Packing

The year is really wrapping up. There is no real "class" going on anymore, even though I really tried to have lessons planned. The schedule is all screwy, I don't know in advance whether I'm going to have a class, and much of the time is spent packing up the room anyway.

Of course, the students are always good for reminding me why I do this. On Monday, I was doing a lesson on ecology and food chains for my 7th graders. The Do Now was: What did you have for lunch yesterday? Where did the food come from? Several students commented that they weren't in school yesterday (Sunday). I said, "What, you don't eat lunch on weekends?" A few of them said, "Nope."

It's not all bad, though. Yesterday, a student of mine, who can never keep her nose out of a book, asked me for a book recommendation. I recommended Ender's Game. I then hung my hat on the wall, put my feet up, and felt pretty satisfied with my first year teaching.

There are 8 days of school left, although I am taking tomorrow off to spend with my family, and 6 of the rest are half days. According to my calculations, if there are no additional obstacles to class like graduation rehearsal (which there will be), I have only 23 classes to teach and 40 working periods (class, lunch duty, homerooms, etc). That's 1600 minutes or less. This is crazy.

I also realized I no longer have Sunday anxiety. It took me 9 months, but I don't spend Sunday worrying about my week. I'm cool.

At least, with the ease of teaching these days, I have been getting my training in. Last night, I was feeling antsy, so I ran 1.5 miles just because. I've been pretty consistently running 10 miles per week and throwing in some biking and swimming too. I don't know if I'll win any awards in the triathlon on the 17th, but I have a good chance of beating my best time.

During testing, and other times when I don't have a lot to do, I've been working on my training plan. I pretty much have a running plan mapped out (theoretically - this never actually works out) until February. I would like to do an Olympic Triathlon in August, a half marathon in October, and possibly a full marathon (26.2 miles) on the day I turn 26 - June 29, 2013. By February, I could have my running base up to 25 miles per week, which is sufficient to start training for a marathon. I might even consider a half Ironman in 2013 or 2014. It sounds crazy, and really intimidating, but I've noticed that the more I squeeze running into my schedule, the more it happens to find time on its own. I'm really making a habit of it.

Now I only have to decide if I want to do the North Jersey Half Marathon or the Hershey Half Marathon in October. Hershey is 2.5 hours away from where I'm living, but it's Hershey. Chocolate everywhere.