C25k

I graduated the program two weeks ago, after 9 weeks of training. I cannot believe how well this program works. The secret, I think, is in the way each runner pushes him/herself a little bit each week. I went from running just 60 seconds at a time in February to running 3.3 miles in April. Well, okay, that was a stretch, but I did it. To train, I am running about 3.1 miles each day, four or five times per week. On weekends, I stretch that run to 3.3 miles or more and include hills. I am training for my first 5K May 1st. This Saturday, one week before the race, I plan to walk to the starting point and then run the course and hope to finish in less than 36.4 minutes. But, what ever happens, I'll be happy. This is such a huge change for me. I can't believe I can run for more than a few minutes. I can believe I can run any distance in miles. I can't believe I'm trying to improve my time. Is this ME? And here is the rest of it.

Couch To 5K: Week 5

Running update: I am in week 5. On Monday, I ran three five minute runs, walking in between for three minutes or so. Actually, during one walking period, it was dark and a van drove up beside me on a deserted street and a creepy man got out so I just started sprinting up the block and cut my walk short.

The clocks changing has changed my experience slightly this week. Regardless, the program works really well.

I have become a runner. I love it. I look forward to it. I feel good while I'm doing it and I feel great afterwards! I love the way I feel in control of my body and of my time. I love the fact that I feel powerful and fit. I love the fact that I have overcome obstacles and reationalizations and have found a way to make this happen. It's so not me. I feel as though I have been reborn. I realize that this sound ridiculous, but it's true. Really!

The Couch to 5K program works very well. If you would like to become a runner, try it!

Couch To 5K

Have you ever experienced "runner's envy?" It's when you are walking, or worse, driving, and you notice people running, some easily and smiling, others panting and spitting, but all wearing nifty running gear while doing healthy exercise that is helping their bodies while you are noticing them and not doing anything to help your body. When this happens to me, I usually begin a series of rationalizations in my head about how and why runners are able to run: they are most likely freelance workers who can make their own schedules, their houses are messy, they can afford a good nanny, etc, and why I cannot run: it hurts my shins, I have a demanding job, I don't have the nifty sweat-free outifits, etc.

But, secretly, I wish I were a runner, developing my lung capactiy, becoming trimmer and fitter and healthier. I have even tried it on occasion, but with little success. I does hurt my shins and I don't have nifty running gear. But most of all, I get tired after about one block. I'm winded, huffing and puffing and afraid I'll collapse. I have never understood how people can sustain running for long periods of time, like a mile-let alone 26 miles! So, I've tried to pride myself by walking around the loop in Prospect Park, about 3 1/3 miles around. It's exercise, it doesn't hurt my shins, and it doesn't require special clothing. But, it also takes a very long time, (two hours!) it's boring if you do it alone, and it doesn't make me feel as though I've accomplished anything, especially with so many pesky and proud runners whizzing past me.

Recently two friends, Vicki and Heather, have introduced me to a new idea which I believe will enable me to make my dreams of becomming a runner actually come true. Vicki has transformed herself from a Breast Cancer walker to a Breast Cancer runner, seemingly over night. Actually, she worked on it all last spring and summer. She told me that she built herself up to running slowly by combining walking and running together. Brilliant! Why hadn't I thought of this? Vicki measures her running/walking ratios not so much in terms of distance, but time. When we last spoke, Vicki said, "I'm running 80%," meaning that she runs 8 minutes and walks 2 minutes while covering a distance of 6 or 8 or 10 miles. When I relayed this information to Heather, also a distance and marathon runner, she said, "Oh, yes. That sounds like Couch to 5K. Look it up online." So I did.




Right there, on the front page, is a suggested program of how to get started. The program recommends beginning with three 20 minute periods a week. Even for me, the procrastinator, 20 minutes seems doable. You begin with a brisk 5 minute walk and then alternate running and walking for 60 second and 90 second intervals. Heather's tip, if you get tired, it means you are running too fast. Just slow down. I carry a watch with a visible second hand and I've taken to counting every fourth step as a jog to pace myself. I count about 42-44 (x4) steps per minute. If I count more, I'm running faster. I also watch my breathing and try to breathe at the same pace as I'm counting. During the walking periods, I notice how long it takes me to recover (yes, I am tired after running 60 seconds!)

