Well, readers... it has been far too long. I have officially made it through the first quarter of the year with my sanity in tact (I think). With each passing day, I fall a little bit more in love with my students (well, most of them anyway) and grow a little bit more frustrated with our broken school system. But that is a topic for another [anonymous!] blog.
I didn't completely fall off the exercise wagon once my triathlon training was over. Most weekends I managed to get a decent workout in on both days, and I (usually) convinced myself to run 2-3 miles at least one of the nights during the work week. Now it's time to get serious again, because on Monday I am starting the training for my next half marathon. I will be running the Mercedes Half Marathon in B'ham on February 15th. I haven't quite figured out how to prepare for a hilly race in a flat land, but I am thinking I will just work in some stadium runs here and there. I am also toying with the idea of just continuing training after that race and then doing another Rock n' Roll Marathon (Nashville) in April with Carleen...:)
I was thinking it would be really difficult to train like I did for the marathon because I just don't have as much time, and my job can be really exhausting, so I did a trial run this week: I ran after school three times (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) and did roughly three miles each time. I actually found that I was much more cheerful and energetic throughout the week. It could be a coincidence, but I am going to tell myself it was because of the boost in endorphin production. Monday's run was horrifying because I am a fool. I work about 20 minutes away from our house and I decided I was going to find a park near the school that I could run in, so I turned to google maps. I saw a nice green splotch called Cullinin Park that I thought I would try out. Great idea, right?
Wrong. In the parking lot, I was a little weirded out that there were all these scary-looking large bearded men just sitting in cars or standing around the picnic tables. But then I convinced myself that I was just being a wimp with an over-zealous imagination and started my run on the trail. Then, I promptly proceeded got horribly, disconcertingly lost. Which would have been fine, really, had the trail been a nice, well maintained path. Instead it was a very overgrown, ant-infested trail with potholes cleverly hidden beneath a hay-like grass mat. If I slowed from a jog to a walk, I was immediately assaulted by a trillion bugs, so I had to keep moving. Still, I would have been fine had I not stumbled upon the "shelters." After 15 minutes of bewildered running, I came across several lean-to type structures made from big blue tarps. The ground was littered with beer bottles, and since I stumbled upon the first lean-to from the back, I had no way of telling if there was some crazy homeless mass-murderer waiting behind that tarp to rape and maim me or not. So I panicked and left the woods immediately, even though the road I was closest to was nowhere near where I had parked my car.
Conveniently, I had left my phone (and everything else) in my car, and I hadn't really studied a map of the surrounding area before traipsing off into the woods (silly me assumed it was a well maintained and marked park!) Luckily, I saw a man a few hundred yards down by a stream who was fishing with his kids. I asked him if he had a phone I could borrow to look at a map (as a child of the technology age, I assume everyone under the age of 50 has a smartphone) and he said he didn't have anything with him, that his wife had everything in the car with her, and that she would be back shortly. I asked him if he could just point be back to the one road I knew (Hwy 6) and he couldn't do that either. He did point me in the rough direction of the entrance to the park, so I entered the woods again. Then I got lost again, and continued to run another 1.5 miles until I popped out of the woods again, only to realize that I was roughly a quarter mile down the road from where I came out last time! SERIOUSLY DISTRESSING.
Now I was somewhere really near panic mode. I had twisted my ankle twice and was pretty sure I had at least 13 strains of poison ivy on my body, plus it was starting to get dark. As I looked around and contemplated hitchhiking, I saw with joy that there was a car now by by bridge where the family was fishing. His wife had returned with a phone! If nothing else I could call Rob and ask him to save me. But then it dawned on me that I don't have his new phone number memorized. I knew the first six numbers, but could not for the life of me remember the last four (you can be darn sure I know it now!) I thought I would still ask her if I could look at a map on her phone. Sadly, when I asked she informed me that she did not have a smartphone. I was really near tears at this point and she must have felt bad for me, because she offered to drive me back to my car out of the kindness of her heart. I have to pay that one forward sometime soon. When we got back to my car, many of the creepy guys that were there when I started the run over an hour ago were still there, so I've concluded that it is a drug dealer spot and that there are, in fact, frightening places in Sugar Land, TX.
Needless to say, I will not be returning to that particular location to run again. My poor ankle still hurts when I roll it too far in any direction, and I did get some wicked poison ivy on my left ankle, plus a plethora of bug bites and scratches all over my legs and face. I plan to write a strongly worded letter to the Parks&Rec department ASAP. They should at least put up a sign that says "Warning: Makeshift Ghetto."
