Friday, November 26, 2010

Thanksgiving and other things

Good day blog world!

Amazingly, I am blogging only a few days after my last blog!  Yay!  Even more exciting, I am up north, which has been lovely.  We all arrived Wednesday night and had a great Thanksgiving full of my favorite things- running with both of my parents in the morning, lots of cooking, a NAP! :), wearing sweatpants the whole day, and of course EATING.  Yes, it was lovely.

Today, the weather is crazy cold/windy so I went out for a short run with my mom.  Currently, we are all sitting around debating going into town for some shopping or something.  Personally, I'm going alittle stir crazy at this point, but my family seems immune caring about being in the house this long.  I am starting to go alittle nuts, as I am incapable of sitting around all day!  If we don't get going soon, I may just hijack our truck and bounce!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! :)

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Apparently I stink at Blogging....

So yeah, where did life go?  My life is so crazy busy it seems, plus I have like no set schedule with anything so I've gotten out of the blogging habit!  Hopefully, I can get back into it!

Soo...what's been going on?

Work, work, work.  I will spare y'all, because if you are a reader, you know I already whine about that enough!  So what do you do when working sucks away your life/blogging time?  Blog from work!  Currently my 7th graders are working on a paper so I took this opportunity to sit in the back of the class and blog..lol.  Teachers are human too!  I'm currently on day 9 of work in a row, with one more day to go before I get 4 WHOLE DAYS off from both jobs!  I did an extra market on Sunday (my normal 'weekend') and therefore, headed right back into this short week with no break.  Needless to say, I'm SO READY for thanksgiving!  Tomorrow will be a super long day; bakery morning, teaching until 2:30pm (seriously, who does that?) then driving home to my parents, dumping all the food that I bought for thanksgiving at the market into their car along with my stuff, and leaving for up north packed into the car!  4-5 hours later, we will get there...hopefully.  My sis and bro in law will be meeting us tomorrow night too.  I. Am. So. Pumped.  I picked up a 20lb. turkey from a farmer at the market that sells in the booth next to us.  20lbs of turkey, 5 of my family.  Yeah, there will be alot of leftovers!  But, I'm totally OK with that.  Mmmm, turkey.  My sis and I actually have a really good menu planned of mostly in-season, local foods.  I repeat- I. Am. So. Pumped.  4 days of food, family, and no work.  Yess indeedy.

So running.  Yeah.  It's been...going.  I actually got in a few quality swims in the last week, plus core work.  It feels great to be in the pool.  Last Tuesday was the light fest run, that I mentioned.  It was freezing rain, but alot of fun!  Two people from my running club and I ran together and had a good time taking pictures by the light displays and messing around.  Nothing else really monumentous.  Honestly, with work, my exercise in general has been much less than normal, which I'm OK with right now.  Yesterday was good though- 10 miles split.  It was misty and rainy but WARM.  T-shirt and shorts weather.  I did 6 miles in the morning, and couldn't resist tacking on a shake out 4 miler after work.  Amazing.  Except when I fell.  Yeah, I'm a dork.  I have a headlamp, but didn't wear it because I was running in the 'city' at night (vs. country roads).  There is one spot going uphill with about a 1/2 mile to my apartment that is pitch dark.  A car came over the hill with its brights on and I was temporarily blinded while I tried to move into the dirt shoulder (I was already in the bike lane.)  I rolled my ankles and got totally dirty and alittle scraped, but mostly my pride was injured!

Today started out warm and rainy, but the temp has been dropping all day.  Unfortunately, my run has to wait until the evening as I was at the bakery at the 4am hour today.  Popular bakery + days before thanksgiving = craziness.  I was actually HAPPY to get out of there today to go teach!  I'm thinking a pull-off-the-freeway-randomly run is in order for tonite!  I will wear my headlamp though!  Even though I look like a freak in it.....

Ok, that's it from here!  My head is spinning with all of the stuff I need to get done and packed up and such in the next 28 hours or so.  And what is really on my mind is Thanksgivingthanksgivingthanksgiving..........

And being UP NORTH!  Its been since Labor Day...much too long! :)

Monday, November 15, 2010

Long time, no blog!

Oh man, I haven't blogged in FOREVER.  I'm sure my devoted few readers missed me.  Honestly, I feel like I haven't had a whole lot of blog-worthy stuff going on.  My running has been good, but unplanned and pretty low milage.  The rest of my life is spent working or driving!  Hmm, I'll try to sum up a few highlights from the last week or so.....

Stream of consciousness time...The top 10 of the week:

1) I FINALLY got back in the pool for a formal swim session on Friday.  It has been atleast 6 months since I did any formal pool work and it felt GREAT.  I did 30 minutes on Friday and felt good except my triceps were sore/tired afterward!  Which was OK by me, especially since that is an area I really want to tone up.  I was looking at pictures from my sisters' wedding 2 years ago (when I was swimming alot at the time) and LOVE how my arms looked in my strapless dress!  So I'm a bit motivated by vanity...lol.  Today I hit up the pool for 45 minutes of straight freestyle.  Felt amazing.

2) I've also started strength training regularly.  I took a core class at the local running shop last Monday, then repeated the routine again on my own last week.  I really need the core work and I'm *trying* to get into it, it is just hard because I always go for the running when crunched for time.  But, right now I'd rather hit up lower milage + core vs. extra miles.  It is the 'off season' for me afterall!

3) The best run of my week by far was yesterday when I met up with a new friend/blog reader for a lovely winter-y feeling run.  We cruised the roads along a new route for 7ish miles where we met up.  Then, proceeded to drink coffee and chat it up for 2+ more hours!  Such a nice treat on a blustery Sunday!  I'm hoping for more of these runs to come!

4) Second best run was tonite when I met up with my mom post-work for a quick sunset run.  I love running with my mom!  And then we made grilled cheeses!  Niccce.

5) I'm currently watching "Dancing with the Stars" with my parents.  Being at their house for the night = nice.  This show = lame.  My parents' quarkiness = awesome.

6) I am sooo ready for Thanksgiving.  Up-north.  4 days off from both jobs.  Good food.  Family.  Enough said.

7) I feel totally weird not having any race goals set in stone right now.  I really don't mind not having a training plan, but I'm getting anxious not having a set race on the horizon even.  This may need to be remedied soon.

8) I don't have to work at the bakery tomorrow morning.  Best. Morning. Ever.  So, I will get to run, and do core before work!  Plus, post-work I'm running again with my running group at a "light fest" run.  2x running and 1xjobs = how ever day should be.

9) I've noticed my bullet points are getting shorter, which further exemplifies the fact that I don't have a whole lot of exciting stuff to talk about.

10) Yeah, I better just end this now.

Ok, well that about sums up my life.  I'll try to keep updated more regularly from here on out!  Have a good night everyone! :)

Friday, November 5, 2010

back at it!

I feel so weird not having a 'countdown' on my blog title!  But, honestly I have nothing to countdown because for the first time in a few years, I am not signed up for another marathon.  That's not to say I won't be doing one soon, it is just a fact that I haven't decided and am trying to be free and flexible right now.

As for running, I'm back at it!  Started last Sunday with a few miles with my mom.  Then, (perhaps stupidly) decided to run home from my mom's work on Monday.  10.5 miles in the dark in sub 30 degree weather the second day back running after 3 weeks off.....not so smart.  It felt pretty good, but I was a bit sore the next day.  The rest of my week has been filled with shorter, easier runs when I could squeeze them in between my jobs and 12 hour workdays.  Really, work is what has been dominating my life the past few weeks.  Hense my lack of time/motivation to blog.  I've of course been teaching as usual, but also taken on extra hours at the bakery.  Suddenly, my 15-20 hours a week there, turned into 30 hours!  It has been difficult, but I'm really trying to save up extra money for that yet-to-be-determined spring marathon trip.  We will see though.  My sanity is not worth any amount of extra money!  Plus, too much work = not enough time to train = sad me.

So yeah.  Atleast the 'school week' is over.  I got 12 hours at the market tomorrow, but if you've been reading my blog you know I have a slight obsession with the market.  I'm alittle nervous because it is supposed to be 20 degrees...yikes.  I'm hoping people will still be out and willing to buy bread and pastries from me though!  I don't have very many weeks left to go down there, and the more I sell, the more likely my boss is to keep me going!  Pressure is on!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Picture Time!

No don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my blog, or my loyal blog readers!  My life has just been work-work-work lately so I don't have a whole lot to blog about, seeing as I expect very few people want to hear about the drama of teaching middle and high school science or working crazy early shifts at a bakery.  However, my sis sent me a few pics from the marathon, and I decided to share!  I mostly look like a freak, but that's ok because we're all friends here!


This is me in front of the big ass 10-10-10 sign.  Since I'm a super-nerd, I'm holding up ten fingers in honor of my 10th marathon on 10-10-10.  Ha.  Props to my sister for shooting/successfully cropping out the 1001 other people in the area attempting to take the same picture, lol.  Although probably no one was quite as cool as me having it be their #10....


And this little beauty above must be from some point late in the race, as the word 'struggle' is pretty much written all over my face!  Actually, I don't look *quite* as bad as the guy grimacing next to me!  I do like this picture because of what my sister did making it black and white and the contrast and everything.  My sister is actually a really talented up-and-coming photographer.  You should check her out on her flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessmartin24/


And last, but certainly not least is a lovely picture from post-race.  Yes, that is a bad of ice on my head.  Yes, it felt amazing.  This is myself and my bro-in-law waiting for the El.  I am attempting to give my signiture 'peace sign' however, it seems the heat and fatigue of running a killer-bad marathon has effected my fingers' ability to straighten.  Therefore, I look more like I am giving bunny ears to an imaginary friend or something...

So there you have it.  Pictures!  Such a rarity on my blog, especially since I put my sweet digital camera through the wash last winter....

