4 Reasons I Run

The other day, my MP3 player decided to take a crap right before my run. Some days it works and some days it doesn't. I am on pins and needles before every run thinking, "Please work, please work, please work, please work." It either does and I am super happy or it doesn't and I am super bored for my whole run. I need a new one but we are in #supersavermoneymode right now, so it will have to wait a few weeks.

The up side to not having any podcasts to distract me during my running is that it actually has me thinking about running more... thus leading me to great blog post ideas! Another blogger recently asked me how I manage to blog every day. The answer is I HAVE NO FREAKING CLUE!!! Lately, I either have a ton of ideas and blogs scheduled a week and a half in advance, or I have no ideas and have to try to come up with something daily. I like it though. It's a good challenge so far!

So anyway, having no podcasts during a run helps me brainstorm blog ideas, and it is exactly what inspired my post today: 4 Reasons I Run.

Now, I have written a "Why I Run" post before, but this was probably over two years ago. I can't even bare to go back and look what I wrote. Reading things I wrote a long time ago makes me feel very self conscious because I either don't like my writing style or I don't feel the same way about the topic as I feel now. But that's the cool thing about blogging- you can look back at your past and see the journey. I really don't want to look back right now though! You can if you want to: Why I Run.

I have determined that right now, there are 4 main reasons I run. These are listed in no particular order because the truth is, some days the main reason I lace up my running shoes is because of Reason #1 and some days it's because of Reason #4.


Reason #1: I love running. Plain and simple.

Reason #2: Running makes me feel strong and confident- physically and mentally. When I am doing a tough run, I feel like I can tackle anything! I feel like Wonder Woman! I feel like I am the shit. That may be a little dramatic, but running really makes me feel like I can conquer whatever I set my mind to.

Reason #3: It helps me control certain aspects of my health. It's not the only thing that keeps me healthy, but we all know the health benefits of regular exercise- whatever that exercise may be.

Reason #4: Running helps me maintain a certain physique. I know that sounds shallow and superficial, but I am being completely honest here. I like making sure my body looks a certain way and running is part of the reason it looks the way it does. (I am not insinuating my body is perfect or that it looks exactly like I want it to look.)


So that's the word. That's my relationship with running right now!

What are some of the reasons you run?
Bloggers: Do you cringe when reading old posts?

9 Miles w/ my Daddio!

I don't know what it is about the 9 mile distance. The last time I ran with my dad, we were on the Appalachian Trail and we did 9 miles. This past Saturday, we did another 9 miles, except this time it was on the road and it was very hilly.

On Saturday morning, my dad picked me up and drove us to Lower Allen Community Park. From there, we completed one of my favorite 9 mile routes that is full of HILLS! The route starts off on McCormick Road, which runs along the Yellow Breeches Creek. Then you cross the creek via a bridge and run up the first big hill- Wharf Road. From there, there is a nice downhill in which our legs could recover! The next couple miles are in the sun and are made up of rolling hills and a few short but steep hills. Then the most bad ass hill of all- Moore's Mountain! After Moore's mountain, the bulk of the hills are over and the last 3 miles are a little less challenging- accept for one more annoying hill. 

"Was that the annoying hill you were talking about?" my dad asked me as we crested our last big hill. 

"YUP!" I replied. 

My dad said he was interested in what I considered to be a "hilly" run. He concurred that the route I picked was indeed hilly!

I think it is awesome that I get to run and be active with my dad! He thought he was slowing me down, but he was not. We were both running at a pace that had us working hard but we were able to keep it up for the entire 9 miles. We ended at a 9:16 average pace with 1,096 feet of elevation gain.

We plan on telling my older brother (who is a very fast runner) that we did a 7:16 pace and see if he questions us... Haha!

I didn't take any pictures on this run, but here are some pictures of the route that I took a couple years ago.

Do you ever run with your mom or dad?

Weekend Wrap Up!

This is a very short, picture-less wrap up! (Though there are two videos!)
But don't let the brevity and lack of pictures trick you- I still thoroughly enjoyed my weekend!

I spent Friday morning in the longest meeting ever. In the afternoon I had a short meeting and then time to work in my classroom. I'm not totally ready for the kids on Monday morning, but will I ever really be ready? No. But I'm as ready as I'll ever be!

That evening, we went to my brother and SIL's house for family time and fire pit. We got to hang out with our nieces, who are the most beautiful little girls in the world, but I know I am biased!

