The 1st week of school is going well so far. (knock on wood). The first day of school went pleasantly well with no major issues, and I was surprised to see the second day go just as well. Today I think the honeymoon is over. A few students were very tired today and some behaviors have come about. I am hoping tomorrow goes better.
I was able to get in three early morning workouts ... monday, tuesday, and today. I think I am getting into a good "morning" schedule and doing some lifting regularly as well. Ask me if I will still be into the "morning" routine when the temps begin to drop. It is already cool in the morning, about 50 degrees this week.
Tuesday after school I did some house hunting with my realtor again. I am not going to say too much about it as I am afraid I will jinx it, but it went well. From there I rushed to my girfriend's place, changed out of my teacher clothes and we were off to dinner downtown. It was great to grab a bite to eat and catch up with her!....and then it was time.... time for the concert!
THE concert.
THE Mr. Jonny Lang!
We have seen him in concert before ... about 7 years ago .. but we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him perform in his hometown!
Here is a video clip. I had a few others, but this was the best one. This is a snipit of the song Red Light.
Here is another video, from the same concert. I wasn't able to get the whole song, but found this on youtube. This is one of my FAVORITE songs! This is a long version, but I highly recommend listening!
Ahh, it was so much fun!
______________________________________________ Monday:Lifted lower body Run 2.22 miles, 25:00, 11:15/mile
Tuesday: Lift upper body Bike 10.52 miles, 30:00, avg. 21.04mph
Wednesday: REST
Thursday: Lifted lower body Run 3.1 miles, 37:02, 11:56/mile (really focused on the run 5 or 6/walk 1 method)
*Psst... shh... I haven't done my pushups this week and I am afraid to get back into it...eeks.
Fargo is packed with Bison's heading back, or starting up as freshman, at NDSU. The mall is packed with kids eager to get their new school attire (as am I). Last night, downtown Fargo was full of the college partiers, starting up early before their semester officially begins. The weather is already changing, but I am not ready for fall yet. The past few days we have had some cooler temps, during the day and into the evenings. I woke yesterday to the temperature of 54 degrees and was cold. This all is a sure sign that it's that time of year, once again.
Back to school.
This past week has been uber busy with training and staff development. Friday we were finally able to sit down and workout our schedules, trying to group students according to abilities , including cross-grade level groupings. It went way to smooth. Then, we pulled in our ELL (English Language Learners) teachers and discussed the students that receive both ELL services and special education services, making sure our schedules blended. They did. Like I said, it went way to smooth. I would like to stay optimistic and say that no glitch will be found this week, but that's not too realistic.
Just like last year, there is going to be some change, and good change I hope. It is inevitable in the education profession. Our special education department will be taking part in a state-wide pilot that consists of using a web-based program for all of our paperwork. I am very excited, however, as I have probably noted before, I was trained to be the trainer at our school. The go-to person. Some teachers are having a hard time with this change, but I am almost positive that after a couple months they will be bragging about it.
In our ELL department, our district will be implementing a "newcomers" center. This will allow all our newcomers (refugees) to take part in half days at the newcomer center, learning the basics, vocabulary, expectations in the school setting, etc; and then will get to be with their peers for lunch, music, gym, and a some classroom activities the rest of the day. I am excited to see how this helps our new students adjust to the english language and expectations in the school setting.
We have added full-day kindergarten, 5 days a week. Previously, our kindergarten students would attend the Kindergarten Center half days, either in the morning or afternoon, with some of students who needed extra help participating in the extended day program the other half of the day. Our Kindergarten center is no longer big enough to serve all the kindergarteners in our district all day, thus a couple of elementary schools have taken a few classes. It will be interesting to see how these little ones adjust to all-day kindergarten. More and more parents are waiting an extra year to send their kindergarteners off to school. I give them props. It's amazing what an extra year can do for a child prior to starting school.
Monday is just around the corner and before I know it I will be sitting in my room with a group of students, as if the summer had never happened. But, I can honestly say (despite the handful of new students and transfers), I am ready for a new year, new challenges, and new learning. Our school district is growing very fast. A 2-3% increase each year in student population is average and expected. This year we have had a 7% increase, well over 400 new students. How exciting is that?!
Enough about school. I have a feeling the next couple weeks will continue to be busy. I am hoping that I will be able to get online here and there to check some blogs and post every once and a while, but I am not promising anything! I have a wedding this coming weekend and will be playing the role of personal attendant. I look forward to seeing family.
I know I have posted this video clip before (last year at this time I presume), but it is from one of my all time favorite movies and it's just perfect for today!
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This morning I was able to get into the pool one last time before they close it up for a week for fall cleaning. It had been almost a week since I got in the pool. I took a few days off when I got my hair cut and colored, as it was starting to look and feel like I had lived in the pool. This was a great swim with a handful of sprints. I was in the pool for 1 hour and 8 minutes, but you could probably knock off 5 minutes for the rests I took between a handful of intervals! It felt great and this has been my longest swim to date!