And with that, I leave you.  I have an extra early, though extra fun day tomorrow.  I must be at the bakery a bit after 3am to get my morning stuff done.  Why you ask?  Because I am then going to this conference in Lansing about "Making it in Michigan."  Basically, a conference devoted to seeing if you have a food product to market and how to make it happen.  This is exciting because as you may know, it is my goal in the not-so-distant future to have my own bakery.  Plus, I am very into buying local and keeping my $$ spent on Michigan made products (hey, somebody has got to support this stuggling state!)  So, I get to spend a whole day (after the early bakery hours) listening and learning and sampling products.  While a sub babysits...err...teaches my students.  This is what I call a personal day! :) I'm very excited.

Ok, with that I am off.  I don't think I have ever had to set my alarm for 2:xx am.  But tomorrow will be a first....

Sunday, October 17, 2010

T +7 days....The Recap

My Local Readers~

Ok, I finally have a time when all of the stars have alligned- 1) I am far enough away from the marathon where I can actually think about it 2) I am close enough to the marathon to remember it, and 3) I finally have a spare second to sit and write it all out.  So here goes....

My 10th on 10-10-10.  I have to say, my first thought is to write that it went 100% differently from the way that I had hoped.  But, upon further consideration, I think that is overly dramatic.  So, like any good teacher, I will start with the good and THEN go to the bad.  Always helpful at Parent-Teacher Conferences.  But I digress.

The good:  I was in Chicago.  I made it to 10-10-10 with alot of training and pretty much no injuries (knock on wood- even though its over, I still must knock on wood!)  I finished the marathon.  My sister and brother-and-law were amazing- even setting a record for their cheering skills by seeing me 5 times on the course!  Which is amazing considering the craziness of the city and layout of the course.  There were fun *parts* of the marathon itself (ie the first 8 miles when I actually thought it might be an ok day).  Hmm, yeah, that about sums up the good.

The bad:  Well, I might as well just come out and say it as I already alluded to:  I ran my slowest marathon ever.  Yes, with the most training I have ever done, on the day where I had originally hoped to run my best ever, I ran the complete opposite.  4:05:something.  And honestly, it still feels unreal to me.  I came into the race knowing that it wouldn't be a PR, but I didn't even know I was capable of running that slow.  I have NEVER trained that slow on ANY run.  Literally, the second half was at a pace I haven't seen before in my life.  It was so weird.  It was like it wasn't even me running it.  My long runs always average betwen 8:15-8:40, so the fact that I ran a pace so much slower during an actual race is mind blowing.  And I simply don't know why.

Well, that's a lie.  I do know sort of why.  I was facing a burn out going into this race and the last month of training, as I mentioned on the blog before.  It wasn't necessarily a burn out due to the summer of training, but rather the consistant 2 years of training I have been going at since starting training for my first Boston in 2009.  That feeling of going from marathon to marathon with little to no time between training cycles, all the while adding milage and racing anything from 10 mile races to half marathons to a 50K mixed in.  I expected this would lead to a PR, but more is better only to a point.  And I think I got to the point where it became counterproductive to my goals.  My paces weren't picking up and my motivation (gasp!) wasn't where it had once been.  I feel like the last month of training was an exercise in survival.  One bad run led to a lack of confidence which led to another bad run, which lead to more self-doubt, and so on.  Coupled with a body that although it was holding up well, was just plain tired, and I arrived at the Starting Line feeling like I should be arriving at the finish line already!  So I guess in that since I am proud that I did it.

Outside of the running craziness inside and outside my head, was my work schedule.  This year feels particularly challenging for me.  Teaching above full time at my school, with new classes to prep for has been alot.  Added to that, my boss at the bakery has been continually scheduling me more to the point where including the market I am working almost 30 hours a week at the bakery- on top of my 'real job' teaching.  So these 6 day workweeks that are many times 12 hour days, plus having to cram all of my prep work for my classes onto my 'weekend' on sunday has overwhelmed me.  I'm honestly not saying this because I think I am all that great or anything- I understand lots of people work long and hard to make ends meet- but rather because although these aren't 'running related' necessarily, I think work + crazy commute contributed to my end-of-the training blues.

On a purely physical level- it was hot.  85-90 degrees, which would have been fine in August, but I felt like my body adapted to the cooler September temps and the heat was a shock to my system.  And for some reason, I didn't handle it well.  The whole right side of my body started hurting by mile 10 and I knew it would be a long day from there.  I felt so sad and embarressed.  But when I finished I was so happy just to have it over with.  Despite how poorly I did, I just laughed it off for the rest of the day with my sis and bro-in-law and with my parents (via the phone.)  It was only that night, when driving home from the airport late that it sunk in and I just let the emotion of everything take over.  It was so hard to fathom all of the time and training that I put it, to run a marathon I probably could have done with 1/4 of the time and training.  That has probably been the most difficult idea to come to grips with.

So where to from here with me?  The good news is, I have proved that I can handle a new level of training.  And I liked that.  But, that doesn't mean that I need to train like that 365 days a year.  This is the first time in over 2 years that I am not signed up for my next marathon.  Yes, I have a few ideas on the horizon, but nothing official.  So I'm taking that time.  I'm keeping my workouts completely slim-none for the rest of the month.  I feel like especially with my work schedule right now, I need the physical and mental breather.  In November and December I will get back to it, but with running just as a part of my workout routine, leaving more time for swimming and strength training which I have missed for the last few months or so.  That will also give me time to decide my spring plans.  I don't plan to start any 'formal' training until atleast the new year.  I want to be totally hungry and focused when I start up again.

I did run once with my friend this week.  He was running a marathon today, and I am still awaiting the results.  He took me out to dinner afterward to celebrate my 10-10-10.  It was super-sweet thing to do.  The run was on Wednesday and it was hard.  I'm glad to be taking time off right now.

So yeah.  I feel like a 'fraud' runner right now, after such a less-than-ideal performance.  But, I have to get over that.  I'm looking forward to some time away from formal training and to getting my body in better all-around shape (ie better arms and core that come with strength training and swimming) over the next couple of months.  We'll see where I go with the blog from here.  I'm sure I'll be around.

Peace, love, and running,
T-mart.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

10th on 10-10-10

Race report to come!  Never fear, I haven't forgotten about my loyal readers.  I just need a spare second to write....after I actually figure out what happened on Sunday.....

10 marathons and #10 was the slowest.  Ever.

Stay tuned...

Saturday, October 9, 2010

1- tomorrow is it.

Can you believe that this countdown started from 100+ days, and now the marathon is here?  I have run countless 90-105 mile weeks, 5 20+ mile runs, and thought a million hours about it.  My beloved 10th marathon on 10-10-10 has arrived.

So yeah.  Today was good though!  Biked down in the morning to the Farmer's Market in Lincoln Park with my brother in law.  It was cool to see a different market and help him get a few things for the week.  Afterward, my sis and bro in law went to the gym, and I went for a quick 2 mile shakeout.  Then, I met up with them and we zip-car-ed to the expo.  It was really weird being at the expo though, I couldn't quite put my finger on it.  I was/am feeling nervous, but it wasn't the same as usual.  Like I don't know quite how I feel about it all.  I couldn't switch my corral because it was too late, so I'm stuck in the 'open' corral which stinks, because I really wanted to hook up with a pace group.  And, I know it is going to be super-crowded at the beginning because the FASTEST in the open corral is 4:00 pace.  Yikes.  So, I'm a bit nervous for the beginning and getting too boxed in.  But whatevs.  I just have to work with it and do the best I can.

Now, we are all chillin discussing 'strategy' for tomorrow.  Ie: where my sis and bro in law are going to see me and such.  I have my normal 'cramp' of nerves (my stomach feels like there is a gas bubble trapped in it...weird, but it always happens pre-race.)  I just feel not-at-ease in my head, but I don't know why.  I know a PR is not really a possibility for tomorrow.  That is not pessimism or anything, but merely me being realistic about where I am at right now from a physical and mental stance.  But, I put in SO MUCH this summer to this training cycle and I find myself questioning 'why?'  What was the point of it all if I run another 3:30+ marathon?  Sure, I love the training, but I also love seeing results.  And I feel like I was so ready at my marathon in Saginaw when I ran a 3:29 without even trying and now that whole idea feels lightyears away.  Keeping even a moderate pace seems so unabtainable.  I know this is all part of the mental burnout I am feeling after the last 2 years, but that doesn't make the feelings any easier or less real.

So the plan is to ENJOY it.  Seriously.  I know lots of people say that, and I am not usually one of them to admit to not 'racing hard' but I feel like it is right for tomorrow.  I have run well this training cycle.  I have learned alot.  It was not all for nothing.  There will never be another time that I run my 10th marathon, what's more on 10-10-10.  I can do it painfully, or I can love every minute.  I choose the ladder.

So we will see how it goes.  That's all there is to it.  The one thing I have learned is it doesn't get any easier- even on the 10th time.  There will always be self doubt.  There will always be the uncertainty.  There will always be the anticipation of pain.  But the thing that does get easier with time is KNOWING that I can deal with it.  That I can push through.  I've run a marathon with a stress fracture (my 1st).  I've run my second in 90 degree heat.  I've run Boston/Bayshore within 5 weeks of each other- 2 years in a row.  I ran Saginaw at the end of a 100 mile week.  I'm not saying these things to 'toot my own horn' but rather as a reminder of adversity that I have come through.  This should be easy then... ;)

Anyways, the weather man just said it would be 80+ degrees during the marathon and hense no PR's should be expected.  He was also comparing this year to the year of 'death' ie 2007, ie the last time I ran Chicago.  I always say how much I love the heat!  Now it is time for me to put my money where my mouth is!

See y'all on the other side.....Peace.  Love.  Running.

Friday, October 8, 2010

2- CHICAGO!!!

Well, thanks for the comments/messages!  I'm feeling *slightly* better today after some good sleeps last night.  And, I'm in Chicago at my sis' and bro-in-laws, so there is no turning back now!

