Big in China?

Statistics don't lie, right?

As an educator, the mantra of "data, data, data" has been driven into my brain for over eighteen years now. One caveat to that dictum is that "numbers can mean almost anything you want them to." I have been blogging for almost eight (!) years now, the overwhelming majority of that time using Blogger. In those years, I have never really bothered to check the traffic to the blog as it is used as primarily a way to practice and sharpen my own writing.

From time to time, I start my high school English classes with a joke about how my blog is the most popular website in "Turkish prisons" or "Russian work camps." This, of course, is said with the full awareness that the 10-20 visitors who fumble onto this page are either 1) family members--which likely accounts for the "visits" from Mexico, as my brother lives there-- or 2) someone following some odd word sequence that has lead them to this place via an online search engine. Is it possible though that my self-effacing classroom quips are not to be that far from the truth?

Occasionally out of boredom, I will check the "Stats" page on my Blogger dashboard to see just who is stopping by and from where in the world they (or the router they're leeching off) hail from. It is unclear to me just how much merit can be given to the audience stats revealed on this page. For example, according to the March 17 chart screen captured and posted above, a slight majority of visits to this blog are from China. The next highest source (after the good ol' US of A) is the Soviet Union.

When digging more deeply into the statistics it is revealed that among the most popular posts visited during this time is a six year old post from when this blog was primarily used as an online running log. The mind reels when one considers too deeply that this may be the case due to my inclusion of the detail that I iced my shin with "Birds Eye French Cut Green Beans" or the admission that "my body is not healing as quickly as my spirits."

Though somewhat gratified by there being any visitors tracked, I am not naive. Truth is, the statistics and data that suggest I'm "Big in China" or at least in ten of the billion or so computer users who live there, are likely imaginary.  Certainly, they are not indicative of those who actually linger here long enough to read, let alone appreciate what is being written about. Despite this intellectual reality, it is kind of heart warming to realize that someone somewhere is stopping by if only to click on to the next blog. And as far as my students know, there may just be a South American bottling plant office computer regularly following my blog.

The Fallen, Born Again (Runner)?

The blogger (left) competing in a 5-mile road race in March 2009.

Recently, I have begun to accept myself as a "fallen runner" or sorts. If a "fallen Catholic" (a term used frequently by my grandparents) can be used to describe someone who was once a church-goer, but no longer attends, then I am certainly a "fallen runner" of sorts. In years past (as evidenced by this blog's existence over the previous five(!)) I have at different points been extremely committed to signing up for and competing in any variety of formal road races from small 5k fundraisers to 192 mile relays across Western state lines at a clip of almost a road race a weekend. I've represented running clubs in marathon relays and myself been a local age-group "Runner of the Year" for my efforts. I share these things not just to blow my own horn, but to let you know that I have been "there" picking up finisher's medals, cheering on folks completing their first 3.1 miles, and eating chili with them following a rainy half-marathon.

Over the past two years my receding level of involvement (and interest) has made me something of a "yo-yo runner,"; taking the months from September to April "off" to coach or simply vegetate, returning in the Spring to train for a single tent pole race, most often our city's annual half or full marathon. When asked "why the disengagement?" by those fine folks I used to spend each weekend warming up and racing against, I'm hard pressed to come up with an answer that makes sense.

As is often the case, it is much easier to find others who are smarter and more articulate to at least get at why my own fallen state has taken such a hold. Despite not training myself, I have stayed involved in the art and act of running in the interest of improving my own coaching acumen and because I once loved the culture of the distance running community. Among the sources for my reading are any number of training blogs, among them Sherpa John: Human Potential, who recently posted regarding the mainstream growth of ultra running (competing over a distance greater than 26.2 miles). As part of his conclusion, he mentioned that "Ultra running has indeed entered a time which no one thought it ever would. The biggest issue... protecting the culture that was built from the early days of our sport through to 2006.. our culture is getting lost by the number$..." and there it was. The "$." It would be easy (and a cop-out) to suggest that "money made me not love the sport," and this commerce mentality is not just applicable to ultra running--just check out how many 5ks there are in your community this weekend.

