The garden is ready!

First, a news flash (at least to me):

ALMOND BUTTER IS DELICIOUS.  Just sayin.

Second, an update:

Project "Early Mornings" is going swimmingly.  Lucy has now gotten two 30 minute 5:30 AM walks, which only proves that it is possible.  So far I am still fighting against the snooze button, and so far I have won every time.  I am also enjoying my more relaxed, less rushed mornings.  However, funny things happen between the hours of 5 and 6 in the morning.  Things like this:

;

Look closely.  Yes, those shoes are in fact 2
different colors.  And no, I did not notice until
I was a block down the street whereupon I
seriously contemplated NOT going back to
remedy the situation.

Third, let's get all the "running blog" talk out of the way:

Because I gave myself the gift of a rest day today, I've only had one run since I last touched base with you.  I looped Green Lake with a couple friends last night and proved to myself once again that running with people will, more likely than not, increase my speed and motivation.  We went for a quick 3.1 miles with an 8:38 average pace.

No negative splits in this one, but that was because we kept telling ourselves
to slow down.  We weren't out for speed.

I felt great great the whole way, despite breathing a little heavier than I probably should at this pace, and definitely felt like I could have gone further at the end.  It felt really good to add another "up" to my "up and down" week.  Although, technically I guess that turns it into an "up and down" week and a half.  I'm hoping to keep things on the up side for the next half of the week, although with a 9 mile hilly loop of Lake Youngs on Saturday, that may be difficult.

Finally, the much-anticipated, awe-inspiring, jealousy-inducing, craft-filled Classroom Photos!!!

The time has come for me to temporarily put on a "teaching blogger hat."  I've never worn this hat before, and it may fall apart while I'm wearing it, but I'll plod through anyways.  Cause that's what I do.

[Insert mental picture of Tessa wearing a Crafting Goddess Teaching Blogger Hat.  Probably should have actually done that.]

Welcome to Ms. Kaplan's Growing Garden of First Graders!

Curtains courtesy of awesome co-worker across
the hall.  Fabric chosen by Crafting Goddess.

So no, technically there are no growing first graders in my garden yet, but that will certainly happen soon enough.  Probably a little sooner than I'm ready for.  Also, after previewing these awesome photos that I took with my iPhone in the last 5 rushed minutes of my day today, I realize that many of them are a little bit fuzzy.  I claim to wear many hats ("running blogger," "semi-swim and biking blogger," "teaching blogger," "peanut-butter-and-soy-sauce food blogger"), but "photography blogger" is not among those hats.  At least not yet.

To start the tour, let's open the door and take a look.

At first, it doesn't seem like much.

Most of the walls are currently blank slates, waiting to be filling with first grade learning.  But notice the color theme.  Sunshiny yellow.  Green, cause grass and plants and all the gardeny stuff is green.  Some "blue sky" tucked in here and there.

Continue a little further and look to the left.

First you'll notice the new mini cubby shelves from Fred Meyer with old cubby boxes from Lakeshore resting on top.  What will be the writing center, when cubbies are filled with folders and paper trays with papers, is arranged here.  See the flowers?  They're hidden everywhere. 

Disclaimer: all flowers are fake and will not be harmed in the duration of the school year.

If you direct your eyes past the writing center, you'll see the new meeting area and Calendar set-up.

All these charts and things have a purpose and are very important, but I
won't bore you.  Can you spot the flower pot?

Important things to notice here are the awesome fabric that is covering my mess of wires, cords, and cables that extend from my tech cart.  The fabric, of course, has cute little flowers on it and matches my new curtains.  Observant eyes may notice that the projector is not pointing at the roll up screen.  Do not fret, the screen is on the docket to be moved this week.

Now, if you look to your right, you'll see our blank palette of a writer's wall.

Thanks to co-worker Roz for improving my original board title of "Great
Writers are Blooming!"  Also, thanks to Roz for the perfectly themed picket
fence.

Other awesomely cheesy board/poster titles you may see throughout the room include: "Growing Readers," "Busy Bees," and "Our Roots are Planted Around the World."

Now, take a couple steps forward and continue looking to your right.

Welcome to my new cozy Library Nook!

The books themselves may need some serious organizing and some
labels scream for replacement, but how many flowers can you count?
See how I distracted you there?

Last year, my books were arranged around my meeting area, and I spent the majority of lessons trying to keep my students more focused on me than leafing through their neighboring bookshelves.  I like the new separate space, and I strategically planned the set up so that there are no areas hidden from my line of sight at my teaching table.  I promise you, lots of logic and thinking when into every furniture placement in this room.

Now, turn around and your will see two very important and essential things.  First, the relocated word wall (which used to live where the writer's wall now does):

I was going to title our word wall "New Words Grow Here," but the kids need
to actually refer to it as the word wall, so I kept my old label.

And second, my teaching area:

Lots of important learning happens here.

But really, let's zoom in on the most important part:

Storage crate seats!!  Idea courtesy of Pinterest.  Construction courtesy
of Roz's wonderfully handy boyfriend.

These little suckers are the best new addition to my room.  I was simply going to continue to stare longingly at pictures of them on Pinterest and not attempt making them, but when I mentioned the idea to Roz she jumped on board and was so excited that we had to do it.  The file boxes are from Walmart (I know, I wouldn't have shopped there if they had them anywhere else for $3.00 each). The seats are made from plywood covered in foam and my flower fabric.  Some cardboard is even stapled to the underside of the plywood so little fingers won't get splinters.  Because the best part about these seats is that you can lift the tops and store all the necessary materials kids will need for reading lessons (write on/wipe off boards, markers, highlighters, pizza pans for magnetic letters, etc.).  Such. A. Great. Idea.  So pleased.

