Zenaida Arroyo

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.

Is it Sunday again? I guess the days go by fast when you are having fun. 🙂 Another week of some great runs. This week was mostly easy runs with 3 days of some faster paces. I did the same workout on Friday and today and finished today’s workout a minute faster.

The weather was so weird. Most of the days I wore tights and a jacket. Thursday morning it rained and then the temperature went up to 70 degrees. Maybe 80? The next morning it was still warm and I ran in tank top and shorts. Of course then it got cold again.

I don’t like to procrastinate (but do know that sometimes one must do it). I’ve had some great runs when I waited till later in the day to run. Friday morning I was checking out the Target website and saw an offer to sign up for their Shipt membership for $49 (regular price is $99). I didn’t sign up. Didn’t sign up Saturday either. Sunday morning I wanted to sign up but the offer was not available anymore. I got in touch with their customer service department hoping they would extend their offer but they wouldn’t. I am debating if I want to sign up anyway. I love Target but don’t really need to be going there all of the time.

This week was not that exciting. Haha, no school drama. Friday was an Institute Day and we learned the process, procedures, and schedules for when the students go back to school. Still no word when that will be, but so far teachers are still required to go back November 9. That may change. Numbers are still going up.

No excuses but I finally voted! Don’t know why I waited so long since the voting place is across the street from where I live.

I am happy with all of my runs. My coach uses TrainingPeaks to upload my workouts every Sunday. I do get excited when I check it out and see what he has planned for me. Is that weird?

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

Another great week of running. Still keeping up with the run streak. Today is day #51.

I had some great workouts again this week. There were a few days of easy runs and a few days of faster workouts. Fun!

Tuesday’s workout was 1 mile easy warmup with 6 sets of short intervals (1 minute @ 9:45 pace and 1 minute easy), then 1 mile easy cool down.

Friday morning I was so tired in the morning. I woke up at 5am to use the bathroom and to feed my cats and went back to sleep. I woke up again at 7 but got out of bed at 7:20. There was no time to do my workout (1/2 mile easy @ ~ 12:45 pace, 1 mile mid-effort @ ~ 11:00 pace, 1/2 mile easy @ ~ 12:45 pace, 1 mile mid-effort @ ~ 11:00 pace, and 1 mile cool down @ ~ 12:45 pace) so I decided to do it after work or in the evening. I almost skipped it. Glad I didn’t. I was actually shocked at how I did.

Based on Friday’s late workout I wasn’t sure how I was going to do on Saturday’s run. The workout was first 4 miles @ 12:30-12:45/mile and last mile @ HMP 11:15-11:30/mile. I decided to run by feel the last mile. I guess I still had energy.

I did a few fun Peloton runs. I did my first run with Robin. I had no idea she was Cuban! My favorite running instructor is Matty but now am going to add more of Robin’s runs to my list. 30 minutes is not enough for Hamilton nor Celia Cruz but I did enjoy them. J Balvin was OK.

In non running news, there was a School Board Meeting on Wednesday and a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday. The latter was very intense and I actually felt kind of bad for the Superintendent. Parents were angry and not happy with the responses. The meeting was shown live on the District’s website. It was also recorded so others could watch it/listen to it later. However, it was then taken down from the Website. Teachers are now expected to return to the classroom on November 9th instead of October 19. I don’t remember what was said about the students. Honestly, I will be very surprised if we (teachers and students) end up returning this year at all.

I finished unpacking all of my boxes. I still have to add some final touches like borders, posters, etc., but everything is put away. It definitely looks much better. The video is from the first day I went to set it up. I was overwhelmed and did not know where to start. I did play on repeat one of my favorite songs.

I started reading this book. It is good but I skipped parts of it because I got bored. Now I am at the part where she is speaking at the Senate Confirmation Hearing.

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