLANTA to see College Roomie!!!  I passed the time at the airport with some yummy Starbucks oats...

And a really great book...

(Book review coming soon!)

After a sleepy flight (on which the two other seats in my row were magically unoccupied--score!), College Roomie and I were at last reunited.  We had a great time today cramming as many fun activities as possible into our time.  First we visited Roomie's grad school, and I was introduced to this fellow...

Because every school NEEDS a skeleton statue, amiright?

And since we are book nerds to the nth degree, Roomie had to take me on a tour of the library.  Check out this newspaper volume from the 1930s...

Other events included a picnic in the park, a Trader Joe's adventure (obv), and FRO YO (Which we don't have in the midwest!  At least not where I live!  Tragedy.)...

YUM.

But the best part was our visit to...

 A visit to the Center for Puppetry Arts!!!  Yes, a PUPPET MUSEUM!!!  When I heard about its existence, I insisted we visit as soon as possible.  And friends, it did NOT disappoint.  We technically weren't supposed to take pictures...but I did sneak this one because honestly how could I NOT?!?

In addition to this slightly creepy but mostly awesome display of puppets, there were puppets from all around the world.  BEST of all though was a tribute to Jim Henson, complete with life-sized Big Bird!  :)  Best. Ever.

Then Roomie and I stopped at the craft store to pick up some supplies to make our race shirts awesomely fabulous.  Our team name is "We were infinite" after a quote from the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  In the book, a character is riding in a pickup truck sandwiched between two friends, driving fast through a tunnel with music blasting, and when they come out on the other side they see an awesome view of the city.  The narrator remarks, "In that moment, I swear we were infinite."  Love.

We also picked up some temporary tattoos we found in the dollar bin...a.maz.ing.

Tonight we have big plans to grill veggie burgers (Roomie is a veggie too!), bar trivia, and wrapping up the night with wine and some Real Housewives action...Best. Day. Ever.

A is for...Alarm

School's over, but did I sleep in on my first day of summer?  Unfortunately, no.  I am leaving tomorrow for ATLANTA to see this girl:

College Roomie & Me, circa 2008

And run this race:

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Because the race is on Saturday, I won't be doing a long run Sunday.  I still wanted to try and get in some miles this week, so I knew I had to get up early and squeeze in a few. Between two tutoring jobs today, plans to go finish cleaning up my classroom, an evening reserved for finishing packing and sleep (tomorrow's flight is at 6am...what. was. I. thinking.), not to mention blistering heat throughout the day, an early morning run was the only way this was going to happen.

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Now, I don't like early morning runs.  I'm more of a hit-the-snooze-as-long-as-humanly-possible type of girl...I like running in the morning, but EARLY is another story...Sometimes, though, sleep must be sacrificed for running!!

This morning's run was pretty darn ROUGH.  That's really an understatement.  It kicked my ass is more like it...hot, sunny, and I just couldn't find my groove.  I had planned to run 6 miles, but when I was ready to quit after just 2, I made a deal with myself that if I kept at it, I could be done at 5.  Even that was incredibly challenging!  Oh well, some days are just like this I guess.  5 was definitely all my IT bands had in them, so it's good I decided to stop...

I LOVE summer, but I really hope the entire summer isn't this sweltering!  It's supposed to be 99 degrees today!  Hello midwest, what happened to a June of 70s and 80s??  I guess I better get used to getting up at the crack of dawn to run...or get used to running in this heat!

When is your favorite time of day to run? 
Mine is definitely either early evening or late morning after I've had PLENTY of time to wake up...

What are your summer plans?
I'm SO EXCITED for my little vacation in Atlanta and Florida starting tomorrow!  After that though it's a summer of tutoring, professional development, and reading nonstop.  Oh, and summer school in August, but I'm trying not to think too much about that right now.. :)

The Power of 3

I guess running right before bed maybe isn't the best idea for me--I can't sleep!!!  Even though tomorrow is only a 2 hour day at school, I certainly wasn't planning on staying up past 1am!  Oh well...  I thought I would make use of this extra time to blog about one of last week's writing workshop lessons.

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Last year I attended a fabulous professional development that introduced me to the WONDERS of the Writing Workshop, with which I immediately fell in love.  We received a great booklet of mini-lesson ideas that I flip through from time to time when I need some inspiration.  Last week I happened to stumble across the Power of 3 mini-lesson.  Are you familiar with the Rule of 3 in reading and writing?  After a bit of googling I discovered that this is a HUGE thing!  I even saw links to articles on comedic acting and professional fiction writing.  Needless to say, this is a pretty valuable writing skill!

