What If?

"Promise to yourself to live your life as a revolution and not just a process of evolution."

Anthony J. D'Angelo

There is always a great deal of debate around educational reform issues. The rationale behind a lot of what we do in education is decades and even centuries old. We continue to settle for evolving when much of what we do goes against what we believe.

For example:

• We believe learning can occur anytime/anywhere yet we have bells that tell us when the learning starts/stops.
• We know that students develop at different rates yet we put all students on a 13 year track (K-12).
• We judge student/teacher/principal/school success on the ability to answer multiple choice questions yet we know it does not tell the whole story.
• We force unsuccessful students to repeat the same grade/course in largely the same way and expect different results.

We know that many of our students are entering the workforce without the requisite skills yet we still teach in many places to a standardized test. In "Stop Stealing Dreams" Seth Godin writes that there are only two tools available to the educator. The easy one is fear. Fear is easy to awake, easy to maintain, but ultimately toxic. The other tool is passion.  This blog and this entire adventure is passion driven.  I'm not sure how electroshocks fit into this passion but the journey is about fitness, fun, and moving into uncharted territory. 

School should operate in much the same way (without the shocks of course).  Unfortunately, the standardized test movement has thrown the system into the opposite direction. 
 
I have said before that "Nobody is Passionate about Bubbling in Answer Sheets". What would happen if we began to operate from a place of passion instead of fear? Imagine what school and ultimately the world could look like then.  Everyone has their passion but it is typically hidden by fear.  Fortunately, for DC, Patrick and I ours is covered in MUD.

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Synchronized

The definition of synchronize is to occur at the same time or be simultaneous.  The following cannonball sequence does not quite meet the definition and will certainly not get us invited to an Olympic diving competition.  These pictures which I recently remind me of one of the many reasons that I started this journey in the first place.  Where else do you get to turn a fire obstacle into a cannonball contest with two awesome guys?  I look forward to the three of us taking our cannonball talents to many more destinations in the future.

DC wins the award for height.  Patrick wins the award for best cannonball face!  I should receive the award for tightest cannonball.  That is a thing of beauty!!!  

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No Offseason

This is undoubtedly the longest stretch of time that we will not be running in a mudder.  This is made worse by The Mudder Who Never Was which DC already documented.  There are currently 82 days and counting until our next Tough Mudder event which will lead to this stretch being our offseason.  Since our goal is to run in the "World's Toughest Mudder" our offseason will look quite different.  DC and I have started working with a crossfit coach twice a week which typically leaves me looking a lot like this...

I've also signed up for two triathlons.  The first of which I completed yesterday.  I am not fond of swimming, biking, or running but the combination of the three works for me.  My time was so awful that I wouldn't have even placed in the 60-65 year old category.  The entire race consisted of the phrase "On Your Left" which is the universal saying for "I'm about to pass your slow ass".  Unfortunately, I only muttered the phrase a couple of times, one of which was on my way to the snack table post-race.  These people are in tremendous shape but I wondered (sometimes aloud) during the race whether they would willing run through live wires, jump in ice filled dumpsters, or scale everest all while running 10-12 miles.  My next triathlon is in September so I will be incorporating more swimming and biking into my training.  The running has been a bit off track and that doesn't mean that I've been hitting the trails.  It really means that there has been a lack of focused running on my part.  I know DC is going to help me get that one back on track, on trail, and on target.

Another interesting part of the offseason is an opportunity to return to where this whole adventure started.  We began this journey at Wintergreen in our first ever Tough Mudder.  This time I am crossing over to the Spartan series which will be another first. The Spartan Race is coming to Wintergreen in August and I am showing up.  This time I will be 40 pounds lighter than the first attempt and ready to take on the mountains.  The first race had me convincing myself to move 10 steps at a time.  I would literally count ten steps and take a break.  I'm not sure what the Spartan Race holds or how I will fare.  I know I can at least get up to 20 steps at a time.  It is just another test on this very muddy road that the three of us are on.

