Zenaida Arroyo

With only 3 working days, the week still went by too fast.  The weekends go by even faster. I am definitely not complaining.  It actually felt really good to teach for 3 days.  Though Monday’s Institute Day left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.  Yep, more work for us! I talk about it towards the end of this post.

This week felt like Spring.  We had a lot of sunny and warm days.  I was happy to run in shorts again!  It was beautiful with all of the leaves on the ground too.

Again, this week was easy runs along with some fun workouts.  Was I nervous?  A little.  Did I ace my workouts?  Absolutely!  Tuesday was 5 x 1:30 intervals with 1:30 recovery.  Target pace for each interval was 9:45.  The splits were 9:32, 9:27, 9:18, 9:25, and 9:28.  Friday was again 3 miles progressive run with half mile at the end for recovery.  I ran by feel and ran a little faster than last week’s 5k.  Splits for each mile were 11:48, 11:14, and 10:22.  And yes I ran those 3 miles without stopping.

I am finally in The Century Club!  Haha, better late than never, right?  

I am pleased to announce that I was accepted to be a part of the Koala Action Team.  I love my Koala Clip and for over a year have been using it on every single run.   I have a few discount codes for you.  Use code AT2020 to get 10% off storewide.  This discount is good through November 15.  Also, starting November 16, there will be a “once a year” sale.  That will be 15% off sitewide until November 23.  There are a lot of new products online now.  There are the ORIGINAL style Koala Clips up now and LUX is available for pre-order (they will ship by the end of the month).  All of the new Koala Clip colors are coming with a much-improved clip.  I just ordered 3 of the Lux Koala Clips.  🙂

Monday was an Institute Day and let’s just say it was not helpful at all.  We spent most of the morning talking about standards based grading.  Honestly I am not sure why we are even giving out grades this year.  It is a joke!  Not all of my students complete the assignments (which we do in class) and then those that do it on their own, I have no idea if anyone “helped” them.

Then we had some discussion about being there for our kids, understanding that they are going through a rough time, finding ways to get them to open up and talk to us, etc, etc.  I know all of it and I agree with it.  However, NOT ONCE was there any discussion about the teachers.  We are also going through a rough time.  We are also struggling.  So basically who cares about us.  And then to add insult to it, we were given more work to do.  My students use Imagine Math, Imagine Español, and Imagine Literacy during class.  I give them time to use log in those program.  Now I am supposed to set up a weekly class goal and my students are supposed to have a weekly goal as well.  Then I need to check if the class and the students met those goals.  Finally, I need to have weekly conferences with them about their goal.  So yeah I need to do all that plus teach them the curriculum, follow the pacing guide, assess/grade them, and be there for them as well.  I was fuming!  I cried because I did not know what else to do.

This week was interesting.  Lots of things happened.  Tuesday are Parent/Teacher Conferences.  I am definitely not looking forward to them but I know that it needs to be done.

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

A new month!  A birthday month!  How exciting is it?  I am looking forward to this month mainly because of the time off I will have.  Tomorrow is an Institute Day, Tuesday is a holiday for Election Day (first time ever), and the following Tuesday are parent/teacher conferences.  I know two of those days are working days but at least I don’t have to prepare lessons or teach.

I finished October with my highest month this year.  I had a feeling but wasn’t sure if it was going to happen.  On Friday I talked to my coach about it and went for it.  I also donated a little bit more than that to the Lynn Sage Cancer Research Foundation in honor of my sister and of course everyone that has been affected by breast cancer.    

My two great runs were on Tuesday and Thursday.  Tuesday’s workout was 4×2:00 intervals at 10:00 pace with 90 seconds easy/recovery.  Nailed it!

I was more nervous for Thursday’s workout because I had never done that one before.  It was a progressive run of 3 miles (target paces were 12:15/11:30/10:45).  I had never run 3 miles without stopping.  Honestly, I did not think I could do it and was prepared to make a few stops along the way.  I didn’t.  Remember, I am not fast at all but seeing these numbers made me very happy.  I was shocked too!

My coach has already uploaded my workouts for this week and yes I am excited about them.  I will be doing some easy runs and the two workouts mentioned above but with some slight modifications (another interval and a half mile cool down). 

Remember how last week I mentioned that I tried to sign up for Target’s Shipt program for $49?  Well, after waiting and chatting with various people, I did manage to sign up.  Right now I have the 4 week free trial and at the end of the 4 weeks I will be charged $99.  I was told to contact Target at the end of the trial period and after agreeing to pay the $99 annual fee, I will be given a refund.  Surely the easiest thing would have been to just let me sign up now for $49, but I am not going to make a big deal about it.  

I am reading this book and am liking it.  Has anyone else read it?

I remember as I child my mother would make an altar, but I didn’t really understand the reason.  I confess that everything made sense after seeing the movie “Coco”.  After my father died in 1991 and her parents in 1992, my mother would spend the Winter in Mexico.  She would leave mid October and return in the Spring.  She did not go to Mexico last year because she can’t travel alone after her stroke.  This year she couldn’t go anyway.  She made an altar at home and is happy about it.  I am happy she is happy.

By the way, I have seen people post on Facebook “Feliz Día de los Muertos” (Happy Day of the Dead).  Umm, not sure how I feel about that.  I guess in English is does sound weird.  Oh well, I should just ignore it, right?  There are definitely bigger problems out there.

Another great week for running.  Pleased with my runs and it makes me excited for when I can run a real race and see how I do.

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