In the comments to the blog posting, Josh notes that "The ultra running community will re-birth when we give races the finger and get back to where we started. Fat Asses. Once we give up on the hype, the shirts, the buckles, the LOOK WHAT I DID ON FACEBOOK STATUS UPDATES. And just do what we love, because we love it, with people that feel the same way. Until that day happens. Ultra running has jumped the shark and has gone the way of the road 5k. Check your watches, you might be off pace...." Though a snarky comment, something in this rings true. Maybe part of why I lost interest was my own over-investment in the culture of road racing and the necessity of paid participation for inclusion in this in exclusive club.

I am reminded of one of my coaching mentors who, in addition to possessing a great deal of training knowledge and a masterful grasp on race strategy, and who at the age of 55 still runs almost daily. Despite all this knowledge and potential for competition, he never competes in a road race himself. When I was at the peak of my own "racing career" (it even feels silly typing that) I asked him why he had never run road races as surely he could win his age group at least. "I last ran a 5k in the early eighties, did well in my age group, and never ran another."

"Why?" I asked--surely winning an age group would be a good thing.

"I decided that I'm not paying somebody to run," he told me flatly, "I run because I love it not because I need trinkets." I noble sentiment and one I aspire to, though I  for one still benefit from a target race to reinforce my own motivation to train. Maybe, I'll just dial back the road races from 20 in six months to one at the end of a cycle. Or maybe I'll just run (and write about it) for the love of it...

While I am a "fallen runner," I am open to becoming a born again, and so the quiet personal journey of training begins to take take root, again, this time more covertly, and personally, than in the past.

Summer Camp*? Sign Me Up!

In the midst of much planning this week (an upcoming road race, a possible return tp bicycling to work) I have also taken advantage of the time off this week to do a bit more blog surfing than usual. During a recent spate of clicking and searching, I came across the Nike advertisement above for the NIKE Free sneaker. While I have been to a variety of track clinics and participated in group training runs before, my summer camp dreams have not (yet) been fulfilled to this extreme... yet!

While the commercial itself is (I think?) a spoof, I have indeed heard of a number of 5ks which are intended to be run "au natural." (My filter will not permit me to search under "nude" so you'll have to take my word for it!) With all that is in the news about barefootedness, "going back to nature," and extreme sports, it strikes me that there is likely an excellent story between the connection between nudity and running (or athletics) out there waiting to be written... who knows, Summer Break will be here soon and maybe I can work it into my "topic queue!"

A second little tidbit of interest is that towards the end of the commercial, this year's third place finisher at the Boston Marathon, Karen Goucher (clothed), and her husband Adam (nekkid), appear at the end of the video.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

*Please check out Laura's very cool blog A Spring In My Step, where I first came across this video!

Winter Diversion 1: Teachin' & Learnin' with the 'Net

One of the winter diversion that has kept me occupied over the past few weeks is school or, more to the point, lesson planning for the two new courses/grade levels I have been teaching this year. After three years in my current district teaching middle school language arts, I made the change this fall to high school English.

While the transition has been relatively smooth, I find myself looking to challenge my students and find new ways to engage them to work in (and out of) class, so I have been devoting quite a bit of time reading a variety of potential anchor novels (books everyone in the class will read and around which a unit of instruction is built), as well as, exploring some internet based ways in which to both keep in touch with my students and to keep their families informed. These things take time...

The two chief ways I have attempted to use the 'net is by employing Goodreads, a social network for "readers," and through maintaining two eponymously titled blogs (Mr. Scott's Tenth Grade English Class and... (wait for it!) Mr. Scott's Eleventh Grade English Class, one for each of the grade levels I currently teach. The use of Goodreads has been a little more problematic as I struggle to find ways to make their engagement with it more meaningful beyond the desire to attain extra credit. (I have never been a fan of granting extra credit, but in the interest of coaxing "guinea pigs" to sign up have shifted my thinking for the short term.)

Blogging, on the other hand, while helpful for me and the three or four uber-interested students I teach, has not been as successful as I had hoped. When I worked in the middle school, my blogs were very popular among parents looking to follow-up on what their student's were doing in class and what assignments were due. I could (cynically) attribute this lack of caring on everyone's part to parents having written off their student and student's simply not caring, but either way, the number of visitor's to these blogs is very small.

Fortunately they are easy to maintain at work!

Embrassez votre été invincible!