Getting to the airport was a bit of an adventure though.  Traffic forced me to reroute completely on all side streets, rather than the freeway.  Then, half of the security terminals were closed, forcing everyone into one place.  After waiting forever, the security guard yelled at me for not taking off my sweatshirt (but I wasn't wearing anything under!?!?!) and then they had to pull me aside and frisk me and touch the bottom of my feet?? for some reason while all of my stuff (laptop, phone, bags, were someplace else I couldn't see.  Annoying.  Then, I dropped my ID and boarding pass on the bathroom floor, which would be OK except I am a total germaphobe......Good times.  But, I made it here at last.  We visited "The Worlds Biggest Whole Foods" for dinner tonite and a few groceries.  They even have a "trail mix bar" (ie my favorite food ever) which was stocked with all of my favorite things.  So, I got a great mix for POST marathon.  Which is sealed luckily.....

Anyways, it feels great to be here and be able to chill.  No running today, and a couple mile shakeout tomorrow.  We also have a farmer's market visit planned along with the expo.  And of course THE big game (ie U of M vs MSU).  My sis is a die hard U of M alum.  And, although I'm not die hard....I am an alum.  So we should have a nice afternoon of game watching and relaxing.  Sounds perfect to me!

Have a good day everyone!  :)

Thursday, October 7, 2010

4, 3 nervous. breakdown.

Ugh, I feel like my posts have all been such buzz kills lately!  I really hate to whine/vent on the blog, but sometimes it has to happen.  Like now.

This week has been crazy.  Honestly, it has been too much.  In my head and body, taper maddness is in full force.  Which I could deal with if it wasn't for my schedule this week.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Today I was up at 3:30am and at the bakery by 4:30am.  Teaching from 10:30-5, killing myself in traffic because every road in Michigan is under construction.  Running after work.  Getting home by 7 or 8pm.  Too. Much.  Today, I seriously almost had a nervous breakdown.  I busted ass to get to my school on time, after working all morning making pasties at the bakery.  Then, I got to the parking lot and just sat there and wanted to cry!  It was so ridiculous, but for a couple of minutes I couldn't even force myself in!  Thursdays are particularly bad because I teach PE too, so my 'prep' period is no longer and I have to teach 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th periods straight.  2 x 7th grade science, high school girls PE, high school physics, high school chem, and honors high school chem all in a row.  Which was especially rough today.  Which I think is why I just wanted to sit in my car and start crying!  Uggghhh, I'm so lame!

The only good news is: I survived it.  Today.  This week.  And, I will not be working tomorrow as I am flying to Chicago!  So, I will be going to bed by 8pm tonite and plan to sleep until 8am.  I'm hoping that will screw my head on straighter than it is right now.

And running.  yeah.  Bad news is, my legs feel like lead on the riduculously short runs I've been doing the past couple of days.  Good news is, my paces are decent.  Yesterday, I met up with my dad at his work (he works ~ 5 miles from where I work) and ran.  I first did 2 miles on my own, then 3 with him for an easy five miler.  My miles = 7:19, 7:20.  Woah there tiger!  Today, I did 3 miles.  I almost blew it off completely to be honest.  My legs felt dead and my whole body felt jiggly.  Miles = 7:34, 7:44, 7:54.  They felt like about 10 minute pace, and I couldn't imagine doing any more!  I'm hoping it is just cuz I'd been working allll day before I ran.  Jeez, I'm freaking out!

Ok, that's it.  I'll hopefully have a better update tomorrow.  For now, I just feel exhausted and it is messing with my head.  I feel slow, fat, crazy, and insane!  Need. Sleeps.

I'm out...

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

6, 5 - Freaking. Out.

Yeah, true story.  I'm freaking out.

I'm working tons this week Tuesday-Thursday, yet my mind is on the marathon pretty much 24/7.  I feel completely out of whack in terms of only easy/short running and getting so nervous.  My eating feels all screwed up too- either I forget to eat/feel horrible and not hungry, or am eating for like 24 hours straight...which also ends up feeling not-so-good.  I blame it on the fact that my body isn't used to this little running!  And, sleeping is nonexistant.  Getting up at 3:30 was rough today, not only because it is 3:30, but because it is basically the middle of the night, I am always worried I will sleep through my alarm and so therefore I wake up 30000x during the night, which never usually happens for me!  Ugggh.  I just need this week done.

Teaching is going OK though.  I'm pretty on top of things in that area, which is always nice.  And my students like to ask me 101 questions about my running which always gets us off task and on tangents, but I never mind because I have a small obsession with running (in case you haven't got that yet) and I love telling my students about its joy!

Yeah, so I guess not much to report here.  I'm at a coffee shop because I was feeling like I needed to get out of my apartment after I got home, even though I'd been gone for 13 hours.  But I had already cleaned out my car, the kitchen, done tons of laundry and other stuff to get my jitters out, which wasn't working.  So I choose coffee shop.

Ok, I gotta go.  Alarm is again set for the pre-4am hour.  One day closer....

Sunday, October 3, 2010

8, 7 - ONE WEEK

Ohhh man.  I keep having waves of nervousness over me when I think about the marathon.  It feels "so close, but yet so far."  As in, too close for comfort but so far away that I still have tons of crap to do/get through before it.  Yikes.  And, I'm working at the bakery 5am-10am Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday before teaching 11am-5pm (yes, true story I have to teach again.)  Which stinks cuz I miss out on pre-marathon week sleep.  But is good because I need to make up for the 12+ hour shift I am missing this week by not being at the market Saturday.  Thus is life.

Today was a GREAT run though.  It was my last 'quality' work before the marathon and my last 'long' run, ie: 10 miles.  After a long day yesterday at the market and a long sleep last night in my freezing cold room (hell yeah I sleep with the window open when it is 35 degrees overnight) I awoke feeling hyper and ready to get 'er done.  I drove to a neighboring town to do a new route on the roads before visiting my friend at the town's farmer's market.  Let me tell you: this route was exactly my style.  Mostly flat except for one uphill, and all on sidewalks along the main road.  I could just look ahead and see sidewalk stretching ahead of me for a mile and attack it!  Love it.

I started off and immediately felt good.  I decided to just go with it and see how it went.  I was going directly into the wind for the first mile or so, but knew since my route was a big rectangle that it would get better.  And so I went.  I could tell it was fast, but honestly it felt good!  The temps were in the 40s, the sidewalk was open and I let my legs go.  I decided at mile 6 to push the last 2 slightly, then relax on the last two.  Mile 7 = 7:22.   Mile 8 = 7:16!  Overall = 8 miles at 7:26 pace.  My fastest training run in this cycle.  And my splits were close (for me!) too.  Everything between 7:16 - 7:37 (uphill mile).  I feel happy that my 'slow' mile was still only seconds off GMP.  Then I did 2 miles easy.  Totally a confidence building run.  I'm not saying that I feel less worried/doubtful/revising my goals about Chicago, but this was the best run that I have had in a long time.  I'm hoping I'll be even more ready after 1 final week of hard core taper.

Speaking of which, tomorrow I rest.  I sleep in, teach, prep, and go to bed.  That is the plan.  Taper is madness to me, one who took about 3 rest days during this cycle.  But it is a madness I will endure to get my legs primed and ready at the line next Sunday.  Plus, I have to actually focus on my job this week.  Imagine that.  Lots of young minds to mold in the areas of 7th grade science, Physics, and Chemistry.  Let the good times roll. :)

Friday, October 1, 2010

11, 10, 9 - its on the forcast...

I don't know what is going on with me, but somehow the marathon nerves + my decreased milage have made me stay away from my beloved blog!  But alas, I am back.

Yes, it is true- marathon day is on the forcast.  Calling for 51-67 degree temps and showers in Chicago.  Yikes.  Actually, I'm ok with that.  I fear wind the most.  And showers = cloudy skies = less chance for wind.  So yeah.  We will see.  It is bound to change about 100x before 10/10/10.

The second half of my week has been...ok.....I haven't been as productive as I should have, but I have still gotten a decent amount of work done.  My mental funk is still alive, but I'm trying to kick it to the curb.  I have got a nice amount of sleep this week, which makes a huge difference in my mental status so that is good.  Running wise, Wednesday was some sort of easy run with a massive hill repeat ('heartbreak' that I trained on last spring).  8:17 pace overall?  Maybe??  Yesterday, I did 10 miles split into a decent 6.5 miles in the morning, and a short 3.5 shakeout with my running group.  The morning run was at 7:41 pace, which felt a bit harder than I wish it did.  Then, at night after doing the first couple miles with my group, I broke off to go back early (which took major self restraint on my part!)  The first couple of miles with them were at a 9 minute pace, so I decided just to see where my body naturally went on it's own after.  Splits: 7:42, 7:22!  That was good, because I seriously barely felt like I sped up!

Today, I contemplated doing my last 'long run' ie; 10 miles because I've been doing my longs on Fridays.  But, with 9 days and knowing I will be majorly tapering the miles next week, I decided to hold off until Sunday.  Although I hate pushing back a long run, I figure that 10 miles isn't really long so physically and mentally it shouldn't be too tough after market day tomorrow.  So yeah.  Easy run today.  Felt OK.  I'll leave it at that.  I left G-man at home because I didn't want to obsess about pace.  At this point, it is all about relaxing, staying loose, and trying to stay fresh for the next week or so.

The rest of today has been spent writing tests and reviews and doing tons of errands.  I want to be really prepared because I know next weekend = zero time for prep work so therefore I need to be fully ready to teach for two weeks.  And, I'm trying to get a really good handle on my "October Finances".  I am very financially responsible, but need to keep better track of things as I am saving money now with my 2 jobs.  The joys of adulthood....

Off to keep at it!  Happy Weekend!

ps. I changed my blog layout.  Because I'm wild and crazy like that!  Hope it is more pleasing to the eye!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

12- not having to go to work = priceless

Getting paid the same and not having to go to work = beyond priceless.  I don't think being salaried will ever get old....