The Rule of 3 is pretty simple: to make your writing more interesting and memorable, sprinkle some "3s" throughout.  This might mean repeating a word or phrase 3 times, including sets of 3s throughout (characters, etc.), or listing 3 things using commas in a series.

Examples:

• The baby cried. --> The baby cried and cried and cried.
• We ran errands --> We went to the post office and to the grocery store and to the library.
• Mary was intelligent --> Mary was smart, wise, intelligent.

You get the idea.  Because I LOVE using Mentor Texts in Writing Workshop, I introduced the Rule of 3 to the kiddos by telling them I was going to share a SECRET of great writing with them.  I told them that this is something that great writers know to do in their writing, and because all of THEM are great writers, they should be let in on the secret.  I explained the Rule of 3, calling it the "Power of 3" for a little extra fun. (Because 5th graders aren't so big on rules...) :)  I shared the examples with them and made a quick anchor chart on the easel.  Then, I challenged them to be on the lookout for the 3s during a short read aloud.  

Our mentor text?  Kindergarten classic, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes.  One thing I've learned this year in my Writing Workshop pilot has been that sometimes little kids' books do a GREAT job of demonstrating a specific skill.  In this case, Lilly is a perfect book to model the rule of 3.  I had the kids pay close attention and count on their fingers (holding hands up in the air) all of the times they heard a set of 3.  We stopped and discussed, then I challenged them to try to use the Rule of 3 in their writing project.

I liked this lesson and think that it presents a SIMPLE, QUICK way to really elevate writing.  Another Writing Workshop win!

Interested in reading about some of my other Writing Workshop mini-lessons?

• Here Lies Said
• "I Wanna ______": Persuasive Letters 
• Simile Poems
• Story Surgery
• Pourquoi Tales
• Looping Stories
• Rotten Siblings

Night Run :)

Things to be grateful for tonight:

• Last day of school tomorrow!!  AND it's only 2 hours!  (Thank goodness!)
• My IT bands which held up through my run tonight!!!  My garmin was acting up, but I'm guessing that I went 4.2 miles based on time--longest distance yet since round 2 of the IT band debacle!
• My handheld water bottle and the gatorade I filled it with.  Thank goodness I had the foresight to take it with because even though my run was under an hour and after dark, it was still about 90 degrees out!!!
• My calves!  I had almost NO calf pain tonight even though I didn't wear compression socks/sleeves!  (I just couldn't bear the thought of pulling them on with that heat...)

I am in desperate need of a shower/sleep AND I have to throw in a load of laundry, but tonight a new mantra started running through my mind in the last (tough) mile of me run that I want to share...

Thank goodness :)

GOTR 5K Race Recap!

Yesterday's Girls on the Run 5K race wasn't about PRs or speed or training.  In fact, it wasn't about me at all.  It was about my running buddy Genni and 11 other girls that I have seen work so hard and learn so much about themselves and running this season.  But let's back up a little bit... :)

Since the race was to take place along the lake front down in Big City, I decided to invite myself to crash at Miss R's apartment the night before so I didn't have to make the trek in from the suburbs at the crack of dawn.  Luckily Miss R is super hospitable and fabulous, AND I had convinced her to be a running buddy for one of my girls!  It was Miss R's FIRST RACE and I was super excited for her.  Obv I slept in my running clothes in order to score 5 extra precious minutes of sleep time in the morning, and laid out my gear the night before, including my Coach Amy beaded bracelet. :)

(<-- This is only the beginning.  Since I was spending the next night in the city too, I have a gigantic duffel bag that's not in the picture, which I was lucky enough to get to tote around with me...)

Some background info on the GOTR 5k:

The girls train all season with the spring 5K as their goal.  It is a HUGE event and truly a celebration of the girls' hard work and general awesomeness.  This 5K had a DJ, sponsor tents, hair accessories, face paint, tiara decorating, you name it.  All of the girls choose an adult to run the race with them as a Running Buddy.  It's the buddy's job to stay with their girl the whole race and keep her motivated. :)  Most of our girls brought a parent, one a teacher, one an older brother, and of course Coach Melinda and myself got to be running buddies!  