Winter Diversions: The Shape of Posts to Come

You may have noticed that I have been posting considerably less of late due to the reality that I have not been running very much. I have, however, been active doing some other things not necessarily related to competitive training and running. In days (and weeks and months) like this, I always wonder whether or not I should shift focus "on-blog" from this particular "web journal's" original intent and continue commenting on things beyond "running-a-bout."

Truth is, like most people who maintain a regular blog, I enjoy blathering-on about things of personal interest so... what the heck, let's do it!

In this time between fully re-committing to my training (a day which is not that far off) I plan on posting periodically on some "Winter Diversion", or those things I am doing while not running.

Embrassez votre été invincible!

Music Monday: It's Christmas Time Again

Shopping, Santa, Frosty, Black Friday, Rudolph, Celebrity Covers...

While talking with my students last Friday about the upcoming holidays, I was (un)surprised to realize how little they actually knew about how recently many "traditional" Christmas songs and symbols have been generated and absorbed into the public consciousness.

Like many, I suspect, most teenagers (and adults?) are under the impression that Frosty the Snowman ("born" in 1950) and Santa Claus (the popular image in the United States of whom was popularized in the mid-to-late 19th century due to the significant influence of Coca-Cola) were at the manger where Rudolph the Red Nosed-Reindeer (1939) had taken the Virgin Mary on Christmas Eve.

That's not to be disparaging of our modern Christmas traditions, but, rather, an acknowledgment of our current national mindset and a suggestion that maybe we, as individuals and as a nation, could shift our perspective slightly.

The song above, "Do They Know It's Christmas Time at All?" was released in 1984 as part of an initiative spearheaded by (primarily) European pop stars to address starvation on the African continent. (This was, of course, followed by Michael Jackson's "We Are the World" project). As the need clearly still exists--on foreign soil and within our own borders (as seen in recent posts on Roxiticus DH, how great would it be if this idea of sharing the wealth of our insanely spend-thrift nation became as meaningful a part of our national "traditions" as the sound-activated dancing Santa?

As a child raised in the often contradictory and confusing world of Roman-Catholicism, it feels like it would be closer to the heart of my faith than purchasing another video game system (although in the short-term it may buy me goodwill at home). Surely there are other more meaningful ways to enhance our holiday season through sharing what we have with those less fortunate?

Music Monday: The Ghost of Tom Joad

"The highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light
Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad."~Bruce Springsteen

This past weekend, Roxiticus DH wrote a very timely post about how members of her on-line community are working together to stop the potential closure of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

It is not ironic that Bruce Springsteen is also involved in the campaign to save the FoodBank. Springsteen has always been a working class troubadour (in my eyes, anyway) despite his clear affluence, he has worked to turn this personal wealth into influence.

More ironically, back in 1995, Springsteen recorded The Ghost of Tom Joad, a song in which (I think) he raises John Steinbeck's literary "hero" of the Great Depression as a way of giving insight to some of the financial problems the working (as well as unemployed) men and women have always faced. Of course, as a quick look at the news will tell you, folks face these challenges now in greater numbers than (almost) ever before. (The link above is to a version recorded in 2008 with Tom Morello, formerly of Rage Against the Machine.)

Feel free to either follow the links through Roxie's to help out New Jersey, or if possible, lend a lend (or a buck or two) to the needy in your community...

Snafus, Flus and Better Things

A few days have once again passed since my most recent post and while I have been (I think) very prolific with this blog, some things have taken place which have (of late) altered my ability to write (and therefore, post) more frequently.

First, for some reason, my primary PC at home will no longer allow me to connect to Blogger, so I can no longer post from there. I have little time to do so from school, so it is only in the wee hours of the morning that I find time to update this blog. After throwing my arms up regarding any attempt to figure out why Blogger and our PC no longer "connect," my wife did some digging and as best she can figure (and she's pretty smart about these things); for some reason our (local) Internet provider is blocking Blogger (and some Google functions) because of "China-influenced" filters. Oy vey! It's enough to make me just set the whole deal aside and... oh, wait, that IS what I've (kind of) done!

I must confess though, not being capable of blogging has done wonders for freeing up my time to do other things, though I do miss the immediate release of writing and posting directly to my blog... hopefully at some point these things will iron themselves out, though holding my breathe is not necessarily something I'll do in the meantime.