Now let's take a quick spin over to the back left corner to get a different view.

More storage tubs on the counter space.  My super necessary tea-warming
microwave, and a huge non-working fridge.  Anyone know how to dispose
of those??

And finally, let's zoom in on my Crafting Goddess projects.

Remember  those cute foam flowers I made?  Here's where
they ended up, attached with velcro dots..  I'll use this to
organize my reading groups throughout the year.  If my
finger wasn't in the way, you could see the S on the
end of "readers."

My busy bee job chart!  Little mini bees cut and colored on foam, glued to
tongue depressors and placed in the cloud "pockets" labeled with jobs.
Poster and bees hand made by yours truly, Crafting Goddess!

There are also a few other crafty things that are more functionally useful than cute, so I won't succumb you to windy descriptions of those things.

All in all, I think that gives you a general idea of what I've been working on for the past week and a half.  I'm really pleased with how everything turned out.  I've never had the energy to put this much effort into classroom set up, because I've always worked full time over the summers.  But this summer, I focused on doing things to re-energize my drained batteries, and as you can see it definitely paid off.  And now I am even more energized to see how this classroom comes to life with little ones in it.

Exactly one week from today, I'll get to see that happen.  All I have to do now is figure out what I'm going to do to help them starting growing, sprouting, blooming, and blossoming once they get there.  But really, that's the fun part.

Pop Quiz:  How many flowers did you see??  Ready...Go!

Ups and Downs

It's been an up and down kind of week.  I've been happy for cooler weather, but oddly missing the heat as it dissipates early in the evening.  I love running in the fall, but am already missing my bike and warm summer swims.  I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to them completely yet, but pretty soon I won't have a choice.

At work, I've alternated between waves of being excited for the new school year and sad that summer is over.  I've been extremely motivated to keep going into school day after day to set up my classroom, but have been reluctant to sit down and think about what I'll actually be teaching next week.  But now my classroom is just about ready (as "ready" as a classroom can be, pictures later this week, promise), and it's time to buckle down and start planning (when I have time between the endless days of meetings and trainings that lay ahead this week).

As for running, things have been really up and down as well.  Here's how my runs have looked and felt this past week:

Monday 8/20: 3.8 miles, 9:32 pace. This was an early morning run with Lucy, her first run in a while so I didn't want to push it.  I also didn't feel super great.  I just can't seem to get my muscles going strong during early morning solo runs.

Tuesday 8/21: 3.5 miles, 9:37 pace.  Although mileage and pace-wise, this run doesn't look a lot different than the day before, the effort involved and feel of the run differed as much as night and day.  I met up with my friend Jamie after spending the day in the classroom.  I wanted to get some hills in, and she was gung ho about it.  We ran down one long hill for 1.7 miles, and then turned around and came back.  My legs felt strong, energized, and ready to conquer this never ending hill.  Huge difference from the day before.

Wednesday 8/22: 5.2 miles, 8:43 pace.  This was my speedy, very mildly hilly run with Erica.  I felt good going fast, but was tired by the end and struggled up the gigantic hill to my house.  Still, I made it half way up and was happy with that after the previous day's hills.

Thursday 8/23: Rest Day.  I gave up my run to go watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the outdoor theater in Magnusen Park.  This was a great choice.

Even Lucy enjoyed this decision.

Friday 8/24: 3.4 miles, 9:11 pace.  I felt great on Friday, full of energy after spending my first full week at work in many weeks.  I realize that seems like an odd statement, but when the kids aren't there, I expend much less energy in my classroom than I would on my typical summer day.  Minus the whole heavy furniture moving thing.  Anyways, Lucy came along for this run and must have been full of energy too because she had no trouble maintaining a solid 9:00 pace for most of this run (the huge hill at the end bumped us up to the 9:11 average pace).  We were both very happily tired after this run.

Saturday 8/25: 6.6 miles, 8:58 pace.  This was technically my long run this week, even though it doesn't seem very long.  I'm in a kick back week of training for Nike Women's and will jump back up to 9 or so miles this coming Saturday.  I met a couple of TNT girls for this run and ran most of the way with Jamie.  I felt great at this pace, but will have to slow it down for next week's long run.

Sunday 8/26:  Rest Day.  Lucy and I walked around West Seattle for about 4 hours in the afternoon with Sierra and Rex after a fun-filled Saturday afternoon/evening of wine tasting that involved a limo bus, 2 poles, lots of wine, mimosas, friends and blaring Michael Jackson down the highway and through Alki.   This was all in celebration of my HLM Sierra's birthday.  Much fun was had.

It's a bus.  That become a limo.  No, I will not tell you who
won the pole dancing contest.

Today 8/27: 4.4 miles, 9:38 pace.  I tried another early morning run with Lucy before heading into work for more set-up/school year prep and was equally as unsuccessful at this run as I was a week ago.  Lucy wasn't feeling it, I wasn't feeling it, we put the miles in and made it through.  