Wednesday and yesterday, I ran in my good ol' safe neighborhood. Next week, when training really starts, I will try some other routes near school, maybe leaving straight from school rather than driving somewhere else first. I'm looking forward to following a schedule again!
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Rainy Run & the Busy Life
It's raining in Texas. We're talking longer-than-30-seconds kind of rain. It rained yesterday for much of the day and all through the night. It continued to rain this morning, which I had been planning to spend biking. Instead, I ran in the rain. I did five miles, which is the longest I have run since my marathon. It's crazy to think that almost exactly three months ago I ran 26.2 miles, because...five miles was kiiiinnd of a challenge. Of course, my run this morning was made all the more challenging because of the small sidewalk-lakes I ran through and the gales of wind. I saw four other runners while I was out, and I noticed a roughly 80% increase in the camaraderie betwixt us; we were all so thrilled to discover that we weren't the sole crazy person on the planet! I grinned like a maniac when I passed the first fellow rain runner, and he grinned back at me (relax, he was old and not cute.) It was possibly the most pleasant run I have had in Texas so far; it was cool AND I didn't need a flashlight--two things that are have been mutually exclusive up to this point. Fall must be here!
I told myself when I started working that I would exercise twice during the week and twice during the weekends for a total of four days a week. That's not terribly ambitious, right? I figured I could at least do that, and probably do more each week. Sadly, I have consistently run only one time during the week, and last weekend I didn't really do much at all because we were in Florida visiting my parents and going to see Mumford and Sons (yes, they were awesome.) I did go on two three-mile walks with my dad, and I did spend a lot of time on my feet for the concert, but still...I'm not even sticking to my low goal! Here are my excuses: 1) It is freaking hard to wake up at 5:00 in the morning, especially with how much I sleep these days. 2) It is even harder to convince myself to run after spending an entire day with 21 kindergarteners. They are exhausting little boogers! 3) It's always so hot when I leave school anyway, and 4) I usually don't get out of there until 4:30-5:00 so I need to head home to make dinner for Rob and myself because it's a 25-30 minute commute. So there. Excuses, excuses. I am hoping that once it starts cooling off I can ask Rob to be in charge of dinner a couple times a week (which he has already offered to do.)
Despite the fact that I am exercising way less, I am under 130 lbs for the first time since high school. I think it's because I am on my feet most of the day, and even if I sit down it's a max time of 10 minutes before I am up again. Then there's the kneeling down, standing up, squatting down, standing up, sitting on the floor, standing up, dancing, singing, shouting, walking, stressing, etc., that comes with being a kindergarten teacher... I just think I burn more calories during the day and I have much less time to think about food (but I do eat a lot more crap food, because there is always crap food available. I had two birthdays in my class yesterday, so I had a cookie and a cupcake. Yes, I did.)
We had Open House at school this week and it went pretty well. About half of the parents showed up, but of course only one of the five parents that I felt I really needed to talk to showed up. Hopefully the rest will show up for parent/teacher conferences on October 3rd. I received a lot of nice compliments from the parents that came in about how much their kid loves me/coming to school and how glad they are that I am their child's teacher, yada yada. I even had one parent compliment me on being organized, which was odd because I don't think I am organized at all. And the students who came were all SO excited to see me, like they hadn't just seen me three hours before. All of that almost made the 14 hour day worth it! Almost.
I told myself when I started working that I would exercise twice during the week and twice during the weekends for a total of four days a week. That's not terribly ambitious, right? I figured I could at least do that, and probably do more each week. Sadly, I have consistently run only one time during the week, and last weekend I didn't really do much at all because we were in Florida visiting my parents and going to see Mumford and Sons (yes, they were awesome.) I did go on two three-mile walks with my dad, and I did spend a lot of time on my feet for the concert, but still...I'm not even sticking to my low goal! Here are my excuses: 1) It is freaking hard to wake up at 5:00 in the morning, especially with how much I sleep these days. 2) It is even harder to convince myself to run after spending an entire day with 21 kindergarteners. They are exhausting little boogers! 3) It's always so hot when I leave school anyway, and 4) I usually don't get out of there until 4:30-5:00 so I need to head home to make dinner for Rob and myself because it's a 25-30 minute commute. So there. Excuses, excuses. I am hoping that once it starts cooling off I can ask Rob to be in charge of dinner a couple times a week (which he has already offered to do.)
