Positive Negative (plus Going On Quite A Bit About Teaching)

Run
time- 57:34
distance- 6.04mi

I was tired after school yesterday. Worn out. You see, I have a student teacher right now, and at this point in the school year he is doing a lot of teaching. That's how I run my classroom. Many mentor teachers (their term) only allow their student teacher to teach the lessons they have been assigned by their professors. When in school to become a teacher you take methods courses- Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, etc. Each of those professors will assign specific lessons the student needs to teach at their student teaching placement. During the final two years of study the student teachers are taking those classes and...student teaching. In the case of my ST this semester, and last semester, that means twice a week they spend the day in my room observing, helping, and teaching.
I make them do a lot of teaching.
Two reasons- 1) Observing anyone is boring. Even someone as interesting, handsome, and dynamic as I am. So my student teacher will spend two or three days parked at a table watching how I run my classroom, taking notes, observing the kids and how the teacher/student relationship works in my room. After school the ST asks me as many questions as they can think of while I pontificate at them about teaching philosophy (short version- student who fear you will learn, students who love you will try).
Which leads to 2) The only way to really learn how to teach is to get in front of the class and do it. And fail. And make mistakes. And get flustered and confused. And confuse the kids. And back up and try again. And reflect so that your mentor teacher can guide you to a better way next time. So there is a lot of that in my room. And I love it.
I think being a mentor teacher is one of the most important things a veteran teacher can do. When I was a lifeguard a hundred years ago every vet, that is, every guard who had been around for more than one summer, would be given a rookie. The vet's job was to be sure the rookie stayed on top of their job, knew all the skills, knew the philosophy of the program, and exceeded their potential. This is one of the many lessons I've held on to from my time as a COP guard. And it applies directly to mentor teaching. Veteran teachers need to take student teachers under their wing because that is the only way to ensure student teachers learn the right way. And yes, my teaching ego is such that I believe I have quite a bit to pass on to a new educator. It is all part of My Take Over the World plan. Soon there will be young teachers all over the country teaching children the way I think students should be taught. Schools will be better for it. (Yes, my swimming ego is eclipsed only by my teaching ego. But I'm a damn good teacher. The love thing works both ways.)
Like I said an hour ago when you started reading this, my student teacher is doing a whole lot of teaching at this point in the year. He needs to be, he's got the basic stuff and now it's practice, reflect, practice again. So I'm doing more than the usual amount of sitting and watching him. See #1. I take notes so that I can bring up specific things during our after school debrief, but I am still spending more time than normal at my desk watching someone else teach. Not a complaint, I signed up for it and I want him to be teaching as much as possible. But a truth.
So after school my energy level is lower. You would think it would be higher because I haven't really done all that much during the day, but sitting takes a lot out of you. It's a drag. Like when you get off a long flight all you want to do is crash on the couch.
This is all a long way of saying I really really really didn't feel like going for a run when I got home. I wanted to take a nap, followed by eating a snack, followed by another nap, followed by dinner and The Daily Show, followed by bed. But I fought through that and got my toe shoes on and got out the door.
Because, like almost always happens, I knew that as soon as I got moving I'd feel fine. The adrenaline and endorphins would kick in and off I'd go. I felt so good that I decided to do six mile with a focus on getting a negative split. And I did it! I haven't felt as good during a run as I did the last three miles in a long time. My kick was strong, my breathing was steady, there were no unusual pains. It was really great. Part of my wants to qualify all of this with a self-effacing statement like, "It was fast...for me," but I kind of hate it when people do that. I'm not judging myself against Diesel or the Grey or anyone else. I had a fast run, and a mentally strong one. Its the kind of run I'm trying very hard to save in my brain so that I can pull it out during the dark part of Honolulu and the Honu and show it to my body- "See! We can do this! Get through it and go!"

Search: My Fast (With Why I Write This)

Run Day
time- 29:52*
*negative split

Swim Day
1 x 150- Warm-up
10 x 100- 1:30
1 x 50- easy
5 x 50- 0:45
1 x 50- easy
1 x 500- 7:00
1 x 100- Cool down
total- 2100 yards

Today was a Searching For Fast kind of day, and it went well. Rather than swim first like I would normally do, I took advantage of rising early and cooler weather to run first. My plan was to negative split my half hour run without dialing it back in the front half. And I did it! Turned around right at the 15 minute mark and got back at the 29:52. I'm not sure how far I went because of the inclement weather. Didn't want my Dirtbag Distance Determining Device to get wet. That would really cut into my texting-while-shopping-with-my-wife time. So I'm pleased, I ran hard, and I think I'm going to be able to get some more fast back in the coming runs.
And I decided to go for it today in the water too. Short, powerful bursts was the goal, and sustained time standards. I nailed the 10 x 100 set. I was finishing at 1:15-1:16 for the first few, held to 1:20 or less for the next, and finished nine and ten back down at 1:15. BAM! Couldn't be more pleased. Felt strong, good stroke, and great walls. Walls aren't really much help during any of the races I do, but fundamentals is as fundamentals does. Good long strokes, good finish, good all around. And that 500. Dig it, baby. 7:00, and I thought my stroke was shortening up during it. I was half sure I was just barely going to be making my 7:30 goal. Good times.
On to why I blog. It's kind of a running joke (get it?) in the amateur athlete-blogging world that if you are going to be working out, you need to have a blog. I present Example A. (Note: There is an absolutely hilarious one about Ironman training too.) Every once in a while I question why I spend a few minutes nearly every night writing this stuff down. And its rarely short. I'm not very good at self-editing, so I run on until I'm done. And it can't possibly all be interesting to a reader. But, really, this is more about me tracking my emotional and physical peaks and valleys during a training cycle than anything else. This is good for me. I can look back and pinpoint when I was feeling good and what those workouts looks like, when I wasn't and what those looked like, and see how far I've come. Most athletes put a little plus/minus next to each workout in their training journal. I like writing too much for that. Which is reason number two for the blog. I like to write. Its another exercise. It's something I'm decently good at, and something I greatly enjoy. If something happened and I couldn't work out, the biggest long-term behavior change would be I would write more.
My ego hopes that some of what I write gets into the minds of readers and, along with being entertained by my oh-so-witty repartee, some of you get up and do something. Go walk, go run, go ride a bike, sign up for a local 5k, or train even harder at what you're already doing so that you know you can beat the tattooed blowhard who is filling the interwebs with an ever-increasing amount of data at whatever it is I'm writing about today. As a teacher, any little bit of inspiration I can dish out reflects back and will help me train all that harder. See what I did there? How I put it out for real? Again, BAM.
And an unexpected bonus to this is I've been meeting a ton of like-minded people. Great blogs, great inspiration, great people. Talking to triathletes and barefoot runners has helped me in a dozen different ways. And I occasionally get to actually meet these people in real life. I'd link the examples I'm thinking of here, but I kind of already did that so if you're interested just check out that big list along the side of my page. This isn't about page hits. Its a personal journal of a personal journey which, thanks to the magic of the net, gets to be overshared almost daily. I don't want to get all Ivan Drago on you with an, "I blog for me! For me!" But that's kind of the case. I just like having anyone along for the ride who wants to come. And I thank you for reading.