Overall, I had a few good runs and a few not so good runs this past week.  I'm struggling a little with getting back into a schedule with my workouts.  All summer long, I've been on a "I'll do what I feel like doing" training schedule.  Swim?  Sure.  Bike?  Why not?  Run?  If it's not too hot, I'd be glad to.  But now, I'm back at work and trying to get back on track with a set schedule for Nike Women's Half training.  And frankly, my brain isn't quite enjoying it.  This week was the first time in a while where I had to push myself to get out there and get the miles in.  And mentally that's no fun.  But of course, that is a part of running.  It's not all fun and easy miles.  And since Goofy Challenge training will start in about 2 weeks, it's good for me to get back on a schedule.

As for my new morning person goal, I did really well last week after my initial minor slip-up.  The snooze button has not been touched in almost a week.  Tomorrow will be my first "real wake up time" morning.  I'm going to set my alarm for 5:15 AM and try to be strong in the face of those numbers tomorrow morning.  I'm aiming for at least a 25 minute walk for Lucy before going to work and sitting through a day of professional development.  It'll be interesting, because I've never seen the inner workings of my neighborhood at 5:30 in the morning.  Perhaps new secrets will be revealed in these early morning hours.  Secrets about what?  Who knows...only time will tell.

And on that note...early to bed, early to rise.  It's 9:30 PM right now, which I'm pretty sure means it's already past my bedtime.

Share with me:  Was your weekend as exciting as mine?  Was there pole dancing involved?  Any wise words of advice to push through a minor training rut?

Crafting Goddess sets a new goal

You know things are getting crafty when the glue gun and pipe cleaners come out.  And yes, that happened today.  I have been spending the past 3 days completely reorganizing and rearranging my classroom, and I have also now deemed myself "Crafting Goddess."  One day spent on Pinterest a week ago, and now I just can't stop myself.  I'd show you pictures of all my classroom functional crafts, but I want to wait until the whole room is put together (probably late next week), and then I'll pretend to be a teaching blogger for a day and give you a tour of my "First Grade Garden."  So cheesy and amazing at the same time.

While I've been crafting away, I've had lots of time to do some thinking about the upcoming school year.  As with any new beginning, I've set a few goals in my head about how I want this year to go.  Some of these are teaching-oriented, so I won't bore you with them here.  Also, as soon as my first graders walk in the door on September 5th, I know that I'm going to get caught up in the nitty-gritty day-to-day routines, assessments, etc. of the classroom and forget about most of them.  I'm especially afraid my sudden burst of craftiness is going to slide away due to lack of time and energy.  But I'll worry about that later.

Right now I'm going to publicly declare a new goal I've set for myself and therefore make it impossible for me to forget about it or fail (right?).  So here it is:

BIG GOAL FOR THE 2012-2013 SCHOOL YEAR:  Become a morning person!!

I'm not a morning person.  I hate waking up to an alarm, because I hate waking up at any time besides when I actually want to wake up.  I know, I know.  I can hear all your brains thinking "just wait until you get married," or "just wait until you have kids."  And I know that I've totally lucked out by owning a dog that loves sleeping in as much as I do.

Can you see the time on the clock?  7:30.  I've
been up, face washed, teeth brushed, dressed,
etc.  But she has no intention of moving until
she hears the clink of her leash.

But right now, I'm single, I have no human children, and on non work days I can wake up whenever I want to.  Which is usually around 8 or 8:30 nowadays.  Up until a year or two ago, my preferred wake up time was between 10 and 12.  Now I'm a super mature 28 and a half year old.

And this is all well and good, but now that summer is ending, most days are not non work days.  I've been toying with the idea of moving some workouts to the morning, but have settled on the plan of trying to walk Lucy for at least 30 minutes in the morning instead.

There are several reasons why this will be extremely difficult for me (in addition to ones I've already covered):
1)  Because of my long commute, I already "wake up" between 5:30 and 5:45 on most days (don't worry, I'll explain why "wake up" is in quotes momentarily).
2)  Very soon, Seattle will hit the rainy months.  Outdoor activities, especially in sleepy morning hours, are no fun.
3)  We're encroaching on winter, which means dark mornings.
4)  Numbers 2 and 3 combined equal dark rainy mornings.  This deserves it's own spot on the list.
5)  I have a love/hate relationship with my snooze button.

Let's elaborate on the snooze button.  I love my snooze button.  I set my alarm 20-30 minutes earlier than I need to, just so I can snooze.  I feel like I'm tricking myself into thinking that I am getting extra sleep this way.  Every morning, I do fancy mathematical calculations in my half asleep brain to determine whether or not I can snooze just one more time.  Often these calculations are wrong, and I end up rushing through morning preparations to get out the door on time.

I also set my alarm clock 10 minutes ahead as another way to trick myself into getting out of bed earlier.  Again, this does not work.  I add this extra 10 minutes into my fancy mathematical calculations every morning, probably making them even more inaccurate.

All of this "tricking myself" is not paying off.  I've been doing the same thing for years, and it obviously doesn't work.  So instead of beating my head against the same wall over and over, I am going to make a choice to change things.

Yesterday, I officially decided to ban the snooze button.  I want to hear my alarm go off and get up.  Just like that.  No biggie.  I tried it this morning, and was semi-successful.  I was just about to get up to the first alarm when I remembered that the clock was set 10 minutes ahead, then I told myself that just one snooze was ok.  Seven minutes into the snooze, I theoretically slapped myself on the hand, got up, and immediately set my clock back to the real time.

Tomorrow will be another test.  Will the snooze button defeat me?  Because if it defeats me at this week's 7:00 wake up time, I know it will defeat me at the normal 5:30 wake up.  So the rest of the week is a test of strength between me and the snooze button.  I think this will be harder than running a marathon.  And I feel I have a right to say that, because I've run 3 of them.

