Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

This semester I've been enjoying teaching a sports literature class I designed and promoted. We covered football during January, reading Friday Night Lights and some short stories. One short story, "The Eighty Yard Run" by Shaw, the class didn't get at all. They just couldn't see how the story could be classified as a sports story. I spent the period walking the students through the story, pointing out the various literary elements as well as the connections between sport and everyday life. The other short story, "A Quarterback Speaks to His God" by Wilner, the class loved, and this astonished me. I had prepared myself before class for an even tougher second round of "I don't get this." Every single student, though, surprised me by eagerly and maturely offering his/her opinion about different aspects of the story. One talked about comparing the main characters from the two stories and seeing how in some ways they were alike but in other wa...

I've come to realize I truly love working out. I also am finding the whole calories in/calories out equation fascinating. My mission now is to pay close attention to what I eat while ramping up the intensity of my workouts in hopes that my sprint tri performance improves this year. And really, my performance should only improve. I've only completed one sprint tri to date, and if I do worse the next go 'round, that'll be quite disappointing to say the least. One other mission I have is to get my one-pack abs looking just a tad more like a two-pack. I keep thinking back to last summer and the chat I had with an expert in sports fitness. When I was lamenting over my slow running, how I'd been trying to become faster but not really seeing any improvement, he told me a solid core is the key to increasing speed, to bettering my performance overall. To see if this is true, I've added core work every other day: planks, Russian twists, bicycles, machine crunches, machi...

"The path to transfomation involves many small steps. Experience each one as meaningful." Ruth Lauer-Manenti I'm all about taking many small steps. And I truly try to be mindful with each step taken, but I'm not really seeing any meaningfulness happening with most of the steps I'm taking right now. Maybe the meaningfulness is right in front of me and I'm just not seeing it for what it really is? How does one recognize the meaningfulness? I've been thinking for awhile now the time has come for me to move on from teaching. While I enjoy the students, I don't enjoy the mind-numbing, time-consuming reading and responding to papers. While I enjoy many of my colleagues, I don't enjoy the hashing, rehashing, and even more rehashing of the same old issues. Now that I'm grappling with this, the idea occurred to me that maybe it's not the meaningfulness I'm failing to see but rather the path itself. I simply do not know where the path i...

The new energy I have is totally blowing me away. For so long, the feeling of a nap coming on in the afternoon happened as if someone had flipped a switch, and I just reconciled myself to having to nod off for twenty or so minutes. Since last Thursday, when I started eating six meals a day rather than the usual 3, I haven't felt the need for a nap, I've been able to stay awake past 10 p.m., I'm awake and ready to start the day when my alarm goes off, and I have accomplished so much more with my workouts the last couple of days than I had been. I'm a convert through and through. Some time back I made the decision to go vegetarian, and for the most part I follow a vegetarian diet. I rarely eat read meat, choosing instead to go for fruits, veggies, fish, and egg whites. I also made the decision to cut back on white flour products and refined sugar. Yesterday I did have a bison burger, which was good, but I won't have another one for awhile due to the amount of choles...

My little bonk the other day made me re-evaluate a couple of things: my workout schedule and my eating patterns. I thought I had the workout schedule figured out in such a way that it would fit nicely with my work schedule. The working out in the evening followed by a workout early the next morning, though, just isn't the best plan. In addition, I was only eating the usual three meals a day. With the increase in energy expenditure, I need to eat more and more often. I was still going by my 1500 calories a day, which is okay if I'm not doing a whole lot. Most days, however, I'm using around 500 or 600 additional calories, meaning I'm really only getting anywhere from 900-1000 calories a day. My body is saying, "JK, stop being a knucklehead! Eat, damnitall, eat." I ended up taking Thursday off. I wasn't physically tired after work, but I was sleepy tired. I went to bed early that night to try to make up for recent lost sleep. Thursday was also my first day...

Late last evening, Hubby and I went for our swim. I swam 1000 yards. This morning, we went to the rec center early, and I tried to run. The fatigue set in at mile 2. I tried to keep going, but my body said no. I stopped the treadmill for a couple of seconds, turned it back up to 6 mph, but within a few steps my body said, please, please stop. I just couldn't go on. This is the first time I've ever bonked like that. I'm thinking one of two things happened, or maybe it was a combination of the two factors I'm seeing as the culprits for shortening my run. Last evening's swim was one of the best I've had. I'm trying to add a 100 yards to each swim, and I'm trying not to stop and rest after each lap. When I climbed out of the pool, I felt a sense of true accomplishment. And I was tired. This morning, we went back to the rec center 12 hours after swimming. I didn't eat breakfast before going, and I only had a banana last evening after the swim. My syst...

