Running against the wind

Is what I would be doing if I were out running.  But, I haven't gone running since last Wednesday.  Man, how do people do this indoor running thing?  I mean seriously, as soon as the snow covered the sidewalks, it's like running didn't exist anymore to me.  Even on the treadmill, I'm only getting in 3 or less.  That's completely unacceptable since I have to run Boston in a couple of months.  Unfortunately I keep telling myself it's fine since I ran two marathons over the last 4 months.  But that's not really true, because if I keep up this trend of not running, when April rolls around, I'm going to be in for a sad awakening when I can't finish the marathon or when it takes me 5 hours.  Or just being super sore for days afterwards like I was for Louisiana.  Bottom line here is that I need to get moving again.  The question is how?
If you have any tricks, I'd love to hear them.  I've done the whole watch a movie or show on the treadmill, didn't love that, tried reading and listening to audiobooks, didn't love that, and tried interval training.  Interval training is the most effective in that it makes the miles go by faster, but I also feel like I'm not getting the most out of it by jumping off to make up for the recovery part of my hill repeats.  I don't know.  It just seems like the treadmill is not working for me.  But going outside seems dangerous.  The sidewalks are either not shoveled or iced over and running on the street for long stretches seems like I'm just asking to be hit by a car.  Especially with so many people still not paying attention to the road and looking down at their phones.  You wouldn't even believe the amount of people I see driving to and from work each day that are looking down, instead of forward.  It's actually a bit astounding.  Generally I tend to notice it when I'm sitting in traffic watching other cars go by me in the lanes that are moving, but that's even worse, I think.  Texting while driving really doesn't make any sense to me.   It can wait.  I know that's the AT&T slogan or whatever, but I fully believe that's true.  If whatever you texting is that important, pull over or make a hands-free call.  Anyways, it's reason like this that make me nervous about running on streets for extended periods of time.  I know how distracted everyone seems to be and if you add in ice and snow, it's a recipe for disaster.
I guess I'm going to have to learn to love the treadmill.  Or at least make it a habit to run at least 3 miles on it each day.  I suppose I could do 3 outside and 3 on the tread, but even that seems like a stretch.  I just love running outside.  It's so much nicer.  If only the rail trails in the area were packed down.  Those I'd be more than happy to run and I could just strap on my yaktrax and go.  Unfortunately, I don't think most of them are run-able once the snow surpasses 2 inches.  Maybe tomorrow I'll go check one out.  At this point, it probably couldn't hurt, and if I don't get running soon, I'm going to regret it.
Since I've been talking about snow, and we did have a snow day yesterday, here are some pictures to enjoy. They're clearly not running related, but the puppies in them sure are cute!

Snow place like home

Whooooeee it has been a long week or two.  Honestly, the days have all but blended together with all the snowstorms and school cancellations.  February has never seemed shorter, and that's saying a lot, since it's already the shortest month!  Seriously though, if the snow could quit, I'd be a little bit happier.  There's pretty much no place left to walk, park, or drive if another car is coming at you.  It's getting out of hand.  Yet, we are intrepid, we carry on.  What else can you do, with all this snow around and talk of another storm or two heading this way? The good news is, it's almost February vacation.  The bad news is, it's almost February vacation.  I make this next statement with the knowledge that teachers in the state of Massachusetts will be calling for my head, but it's about time we did away with February vacation.  Let's be honest, we just got back from Winter Break, and with the SEVEN snow days we've had in the past 15 days, this vacation is a bit of a joke.  What the students could really use is 5 more days of work.  Besides, we're one of the only states that still has this vacation hanging about.  I say scrap it, start school earlier than the Wednesday before Labor Day, and use March for Spring break.  It would solve SO many problems. But, who am I to change things?  Alright, aside from the snow days, there's no where to run, so I've been spending a lot of quality time with the treadmill.  I don't love it.  Also due to the snow, I missed 4 days of being able to workout.  I know, that's insane! At this point though I've made it up and I feel like I'm back on track.  Wouldn't you know it, that means I'm getting a cold.  I can feel it coming on.  My nose is stuffy/runny, my eyes are itchy, and things hurt.  Fantastic.  Nothing like a good cold to start vacation. Since I don't have a new goal in the near future, I decided to work towards upping my punches at boxing.  I started low today with a total of just over 3000 punches. My goal is to try and add on at least 100 more punches each week.  I only need to track one day, but I might track all and just pick my best.  Except Sunday's because that's a 12 round class and that would feel like cheating.
Completely out of the realm of working out, but back on the snow day thing, I made one final pair of shoes a couple of weeks ago.  I went Little Mermaid themed, just to see how it worked out,  They came out alright, but I'm not sure I love them.  However, I did want to try and fix the paint chipping problem I had on the first pair.  The paint on the rubber part of the sole chipped off as they were worn around, so I wanted to try and fix that.  I saw a trick online that if you sand the rubber with fine grain sandpaper it makes the paint more likely to absorb into the rubber, so I tried that.  It looks like the paint held up a bit better, but still chipped off in places.  At this point, I'm beginning to think it's the sealant that's chipping it off, not the actual paint.  Anyways, I'll add a picture of those in a minute.  Finally, the students at my school are number one in the city for the math program we've been doing.  Yes, that's right, number one! We're third in the state, and in the top 100 in the nation! There are some days when I feel like I'm doing a real bad job teaching, but learning this made me feel like I must be doing something right.  I'm very proud of the school and I love being able to brag about the students.  Tomorrow they're getting a special award from the school committee, which is very exciting.  So, that's it, snow city in a nutshell. Enjoy the pictures!