I'm going to take my new school year goal in baby steps.  This is the "practice" week.  It's worked out well waking up a little earlier than I choose to, and I've taken Lucy for 30-45 minute walks before heading into work.  I've also given myself 2 hours before needing to leave.  I need to cut this down to an hour an a half unless I want to wake up at 5 AM.  And I don't.

And now I'm going to publish this for the incredibly small number of people who read my blog so that you can hold me accountable for magically become a morning person in the next year.  If I fail, you can all publicly chide me.

And because this is supposed to be a blog about running, here are my splits from today's speedy run with Erica through the streets of Ballard.

The last .28 mile is super slow because it is a HUGE hill.  And I ran lots
of hills for yesterday's run, so I did not push myself.  One day I will
magically love hills.  But that is not this year's goal.

I've been back to running my last few runs in the 9:00-9:30 zone, so it was nice to head out on the streets with Erica so she could push me to run a little faster, even if she didn't mean to :)

And speaking of running and other crazy things, a HUGE GOOD LUCK to Ironman friends MacKenzie and Kelly who are doing Ironman Canada and Jason and Joe who are doing Ironman Louisville on Sunday.  You are all amazing and will do an awesome job, and I know for sure because as I snoozed for 7 minutes this morning, I dreamed all about it.  

PARTICIPATION TIME!!  Do you have a new goal now that the summer is ending?  Tell me all about it!

Summer Goals Report Card

I came to a somewhat unsettling realization today.  Despite Seattle's current heat wave and abundance of sunshine, I suddenly feel the end of summer upon me.  It's not completely over, there's still a little time yet.  But not much.  It's that slightly uncomfortable Sunday feeling now, where it's still the weekend, but you know that tomorrow is Monday and tomorrow you have real responsibilities again.

I find the encroachment of the new school year bittersweet for so many reasons.  If you've been reading the blog throughout the summer, you probably know that this has been an amazing summer for me.  I worked just enough to make me feel satisfied and spent most of my time doing things that I absolutely love.

I couldn't be more pleased with the way I spent my days.  I feel rejuvenated, revived, renewed, recharged (am I missing any other synonyms?  I'm sure there are more) and am almost ready for a new school year.  And the only reason that I say "almost" is because I don't think it is at all possible to feel completely ready for a new class of first graders.  You never know what those little ones are going to surprise you with.  But I feel way more ready than I have in my past 6 years of teaching.  Is my classroom set up?  No.  Do I have lessons planned for September?  No.  But mentally, I'm ready to get there.  I'm ready to re-enter my empty, stripped classroom on Monday with a fully charged battery.

And why am I so ready?  Because I spent this summer being selfish.  I spent this summer doing things that I wanted to do.  I tried my hardest this summer to worry less about my financial health, which has been the driving motivator of the past several summers, and more about my mental health.  And it paid off (oh puns, how I love you).

At the beginning of the summer, you may remember that I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish this summer.  Now that I'm feeling the end of summer upon me, I think it's time to check in on my summer goals and see how I did.  Here goes.

1)  Run.  A lot.  I can't say that I've run a lot this summer, especially with my beginning of summer "I-hate-heat" funk, but I've definitely done my fair share.  And when I wasn't running, I was swimming or cycling. So I give myself a pass on this.
Goal Status: Accomplished Enough.

2)  Read.  A lot.  I wouldn't say that I accomplished this goal in that way that I intended.  Yes, I did finish Clash of Kings--in fact, I finished just a week or so after that post.  I have also started The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, but I haven't gotten much farther than that.  However, I did do a lot of blog reading.  I'm a little worried about how I'm going to keep up with all my new favorite blogs throughout the school year.  I also did some professional reading: Beyond the Bake Sale, which was semi-interesting, and I've been tackling bits and pieces of When Readers Struggle by the gods of reading instruction, Irene Fountas and Gay Sue Pinnell.  I intend to keep tackling this until the official end of summer.
Goal Status:  Accomplished.

3) Write.  A lot.  I'd say I started out fairly well at the beginning of the summer, blogging a few times a week.  This has diminished recently, but only because I've been enjoying my last days of freedom.  I kind of tried to encourage you to comment on the blog, but I could have done better with that.  I did not write anything besides the blog, but even at the beginning of the summer, I knew I would "probably be unsuccessful at that."  Do I know myself or what?
Goal Status: Semi-Satisfactorily Accomplished.

4)  Bike.  As much as I can.  Ugh, do we have to talk about the disappointment of the summer?  I wanted to bike a lot because I was going to do the Seattle to Portland bike ride.  This very unfortunately did not happen due to circumstances completely out of my control.  BUT I did bike a lot despite this.  I did not give up after the disappointment of STP.  In fact, I've even become comfortable going on bike rides by myself (my past 2 bike rides on Friday and today included).  And, I developed that love for biking that I was looking for earlier in the spring.  This was very exciting.
Goal Status: Accomplished.

5)  Go to the zoo.  I totally did this.  I made friends with the hippos and the elephants and the plethora of birds.  If you live in Seattle, or come to Seattle, I will be happy to give you a personal guided tour of the Woodland Park Zoo.  Because animals are awesome.  Especially ones that should most definitely not be living in your neighborhood.  Like lions, and tigers, and bears.  Oh my.  All within a 5 minute walk of my home.
Goal Status: Accomplished.