Despite the fact that I am exercising way less, I am under 130 lbs for the first time since high school. I think it's because I am on my feet most of the day, and even if I sit down it's a max time of 10 minutes before I am up again. Then there's the kneeling down, standing up, squatting down, standing up, sitting on the floor, standing up, dancing, singing, shouting, walking, stressing, etc., that comes with being a kindergarten teacher... I just think I burn more calories during the day and I have much less time to think about food (but I do eat a lot more crap food, because there is always crap food available. I had two birthdays in my class yesterday, so I had a cookie and a cupcake. Yes, I did.)
We had Open House at school this week and it went pretty well. About half of the parents showed up, but of course only one of the five parents that I felt I really needed to talk to showed up. Hopefully the rest will show up for parent/teacher conferences on October 3rd. I received a lot of nice compliments from the parents that came in about how much their kid loves me/coming to school and how glad they are that I am their child's teacher, yada yada. I even had one parent compliment me on being organized, which was odd because I don't think I am organized at all. And the students who came were all SO excited to see me, like they hadn't just seen me three hours before. All of that almost made the 14 hour day worth it! Almost.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Sprint Triathlon Race Report
Finally! A minute to write a race report! First, some pictures:
I know, as always I am super photogenic. I don't need to be told twice. Please note the two ancient men that I passed during my run...gosh, I am so fantastic.
As you know, I completed my first triathlon on Monday. Conveniently, Monday was also the day that my little head cold was at it's peak. I'm guessing I left a LOT of snot behind in that lake!
I got up at 5:00, so that we could leave by 5:30. Thanks to the dogs, we didn't actually leave until 5:45, so I made us take the tollway. Shout out to my wonderful husband for getting up that early and supporting me through this event. I am so darn lucky to have him that I almost can't stand it! Even though my wave didn't start until 8:30 or so, they closed the transition area down at 7:10, so we had to be out of there by then. Because this was my first triathlon, I really had no idea what to expect from the transition area--I had actually imagined there would be two areas, one for after the swim and one for after the bike. Luckily, the race planners were much smarter than me, and created a course of loops that allowed us to do both transitions in one convenient location.
After we got all my stuff organized around my bike, we sat around for an hour and a half watching the waves for the Olympic Distance depart. Then they let almost everyone else go before the Women Under 35 group for the Sprint Distance. Finally I got in the water and waited for the air horn to announce it was time to start swimming. The swim part a pretty simple "V" course that cut off most of the 1500 m course the Olympic distance participants completed. It was terrifying. All those people kicking and splashing and pushing in the water, and I couldn't touch the bottom! I seriously almost hyperventilated. My panic attack didn't end until I crawled up on the bank again, and the only way I even finished the 400 meters (which is absurdly short--most Sprint tri's are 750m) was by rolling over on to my back every 30 seconds or so and doing a couple of backstrokes. I was not at all prepared for the chaos of the swim. In perfect honesty, my first words out of the water were "HOLY SH*T!!" The volunteer helping me up laughed and said, "Honey, you're just getting started." Awesome.
The swim was so bad, that I said I would never do another tri because of it. I would gladly do dualathons (run/bike) but NOT another tri...until I spoke to the science teacher at my school, who had a similar feeling about triathlons after her first one. She said what she learned to do was start at the back of the pack when they release your wave. Then she let everyone go, and if she lost a minute off of her swim time she knew she would make it up later on the bike or run. It was a very compelling argument. Soooo...maybe. Maybe another one.
The bike was great, except for right at the beginning. I tried to get on my bike and realized the chain was off. I'm sure I could have figured it out on my own, but once again I panicked and yelled, "Can anyone fix this??"" Thankfully, there was a volunteer there that put it back on in a jiffy for me, and (bless him) didn't laugh in my face. After that it was great. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty decent biker. Even without the fancy clip shoes that let you push and pull while pedaling and with a heavier aluminum frame, I was passing a lot of people (I passed a girl on a beach cruiser too, so I didn't have the heaviest bike on the course by any stretch). I think the reason I feel like a strong biker is because I just love biking. It is very rewarding to go so fast using only your own energy and a fairly simple machine. Plus, by that point I had cleared all the snot out of my system. I only wish I had brought some water. I really thought my throat was blistering inside. It got to the point where I almost asked a girl I was passing if I could have a quick shot of her water, but I thought she might not appreciate that.