Tonite I'm back at the apartment.  So glad I spent the early afternoon cleaning on Sunday before I left- I absolutely love coming home to a perfectly clean place!  I did a quick 5 miler this morning in POURING rain.  And since I had no jacket, I had to wear my dad's.  Which was a wee bit big.  By the end, I'm sure I looked like a drowd rat, and the oversized jacket weighed about 10lbs.  Sweeet.  Then, tonite I went to the running club that meet right by my place.  We did a 7 miler through some seriously wet and intensely hilly trails.  It was fun though.  Since this isn't my normal group (Thursday night group is a different group/different shop) I am much more quiet and reserved.  It is kind of nice just to run and listen to other people talk.  I'm very much a talker, so it is a good reminder just to chill out and listen!  I've come to realize that it is this groups MO to start off very slowly but pick it up each mile.  Which is tough because the last few miles are always uphill.  But it is good practice for me, because that is NOT my nature ever.

12 mile day = good thing.  Working EARLY at the bakery tomorrow = rough.  Especially when I've been sleeping in these past few days.  But, my shift is short.  And I have lunch with Mike planned to celebrate his Bday.  Should be a good day.

I'm off to watch Biggest Loser.  I'm hoping it gets better because I found last week's premier to be incredibly boring and repetitive.  Which stinks because NBC is one of the 2 or 3 channels I get in my cable-less world!

Monday, September 27, 2010

15, 14, 13 - SURVIVOR

True story: I came home to my parents' house last night to catch up on the next season of SURVIVOR that just started.  Yeah, they have Comcast and DVR and stuff I don't have, so I can catch up on the first two episodes.  My dad and I have been watching Survivor since the 2nd season when I was in 8th grade together.  We try to get together every few weeks and watch the episodes together when we can.  It is one of the only TV shows I really follow anymore, due to my life + the fact that I don't have cable and only get 2 or 3 channels at my apartment.  So this post will be quick so I can get back to the first episode before my dad gets home and we watch the second together.

My weekend was crazy, as usual.  But, my week is much more chill being off from teaching.  I actually got alot of prep work done today at my parents' which is good.  It is so nice to have a big table and 'office' to spread out in, as well as internet.  And copious amounts of coffee.  And Ollie the cat.  Something comforting about being at 'home' even when I am old and consider my apartment 'home' now.

Running wise, meh.  I'm trying to keep this week at around 50 miles.  Less than 2 weeks and at this point, I think less is more.  Today I did 8 miles total- 5 easy this morning on a nice familar loop, then 3 this evening with my mom when she got home from work.  I totally yammered on about the marathon and stupid stuff the whole time.  I love my mom for putting up with it!  It must have felt like a long 3 miles!  We went to the gym afterward, but I kept the strength training to a minimum and did some stretching because at this point I don't want to do anything too crazy/drastic and I've been doing zero strength training.

Tomorrow I'll hang out here for a bit, then head back in the evening and perhaps hit up the group run by my apartment.  I have to work at the bakery bright and early Wednesday.  Hopefully the prep will continue to go strong during the day.  Although I welcome suggestions for sweet 7th grade science activities!

Friday, September 24, 2010

17, 16 - enjoyment = up, productivity = down

Hmm, yeah, that title describes my last two days......I'm accomplishing stuff, but not nearly enough.  Must. Get. On. That.

Both days have been awesome though.  I've been 'working' but not at either job, which is lovely.  Yesterday began with a quick 6+ mile run at 7:44 pace.  Felt good.  Dirt roads were fun.  Then, I hurried to meet my friend for coffee at my favorite hippie coop downtown.  She is actually an old boss of mine at the restaurant I worked at for 5 years up north in the summer.  So fun to catch up!  Before we knew it, it was 2:30pm!  I was starving and my dad was stopping by my apartment to drop off my bookself, so I busted my butt home, got to see my pops for 2 minutes, and he was off.  My bookself looks awesome though, no more crap piled in the corner!  And so much more accessible.  And, my pops brought my Chicago confirmation....yikes......

Then, it was running group time! (see what I mean about productivity....)  Since Mike is still not able to run, I ran with some other people at a nice, relaxed pace.  We did 6.5 miles then had to 'packet stuff' again.  But it is actually really fun because everyone just chats it up and Mike was there too.  Him and I get really intense/competitive with the packet stuffing which ends up resulting in us laughing but also getting alot done!  It was kind of sad though, because we are prepping the stuff for "Woodstock" which is the 50K I did spur of the moment last year, and one of my first "real" posts.  You should read it! ;)  Anyway, I'm bummed because I won it, and would love to go back and defend my title, but a 50K two weeks before my marathon doesn't seem smart.  Last year I still had lots of weeks until Philly so it was OK.  But anyway....I guess you can't do it all!

I got home late from all those good times, ate a half of a squash for dinner (dont' judge) and passed out.

And then it was today!

Today = "long run" which now seems short because I did my last 20 miler last Friday so today was 'only' a 15 miler.  I decided to do it on the same course from last week, and just cut off the loop down to campus to make it 15 instead of 20.  The temps were in the 80s, and I was OK with that until the weather man told me there was a "wind warning". I didnt' even know there was such thing!  40mph winds were predicted with 55mph gusts!?!?!   Oh boy.....

The run started out OK.  My Garmin wasn't charged, so I had to go old school with my stopwatch.  The first 4 miles felt really fresh......until I turned and realized that was because I had been crusing with the wind at my back!  The next 7 miles were some of the toughest ever.  In two directions of the 'square' of the run, the wind was right in my face.  The first 3 of those 7 miles were hard- until I turned and realized that they were nothing compared to the next 4 miles I would face.  Honestly, I had to laugh when it started to rain horizontally!  My wrap-around ear buds kept blowing out of my ears, which really didnt' matter much because it was hard to hear my music over the wind anyway!  I knew roughly where the mile marks on the course were, so I kept checking my pace and realizing that it was decent- especially considering the conditions.   My quads were screaming though!  I just kept repeating "I am hard core" in my head the whole time.  Including when I almost got blown off an overpass....over the freeway...yeah, true story.  Good times.

I did a good job pushing the pace until the end.  I'm not sure exactly without mile by mile splits, but it felt pretty consistant, in spite of the wind.  Overall..... 15 miles at 8:13 pace.  Yeah, I'm actually really pleased.

My afternoon has been spent working at the coop...while blog reading.  Atleast my grading is done.  Reading papers written by 7th graders about "States of Matter" requires lots of coffee....and blog breaks......

And tomorrow is the market!  :)  Other than the 3:33am alarm, it promises to be a good day!

Happy Weekend!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

20, 19, 18 - back to blogging

The combo of my buzz kill post Sunday, lack of time, and spotty internet made posting the last couple days not happen.  Hopefully this will be a quick recap.

Monday I ran.  Standard run.  Honestly, I dont' really remember much of it.  8:16 pace maybe?  Felt ok.

Yesterday was a good day though!  Did 6 miles in the morning at 8ish pace.  Then, busted my butt through traffic after work to meet up with a running group that meets at the running shop that is literally 1 mile from my house at 6pm.  It was really fun!  The pace started out reallly slow, so I worried at first because it was downhill at the beginning and I just wanted to *go*.  But, it was good self restraint for me!  I ended up just listening to other people's conversations for the first few miles.  Our leader led us down to these cool trails and this dam that I didn't even know existed, even though it ajoins to a park that I run in all the time!  So, that was cool.  Each mile we kept picking it up a bit.  Finally, I was pushing the pace with another guy who had recently done a 50 mile race.  Since this is on my horizon for sometime in the future, I grilled him about it!  We stopped at a water fountain about 5 miles in and from there, ran back to the shop.  It was ALL uphill including the mock "heartbreak" hill that I did repeats on last spring pre-Boston.  And have avoided ever since.  Me and the guy were still pushing at a 7:30 pace at this point up the 3/4 mile hill and I was trying desperately to keep up with the conversation while having it seem effortless because I am vain and like to look bad ass!  We finally crested the hill with less than a mile to the running shop and me and two guys really opened it up.  My legs were shot, but it felt great.  All in all, a great 8 mile evening run to round out 14 miles for the day.

Today I kept it short and sweet as I'm trying to hold my miles to the 70s this week.  I was at the bakery SUPER early ie: 4am, because there was a butt load of special orders and additional things on tap for the day.  I was out by 9am though and conviently I am off from teaching for awhile so I could head home and run.  I don't know if it is the combo of adrenaline from getting up early or the infinity of caffeine I ingest in the form of coffee at work, but these post-bakery morning runs seem to be pretty decent.  I headed out into the 80 degree/humid morning as summer seems to have returned to Michigan.  I headed downhill of course from my apartment, making up a loop as I went.  My shins are really killing me lately so I tried to hit up some dirt roads.  I actually felt *smooth* for a change.  Like my body and my mind weren't fighting me the whole time like usual.  Which was nice.  So I went with it.  I did 6 miles at 7:42 pace with splits between 7:27 and 7:50 the whole time.  Even on the uphills! :)  Then, I did two easy miles at 8:25 pace to shake everything out.  All in all, a pleasing 8 miles and I was done for the day. 

I'm still feeling the mental funk a bit, but trying to pull through.  I'm not sure if my running is making me feel bad mentally, or if my mental state/life stuff is making me think about/run bad.  Oh well.  I will give it time and see how it goes.

Good news is, I am off from teaching for over a week!  We start in the middle of August because of a break that happens now.  I need to prep for the next three months though (literally) so I am making myself work a set amount each day so I stay on task.  It is times like this though, when I am happy/fortunate to be a salaried worker.  Today I made the same amount as I do everyday! :)

Tomorrow I have a coffee date with an old/good friend.  And my dad will be in town so he is bringing a bookself I bought last week.  And run club at night.  Coupled with a morning run, should be a good day!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

22, 21 the fire is flickering.....

