The first thing I did was set up my desk and then unpacked the boxes. I threw away a lot of stuff and also organized it in the lockers, bookcases, and cabinet. I am planning to go again this week and hopefully will be done.

Monday and Tuesday were an easy 3 miles. There was an incident at school on Monday and I was still upset and angry on Tuesday morning. My heart rate was high that not even walking brought it down. Then I started thinking about quitting or taking FMLA and it went down. So weird and understandable. Let me tell you what happened. One of the administrators told me that a parent had called to complain about me. Apparently I yell all day to the students. This parent also said that her daughter is afraid to log in and ask me questions because she is afraid of me. I was FUMING. I was so angry that I cried. And then I was angry for letting it get to me. We just finished week #5 of remote learning and not one thank you from parents.

I finished September with 86.06 miles. So close to 100 miles.

Thursday morning I was so tired and did not want to get up. I had a workout that I was excited to do but no energy. I finally got up to run because I did not want to break my run streak (day 34) and also because it was a new month and I had new shoes to wear. I bought them last year and am finally wearing them now.

I felt so much better on Friday and did Thursday’s workout. I ran 5 miles with a few 1/4 mile tempo repeats. The required pace for each repeat was 11:10/mile. I was actually surprised when I saw my splits.

On Saturday I had to run 4 miles with the last mile being at HMP (11:30-11:45). I guess I had more energy than I thought.

Monday morning I was not feeling well during my run. My heart rate was high and I was walking more than I wanted to. Also, I went out later than I wanted to and was hurrying up to finish my run to get back home. It was “only” two miles but I had to shower, get ready, and eat. I was running and saw a random guy. He looked at me, smiled, and said “You look beautiful”. I stopped and looked at him. I told him “Thank you” and kept running. Later I stopped again to think about what he said to me. Of all of my years running, I’ve never had a guy say something nice or positive to me. I’ve been followed, stared at, catcalled, etc, you name it. I felt good. It made me feel better. Now, I am NOT saying that being told beautiful makes me feel better, but the fact that a guy said something positive/nice to me.

Wednesday evening Jessie and I were messaging each other about wearing matching outfits for our run on Thursday. We are both Oiselle team members and have a lot of similar clothes. It was fun and we plan on doing it again!

Saturday morning was perfect for running! I was feeling good. On the schedule was 5 miles with miles 3 and 4 to be done at a faster pace. I wasn’t sure if I “could” do it but I had nothing to lose. I just wanted to run. Miles 1 and 2 were 12:30 and 12:39 and miles 3 and 4 were 11:06 and 10:27. I was shocked when I saw those numbers. Honestly, I couldn’t even believe it. I kept my heart rate under control too – average was 124 and the highest was 166 bpm. I ended up running a bit longer too. I love running in the Fall.

I am very pleased with this week. I did all of my runs. I felt good and took it easy. Last week I wrote about relaxing, taking it easy, and making time for me. I did that this week. I logged off work at 3 (Wednesday was 1/2 but we had meetings till 4pm), did not respond to email after work hours, and went to my balcony to drink wine, spend time with my cats, and to read a book. It was GREAT!

Done with another week of school.  Was it easier?  A little.  But it is still challenging and lots of work.  Our District got the bright idea to have the students take the MAP test.  Umm, it is difficult to administer it when in the classroom so can you imagine how it will be now?  

I knew it would get easier once I had a routine set up for them.  I spent all day on Monday working on my lesson plans to post in Classroom.  Every morning I showed it to them and also referenced it so they would get into the habit of doing that instead of asking “What do we do now?”  

I did not lose power so that is a win.  However, a few of my students said they lost their Internet connection.  I’m not sure how since they all have a Hotspot.  Do all 27 students log in?  Not all at once but total throughout the day they do.  They come and go as they please and I don’t like it because I teach a lesson and then they log in and have no idea what we just did.  

My complaints with remote learning is the number of students I have and the fact that they’re online for 6 hours.  It is a long day for me and for them. I do give them breaks and independent work but that is also online. Oh and there are so many technology issues. I can only help them so much but it takes up so much class time.

This week my running went well.  I did the same workouts as last week but added one more mile to my long run and another mile on Sunday.

Tuesday morning it was raining in the morning and I thought about waiting to run after work. Well, it turned out that it was supposed to rain all day. Off I went. It wasn’t that bad. I am glad I did because later that morning I got a message that my mother’s results (she went on Friday to get tested again for Covid) were negative. After work I went to the grocery store and then went to pick her up so she could stay with us for a few days. She had been with my sister for about 3 weeks. It was good to see my mother!!!