The run was okay too, and there was a lot of water along that part of the course. They also decided to put two GU stations up there, which didn't make sense to me. Why in the world would I want two GU's to finish a 5k? Even the 10k runners wouldn't need that. I would have put one GU station at the swim-bike transition myself, but who am I? I finished the race strong, which felt great. The only problem was that by that point (10:00-10:30ish) it was definitely Texas Hot again. I am shocked I didn't get a sunburn (forgot the sunblock). I was running with another lady for a little while and she seemed to be struggling too, so I said "The run after everything else is brutal!" She chatted with me for a few minutes and then sped up, and that's when I saw the Ironman tattoo on her back. She probably thought I was a serious wimp.
I had expected to finish around 1:20:00-1:30:00 not including transitions, so I am pretty happy with my 1:32:11 total time, especially because of the head cold. I went home and showered, didn't even brush my hair, and laid in bed for the next five hours. I didn't sleep much because I suck at napping, but I still rested. I'm definitely on the upswing now, but I'm still coughing up a lot of gross stuff. TMI, I know.
Next on the agenda is the Birmingham Mercedes Marathon in February, which means I don't officially start training until the end of October. That is a wonderful thing, because I feel like I have no time around this crazy job right now. It will get easier, and hopefully sooner rather than later. I will be aiming to do four days of exercise (biking or running) per week until then, but it will be much less pressure. As always, thanks for reading.
As you know, I completed my first triathlon on Monday. Conveniently, Monday was also the day that my little head cold was at it's peak. I'm guessing I left a LOT of snot behind in that lake!
I got up at 5:00, so that we could leave by 5:30. Thanks to the dogs, we didn't actually leave until 5:45, so I made us take the tollway. Shout out to my wonderful husband for getting up that early and supporting me through this event. I am so darn lucky to have him that I almost can't stand it! Even though my wave didn't start until 8:30 or so, they closed the transition area down at 7:10, so we had to be out of there by then. Because this was my first triathlon, I really had no idea what to expect from the transition area--I had actually imagined there would be two areas, one for after the swim and one for after the bike. Luckily, the race planners were much smarter than me, and created a course of loops that allowed us to do both transitions in one convenient location.
After we got all my stuff organized around my bike, we sat around for an hour and a half watching the waves for the Olympic Distance depart. Then they let almost everyone else go before the Women Under 35 group for the Sprint Distance. Finally I got in the water and waited for the air horn to announce it was time to start swimming. The swim part a pretty simple "V" course that cut off most of the 1500 m course the Olympic distance participants completed. It was terrifying. All those people kicking and splashing and pushing in the water, and I couldn't touch the bottom! I seriously almost hyperventilated. My panic attack didn't end until I crawled up on the bank again, and the only way I even finished the 400 meters (which is absurdly short--most Sprint tri's are 750m) was by rolling over on to my back every 30 seconds or so and doing a couple of backstrokes. I was not at all prepared for the chaos of the swim. In perfect honesty, my first words out of the water were "HOLY SH*T!!" The volunteer helping me up laughed and said, "Honey, you're just getting started." Awesome.
The swim was so bad, that I said I would never do another tri because of it. I would gladly do dualathons (run/bike) but NOT another tri...until I spoke to the science teacher at my school, who had a similar feeling about triathlons after her first one. She said what she learned to do was start at the back of the pack when they release your wave. Then she let everyone go, and if she lost a minute off of her swim time she knew she would make it up later on the bike or run. It was a very compelling argument. Soooo...maybe. Maybe another one.
The bike was great, except for right at the beginning. I tried to get on my bike and realized the chain was off. I'm sure I could have figured it out on my own, but once again I panicked and yelled, "Can anyone fix this??"" Thankfully, there was a volunteer there that put it back on in a jiffy for me, and (bless him) didn't laugh in my face. After that it was great. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty decent biker. Even without the fancy clip shoes that let you push and pull while pedaling and with a heavier aluminum frame, I was passing a lot of people (I passed a girl on a beach cruiser too, so I didn't have the heaviest bike on the course by any stretch). I think the reason I feel like a strong biker is because I just love biking. It is very rewarding to go so fast using only your own energy and a fairly simple machine. Plus, by that point I had cleared all the snot out of my system. I only wish I had brought some water. I really thought my throat was blistering inside. It got to the point where I almost asked a girl I was passing if I could have a quick shot of her water, but I thought she might not appreciate that.
