Zenaida Arroyo

26
May
2019

Weekly Run Down: One more week of school and running at the lakefront

Weekly Mileage-10

Last day of school is this Friday! I spent this week packing up more things in boxes and lockers. If I could, I would finish packing up (would take me less than one hour) everything else, and I’ll be done. 🙂

Tuesday’s run was back at Lake Katherine. I was at my mom’s and it was raining on and off. I was cold too. I asked myself how hard can 3 miles be? 🙂 I went out and got it done. It was a beautiful evening.

Wednesday was 5 miles around my house. It was quiet and peaceful but HUMID! I made the mistake of overdressing.

Thursday’s workout was a hard one. I had to do 1.5 miles warmup, 3 miles, 3×2 minutes, and 1 mile cool down. I was out the door at 4:40 am and it took me an hour and 20 minutes to get it done.

For this run I decided to take a water bottle with a BottleBand. I left it once in the bushes in front of the airport because I did not want to carry it with me during my whole run. I did pick it up on my way back. There are some train tracks about .86 mile from my house. Before getting to the train tracks I try to pick up the pace to beat any trains that might pass through. Today I wasn’t lucky. I decided to run the opposite way for a bit. I left my water bottle and started running. A guy in a car stopped me and asked why I had left my water bottle when there was a garbage can “there” (pointing to it). I replied that I had every intention of picking it up. I explained that there was a holder with it and I wanted to get that too. I was at loss for words because I was shocked with his question. But in a way am glad he did because it would bother me too if I saw someone leaving a water bottle on the floor. It truly amazes me how people can be so inconsiderate and leave so much garbage on the floor.

Workout-60

I had to run 10 miles on Saturday and I was actually looking forward to it. These past 3 Saturdays I’ve done really great so what could go wrong? My plan was to go to The Arboretum but at the last minute decided to go to Waterfall Glen. I’ve been there before so it wasn’t a new place to me.

It was during mile 1 that I knew it was not going to go well. I stopped various times. I felt hot and tired but still kept going. I also struggled during the next mile and still kept going. I finally stopped at 2.8 miles. I sent a text to my coach, stopped my watch, and walked back to my car. I felt a bit sorry for me but then got over it. Lola and I spent the rest of the day in bed relaxing.

Sunday morning I went out again to run 10 miles. The weather was great, cloudy with a chance of rain. It has been a LONG time since I ran along the lakefront. Loved it! Mile 9 is when I was struggling but kept going knowing that I would be done soon.

Overall, pleased with this week. My run yesterday didn’t go as expected but did good today. Let’s see how it goes this coming week.

Linking up with Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Run Down.

Weekly Run Down.jpg

23
May
2019

Random Thoughts Thursday 73

categories: Random Thoughts Thursday

Random Thoughts Thursday

• Any cat lovers here? Aren’t these shirts cute?

Owner and cat shirt.jpg
• Do you have an iPhone and have used the portrait filter? Wow, I tried it and the photos are so much nicer. Below is an example of a photo. What do you think?

Workout-52

• This made me laugh too. My students will come to me for every single cut. Sometimes I fall for it and sometimes I tell them that they’re fine and to go sit down.

Are you dying? Monkey.jpg

• Can’t wait till Friday. Yes, I am very tired.

Dear Friday, I love you.jpg

• What was your first cell phone? Mine was from Sprint and I remember that I did like it. Over the years I’ve had different phones. I would get a new one every time I renewed my contract (I’ve been with Spring almost 20 years). Facebook reminded me a month ago that 7 years ago I got my first iPhone. I actually remember that day!

First iPhone Reminder.jpg

21
May
2019

Tuesday Topics: I am a solo runner

categories: Tuesday Topics

Yes, I am a solo runner and I am OK with it.

When I first started running back in 2005, running wasn’t a “thing”. At least to me it wasn’t. I didn’t know many people that ran nor were any of my friends runners. Over the years I met more people that ran and now many of my friends are runners.

For my first marathon in 2006, I trained with CARA and would meet up with my group on the weekend for my long runs. I did a few other marathons for charity and also trained with CARA.

Picture below is from my first marathon – The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in October 2016. It was cold. Then the following year it was blistering HOT and the race was cancelled.

4, 2006 Chicago Marathon 2

I also trained with Chicago Endurance Sports for a marathon and several half marathons. I liked it so much that I became a pacer! Still many times I doubted myself and thought that I wasn’t a good pacer.