OSN: 3000M, 1:08:00, 2:16/100M (longest swim to this date)
Today was another day of "training" at school. I won't go into details, but it was a bit stressful and overwhelming... more so with the complaints, not actually the training itself.
But, I managed to get up at 5am and go to the gym for a nice half hour run. I did some intervals, working on speed, and then I did a wide variety of weight machines.. focusing on the lower body.
Tomorrow I am taking a rest day. We have work, and then open house in the evening which makes for a long day. I would rather get an extra hour of sleep during the night and be rested to meet some parents and students.
I don't even have the energy to read blogs. I will start, read a few, and then quit. I am sorry. Hopefully once I get settled into the new school year, I will be back at it.
Today's Song: Something Corporate - I Want To Save You (absolutely LOVE this song!)
ORN: 2.81 miles, 30:00, avg. 10:40/mile Lift lower body
I successfully put in another swim this morning prior to heading to work. Don't get me wrong, the alarm going off at 445 am was quite a shock to the system this morning but I knew that if I didn't do it this morning it wasn't going to get done. It just felt so good to get it done right away, head to work, and be home to relax before 5pm. Ahhh.
And, I know that time really shouldn't matter in the pool, but yesterday's swim just really sucked. I think I was in the pool for almost 45 minutes and did 1700M, average almost 2:38/100M. That bugs me because I know I can do better and today's swim proved that. I got in the pool, determined to have a good swim and ignore the warmer water temps. Thus, I swam 1600M in approximately 35 minutes... averaging 2:11/100M. Much better.
Now, I am afraid I will not get in the pool until after Labor Day. The pool will be closing to be drained and cleaned. That's okay. I really need to start focusing more on my running as I hope to get in a couple more 5K's before temperatures really drop and 2008 comes to a close... with the idea of shaving my 5K PR in November. yeah.
UPDATE ..... I have let my pushups slide a bit. I didn't do W5D3 last friday, and then didn't do W6D1 yesterday, so today I just did W5D2 again and will attempt W5D3 on thursday. All in all I did 129 pushups this evening... maxing out at 35. I can't wait to be done with this challenge!
Today's Song: Lil Wayne - I am Me (A song that Michael Phelps listened to pre-race... beware for those at work or near kids... dirty lyrics)
It's been a busy past few days... with little to nothing in the area of running, biking, or swimming. So, I will update you on everything else.
Friday we headed off to the cities. We did some shopping at the Outlet Mall in Albertville... I was excited to find some nice back-to-school clothes for a reasonable price.
That night the family hit up the horse races at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minnesota. It was a beautiful evening and a lot of fun to do some betting on the horses. At least some of us had luck.... ehem.. Dad.
Saturday we headed downtown and ate a late lunch at Brits Pub. We have been to this restaurant numerous times and it is still one of our favorites. The environment (watching lawn bowling on the patio) and beer is wonderful! I highly recommend if you are ever in the area. From there we walked to the Metrodome to watch the Twins spank the Mariners. It was a pretty good game.
Saturday evening we did a nice dinner at Maynard's in Excelsior (suburb of Minneapolis). Another restaurant that I was extremely impressed with. I enjoyed my Canadian pan fried walleye...
Sunday, after church, we ran a couple errands, enjoyed some cake in honor of Dad's birthday, and headed home.
This morning I was able to pull myself out of bed at a decent time and got in a swim. I was ready to call it quits after 1200M. There were only 2 lanes up for lap swimming because all the water arobics classes were sharing the pool ... the small pool was closed for cleaning. Thus, the big pool for lap swim was heated and too warm. But,J pushed me to do 500 more meters when I was most definitely ready to be finished.
After a semi-decent swim, I headed into work and spent well over 8 hours there. It is going to be a very busy week with getting back into a routine and attending teacher workshops and staff development meetings. 6 days and the kiddos start back up!
Just letting y'all know that I will be heading out again this weekend. Parents and littlest sis are coming in tonight and we leave for the cities tomorrow.
It will be a nice weekend celebration for Dad's birthday. We will be attending the horse races friday night, and then the Twins games Saturday and Sunday ... With a little shopping and good food in between!
P.S. Did I mention that I have to go back to work on Monday and the kiddos start a week from then? What the? Where did our summer go? And I can't believe Javamom asked when it's going to start to get cold here... I don't even want to think about it. I have noticed the temperatures starting cool off a bit more in the evenings already. It's only a matter of time...
My friend J and I had decided to do somewhat of a mock-triathlon today.... with the intentions of doing 1000M in the pool, almost 24 miles on the bike, and then a short 2 mile run. We did all but the run... she's been struggling with a sore knee, and after my 5 miles yesterday, I didn't want to push it.