Ok, update time.  I'll explain the post title in a second......

Yesterday was a normal, long, crazy, Saturday of market for 12+ hours and fitting tons of junk in around that.  The highlight was the fact that my parents' surprised me at the market because my dad wanted to see it!  So nice of them + they bought me some of my groceries including local squash, my weekly 1lb bag of spinach, head of broccoli, and peaches.  Sadly, the much of it has already been eaten in the last 24 hours.  Alas, thus is life.

Then I slept.  For a glorious 12 hours.  And I could have/would have kept going if I didn't actually have to get my crap together today.

Starting with my run.  Since I already did my 20 miler on Friday, today was a simple 10 miler.  Although I didn't "garmin" it, I think that it was just under 8 minute pace, which was good I guess.  But, here's confession time.  With running right now, the fire is flickering.  I think that analogy suits how I am feeling right now because I wouldn't call what I am experiencing a full-on burn-out, but I am feeling the cumulative effects of training on my physical and mental well being and it is tough. 

I got really honest with myself while running today.  Honest in the sense that I know I need a break from training.  It is not just the last 15 weeks of training for this marathon, or the 95-105 mile weeks I have put in during that time.  It is more of a culmination of almost 2 years of training consistantly (starting with training for my first Boston in 2009) with very little time off, even between marathons.  Heck, I ran my second fastest marathon this summer and then ran 12 miles the next day!  What I'm saying is not a 'yay me' party, but rather the opposite.  I am completely spent on every level.  For every 1 quality run I have, I feel as though I have 4 terrible ones.  My legs feel worse than ever, not from an injury standpoint, but from a deep and overall fatigue standpoint.  In my quest for my PR over the past 2 years, I have lived my the mentality of 'more, more, more.'  Adding more miles, training twice a day when I could, trying to get speedwork in.  Even more so, fixating my life around running.  And you know what?  I wouldn't change any of that.  I've honestly loved every minute of it.  But I feel myself getting obsessive and caught up too much in it all, thus exhausting me and making it harder than it has to be.  Here I am 3 weeks from my 10th marathon and I sometimes can't imagine getting to the starting line, not to mention the finish line.

And I hate saying all this because running IS ME.  It is who I am and defines me almost completely.  And again, I love that.  But I just feel like if I am ever going to reach my potential as a runner, and my lifelong goal of not only PRing and going sub 3:18, but being a sub 3hour marathoner, I need to take a step back.  I am proud of what I have accomplished, but I know as I keep pushing, I am making it impossible for me to accomplish even more.

I don't know why I am saying all of this really.  This is much more personal than I usual go on the old blog, and I know I don't have that many readers.  Everything just seems very hard now.  Teaching full-time and the drama that comes with it.  Keeping up with my part time job 2-4 days a week.  My 100-mile-a-day-in-traffic commute that is driving me nuts.  And oh yeah, trying to run 10-15 miles a day.  Hopefully I'm in a funk and will get over it, but right now I just want to crawl into bed for 2 weeks or so...lol.

So anyway....

I must get back to the mountain of grading that piled up last week.  Grading 7th grade science tests = mind-numbing. 

Friday, September 17, 2010

24, 23 dead legs, longggg run

I had full intentions of posting last night, but my spotty internet was gone again!  So annoying.....So, this is a double post!

Yesterday - bad day.  My runs were slooow and sluggish and my legs felt dead.  Starting with an 8 miler in the morning before work.  Then, my work day was terrrrible.  Lots of crap happened that I had to deal with as a teacher, and it basically bummed me out and infuriated me.  I won't bore you with the details, but lets just say sometimes my school drives me nuts.  Plus, on Thursdays I teach 6 periods in a row with no break besides 20 minutes for lunch.  And I don't have a 'classroom' so I'm running around between rooms and the gym (one period for PE)  And a particular teacher thinks it is cool to stick her Lean Cuisine in the teacher's lounge microwave for 10 minutes when I only need it for like 30 seconds.  Yeah, that's not cool.  So I have about .3 seconds to eat.  Buzz kill.

Then, because I had to deal with the crap of my day after work, I got on the road 15 minutes later than usual.  Which meant I SAT in traffic.  My commute took almost 2 hours, which meant I missed running with my running group.  I was so pissed that I just parked my car 6 miles from the store we meet at, and ran there.  Everyone was 'packet stuffing' for a race this weekend, which is something we all volunteer to do every few weeks in exchange for race entries.  So I got to hang out for a couple hours and chat, which was nice.  Then Mike drove me back to my car, which was also nice because my legs were totally wasted and I hit my 14 miles for the day already and it was 9:30pm.

Whew!

So on to today.....

I had intentions all week of doing my long run today ie: my last 20 miler before the marathon because a) I didn't have to work either job and b) I HATE having to drag my tired butt out of bed Sunday morning after working a crazy long/tiring day at the market Saturday.  But honestly, I wasn't sure if I could do it today after this week of training.  My legs felt so terrible yesterday, I wasn't sure if it would be worth it if I was hitting 10 minute miles or something.  I slept in though, and decided to make the decision in the morning.  I was scheduled to have coffee with a friend at 2pm, but when I got up at 8am (yessss, amazing) she had cancelled.  I took it as a sign because this meant I had nothing 'scheduled' until 6:30pm tonite.  Although I'm over my head in grading....but that's besides the point.

So I decided to try.

I knew that my 'other run' ie: what I will do on Sunday had to be 13 miles, and so I gave myself license to stop then if I wanted and do 20 on Sunday.  But honestly, who am I kidding.  There was no way I would stop at 13 miles!

So I set out on a 'new' loop that I only did once last spring as a 15 miler.  Honestly, my legs killed but the run itself went by really fast.  I ran by horse farms, almost got hit by oncoming traffic on a too-narrow county road shoulder, ran through fresh tar leaving footprints, and counted road kill (15 road kills in less than 10 miles including snakes, birds, racoons, and un-identifiable rodents.)  I also ran by this cool farm market that I ended up driving back to this afternoon and scoring some cheap, Michigan-grown produce!  14 miles in, I was back in town and grabbed a drink at a waterfountain in a park.  I hate waterfountains, but I make exceptions when running.  I realized how dead my legs were at this point and almost had a mental breakdown.  But, then I decided that 6 miles was nothing and I turned on my ipod for the first time during the run, which helped.  Having to run from town -----> my apartment pretty much all uphill at the end = not cool.  But I did it.  And honestly, that is what today was about.  When my Garmin hit 20 miles almost exactly outside my apartment, I felt proud.  Was it a fast run?  No.  Did I feel great?  No.  But I did it.  And honestly, you never regret a run.

20 miles @ 8:38 pace.  Today, that was all I had.

I then proceded to eat frozen grapes while soaking my legs in the freezing cold pool at my apartment.  Then, I was freezing so I jumped in the jacuzzi.  Good call. 

My legs?  Basically they are hurting.  I feel like I'm really tapped out right now from a physical and mental sense.  I'm a few days over the 3 week mark and my body feels very much in need of a rest.  I just hope I can hold on for a few more weeks.....

And now I must tackle the mountain of grading.  Market allll day tomorrow, which I get strangely excited about.  Other than the fact that it is an early, physically exhausting day, it is alot of fun.  Or maybe I'm just a dork?  Hmmmm

Happy Weekend! :)

Thursday, September 16, 2010

25- "You know I can't slow down, I can't hold back...."

Yes, that quote from Cage the Elephant's "Aint No Rest for the Wicked" pretty much summed up my day and my run. Good song too!

Well, the pre-4am hour dawned extra early today and I spent a good 5 minutes in bed whining in my head and feeling sorry for myself that I am a top-college educated person with a legit full-time teaching job, yet I still have to work a second job to make ends meet. Then, I got over it and got out of bed. Lol. My legs were not really sore, but felt super tired from yesterday's 14 total miles with 3x mile repeats at night. But, I view tiredness as a good thing. Means they were working hard!

It was a bakery morning, followed by the customary speeding commute to teach while changing in the car. Classy. Teach x 6 classes (made my middle school girls run today in gym...too funny!) then a staff meeting. It was near 5pm when I got done, and the thought of traffic was unbearable. So, I did what I usually do and pulled into the nearest parking lot by work, changed, and was off!

I knew my legs would be sluggish from yesterday's speedwork + my 12 hour workday, so I gave myself permission to go SLOW and SHORT. I had no pace or distance in mind, just decided to feel my way through town and hopefully get back to my car eventually. I decided to check my mile splits as they came, which I don't usually do, but I wanted to make sure I was going slow enough. Honestly, my legs felt totally dead. I felt embarressed because I was sure I was going so slow and cars were probably pointing and laughing. I missed my first mile split, but looked down in time to catch mile 2. I prepared myself to see upper 8's....

7:42.

Seriously, you would think after running my whole life I would be better and knowing what pace I'm at. Honestly, it felt so slow and easy! I decided just to 'maintain' and not push my effort or not slow down and see what happened. I tried to keep everything really light feeling.

Mile 3: 7:42

And so they remained in the 7:40s for a few miles. It didn't feel hard, but I could tell that my legs weren't recovering necessarily. The route was very scenic, slightly hilly, but not too bad. Only bad when I ran out of sidewalk and was sandwiched running between overhanging trees and rush hour traffic for awhile. Ha. I made the decision at the 6 mile mark to run 10 miles. But, I decided that I would push mile 7, then force myself to do the last 3 easy.

Mile 7: 7:29 Sooo happy!

I stopped and reset my Garmin at this point. I had done 7 miles at 7:44 pace which I was pumped about considering yesterday and my day today. And how easy it felt. I told myself to do 8:30s for the last 3 miles. They ended up being 8:17, 8:22, 8:06. And since I was 'forcing' myself to slow down, they seriously felt like 9:30s.