6)  Try to have a lot of fun without spending a lot of money.  I think I did this.  I didn't end up any broker than I usually do at the end of each month.  It's especially easy to do this when your idea of fun is running, swimming, cycling, walking, and going to the zoo when you have a membership.  None of these things costs money.  Also, when you avoid eating out and spend money only on cheap wine at the grocery store instead of at bars, you can avoid spending a surprising amount of money and still have fun.  Although, I did commit to an olympic distance triathlon, another marathon, another half marathon, and now quite possibly a half Ironman for next year.  So that costs money.
Goal Status: Broke Even.

7)  Try to widen my cooking repertoire again.  Nope, fail.  I stuck with my soy sauce and peanut butter plus a vegetable as the basic meal for the summer.  Sometimes it was just a stir fry, no peanut butter.  However, I did vary the types of non-meat substances I've been eating (I added silken tofu and tofurkey to my regular weekly buys) and decided to no longer buy meat at the grocery store.  Not that I bought much anyways.  One success:  I visited the Friday farmer's market as much as I could, the only disappointment being that the tomato stand wasn't always there.  And that's really the only reason I go.  Because freshly picked, locally grown tomatoes are AMAZING.  Don't argue with me on that fact.  You will lose.
Goal Status: Big Fail.

8)  Spend time with Lucy.  Although it wasn't time running as I would have liked it to be, I have spent more quality time with Lucy this summer than any previous one.  One priority in 99% of my summer days was taking Lucy for a 45-60+ minute walk.  There was lots of couch cuddle time, swim time for both of us at the lake, a run here or there, and walks with friends fun too.
Goal Status: Majorly Accomplished.

Aside from these mostly accomplished goals, I surprised myself a little this summer.  I conquered my semi-fear of open water swims.  And then I kept swimming.  I decided to take on my first triathlon, which will hopefully happen on September 16th at the Black Diamond Triathlon in Enumclaw, WA.  I did a few twice-daily workouts (whether it was bike and swim, or bike and run, or swim and run, are those all the combinations?), and am slowly starting to think of myself as maybe being a future triathlete.

I surprised myself by signing up to be captain of the Team in Training winter team and committing to do the Goofy Challenge.  And committing to fundraise another $2800 for this awesomely worthy cause (click that little purple box on the right up at the top!  Donate!  You know you want to!).

I surprised myself by getting exciting about teachery crafty things these past couple weeks.  I made fake flower pots.

Fake flowers and mini watering cans from
the Dollar Tree.  I colored different designs on
each can with a Sharpie.

And I made flower magnetic name taggy things.

I cut the foam and glued the pieces together then
wrote names with puffy paint.  They have a very
serious purpose.  Promise.

Pinterest has been my best friend the past week or so, inspiring me to crafty heights.  I can't wait to get back in the classroom to plan more fun projects.  I am surprised by the previous statement.

I also surprised myself by NOT getting bored this summer.  That was my biggest fear with not working a full time job.  I actually thought I'd go stir crazy.  I thought I'd get bored.  That's a funny joke (I would probably go stir crazy if the sun stayed away or it was raining continuously like the other 10 months of the Seattle year, but not the summer).  

Instead of going stir crazy and being ridiculously bored, I enjoyed my summer.  I had fun.  I did what I wanted to do.  I recharged my drained battery of a brain after the last school year.  And now I'm excited to open the door of my classroom and start fresh.  I'm excited to introduce a garden theme into my classroom.  And I'm excited to get started with another class of first graders, to get to know them, teach them to read, figure out their motivators, their strengths, and their struggles.  And most importantly, I'm excited that I'm excited.  

Summer isn't really over, but it will be soon.  And I have a fall full of teaching and running (let's go Disney!!) to look forward to.

Overall Goal Status for Summer 2012: Accomplished by Leaps and Bounds.

Life with Lucy: Encouragement

Come on Charlie, push through the wall!  You can do it!

The fast and the frugal

I've been spending a lot of time on the internet lately reading running blogs.  Because it's summer, and when I'm not running, cycling, swimming, or walking Lucy, I've got some time on my hands.  And in most of these blogs I've been reading, the blogger ladies post their running splits, which always seem to be just slightly faster than mine (a lot more miles in that 8's than the 9's, and some even in the 7's).  

I know that I'm not a slow runner.  My high 8 and low 9 minute miles are something that I'm proud of, but I also know that I could run faster.  If I really wanted to.  On interval runs while training for the San Diego RNR Marathon, I did miles that reached down into the low 8's, and for short bursts of time I could even sustain some high 7's.  So I know I'm capable of running faster.

To be honest though, most of the time I think that I'm a lazy runner.  I love getting out there and putting in the miles, but I don't necessarily love pushing myself during those miles.  I usually just find my comfortable breathe-easy pace and stick with it.  

So yesterday morning, when I woke up and suddenly felt an urge to just run fast (more than likely a result of my blog reading), I went with it.  In the back of my mind, I knew I probably should have been doing some hill reps in preparation for the Nike Women's Half, but in all honesty I'd much rather run fast miles that hilly ones.  So I took my urge to go fast and ran with it (haha, pun, kind of).

Here's how the run turned out:

This run was exactly 4 miles.  Like not even a hundredth of a mile over or
under.  I didn't do that on purpose, but the little secret part of me that loves
round numbers was super pleased.

