I'm No Quitter!

I have SOOOOO neglected this blog since school started. What can I say, I can only focus on one thing at a time and family, teaching and running are two things too many already...so teaching has won out over almost everything but family over the past month.

Running has been blah lately. I noticed on my yearly mileage, I am only 25 miles away from hitting 200 miles in 2011. I think I've got that covered in the next month or so. I've scrapped the training schedule that was created for this event and made my own, "no injuries" plan. I am taking a low mileage approach in my half marathon training. My longest run this far has been 6 miles. I am shooting for 7 this weekend, but we will see...

My body keeps telling me to quit. My mind is also headed in that direction. But I'm no quitter. I finished college, grad school and my Rank 1 (a fancy teacher degree above your Masters) in 7 years, have taught kids with severe behavior, academic, emotional and physical problems, given birth, raised a child for 4 years and completed one half marathon already. So surely I can complete 13.1 measly miles of running (or some form of walking/jogging), right?!?

I'm working on staying focused, running a little longer each week and not worrying about speed.

Any advice for this?? Should I increase my long runs by a mile each week?

I'm baaaaack!

Did you even realize I was gone?? Here's an update of what's being going on...

Work

Been a wild and crazy week so far, with no slowing down for the next 2 days. It's that time of year when teachers start getting ready for the new school year by spending countless hours in professional development, meetings and setting up our classrooms, or for me, my closet.

I am a resource teacher, so I spend most of my time in other teacher's classrooms working with kids that need extra support, as well as teaching with the classroom teachers. But I do have a small room that I share with someone, and I use it to pull kids out that need one-on-one help or for testing, etc. Unpacking, rearranging and paperwork have consumed the last 3 days. I'm ready for the kids, but I really am not ready for all the "logistical" and "political" parts of my job.

Speaking of political, I wanted to share this awesome video clip of Matt Damon going apesh*t on a reporter asking a question about teachers having incentives for test scores and job performance:

Training

I've had good days and bad days, as expected. Saturday's long run of 3 miles was pushed back to Sunday because Saturday was so busy. But I got it done. Not gonna lie. It. was. hard. I began to rethink the whole half-marathon thing. Again. But that was nothing compared to Monday. That was my first full day back to work. I was exhausted. It was a cross-train day, so I did Ripped in 30, at least I did most of it, and called it a night. Again, I am not a morning workout person, so going back to work then taking care of the little one, and finally working out at the end of the night was tough. I had forgotten how tough. 

Last night was a repeat of Monday night. Except, I was supposed to run 3 miles. Again. When I got home from work, we swam in our neighbor's pool for over an hour. I did lots of laps, and some with kids hanging on me. So needless to say, I was wiped out. So I modified my schedule and only did 1 mile. I would have done more if my chest didn't feel like it was going to explode. Sharp pain when I breathe. Weird side effect of swimming?? ever had that happen?

Today is back to cross-training. I'm thinking walking at an incline on the treadmill while watching Big Brother sounds like a plan. Maybe a little Ripped in 30 before that starts...I dunno. We'll see.

Balancing It All

I've spent this last week easing back into some work stuff. Next week gets even more intense. You see, teachers don't get all summer off like many people think we do. Sure, we get several uninterrupted weeks of fun in the sun, but that is intertwined with professional development classes (thus far I've done 37 hours, still have 27 more before school starts on August 15th) as well as meetings, and classroom set-up--which is a week long process for most. I tell you this not to complain, but to update you on my what my summer vacation really looks like.

source

I've been thinking, "how in the world am I going to work full-time, attend after school meetings and more professional development, plan excellent, motivating lessons for my students, keep up with mounds of paperwork, take care of my child, keep my house clean, finish reading the series of books I've started, and train for a half-marathon???" The answer is "I DON'T HAVE A CLUE!" and I'm freaking out a little bit, as I always do this time of year. The difference this year is that I am training, which I was not last summer when school started. I was barely even running at all.

Anyone have any advice?? I know some of you have to work full-time, have kids and run or workout even more than I do. How do you balance it all?? What's your secret? Do tell...

Five Thing Friday

Because I'm not cool enough to come up with "15 Thing Friday" like Cely, here's my 5 things:

1. I am super excited to go see Bad Teacher tonight with some of my teacher friends! We will be having dinner and drinks before hand, and maybe even some birthday cake. We found out after ordering a birthday cake for one teacher friend that she could not make it to the dinner, so what do good friends do, eat her cake for her!! Also, can't wait for Justin Timberlake on the big screen, in all his nerdy "teacher" outfits! So hot!!

2. Speaking of J.T., here's the video of him and Jimmy Fallon doing "History of Rap Part 2". So great...




3. I went to an Optometrist yesterday to have my eyes checked. I have had horrible headaches, dizziness and nausea all summer, brought on by spending time on the computer reading, writing (blogging!), using my iPhone to play games or read stuff on the internet, and just reading a book. So, long story short, my vision is 20/15 which is better than 20/20, but I have what is called "Accommodative Insufficiency" and I have to have Vision Therapy starting next week. Apparently the old eye muscles are weak and are struggling to focus at things up close. Glasses would have just been a crutch, and with therapy, the muscles will strengthen and the headaches from straining will go away. Guess I've been spending too much time working on other muscles in my body!! Can't wait to learn how to do eye exercises!

4. It's still hotter than Hades outside, like my Mom always says. I've been saying this all along:

5. I'm almost done with week 2 of Ripped in 30. I have noticed improvement in my ab strength, and some of the other exercises have become easier as the week goes on. However, I STILL HATE THE PLANK. Apparently, Jillian thinks it's funny to make someone plank and do other impossible movements while in the plank pose.