So good run. I'm trying to appreciate it because I have been whining about my bad runs lately. This week has been good though, so I'm hoping it continues. Tomorrow I am REALLY making myself go easy because I want to be fresh for my last 20 miler this weekend. Yes, that is the plan.

And the best part....it was 6:30pm by the time this was all over. Traffic = gone. Drive home = 40 minutes rather than 60+ minutes. Yesss indeedy. I am easily pleased.

My stupid legs are still twitching like crazy! Time for me to slap on my compression socks and jump in bed! So excited to 'sleep in' until 6:30am tomorrow morning and not have any bakery! :) Again, it's the simple pleasures....

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

26- nice to meet you, speedwork

It has been much too long since I did any kind of formal speedwork.  With my running partner sidelined with a foot injury, my motivation to do anything formally fast declined rapidly.  Read: it hasn't been happening.  Buttt, tonite I changed that.

First, this morning.  It began with a glorious sunrise 8 miler around my parents' house.  It was 'chilly' in the 50s and although my legs were tired, the run went by fast.  I think it was an 8:13 pace?  I dunno.  I tried to keep it easy so I would have something left for tonite.....

Then, I molded minds all day.  ie: I taught.  Atleast tomorrow is the 15th and it is FINALLY our first pay day even though we have been working for 3+ weeks.  That's all I have to say about that.

Rushed home, dumped my stuff and changed, then sped to campus where my cities "Track Club" meets on Tuesday night to do workouts.  I met with them a few years ago in college for a few weeks, but then dropped off when I started running club for my school, and training for marathons.  Well, I looked them up online and tonite's workout read 3x1 mile with 400 jog rest.  Uh oh.

I did a warmup, met some people, then much too soon, the workout began.  My goal was just sub-7s for all of them because my legs have so many miles on them and I haven't done this short of speedwork in forever.  The first one felt effortless, and I hit it in 6:13.  Ooops.  Yeah, bad plan.  The second one was much harder.  6:32.  The third one, my legs were screaming!  6:50.  Crap.  I suck at pacing.  But, I was pretty proud of that considering everything.  I'll take it.

Randomly, I am getting internet at my apartment tonite.  Ironically so because I FINALLY bit the bullet and ordered wireless service.  So.  Much.  $$$$.  Alas, thus is life.

Alarm is set for 3:53am!  Bakery morning, teaching afternoon, run after it all.  Blah.  I hate doing things in that order!

Monday, September 13, 2010

27- split run(s), good run(s)

Ok, a couple minutes to blog....

Unfortunately, my crazy family weekend + the market + unexpectedly having to drive home to my parents' house last night so I could have my car brakes fixed today (hello $$$) meant that I got very little....read: no....prep work done this weekend.  So, I'm sort of taking teaching day-by-day this week.  Which I hate.  So I must get back to it!

But first: quick weekend run down!

Time with my sis and bro in law Friday night was fun!  Local burgers = epic.  The market dawned bright and early Saturday morning and I was running on about 1 hour of sleep after staying up later with my sis and bro in law + sleeping uncomfortably on the couch so they could have the bed.  Yeah, I'm that nice.  But, I do really like the long, crazy, market day and plus my sis and mom came down to visit + bought me veggies because I have zero time to 'shop' when I'm there, manning the booth.  When I finally got off at 5pm, I high tailed it home, then drove another 45 minutes to our family reunion thingy which was fun but lasted until almost midnight. Ie: by then I had been up for 20+ hours and was sleeeeepy.  Upon driving home, I realized that my brakes were messed up.  Awesome.  Atleast my sis kept me awake!

Finally getting to sleep at 1am, I set the alarm for 6:45am and woke up feeling horrible.  Hungover, even though I didn't drink??!?!  I considered blowing off my 10 miler, but after drinking some juice I felt better so I headed out.  I felt really good and speedy, but my pace sort of buzz-killed me when it came back as a 8:17 average.  Blah.  Post-run, my parents drove out and met my sis, bro in law, and I at this amazing high-class brunch buffet.  Yum.  I got my money's worth, but unfortunately got "glutened" somehow which made the last 24 hours or so...not very....pleasant.  But atleast it was delicious!  We celebrated my mom and sis's b-day so presents were involved.  Then, off they went back to Chicago.  My dad then determined my brakes were broke, which meant I drove back to their house so my dad and I could deal with the car today and I could still get to work.  (my dad and I work about 5 miles from each other!)  Lots of $$ later, it was fixed.  I guess that's the joy of the fact that I'm on pace to put 30,000+ miles on my car this year.  Oye.

Running today was supposed to be 12 miles, split into 6/6.  It was close to that, and honestly went really well.  This morning, I had very limited time after dropping off my car and driving my dad to work, before I had to get to work so I knew I had to go fast.  Here's how the 6 miler went down:

7:48, 7:34, 7:29, 7:40, 7:35, 7:11 = 7:33 average; pretty 'negative' splits for me!

Then, post-work my dad asked if I wanted to do 3 miles after we picked my car up.  But, he wasn't ready to leave work yet, so I did 3 miles right away around his office alone. 

7:53, 7:30, 7:15 = 7:32 average; one second faster than this morning! :p

Post-car pick up my pops and I did another 3 at a 8:25 pace.  It was really good chatting time, although lots was about my finances and future.  Thanks pops.

So yeah, that about catches everything up.  It is 8:34pm and I'm still not ready to go for tomorrow, and still haven't had dinner.  Time to get on that!

Peace out! 

Sunday, September 12, 2010

29,28 - i need a weekend from my weekend....

Nuff said.  10 mile run, lots of family time, broken car.  Boo.  back at it tomorrow.  blogging will resume.....

Friday, September 10, 2010

30- Long Run, short day

Where has today gone?  Between my long run, running errands, and cleaning my whole apartment...all 700 square feet, lol...the day has flown!  Now it is 7pm and I'm at a coffee shop waiting for my sis and bro-in-law to get here so we can go to dinner!  Long run = hungry me.

Butt, the run itself was not-so-great.  The route was nice, sort of a combo of roads and a long stretch through the network of parks for about 7 miles, then ending with a character-building three miles up "the parkway."  It actually got pretty hot out, since I left at 10am and all and the sun was intense and reinforced my sweet double watch tan (on wrist I have my 'always on' sports watch, and the other, my Garmin when I run.)  I actually went on a 'forbidden trail' that meant I had to hop through a fense.  And then I had to backtrack when a bunch of guys + a huge shovel-machine thingy were in the way.  Ha, oh well.  Sadly, I think the highlight of my run was a spontaneous popsickle.  I stopped to get a drink of water at mile 15-ish at the park at the foot of "The Parkway".  Suddenly, I saw that because the park is also a canoe livery, they have a snack shop.  I was deseperate for anything because water just wasn't cutting it.  I saw a popsickle and went for it.  I realized that 80 calories of popsickle on an 18 mile run probably aren't going to help a whole lot physically, but I was hoping for more of a mental life.  Not so much.  The parkway went by fast, but was tough.  I rallied to finish the last (uphill) mile in 7:52, but that didn't help my 8:32 pace overall that much.  Oh well.  I'm happy I did it, and now can enjoy my 12 hour market day tomorrow, then family time, and brunch on Sunday. 

Hoping that my sis will get here soon.  We are going to a place that serves all locally made/grown burgers!  Burger after a long run = perfection.

And my legs are still twitching like crazy, but I am going to go with marathonmaiden's suggestion that that means I'm building muscle.  I like that thought! :)

I'm off!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

31- changing plans and tired legs

Ahhh, a day off of work.  Niceeee.  It is times like this when it was worth it to start teaching 2+ weeks before all other schools so that we can have holidays off. 

So today....

It is amazing how much differently I can feel on runs from one day to another.  Today, I did 10 miles at 9:30am (probably my fav time to run) in cool temps and felt TIRED.  I did a route that I did lots of times when I first moved last spring, but hadn't done all summer.  It was similar in topography to yesterday's run in terms of downhill, then uphill.  I wish it felt as good as yesterday...but it did not.  Still, I rallied in the end for a negative split of 7:45 last mile and 8:06 pace overall.  So, not as great as yesterday, but judging by how I felt I was thinking more along the lines of 8:30s-8:40s.

About 5 minutes after I got out of the pool after running (and the jacuzzi :) I realized that I will not be able to do my long run on Sunday because I have plans with my family.  This bummed me out because I was planning to do the run with a running group that meets at the running shop about 3/4 of a mile away from my apartment.  Sooo, I must do it tomorrow.  Hopefully.

Then, for some reason, all plans for productivity went out the window when I realized how insanely tired I was after lunch.  I seriously had no power over the tiredness and passed out until 4pm!  And could have slept longer, but my legs kept twitching and it was driving me nuts!  Anyone ever have this happen?  I do every one in awhile, but I feel like my calves/hamstrings/quads have been twitching for two days straight!  I dragged my butt out of bed to go to the coffee shop to work (errr, blog read....)  I'm not running any more today because I really would like to have a quality long run tomorrow and I'm so exhausted, which is lame because I didnt' even have to work today.

In exciting news, my sis and bro in law are coming tomorrow night!  I haven't seen them since early July, so I'm pumped.  They are staying with me and we have this family reunion thingy on Saturday, followed by birthday brunch for my mom and sis on Sunday (hense the long run shift).  Plus I think they are coming downtown to see me at the market on Saturday.  Sooo, I should probably actually get work done now!

Send me your remedies for twichy legs!  They are driving me nuts as I sit here typing in my recovery socks!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

32 - love it or hate it

Today has been a lovely, semi-productive fall-feeling day!

When I last left you, I was at work.  On the way home, I pulled off the freeway to run in a random town.  However, my Garmin was dead so I had to run for time.  And my legs felt like lead.  So I did 4 or 5 miles and called it a day.  14 or 15 was good enough for the day!

