How is it that it is Sunday again?  The days go by fast for me.  This is week #2 of training for a 5k.  I ran a total of 22.55 miles.  My runs were similar to last week and they went very well.

Monday and Tuesday were again easy runs.  Honestly I do not remember too much about them.   What I do remember are my runs on Thursday and Saturday. 

Thursday’s run was 5 miles.  There were also 3 1/2 mile tempo repeats.  Targeted  pace was 11:10.  I ran each repeat without stopping.  I am not “fast” at all so seeing those numbers made my day.

Saturday’s run was 5 miles with the last mile being the fastest. Last week was 4 miles with the last one being the fastest one. The last mile was 3 seconds slower than last week but I ran 1 mile longer and the 4 miles were at a faster pace too (and negative splits). I am very pleased with this workout as well.

The weather has been great for running. I wore tights for my runs but on Saturday and Sunday wore shorts. I love the colors of the leaves. Very beautiful!

In non running related news, I bought a new car.  I’ve had my car since 2006 and I love it.  I never wanted to get rid of it.  A few months ago it began to fail.  It began to turn off and then quickly turn back on again.  I didn’t think anything of it because I was rarely using it anyway.  Then about 2 weeks ago it began to happen again.  Also, this time it would take a few times turning the key before it would turn on.  Again, I didn’t think anything of it.  Last Saturday I used it to go to the laundromat and then left it in front of the house.  Then Sunday evening it would not turn on.  I tried a few times before calling my cousin’s husband (he is a mechanic) to check it.  Long story short, still did not turn on and I had to decide whether to fix it or get a new one.  All last week I thought about about it and decided to get a new one.  Why not?  I work hard and deserve it.  

Here is my new car.  It is a Honda CRV.  I love the new car smell.  There are so many features and it is intimidating.  Ha, just turning it on is very new to me.  I will miss my cassette and CD player. Oh and I am having a little bit of trouble with parallel parking. I don’t understand why since I am very good at parallel parking.

With no car I did not go to school at all. It was actually nice to stay home. I do know that teachers are still required to show up at school on the 19th. No kids yet; there is a Board Meeting on the 14th where a decision will be made. I am planning to go this week and hopefully be done with it. What I really want to finish is to put everything away in the lockers. I don’t care too much about the other things but it drives me crazy to have an unorganized room.

Linking up with Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Run Down.

With no races for the rest of the year, my coach approached me with the idea of preparing to run a fast 10k.  Yes, but I suggested that instead we go with a 5k.  I like my runs and I’ve been working with my coach for 4 months and I need something fun and exciting to train for.  I doubt there will be real races when I finish my training so I plan to race this on my own.

Last week I mentioned how I made time for myself.  I stopped working after 3pm and went to the balcony to ready a book while drinking some wine.  It was great.  This week was a bit different because I went to my classroom to unpack and set it up.  It was exhausting.  I arrived Monday morning and was so overwhelmed with so many boxes and I had no idea where to start. 

At the time the information I knew was that the District would revisit the current remote learning plan at the end of Quarter 1 (October 30).  There would be a possibility that teachers and students would return to the classroom after October 30th.  However, that week I found out that teachers would return to the classroom on October 13th.  Then they added that students would return to the classroom on November 4th.  Nothing is official yet since we have not received an email from the District.  I have 27 students.  My classroom has 20 desks but only 10 of them would be used.  I am not sure whether I want to go back to teach or take time off.

Before I talk about my training let me show you some pictures of my room.

The first thing I did was set up my desk and then unpacked the boxes. I threw away a lot of stuff and also organized it in the lockers, bookcases, and cabinet. I am planning to go again this week and hopefully will be done.

Monday and Tuesday were an easy 3 miles. There was an incident at school on Monday and I was still upset and angry on Tuesday morning. My heart rate was high that not even walking brought it down. Then I started thinking about quitting or taking FMLA and it went down. So weird and understandable. Let me tell you what happened. One of the administrators told me that a parent had called to complain about me. Apparently I yell all day to the students. This parent also said that her daughter is afraid to log in and ask me questions because she is afraid of me. I was FUMING. I was so angry that I cried. And then I was angry for letting it get to me. We just finished week #5 of remote learning and not one thank you from parents.

I finished September with 86.06 miles. So close to 100 miles.

Thursday morning I was so tired and did not want to get up. I had a workout that I was excited to do but no energy. I finally got up to run because I did not want to break my run streak (day 34) and also because it was a new month and I had new shoes to wear. I bought them last year and am finally wearing them now.

I felt so much better on Friday and did Thursday’s workout. I ran 5 miles with a few 1/4 mile tempo repeats. The required pace for each repeat was 11:10/mile. I was actually surprised when I saw my splits.

On Saturday I had to run 4 miles with the last mile being at HMP (11:30-11:45). I guess I had more energy than I thought.

Overall I am pleased with this week. I ran again 7 days and have been feeling good. Well, except for Thursday when I was very tired. I have not given it more thought to Monday’s incident but have spoken to a few parents whose child has been a bit “difficult”. I have a few students that have done zero work and others that like to goof off and distract and think it is fun to do so. Umm, absolutely NOT.

Linking up with Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Run Down.

This week was MUCH, MUCH better.  A big part of it was that I didn’t put in any extra hours after my work hours.  Friday I did because I did my lesson plans for the week.  If I didn’t then I would have had to do them over the weekend and I did not want to do that.  During the regular school year I would also stay late on Friday to work on them.  Now they require more work because everything is online and I need to find and link the lesson (sometimes create the lessons because there are not that many resources for TR students) to my plans.

