Springing Forward

Tonight, or tomorrow morning I guess, it's time to SPRING FORWARD! Wooo woooo! I love daylight savings because I no longer have to turn the lights on when I leave the house at 3:30 to make sure I can see when I get back home from boxing at 5:30.  In short, I hate when the day is dark except for the time when I'm at work and the hour or so I have to be out doing things before I have to get ready for dinner etc.  But I love the daylight.  I don't even care that we lose an hour.  You take that hour and enjoy it mother nature, because all I want is the sunshine and some snow melt.  On top of this wonderful phenomenon, it might actually be over 40 for TWO days next week.  That's right, TWO WHOLE DAYS! Everything's coming up Milhouse.
Mostly I'm looking forward to the snow to melt so I can get back outside and actually run.  Last weekend I did the 4 miler in Lawerence as part of the Wild Rover series.  There was supposed to be a 5 miler in Lowell this weekend, but it's been postponed due to the hulking snowbanks that are still taking over the streets.  So, now, the 3 miler and the 5 miler are not being held until mid-April. Which is fine and dandy, but it's severely impacting my actual running regime.  I've been using the tread at boxing, but only getting in 2 miles.  And, full disclosure, sometimes it's not even speed work.  I know it's my own fault for not getting myself moving faster, but it's just so hard to run on the treadmill when all I want is to run outside again.  I'm thinking that maybe I ought to check out the lake or the beach.  Those areas might be clean enough to run for a few miles/laps and at least it's something other than staring at a wall.
There hasn't been much else going on.  Since it's March, the MCAS are coming up, though for once, the state decided to push the test date back a week.  That's huge, because I was panicking a little bit about missing all those snow days and not having time to make up the lost curriculum.  So now the test is at the end of March and the first two weeks of April.  Along with that, we're in the midst of buying a house.  I haven't said much about it to anyone yet because I want to be sure that we're actually going to get the house.  The inspection is today and as long as that goes well, our closing date is April 10.  So, family members, if you're reading this, Ryan and I are probably moving out next month! (I'll be honest, I just remembered that the family reads this, so I probably should have told them before publishing this post, but, I didn't.)  There's also a  track coach job open at one of the high schools here, so I'm going to go ahead and apply for that.  Never hurts to try, right? I can't think of anything else of particular excitement right now, so I guess that's it.  Here are some pictures for fun.

I made this fantastic leprechaun as a door decoration

This is the medal from the 4 miler.  One piece of a three part medal.  The other two attach to either end.  What I'm saying is that this medal is going to be gigantic. Maybe a little too gigantic

Door

Making posters

I'm going to mail these to Disney and have them hang them up during their marathons.  I feel like that's a reasonable plan....

So much room for activities!

Apparently I have a race on Sunday. We'll start there.  I signed up for the Wild Rover series again this year and didn't pay much attention to the dates.  I knew the first one was the weekend of Hyannis, and that the rest were the following weekends, but I didn't give it much thought.  Then they postponed the first one and I really forgot about the dates.  Until I got the email that it's Sunday.  Cool.  Don't get me wrong, it's only 4 miles, I'm ready to do it, I just don't particularly WANT to do it.  It's still fairly cold out and a lot snowy out.  Although the temperature for Sunday is looking pretty good, so that's a plus.  This will be my first run outside since the marathon though.  I think it's more the fact that the race is in Lowell, which is feeling kind of far at the moment.  At least it's a late start, 11:00 a.m., so I have plenty of time to get there.
Aside from the running, which is back on now that I don't have a choice, I just have miscellaneous subjects to talk about.  We'll start with motivation.  Usually I'm pretty good at going hard and fast during the 8 rounds of boxing, but I always, always get bored during abs and 9 times out of 10, don't put in my best effort.  Part of it is that it hurts and part of it is that looking at the lights on the ceiling is the most boring thing I can think of, outside of watching paint dry.  I got so sick and tired of looking at the ceiling and the black steel beams holding up the bag system that I decided to brighten up my little area.  Now, there's technically no assigned bags or anything like that, but generally the regulars have a favorite bag, myself included.  I've been using this bag for the past year or so now and it's really broken in to my specifications.  So when I go, this is my general area.  To brighten it up, I made some posters that I can look at while I'm doing abs.  This seemed like a good idea because it would distract me from the abs and maybe motivate the people around me too.  Plus, when I get bored with them, I can bring them to school and hang them up in the room to motivate the kids for MCAS. After all, it's all about reuseability.  Which is a word I just made up, so enjoy that.  I'll stick up some pictures of the posters after this next paragraph.
Speaking of MCAS, because that was the closest I could come to transitioning that paragraph smoothly, I've decided to offer tutoring services for MCAS/summer work.  Nothing fancy, but I figured I could help out the parents who want their students to get some extra help.  I'm also offering to teach the parents how to do Common Core math, which I feel is a service that should be utilized.  A lot of the math can be confusing if you're used to doing math the way we learned it in school, so this could help a lot of parents help their students! Right now I'm only really offering services on the North Shore area of Massachusetts.  However, I do have teacher friends in other areas, so if you want a tutor but don't live on the North Shore, feel free to let me know and I'll pass your information onto those teachers. For more information on my tutoring services, visit Gibbs Tutoring. You can see pictures of my classroom and watch a short video clip of a first grade class in action.

