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Comments
Cheers Pat.
Cheers Pat.
Could have been a great photo op!
Ken
High-Occupancy Vehicles and High Output Turbos.
-juice
Steve: LOTS of positive thoughts going in your direction.
Mike: congrats on new Armada!
My 1st choice place to live would be San Diego, but the Bay Area comes in close second.
Juice: sorry to hear about Miata. I remember I was really upset
Juice, you almost had me with your April 1 posting. I was about to type up a response where I was going to say all the "nice" things about Fords (and that would be a loooong loooong list) -- but the comment that you're unhappy with the Forester gave you out.
123k miles? So it's just now broken in, eh?
Just over 70k miles on mine, and in fact we might trade the '02 Legacy in on a Tribeca because I'm too attached to Sandy (you know me well). Not right now, but maybe within a year, we'll see.
-juice
Cheers Pat.
Steve
Cheers,
-wdb
Steve
Thanks!
Bob
I wonder if she has any plans to join as an individual member?
Ken
As you know, I was training for the last few months. Everything was going extremely well -- I was on schedule, getting in the miles and most importantly injury-free. Just after my longest training run of 22 miles a month ago, an old knee-injury came back to haunt me right when I started a routine mid-week run. Years ago, I had torn my ACL and possibly torn the meniscus in my left knee from a skiing accident. Once in a blue moon, my knee decides to swell up and prevent me from running let along walking. Such was the case this time around.
On race day, I woke up at 4AM to catch a 4:30AM bus from downtown Monterey down the course on Highway One to the start line at Pfeiffer State Park. In the pre-dawn darkness, I was worrying about how I would do. Although my knee's swelling had gone away and I was able to put in some light miles I had lost nearly two weeks, abeit during the taper period, of my training. I was concerned not only about my knee holding up but having lost conditioning. Would I be catching a bus back?
The Big Sur Marathon is a very hilly course with one famous climb to Hurricane Point (just south of the Bixby Bridge) that involves a 650ft elevation gain over 1.5 miles. Veteran runners say to add at least 20 minutes to your "normal" course time. Based on my recent race performance, I was originally targeting a 3:30 flat course time so I figured 3:50 should be reasonable. On race day, I was just hoping to finish.
The weather was perfect. The Big Sur Marathon is known for fog, wind and rain at times, but this year it was cool, overcast and calm.
The start gun went off and the first few miles went by smoothly. My knee felt a tad unstable, but I was soon hitting close to a 8:00 race pace. The scenery was gorgeous. After a few miles of twisting through pristine coastal forest, Highway One opens out with an ocean view. The coast looked so peaceful in the early dawn light. Things were looking great! Maybe I would finish at my target time after all!
After 10 miles, I was ready to take on Hurricane Point. I’m usually pretty good with hills so I keep chugging away. I knew I was running way to fast as my heart rate monitor was measuring 180bpm, but it just felt so great to be running again. Two miles later I had conquered Hurricane Point and was soaking in the beauty of the Bixby Bridge and the sound of a concert pianist playing music by the side of the course.
By mile 18, I started to notice a twinge in my calf. Uh-oh…I knew that this wasn’t a good sign. Had I pushed it too hard back at Hurricane Point?
By mile 20, I knew I had made the embarassingly novice mistake of going out too fast. My legs were spent. No matter how much my brain commanded my legs, they just wouldn’t turn over. I had to resort to a pattern of shuffle, walk, stop and stretch. My pace had dropped from a 8:00 to a 9:00 and now to a 10:00.
As I watched my target time come and go, I was now only hoping to finish the race. The last three miles lasted an eternity. Lots of people were walking the course now but there were an equal number of people that I had passed before that were now passing me. All I could do was grim, block out the screaming pain in my legs and keep going.
Finally, the home stretch. The finish chute was ahead and soon I would be able to stop. I mustered all the willpower I had left in me and managed to run the last quarter mile. Just then, I caught my wife calling my name from the sidelines with my daughter cheering me on. That sight gave me the last bit of energy I needed to cross the finish line looking like a runner.