Today = no teaching! :)  Today = 4:30am bakery :(  Today = leaving at 9:30am!  I got my evaluation at the bakery and my (amazing) boss was really complementary.  We talked alot about the market too, which was good.  And, I got out of work and didn't have to drive + teach and it was Wednesday, so I went to the farmer's market in town.  And scored some awesome broccoli.  Roasted broccoli = my new obsession.

Then, it was run time.  No expectations for my run today.  I had a route planned out in my head to try, but had no idea how long it would be.  I figured 9-10 ish.  So I strapped on my (newly charged) Garmin and went at it, deciding not to check the Garmin the whole time and just GO.  The route took me through the streets the long way to a park by the river.  Then, it followed a path through the park and came out at the mouth of the notorious "Parkway" (ie hill-tastic road).  The run to the park was nice, about 5 or 6 miles of gentle hills trending toward downhill.  Temps were nice too, 60 degrees ish, but REALLY windy.  Through the park it was against the wind, but I *hoped* the trees would block it a bit.  They may have, though it was hard to tell because the wind was still pretty strong!  I'm completely a road runner at heart, but this particular path was nice (and paved!) so it was good times.

Then, it was onto THE parkway.  I figured I was at 7 or 8 miles at this point.  This particular road is known by area runners because of it's upslope.  As I have mentioned before, basically all roads are uphill to my apartment.  Which is where the title of this post comes in.  I HATE hills, but I LOVE the fact that I know they are good and are making me a stronger runner in the end.  And it makes my pace feel more bad ass when I know I've done it on a hilly route!  The parkway has wide sidewalks on both sides, and is a huge 4 lane road seperated by a boulevard.  I ran on the opposite side than I usually do today, which actually was a huge mental lift.  It is a tough road in that at first, the upslope is gentle to the point where one may think that it is just tired legs causing that feeling fatigue.  But, the hill just gets steeper until the last 1/2 mile you want to cry.  Or die.  But I digress....

Finally, after conquering all of the hills and the parkway, I checked my Garmin when I was about 1/2 mile from my apartment.  This showed me that a) I was at 10.18 miles (which means I will go 11 because I always run to the next even number) and b) I was AHEAD of my virtual partner (ie 8 min pace) which I didn't think I would be.  Since I was barely ahead though, I had to push the last little bit.  Which felt good.  All in all, hit up 11 miles at 7:55 pace with the last mile at 7:32.  Not bad for a relaxed run.

Honestly, I think the weather helped too.  As much as I am a heat and sun worshiper, I ended today feeling good and like I didn't need to jump the nearest pedestrian for his water.  Which is always a good thing.

Anddd, now I'm 'supposed' to be getting work done at this coffee shop, rather than blogging/reading blogs.  Yeah, it will happen eventually.  My crock pot is cooking me soup full of local vegetable for dinner.  Thanks crockpot.  I actually laid down for 30 minutes this afternoon and it was amazing having cool fall air coming through my window, and the smell of soup cooking coming through my door.  Ahhhh, yes.

Oh! And the phone!  I finally got it last night!  I'm obsessed.  As in, I can't put  it down.  Although I dont' know how to answer it yet....I've hung up on my mom twice and had to call back.  Oh well.  Me and technology are still getting to know each other....

So before this post gets any longer/more random/more lame/more like me being a 13 year old writing in diary, I will go!  Work time for realz!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

36, 35, 34, 33 - ohhh man

Yeah, so apparently I gave up blogging for a few days.....ironically though because I actually have internet at my parents' house up north (unlike my apartment).  Butt, in my defense, I was too busy recovering from my crazy week....lol.

So yeah.  Recap time.

Saturday = market day.  It was sooo cold.  Ironically again, because the last few weeks it has been unreal-ly hot which stinks when you are loading and unloading a huge van full of tables, bread, pastries, cheese, etc.  But somehow our booth is in a wind tunnel and it was terribly cold allll day.  I did have my Boston jacket on which was bad ass looking, but not-so-warming.  So yeah.  Cold day.  Sales were insanely good though.  Unlike driving 4 hours after work.  But I got up north, which was nice.

Sunday was a good day.  10 miles that were effortless.  I did the first 6 alone, then met my mom for the final 4.  It was nice that I did my long run on Thursday, so I could just do the 10 and be done.  Monday, was good too- 8 miles around our lake....4 with mom, 4 with pop.  yeah, they drive halfway and switch the car...lol.  i love my parents.

Otherwise, the weekend was spent doing prep work, sleeping in, chilling out, and chatting with my parents' about my life goals and dreams.  true story.  Plus, seeing "The American" with some friends.  Terrible movie.  I'll leave it at that.  George Clooney is hot.  Nuff said.

So now, I'm back at it.  Luckily, I only have to teach one day this week..ie today...because of holidays.  Actually, I'm 'teaching' right now.  Awesome.  I gotta do the bakery thing tomorrow morning, but after that I got nothing 'scheduled' until Saturday market day.  And my sis is coming Friday!  Yay!  So, this week should be alot better than last week.  Time to get ahead on my prep work and hopefully bite the bullet and get internet for my apartment.

Oh!  And running!  Today, I did 10 miles before work around the flat-ness of my parents' house.  Tonite, I'm planning another 4-5 more, depending on my timing and motivation level.  Plus, a trip to Verizon to get a NEW PHONE.  Yeah, my phone is from high school.  True story.  This is an epic day.  Even though I've already been to 2 verizon stores today with no luck, I'm determined to make it work tonite when I'm back in my town.  Yes, this is the plan.

Ok, I gotta go finish my workday!
 Yayyya!

Friday, September 3, 2010

37- almost there....

One more day until I can finally catch my breath!  I can't believe that I've almost made it!

Today was crazy like the rest of my week.  Starting with being at the bakery by 4:30am, followed be teaching, running, and rushing off to a work meeting.  And now, coffee shop blogging.  My run was actually really solid though.  I only had time for a 5 miler, and debated skipping it cuz I was so sleepy and I knew that was "all" I had time for, but I'm so glad I got out there.  I felt really good, and my splits were spot on: 7:46 pace; 8:02, 8:08, 7:47, 7:31, 7:20.  Y'all know that I NEVER negative split but it felt really natural today, which was nice.  And, I showered and was out there door to my meeting in about 3 minutes.  Heck yes.

Now, I have about 0.1seconds to do online stuff before heading back home and packing all my crap up.  Market day tomorrow.  The plan is to be all ready and packed so that when I go to work at 4:30am I can be ready to leave to drive up north when I get off at 5pm.  It is going to be a quick 2 day trip up, but I'm so excited.  I need to leave the stress of this week behind and regroup.  Happiness.

Ok, that's all I got!  Have a good one! :)

Thursday, September 2, 2010

38- is it saturday night yet?

Seriously, this has been the hardest week ever.  I don't want to turn this blog into a festival of  how busy and stressed I am (cuz c'mon, aren't we all?) but this week has been very tough.  Long hours at school, too many bakery shifts, plus fitting in runs. 

So yesterday....
Yeah, crazy.  I worked 4:45am-9am at the bakery, drove to work, had a TERRIBLE day teaching my students from 10-4:30 where everything just went *wrong* despite my best intensions to plan 'fun' hands-on stuff, drove home to my parents, was running alittle after 5pm, and was back at school by 7pm for "Back to School Night."  Spent 2 hours being intimidated by parents who are twice my age, while trying to pretend like all of their children hadn't driven my nuts today.  Then, got back to my parents' house by 10pm.  I think I was asleep by 10:30pm.  No joke.

The best part is that I planned to do my "mini" long run this morning, early before work around my parents' house.  I don't want to wait until Sunday because I'll be up north and I want to just do up north things and not worry about devoting 3 hours to running on Sunday morning (my one full day there).  So this morning was my only option.  I settled on a 20 mile day- 15 this morning, and 5 tonite back at run club with my friends.  So after my day from hell yesterday, I dragged my butt out of bed at 5:30am and went....

Let me tell you- it was a GOOD run.  I think maybe it was the fact that I just had to *run* for 2 hours and not think about anything, but I really was feeling "on" from start to finish.  I decided that I never felt *fast* per-say, but SMOOTH.  It is that smooth feeling that I have been lacking lately, and this morning I finally felt it.  I have a love-hate relationship with the area I grew up in - it is true suburbia, flat roads, concrete, and all the roads are in neat little square miles.  So it is always a matter of doing "4 squares" (4 miles) or "6 squares" or whatever.  Today, it was a 14 square with some tacked on at the end.  I felt so light starting out, but lately that has been the case and then I die 3 miles in.  Today, I told myself that I wanted to feel equally good at the end of the run as I did at the start.  And honestly, I did.  The only regret was that I didn't have more time to make it a 20 because my splits were consistant and I felt so good.  But, it was ok to sort of leave it at a good run.  My Garmin died at 14.91 miles, which was ironic, but OK.  Ended up being a 8:13 pace, but the best part is that all the miles were + or - 10 seconds, rather than starting off at 7:40s and ending at 8:40s as I have been doing.  Good run.  Very satisfied.

Oh!  Funny story- so I ran near the shadier Southeast corner of the city and found this coffee bar called "The Hot Spot".  Literally, it is tiny booth in the middle of a parking lot.  They were advertising "Bikini Thursdays" so I looked in the booth as I ran by (and cuz there was like 100 cars lined up in the drive thru line) and all the baristas were wearing tiny bathing suits!  Random much?  I guess that's one way to wake up in the morning!

The rest of my day was spent trying to do damage control at work from all the activities-gone-bad yesterday and trying not to kill my students...i kid...sort of.....

Then, I fought horrid traffic to get back to Thursday night group to run with a couple of friends.  We chatted through 5 miles, it was nice to be back.

Overall, good running day.  Finally.  Now, I just have two more crazy days until my 'weekend'.  I'm so ready.