And now for those pictures! If you're interested in my posters, but not in my tutoring, you can always contact me about these.  I love to draw and would be open to drawing/making personalized posters, for a small fee.  *These particular posters are not for sale, they are for personal use*

The great Muhammed Ali.

This is actually my favorite, I really like the way Huntress came out. This was made almost completely with oil based sharpie pens and I really like the effect they made.

Hercules, Hercules!

Wonder Woman hanging out between the bags. 

Frozen Shamrock

Remember that race from February that was postponed?  Today was the reschedule.  Even though it wasn't quite so frozen anymore, it was a nice race.  To be honest, I wasn't even really looking forward to running today.  I know I had too, but it was just one of those days.  But, I went out and did it anyways, which was necessary, because you know, if you spend the money, you might as well make it to the race right?  Anyways, I've been trying to do some speed training, which is as miserable as it sounds.  Basically, I take my normal pace and run down the beach.  At random intervals, usually between two telephone poles, I sprint, or at least, attempt to.  The theory is that speeding up for random intervals will increase lung power and endurance, overall making your running faster.  Supposedly running up and down large hills 5/6 times during a run will do the same.  Neither option is ideal, lets be serious.  But, I've been hoping to get my time down under 9 minutes, since I feel like I've been stuck there for a few months, so I've been out there doing it.  Not often, maybe once a week, which is not as often as I want to do it.  I'm hoping that combined with long runs, it will all pay off. (It sort of did last week in an unrelated note.  I went to the beach to run and happened to stumble into the new David O. Russell film being shot.  That's right, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and some others were filming across the street from where I was running.  BONUS!)
Well, anyways, the gist of it is that I've been working on increasing my speed and decreasing my time.  Here's the good news.  Today I ran the 5K in 24:40.  Yes, that's right.  From 27/28 down to 24.  That's at least a minute off each mile.  Before you ask, it wasn't totally flat.  There was a nice hill right after the first mile.  Here's my official stats, according to coolrunning.

 191  14/81   F2029   ALLISON RUNYAN   24:37.9  8:13    8:19.0   16:16.4   24:44.1 

That's 191 overall, out of over 700 people, 14 of 81 people in my age group. My time is 24:37, gun time is 24:44.   Basically, a fantastic run.  The best I've had so far.  I am super pumped for this new time, but a little worried about it too. Now I expect myself to run any 5K at that speed so if I don't, I will be disappointed in myself.  Anyways, that's my brag for the day.  Here are some pictures from the race.  Ryan was loving enough to come with me and wait for me at the finish line, so he took the pictures too.  