The run was okay too, and there was a lot of water along that part of the course. They also decided to put two GU stations up there, which didn't make sense to me. Why in the world would I want two GU's to finish a 5k? Even the 10k runners wouldn't need that. I would have put one GU station at the swim-bike transition myself, but who am I? I finished the race strong, which felt great. The only problem was that by that point (10:00-10:30ish) it was definitely Texas Hot again. I am shocked I didn't get a sunburn (forgot the sunblock). I was running with another lady for a little while and she seemed to be struggling too, so I said "The run after everything else is brutal!" She chatted with me for a few minutes and then sped up, and that's when I saw the Ironman tattoo on her back. She probably thought I was a serious wimp.
I had expected to finish around 1:20:00-1:30:00 not including transitions, so I am pretty happy with my 1:32:11 total time, especially because of the head cold. I went home and showered, didn't even brush my hair, and laid in bed for the next five hours. I didn't sleep much because I suck at napping, but I still rested. I'm definitely on the upswing now, but I'm still coughing up a lot of gross stuff. TMI, I know.
Next on the agenda is the Birmingham Mercedes Marathon in February, which means I don't officially start training until the end of October. That is a wonderful thing, because I feel like I have no time around this crazy job right now. It will get easier, and hopefully sooner rather than later. I will be aiming to do four days of exercise (biking or running) per week until then, but it will be much less pressure. As always, thanks for reading.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Three Days to Triathlon
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:)
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 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:)
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Sprained neck
I know, it's been a while. I just seem to have lost my desire to blog about every training session. I have still been very active, and this week was particularly taxing. Yesterday I reconfirmed the fact that running far after weeks of running 1-2 times per week is extremely difficult, even if I've been biking or swimming on the other days. I ran 5.55 miles yesterday in exactly one hour and it was a challenge. Part of that may be due to the excessive heat and a part of it may be due to the fact that I sprained my neck the night before while biking to get froyo with Rob. I accidentally went through a pothole, on a road bike, at top speed. I felt the whiplash on my neck, but it didn't really hurt...at least not that night. But when I woke up the next morning, I couldn't move my head more than a few degrees in any direction without feeling some excruciating pain. I thought maybe I had just slept on it funny, so I did my run anyway (probably not a great idea.) During my run I made the connection between the pothole and the pain, did my research when I got home and voila! I determined I had a sprain. Rob confirmed my self-diagnosis when he woke up, him being a veteran of sprained necks and all.
Doctors (online) say it will take up to a month to heal, but personal testimonies say a week or so is more like it. I did skip my bike ride today, and this next upcoming week was supposed to be a recovery week anyway. So, I'll just have to take it extra easy. I will still probably do my easy runs and do stationary bike rides instead of rides on my [way more fun] bike. I will probably skip the swims though, because swimming requires me to turn my head pretty far around. For now I just need to manage the aching until it subsides. They moved the triathlon to Sept. 2 because of a lower-than-expected number of participants. So rather than have the Sprint triathlon on the 1st and the Olympic triathlon on the 2nd, they are just going to do them back-to-back. So I really hope the sprain doesn't take a month to heal, because the race is only five weeks away!
Which means that the start of school is only four weeks away, and I still have not received my official offer from Barrington Place. So, I haven't been able to set up my classroom or meet with the Kindergarten team... nothing. I'm REALLY hoping they will get it all taken care of this week, but even still, it will be a stressful start to the school year :\ But it's good. I have a job, and it's a job I wanted, so I am grateful!
Doctors (online) say it will take up to a month to heal, but personal testimonies say a week or so is more like it. I did skip my bike ride today, and this next upcoming week was supposed to be a recovery week anyway. So, I'll just have to take it extra easy. I will still probably do my easy runs and do stationary bike rides instead of rides on my [way more fun] bike. I will probably skip the swims though, because swimming requires me to turn my head pretty far around. For now I just need to manage the aching until it subsides. They moved the triathlon to Sept. 2 because of a lower-than-expected number of participants. So rather than have the Sprint triathlon on the 1st and the Olympic triathlon on the 2nd, they are just going to do them back-to-back. So I really hope the sprain doesn't take a month to heal, because the race is only five weeks away!
Which means that the start of school is only four weeks away, and I still have not received my official offer from Barrington Place. So, I haven't been able to set up my classroom or meet with the Kindergarten team... nothing. I'm REALLY hoping they will get it all taken care of this week, but even still, it will be a stressful start to the school year :\ But it's good. I have a job, and it's a job I wanted, so I am grateful!
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
New Job! Training updates.
Hello! I hope everyone is doing well this Wednesday morning.