Monday morning I was not feeling well during my run. My heart rate was high and I was walking more than I wanted to. Also, I went out later than I wanted to and was hurrying up to finish my run to get back home. It was “only” two miles but I had to shower, get ready, and eat. I was running and saw a random guy. He looked at me, smiled, and said “You look beautiful”. I stopped and looked at him. I told him “Thank you” and kept running. Later I stopped again to think about what he said to me. Of all of my years running, I’ve never had a guy say something nice or positive to me. I’ve been followed, stared at, catcalled, etc, you name it. I felt good. It made me feel better. Now, I am NOT saying that being told beautiful makes me feel better, but the fact that a guy said something positive/nice to me.

Wednesday evening Jessie and I were messaging each other about wearing matching outfits for our run on Thursday. We are both Oiselle team members and have a lot of similar clothes. It was fun and we plan on doing it again!

Saturday morning was perfect for running! I was feeling good. On the schedule was 5 miles with miles 3 and 4 to be done at a faster pace. I wasn’t sure if I “could” do it but I had nothing to lose. I just wanted to run. Miles 1 and 2 were 12:30 and 12:39 and miles 3 and 4 were 11:06 and 10:27. I was shocked when I saw those numbers. Honestly, I couldn’t even believe it. I kept my heart rate under control too – average was 124 and the highest was 166 bpm. I ended up running a bit longer too. I love running in the Fall.

I am very pleased with this week. I did all of my runs. I felt good and took it easy. Last week I wrote about relaxing, taking it easy, and making time for me. I did that this week. I logged off work at 3 (Wednesday was 1/2 but we had meetings till 4pm), did not respond to email after work hours, and went to my balcony to drink wine, spend time with my cats, and to read a book. It was GREAT!

Linking up with Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Run Down.

Another week of running 7 days.  I am on day 22 of a running streak.  I actually like it.  Running in the morning gets me ready for the day. On the days I don’t have a workout from my coach, I run for 20 minutes – slow and easy.  Although on Thursday my heart rate went up a lot.  

My workouts on Tuesday and Saturday sucked.  Tuesday was a 45-minute fartlek.  I did the intervals (5 sets of 1 minute fast and 1 minute recovery) and when I was done, well, I was done.  On Saturday I had to run 7 miles.  I made myself go in the evening and that did not go well.  I ran 2.04 miles and went home.  Well, I guess they did not suck but they did not go as I had expected.  It happens.  I did notice that both runs were done in the evening.  

I am loving this Fall weather.  I love running in shorts and a long sleeve top.  

This week my kids took their MAP tests.  It is the worst test to administer to my students.  I have transitional students (80%-90% of the classes are in Spanish and the rest in English).  Why would they take a test in English?  Long story short, my kids took 4 tests (Reading and Math in English and in Spanish).  We had so many technical issues and not everyone signed in for the test.  By Thursday we had enough and I decided that on Friday they would relax and take a break.  We will continue with tests this week.

My birthday is in two months myself a new computer.  I am using it now and am loving it.  I love the big screen too.

This makes me laugh.  It is me every single day.  

Not running or school related but still wanted to share.  An amazing and beautiful person!

This past week was not my week.  I know it is all work related and I am tired of being tired and stressed out.  I know everyone has stress but I need to manage it better.  I’ve been spending so many hours doing work related stuff (after work hours) and I don’t like it.  I know I shouldn’t do it (the work will always be there) and I need to find more time to relax and have fun.  Right?

Thank you for reading about all of my school issues/complaints.  You’ve all been very encouraging and supportive.  Hugs to all of you.  I want things to get better and I am working on it.  

Linking up with Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Run Down.

Done with another week of school.  Was it easier?  A little.  But it is still challenging and lots of work.  Our District got the bright idea to have the students take the MAP test.  Umm, it is difficult to administer it when in the classroom so can you imagine how it will be now?  

I knew it would get easier once I had a routine set up for them.  I spent all day on Monday working on my lesson plans to post in Classroom.  Every morning I showed it to them and also referenced it so they would get into the habit of doing that instead of asking “What do we do now?”  

I did not lose power so that is a win.  However, a few of my students said they lost their Internet connection.  I’m not sure how since they all have a Hotspot.  Do all 27 students log in?  Not all at once but total throughout the day they do.  They come and go as they please and I don’t like it because I teach a lesson and then they log in and have no idea what we just did.  

My complaints with remote learning is the number of students I have and the fact that they’re online for 6 hours.  It is a long day for me and for them. I do give them breaks and independent work but that is also online. Oh and there are so many technology issues. I can only help them so much but it takes up so much class time.

In some exciting news I received a keeper for my watch.  Mine broke and I had to use a hair rubber band to hold the band in place.  

Even Mateo missed her!

It was my mother’s birthday on Wednesday. My younger sister came over with a cake.

I live 2 blocks from a fire station and as I was heading back home during my run, I saw a couple of firefighters and fire trucks outside. I stopped for a few months. It was an emotional moment. I cannot believe it’s been 19 years.

WordPress Update: I think I have figured out this new format. It isn’t that bad. I still like the other format better. However, what I have not figured out how to do is copy an old post. Anyone know how to do that?

Linking up with Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Run Down.