5K Homecoming Alumni Race

I haven't participated in any races since the end of December 2006. I just seems wrong that it has been that long. I guess grad school, applying for jobs, and other summer events took over my life!I knew that registration started at 7am, but I thought the race didn't begin until 8. Good thing I like to be early for things as I got there shortly after seven, only about 15 minutes before the race began. I grabbed my bib, pinned it to my shirt, turned on my ipod, stretched, and began to mentally prepare myself.

I never know how to dress for races in ND. The one's I have done have either been in fall or winter and the weather is always unpredictable. The temp was 61 degress with a bit of humidity and a lot of wind. Yuck. It doesn't take long for my body to get extremely warm when running and I hated the idea of wearing a heavy top, but it was just too cold without it. I chose to wear my short yoga pants, tank top, and a longsleeved running shirt over the top.When mentally preparing myself for this run, I thought about what I wanted to accomplish. I didn't train enough to really expect to break any records so I was hoping for a good steady, strong run. In the back of my mind, a part of me wanted to beat my extremely slow pace from last year.... 39:46. Yuck. Looking around, I noticed the crowd consisted mostly of very young college students who probably could have been on UND's cross country team. It seemed as if there were only about 30-40 people running the 5K race. The starting gun went off and as people were flying by me, I kept telling myself "pace yourself...pace yourself" ... prentend someone is running with you.The route was very similar to last year's race.... starting at the wellness center, running through campus, making one large loop. It was absolutely gorgeous. The leaves were falling, the weather was crisp and but quite breezy. I kept playing tag with a father/daughter team. They were running a bit faster than me, but taking walk breaks every couple minutes. I felt that we were going to be the last 3 to cross the finish line. I didn't see anyone but a couple walkers behind us. It was during the last mile that I really felt that I had a good steady stride and it became my goal to cross that finish line before the father/daught team.And I did. With a couple minutes to spare. I pushed myself hard in that last half of a mile and just wanted to finish strong. Of course that was when the wind was the strongest and against us. If I calculated correctly, I think I might have PRed, beating 37:14. I don't know for sure, and I haven't found the race results online yet. I am almost positive I came in under 36 minutes. We'll just have to wait to find out! All in all, it was a good race and I am not as sore today as I was expecting to be.
Tomorrow starts Octapolluza! I am so pumped!

The Premiere

Last night was the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy. A bunch of us decided it was necessary to get together to watch it. I offered to "host" GA season's premiere at my place and serve dinner before-hand. There were six of us; a couple brought wine, I had some beer on hand, and we just relaxed and got to know each other better! In addition, the premiere proved to me that this could be a good season!

After work today I will be heading up to GF! I have a 5k tomorrow and even though I am not feeling as if I am going to be breaking any PR's, I am looking forward to just getting out there in the race atmosphere! I look forward to seeing some family as well.

Go wish Neese good luck on her race this weekend!


Have a great weekend, y'all!

Rain...fall...

While heading home from work today, I noticed heavy blue and gray clouds rolling in; attempting to keep the warm sun from shining. A warm sunshine we haven't seen much of lately. The clouds were rolling fast across the western sky; looking as if they were ready to drop a river's depth of water. I was going to beat this storm if my life depended on it. All I wanted was 2 good miles under the warm sun and in the company of a cool breeze. Just me, my ipod, and the nature around me. I might have gone out too fast, but as I turned the corner to return home, I noticed the clouds rumbling as if they were an empty stomach desiring food. Just a quarter of a mile, that's all I had to do to get to my destination. Just a quarter of a mile. Just in time. After climbing two flights of stairs to my apartment, walking through the living room to open the patio door for fresh air, there it was. Nature at its best. The sun was still peaking through the thick, heavy clouds, but rain was coming down hard and fast; leaving behind that fresh smell of a good rain in fall. The run was wonderful .... the rain was better.

Driven or Crazy?

As I sit here watching the Biggest Loser, I have been thinking about short term goals and what I want to do with October. I am feeling good with things at work; I am on top of all paperwork, I am feeling organized, and I believe I only have one IEP meeting in October.

Feeling on top of things at work will make a huge difference in regards to sleeping better, eating better, and training better. All three having an effect on the others.

With all that in mind, I am contemplating something along the lines of Octapolluza. You heard me. I know KelsaLynn has been rockin' her Septapolluza, and I thought it would be something worth while. Something to give me that extra push. Just one month.