I started with a slow warm up mile, because even though I wanted to go fast, I didn't want to hurt myself.  But the minute my watch told me I had completed my first mile, I started running.  I didn't pay attention to my pace or my watch.  I just pushed it, ran fast, and ran hard.  And I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Look at that 8:03 mile!  According to Nike+, the fastest mile I have on record is an 8:02, and that was during an interval run.  

And the funny thing was, even though I was pushing and running hard, I think I still could have gone faster.  My legs are feeling stronger right now than I think they've ever felt.  I guess I didn't realize that all this "leisurely" swimming, running, and biking I've been doing this summer is actually making me stronger.  I've been thinking all this time that I've just been doing all this exercise because I enjoy it and it's how I like to spend my summer days.  But it's actually making me strong.  Funny how that works.

As I rounded the last leg of Green Lake on this run, I tried to slow down for at least half a mile of cool down, but as you can see, even my "cool down" still kept me in the 8:30s.  I admit that I did not run the hill back up to my apartment.  I felt I had done enough work in my very exact 4 miles.  Hills will come another day.  We're running the Arboretum this weekend.  I'll get my hills in then.

After the run, I had a leisurely day reading blogs on the internet again.  But yesterday instead of running blogs, I decided to try to get myself motivated to do some work for school.  I brought a few bags of work home to do after my last day of summer school and hadn't touched it.  So all day I pinterested, I read teacher blogs, I searched for pictures of classroom set-ups and ideas for a classroom theme (which in my 6 years of teaching I've never done, but am kind of excited to implement my planned "garden" theme).  

In my blog hopping, I found lots of links to free giveaways including fun and useful classroom materials.  I also stumbled upon www.teacherspayteachers.com, a website were you (and other teachers) can develop your own materials, upload them and then sell them online.  Like an Etsy, but for teachery stuff.  I think I may have found out how I will make my millions.  All those graphic organizers I made last year as "evidence" for meeting "power standards"?  Yep, I think I should sell them.  For money.

Then I became a letter-cutting-out pro for the rest of the evening.

Letter cutting set-up: Mini paper cutter, ziploc bags,
computer streaming Hell's Kitchen, glass of water, glass of
wine, very unhelpful Lucy dog.

This morning, I woke up and was so motivated to do teachery things that I went to the Dollar Tree.  Oh how I love the Dollar Tree.  Everything literally costs $1.  That actually still exists.  And they have lots of stuff for creative teachers.  Or for teachers who have been pinteresting and blog reading for a whole day, prepping them to want to be creative.  Now I have more stuff in my apartment.  Including fake flowers for my garden room.  Cause I'm going to grow first graders in my garden room.  So creative.  So excited.

Then after being in teacher mode for over a day (and a short little trip to the zoo), I wanted to run fast again.  I was supposed to meet up with Erica and MacKenzie for a run before a Team in Training leadership team meeting, but MacKenzie wasn't feeling up to running and Erica was late getting out of work.  And then I was stuck on the Burke Gilman (without headphones, so no music).  So to pass the time?  Run fast.  Of course.  I only had time for a 30 minute run.  Here's what I did:

Not quite as fast as yesterday, but still faster than my average run.

Just before I hit my turn around point on the trail, I ran into 2 of my winter teams coaches, Nadine and Kelly, who had also met up for a pre-meeting run.  I turned around and ran back with them, and despite the speed, I was surprised that I was able to talk without being out of breath.

The "breath test" is a great way to gauge your effort.  On long runs, you should be able to easily hold a normal conversation.  But on runs that require more effort, you may only be able to get out 2-3 words at a time--or on really hard runs, one...maybe.  I had been assuming that talking would be hard for me at this pace.  But it wasn't.  Which means that I should actually be able to sustain this faster pace over longer distances.  Hmmm, we shall see.

Who knows how long this burst of speed may last for me.  I seem to go through phases of running where I'm  really motivated to push and train hard and then I revert back into lazy running, just out there to get the easy miles in and get home.  Looking back at my running logs, I realized I've run the last 4 days in a row.  I was fully intending to get up tomorrow and finally get a hill rep run in.  But I'm doing a longer hilly run on Saturday, so that might be a not so great idea.  Wasn't it just a week or so ago that I was complaining about how I hate running in the summertime?  I'm not sure what's going on right now, but I'm going to ride this wave of feeling strong and fast as long as I can.  Hopefully all the way up until the Goofy Challenge in January.  Those are some high hopes, but a girl can dream, right?

Let's talk about swimming

I've been talking a lot about biking and running this summer, but aside from my "I quietly freaked out on my first open water swim" post, I haven't really broached the subject of swimming.  Perhaps it's because swimming and I have had such a long relationship together.  We have way more of a history than running or biking.  With running, I only have a little over 4 short years of memories, and with biking, only 4 short months; but with swimming, I have a whole lifetime of memories.  We've loved each other, we've hated each other, and we've co-existed without having any sort of feelings toward each other.

So to talk about swimming, I have to delve deep into the past.  And a little while ago, I decided that I didn't really want to talk about the past anymore.  But nonetheless, especially when it comes to swimming, the past tends to sneak up on me and remind me that it hasn't gone anywhere.  I've tried to ignore it, but every now and then when I'm swimming (like during my 2370 yard swim this morning), something will happen--I"ll feel a familiar old ache, or use a muscle required in swimming that I haven't used in a while--and I'll get flashbacks of my lifetime of swimming.