The sun was breaking through the clouds and a warm afternoon in Carmel was just starting. As I was reunited with my family in the finish area, I was hit with a mixed bag of emotions. I was happy it was over and that I had finished, but I was kicking myself for not having chosen a sensible pace strategy. I know I’ll be back here again someday to try it once again.
Ken
Your description of the race reminds me of one and only marathon. I was good till mile 20, then I "hit the wall," as they say. The last 10K was pure misery.
So what's next? The Ironman?
Bob
Steve
Not everyone can do what you did, I commend you ;-)
(I can't)
with that knee injury have you thought about cycling instead of running?
~Colin
Colin: Yup, that was my second marathon. My first was Napa Valley two years ago where I finished in 3:45. I mountain bike and have thought about getting a road bike to save wear on the knees, but there's just something about the simplicity of running. I'll just keep doing it until I can do no more. Also, ACL injuries typically don't get in the way of running since there's very little stop and go type of motion. There's actually quite a few ex-soccer players that take up running after one too many tears.
Ken
Ken
Get this - they still have not replaced her in her old position, and in fact Subaru will hire TWO people to do her old job!
I say that's a good start. 3-4 is more like it.
Ken: way to go. I get tired after driving 26 miles. LOL
-juice
Great job! This may sound silly, but 4:10 is not that far from the 3:50 target you had. There is no way I could run that far. Congrats!!
Just to keep the athletic activities going here in the crew, this coming Sunday I will be doing the NYC Bike NY ride. 42+ miles by bike are a LOT easier than running them. After that, put the bike on the rack of the OB, and off to Cape Cod for a few days for some relaxing times.
Mark
-Frank
-juice
But I agree with Colin, bicycling would be better for you knees (as long as your bike is set up correctly).
I miss the chat- my son has baseball games every Thursday for a while. Hope to get back by June!
tom
way to go you guys who are athletic ... I'm just ... tired
-Frank
Congrats!
Jim
Do you think there is anything to the concept of running on surfaces softer than pavement? Yes as a species we have been running for thousands of years, but: A) it has been on surfaces softer than concrete, such as dirt and grass, and; 2) we probably did more sprinting than we did endurance running back in those days.
Cheers,
-wdb
This time of year for special ed teachers in our school corporation is ridiculous. We have to do case reviews for all of the kids on our caseloads, which entails records reviews, writing the IEP recommendations for next school year, scheduling the meetings (which must include parents, gen ed teachers, and administrators - but can often also include speech therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, and any other private therpists and/or parent advocates), copying and distributing all the paperwork to the appropriate offices - while still continuing to teach and provide services to the students in school!
Add to that the two college classes I'm taking (yes, necessary to keep the job) and also the reading remediation training (because I want to), teaching in the school reading clinic two afternoons a week, and tutoring at the Masonic Lodge reading center 2 nights a week ... and occasionally I get to see my DH who is very understanding through it all ....
sooooo I'm looking forward to the end of next week when the college semester is over (finals) and the school reading clinic shuts down for the year and then just surviving the 'paper explosion' until the end of our school year ...
Have a good weekend, guys, and think of me while I sit in class from 8-1 today, then spend the rest of the weekend studying and writing IEP's ...
Cheers!
Paul
PS: e-mail me (it's in my profile) - kid stuff to pass on!
Actually, many of us care very much. As a parent who (as of late) is spending way too much time trying to secure services for his daughter, I do see how much effort good teachers put in. So keep up the good work.
Steve
Brenda teachers are a very valuable resource and deserve as much pay as possible for a sometimes miserable job,
Cheers Pat.
Bob
Funny that the issues around managing the buearocracy of Special Education remain the same no matter where you live. My sister is a Special Education Co-ordinator for a school district here in Australia and our own son has special needs that sees him working with a teaching aide for much of the time. It took us three and a half years from the time we first knew there was something amiss until we got a diagnosis and the government funding to assist him. It's a bit tricky, particularly as his problem, Asperger's Syndrome, one of the family of Autism Disorders, means that he is brilliant in some areas (maths and related areas) but pretty rotten in others (anything to do with communication). Dealing with the deficiencies whilst building his self esteem for those areas where he is very advanced, is an interesting balancing act.