I have been on vacation from school this week, so I began my program on Monday. One thing I never understood is how runners stay warm on their walks to the park. I kept thinking that I had to do this running thing in the park. However, this week I ran/walked at my father in law's house, and there is no park. I just walked out the front door and started. Aha! I can get warmed up right away if I start right outside, rather than worrying about how to get to the park. If I get cold, I just start the jogging part sooner, like after 60 seconds, rather than after 5 minutes.

I have been doing the program for the last 6 days now. I play around with the length of time I run. My first run is usually 60 seconds, and it's the hardest every time. Then I usually do three 90 seconds runs, with 60 seconds of walking in between. For my 5th run, I try to stretch myself to 2 or 2 1/2 minutes. Today I ended with a 3 minute run. But, the program has you build your time gradually each week. The test for me will be to see if I can wake up early enough to run before school on work days. Vicki does. She even gets in 6 miles or so. For me, it will be a huge change to wake up one hour earlier, but I am really motivated to do this.

And, about the clothes: it's still a problem. I did splurge on some thick running leggings like the chic runners in the park wear. I'm embarrassed to have the back of me seen in public, so I wear a super long tee shirt over the leggings. I wear a jog bra (which makes me feel athletic,) and a tank top underneath the tee-shirt. (Heather says you mustn't wear cotton, but I hate everything else!) I have a fleece pullover that I wear (although the wind blows right through it,) a fleece head band, good running sneakers but bad gloves. My hands are often cold. I treated myself to a windbreaker which is coming in the mail soon. I hope this is an improvement over the fleece. I keep all of my special attire in a pile so that I can easily find everything and dress quickly. I have coffee before I go, but nothing else. I look forward to breakfast afterwards. The most important item is chapstick-it's the difference for me between comfort and discomfort.

So, if you have ever experienced runners envy and would secretly like to become one, do it. If I can, anyone can.

Beech Hill Pond House

We have a small lakeside cottage on Beech Hill Pond, in Otis Maine. Otis is about 30 minute north west of Ellsworth, not far from the famous Maine coast.

The house was built in 1990 by Jonathan's father, Malcolm Hardy when he was 70 years old. He had a little help from our 90 year old neighbor, Rufus Merrill.






 The house is small, but clean, cozy and comfortable.

                                                                                        

                                

                          

 This is the living room.

This is the dining room/kitchen.

Jonathan built this float, and our dock.

              

The lake is spring-fed, about one mile by four miles long.

We have kayaks and a canoe, swings, a horse shoe pit, a float, a small dock and chairs for evening lake viewing.



For more information, visit vrbo dot com, property # 100337 or, click the "related article" link below.

The kayaks.

Kids on the lake at sunset.

Five visiting loons.

                                                          

                                                                                      

  

                           The master bedroom.

                                                                          Kid's room.

                                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                     The bathroom, 3/4, no tub.                        

                                   The view from the road, prior to the the most recent paint job.

Blue house, after the paint job.

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NY Times Obituary for Matt Turney

Matt Turney was my mother's best friend in life. My mother notified dance critic Jennifer Dunning of Matt's death and assisted her in piecing together this lovely obituary:

Elsa is accepted at Wesleyan!

On December 11 at 3pm, Wesleyan posted admission results for ED1 applicants for the class of 2014. Of course, the email that provided us with that information ended up in Elsa's spam. How I learned this is another story.

For our family, learning Elsa's results was going to be tricky. I work at school, planning out and typing up our weekly homework sheet on Fridays with my colleagues until 6pm or so. Elsa is dismissed from school at 1:30, but often stays after school on Fridays for her Irish History class which she is taking in preparation for her trip to Ireland in March. I really wanted to be with her when she learned her admission results, but I didn't know how this could be possible. I was very worried about her disappointment, rejection and feeling awful if the news was bad or very bad. But I also wanted to share the joy with her if the news was good-after all, the college application process took over a year of hard work, worry and stress for both of us. I was worried, too, about the champagne factor: to buy or not to buy? If we bought some prior to learning Elsa's results, might the champagne have been a jinx if the results were bad or very bad? On the other hand, if we held off and the news was good, would we want to schlep out to cold, depressing, Cortelyou Road to get some at a happy moment? Neither option seemed right. Clearly this was going to take some planning.