Sigh. I'm not sure reading rejection letters will ever get easier, but today's rejection letter gave me some hope  the editor's final decision to not publish my story was a difficult decision. A couple of lines past the rejection part of the email I received was this: "You should know that there was considerable discussion here at Stymie about the piece, but it just wasn't quite the right fit. I really hope you'll submit again in the future. For my part, I'd be interested in a shorter piece suitable for our web content." The usual sting of rejection didn't hurt quite so much after reading that. The part about "right fit" I don't totally get. I do know that finding the right target for a story can be terribly difficult. My particular piece is about a boy playing basketball but is told through the eyes of his mother. Stymie is a sports lit magazine, and like many other sports related mags, it gives more space to baseball and golf....

I'm floating after a good, hard week of working out. I was able to swim twice, actually doing 900 yards the second swim, feeling strong during and after. I ran, cycled, stairclimbed, and did weights and abs as well. After each workout, I could feel the fatigue, but it wasn't overwhelming and I was able to go into each successive workout rested and ready for it. Today I decided to complete a brick workout to see how I would handle both physically and mentally the cycling followed by running. I started on the spinner, going with an endurance program. After 32 minutes, I'd gone about 12.5 miles. I'm not sure the spinner is accurate, as that is about a 23 mph pace, but I did keep the cadence in the 90's the entire time. The program was helpful with its cues for when to add resistance, to slow down and speed up, and maintain. I've never used a spinner before starting at the gym, so it's taken some getting used to, but I like how easy it is to add resistance. My...

Two awesomely cool people tagged me with the Stylish Blogger Award. I am very honored and wish to thank Natalia over at Natalia's Running Blog: trying to run and wanting to tri , and Staci over at She Runs in Sandals . Natalia inspired me with her stair climbing, and since I can't cycle right now due to the four or so inches of snow and the wicked thin layer of ice under it, I thought, hey, a stair climbing event would give me something to work towards. I signed up for the 2011 Fight for Air Climb in February (shameless plug time: check out my personal page, and if you have a buck or two you can spare for the cause, that'd be great--end of shameless plug), with the thought of maybe doing another in March just to give me another event to train for while I wait out the winter months to end and I can get my new beauty outside for a long ride. Staci inspires me with her barefoot running. I've read quite a bit on barefoot running and totally get the reason for it, but I jus...

Mondays and Wednesdays this semester are going to kick my ass. Like the old saying goes, "nice guys (and gals) finish last." Being the nice person that I am who can't say no, I agreed to trade a class with another colleague. The class I traded for didn't make. Figures! Because of this, the class I ended up with meets from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. So, I come in for my 12:30 class, have office hours between it and my 3:30 class then have a 2 1/2 hour break until the 7:30 class. Ughhhhh. If I go home, I'll change into my jammies and not want to return to school. If I go anywhere away from campus, I'm likely to forget I have this evening class and not return for it. That would put me on the fast track to forced retirement. Somebody please help me learn how to say that teeny-tiny word NO! I'm trying to see the positive of this situation, like being able to get papers read while here rather than having to take them home. Right now, I have the first journal entries f...

I think I've gone to heaven. Now, not only do I have the fitness facility at work to use, but I also have access to the gorgeous, spanking  new rec center at the university only a couple of blocks from my house. The angels are singing, and to top it all off, the Pearly Gates have opened to reveal a pool where I can swim to get in shape for my first sprint tri scheduled for April. I.Am.Stoked. Hubby and I went over this morning to get our ID's and to swim, but we were too late for the morning lap swim. We settled for touring the building, taking in all the beautiful machines, weights, and running/walking track. We then hopped on some spinners and put in 15 minutes of cycling. From there we went to the ellipticals where we added 20 more minutes of cardio work. I've not done elliptical training before, so my legs were feeling it and the sweat was dripping. Though I was disappointed not to get a swim in, I was happy with the cardio work for the morning. Tomorrow, I shall swim...

Inspired by Natalia , I searched for a stair climbing event close to home and found one in February that's not too far away. I signed up, my hubby all the while shaking his head and telling me I'm crazy. I'm excited and scared at the same time. Stair climbing is completely new to me; I didn't even know stair climbing events existed until I read about Natalia's participation. Even then, the idea to participate myself didn't occur to me. Yesterday, when I was on the stair climber for the first time, the thought crossed my mind that maybe this is something I could do during these colder months as I wait out the freezing temps, the snow, and the wind for when I can once again get outside on the bike. A quick internet search offered up several choices right in my backyard. I chose the 2011 Fight for Air Climb . Take a look at my page, and if you can donate a dollar or two, that'd be great. If not, a note of support would be just as wonderful. Now I need to figu...