Whoops

I know the last time I stopped running for 2 weeks I said I wouldn't do it again, because it was miserable starting back up again.  Unfortunately, I did it again.  Having a chest/head cold is THE WORST for running.  If you can't breathe through your nose, it cuts down on your air intake, therefore decreasing your running speed/stamina.  It makes everything 100x more miserable, not just running. I'm sure you've been sick before so you know.  But, once again, it's time for me to get back out there and go again.  Yesterday I went for a shorter run and tomorrow I'm going for a 5 or 6 miler.  I'll probably go again on Friday too.  It's a vacation day, so that means some time for myself, woo woo!  Saturday is a Will Run for Beer race, again in Salisbury, this time a 4 miler.  The weekend after that is another WRFB race in New Hampshire and the Saturday after THAT is the make-up from the postponed Wild Rover race.  There's one final WRFB race on the 21, but I'm not sure I want to do that one.  We'll see, but there's a good chance I'll skip it.  After all, that is the weekend after April vacation.
For running this week I've started listening to Gone With the Wind on Audible.  It's one of my favorite stories to read in the Spring/Summer, so I figured it would be a good audio book for the runs.  I've really been enjoying the audio books on my runs.  It helps distract me from the actual running which is always nice.
In order to run more, I've been debating running to/from work at least a couple of days a week. It's only a 20 minute walk, less than a mile away I believe, which means a run would be maybe 10 - 15 minutes.  I'm ok with that, but I am a little concerned about the logistics of the whole thing.  I don't want to be totally sweaty and smelly when I get to work and have to change clothes and all that jazz. Plus I have a lot of supplies that I carry with me to and from school, so I would have to add that in to my run.  For that piece at least I think I've got it figured out.  I have one of those hiking backpacks that clips around the waist and has the mesh back, you know, all that fancy stuff.  I'm sure I can fit everything in there, plus my work clothes and shoes, and carry it on my back while I run.  I know I'll look totally cool dorky running down the street to work, but sometimes you have to sacrifice looks for fitness right?  I also figured I could keep some baby wipes at work to at least freshen up after the run, which I suppose solves another piece of the problem.
I guess what it comes down to is that I have to make myself do it. I don't really WANT to get up earlier than I do, but I can.  I don't really WANT to run to work instead of drive, but I should.  Especially now, because I won a bid for a tutoring job after-school, working with some of the after-school programs in the city.  So now Tues - Thurs I work and then have to tutor.  I have an hour between the end of the school day and the beginning of tutoring, so I figure I can run home, change, let out the dogs, and then drive to tutoring.  Since I am cutting down on the amount of time I have after school to run, I figure it's better to run to and from work than to not do it at all.  I'll let you know how that goes later on though.

Busy running weekend

This weekend I had two races. On Saturday, we had the 2nd Will Run for Beer race in the series.  There was actually supposed to be a half marathon a couple of weekends ago, but due to a snow storm, it was cancelled.  Not that I was running it anyways, but that's so not the point! So, Saturday, the race was at 9 am up in Salisbury, right along the beach.  It should have been a nice easy course.  It was an early race and the entire course was flat.  Not a big deal, considering I've been running basically that every time I run Lynn beach. Yet, for some reason, it was the worst race I've ever run.  I don't mean time-wise, in that aspect, it was fine, just under 28.  4 seconds under, nothing to write home about.  But the race itself was miserable.  My body just did not want to run.  I could blame the wind or the fact that I didn't feel great, but I know the truth.  It was the Wendy's I ate on Friday night.  For real.  Normally I don't care too much about eating good food 24/7, but I should not have had Wendy's the night before a 5K.  It was seriously miserable, to the point where I thought I was going to throw up when I crossed the finish line.  That hasn't happened in a long time, so I knew that was a problem.  There were a lot of us running yesterday and we all finished right around the same time.  Cynthia's husband as well as her brother and his girlfriend came in around 24 minutes, maybe a bit sooner, but Cynthia, Katie, and I came in right on each others heels.  The others were just a couple of minutes behind so it wasn't too bad.  I mean, the time, not the run.  Ryan came, which was lovely, but I'm fairly certain he was bored out of his mind.  On top of that, the sea was churning and it was high tide, so the waves were washing up into the start/finish and causing puddles and problems.  It definitely wasn't my favorite race, which is sad, because the course itself was gorgeous.

This is everyone that ran and a few that didn't as well.

Ryan and I after the race, in between crashing waves.

