Motivated to Succeed

4:30 PM - Exhausted last night. Woke up and went straight to work cleaning the house with Emm. We vaccummed out all three cars and cleaned them bumper to bumper (I made $4.47 in change I found under my seat! Woohoo!). Cleaned the dishes, mowed the lawn, cleaned the overhead fans (all 4 of them!), then I emptied the pool and we did a bunch of other stuff. Basically went straight from 8:30am to about 4pm. Emm is still going. I'm going to go make her dinner. 

Well my all too short summer is over, and I start tomorrow bright and early on my first full year of teaching. I am nervous but it is good I know almost everyone there anyways. I won't be able to drive the 2 hours to NY to race the 5k series, so I wanted to do a 5k time trial and see where I'm at. Was pleasantly surprised with my speed.

Ran it all @ 2% incline. Felt strong and wasn't trying too hard. I was breathing hard towards the end. Cooled down with a mile at about 8:30 pace.

Hit the first mile in about 7:03, then second mile in 6:40, and hung on for the third mile. Total time was 21:45, good for  7:00/mi average pace.

Total Time: 30:00 Total Distance: 4.10 miles Average Pace: 7:19

4:45 PM - 90 degrees and head index of 95-97 at the start. Really humid to the point where I was sweating just walking from my car to the track. Didn't run the last two days because I started summer professional development for the 2010-2011 school year on Monday. It's been really hard transitioning back to working all day and waking up at 5:30. So exhausted!

Today I went to the Taconic High School Track. Emm got out at 5:30 today and had said she might need a ride, so I tried to tailor the workout to end around 5:30. She got a ride from her mom so I got home a bit after her. Then she went to a dinner party with high school friends :). She brought a homemade salad made from the first bunches of our own home grown lettuce! I like having a garden, even if it is tiny and in our front yard, haha!

Goal at the track was to do Yasso 800s. I haven't done them ever before, but I wanted to see where I stood endurance wise and I love a challenge, especially in the heat. Yasso says to start with 4 x 800s so I figured anything about that would be good. My goal pace was somewhere around 3:40-3:45 I had thought but I had no idea as I've never done them before.  I found it hard to live up to Yasso's directions though which state that you need to run 400m recovery at about the same pace as you ran the 800m before it. The only way I could accomplish this was literally walking the last 50m or so of the lap and easing into the next loop. If anyone has feedback about that I'd be interested! Overall I was happy with the workout.

Repetition #:	800m Time:	Recovery Distance:	Recovery Time:	Total Average of Yasso 800s.
1	3:25	.28	3:09
2	3:27	.29	3:09
3	3:31	.27	2:56
4	3:20	.28	3:21 (H20 break)
5	3:15	.50	4:20	3:23.6

 Did a 1.02 mile warm-up in 8:29 and then did an additional 1 mile warm-down after the last recovery in 8:42.

GOAL: to add 1-2 Yasso 800s to workout each week and hit 10 @ a solid pace within a month.

Total Time: 51:12 Total Distance: 6.15 miles Average Pace: 8:20

5:00 PM - Gusty winds and temperature in the low 70s. Went jogging on the bike trail from Lulu's on the Lake. I really struggled this week balancing the intensive and draining work schedule and exercise. Sometimes it's just not feasible to do quality training when you have other demands. My dad gave me a good piece of advice. He said:

"Work is a 1. Family is a 10. Everything else works itself out."

Yet as much as I try not to make work a 10, my perfectionist mindset kind of deems that it is. In addition, BArT is among the most demanding of public school teachers in the state and the bar has been set so high by our predecessors.

I wish I could summarize all the professional development I went through this week, but essentially is was 8am-4 or 5pm every night - a whirlwind that was psychologically demanding and just left me emotionally drained.

Wanted to go longer, but I much more wanted to see Emm when she got out of work as I haven't seen her all week. Ran most miles between 8:44 and 8:57 pace, with the last .7 run sub 8:00. Felt relaxed and good throughout, minus sweating. I am really starting to loathe sweating as it makes me uncomfortable.

Total Time: 1:06:10 Total Distance: 7.70 miles Average Pace: 8:36
 

6:00 PM - Still in the 80s outside. Jogged on the treadmill. Has been a busy weekend. Helped Emma's dad move into a new apartment in Dalton yesterday. It's really nice! He has a second floor loft. And we went back this morning and he had worked all night just like Emm would to put everything away and in its place. I see where she gets it from!

We went and ran errands to Target, TJMaxx, JC Penny's and then went to Pittsfield's Ethnic Fair which they have every year. Last year it was torrential rain and thunderstorms. But this year was gorgeous. We sought out the House of India tent and got our favorite food :) then went walking around North St. Hit up Price Rite and a new package store afterwards. I like trying a bunch of different ales and stouts :).

