Remembering Father Ted

February 27, 2015

Today, while the internet debates whether the dress is blue and black or white and gold and discusses llama drama (this post is going to make no sense in a year), the Notre Dame family is remembering an amazing man.

You can read all about Father Ted and the amazing work he did on the university’s website dedicated to him. He will be forever known as a champion for human rights and for the poor, but also as a very down to earth man who very much wanted to meet and talk with the students he came across every day.

While I was a student at Notre Dame, Father Ted would travel to the various dorms to say Sunday evening mass. It was always special when he came to Badin Hall, my home, since he had lived there and served as chaplain in the 1940’s, following World War II. Badin was where the unmarried veterans lived, and he always told the story about how dedicated these young men were to their education. The students had an official “lights out” time, where all the lights were shut off, but Father Ted’s rooms were not subject to these rules. So after lights out, a large group of men would show up at Father Ted’s door, eager for some additional study time.

To quote from a biographical essay:

Father Hesburgh’s public service was extraordinary. It included 16 presidential appointments over the years and was recognized by both the Medal of Freedom, presented by President Johnson in 1964, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2000. These presidential assignments involved him in the nation’s major problems, from civil rights to immigration reform, from amnesty for Vietnam War offenders to global conflict resolution. President Eisenhower appointed him as a charter member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1957, and President Nixon fired him as its chairman in 1972 after the commission’s “report card” on civil rights flunked his administration. In between these dates came the historic 1960s federal legislation on housing, jobs and voting that broke the back of de facto apartheid in the country. As recently as 1998, Father Hesburgh, in his 80s, could be found inspecting refugee camps in Kosovo for the U.N., and he was a member of the Anti-Incitement Committee set up by the Wye Plantation Treaty to mute Israeli-Palestinian tension.

He was an amazing man, and yet he never wanted to talk about himself and the work that he had done. He just wanted to chat with the students and learn about them and maybe help them along the way.

You will be missed, Father Ted.

On the Mend

February 26, 2015

stevepb / Pixabay

Well, after a day and a half of planting my butt on the couch, I’m on the mend from this cold. I still blame my brother, and I told him I’m writing him out of the will. (Little does he know that all of my money has gone to triathlon gear anyway.)

But this means that my training schedule took a pretty big hit. I didn’t do a ton last week while on the cruise, and while I got in a 6 mile run over the weekend, I haven’t done anything since. Clearly, getting healthy is priority number one, and attempting to do a hard workout isn’t going to get me anywhere.

So I’m reworking my plan. I have a couple of options. I could just pick up the plan on whatever day I’m on when I feel better. I’m thinking I should take at least one more day of rest tonight and then think about working out tomorrow. I could just pick up the plan on Friday.

Personally, I prefer to look at the missed workouts, figure out which one was the most important, and hit that one. This week, I missed a bike speed workout and a run speed workout. Both are pretty important. Right now, the plan is that if I’m feeling awesome tomorrow, I will do the run speed workout. If I’m still coughing but feel relatively okay, I’m going to do the bike speed workout (I cough less on the bike).

Depending on how I feel tonight, I might even hop on the bike when I get home. But I’m not going to do a real workout. Just some very easy spinning to keep things loose. I get antsy after spending too much time laying around. But I don’t want to risk keeping this cold around longer than I have to.

And now, off to buy stock in cough drops.

Stupid germs

February 25, 2015

Hans / Pixabay

Thanks to my darling brother and his stupid germs, I’m down with a cold. It’s all his fault and he claims it’s the first step in his evil plan. So I’m writing him out of the will. Just in case.

So my glorious return to training is now much less glorious. The last thing I wanted to do last night was run 7 miles of speedwork. So instead I sat on the couch. I feel like this was the smart decision.

As I said on Twitter yesterday, this is when you know you’re a runner (or a triathlete or whatever): when you’re clearly sick and need rest but also really want to get in that workout. I know that I’ll get better much faster if I just rest up and make sure I get plenty of fluids.

Speedwork, I’m coming for you tonight. I hope.

Race Report – Castaway Cay 5K

February 24, 2015

Last week, I also ran the Castaway Cay 5K. This was my second running of this “race,” and I will admit, the only reason I was so gung-ho to run it was because of the rumor that all racers would receive the new medal. (Rumor confirmed.)

We didn’t have the world’s best weather for our cruise last week. We cruised on the Disney Dream from Monday til Friday. Monday and Tuesday were nice, and I spent some time in the sun those days. Wednesday, we arrived at Castaway Cay and the weather was ominous. Lots of clouds, lots of wind. We were convinced it was going to rain. So convinced, in fact, that rather than bringing all of our beach gear with us, we planned to head back to the ship after the race to change. We were afraid that we would end up drenched.