Before I was able to walk into the new fitness facility, a colleague regaled me of how beautiful the place was. She'd just been inside, not to work out but just to tour it, and emphasized with arms flailing how wonderful it all was. My excitement increased. I entered the building and met a student worker at the desk. She asked for my ID, something I've never had in the 11 years of working for the college, but I did have my employee ID number. With that, all I had to do was punch in the numbers on a keypad. Wa-la. I was in. Without any trouble I found the locker room. A bit on the small side and no benches to sit down on (what's up with that? I kinda wanted to check out the guys' locker room to see if they have benches), but it was clean. In a matter of minutes I was ready to hit the cardio machines. I started on the stationary bike, choosing a hills program, and cycled for 30 minutes. I definitely need to figure out how to use the bike. I kept trying to up the ten...

I ran three miles this evening, followed by two miles of walking at a 3% incline on the treadmill in the garage. The temp was a chilly 38 degrees. I've learned how to dress for the garage, so I usually am completely warmed up after the first half mile, and by the end of my hour workouts, I'm sweating pretty good. Tonight, though, might be my last garage workout for awhile because tomorrow the new fitness facility at work opens for faculty use. I'm all set. I've already pulled out my gym bag, packed it with shorts, shirt, shoes and other assorted workout paraphernalia and am ready to test all the new equipment. It'll be heaven to wear a simple t-shirt with shorts rather than three layers of clothes that end up feeling heavy by the time I'm finished. The last time I set foot in a gym was three years ago. Hubby and I joined a gym here and went regularly throughout the entire year. We enjoyed the swimming and the use of the cardio machines, but we hated having to ...

Thanks to Natalia, I was able to put the widget back on the blog, and it has all of my miles. Many thanks, Natalia. Having all the accumulated miles there for me to see on a daily basis is so motivating. I'm excited about nearing the 800 mark. I can't imagine what it'll be like to see 1000.

Well, I didn't lose it exactly. For some reason, the widget wasn't updating, and no matter how many times I tried to replace it with the correct information, it just kept giving my training recorded a day during early last week. I decided to just delete it for now. Maybe whatever is ailing the widget will get fixed over the next few days and I can replace it. I kind of liked having it as I could see each day the increasing mileage for the year. Last year, I ended with 748 miles of combined running and cycling. Most of the mileage came from cycling, so this year, one of my goals is to up the running miles, try to end the year with more than the 37 I logged for 2010. I actually did have more than 37. I just didn't start logging my workouts until August. I may have had around 40 given my lack of enthusiasm towards running. I'm actually doing pretty good with the running. During the lovely three-week break from school, I found myself looking forward to working out, and I ...

A very slow five miles, but five nonetheless. The first four were walk/jog, averaging a 13 minute pace. The last mile was really, really slow at 3 mph, but I upped the incline to 5%, then 6%, and ended with 7%. I'm happy with this workout and hope to continue increasing the mileage over the next few weeks. With having to report back to work tomorrow, I'm worrying that I'll not follow through with the schedule I've set up for myself. I know I can't let myself become to inflexible, but at the same time, I truly want to up the intensity this year. I did see this conversion chart the other day and thought it was great. I always walk/jog with a 1.5 % incline. It's helpful to know the incline does affect the speed. I've always been faster outside and didn't really know why. Now I know why; the incline I have the treadmill set at was actually helping me. I'm trying to use the incline even more now, changing things up a bit here and there to not only give...

The start of a new year has begun, and with it, the wonder of what the next 12 months will bring. I, for one, have lots of hopes. My primary hope is that my family continues to enjoy good health. My middle child for many years was the one who battled sore throats, allergies, and colds. We teased him about being the sickly one. Thankfully, 2010 was a good year for him. He remained healthy overall, only having one or two colds at most. During the fall semester, in November, it dawned on me that he hadn't been sick during the fall months. This was a first in his life. My secondary hope is that I can continue writing, producing like I did during summer and fall of 2010. I truly believe my time has come for creating good work. When I finish a story, the feeling of accomplishment spurs me to continue. I've never experienced this before. And lastly, for 2011, I hope to fine tune my nutrition and exercise. I have several events lined up, giving me something to work towards, and I'm...