We hit the pool just shortly after 7, as the beautiful sun was coming up...The swim was great.... a consistent 1000M in approximately 20 minutes. From there we drove to J's house got our bikes ready (checked the air in our tires...) ... and were on the road. We road out to a small town southeast of Fargo named Sabin. The roads and the weather couldn't have been any better. It was a nice easy ride; nothing too strenuous.
I came home and was disappointed when I remembered I still had to do my pushups. Egh. But, I did them, maxed out at 32 with a total of 124.
Now, I am going to head into school for a few hours since I didn't make it there yesterday.
Happy hump day, y'all!
Swim 1000M, 20:00, avg. 2:00/100M Bike 23.8 miles, 1:53:00, avg. 12.6mph 72 degrees and sunny when finished
After yesterdays day of nothing but cleaning and organizing, I was anxious to get in a nice run today. I didn't want to follow my habit of the past two weeks.... running only once a week. Last night while watching the Olympics I worked on a new playlist with some fresh new songs. By the time I was done, I had 60 minutes worth of songs, and that is just what I was going to do... run for 60 minutes today.
I decided to do it on the treadmill, as it was overcasting and I didn't want to mess with the rain. About 20 minutes into my run I started making excuses. I remembered I had plans for lunch with ladies from work and started calculating the time I would have left after my run to get ready. Then, the iPod was on the tail end of it's life. The devil in me said if I make it to 3 that would be good. Deep down inside it was just a goal of mine to do 5 miles... and when I reached 5 miles I wanted to quit, but I went on and did the full 60 minutes. This was the longest run I have done since the Half Marathon in May... yikes. Not cool.
After I was done I felt great. No pain in the knees or shins and my quads felt strong. I even had time to write up this post before lunch! ha.
Today's Song: KARDINAL OFFISHALL feat. AKON - 'DANGEROUS' --->
ORN: 5.45 miles, 60:00, 11:00/mile average treadmill
Michael Phelps reaction pretty much sums up my reaction to last nights 4x100M Relay. I was jumping up and down with excitement. Check out Badgergirl's post. I couldn't write it any better than she did.
Saturday I got up for a run. I really wanted to do the 8 miles on the 8th virtual race, but just wasn't prepared. After reading Nancy's race report, I knew I should have just done 5 more miles, even if I had to walk most of it!
Yesterday I went for a swim. The intention was to do a long swim, whatever that means. I was just hoping for atleast 2000M. For some reason I got into a good groove and didn't want to stop. I had plenty of time, and I wasn't getting hungry like I usually do in the pool. So, I kept swimming. However, it left me feeling very fatigued and tired the rest of the day. I really got to work on this post-workout proper nutrition stuff. Pointers?
This morning I was still a bit tired and decided to take the day off. I will eventually do my pushups (D1W5) sometime today. But, to be honest, Week 5 scares the crap out of me, even if I am doing column 1! ha!
As for the rest of the day... it has been raining pretty much all day. I plan to get some cleaning done around the apartment and then I will probably dive into a new book.
Only 1 more week and I am back at work... ah, the joy!
Happy Monday, y'all!
Saturday: Run 3.2 miles, about 40 minutes, a slow 12:30 pace; 76 degrees, feels like 76 with 64% humidity and 63 degree dew point, UV Index 5, sunny, with 9mph wind from the east. 41 pushups...for fun :) Sunday: Swim 2600M, about 58 minutes, approx. 2:13/100M (making SLOW improvements)
UPDATE: Did W5D1 pushups... 126 altogether and there was NOTHIN' fun about it.
In past Olympics, I have never really followed the USA Basketball team. Probably because they haven't been too impressive. But, this year, it seems as if they are concentrating more on their work as a team, than as individuals in the past. The following video was turned into a commercial and I just had to share it.
Wednesday I swam a good mile. It wasn't anything too impressive, but I swam a consistent mile and it felt great. I probably could have done more, but I was out of time.
I went into school to do some more organizing and rearranging. I didn't have any problem being productive this day. I was there for a near 6 hours and enjoyed it. Things are really starting to come together.
Thursday I biked. I was so pumped for cycle group ride and my friend and I went over there to meet the group and waited. and waited. and waited. No one showed up. It has been weeks since I last joined the group and I can't imagine that they don't meet any more. We still rode, except it was a very slow 17 miles. I need to figure out what happen to the group.
I also looked at a handful of houses today. It has been a few weeks since I last looked and I was super pumped. I found a couple I really liked but one is probably not in the best neighborhood. I have to look into that further. I am really trying to enjoy this house hunting process, but it can be so stressful.
Today I was supposed to run. Actually, I had been looking forward to doing the Virtual 8 miles on 8-08-08. I don't even know if I could do 3 today. For some reason my whole entire back is sore. It doesn't heart, but every muscle is sore. From what? biking? Swimming? pushups? doing my ab routine for the first time in a couple weeks?
