I'm Baaaaaack

Well, it is official. Summer is over! Yesterday we had our faculty retreat and team building activity which typically signals the end of summer for me.

This year it was the best in a long time. We went to the Heard Outdoor Rope Challenge course. Our principal split us into teams that approximated who we worked the closest with at school during the year. 5th and 6th grades were in a group with the PE teachers, our Resource teacher that works with our grade levels, and her aide. We were a GREAT team. Even the folks at Heard said so. We were told that we made their job really hard because everything that they normally told teams to work on we were already doing. But then - we already knew that...we pretty much get along, both at work and outside of work. I think that helps.

Our day started out with a 13 foot wall to get our team over. There were 16 people on our team, 2 couldn't participate because of injuries, so 14 of us were up to attempting the task. The rules were that you couldn't use the rope to pull yourself up, once you had two people up top each time a new person got over the wall the person that had been there the longest had to go back down, and once you had been up top you couldn't help get anyone else over the wall (other than by suggestions out loud). We got all 14 people over the wall in a little over 26 minutes! Our two tallest team members boosted people up, then another member would climb over and push a bit more and the folks at top pulled people on over. The hardest two were the first and the last person. Our first person pretty much had to just haul herself over the wall on her own, and the last person we had to use an extra harness as a grip because she just simply didn't have quite enough of a vertical leap to reach the outstreached hand of our team mate. It was awesome!

Because we finished that so quickly, we had the opportunity to try the swinging log. The challenge here was to walk from one end to the other of a log suspended in the air. Easier said than done. I managed to make it without help from any of my team mates, but it wasn't near as easy as I thought it would be with my gymnastics and balance beam background.

After that, our second station was the zip-line. Normally you have to climb a ladder to some U staples in a tree...climb the staples to a platform, walk on a rope suspended between the two trees, attach to the zip line and "fly" down. Because of time limitations we were only able to do the zip line. I managed this one too - the climb up wasn't too bad, and I knew I could do the zip line part since I had done that at Sky Ranch. The scary part was that the platform is VERY small...it is really scary to try to sit down. There really wasn't a way for me to sit without looking down at the ground - and of course one of my great fears is heights. Once I got in my seated position I was ready to go .... a quick prayer and close your eyes, roll forward and you are off. It is a rush once you are speeding down the line!

After a quick lunch break we were off to station 3. Here we saw bungee cords strung in a spiderweb shape between two trees. The objective was to get all members of our team from one side of the web to the other without touching the cords and you couldn't use a hole more than two times. We quickly developed our plan and "carried" it out, once we had two members through (one rolled under the web, the other stepped through a large hole on one side that was fairly low) we started with our smallest team member, lifted her up and simply passed her through the smallest, highest hole. Then continued this process until we had everyone through. The next to last person crawled on the backs of three of us to get over, since there weren't enough people left to pass them through....and the last person simply rolled under.

Our final task of the day was called the mountain save. There were 3 platforms. We were divided into two teams of 8 people and placed on two of the platforms. One member of each team was blindfolded as an "injured hiker" We had to move from our platform to the middle platform and the to the platform the other team was on without touching the ground. They had to do the same thing. We were given two planks to accomplish this with. Neither plank would reach all the way across the space between the platforms. We figured out that if we placed one plank as far out as we could, had 3 people stand on the end of the plank to hold it steady, we could send one of our smaller team mates out on the plank where they could place the other plank - lined up - to the other platform. This created the bridge to go across. Using this strategy several times we were able to get all 16 people to the right place.

All in all it was a good day - and a nice way to get to know the new members of our team and see how they approached problems - how they "fit in" to the dynamics of the already established teams.

After we returned to the school, I rushed home to change clothes and get to the gym. It was a short run day - I managed 3.25 miles in 35 minutes on the treadmill and another 2.2 in 20 mins on the elliptical. Wish I could run as fast as I can move my legs on the elliptical!

Monday we have the official opening of the school year with convocation and workshops. Then I'll be off and "running" for another year!

What a difference a day makes!

I didn't EVEN post about my last run. It was a treadmill run from hades! I was all psyched up to have a great PR run, well maybe just a great run, but it was CARP! After a mile and a half of a 30 minute "easy" training run I was flat out burned! I had to turn it into an interval run because my body felt like it was made from lead from the waist down. I just wanted to cry! I didn't of course because who wants to walk through the gym with mascara running down your face and spotting your awsome, wicking, singlet?!?

Anyway. Today was to be a 35 minute run (Training for the SA Half). I have a meeting with my new team tonight so DH and I got up at 4:30 to run. It was only 78 degrees out! COOL! We decided to run around the block to the right this morning, which means we have more downhill early! Whoo Hoo! COOL and DOWN...Double score!

I really wanted to see if I could do the 5K in under 30 again...I have managed to do that one time in my very short running career. So I took off at a pretty decent pace...it did help to know that I would be going down the big hill very quickly. The first mile felt wonderful. The second was a little harder - but then that would be where most of the mile was going back UP the hill! The third mile was a better mix of up and down, but by then I was so wiped out I just wanted to be done with it, lol.

Here is how I did:

Mile 1 : 9:25 (I TOLD you it was mostly DOWN!)
Mile 2: 10:02
Mile 3: 9:44

and I did the last .19 at a 9:50 pace

A total of 3.19 miles in 31:02. Pretty exciting to see those 9's in there. I MAY just be able to beat that 30 minute mark at the 5K in September ... IF it cools down and the course is mostly DOWN that is!

Whoo Hoo!

Just got home from the gym. Well, maybe not just - I did eat some fruit and stuff before sitting down to write about tonight's awesome treadmill run. My next race is Sept. 11th, The Freedom Run in Dallas. I would really like to beat my best race time of 29:54 in that race. So, on my treadmill runs I'm trying to go faster so my little legs will maybe know what fast feels like and will really move during the race. I am also trying to add some distance at the same time...sooooooooo my runs go something like this:

First 30 minutes book it as fast as I think I can and still finish. (Stopping is NOT an option!)
Second 30 minutes try to pace it out and keep the time at about a 10:00 minute mile overall pace. (Walk only if you have to!)
Third 30 minutes try to keep your feet moving!

That is pretty much what I did tonight. I completed my 5K in 29:36 which is a new treadmill PR for me, then I slowed my pace down. Well that wasn't really working for me so I ended up doing a 4/1 run/walk. (Run for 4 minutes/Walk for 1 minute) I finished my 10K in 61:42, another PR. Finally I was going to walk the last 30 minutes. I did walk for a while, but then I got to feeling pretty good and ran the last 15 minutes. I ended up doing 2.35 miles. So overall I did 8.55 miles in 92 minutes. Not bad for an old Memaw! I told DH that once the 5K is past and we start seriously training for the 10K and half that I will slow the beginning pace down and try to bulk up my distance without walking quite so much. I KNOW I can run the entire distance...I've done it a couple of times. It is just so hard to have two goals to work towards at the same time. This is the best way I can see to do it.

Sunday we are getting up early and are going to follow DS over to White Rock Lake for an outdoor run. I get to try out my Garmin! I think the full loop is about 9 miles so that is what I think we are going to try for...this will be a distance only run. I'm not going to try to test my 5K speed at all. This one is going to be fun!

Oh yeah, Lance told me I ran my longest run tonight! Whoo Hoo!!