Classroom Tour 2013

As some of you may know, I'm a teacher! Yep, I am grossly underpaid to mold young minds into being productive citizens of society! ;) That's a little sarcasm, if you can't tell. Well, sort of.

But I digress. We have been in school for a 8 days and I always wish I would take pictures of my classroom each year and each year it never gets done. Now that I have a smart phone this has made it much easier to take pictures and post them in a timely manner.

This year I'm still in the same room but my fellow third floor teacher are all novice teachers. There are two brand new teachers and my team teacher from last year who has a year of experience. I'm the Old Maid on the floor. I had to do something different to keep up with these youngens so I decided to have a classroom theme of owls this year. For the record I've never done a classroom theme.

Classroom Tour 2013!

My door

The view from the back of the room to the front.

Basket area with the kids' supplies.

The back of the room.

Kidney table with stuff already all over it.

My messy desk. It will look like this all year long or worse at times.

My new classroom library area.

Ancient computers and Elmo

View from the corner of the room.

What does your office look like? Do you teach? Classroom themes, yay or nay?

HMT Week 8 Recap & Week 9 Goals

This past week was Week 8 of Half-Marathon training. It was great because I actually got to run outside for a change! The weather was great and with the school starting back up running was the perfect stress relief!

Tuesday I headed out for a 4-miler and got to run outside. The weather was nice and there was plenty of shade while running. My favorite!

Thursday I had to hit the gym to get my run in because the husband was cutting hay all evening. I dreaded it. I really loathe the treadmill, now. It has been great to get my miles in during the heat but I can't wait to not have to use it. I sweated a ton!

Sunday morning I headed out for my long run. Last week I totally psyched myself out on my long run and I was really worried that I was going to do it again. I woke up early on Sunday had some orange juice and grapes and headed out to do my loop. I was feeling great and stopped by my house at 4.5 miles and 9 miles to get some more orange juice and grapes. This has been the best combo for me running in the morning, food-wise. I'm definitely going to have to bring them with me to my half.

I ran all 11 miles and it felt awesome! I didn't wimp out and try to quit early and felt a huge sense of pride when it was done. I kept my times pretty even with each other and was so happy to finish. In fact, when I got done running it I ran upstairs to my hubby and jumped on him and said, "11 miles bitch!" Yeah, I was a little pumped. I guess I can blame it on the runner's high, right?!

 

 

Week 9 Goals:

 

Wednesday-7 miles

 

Friday-7 miles

 

Sunday 8 miles

 

I've decided to change some things up with the rest of my training and don't feel like I need to complete another 10+ before my race. I just need to focus on maintaining energy and distance past 5 miles. So I'm taking my total miles for the week and averaging them over three days.

 

We'll see if it works!

HMT Week 7 Recap & Week 8 Goals & #running4maggie

Half Marathon Training Week 7 is dunzo! I can't believe I can even say that!

So let's recap!

Tuesday I rocked out 3 miles and it hurt! I was definitely still sore from running my 10k and then 3 miles on Saturday. I didn't stretch nearly enough after that.

Thursday I needed to run 5 miles and I decided to run it outside, since it was actually decent out. The humidity wasn't 100% but above 50%. It definitely felt warmer than the temperature listed in the picture but not unbearable. The five miles seemed to fly by and I tried out a new route and really liked it. I even got to run by the park and visit Wyatt and Mike while they were playing at the park.

So Saturday was my day to run my LONG run, 10 miles! I started out running outside and quickly discovered after 2 miles that is was much hotter out than I originally thought. I ran back home and quickly got my keys and headed to the gym to finish my miles.

Well I lasted 5 miles at the gym before just giving up. I was exhausted, mentally and physically, and just didn't have it in me. I headed home with only 7 miles done and feeling defeated. I vowed to run the remaining 3 miles on Sunday.

Sunday after a day of shoe shopping for Wyatt in KC I came home ate some supper and then headed out for my remaining 3 miles. I finished it and was pretty proud of myself. I really wish I would have been able to run the whole 10 miles in one shot but just couldn't do it.

I have also found myself craving sweet/sugary drinks after I run long periods of time. I usually drink water while running but thinking I need to switch to Gatorade to drink since I'm getting so depleted while running.

It did make me feel good to run my miles on Sunday for Sami in remembrance of her sister, Maggie who was killed in a car accident.

 

Half-Marathon Training Week 8 Goals:

 

Tuesday-4 miles

Thursday-5 miles

Saturday-11 miles

 

Here's hoping that Week 8 goes by better than Week 7! 

HMT Week 6 Recap & Week 7 Goals...Several days late!

Week 6 Recap:

I went ahead and ran my 5 miles on Tuesday after having a wonderful hot stone massage and spa pedicure. I was unsure if I would be sore from the massage but ran fine. Not my best time for running but I got it done.

On Thursday I got my 3 miles done. Nothing too exciting to report other than I'm getting tired of the treadmill. Surprise!

My long run had to be 9 miles. I had my first 10k race which got me 6.2 of those miles. I came home and got cleaned up and did the rest of my day and then headed out after dinner to get my 2.8 finished. I tried a new route and it was actually fun. This is definitely one that I will run again and has the possibilities to be extended for more miles.

I found this on Instagram and thought it was hilarious because it's one of my biggest fears when running a race.

 

 

Week 7 Goals:

 

Tuesday-3 miles (This run sucked and I was so sore from Saturday's runs.)

 

Thursday-5 miles

 

Saturday-10 miles (Hopefully I can run this one outside)

 

I'm officially on the down-hill slide of half-marathon training and it's only going to get more intense as they go on. I hope I'm up for the challenge.

 

Half marathon training? Do you have a fear of getting lost while running a race? Other race fears?

Brew2Shoe-10k Race

Today I ran my first 10k race and it went ...well. I obviously didn't die, since I'm typing this, but I apparently didn't do well enough.

I was pumped that this race was in Manhattan and I wouldn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to drive and get to the race.

The race was a point-to-point one. That means that the start and finish are at different locations. We started the race at Tallgrass Brewery and then finished the race at Manhattan Running Company. Since there was very little parking at the brewery we had to park at a local park and then get bussed to the starting line.

Once the race got going I did okay but just didn't have the stamina. I ran for a solid two miles then walked through the first aid station and after that it went down hill from there. I walked and then ran and then walked some more and then ran some more. That's pretty much how the rest of the race went. I just couldn't get my stride down and felt like I was fighting myself the whole way.

I made sure to have my Garmin this time and here's my final stats. I, of course, forgot to stop my watch after the finish line, so this represent the time it took me to get a cup of water and then an orange. #runnerfail

I also have no idea why it says I didn't run 6.2 miles! Around 4 miles we were in a heavy treed neighborhood and my watch did make a beeping sound but when I looked it seemed normal. So I'm not sure if it lost signal or what.

Here's my official time from the website. I looked at the breakdown for my age group and I was second to last! Say What?! It wasn't a terrible run but when I looked at the majority of people they finished between 45 and 60 minutes. Talk about some fast ladies! Apparently I wasn't a seasoned enough runner for this crowd.

I purchased a pint glass when I registered for the race and tonight I made sure to make a big root beer float in it to enjoy first 10k race! Watch out Brew2Shoe I will be back!