One last thing.  Today, I was feeling super stressed and thinking about all that is going on while I was running, and I sort of just paused for a second and gave myself permission to be really happy and proud of myself.  Yeah, that sounds totally cheesy and it is!  But it made me feel so good.  How many people would have a day like my yesterday, and still fit a run in?  Then, get up extra early to run long before a full day of work?  And pick up extra shifts at the bakery to help out?  I really appreciated myself and my work ethic- something I never do, even inside my head because I think of it as being stuck-up or something.  Even though no one but me knows.  I say this not because I think I'm so great or anything, but because I know alot of you are like me, with big committments, crazy time schedules, and lots on your plates.  Take a minute to be really impressed with all you are tackling!  Is it silly?  Maybe.  But that's OK because only you have to know! ;)

Ok, alarm is set for 3:43am.  I gotta get home and to sleep!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

39- longest day of my life

See title.  I need sleeps.  Update tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

41/40 - no internet, craziness

So my internet is officially non-existant like it was this summer.  And this week is so busy I have zero time to coffee-shop blog, but I stopped in anyway tonite because I needed to do some other stuff, I didn't want y'all not to be updated! ;)

Ok, running first.  Hmmm, not terrible, but not great.  Yesterday I did my normal recovery thing- 11 miles split into 5 at 4am, and 6 post bakery and teaching.  The morning run felt great- my fastest early morning run yet, 8:02 pace.  It was so freeing to fly through the dark streets as I hadn't done *that* early of a run in ages.  After work, I decided not to sit in traffic on the freeway and instead got some work done, drove one mile from my school to a random Meijer, parking-lot changed, and was off.  I ran up to the bank, cashed a check, and kept running- laughing at the cars that were actually moving slower than I was running!  This run didn't feel 'effortless' per say, but fairly good at 7:44 pace.  It was nice to drive home at 7pm and not have to sit in traffic too, plus have my run done.  Then I crashed by 9pm after being up since 3:45am.

Today, I hit up a good, hilly 10 miles this morning.  Down to campus and back out.  Campus is getting busier as classes are starting soon.  My legs never felt great, but not too bad either.  I think it was 8:20 pace or so.  This afternoon I busted out of work to try to beat traffic, but no such luck.  It is 95 degrees here, so I decided to hit up some trails to do a few miles of shakeout but ended up getting stuck in more traffic to get to the trails.  Then, once I got changed and headed off, I realized at the trailhead about 1/2 mile from my car that the trails were closed!?! WTF.  Yeah.  So I ran 4 miles basically around in circles on this short trail and up this cliff and back down.  8:10 pace, so not terrible.  My legs were stiff.

So life stuff.  Yeah, like I said before, this week is crazy.  My tomorrow is complete madness.  Bakery at 5am, teaching a long day, squeezing in a run, then rushing to get all ready (at my parents' house =closer) for "Parent's Night"from 8pm-9pm where I have to look teacher-y and legit even after being at work all day.  Yeah, wish me luck with that.  Then drive home.  Oye.

School is good, but wild.  My students are extremely energetic and I'm really trying to do a good job this year.  Which is causing more stress and work for me.  But in a good way, I guess because it means I care.  We'll see how long I can keep it up!

Ok, gotta run and pack the 1000 outfits I need for the day ahead tomorrow!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

42- caught up....for now.

Today was totally the day I've been dreaming about for....weeks....I got a chance to catch up on stuff and deep clean my apartment, as well as pack up and actually feel ready for the week.  As in, all my prep is done for all 5 days, yay, plus my apartment looks great and is complete with fresh sheets and towels (which doesn't happen nearly as much as it should....)  And I cooked a local organic chicken I bought from a farmer at the market yesterday.  So I have meat for the whole week!  Or atleast a few days....And I slept for 12 hours.  Double what I've gotten the last week per night.  nicccce.

Basically, all is going well- except running.  I took this week super-easy, including *gasp* a couple of days off, and decided today just to do a 'run' not a 'long run.'  But it was bad.  8 miles and the last two seriously were torture.  I don't know how I've gone so downhill in the last week or two, but I have.  And I'm freaking out.  I only have 6 weeks and I feel like I've gained nothing from my training and am worse off than ever.  And it sucks.  And I don't know what to do anymore.  I'm going to jump back on my training schedule tomorrow, but my confidence is way down at this point.  We will see how it goes.....

Tomorrow marks day 1 of my 4 bakery shifts this week on top of teaching.  So its 6am-10am bakery, 10am-11am drive, 11:15am-4:45pm teach.  Then, I'm going to try to make all my copies at school after work and probably run around there.  Then drive home when traffic is clear so I can maintain my sanity!  Ha, we will see if that happens too!

I'm out! After a productive day, I'm going to read and relax before the craziness begins!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

43 - i got nothing part 2.

Yeah, I'm a bad blogger.  I'm just too tired to write anything.  Working 4:30am-5pm today was tiring, but fun.  I actually love the market, such a good vibe.

I will write more tomorrow, I promise.  For now, I'm off to bed and SLEEPING IN!  My weekend is finally here!

Friday, August 27, 2010

44- i got nothing.

My brain is fried from being up super early (3:45am), working both jobs, and trying to actually be productive this evening so I don't have to prep alll day on my one-day weekend Sunday.  I think I'll just leave it at that and go to bed.  It may be only 7:30pm, but the alarm is set for 3:30am tomorrow morning......

Happy Weekend! :)

Thursday, August 26, 2010

45- True Life: I'm addicted to the Kroger 10 for 10

For those of you that don't have the pleasure of having a Kroger grocery store by you, allow me to enlighten you about the magic that is the 10 for 10.  This means that something in the store is on sale 10 item for 10$.  Although I get the majority of all of the food I eat now at the Farmer's market and I buy about 95% local, I am hopelessly addicted to grapes.  So, today as I went into Kroger for something I need for my class tomorrow, I got ridiculous excited because grapes were 10lbs for 10$.  So I bought 6lbs of grapes.  For 6$.  I'm hoping that they atleast last me a week, but I'm not counting on it....

In other news, I survived my first day!  I was actually pretty fun, although tiring.  I'm teaching 5 classes and my voice is seriously sore from yammering on about syllabi and class policies and such.  I'm just really glad to have it behind me.  My classes are much bigger than last year (by private school standards) so I have lots of names to learn and more management (ugh) to do.  But, all the kids seem decent so I'm pretty pumped.  Plus, I like being around them.  It's a lot of work, but at the same time I sometimes laugh about the fact that they are paying me!  Unfortunately, school goes later this year until 4:45 rather than 4:30 so my just-bearly-beating-traffic of last year doesn't happen and I get stuck in horrendous traffic now getting home.  I'm not good at traffic.  Or being patient.  The commute is already 40 minutes on a perfect day, and now it is another hour to get home.  Which is a bummer.

And running.  I did that today.  This morning actually.  Felt bad still.  boo.  I dont' know what's up with me...

Tomorrow = crazy.  I'm up at 3:45 to get to the bakery before 5am to work a short shift until 9am to be teaching by 10am. And then run after. Atleast it is Friday, which is really my Thursday because I gotta market it up on Saturday.  Good times.

I'm out to prep and pack all my crap up for the day.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

46- tomorrow's the day!

After 3 days of meetings, we finally have students tomorrow!  I'm ready, but nervous.  I've never had a 'first day of school' as a teacher because I came one month into the year last year.  Plus, my 7th graders scare the crap out of me because I SO don't know middle school.  Oh well, it will feel good to get started.  Today was orientation for students, and I must say it was nice to see some of my students from last year.  When they ran up to me and were super excited it was a pretty good feeling.  Just sayin'.

Anddd, since I came to my parents house to download music (long story) and am staying tonite (closer to work anyway), and my mom came home from work needing to go work out, I went for a SHORT run with her today.  Plus lifting alittle.  I'm hoping to resume regularly scheduled running and I'm hoping the last couple of days will make me refreshed and ready to go.

Ok, I gotta go get ready for tomorrow!  I'm nervous but excited!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

47- gotta know when to hold 'em

Well, I took the advice of my two commentors (as well as the advice that my own intuition was already giving me) and didn't run today.  Honestly, I didn't like the fact that I have been feeling like a slave to my training schedule.  Like if I don't stick to it exactly, I'm a 'slacker' or a bad runner.  I didn't like the OCD-ness I was feeling.  Since I began training 8+ weeks ago, my only rest day is when I worked for 12 hours, then drove 4 hours up-north.  And, although I don't think I need alot of rest days and I do like the feeling of a 'running streak' I don't feel like my head has been in a healthy place the last week or so and has caused me to be a complete slave to my milage.  So, today I didn't run.  And, I don't think I will tomorrow either.  That way I will for sure not hit my milage total for the week and will just have to get over it!  I'm alittle less than 7 weeks out from Chicago and I KNOW I've put in the base work.  Now, I just need to fine tune my legs.  But really this 'break' (ie 2 days) has about 10% to do with how I'm feeling physically, and 90% about my mental state right now.  Running is my favorite thing in the world.  I plan to keep it that way for as long as possible. :)

But enough of that ramble...

This was all decided at about 3:30am, when I knew my alarm would be going off at 4:30am for a run.  So, I reset it for the 'late' hour of 6:30.  Nice.  Today was professional development #2.  I actually got really physched to teach today.  I got the new books for my 7th graders and something about getting to work with brand new text books gets the nerd in me all excited!  I'm actually really nervous about teaching middle school.  My only experience last year was teaching girls middle school PE once a week.  I'm totally not good at interacting with little kids and I'm having a hard time getting the planning down (ie they have limited study/notetaking skills to work with.)  Anyway, me and the other science teacher talked and I'm feeling a bit better about stuff.  Plus, I'm much more organized now.  Still alot to do, but I feel like I'm clearing a path and have a direction!

One more day of meetings tomorrow, before it all begins!  Students arrive on Thursday!  Yikes!

Hope everyone has a good night!