While my first week of Kindergarten was largely successful, and I have a great group of 5-year-olds, I am still really glad it's a three day weekend. I'm going to be honest with you: I went to bed at 8:45 last night, and it was all I could do to make it that far. I also woke up [10 hours later] with a sore throat and a stuffy nose, so...that's awesome too (and not very surprising. Kindergarteners not very concerned with personal hygiene. Or personal space.) I am not going to write too much about my students, because I could then just end up writing page after page of anecdotes, so I am going to TRY to stick to the topic at hand: my triathlon.
Because the triathlon is on Monday, this week was a pretty light week of training. Thank goodness for that, because I spent a lot of time at school. I considered it as a "win" if I left before 6:00, which didn't happen until Thursday, and I was there by 7:00 every morning. Add in the 20-25 minute commute there, the 35-40 minute commute home, and the pure exhaustion of hanging with 20 feral children all day, and you might understand my lack of enthusiasm for training. I skipped my swim on Monday, mostly because the window of time that I had to use the neighborhood pool was too small for me to fit it in before school, and that window closed at 10:00 AM. If I had really cared to, I could have rejoined L.A. Fitness and gone in the evening, but it would have only been for that one swim, which just seemed silly. I did my scheduled bike ride on Wednesday with Rob after we had dinner (he cooked that night, bless him) and I will be doing a short run today and a short bike tomorrow.
I wish I could be more excited about this triathlon, but with so much going on the last three weeks and with such a packed schedule, training has been on the back-back burner. I'm finding myself dreading Monday rather than being excited about it like I have been for my other events. It's not that I think I can't do it, I just don't think I can do it as well as I could have if I had really been more disciplined this last month.
I think I'm also nervous about transitioning. One of Rob's bosses was talking to him about triathlons and was asking him if I had a body suit (no), waterproof socks (no), etc. (mostly no). I didn't think about the fact that my feet will be wet after the swim, which will probably result in blisters when I switch to the bike, unless I take the time to dry them off. That's what I am going to end up doing, I guess, because I really don't care about my time and blisters are no bueno, especially for a girl on her feet all day long. I think I will probably stick to purely running or purely biking events from now on. It just seems simpler to me to not have to switch gears partway through an event.
I shall write a race report, so keep an eye out for that:)
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Three weeks to go!
I'm really starting to slack here! Stuff has been crazy. On Wednesday of last week, I finally heard from HR. First, let me give a little bit of background: each state has their own awesome, unique way of judging whether or not a teacher is qualified to teach in that state. In Alabama, I was required to take 2 tests to prove that I was smart enough to teach elementary school, and I had to take the tests before I could be certified to teach in Alabama (hence the reason I didn't get a job in AL-- no time between UF graduation and the start of the school year.) I was thrilled when I moved to Texas and realized they offered a one-year temporary certification for out of staters like myself. Basically, I have to take 3 tests here for a standard certification, but if I paid $150 extra I could be certified almost immediately and start applying for jobs. Then I had a whole year to take those three tests. So that's what I did and I thought I was all set, but then HR informed me on Wednesday that in order to be "highly qualified" (a caveat of No Child Left Behind) I needed to take one of those tests before they could write me a contract. Lovely.
So I scrambled to find a test within an hour or two driving distance and the soonest one I could find was on Monday near downtown Houston. I passed, got my scores on Tuesday, but HR didn't get my scores until Thursday (and they wouldn't take my word for it, of course, even though I sent them a copy of my score report.) Then on Friday, after they got my scores (again), HR told my principal that they needed ANOTHER reference, from a "supervisor" and the supervisor had to be someone who supervised me in relation to teaching. I had already given them the only people I've actually worked for in the last 4 years related to children, so I gave them my study abroad supervisors name from when I taught 3rd graders for a few weeks in Plymouth. She is on vacation until Monday, so I can't go to the new teacher orientation Monday morning. It is such a racket, but I still have a job, so I am just trying to take it all in stride. I am going to be going in on Monday afternoon to get better acquainted and meet everyone, which is fine, but I'm going to have to do the orientation at some point, I assume.
Training has been going smoothly, and my neck healed rather quickly. I did end up biking the Saturday after my last post with minimal pain, and it feels 98% better now. This week has been pretty grueling, and I'm not scheduled to have another off day until next Thursday (my last rest day was on Sunday.) But some of the workouts are so easy that it almost counts as a rest day. Yesterday's swim, for example, was only 1200 meters at an easy pace, and no more than 300 m without a 10-20 second break. I also redid all of my time trials to see how they compared to the ones I did a few weeks ago, and, much to my disappointment, only my bike time improved (I shaved close to two minutes off of that!) My 400 m swim was slower by 10s and my 3k run was slower by 31s. I guess overall my time improved though, so I'll just think of it that way:) Also, this training plan says "aim for your race pace" during the test runs, and my race pace is "moving." I'm not aiming for a particular time, so as long as I'm moving I'm "on pace."
Today was pretty rough, partly because I only got 5.5 hours of sleep last night, but partly because it was another "BRICK" workout, and I find transitioning from one discipline to another very difficult. I have no idea how people do ironman competitions...or even half iron mans (iron men?) I biked 17.08 miles and then ran 2.82 miles and I was totally beat by the time I got home.
Rob is off golfing with his friend Andrew, who is visiting from Birmingham for the weekend. They are going go kart racing later, but I think I might opt out for a nap:)
So I scrambled to find a test within an hour or two driving distance and the soonest one I could find was on Monday near downtown Houston. I passed, got my scores on Tuesday, but HR didn't get my scores until Thursday (and they wouldn't take my word for it, of course, even though I sent them a copy of my score report.) Then on Friday, after they got my scores (again), HR told my principal that they needed ANOTHER reference, from a "supervisor" and the supervisor had to be someone who supervised me in relation to teaching. I had already given them the only people I've actually worked for in the last 4 years related to children, so I gave them my study abroad supervisors name from when I taught 3rd graders for a few weeks in Plymouth. She is on vacation until Monday, so I can't go to the new teacher orientation Monday morning. It is such a racket, but I still have a job, so I am just trying to take it all in stride. I am going to be going in on Monday afternoon to get better acquainted and meet everyone, which is fine, but I'm going to have to do the orientation at some point, I assume.
Training has been going smoothly, and my neck healed rather quickly. I did end up biking the Saturday after my last post with minimal pain, and it feels 98% better now. This week has been pretty grueling, and I'm not scheduled to have another off day until next Thursday (my last rest day was on Sunday.) But some of the workouts are so easy that it almost counts as a rest day. Yesterday's swim, for example, was only 1200 meters at an easy pace, and no more than 300 m without a 10-20 second break. I also redid all of my time trials to see how they compared to the ones I did a few weeks ago, and, much to my disappointment, only my bike time improved (I shaved close to two minutes off of that!) My 400 m swim was slower by 10s and my 3k run was slower by 31s. I guess overall my time improved though, so I'll just think of it that way:) Also, this training plan says "aim for your race pace" during the test runs, and my race pace is "moving." I'm not aiming for a particular time, so as long as I'm moving I'm "on pace."
Today was pretty rough, partly because I only got 5.5 hours of sleep last night, but partly because it was another "BRICK" workout, and I find transitioning from one discipline to another very difficult. I have no idea how people do ironman competitions...or even half iron mans (iron men?) I biked 17.08 miles and then ran 2.82 miles and I was totally beat by the time I got home.
Rob is off golfing with his friend Andrew, who is visiting from Birmingham for the weekend. They are going go kart racing later, but I think I might opt out for a nap:)
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