On Saturday morning, my dad and I went on a very hilly 9 miler on the back roads near my house. This is a gorgeous run. I'll post more about it tomorrow!

I was exhausted after the run, so I spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around... even though I should have mowed the lawn!

Paul had a surprise bachelor party for one of his buddies at our house that evening, so I was banished to the bedroom! It's alright, I respect boy time. I spent the evening watching Pitch Perfect, a documentary on the Challenger disaster, and messing around on GOMI. Boy is that a black hole I easily fall into...

I did a speedy 3 miles around my neighborhood and then lifted back at home- which means I did tons and tons of pull ups!

Then Paul and I ran some errands... which included checking out a place in Lewisberry, PA called "Gravity Hill". My brother and SIL told us about this place on Friday, and our interest was piqued!

This is the thing about Gravity Hill that is so creepy- when you go to the bottom of it and put your car in neutral, your car very swiftly goes backward up the hill! I am not kidding! 

The story goes that the breaks went out on a school bus that was full of children and the bus careened down the hill and into the traffic, killing everyone. The ghosts of the little school children are what push your car up the hill. Obviously this is just a scary story because there was no accident like I described above. So what the heck is going on with Gravity Hill?

Of all places, Buzzfeed explains it very well: 

"A gravity hill, also known as a magnetic hill and sometimes a mystery hill, a mystery spot, or a gravity road, is a place where the layout of the surrounding land produces the optical illusion that a very slight downhill slope appears to be an uphill slope. Thus, a car left out of gear will appear to be rolling uphill due to gravity."

Wikipedia also has a good explanation of these types of hills... and it has nothing to do with the supernatural! Apparently, there are many Gravity Hills- check them out here!

Here is the experience Paul and I had on Gravity Hill!

Have you ever been to a Gravity Hill?
Tell me something fun you did this weekend!

Welcome to my classroom!

The kiddos come to school tomorrow! But I thought I would give you a sneak peak at my classroom... since it's a neat and tidy as it is ever going to be!

One of my friends who teaches third grade made this flag for me to hang outside my room.

I love it so much- she is very talented!

Okay, now that I am looking at this picture, the outside of my room really looks waaaaay too busy and there are just a tad too many cat pictures. What do you think? I counted over twenty pictures/posters/decorations. Do you think I should take down some of them?

My Recorder Karate bulletin board in the hallway. This is how the kids will track their progress.

I haven't redone this bulletin board in years! I want to say it's because "if it ain't broke don't fix it," but it is also because of sheer laziness and the fact that I am not artistic AT ALL.

But somehow I did make this.

I stole the idea from another teacher. I think she found it on Pinterest.

My desk is usually very clean! I can't stand clutter.

My cabinets and closets on the other hand...

New for this year: A map of the world!

I usually pull up Google Maps on the Smart Board but this year I want to do it old school style!

I have one of the only chalkboards left in the whole school!

I love my chalkboard.

I am lucky to have a huge room!

The only drawback is that it ends up being the meeting space for our faculty meetings.

Another new poster for the year!

That's my Chrissy Boy.

One last shot of a new poster for my room. I love this quote, I don't know why!

And that's my room! I don't talk about work a lot on my blog or share many pictures, so I thought it would be interesting for you to see another part of my life... A part that is every bit exhausting as running!

Thanks for stopping by my classroom! Tomorrow it will be filled with hundreds of little cherubs!

Weekly Workout Recap!

Happy weekend! I hope you all had a great week of workouts and have some great runs on the schedule for today! I am doing 9 miles with my dad, I can't wait! Here is what I was up to this past week...

Chest @ Home

Warm Ups: rotator, curl and press, chest press

Chest Press- 4x10x25lb

Bicycles- 4x40

Push Ups- 7x10

Chest Press- 4x8x20lb

Ball Pass- 4x8

Shoulder Press- 4x10x20lb

Tricep Dips- 4x15

Plank Knees- 3x20

Lateral Raises- 4x5x8lb

Stab. Ball Crunch- 3x20x10lb

Pigeon Stretch, Hamstring Stretch, Couch Stretch

I forced myself to run 10 miles- and I did it! Thankfully, my MP3 player worked so I wasn't bored. I just did a million loop dee doops around my neighborhood and I was done before it got too hot out

Sneaky Six o'Clock Speed!

I ran loop dee doops around my house and turned it into a speed workout 

in which you can read about here!