Jogged on the treadmill and watched some of 60 Minutes, but it made me want to vomit. Last year Medicaid spent $55 billion on patients during their last two months of life, more than the government spends on ALL of public education!! One example is that a woman who has been in a coma for a week has no less than 25 specialists, each of which bills Medicaid separately! Gag!

On a plus, jogged in a new pair of trainers, fresh from the box. Got a sick deal on Brooks Addictions (my favorite shoe of the last three years). I bought three pairs w/ shipping for $180. Three new pairs in the store would have been $315!!! Jokes on them!

Total Time: 45:23 Total Distance: 5.25 miles Average Pace: 8:39

7:00 PM - I am really dreading the summer weather here in MA. To date since June 21st there have been 11 days where the temperature was higher than 90 degrees. Today was one of them, with a high of 91. Absolutely disgusting. Even when I run inside I have to change my shirt during a 45 minute run!!! What gives man? The humidity is so bad that I sweat just sitting here! And I haven't been able to do any long runs. And now school has started and I am beyond stressed as I have so many courses and meetings to plan for! I feel like a failure. I just hope I am able to finish the marathon!

Total Time: 43:40 Total Distance: 5 miles Average Pace:  8:44

A nice quick walk in the evening before bed with Emm in a part of Pittsfield I haven't really seen before. A lot of fun! Then we played on the jungle gym haha!

5:00 PM - Jogged on the treadmill before Emm got home from work. Felt good. Just needed to relieve a bit of stress and relax a bit. Average pace was somewhere between 8:30 and 8:35.

9:00 AM - Drove up to North Adams, and wanted to run on Greylock. Knew that running to the top was ambitious given my training recently. I was shooting for 1/2 way up. Ran up 4 miles and hit the 4 mile mark in 47:02. Man miles 2-3.5 are brutal! Some areas are 12% grade. This is the area where last September a car's brakes were going out lol. Saw so many bikers and the road was clogged with NY drivers coming to drive up the mountain. It was probably a smart thing I turned around halfway up. Oh well. Live to fight another day. Flew on the way down. All 4 miles were well under 8 and were something like 7:27, 7:40, 7:42, 7:51. Finished the run in 1:18:20!

Total Time: 1:18:20 Total Distance: 8.1 miles Average Pace: 9:40

5:30 PM - Temperature was only 75, BUT humidity was uncomfortable to oppressive. Humidity index was 68 and 70 or greater puts it into the oppressive category. Went running on Dublin road with Emma. We did the part that takes you to Rte 20 first, and then stopped briefly at the car. I had to change my shirt after only 2.77 miles because I was sweating so much. Then I went the other way. I ended up going about .3-.4 miles farther than Emmy, but when I turned to run the last mile, I was pushing really hard to try and catch her and thanks to cars at the last intersection I was able to catch up to her :). Splits:

• Mile 1: 9:28
• Mile 2: 8:41
• Mile 3: 8:47
• Mile 4: 8:23
• Mile 5: 7:41 

Went running with Emmy on Gulf Road and ran into Emms dad, Joe coming back from dinner. We went and tried to run on the trails that were made by the Crane Paper Comp. The trails were pretty good, except that they aren't exactly marked well. By far some of the nicest trails to run on, but after 15 minutes we decided to turn around to make sure we could find our way back out! Finished up with a cooldown up a hill and back on the road. Felt good. 4 miles in 34:44.

Ran at the track before going into school on Saturday morning. The kids start on Monday! I am nervous. My first FIRST DAY on Monday as a standalone teacher! Nervous! Ran warmup, 2 x 800 in 3:06 and 3:02, cooldown. 3 miles in 24:00.

7:50 PM - Finally cooling off at almost 8 o'clock. Went running from the house, a quick 3 mile loop. We ran it in 23:59 (Emm and I). It has been a whirlwind week but I have survived my first week of official teaching. Emm had her bridal shower and bachelorette party on Friday/Saturday. She seemed pretty happy. Funny story she told me was that the doorbell rang and all the other girls were in on this part... and yelled "Stripper!" and a guy dressed as a cop came in and Emm said she almost lost it. He started dancing but then I guess revealed that he was actually the boyfriend of one of the girls there, Holly, whom Emm had never met. Sounded like a fun gag and I'm sure Emm nearly fainted.

Total Time: 23:59 Total Distance 3 miles. Average Pace: 8:00 

3:30 PM - BArT's first official xc team's first practice was today. I tagged along and I am hoping to act as an asst. coach for them. It was fun. We had 2 girls and 4 boys show up but there was a model UN meeting so many students went there instead. It was hot (supposed to be 88-91 for the next 4 days). We warmed up and did a few circuits on the field and then did a longer cooldown on the bike path. About 2.75 miles in 20:00.

7:30 PM - Went running with Emm before a show we watch came on. Did the 3 mile loop we did yesterday. Emm shaved a minute off and ran 23:00 flat. I finished with a nice kick up the hill to the house in 22:38.