Who is this we I speak of? Well, I convinced my dad to run with me since he’s training for Goofy, and my sister and mom joined in as well. My brother and SIL opted to sleep in. Lazy bums.

I planned to go out and run my 1:1 run/walk pattern. I was finally no longer sore from the weekend’s half, so I figured I could push. Thankfully, it was much cooler than it was when I ran this in 2013. One benefit to the gloomy weather. Dad decided to try to run with me. He’s not a big runner, having mainly walked half marathons, but he does spend a bunch of time on his rowing machine, so he’s in good shape.

Poor guy didn’t know what he was in for.

We completed the first mile in about 12 minutes. This was perhaps a bit too fast for Dad, as I was jabbering away and he was focusing on breathing. This is why you train, friends. You CAN race without training, but you won’t like it. So we slowed down a bit and Dad stopped swearing every time my watch beeped for the end of a walk break. Caitlin was not too far behind us and Mom walked the race with a friend she made on the course. She even had her umbrella with her, just in case.

Thankfully, the rain held off and we all got our fancy drinks and fancy medals. Dad and I finished in about 39:30, which is fabulous for a 5K, and awesome for a fun run.

So it remains true – I can’t go on vacation without a race. But this one was a lot of fun and we got it in before the rain started. Not the ideal beach weather, but a pretty fun day nonetheless.

Race Report: Donna 5K and Half

February 23, 2015

Months and months ago, I was talked into registering for the 26.2 with Donna 5K and Half Marathon. I had been hearing such amazing things about this race, from the course to the people to the weather, so I knew that I needed to show up and run. One thing I like about this race is that it supports Breast Cancer Research, but it’s not another Komen fund thing – there is discussion of metastatic breast cancer. Sure, the survivors are applauded and honored, and they should be. But it isn’t ignored that breast cancer is more than just a pink ribbon.

For the 5K, it was cold. VERY cold. With a half the next day, we all wanted to save our legs, so we walked in a large pack of people and had a blast. It was great to be reunited with my running buddies.

For the Donna half , I wanted to get out and run. I was trained. I had been working my butt off training, in fact. I knew that a PR was pretty much out of reach, but I wanted to run faster and stronger than I had at Space Coast last Thanksgiving. I ran that in 2:56ish, so I wanted to be faster. My PR is a 2:48:33. My real goal was to just stay under 3 hours. I’ve gotten a bit complacent with my training, since I know I can finish a half with little training. I need to stop that and start pushing. I need to make my racing more about quality instead of quantity. So my goal is to keep all of my halfs under 3 hours (unless something happens during the race, of course). Not that there’s anything wrong with a half that takes over 3 hours, but for me, I know I can do better than that.

I opted to not plan to run with anyone, simply because I wanted to push. I didn’t want anyone pushing me, however, though I had some lovely offers. I wanted to just run my race and see what happened.

My first mile was fast. Sub-13. Not bad, but I didn’t think I could stick it out the entire time. Somewhere between 2 and 3, I picked up Julie and Mark, which was awesome. It was nice to have company, but when they stopped for a bathroom break, I kept running. It was okay to be on my own, and I was feeling pretty good.

People aren’t wrong when they say this race is awesome. The spectators were amazing. The other runners were amazing. I think this race is what the runDisney Princess race is meant to be – just a generally positive place to be. But co-ed, of course. Some of the people living on the course had set up giant bubble machines. Try running through those without a huge grin on your face!

There were also guys who set up “Free mammogram” signs. Crude? Perhaps, but I thought it was hilarious.

There were plenty of people out offering support to the runners in the form of snacks, drinks, and alcohol. Some of my friends even hit up a bar while running and had shots before continuing on. Had I not been pushing, I might have been tempted.

The race course goes out onto the beach, and it wasn’t too difficult to run on the sand, as it was well packed. It was hard to get onto the beach, but once I got down near the water, I had no issues. Getting back off the beach was also a challenge.

In my brain, I kept thinking that I might have a PR in me, but I couldn’t figure out the math, so I just decided to keep running fast. Unfortunately, I was limited by my heart rate. I work to keep it under 185 when I run, and my watch kept alerting me that I was over. For me, I know that this will only mean I will feel awful later in the day and possibly the next day, so it’s not worth it to push. It’s my heart, after all.

But I still wanted to run fast. By the last mile, I knew how close I was, but I also knew that I didn’t have that PR in me. I couldn’t push fast enough. And that was okay. I had beat my goal and well surpassed my hopes. When Coach asked me the week before if I thought I would PR, I laughed out loud. There was no way I was shaving off that much time from Space Coast. Well, I was right, but I was still way faster than I thought.

2:49:55

That is my third fastest half. I set my PR back in early 2012, so nearly 3 years later, it feels awesome to be back! I have put on some weight since then, so this is incentive to get the pounds off.

Also, my three fastest halfs? I see a trend in the locations.