Motivated to Succeed

3:30 PM - Air temperature was -2 this morning when I woke up, with a wind chill below that. High today was only around 12 degrees. Needless to say, not a very great day to run outside. Luckily at about 8am the delivery people brought in our new treadmill. Emm and I spent about 2-2.5 hours building the thing and by and large had a great time. Only exception was towards the end in the homestretch some nuts and bolts wouldn't find their respective holes and it became a challenge. Mostly everything went together great! This was our first big project together, with the exception being last night we built our first bookcase too! All in all a great day. Have helped reorganize much of the house with Emm these last two days. Going to go now and help her a bit and then maybe order Indian food! It's been a couple months since I've had it!

Total Time: 1:00:00 Total Distance: 6.5 miles Average Pace:  9:14

12:30 PM - Another storm hit this a.m. This one closed almost every school because it was supposed to sleet and freezing rain is supposed to get here this afternoon. Gave me time to get a little more school work done and prepare for the week. Hit up the treadmill for an hour. Felt good towards the end, but man the first couple my legs were dead!

Total Time: 1:00:30 Total Distance: 6.55 Miles Average Pace:  9:14

5:30 PM - Long day at school. Woke up and had ice caked all over the cars. Had to get to school early to make copies. It wasn't a terrible day and actually most of my classes were productive. We talked about what a social pyramid is and I got them to construct a social pyramid of power of school principals, office staff, teachers, student council members, and students. It is funny to see the 7th grade mind work and see just how many of them put students at the top of the social pyramid. While, yes, I pointed out, there would not be a school without them there, that by default does not give them power in the school system they are a part of. While they might have ultimate authority as to whether or not the school exists, once it does exist, they are thrust into the bowels of the social pyramid. However, I did explain that my goal as a teacher was to get as many of them higher than me on the social pyramid because it is that important to me to see them succeed. They seemed to like this. Tomorrow we will go and look at the social pyramid structure as it occurs in Egyptian society. Woot. 

Hopped on the treadmill tonight once I got home and shoveled out the driveway. I have decided no race this Sunday. Saturday night's low is projected to be -5 and Sunday -10 with highs only in the single digits. I'd rather stay close to home and the car! I will try to do the .55 loop over at Taconic high school if I wake up early enough on one of the weekend days. I want to try to get to 2.5 or 3 hours this weekend. Legs were pretty heavy tonight. I think because of all the miles I've run in the last week.

Total Time: 50:00 Total Distance: 5.26 miles Average Pace:  9:30/ mile

9:45 AM - Windy and cold. Temperature about 5 degrees at the start with a wind chill of -3. Projected high today should be about 15. Knew I wanted a long run and as Emmy was on the treadmill, I decided to layer up and get some ultra training under my belt. Put on 2 pairs of socks, a pair of spandex tights, pair of wind pants, thermal shirt, sportwick long sleeve shirt and a purple fleece top as well as an orange hat and gloves. Brought a 1/2 gallon of gatorade with me and 2 granola bars for fuel. Drove over to Taconic and it was pretty much deserted. I had mapped out that running the loop around the school is approximately .55 miles long. Parked in the far corner of the lot, stretched, and I was off!

Goal was to have fun, run for 3 hours, and stick to the 25 minutes of jogging and 5 minutes of walking routine, which I am happy to say I was able to stick with throughout the entire run! Splits were great. Note: every 3rd mile or so is slower because it incorporates my 5 minutes of fast walking. Almost all my fast walking 5 minute blocks were in the 14-15:30 minutes per mile range which is really strong! Very proud of today's accomplishments! (Note: I ate 1 granola bar at 55:00 and another at 1:55:00. Also drank about 8 oz of gatorade each at the 55 and 1:55 h marks.)

• Mile 1: 10:23
• Mile 2: 10:47
• Mile 3: 12:27
• Mile 4: 10:50
• Mile 5: 10:47
• Mile 6: 12:03
• Mile 7: 10:22
• Mile 8: 11:25
• Mile 9: 10:39
• Mile 10: 10:06
• Mile 11: 12:13
• Mile 12: 10:33
• Mile 13: 10:16
• Mile 14: 11:55
• Mile 15: 9:55
• Mile 16: 9:46

 Total Time: 3:00:33 Total Distance: 16.50 miles Average Pace: 10:56 / mile