I started training with Mary in November of 2017. I did most of my runs by myself and outside in the cold weather. In the past I would do many runs on the treadmill. That winter was an eye opener for me because I ran outside (about 95% of my runs were outside) and I learned so much about winter gear. I actually liked my runs. This past winter was a different story as it was just a bitter and cold winter.

Cold Anna

There are so many running groups/clubs in Chicago. While I do like the camaraderie of running with a group, I still prefer running alone. Let me tell you why.

• Alone/quiet time – This is the time that I think about my personal goals, work goals, plans, etc. I listen to music and actually enjoy listening to the songs on my playlist. This may be mean but I don’t like listening to anyone’s conversation during a race, so for sure I don’t want to listen to anyone’s on a run. Bottom line, I don’t like to talk to anyone when I am running. 🙂

• Set my own pace – My easy runs are “slow”. I don’t want anyone waiting for me nor do I want to run faster just to catch up to other runners. While running alone I can slow down (or walk) when I want to or pick up the pace if I want to as well.

• Sometimes I don’t want to run – Life happens and sometimes I am too tired to get up and run. I simply turn off my alarm and go back to sleep. I won’t feel bad bailing on a group because there is no group.

• I run very early in the morning – I don’t think anyone wants to run with me so early in the morning. Depending on my run, I am up and ready to go by 5.

However, I won’t say no if someone wants to run with me. But who would want to after reading this post? Haha. I will make sure to tell that person that I will not be talking during a run. Would YOU run with me? Probably not. 🙂

Tuesday Topics

This week’s Tuesday Topic: Are you a solo or group runner? You can write about this topic, or feel free to post any running related blog post. Remember to Link-up with Kim and Zenaida! Visit at least two of the other linked posts – the more the merrier! Remember to come back for later linkers!

19
May
2019

Weekly Run Down: 5 runs and a field trip

categories: Running, Weekly Run Down

Weekly Mileage-9.jpg

I am so happy that I got my 5 runs done this week! But boy was I tired.

As usual the weather has been changing almost every single day. I was cold on Tuesday when I ran 5 miles.

Workout-47

Wednesday’s workout was 3×3 minutes and 6×1 minute intervals with 2 minutes recovery. I love how light it is earlier in the morning. I can leave my house without wearing a headlamp. I ran in shorts and compression socks. Great workout but I was tired at the end.

Workout-50

Workout-51

I had to run 3 miles on Thursday but woke up very tired. I slept in and felt much better. I did my run on Friday morning. Picture below is using the portrait filter in my iPhone. 🙂

Workout-52

Friday we went to The Field Museum. It has been years since I’ve been there. We thought the students would be bored but in fact they loved it!

Saturday morning was back at The Arboretum. I had to run 8 miles with 6 miles warmup and 2 at a faster pace. I will admit that I didn’t think I could do it with the hills. I did 4 and then turned around to do another 4. Mile 4 is mostly downhill so I struggled with mile 5 since it was uphill. Mile 6 was mostly trying to recover. I took a Huma Gel at mile 4 and it must have kicked in after mile 6 because miles 7 and 8 were my fastest! Definitely a GREAT feeling!

Workout-55

Sunday was back at Lake Katherine. It was cloudy and humid but still very pretty and peaceful.

Overall almost 25 miles for the week. Pretty pleased with how I did. Excited to see how I do next week.

Linking up with Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Run Down.

Weekly Run Down.jpg

16
May
2019

Random Thoughts Thursday 72

categories: Random Thoughts Thursday

Random Thoughts Thursday

• So maybe 5 million dollars is too much. Just enough to buy a house and a car. 🙂

Hug and coffee
• My coworker gave me this plate. I have it in the computer room/office as a reminder of the many hours I put it in school.

Teachers and summer off.jpg • I saw this picture and it made me laugh. I will be off on Tuesday and sent it to the sub asking if I can just do that. She laughed. And I laughed because she laughed. 🙂 With two weeks to go, teachers and students have checked out already.

May Sub Plans

• My little ones love me. Yesterday one student brought some flowers and another one a bag of brownie brittle. I was almost in tears and hugged them.

Flowers and Brownie Brittle.jpg

• Do you like bubbles? Then you must see Ben’s Bubble Show. He was at our school last week and I had so much fun. I think more than the students. 🙂 One of my students asked him about his bubble soap formula but he wouldn’t tell us. He said he mixes together several chemicals to create the soap to make the bubbles.

Ben's Bubble Show-4