First of all, as many of you have seen on good old Facebook, I finally got a teaching position! I had just resigned myself to substituting until I made myself known in the school districts, when I met an Assistant Principal at a church cookout. She asked me in for an interview, which took place yesterday morning. They called me about an hour after I left to offer me the position! Now I just have to wait for the paperwork to go through the district and the state before I am given an "official" offer. I will be teaching Kindergarten, which wouldn't have been my first choice, but it wouldn't have been my last either! I am so excited to start organizing and decorating my little classroom, and to start planning with the kindergarten team. Today I will be heading to Goodwill to look for bean bag chairs, lamps, and bookshelves, and kindergarten level books. I have also already created a sister blog for my classroom, mostly for the purposes of parent communication. That might mean this blog will be eclipsed, but that is okay because I was only writing to inspire myself to finish a marathon, which I have now done.
I skipped my swim yesterday, because it was raining outside, so I couldn't use the neighborhood pool, and my gym is going through a remodel, so I couldn't use their indoor pool. So I had two rest days in a row, but I think that was necessary. I did a long bike on Saturday (2 hours) and a long run on Sunday (50 minutes) and my body was begging for a break. I really thought incorporating low-impact swimming and biking would help my body stop hurting, but it just makes it hurt in different places. Swimming makes my ankles hurt and my shoulders sore. Biking makes my wrists hurt and my quads sore. I also haven't been stretching as well as I should after swimming and biking, which is probably part of the problem. I also stopped foam rolling altogether until last week and these last few times on that blue torture device have been especially excruciating.
I just did a nice little 30 minute jog. There are only 46 days until the triathlon, and after that I am going to do one of those 5k obstacle races ("Houston Jailbreak") in October. Then I will start training for the half marathon that I am signed up to do in Birmingham in Feburary (the one I was supposed to do last year.) I hope that once I start teaching I don't get too overwhelmed and stop exercising. I need to make sure that doesn't happen, because I'm pretty sure that will help keep me sane. But I know how easy it is to say "I'm tired and busy and just don't feel like exercising today" several days/weeks/months in a row. But my dear husband asked me to divvy up the housework, now that I also have a job, so that he can do his share (isn't he great??) He said he'll do whatever I need, as long as it isn't laundry, which will give me time to squeeze in some runs during the week:)
As always, thanks for reading!
First of all, as many of you have seen on good old Facebook, I finally got a teaching position! I had just resigned myself to substituting until I made myself known in the school districts, when I met an Assistant Principal at a church cookout. She asked me in for an interview, which took place yesterday morning. They called me about an hour after I left to offer me the position! Now I just have to wait for the paperwork to go through the district and the state before I am given an "official" offer. I will be teaching Kindergarten, which wouldn't have been my first choice, but it wouldn't have been my last either! I am so excited to start organizing and decorating my little classroom, and to start planning with the kindergarten team. Today I will be heading to Goodwill to look for bean bag chairs, lamps, and bookshelves, and kindergarten level books. I have also already created a sister blog for my classroom, mostly for the purposes of parent communication. That might mean this blog will be eclipsed, but that is okay because I was only writing to inspire myself to finish a marathon, which I have now done.
I skipped my swim yesterday, because it was raining outside, so I couldn't use the neighborhood pool, and my gym is going through a remodel, so I couldn't use their indoor pool. So I had two rest days in a row, but I think that was necessary. I did a long bike on Saturday (2 hours) and a long run on Sunday (50 minutes) and my body was begging for a break. I really thought incorporating low-impact swimming and biking would help my body stop hurting, but it just makes it hurt in different places. Swimming makes my ankles hurt and my shoulders sore. Biking makes my wrists hurt and my quads sore. I also haven't been stretching as well as I should after swimming and biking, which is probably part of the problem. I also stopped foam rolling altogether until last week and these last few times on that blue torture device have been especially excruciating.
I just did a nice little 30 minute jog. There are only 46 days until the triathlon, and after that I am going to do one of those 5k obstacle races ("Houston Jailbreak") in October. Then I will start training for the half marathon that I am signed up to do in Birmingham in Feburary (the one I was supposed to do last year.) I hope that once I start teaching I don't get too overwhelmed and stop exercising. I need to make sure that doesn't happen, because I'm pretty sure that will help keep me sane. But I know how easy it is to say "I'm tired and busy and just don't feel like exercising today" several days/weeks/months in a row. But my dear husband asked me to divvy up the housework, now that I also have a job, so that he can do his share (isn't he great??) He said he'll do whatever I need, as long as it isn't laundry, which will give me time to squeeze in some runs during the week:)
As always, thanks for reading!
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