The requirements I have put on myself??

1 workout per day. That being a minimum of 2 mile run, a 10 mile bike, or 30 minute swim.

1 optional rest day each week.


1 strength training day each week.


no SODA. I like the carbonation, but it makes me feel like CRAP. I want it gone. PERIOD.

Anyone want to join me in the craziness?

Consistency and Base Building

Now that I am starting to feel comfortable with work, I have started thinking about my training. Once again. Sometimes I feel like that is all I do. I think about it, but I am not consistent with it.

I have been looking over my traithlon books in the past couple days. I am trying to think about what I want to do. Right now I think I am going to focus on my running and cycling with a little bit of swimming here and there. I have a race this saturday, and I don't know if I feel as ready as I would like. My next 5k will be thanksgiving day, unless I find something else between now and then.

After the turkey trot on turkey day, I would like to really buckle down with some triathlon training; something more consistent and base building. Part of me would like to do my first triathlon in late winter/early spring. But, if I want to do that up here, I need to find something indoor, and I don't know if I am too keen on the idea of the indoor triathlon at the U of M because it is based on time not distance. They give you 30 minutes in each discipline.

With that in mind, I will continue to look for other indoor races in the area. I know some have asked what my plans were for races in 2008, and I am still up in the air. This is so new to me. I would love to do a few sprint triathlons next spring/summer and use it as an excuse to travel. So if anyone knows of any good triathlons or any that they plan on doing, let me know and I might be willing to travel!

I was looking at some training schedules in my books as well as online, and I was kind of disappointed with what I saw. Some of them were based on minutes, which is fine with me, but some of the schedules start with 10-15 minute runs. To me that doesn't seem worth it. I really like the idea of bricks and have been doing some brick work already. Any suggestions or advice in regards to training schedules? For those triathlete's out there, what has worked or is working for you?

The Old Apartment

Instead of running today, I took the opportunity to clean my apartment from top to bottom. I have lived in this place for a couple months, but it is finally starting to feel "homey". Because there were requests before, and because some people still haven't come to visit yet, I thought I would put up some photos of my very clean apartment!

View from front door.

The Kitchen

View of Living room from kitchen.

Living Room
View from my couch!

The bathroom

My favorite room.... mostly because it was the most expensive to decorate!
....And, I have a door that leads to the patio!

....walk in closet.

There you have it!

Crazy Train

Last night a few friends and I went to a local bar to see a 70's/80's coverband.

HAIRBALL.

It. Was. Awesome.

I didn't realize there were so many 80's songs that I loved... especially the early 80's. There was quite the mix of people in the crowd there. The band dressed the part of every song and artist. It was crazy! All the dancing left my legs feeling a little sore. Which is kind of weird because I was expecting to have a headache from some minor head-banging!

Maybe that run will happen later today.

It's a good thing

Well, I have survived the haircut trauma, long week at work with meetings every night, and all and all I can say it was a pretty good week. I was flattered when I received this message via email:

Stacy,

Pop down tomorrow when you have time and we can visit about TAT team. [SPED COORDINATOR] stopped in and we had a good visit and she indicated you might be interested in joining this team with your fresh ideas and experiences.

[PRINCIPAL]

I was very excited and had thought about the possibilities of joining this team. The purpose of the team is to meet on students that teachers feel are struggling, wether it be in the area of academics or behavior, or both. The team meets to discuss possible interventions that can be tried to help this student. From there the team will meet back again to discuss if the interventions implemented were successful or not. If not, then the student would be referred for special education testing/evaluating.

This is a huge thing and being a first year teacher I was somewhat hesitant at first, but I think it would be great to be a part of this team. Far too often, teachers have difficulties with students and would rather pass them off to special education for testing than making changes in their classroom or instruction to help that student.


On a side note, I made it to spin today but felt somewhat dehydrated and passed on the run afterwards. We really focused on resistence and building strength rather than the speed today. There's nothing better than jello legs after a good workout! This week I am going to have to get in a few runs before my 5k saturday. Now, I am heading to school to get some paperwork done. Yep, third weekend in a row that I have put in extra time. But, it's just been crazy with two IEP meetings last week, and two coming up this week.

I won't be going into work next weekend... I will be in GF!

Today's Workout:
OCN: 13.5 miles