That's a quick glimpse into my offseason or lack of an offseason.  Crossfit, two triathlons, and a Spartan Super Race are in my path before we hit the Tri-State Mudder.  The plan for Tri-State is two laps on Saturday followed by one on Sunday.  This was the initial plan for the No Mudder in Va Beach.  The difference with Tri-State is that it will be followed the following weekend with a return to the Mid-Atlantic Mudder.  I'm looking forward to the fine Winchester Italian food, Natural Ice Draft, and maybe even a cameo from Sandy at a laundromat. 

No time to rest and certainly no time for an offseason!  Honestly, we wouldn't have it any other way.

 

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The Mudder Who Never Was

Yes it’s been awhile now since our last event was cancelled. But it’s taken me a bit of time to climb out of the well of feeling sorry that I didn’t get to run in the Richmond Tough Mudder due to a wittle wain. Obviously I may not be completely over it, but I have gotten off the donut couch and focused again on the original goal of getting ready for the WTM. Real goal –right! How many posts have we mentioned that our ultimate goal awaits us in November. 24 hours of bliss!!  And as educators how often do we get caught up in the day to day life of going in and facing the challenges of the moment and lose sight of our ultimate goals. I've found that reflecting and refocusing (don't forget regrouping of course) are some of the most important skills that we educators need to keep highlighted on our own mental white boards. So let’s reflect and then refocus shall we. 

We should have known with the lead up to the Richmond Mudder that we weren’t going to be in for an easy weekend to say the least. First of all there was the fact that we were going to try for 3 laps - that should have been enough of a red flag that something was going to go wrong - but then there were a myriad of other signals that we chose to ignore. Let’s take a look through all the symbols that came to represent our lead up to the Richmond Mudder. 

Banged Up and No Redemption

General Web pic and toughmudder.com

While the scooter has become synonymous with me being beat up, my conditioning was as good as it was going to get heading into Richmond. Shoulder still not 100%, but ready to give it a go. Pain in the left knee - gone. We got a chance to preview the official course map though the night before and saw that we wouldn’t have the Hanging Tough obstacle. I took that as a bad omen that in two consecutive races I wouldn’t be given a chance to redeem my past fails. I'll just have to live with my most recent fail from Miami throughout the long hot summer. Yippee!! Be ready Tri-State - and TMHQ - can I please get another shot. 

Mighty Achilles

http://legendofthecryptids.wikia.com

Obviously the Achilles injury to the Gazelle left us all stunned and saddened. Don’t need to reflect on that other than the healing that is underway, but what a punch in the gut – figuratively for two of us. Honestly the race wasn’t going to be the same without the three of us on the course together. The good news is that I hear the healing is going well but that is another post for another time. 

A Back Tested

A lesser known injury was suffered by Brian at about 2 weeks from the event. Brian’s back gave a little tweak from flipping an enormous tire as part of our interval workouts. I can't even get this thing off the ground but we've all seen the guns on this Brian guy. The ominous thing is it happened on the same track that took down Pat. While this injury didn’t put Brian on the sidelines - this crazy Brudda has already assured me that he will hobble through the course in a body cast - it did slow training a bit. You definitely appreciate how important the back is as you try to do sets of burpees. 

Another Superstorm

Then of course there was Superstorm Andrea – no not a superstorm at all – but just enough of a storm to drown the Richmond Mudder. What a truly disappointing weekend. I think we all knew it was going to be tough to run on Saturday, but to have Sunday stripped away too was a lot. I mean Brian did get to attend a high school graduation and wish another graduating class off into the next phase of their lives. It just came at a time when we had finally gotten our thinking around to the feeling you get coming through Electroshock and not the pain of starting off. 

www.toughmudder.com

 So what it all amounts to is the Mudder who never was. While I frankly loved the look, I had truly succeeded at finding a look my wife hated. I mean HATED. Judge for yourself!

But alas he was not meant to be – but now he is back and more focused than ever. I’ll be honest there have been times when the question of why in the hell I keep coming back reared its ugly head, but after almost a month of feeling upset that our next race isn’t until the Fall, I completely understand why I keep coming back. I have two brothers who keep pushing me along, and there is nothing like a Mudder family. Also, the excitement to run again is back and to compete in the WTM event this year. The drive to get out there and get back on the trail has returned, so here we go.

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