Therefore, today I tell the story of Tessa's Lifetime, Up-and-Down Relationship with Swimming (some of these hazy memory "facts" may possibly be disputed by my mother, but I tell the story as I remember it).

Early Childhood:

According to my mother, swimming and I first met when I was less than 6 months old, taken to the pool, and dunked underwater.  I'd imagine I learned to hold my breath fairly quickly.  I obviously don't have any memories from this time, but I've been told that I learned to swim very quickly as a child, and my fishy nature emerged fast.  I'm not sure how much time I actually spent swimming in my first 4 years of life, because we were living on a farm in Kentucky and I have no idea what our pool access was.  But I'm pretty sure it was a somewhat prevalent part of my early childhood years.

Elementary School Years:

The summer I was 4, we moved from the Kentucky farm to Richmond, VA where our family joined a neighborhood pool.  In Virginia, it is hot in the summer and everybody belongs to a pool.  Typically, when I think back with nostalgia on my childhood, the vast majority of my elementary school memories take place at this pool.  I grew up at this pool.  I was a Granite Marlin, and I loved it.

Throughout my elementary school summers, I spent most every day at this pool.  We'd get there for swim practice from 8am-10am, then the pool would open to the non-swim team members.  We'd stay through lunch and all the way up to dinner, hanging out with friends, swimming, taking an occasional tennis lesson, taking some diving lessons, bugging our parents for money for the snack bar, playing Sharks and Minnows in the diving well, or inventing Little Mermaid games in the pool, and getting ridiculously and unintentionally tan.

In the summer off-season (i.e. the school year), I belonged to year round teams.  I have no idea of the exact years of these teams, but I remember at some point belonging to at least 2 different teams--practicing with one before school in the morning, and one after school in the evenings.  Had I continued on this track, I think I had the potential to go pretty far with my swimming.  I was a good swimmer--I won my races when I needed to and did the laps and drills I was supposed to.  But I was a lazy swimmer.  My coaches yelled at me for not trying hard enough, not pushing myself enough.  I just didn't have the competitive motivation.  Just getting by was enough for me.

So, after a few years of overloading teams and workouts and meets, at one point I remember just wanting to quit the year round teams.  And then I would just swim laps with my mom at the YMCA in the morning before school (and then stop at McDonald's for biscuits and gravy on the way to school...oh the south).  I remember that even though I didn't want to do all the swim teams, I still loved swimming.

Middle School:

The summer after 6th grade, we moved from Richmond, VA, up to Rochester, NY.  I have a very vivid memory of my last swim practice with the Granite Marlins, when my coach Ted (who had coached me through endless summers) pulled me to the side, grabbed my wrists, looked me hard in the eyes, and told me to join a team in New York, to not stop swimming, because I had so much going for me.  I remember being taken aback, not realizing he cared that much or that I mattered that much.  I wonder now how many times I disappointed him during those years.  Because I just remember him yelling at me.  A lot.

Anyways, I got up to NY and did not join a year round team.  I joined my middle school team and suddenly loved being one of the best on the team.  In elementary school, there were always people better, but in middle school, on the school team, I was a star.  And it felt awesome.  I got lots of PRs, won races, and rediscovered my love for competition.  For 2 years.

High School:

But then high school hit.  And I wasn't the best on the varsity team.  I was still good, but I definitely wasn't one of the top swimmers.   So I struggled through it for 2 years, until we got a new swim coach, who decided that we were losing lots of points for not having divers.  So I signed right up.  We recruited about 4 other girls my junior year to dive, but by senior year, I was the swim team's lone diver.  I was tall, I was gangly, I was awkward, but I was the diver.

Backwards pike somesault.  Look at the blurry speed.

 

Super cool twisting something.

Then I graduated from high school with no intentions of continuing swimming in the future.

My last meet as a senior.   Standing poised during my
send-off speech.  So incredibly young looking.

College:

Although swimming and I had a rocky, tumultuous road.  I couldn't quite stay away.  In high school, I had worked summers as a lifeguard at local town home complex pools.  Then in college, after freshman year in NYC, when I needed to find a job, lifeguarding was the first thing I turned to.  I found a job at a community center near Battery Park, lifeguarded for a year, and then got certified to teach swim lessons.  I taught swim lessons for about 2 years, my junior and senior years of college, and then quit when I got my first teaching job.  While lifeguarding, I'd take my breaks occasionally in the water doing laps.  I'm pretty sure that seldom occurrence was the only exercise I got in college.  

Post-College

Swimming and I had a long separation after I quit teaching lessons.  The past 6 years, the only times I've turned to swimming have been when I'm injured.  Swimming was my go-to sport when my ankle and or knee decided it couldn't handle running for a while.

But now this summer, thanks to my tri-training friends, I've found myself doing a lot of swimming.  And not just in pools, but in lakes, with a wetsuit.  Like a real swimmer or something.  And I've found, as always, that swimming comes back quickly for me.  My old, reliable, forgotten friend.  Swimming is always there for me when I need it.  And I find that the more I swim, the more I rehash these old swimming memories and the life that swimming and I have had together.  Because as much as I absolutely love running, and am coming to love biking, swimming was my first.  Swimming has the nostalgic hold on my heart.  We may have more rocky roads ahead of us, but I'll always know that swimming will be there for me when I need it.  And as I embark down a new road towards triathlons, I am certainly happy to have swimming as an old friend.

Life with Lucy: 90 Degrees in Seattle??

It's.  So.  Hot.