But I did do my pushups today. W4D3 .... 105 pushups altogether! I will be moving on to week 5 for sure! I have heard everyone's lectures on pumping my tires. I guess I knew that I should be checking them before I ride, everytime. I will be doing that from here on out. But, I bought this gauge the other day and I can't figure out for the life of me how to check my pressure without letting out all of the air at the same time. What am I doing wrong? And if it is reading it correctly, my tires are WAY too low. eeks. Wednesday:Swim 1600M, approx. 40 minutes W4D2 p/u = 96
It still may be allergies affecting me, but I took some OTC drugs last night and felt ten times better this morning. However, I went to bed with the worst stomach ache and felt like throwing up. I dealt with stomach issues every time I ate this weekend, but thought that was gone! What in the h-e-double-hockey-sticks is going on?
I went into school this morning but was only there for a short time. I just had the hardest time being productive and there is still so much to do. Afterwards I had to hit up scheels for an air pump for my bike. I noticed the last time I rode that my back tire was getting a bit low.
Once I filled the tires, I changed and was out to enjoy the sunny day! I just realized that no matter how hard I try to avoid it, there is always going to be the issue of wind. I also realized that in ND, no matter what direction the wind is blowing, your going to feel it whether you are going north, south, east, or west. The wind today was only 8mph out of the WNW direction and when I was heading north at one point I ALMOST fell off my bike. For reals. for really reals. On that stretch of the road, the speed limit was 40 and it happened right after a huge semi-truck passed me. I am sure it had to do with the combination of the wind and the truck passing me.
But, I pushed hard through this ride and reached an average speed I have never reached before! 15 miles per hour! I was so pumped. At one point I was averaging 16 for about 5 minutes, but then the wind got the best of me.
Cheers to a beautiful Tuesday!
OCN: 10.8 miles, 43:36, avg. 15 mph 81 degrees, winds from WNW at 8mph, UV index 7
Today's Song: P.Diddy (featuring Keyshia Cole, Pharrell, & T.I.) - Last Night (in sidebar)
Not only did I sleep through my 6am alarm this morning (finally waking at 745) but I woke with a nice sinus headache right behind the eyes and forehead. I am hoping that it is just a fluke and not allergies related. However, I usually deal with allergy side affects this time of year; itchy face, itchy nose, sneezing, sinus headache, watery eyes, etc. and they usually coincide with combine season. It is definitely that time of year again. While traveling through North Dakota last weekend for a beautiful country wedding, it was apparent that combine season is definitely starting up again. It just seems too early. The following picture was taken here in North Dakota. Beautiful!
This weekend I did my "retest" for the pushup challenge to see where I would fall for week 5. Unfortunately I didn't do as well, and figured I would start back at week 4 again on the second column rather than the 1st collum. Yippee!
My sister and brother-in-law rolled into Fargo Friday afternoon to pick up me up their way to the Bis. We got home that evening and enjoyed a couple drinks with the family at a bar just off the Missouri River. It was a nice night, but a thunder cloud was definitely rolling in. Saturday morning we slept in a bit, grabbed some coffee and lunch, and were on our way to my Dad's hometown.
The wedding was at Mouse River Park in a large gazebo. The weather was nice; sunny but very warm. Something to be thankful for with an outdoor wedding.From there the wedding reception and dance took place at the fair grounds in a quanset about 15 miles away. It was a great night for a beautiful wedding. Here are a handful of photos from the rest of the night.
....family photo
Very much a country wedding: outdoors, brown suits, quonsets, barbed-wire decorations, a lot of bud light/coors light/keystone and red-eye (everclear concoction) consumed, country music, and yes, the bride did wear her cowboy boots all day long.
Wedding number 3 won't take place until labor day weekend. I look forward to that one, but for right now, I am looking forward to next weekend... first weekend home in 5 weeks!
Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time at the school, again, cleaning out my room... about 8 hours. But, I just got on a roll and didn't want to leave it for next week. Unfortunately, I was wiped out by the time I left at 5 and didn't have anything in me for a workout, let alone a 20+ mile group ride. It was a day of rest... or was it?
This morning I went out for a run. I didn't have any specific distance in mind, I knew I just wanted to do more than a half hour. It was cool when I left with a bit of a breeze, but the last half of the run was very warm as the sun was shining down directly in my face.
I have a 4 hour training this afternoon for work (a new internet-based IEP program) and then I leave town, again, for another wedding! This is my cousin's wedding... all outdoors, with a country western theme in northern North Dakota. Hopefully I will have some great pictures to post when I return!
Have a great weekend, y'all!
ORN: 3.77 miles, 45:36, 12:05/mile avg.60 degrees, 65% humidity, sunny W4D3 pushups = 83 they were freakin' hard today
....and then it was time.... time for the concert!