However the rewards in the child's success from the specialist intervention of skilled teachers are a wonder to behold. We have recently had some wonderful success, thanks to the efforts of an outstanding teaching aide. Whilst he has alwys read passably wll (thanks to us reading with him every day since he was born) he is only getting to grips with writing in third grade. Given that a psychologist we saw some years agos suggested that the ability to write the numbers on a cheque and sign his name woulld be enough, we suspect a little more writing skill may assist him in the long term.
Brenda, I guess the point I make is that whilst the work is hard, the rewards for the kids you influence (and those around them) make it worth your effort.
Cheers
Graham
Actually, most running related injuries are not really from hard pavement. They're more repetitive injuries caused from improper form, increasing milage too quickly and not enough stretching and cross training.
The human body is an amazing machine. I absolutely believe that a good number of people can run a marathon with the right amount of training. It might take years to build up to that point, but it's doable. It's the commitment that's the true challenge.
Ken
There is no doubt that running is harder on your knees than bicycling. Does that automatically mean that running will ruin your knees? No. But it will put more stress on your knees than bicycling or swimming or other low-impact forms of aerobic exercise.
There are always exceptions to rules, which makes anecdotal evidence useless. Take for instance the person who has smoked their whole life and lives to be 100. It still does not make smoking good for you nor will smoking help you to live longer. (My anti-smoking plug here)
The human body is an amazing piece of engineering, and even more amazing at a molecular level, but the bipedal gait is not nearly as efficient as our quadrapedal friends and if we had to run to survive, we would have been extinct a long time ago. Humans have survived and thrived because of our brains, not our legs.
tom
tom
Graham - As you already know, Asperger's is one of the most difficult identifications for services ... I have worked with a student with that 'label' and a couple more for whom I believe the label would fit, but ended up with some alternative label for services ... the ones I have worked with have been an absolute joy to work with ...
and you are right about the reading with your kids ... by far the most important thing you can do for and with any child is a regular reading time - even once the child has learned to read .. I could quote studies for you that show that conversation is no substitute for books as vocabulary builders ... the average children's book has more higher level vocabulary than the average college-educated adult's speaking vocabulary ... and the exposure to the words builds vocabulary and also builds informational content for the connection of meaning to words ...
I've been doing quite a bit of research on dyslexia and reading dysfunctions/disabilities ... one of the interesting bits was to find an article published in 1929 by Samuel Orton, one of the leaders in this research in his day. His hypothesis as to the biological causes of dyslexia are mostly being proved by today's brain research! Amazing to me anyway ...
OK, nuff bout this .. back to the regular scheduled Sunday work agenda .. see ya !
Bob
our world is 'designed' for right-handed people, and it is more user-friendly for left-handers to do the reverse motor tasks ....
I have a daughter who is left-handed who wrote EVERYTHING backward when she first began writing .. I sat down and explained to her that her teachers at school would expect her to write the other way .. and she did ... lol
while most problems are not that easy to solve, your experience as a lefty is not that unusual ...
One of the markers of dyslexia in older readers is rate of reading .. if you are a slow reader, then it's more likely that you do have a form of dyslexia ... dyslexia is a medical diagnosis and one that I am not qualified to make .. that enough of a disclaimer?
Bob
Please enlighten me.
Also, I need to visit Canon's repair facility in Jamesburg, NJ and want to meet with Patti in Cherry Hill. If anyone has her current email, please email me (don't post it). The email in my profile is current.
Thanks.
..Mike Smith
PS - Happy New Year 2004! Happy New Year 2005!
..Mike
Mike, Patty took a position with the Extended Warranty side of the house, IIRC. Because of some internal squabbling between groups at SoA, she is under orders not to take on the roll of her former position (Customer Service Team Leader) on these boards. But rumor has it that she lurks from time to time. A ghost that appears, and is gone in a flash....
Steve