Miss R & Me

When Miss R and I arrived at the location, it was a sea of pink banners with each participating school's name on them, as well as a sea of anxious and excited girls.  We helped our girls pin on their race numbers (they are all #1--how cute is that) and decorate their foam tiaras with their names.  After liberally applying the sunscreen, standing in the porta potty lines a few times, and talking about how excited we all were for the race, it was time to line up (with thousands of other people) with our starting wave.  Yes, this 5K had at least 10 waves!  It was gigantic.  (Oh, and did I mention it was close to 90 degrees and humid?  Perfect race weather...)

Me & Coach Melinda

Genni and I discussed our race strategy before starting out.  We wanted to start out slow, take some walking breaks when we needed to, and finish fast and strong.  We probably should have spent more time working on pacing at the GOTR practices, though, because I CHASED a very speedy Genni for about the first mile!  Man, that girl took off, passing runner after runner!  At about mile 1 Genni hit the wall and hit it hard.  We took a few long walking breaks with short bursts of running thrown in for the next mile.  It was crazy hot by this time, and the water stop wasn't until 1.75ish.  We gulped down some water, walked in the shade for a few mintues, and decided to try running again after the 2 mile mark.  (While the race was otherwise well-organized, I heard from other runners that they ran out of water part way through the race!  This was NOT GOOD for the hundreds of dehydrated young girls that were running!)

Genni and I alternated between walking and running up until we were close to mile 3.  That's when we decided to pick up the pace!  Genni was excited to get to the finish and so was I!  Bigger crowds started forming on the sides of the path, and we started booking it to the finish.  Well, I may have set a bit of a faster pace than Genni was up for at that point in the race, and about 10 feet from the start she said she needed to stop to rest!  Of course we did, took some deep breaths, and she got some water from her water bottle.  We walked up to the finish line and ran across it.  Yay Genni!

After finishing the race (in I have no idea what our time was, this race wasn't about that :), Genni and I got our FABULOUS Girls on the Run medals.  They are the same every year, but that's okay because they are PERFECT.  I love love love the inscription on the back.

I wish I could show you pictures of the girls and how cute they looked with their medals and tiaras!  I will have to make due with another picture of Miss R and me:

I read this quote recently and loved it:

So many people crossing the finish line of a marathon look as happy as when I won.

They have tears in their eyes.

This sport is full of winners.

Gary Muhrcke

Our 5K was by no means a marathon.  But for the girls, crossing the finish line wasn't any less special.  It didn't matter how long it took or in what order they crossed the finish.  Every girl was a winner at this race, and they knew it.  I could not have been prouder of them and am so thankful I got to have this experience as a coach this year!  

Let me leave you with some amazing comments from the girls themselves, as captured by our end of season survey...

 *As always, children's names have been changed. :)

My Happy Pace :)

Running is a personal thing for me.  I run alone, I run to think, I run to clear my head.  I run my own way at my own pace.  I am slow, but I'm okay with that.  When I race, I am only racing me.  Sometimes when I read other people's blogs it seems like the entire world is faster than me.  I mean WAY faster.  Which is fine, but sometimes it just makes me feel like a turtle!  But then I remind myself that a few years ago I could barely run a mile, and I remember how far I've come.  And then once again, it's just about my own running again, not anybody else's.  Thank goodness. :)

With that thought in mind, when Girls on the Run co-coach Lauren showed up to practice last week in a tank top with this very message on it, I had to order it IMMEDIATELY from the GOTR online store...

Go to your happy pace.  :)  Sweet, simple, perfect.  And it's exactly what I did on my run today!  I didn't worry too much about the pace showing on my garmin...instead I listened to my body and ran at a happy pace that felt good to my IT bands.  I stopped when they started hurting, because a happy pace shouldn't hurt your body.  Happily, that happy pace carried my 3.7 miles today!  I'm not going to lie, I could feel my IT bands the whole time, but there wasn't any PAIN until the very end.  3.7 is definitely an improvement!  Post-run my garmin showed an average pace of 10:27/mile.  Which is probably slower than 90% of runners' paces, but that's okay.  Because it is MY happy pace. :)

The wallow stops HERE.

I've been a little bit MIA lately with blogging...I could lie to you and say it was because I am super busy and productive...but I'm positive you would somehow find out that I was the LAZIEST of the lazies this past weekend.  Seriously.  I watched like 20 episodes of Glee between Friday and yesterday.  It got kind of out of hand...but I just HAD to see the next episode!!  Fabulous Big Brother let me "borrow" his Hulu Plus login to catch up on season 2, and I wasted NO TIME powering through the entire season.  SO. GOOD.  I loved it!