Additionally, I have yet to begin training (running) following my recent bout with influenza. I am still coughing up ugly, grey clumps of "whatever", and my nose has yet to conclude running, so I'm envisioning maybe heading out on Saturday morning. This will mean I have had a nearly fourteen day lay-off... something which was likely overdue. I've not registered for any runs or races, but with snowshoeing possibilities on the horizon, I would certainly like to give it a go, but only if I can regain some fitness before competing.

That about covers things for now (though I have left out school events and coaching stuff), so until I find some time tomorrow morning before school...

Chicken Inn?

In an effort to both wile away a few minutes and distract myself briefly from the "business" of tomorrow's run, I began digging around on-line to see if there were any chicken coops which would be suitable for my small urban yard. My first thought was to convert our existing shed (we have no garage), but after a further consideration, that proved too challenging, especially for one who has in the past shown little prowess with building... moi.

Next, I went to one of the websites aI had mentioend previously as a resource, Backyard Chickens.com. There are a number of different sample coops submitted by other "farmers" ranging in size from tractor (very small and mobile) to large. One particularly desirable model was purchased from England via E-Bay (shock!), and had been dubbed by it proud American owner, Eggs in the City, pictured to the right). Always a sucker for a good pun, the model immediately became the front runner for my imaginary chicken-coop of the mind.

This coop will likely remain a retirement dream as, truth be told, we don't eat that many eggs (the seventeen mentioned by Kath of Blurb from the Burbs in a comment to the previous post would last about a month in our house)... though as I was typing this my wife said we could get some chickens if I would take care of them, then followed up with "what do you do with them during (the very cold and snowy) winters?"

"Bring them in the house?" I answered, clearly not prepared for the responsibility... yet!

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Happy Blog-iversary and A-w-a-y We GROW...

"When you are through changing, you are through."~Bruce Barton

Inspired by the blogs of others as I've been wandering the blogosphere lately (well, Roxiticus, anyway!) I guess I wanted to take a moment to 1) mention that this month is my third blog-iversary! and 2) give some thought where I and this blog go from here...

It's a weird (and oddly rewarding?) to see that I have been at this thing for three years.

This coming weekend, my wife and I will be traveling to Wyoming to visit with her brother. During this time we will have some limited access to a computer (and the 'net), and therefore I may be unable to write any posts. Last week our digital camera "died," thus "blinding" me and making posting new photos (as terrible a quality as some of them were, they were at least "fresh") of late a challenge. That being said, I am thankful for both the opportunity to get back to the basics... to journal and document training runs with pencil and paper, for capturing visuals in words rather than pixels, or maybe with a disposable camera... for what its worth I have not done either very well in a while and perhaps part of that is due to the tech which reduces the need for a personal ability to do so.

So, things are changing... and I want to thank the few of you who regularly stop by for regularly stopping by and occasionally commenting...

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Beware: Potentially Unintentional Self-Agrandizing Ahead

"I read somewhere of how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once..."~Alexander Supertramp

It's hard to talk, or blog, about the personal significance of completing a long journey--especially when the actual "doing of it"--remains without sounding like a self-promoter. But, I have worked hard to be at this point and am looking forward to embracing the beginnings and ending that will come with the attempt, if not with the completion. This silly run my be neither "great" or "Alaskan," but it is my adventure nonetheless...

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

I'm Coming Out!

But not quite in the way you might imagine. Since beginning this blog in its earliest incarnation almost three (!) years ago, I have been going by the nom de plume, Castaway. This screen name has generally been accompanied by one rugged picture or another of (usually) Tom Hanks in his role from the film of the same name, for example, the pic below to the rigth.

While I will continue to use my screen name on a number of message boards, in the meantime I will be using my formal surname on this blog. The reason? It's really a pretty silly one: I am starting a blog for my eighth grade Language Arts students and the person managing our team blog needed to link to my Blogger system of blogs so tat I could participate with my own page. I thought it would be easier to make the transition from Castaway to Mister Scott, than having what would be sure to be an awkward conversation with students and parents about the screen name.

So, I'm coming out of the electronic super closet by disclosing (just a little) more about my "real world" with my on-line running friends. I just thought the three of you who read this would want to know why the changes...

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

The "Award-Winning" Run-a-bout!?!

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."~William Wordsworth

Thanks to Cyberpenguin at See Corey Run, for bestowing the award to the right upon this humble blog (along with a few other worthy winners).

