Any day is a good day for random happy news, right? I therefore declare today to be:
“Random Happy News Day”
Happy News: I’m signed up for a free online course through Stanford University: EDUC115N ~ How to Learn Math. Others in my department are taking it, too, so we will have a lot of opportunities for collaboration and discussions about the topics we’re covering. The course creator, Jo Boaler, describes it this way:
In July 2013 a new course will be available on Stanford’s free on-line platform. The course is a short intervention designed to change students’ relationships with math. I have taught this intervention successfully in the past (in classrooms); it caused students to re-engage successfully with math, taking a new approach to the subject and their learning…. (source)
Happy News: When we move I will no longer have to deal with this traffic on a daily basis (sometimes multiple times a day). This is the traffic I hit taking Gabe home from school. There is a similar traffic experience taking Gabe to school (or to soccer, or Andrew to play rehearsals)…
That’s happy news I can’t follow with anything else. That, my friends, is something that makes me so happy I could sing. We will turn, therefore, to running business…
Running News
I am turning into an every-other-day runner who runs 3 – 5 miles at whatever pace suits me that day. To be fair… this is probably a good thing for my body. I have asked more of my body in the last year and 3 months than I have asked of it for decades. To be honest, however, I want “more” and I’m the type of person who needs structure, goals, and plans to make “more” happen. There are three things I feel like I’m leaning toward as running goals:
- Running higher mileage most of the time injury-free. (A)
- Run faster (overall… not all the time). (B)
- Becoming stronger and more “fit” in more diverse ways. (C)
(A) I miss running for a long time and for long distances. I enjoy my 3 – 5 mile runs, but I truly miss what running 6 – 8 miles on short days feels like. I miss back-to-back weeks where I run 30+ miles. It is terribly frustrating (for whatever reason ~ who am I?) for me to know I’m not in Half-Marathon shape. Is this an unreasonable goal? I don’t know. What I do know, is that if I reach this goal… it won’t be overnight!
(B) If I can run the speed I’m running now, I can run faster. This is true, I know, because when I started I was slower than I am now. This is true, I know, because an 81 year old runner ran a marathon in 3:30. This marathon story is not brought up so I can try to compare myself to him, but to ask the question, “What makes Stephanie the best runner she can be?” Being faster can. be. done. I just need to do it. If it matters to me, then I should do it!
(C) In April when I was doing the 30-day challenge and Jillian workouts I felt very powerful and strong. During the winter soccer practices when I could fit in a yoga class 2 – 3 times a week I felt powerful and strong. My basketball background has weightlifting and cross-training as part of it’s training base. I would love to figure out a way to fit things like this in regularly ~ not just as a monthly challenge.
Whew! Thanks for listening to my running-rant!
Do you have any happy news to share?
Do you have any suggestions for me regarding my goals?
How do you become fit in diverse ways?



