Punch counters

Icicles and ice dams 

Way to go Tracy School!

Snow pile...it's gotten a lot bigger since this picture

Too many snow days

Being snowed in and not having to work really is not as fun as it sounds.  I promise.  To start, now we're behind 3 more days in school.  Add that to the other reasons why we might not be on track with the curriculum mapping and suddenly we're a month behind where we're supposed to be.  In some jobs, this might not be a huge deal.  Maybe you can make it up, work a little extra, push some papers through, I don't know, I'm not a doctor.  What I do know is that my 3 - 5 grade students still have to take the district benchmark test in February.  And everyone has to take the MCAS in March and May.  So, even though we may be behind, our tests are not.  Now we're in that tricky spot where we have to decide, do we push through the topics to make sure we at least cover everything on the test, but leave more than half the class behind in terms of actually understanding, or do we keep our pace and miss covering material that shows up? Don't worry though, we'll get to make up these missed days in June.  At the end of the year.  After all the tests.  Please, tell me how much sense that makes, because I'm still not seeing it.  I'd rather give up February vacation and be able to keep the kids on track to success, than have to struggle through the end of June trying to find reasons to convince the students that what we're doing still matters.
Ok, enough about that.  Since there's absolutely no where to walk outside, that means no running either.  :( Suddenly the treadmill is my best friend.  Yesterday I got in 5 miles, yes 5, with speed included.  Today I did 3.1 with hills and speed.  I still haven't decided about the Hyannis marathon either.  I know I should probably do it, but I don't want to sign up.
Since I've been bored out of my mind after being home for the past few days, I decided to make another pair of shoes.  I mostly liked the way the first pair came out, and I wanted to try a new design.  So I went out and got another pair of cheap white canvas sneakers to design.  This pair came from H&M, so I'm not really sure how comfortable they'll be, but I really think they came out cute.  Without further ado....

Oh yea, and I finally achieved my goal of drawing a Disney Princess in way that actually looks like a Disney Princess!

Oh, and just in case you didn't believe me about the snow levels. Ignore my face, I can't smile in the cold after I wash my face apparently....

STELLAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Yup. This is my backyard. That's a fence over in the far left.

Snow day 2015

Today there was a blizzard.  It would have been a more beautiful blizzard if we had a snow blower.  But since we just have shovels, it was just a disgusting, horrendous, snowy mess.  Even the dogs were not impressed.  About an hour ago I was pretty sure it stopped snowing and I was happy that we at least got our driveway plowed out and moved the cars around a little bit. However, I've just looked outside and there seems to be more snow falling. UGH.  Since everything in life was shut down today, there was really nothing to do but sit inside and craft.  I mean, I shoveled a bit, helped walk the dogs, and made chili, but aside from that, there was nothing to do but craft.  So a few weeks ago I bought a pair of plain white shoes to paint, just to try something new.  It took me forever to decide what to put on them, but I finally did it today.  I'm not really sure how I feel about the final product.  Personally, I think it looks too amateur.  Ok, I know I'm not a professional designer/artist, but I just don't love the way they look.  I don't hate it, I just don't love it.  I feel like maybe sharpie would have been a better choice than paint.  Anyways, I guess I'll let you be the judge on this one.  And on an unrelated note, I'm fairly certain running outside is out for the next few weeks.  There's no getting over this snow.  Looks like I better learn to love the treadmill, and fast!