Today, Sunday, was the third race in the Wild Rover series, but really, the second due to the same snowstorm mentioned earlier.  This was a 5 miler in Lowell, set to take place at 1 pm, and I was not looking forward to it.  To make matters worse, last night was Daylight Savings, so I lost a precious hour of sleep.  I also think I'm getting some type of chest cold, and was covered in vapor rub.  I was a little concerned that I would have trouble breathing during the 5 miler, but as I had already paid, there was no way I was skipping it.  If anything, I figured I would walk it if I had too. Going in, I knew there were hills but I wasn't sure how large they would be.  Turns out, they weren't too bad.  It was a nice day for a run, sunny and warm-ish.  I regretted not wearing my sunglasses, but it wasn't too bad without them.  My knee hasn't really been hurting, but my toes haven't been comfortable in my Clima-warms, so I thought I would go back to my old Clima-cools.  Turns out, I think I found the root of the knee problem.  Looks like those shoes have got to go.  Time for new running shoes? I think it might be.
Before the race, I decided I wanted to try something new to listen to on my run. I thought Zombies was using a lot of data, so I decided to cool it on that, but I was wrong and it's actually not using that much.  Today though, I went a different route and tried Audible.  Strangely, I felt like I was getting sick of my running music and when that happens, it makes for a very boring run.  So I bought a membership to audible and threw on an audio-book while I ran.  I went with a book I already knew and loved, and I figured if anything, I would have my music as a back up.  I actually enjoyed listening to the book while I was running.  It gave me something to focus on besides the people around me and the same old music.  I think I'll keep that up for a little bit, at least until I finish listening to the book.  Plus I have one more credit so that's two books.  Those should get me through a couple of runs at least.
As I was running, I kept passing the time signs and I was little bummed out because it seemed like I was doing worse than usual.  The times were around 10:50 for each mile. It wasn't until mile 3 that I remembered that I didn't actually cross the start at the gun time, so I could cut off a couple of seconds at least.  Then, the last mile was all downhill, so I put on a little extra speed for that.  I crossed the finish line at 48:56, but my actual time was 48:05.  Not bad for five miles with hills. I was proud of myself.  Since this was supposed to be the last race of the Wild Rover, the medal was huge.  Somehow I walked right by the guys handing them out at the finish and almost didn't get one.  The race volunteers were directing those of us who came off the finish line around the corner and they wouldn't let you go back and get a medal, since it was right after you crossed and lots of people were coming in.  But there was no way I was leaving without my medal.  The volunteer was kind of rude, but as I wasn't the only person who missed the medals, I tend to think that perhaps it wasn't the best place to hand them out.
Overall, not a bad weekend, but I definitely enjoyed today's run a lot more than yesterdays.  There aren't any races for another week or two, (thank god!), so I think in the meantime, I'm going to practice my speed.  Someone mentioned interval training, sprinting and then slowing down to regular pace, so I think I might work on that.  Maybe by the next race, I can take another 35 seconds off my time.  I'm aiming for 1 minute, but I'll settle for half a minute for now. By the final race though, I'll be 1 minute faster.  That's all for now, and in case you didn't believe me about the medal being huge, here's a picture, of course.

Claddagh Pub 4-Miler

Ran the 4 miler part of the Wild Rover today, even though it was slightly snowy.  The course map had mentioned a challenging hill, so I was prepared for a hill akin to what you would find in San Francisco.  Actually though, I've never been to San Francisco, so both hills were really just imaginary.  Once I got there, I didn't even see a hill, so I began to think that maybe the people who ran it were just imagining things.  (They weren't.)
The beginning of the race was actually a bit of  mess.  There was no clear starting point and there were people everywhere.  They were going in all different directions and some were just hanging around the finish, so I really wasn't sure where to start.  Then I asked one of the traffic cops and he didn't know either, so it was all quite a mess.  Turns out, the start of the race was in the middle of the street, so it wasn't marked with an arch, and the street hadn't been closed off yet, so it was difficult to find.  When I finally did, Ryan decided to go wait at Dunkin Donuts for a bit, but they were closed.  Just to clarify, Dunkin Donuts was closed, on a Sunday morning.  If you're from around here, you understand just how absurd that actually is.  It seemed like there were a lot of coffee shops closed, which makes me wonder if Lawrence has some absurd rule about coffee shops being open on Saturdays and Sundays.
Anyways, the run started at 11 and basically started right on time.  For the most part, the course was flat and the weather wasn't too bad, just a little bit chilly.  I think the total count of participants was just under 1000, so not a huge race, but not tiny either.  Of course I used Zombies, run and Charity Miles, though I found it a bit harder to listen to the dude talking on Zombies.  I was distracted by all the runners around me and found myself paying more attention to them than to my app.  The first mile was totally flat and about half way through the 2nd mile we hit the hill.  I can honestly say I didn't find the hill that bad.  Some people were walking as soon as they hit the bottom of the hill, which seemed like kind of a cop-out.  They weren't even trying to run it.  But, who am I to judge, I have no idea why they weren't running it, so to each his own.  At the top of the hill they had a water stop but I decided to forgo it.  I've come to realize I can't drink while running and by the time I hit the top, I didn't want to stop for water, so I just kept going, heading downhill.  After that, the rest was easy.  We ended at the Claddagh pub, making one final loop around to cross the finish line.  As I was running, I didn't really feel too bad, no knee problems and I didn't feel like I had just run 4 miles.  So when I saw the finish line I just put on all the speed I had and crossed just in front of the girl who had been slightly ahead of me the whole time.
What was my final time you ask? Well, according to coolrunnings.com it was 37:50.  According to when I crossed the finish line, from the gun time, it was 38:30.  All that really matters is that I've gotten myself under a 10 minute mile, hills and all.  Of course, next weekend I had a 5K and a 8K on Saturday and Sunday.  The Sunday race is rolling hills, so we'll see how much under a 10 minute mile I actually am when it comes to continuous hills instead of just one.  Overall though, it was a fun race, I got a really nice running shirt and of course a medal. Sadly though, I lost my headband somewhere along the course route.  Oh well,  I would still consider running it again next year.