5 mile neighborhood run. 

MP3 player shit the bed. Negative splits. Really freaking humid!

A weird and lazy back workout at home.

You can read about my unfocused workout here.

It was pouring so I wasn't sure what I would do today. The rain let up for a few minutes and it looked like the sun was coming out, so I geared up for a run. It started to rain as soon as I left my house and the last half of my run was done it heavy downpour! It was super humid, but I ran loops around my neighborhood and got in 7 miles. My knee did not feel good so I stretched and foam rolled like crazy when I got home!

3 neighborhood miles & Chest at home.

Chest:

Warm Up: chest press, rotator cuff, shoulder press

Chest Press- 4x10x25lb
Bicycle Crunches- 4x40

Push Ups- 5x10, 1x20

Shoulder Press- 4x10x20lb

Tricep Dips- 3x15

Stability Ball Pass- 4x8

Stretching/Rolling

Did you get caught in any rainy runs this week?

I just have to get through the first 7 minutes.

The first seven minutes of the day are hardest for me. My alarm goes off anywhere between 5:00 and 5:45. I am awakened from a deep sleep, thanks to my diphenhydramine pill I take before bed. It's dark out, and I get a horrible pit in my stomach. I don't want to get up. I don't want to go to work. I can't face this day. It's a crushing feeling!

But of course I get up. I go right to the guestroom and put on the workout clothes I laid out the night before. I'm still tired and the light is bright. The cats are sleeping- they are too smart to get up this early unless there is food involved.

I go to the bathroom and wash my face. Then I walk quietly to the kitchen (we have a one story house and Paul is still sleeping) and pour my iced coffee. I sit at the island/bar in the kitchen and sip my coffee while I mess around on the internet and my body wakes up.

It's at some point during this time that the horrible feeling I had when I woke up goes away. I'm awake. The day is happening and I can face it. This isn't so bad.

Seven minutes is what it takes for me to feel human in the morning and not like going back to bed and sleeping the whole day away.

Of course, this doesn't happen on a weekend. It has nothing to do with whether I like my job or not. I has to do with just facing life and people. I guess that's hard to do when you just woke up!

How long does it take for you to be able to function in the morning?

Lazy Lifting

I have become really lazy when it comes to my lifting. I know I made the conscious decision to run more, which means I am only lifting about twice a week right now. That's fine. But when it gets time to do my actual workout, I reeeeeeeeeeally take my time and get distracted! It's just a bad habit I got into this summer!

Yesterday, I decided to lift, and other than teaching piano lessons in the morning, I had the rest of the day to myself. (I worked Monday and Tuesday, then had off Wednesday and today- I know it's weird. don't ask because I have no answers for that one!)

The workout I am sharing with you below should have taken 45 minutes to an hour. It took me TWO HOURS!!!!

Here's what I did....

1. Warm Up: Rotator cuff, shoulder press

2. Put hair in ponytail, wash face, brush teeth, pee

3. More warm ups: Assisted pull ups

4. Reply to a blog comment

5. 3  wide grip pull ups

6. Check Big Brother message boards

7. 2.25  wide grip pull ups (couldn't get up the whole way on the last one)

8. More message boards.

9. 2 wide grip  pull ups

10. Facebook

11. 2 wide grip  pull ups

12. Read this article and got extremely pissed.

13. 1 more wide grip pull up

14. Changed into my workout clothes.

In my defense, I need considerable rest time in between even small sets of pull ups. But as you can see, my lackadaisical behavior was a little extreme!

The rest of my workout went fairly well, and I won't give you all the details like I did up above, but please know there were considerable amounts of blog reading, Youtube watching, and kitty petting in between each one of my sets!

Dumbbell Row- 5x10x25lb

Band asst. pull ups (wide grip)- 4x5

Bicycle Crunches- 4x40

Band asst. pull ups (neutral grip)- 4x6

Bicep Curls- 4x10x15lb

Stability Ball Pass-4x8
Planks- 4x45sec

Stretching

I guess the good news is, unless I plan my lifting for the weekends, now that school is back in session I will be forced to either get up at 4am so I have a full two hours for these lazy workouts, or I will get my butt in gear and have my lifting workouts more focused! You all know I don't like to get up any earlier than I need to, so I suppose I am going to have to get my head back in the game and reserve lifting time for lifting, not catching up on my interwebs!

Can you relate to any of this?