I'm not gonna lie, my absence of posting and ultimate laziness has been fueled in part by the fact that I have been in a state of wallowing since my IT bands started acting up again like crazy.  (My calf muscles are a bit knotty too to tell ya the truth...but I'll take that ANY DAY over the IT bands...)  I've decided though that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH with wallowing.  I can still do many things, this could be so so so much worse, I've had worse injuries before, blah blah blah.  So anyways.  I'm snapping myself outta this stat.  My legs are feeling MARGINALLY better though after loooong sessions of foam rolling.  I even made it through 3 miles yesterday with minimal pain/discomfort which is HUGE.  My knees/legs still feel off though, so I know something is still not right...we'll see what the doctor says Friday...

In any case, yesterday afternoon I celebrated my first sunscreen run of the season.  Yay!  I wear sunscreen on my face every day religiously, but yesterday was the first day I was heading out that I felt like I could just start sizzling immediately.  Fact: I fail epically at using spray-on sunscreen.  I always decide that I am super capable of spraying my own back, totally miss, and end up inhaling a big nauseating cloud of sunscreen along the way...oops.  It's reasons like this that people get married, isn't it?  Someone will be obligated to apply your sunscreen?  I knew it...

In other news, today was our LAST Girls on the Run practice of the season.  *Tear!*  It has been an amazing experience coaching these girls.  I was just gushing to my friend about GOTR yesterday, and it really is a program like no other.  Pretty much every girl EVER would get so much out of GOTR.  Trust me, running is only the BEGINNING!

We celebrated today with princess cupcakes...(because what ISN'T more fun when you put a crown on it???)

Coach Melinda made these!!! How awesome is she?!

And made some truly spectacular bracelets...

You know you wish you had a bracelet that is this badass.  Saturday is our eagerly anticipated 5K race!  I am super pumped to get decked out in pink, put on a tiara, and run with my girls.  (Well, hobble maybe...hope my IT bands cooperate!!!)  I cried like 18 million times when I volunteered at the fall 5K race just from the sheer wonder and cuteness of it all...I can only imagine how emotional I will be when I actually KNOW some of the girls!  Can't. Wait.

END OF YEAR COUNTDOWN: 3 days, 2 hours... (I think I can, I think I can...)

What is your guilty pleasure TV show? 
^ I have far too many...Glee, Real Housewives of New York, and I'm embarrassed to admit it but Secret Life of the American Teenager... (but mostly to make fun of it, I swear!!)

My Attempt at Optimism

Is my glass of pinot grigio half-full or half-empty?

I'm not going to lie.  Right now, I'm in a half-empty kind of mood.  Hence the need for a glass of pinot grigio to take the edge off of a looong week...While I am completely exhausted by school, that's to be expected by this point and there is definitely an end in (near!) sight, and it not what's causing my emo-ness.

What's bumming me out this weekend is the fact that, after I had finally allowed myself to believe that I just might be in the clear in terms of running injuries, BOTH of my IT bands decided to act up this week.  By act up I mean tighten up like WHOA causing knee pain in both knees and some fun muscle tenderness that I just can't run through.  It has been injury after injury for me lately, and I can't help but just think, "Well, I had a couple good weeks there, right?  I guess that's all I have in me..."  I'm trying my best not to wallow too much and to stay optimistic, but I'll admit that I have already cried twice this week over this.  :(

Okay, now that that's outta the way, on to the optimism I promised.  Things to be happy about:

• That the pain I was feeling in my knee is not some new joint/bone problem.  I guess I'd rather an old issue resurface than enjoy the fun in taking on something new!
• It is still early in my training and a few missed runs right now aren't the end of the world.
• I have good insurance that will cover physical therapy as soon as I jump through the hoops of seeing my primary care doctor (again...) and waiting for a referral.

It's a short list, but it's a start.  And now, some optimistic quotes because that always makes me feel better. :)

Believe in yourself and all that you are.

Know that there is something inside you

that is greater than any obstacle.

Christian D. Larson

My definition of optimism is simply the belief that setbacks are normal

and can be overcome by your own actions.

Martin Seligman

Hug a Vegetarian :)

Happy Vegetarian Week!  (Who knew there even was such a thing?!?)

What better way to celebrate than to have a meatless day or even a meatless meal this week. :)