How I spent my day

I know I've been writing a lot of "I love life" blog posts lately.  There's been the "I love biking," "I love running, "I love my friends," and of course "I love my dog" blog posts.  And very soon in the future, I'm pretty sure there will be an "I love swimming" post too.  I'm sorry if you are getting sick of these posts, and I promise you that my life is certainly not 100% bread and roses, but for right now, in the midst of the first summer I haven't worked full time since early college, I'd say life is pretty good.  So I'm going to keep writing about how I love life, because despite whatever unnamed-on-the-internet struggles I may actually be facing currently, the vast majority of the time I really do love life.

And let's remind ourselves of one reason why I really love life right now.  It is summer.  And I am not really working.  But I am still get paid (whatever measly amount it may be).  And after tomorrow, which is the last day of summer school, I will really not be working for the next few weeks*.


*Small preachy aside: for those of you who may be thinking "ugh, teachers have it so easy": I invite to come into my classroom on September 4th and do what we do just for one day.  Then tell me I don't deserve my summer...that I don't deserve this recharge.


Oops sorry, that just kind of came out.  Back to loving life.  The reason that I am again discussing this oh so important topic is that today very much exemplified why I currently really love life.  Here's how I spent my day:

6:30 am  Wake up unaided by an alarm clock, with no reason to wake up so early.  Force myself to continue to toss and turn in bed.

8:30 am  Finally admit that no more sleeping will be happening.  Get out of bed, eat some cereal, have some coffee.  Start some laundry (this didn't really aid in the "I love life" feeling, but I desperately needed to do it, so it made me feel accomplished).

9:45 am  Take Lucy for a walk.  Stray from the usual "routes" I take through my neighborhood.  Be daring.  Explore new paths.  See new things.  Be disappointed that the sun is out and I forgot to put sunscreen on.  Darn.

10:45 am  Get home, switch laundry.  Putter around on facebook, twitter (@doggedlyrunning...follow me), blogger, and other unnecessary social websites wasting time.

11:30 am  Make a tomato sandwich for lunch.  If you've never eaten a tomato sandwich, I feel bad for you.  Bread, mayo, whole grain mustard, thick sliced tomatoes, basil (fresh from my little pot of basil on my porch), lots of salt, pepper.  Simple deliciousness that only happens in the summertime.

11:45 am  Finish laundry.  Hear from Ironman Jason that crossfit killed him this morning and therefore he can no longer go for our planned bike ride.  No worries.

12:30 pm  Instead of the bike ride, decide to go for a run.  And do hill repeats. Because I'm a little nervous about the Nike Women's hilly half marathon in October.  It was hot.  It was tough, and I struggled through it.  But the struggle made me feel good.  Later.  And despite the 20 minutes of hill repeats in the middle of the 40 minute run, I still managed to maintain a 9:21 average pace.  Yay me.

1:30 pm  Get home from run.  Relax.  Spend more time on useless social websites.  Eat some GU Chomps, which I regretted a little bit later.  Change into swim suit.

2:30 pm  Meet Ironman Jason at Green Lake for a swim.  The water was cold, and I swam yesterday too, but was excited to get back in again.  Swim for 21 minutes.  Burp up GU Chomps while swimming.  Make it a little over a half mile.  Not too bad.

3:15 pm  Get home, shower, put on a comfy dress, eat a little peanut butter on an english muffin, put on some make up (not happy about having to do that...have been so excited about the lack of need for make up this summer).

4:30 pm  Go to the zoo.  Yay, I love the zoo.  We super cool zoo members call this "happy hour" at the zoo.  I walked the 5 minutes from my place to the entrance of the zoo and then wandered around until about 6:00 when I met up with fellow cool zoo member Ryan to enjoy the final hour of open zoo hours.  I saw lots of fun and exciting animals that I have come to know and love.

Pretty jaguar poised and picture ready (yep,
that's intentional alliteration)

Baxter and Barclay, new 6 month old Kunekune
pigs in the Family Farm.  Super cuddly.

New Warthogs, replacing the apparently
old and uninteresting Wild Dogs.

The ocelot was out in the Rainforest and I haven't seen him in forever.  And both the elephants and hippos were social at the gates, asking to be fed.  All in all, a very successful zoo happy hour.

7:15  Leave zoo past closing hours, walk back to my apartment to pick up Lucy and walk through Woodland Park with Ryan for about an hour.  That is 2 long walks for Lucy today.  She is a loved dog.

8:15  Get home, cook yummy dinner, eat yummy dinner, write blog.

So, let's summarize: start the day with adequate sleep, eat, spend time with Lucy in the sun, eat, run in the sun, swim in the sun, eat, see fun animals at the zoo (in the sun), spend time with good friends throughout, spend more time with Lucy, eat, write (and before bed I will read).  Yes, that is how to make this girl happy.  In case you were wondering.

And I won't apologize for telling you about how much I enjoyed my day.  Or how much I'm enjoying my summer.  Or my life as it currently is.  Because, frankly, after the year that I had previous to this, I deserve it.  

I hope sincerely hope you enjoyed your day.  Because you deserve it too.

FYI:  If you donate at least $15 to my Team in Training fundraising (purple widget at the top right corner of the blog) by THIS SATURDAY at noon, you will be entered into a drawing for a $15 Starbucks card to win back your money!!  Yay coffee!!  Coffee also makes life good--did I mention that I started the day with a very large cup of it?  If you want to be like me, you should donate money, win coffee, and then drink coffee.  Logically that's how it must work.