Elsa was clear: she didn't want to get her results at school. She needed the privacy of her own home. She decided, bravely, to essentially wait, to stay after school for her Ireland class and then rush home to log on to the Wesleyan web site by 4 pm instead of 3. How mature! On Thursday, the day before, I snuck a cold bottle of champagne into the back of the fridge. I figured it this way: if Elsa didn't know it was there, it wouldn't jinx her result, but would be there, chilled, if we needed it on Friday. About work, I explained my situation to my colleagues and we wrote our homework sheet on Thursday. Doing so helped keep me busy rather than calculating the hours until the results were posted. I was able to leave school Friday at 3:30 precisely. Jonathan held me up a bit and caused me some serious stress, but that's another story as well.

All day Friday, I watched the clock. I tried to keep myself busy and refused to think about 3pm. I have no idea how Elsa got through the day. I'll have to ask her. Around 3:05 I began to feel nauseous and wondered how on earth I would comfort my baby girl if she were rejected from her dream school. As we approached our house in the car, we saw Elsa and her friend Julia running down the street behind our house. We pulled over and Elsa and Julia hopped in the car. "Hurry up!" Elsa squealed.

When we pulled into the driveway, Elsa flew out of the car and into the house. Julia followed. Elsa left the front door standing open and dropped her coat and bag in the entryway. She scrambled to her computer in the dining room and opened it. I had read the advice of other parents purposely keeping their distances and giving their children space while they logged on. So, I stood in the next room, the living room where I could clearly see Elsa, but was not standing over her. I waited as she typed. It was taking a while. She was studying the screen. I decided to hang up my coat and then return to my spot. She typed some more. I waited nervously. I decided to hang up my purse. "What's my Wes ID?" she hollered. I had no idea, even though I had memorized it. It's six digits and has an 8 in it. I rattled off something. It was wrong. Elsa typed in more numbers.

Elsa studied the screen. She read silently. She said nothing. This was torture. I decided that I would definitely vomit. I gave up waiting and went to hang up her coat when she screamed, "I got in!" Then we all screamed. Elsa leaped towards me. Julia, Elsa and I grabbed each other and just bellowed. The cats ran off. The dog barked. Elsa burst into tears. Then she began to run through the house screaming, "I can't believe it-I got in!"

Jonathan sat down at the computer to read aloud the actual acceptance letter, but no one was listening. We were screaming and Elsa was crying and hugging Julia. I went into the kitchen and dug out the chilled champagne. I opened it and struggled to find four glasses. Elsa was texting by this time, carefully telling her news and asking about others' results.

We made a toast. We printed the letter. I read it four or five times more, folded it, and put it in my pocket. Several times that evening and the next day, I read the letter over again.

Elsa had made the right decision about Wesleyan ED1 and Middlebury Posse. She followed her gut and called it right.

Thank you Wesleyan!
Good work, Elsa!

Middlebury

Elsa and I made one very last visit to one more school.

We had to see Middlebury after Elsa received notice that she was invited to be a Posse finalist. This was something that we had not expected, and when we had to guess about the odds of this happening for her, we guessed that she had better odds at being accepted to her top choice school ED1 than she had of becoming a Posse finalist. So we applied to her top choice school ED1.

Of course, we guessed wrong. She was selected as a Posse finalist on a Monday and the decision to Posse had to be in by Friday, 5 pm. Talk about stress!



Legally, we could not accept the Posse offer because in doing so, one is applying ED and we had already done that. Why? We did it because we believed it was Elsa's best chance of acceptance to a school that she loves along with a place on the soccer team.

But, because the Posse is such a generous scholarship and could have really helped our family, I insisted that we go to Middlebury for a visit. First, I called the Posse Foundation and explained our situation to them. They were very receptive and honest. We were told that we had to make the choice by Friday. The catch is that if Elsa accepted the offer, she would be competing with 21 other students for 10 or 11 spots at Middlebury. It wasn't a sure bet at all. But, had we known of the timeline of deadlines in advance, we could have applied to her dream school EDII and accepted the Posse in the interim. If we accepted Posse and she got it, and she was selected by Middlebury from the 21 applicants, we would have had to send her. We would have been committed. So, we needed to see the school first.