I have no upper body strength, although I am getting stronger, and my arm muscles are becoming more defined. My wrists feel like they are going to snap when I am planking. Even on my knees (the modified position). That's why I don't do push-ups.

Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just my little weak wrists?? I have had carpel tunnel syndrome in the past and have had to wear a brace on my wrist from over use injuries. Somehow, my weak wrists paired with my weak arms, cannot support my upper body in the plank pose. But I'll keep trying. It's all I can do!

I call this "Satan's pose"

Let it go and move on

I have realized that I have to accept some things, like them or not, and move on.

For example, I have to accept that June is almost over. For those of you that work year round, I apologize, but for those of us who have a break in the summer (a.k.a. teachers) know what I'm talking about. I love my job and couldn't imagine doing anything else, but it is a high stress, high energy job that I don't think I could do year round without some kind of counseling! Seriously though, I am a little disturbed that June is almost gone because I have gotten nothing done that I had plan to do...other than starting this blog. My house is a mess, my scrapbooks are years behind and my plans to make some extra $$ by having a yard sale have not panned out yet. Oh well, there's always July...

Another example of something I need to accept is that I cannot run 3 days in a row or 5 out of 7 days a week. My body cannot handle it at this point in my "running life".

I have to find other ways to make myself stronger and burn off all the fat that I inhale at every meal. That's where I have fallen short. My bike has flat tires, so I haven't ridden it in forever. My elliptical is a piece of garbage that squeaks and has no resistance (we bought it really cheap years and years ago). So I jump on old faithful the dreadmill and run. Occasionally I walk. Once a week I do a CardioMax DVD. But I'm still putting stress on the same muscles and joints.

So I am learning to accept that running a mile or two 5 days a week is not going to give me that strength I want, or make me faster. Cross-training will.

I also need to accept that it's okay to not run outside at this point in the year. I have been running on the treadmill for the last month because I am such a wuss. I guess because I've never ran outside in the heat before, I'm afraid to even try. Today's forecast is not horrible, but it is humid (shocking, I know):

Looks to me like it is going to gradually get hotter, so now would be the best time to just get out there and do it. But who am I kidding. Unless I go out to run at 9 pm, it's not going to happen, at least not outside.

Another thing I am struggling to forgive myself for is the way I have been eating the last few days. I have had some major stomach/lower intestinal issues for over a week now and salads and fruits have not been my friend. But it's okay to listen to my body and eat some "comfort" foods every once in a while, especially when I am sick. As long as I don't get back into the habit of eating that way all day every day, it's not the end of the world.

So my question to you is, what are you struggling to accept or forgive yourself for?

Procrastination At It's Best

I realized sitting here in front of the computer for over an hour this morning that I have been devoting too much time to blogging. Reading blogs, writing my own and uploading and editing pictures to use in my blog. There are so many good, funny and interesting blogs out there to read, I'm getting sucked in a little more every day. There's something addicting about sneaking into other peoples' lives. Some of the blogs I read, I honestly feel like I know the person, even though I've never met them and they are hundreds or thousands of miles away. I spend more time reading blogs than I do reading actual books. It's crazy, but true.

I think it's just because I'm on vacation and it's easy to get caught up in something for hours at a time. I wonder how much blogging I will get done once school starts back in August...

There are so many things I could be doing instead of blogging or reading other people's thoughts:

1. Cleaning my always messy, dirtball of a house.

2. Running, cross training or some other form of much needed exercise. Half-marathon training starts in almost 4 weeks!

3. Playing with the little one...although this morning time is her much coveted T.V. time!

4. Yard work. My landscaping needs some serious TLC. Would love to pay someone to do it, it's almost more than I can handle.

5. Working on July's budget, coupon clipping or some other financially smart activity.

6. Reading and thinking about the new Common Core Standards for elementary students (this is job related. This school year we are beginning to teach with new standards that are no longer state specific, but now the same for most of the U.S.) This is going to have to be done soon. The new binder of standards is 3 inches thick!

7. Reading an actual book. The current book I am reading is The Shack by William P. Young. I'm like 2 years behind on my reading. I'm having a hard time sticking with it. It has a lot to do with spirituality and trusting God in the face of horrible tragedy. Spirituality has always been a difficult subject for me, but I heard this was a great, life changing book, so I'm going to stick with it.

Speaking of reading actual books, what are you reading now? What do you recommend I add to my summer reading list?

A Free Lunch

Today was the first day of a week long teacher conference that my school district has every summer. I was up bright and early, much to my dismay. The only positives about this conference thing is seeing old teacher friends from other schools and the free lunch. Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch??

We had two choices for this lunch. Chick-fil-a sandwiches with chips, cole slaw and a brownie, or some healthy junk...I couldn't even focus on what it was because the smell of Chick-fil-a filled my nostrils before I even got to the lunch line. Needless to say, I caved and had the wonderful chicken sandwich. Not the grilled chicken, the fried, high calorie, greasy, infamous Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to look like a weirdo in front of hundreds of my coworkers...but lets just say, it wasn't around long enough for me to enjoy how it looked, much less take it's photograph!

So for dinner, I ate a light helping of my husband's creation, some kind of veggie pasta/lasagna wannabe. It was delish, but I know he snuck in lots of cheese, hamburger and other not so healthy things.

So I took it easy and paired it with a small salad, to make up for the catastrophe known as lunch. Salads are my "forgiveness" food. Eat a salad and you are fogiven everything horrible you may have consumed today. That's just one of the many lies I tell myself as I try to balance healthy eating with the occasional treat.

I am now missing The Bachelorette, so I am going to jump on the treadmill for a quick run while I yell at the t.v. every time someone says the word "amazing" or "special" or "connection". I'm sure I will be doing a lot of yelling tonight...