I must confess that I've been blogging about mostly boring stuff of interest only to me for over two(!) years and having built up a (very) small group of regular visitors is a pretty nice feeling. I'm sure in the big picture this blog is just a speck of pixel dust, but it is so neat to follow the adventures and plans of others who like some of the same "boring" stuff and who are all the way over... wherever!

Thanks again, Cyberpenguin!

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Looking for a "Trigger Effect"

The past two days I have be working with a few yoga tapes from my collection and recalled (I had never really forgotten) a comment left following this post in which it was suggested (by the mysterious "Patrick") that I take a look at a book entitled The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies.

Sitting at home this morning, reflecting on how pleasant an experience it was to really look at my toes and feel my legs today during the brief yoga series... I began to think... the book is subtitled "Your Self-Treatment Guide to Pain Relief," so I thought again about the book recommended in the comment, and how the sense of connection between person and body I was feeling could be focused in a meaningfu direction.

I called the local Barnes & Noble and had them hold a copy for me, which I picked up later in the day... I'll let you know how my journey with this title goes...

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

My Green Toe: Planting Prep Flashback

"Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest."~Douglas William Jerrold, about Australia, A Land of Plenty

As I was preparing to water our vegetable "crops" this morning, it occurred to me that I had never posted the pictures I had taken on May 17 to better illustrate Anne's and my preparation of our urban vegetable garden beds. This work was done just in advance of our placing of the plantings, purchased in part at the local farmer's market, into the garden. After seeing The Pink Shoe's share the step-by-step images of her preparation of blueberry jam on her blog, I was inspired to go slightly backwards to better catch up to the current status of the gardens.

This first image is of the garden bed as it appeared just before our initial attempts to turn over of the soil. The day before I had removed a small wooden fence which had separated the area from our lawn in the interest of creating more space for the plants. As you can see, Gracie (our dog) was also helping out, too:


This "story" actually begins last year. It was in Spring 2006 that my sons and I constructed our composting pit, the contents of which we had hoped to use in our own gardens. This past Spring saw the fruition of that goal. This year, filled with a years worth kitchen waste (and jack-o-lanterns, as in the first image) and grass clippings, we had plenty to work with:




After tilling the soil in an effort to better turn it over, and removing and weeds, Anne and I willy-nilly dropped a good amount of compost into the dirt. Some of it was rather smelly, which I guess was to be expected:


We then spread it out evenly over the entire area, working it into the soil:


Wallah! It took Anne and I about two days to fully prepare everything for greeting the plantings... this was of course back in May and things have really exploded since then.

Next: "My How Our Garden Has Grown!"

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Run: 8.2 miles in 1:00:20 min. @ 6:40 a.m.

Weather Report: Mostly Cloudy, 57°F, 91% Humidity, Winds: From SW @ 5 mph; feels like 55°F.

Pace: 7:21 min./per mile avg.

A wonderfully (and surprisingly) cool July morning for a run! After running only a quick two miles last evening, it is easier for me to pretend that my knees and ankles don't hurt, especially as I get caught up in the sunshine, breeze and pace.

It was very exciting to come home and track my course on Yahoo! Maps. (Thanks again go out to "patrick" who recently properly introduced to this function for the site via a comment he posted earlier this week.) This is the first time I have gone out for a long run with the thought in my mind that I would be going home and using the online program to gauge the length of the run.

As I was running I could not help but visualize (kind of like the pic centered above)myself as the long purple line crawling across the map, charting the distance of each step (or point) on the map. Careful not to run down any "One Way" streets, as it seems to throw off the course, due, I think, to the software's default adherence to rules of the road, I attempted to mentally remain a few blocks ahead of myself in an effort to "controllable vary" the course, adding familiar streets to common roads in my mind as I move...

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Change IS Good!

When I started blogging it was Earth House Hold which shifted to being (primarily) a training blog called My Runner's Feet. For a short time I tweaked that title to better fit where I "was," calling it OUR Runner's Feet.

Now the time has come to make a larger change for a few different reasons, not the least of which is the desire to maintain a degree of anonymity... As well as changing the name and address, I'm modifying the overall appearance, just slightly.

At this point, I think I will begin to stick to posting just the facts, ma'am...

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!