Hey out there

I've been a bit busy, so there hasn't been much time to write.  Also, if I'm being honest, I don't have much to write about.  I haven't really been out running due to the weather and the lack of clean sidewalks.  Say what you will, but when the snowbanks are 10 feet tall (not an exaggeration) I'm not up for running in the streets.  I'd rather be safe than dead.
Yesterday I did take Morty out for run.  The weather was nice, 45 degrees, and since we didn't have much else to do, I decided to run it out.  We went for a 2 miler around Natick which wasn't bad, except for the stroller part.  It is HARD to run and push a stroller.  Like, real hard.  I was surprised actually.  I don't know why, I just figured it would be easier than it was.  I think Morty had fun though, so that's really all that matters, plus I got my running in.
The first race for the Wild Rover is supposed to be on Sunday, which is why I wanted to get my running in this week, but it looks like it's supposed to snow again Saturday into Sunday.  We're talking another foot or so.  According to the Rover, the decision will be made by Friday whether the race is on or not.  We'll see I guess, but I really hope it doesn't get postponed.  I've been planning on running this race and I like it when things go according to plan.  Plus, there's a bunch of races coming up in the next few weeks, so I don't want to end up having two scheduled for the same day due to reschedules.
Like I said, there's not much goin

Oops

Apparently that new post from yesterday never went through. Sorry about that. I know you were on the edge of your seat dying to see what I had to say, so I apologize.  Rest assured you can now be fully caught up in all the details, that I care to share, about my life.
It looks like this snow is actually coming again this weekend too. Remember when the weathermen were always wrong? I miss that.  Due to the snow, race 1 of the Wild Rover series has been postponed until April 14.  It's kind of a bummer simply due to the fact that this was the 3 miler, so now, the next race I run will be a 4 miler instead.  Following that is the 5 miler and then the 3 miler the next weekend, March 9/10.  It should be fine though.  Right?  Ya, it'll be fine.
The bright side is that it's supposed to be pretty nice out tomorrow, high 30s, low 40s, so maybe I'll give the stroller running a second go.  We'll see how Morty is feeling.  Sadly, yes, my running revolves around a 3 year old this week.  I suppose at the worst, I'll run Saturday morning, it just won't be as warm.  Man, I cannot wait until it gets warm again. What I wouldn't give for some dry socks and some clear sidewalks.  Just a few more weeks, just a few more weeks.  I'm going to keep that up until I no longer have to say it anymore.  It will make it seem shorter.  I hope....

Snow day

Nemo is currently finding New England so the whole state of Massachusetts has essentially shut down.  Schools are closed, stores are closing early, the T is shutting down, and starting at 4 pm, a statewide driving ban is in effect.  Driving after 4 could earn you a ticket to the tune of $500.  In short, Nemo is no big deal....
Being from Massachusetts, yesterday, of course, was a mad panic after work.  You couldn't even get gas without waiting in a long line.  Which is kind of silly, because lets be honest, if this does turn into a mega-storm, no amount of gas is going to get my Rabbit out of the driveway, let alone down any streets.  Here at my house we stocked up on the more important things.  Food, milk, wine, beer, popcorn, and the Batman Trilogy.  We are so prepared it's scary. Only 7 eggs left though, so french toast may not be a reality.  Sad.
Since this storm has been plastered all over the weather and news since Wednesday I went for one last run outside yesterday.  It was only 2 miles, but I knew I had to at least get that in, because who knows when the streets will be run-able again.  If Nemo drops as much as they say, it could be 30+ inches, so it could take a while to get that cleared up. Hopefully everything is back in order by the end of the month though, because I signed up for a three race series that starts February 24.  One of the other teachers at work had mentioned this series to me and I sort of forgot about it until recently.  The half-marathon isn't until May and the next Will Run for Beer race isn't until March 9, so I thought I would find some other races to sign up for in the meantime.  This one is called the Wild Rover, in honor of St. Patrick's day.  The first race is a 5K in Lawerence, the next is a 6K in Haverhill, and the final is a 7K in Lowell.  If you run all three races, your medals fit together to make a mega-medal, which is pretty neat.  The races run three consecutive weekends, 2/24, 3/3, and 3/10.  The only downside is that the Will Run for Beer 5K is on 3/9, so that weekend I'll be running two races instead of just one 5K.  After that 15K though, it's no big deal.  I can handle it. (I hope!)
Not much else going on with this storm coming.  Mostly just stuck in the house until further notice. We're supposed to go see Jeff Mangum on Sunday night, so hopefully by that time, the storm has passed and the roads have been cleared.  In the meantime, I think I'll just go watch some Batman.