Moron.
The best marathoners are East African. And not just at the top top.
AM – four miles on the tready at the Rec Center, 3 miles at 5% grade. Could not get going or wake up … so bagged it and did some weight work. Squats and bench press fry me almost instantaneously.
PM – 7 miles, very easy on the tready at work. Tired, but just overall … not really in the legs. Just easy (AHR 141, MHR 144)
Some evening vid of me fighting the pigeon pose:
KZ was also kind enough to take this shot while I had a conversation with a tennis ball. I did not get a lot out of the foam roller, but I was probably doing it wrong. The tennis ball seemed to be more surgical in hitting the spot.
Oh yeah, hammies were singing from this morning’s work with the squats (or more to the point, because of time off from them).
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Little non running divergence …
KZ is in 8th grade, and so in preparation for next year, has been considering a few different high schools in the area. The concept is a little foreign to me admittedly. When I was an eighth grader, you just went to high school. Actually, you just went to ninth grade because that was part of “junior high.” Then the next year you went to high school. There was no choice, or open enrollment as there is now. A few kids did go off to private schools and while not completely rare, it was definitely the exception.
But here - there is open enrollment and to some extent, kids get a choice. If there is room in the school, and you want to go there and you can get the student there, you can go. Admittedly, out of the gate, I questioned why go to a different school farther down the road, when there was one just around the corner. But I went along for the ride, and figured getting a view of the different options would be … well, educational. And it has been.
The visits have driven some great conversations with KZ as to what it is she is thinking about being important in a school. That alone has been very valuable. We are still in the midst of those conversations and considerations, so I am not going to say a lot about that. But … it is very clear to me that some schools have created a culture of excellence and pride in their programs while others are seeming to just “go through the motions.” The differences, even for schools in the same district, are quite eye opening.
For example, at one school visited the school administrator who gave the presentation was in in something like sweatpants, and provided the materials on an old school projector screen (that fell over multiple times) with a heavy focus on athletics. There were four student representatives at this presentation. Frankly, it is what I would have expected given my experience from youth. And that there is no problem with that. But when you compare that to the visits to other schools, again in the same district, it is a little shocking.
On contrast, another school we visited opened their presentation with a dozen students from one of their many choir groups singing. That was followed up with a professional presentation by the administrative staff about the culture of excellence in their school, discussing academic options, the culture of the institution, and a description of several of the recent achievements awarded to the school. Then the mic was turned over to an alum of the school (currently a student at CU), and he spoke of his positive experience at this high school. There was then an open opportunity to tour the school, where the staff were available to talk with and most had students with them presenting. Presenting the field trip they had gone on, or what they had done in some lab, or making possible recommendations about course to consider. The post graduate center was open so you could see what post HS academic institutions had visited and where students had ended up. We went to a presentation where the orchestra played several pieces, and thespians acted a few short plays. We talked to students and parents of those students about the student run credit union in the school. And yes, there was athletics represented as well. If I had to guess, between staff, parents and students, there were probably 150 people representing the school.
I found myself thinking: I wish I went to a school like this.
I did a little more research off line, and many of the factors in the school are nearly the same: academic achievement scores are about the same, the teachers have about the same tenure and salary, and the student body size is about the same. So why the huge differences in the presentation layer? Is one school a show horse and another a workhorse? Is one really that much markedly better than the other? What school would do you want to send your student child to?
Again, the conversations with KZ are a bit more muddled on this topic (as they should be expected to be, with a variety of other factors in the head of a 13 year old) with a variety of other very important factors for her and us to consider in all of this… and there is some additional research to be done (more visits). So I am not sure what decision we are going to make yet, but clearly – having a choice -- which I see as a good thing on whole -- has led to this being more of a thought process than I would have initially expected.
Regardless of where she ends up, someone at that second school led the community there to make that event a showcase of what they are and what they want to be.
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JZ and I were working on some piano and guitar earlier in the evening. This was probably our second or third take. He is much better than me.
