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!

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!

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!

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! :)

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.

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!

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!