Middlebury is magnificent. The only drawback is the location-far from NYC. Otherwise everything was PERFECT. I loved it. I instantly worshipped the school. I wanted Elsa to accept very badly. Everything was going well, except for our meeting with the soccer coach. We dropped in on him unexpectedly, with no appointment. He was amazingly gracious. He's a lovely man and most likely a very good coach, but he was clearly not interested in Elsa as a potential player at all. He knew nothing about her! Accepting the Posse would have meant Elsa giving up soccer, or playing JV. After so many years of training and preparing, this news was a huge and insulting disappointment and one that Elsa chose not to accept. So that was it.



We passed on the Posse.

It is unbelievable to me as it could have meant four years of tuition paid at a terrific college that specializes in languages and foreign study. Posse even helps with graduate school scholarships!

I loved that campus, the best of all that we have seen.

I called Posse before we left Vermont, to tell then our decision, but the woman I needed to speak to was busy. I decided not to call back because I didn't know how to explain our decision at all. On our way back to NYC, Posse called Elsa to find out her status. Very sweet. She thanked them kindly and declined.

There were mountains surrounding us the entire time we were there.




I cried all weekend.

I love the dream school, but I loved this school more. But, Elsa didn't and that's what counts.

PSAL Girls Soccer Final

Beacon lost. The score was 0-0 through the regulation play and two sudden death overtimes. The games went to PK's and Beacon scored 4, Bronx Science 5. It was heartbreaking. But soccer is sometimes.



Congratulations to the Girl's Soccer Team. The girls lost yesterday's championship game in penalty kicks to Bronx Science, but dominated play through 100 minutes of beautiful soccer. This was Beacon's 3rd straight year in the championship game and it was the leadership of Elsa Hardy and Hannah Collyns-and the other seniors-Caroline Quigley, Dalia Sharps, Isabel Weiner, and Christina Angione that carried the team through another undefeated season to get to the championship. Thank you to all of the team for another exciting season and for representing Beacon so well.

Thanks also to the hundred plus students teachers and parents who came to Randall's Island yesterday to watch and cheer. Your energy and enthusiasm for the game helped push the team right up to the very end.

Next year-back to the finals!

Kevin Jacobs
Coach
.

Beacon Girls Advance to Finals Against Bronx Science

Okay, so I broke my promise not to write about soccer. But today was so exciting for us, I just had to post. Elsa's high school team is 15-0 this season. And in the post season, they have won every game decisively. Today they beat last year's PSAL champions, MSIT 2-1. The winning goal was scored by freshman Tyler Sloan off of an assist delivered by Jenny Angione. MSIT beat Beacon last season in PK's-it was a heartbreaking loss. As a senior, this win has major significance for Elsa. Beacon will play Bronx Science, an old rival (who beat Beacon earlier this year in a non-league game resulting in Beacon's placement as the number two seed in the post season,) for the PSAL NYC Championship. The game is this Sunday at Randall's.

Check out the video of the winning goal:

Pushing the SUBMIT Button!

Most college applicants apply RD (regular decision) and their applications are due January 1st, January 15th, February 1st or later. Some schools accept applications until March or even April 1st. Students applying Early Decision, ED, submit applications as of November 1st or 15th. These students will be notified of their acceptances by December 15th or so. Many schools have something wonderful called 'Early Action" which allows students to apply early, to be notified early, but to not have to commit to just one school early.

Today, Elsa completed her on line applications and pressed the submit button to apply to three schools: two early action and one early decision. If she is accepted to her early decision school, she must withdraw her early action applications. In that case, she will be done and will not need to submit any further applications to any colleges. If she is deferred or rejected to her ED school, she will apply to four or five additional schools. We will hope for acceptances to her EA schools in the interim. My friend Heather's daughter already has one acceptance under her belt. It was from a school with rolling admissions. These schools accept or reject students as the applications roll in. When they have enough acceptances, they simply close their registration for the semester.

We are nervous, excited and a bit in disbelief that the official process has begun!

For more information on rolling, early action, early decision and regular admissions, check out collegeconfidential.com, discussion, parents. This website has been of enormous help to me!

Good luck to all applicants!