Mini Marathon, Teacher Appreciation Freebie, and SALE Time!!

Mini Marathon...
Put the 2013 Mini Marathon in the books!  My official 13.1 race is done and although, it wasn't quite what I wanted, I finished!  Part of the mileage is done on the 2.5 mile track where the Indy 500 takes place...the magical Indianapolis Motor Speedway!  Here is a photo of Flash and Spiderman in front of me on the track.  I was certainly okay with them passing me...after all it is the Flash!

I must say I am a complete sucker when it comes to motivational moments and crying.  At the start of the race there are over 30,000, yes 30,000 people waiting to start this race.  There was a huge tribute to Boston, our soldiers, and all that makes the United States the greatest place in the world.  I was running by myself, but really had to choke back some tears during all of the beginning festivities.  It gave me great motivation to start the race at a good pace and appreciate the ability to run!

Teacher Appreciation Freebie!
As many of you know, my new role this year has given me a completely different perspective on teaching, the demands teachers have, and the increasing accountability put on both teachers and administrators.  I must say, however, I am pretty darn lucky!  I have the best staff who is willing to do anything and everything for their students.  We are a decent size school with about 640 students, and we have a great amount of collaboration and teamwork that works together to increase student learning.  They truly are THE BEST!

As teachers, we need to appreciate each other as well during this week and thank those around us who have made this school year just that much better.  Here is a link to some FREE Teacher Appreciation labels I created last year.  You can also check out my blog post from last year too!

  

Teacher Appreciation Big Time Up-to-28%-Off Sale!

It's that time of year!  Where YOU deserve to be treated to something special.  Use this discount to get some things in your cart or make life easier for these last few weeks of school!  Some frequent purchases are listed below for you to check out!  

Graphic by Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (who has awesome graphics on TPT too!)

ake 

A simple but fun Vocabulary Game just for Weather! Get for $1.08!

A 57-page comprehensive weather unit with foldables!  Just $3.60!

78 pages of Data Binder fun and how-to documents for conferences...just $4.32 during the sale!

A great I have...Who has? game for addition with regrouping.  

This is perfect for the end of the school year.  $1.08. 

Poetry unit with 7 different types of poems, posters, and publishing paper.

55 pages for $2.88.  Wow!

Enjoy the week you have so richly deserved this year.  YOU ARE APPRECIATED!!  

Gotta run!

9, 5, and 3 Mile Runs and Breaking the 8 min. Wall!

My Spring Break has been great!  I've had lunch with my sister, dinner with some girlfriends, a night with my best friend and her new baby, cleaned out our guest room, and have done some yard work!  I'm only saying that to make myself feel better after seeing everyone's warm weather beach pictures.  It is going to be 65 degrees this weekend though!  Woohoo!

Alright, so along with those other things, I've gotten a few more runs in this week for my Mini Marathon training.  A fellow blogger asked when my race is, so I thought it's be fitting to post today!  My race is exactly one month from today on May 4th!

So about my runs this week.  On Saturday I decided to do my long run for the week, which is up to 9 miles.  Depending on my schedule, I'll either do my long run on Saturday or Sunday, but with Easter on Sunday, I figured I'd get it out of the way.  I'll have to admit that I was kind of nervous about 9 miles.  Yes, I ran a marathon, but that was a year and a half ago, and my goal for this race is to increase my pace.  We have a wonderful running path near our house that goes for miles, so I ran 4.6 out and 4.6 back (yes, I know that's more than 9, but I'll explain why later).  The best moments for me while running where the two times I passed a group of 6 runners.  I'm always motivated by those around me and Saturday was no different.  A dad was running with 5 other kids probably around the ages of 9-12. I was inspired not only by the kids, but by the dad who was helping these kids live a healthy lifestyle and be active.  I hope I see them again on Saturday...they were truly incredible!

My husband has been home with me during Spring Break so on Tuesday, he decided to ride his bike alongside as I ran 5 miles.  We don't typically workout together, so it was really fun to have this time.  I caught myself with a huge smile while looking over at him a couple of times.  We both had headphones on and were rockin' out to our own music, but there was something about doing it together.  I usually run by myself, so it was a great change of pace (and I ran faster than usual!)!  It was also great to have to take off layers as I ran because the weather was a bit warmer!  The hubs even carried it for me on the way back.  Many perks to working out together!

Yesterday, my training schedule said to do a 3 mile run.  Since this is the shortest distance, I wanted to make sure my speed was increased, but I've had a huge block when it comes to running faster than an 8:00/mile.  The hubs agreed to ride alongside, and push me a bit so that I could get over the hump.  I always have this fear that I won't be able to make it to the end, so if I hold back and finish strong, then I'll know I can do it.  I don't know if it was just knowing that the hubs believed in me to go faster, having him there to push me faster, or both, but it worked!  I averaged a 7:48 min/mile!! Now, I know it was just 3 miles, and my half marathon will be 13.1, but just knowing I can do it will help my mindset as I approach longer distances.

Well, I gotta run!  10 miles is coming up this weekend!

Week #1 of Mini Marathon Training and a TPT 20% off Sale

Good morning blogger friends!  I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last post.  I wish I could say I had a good reason, but I've just been busy, busy, busy!  I think it's that time of year where everyone gets bogged down with cold weather, still a while until Spring Break, and our state testing is right around the corner (wah, wah!).

This week was my first official week or mini marathon training.  As a kickoff to the Indy 500, there is a HUGE (30,000+ runners) Mini Marathon in Indianapolis at the start of May.  Part of the course takes us on the track of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is a portion of the luster of this race.  I think I have run the Mini Marathon 6 times, each time with decent scores, but I haven't run it since my marathon.

As week #1 started for me on Monday, my goal for this half marathon is speed.  I know I can finish it, but I'm trying to build speed work into my workouts.  If you've never trained for a race, start now!  There are so many spring races of various distances everywhere these days!  It doesn't matter what you look like, how much you weigh, if you have a matching Lululemon workout look, JUST DO IT!  (By the way, I own zero, zilch, nada Lululemon items...$60 for a racerback tank I can get at Kohl's for $15...no thanks!  Well, don't get me wrong, their stuff is cute, just too expensive for me!)

I am a pretty faithful Hal Higdon fan for training and always follow his training programs.  He has a variety of option for the half marathon, and because of my speed goal, I decided to challenge myself with his advanced training program.  I am scaling back the weekend 90 minute run, though, because I'm not quite there yet, but I'm hopeful!

Week #1 was underway and going well this week!  Except for Friday...some friends from my old school asked if I wanted to grab a drink after school!  This was a no brainer!  :)  I'm off to the gym here in a bit to finish off my Sunday workout and begin Week #2 tomorrow.

Anyone out there training for anything this Spring?  I'd love to hear about it!

Also, I'm throwing a President's Sale 20% off sale! I'm featured today on the math page of TPT for my St. Patty's Day Palooza Unit!  Enjoy the discount today and tomorrow!

Gotta run for now, but stay tuned for my Do's and Don'ts at the Gym List (unfortunately, I will tell you Don't walk out of the gym in only your shower towel).