Miss Teacher Runs

In college, I started a blog called Smile Like You Mean It, mostly because my brother suggested it.  I love writing, and used it mainly to share quotes, musings, pictures, and thoughts on books I was reading.  I wrote sporadically.  I recently started writing in it about running, and more recently, the injuries that have led to the lack of running in my life.  Well, it is enough work to keep up ONE blog much less TWO, so I've decided that I will be ending my relationship with smile like you mean it, and posting all of those other things in this blog.  In real life, I'm not JUST a teacher, so why should this blog be JUST about my teaching?  Of course, this blog will still be MAINLY about my classroom adventures, but there may be some other things sprinkled in here and there.  I think it's symbolic of the fact that, as a SECOND year teacher, I actually have something of a life outside of school!!!  Although still not too exciting of one! ;)  If you don't care about my outside of classroom adventures, please feel free to gloss over them.  :)  Anyways...

One thing I have been MAJORLY missing lately is running.  On August 4th I suffered a stress fracture in my right tibia, which I am blaming on being sold a pair of running shoes that way OVER corrected my feet, and have consequently been finding myself staring out the window longingly at runners without being able to tie up my shoes.  It has been pretty sad, especially since I had just gotten BACK into running for the first time since college, and had fallen back in love with the sport in a HUGE way.  :(  Anyways, my tibia is finally starting to heal, but I have still felt lingering pain every time I have tried to run in the past few weeks.  There were at least  5 races I had hoped to run this fall that are one by one passing by on the calendar with me still bumming around the house, but the one race that REALLY matters, the Disney Princess Half-Marathon, aka my escape from Chicago winter in February, opportunity to run through Cinderella's Castle, first big-girl race, and basically dream come true, is still pretty far ahead of me.

My Pain-Free and Fabulous Tibia :)

However, as the weeks and weeks have gone by and my tibia pain has continued to linger (the only real cure for a stress fracture, just like a regular fracture, is REST and noooo running), I have been getting nervous about whether or not I'll have enough time to rehab my tibia, get back into shape, AND oh yeah, prepare my body to run 13.1 miles for the very first time ever.  The first day I tried running again post-injury was a couple of weeks ago, and I WAY overdid it.  I ran/walked about 3.5 miles when I should have started it out at, oh, i don't know, 0.25 miles.  I got a little carried away...and paid for it with pain later.  So today, I decided to dust off my running shoes, lace them up, and give it another shot.

A few weeks ago, some of the bloggers I follow celebrated Love My Body week.  Today, my motto on my run was, "I love my body enough that I will LISTEN to my tibia, RESPECT my pain, and NOT PUSH IT!"  I ran a pathetically slow mile and a half following 30 second/60 second run/walk intervals, and survived with NO PAIN.  Wonderful.   :)  Not quite ready for Disney yet, but it's a baby step.  And that's what it's all about, right?

In other news, I met a friend today to talk to her about Girls on the Run.  She started a site at her school last year, and absolutely has loved being involved with the organization and coaching the program.  I am super excited about the prospect of starting a site at my school possibly next year (you know, assuming I still have a job!).  For now, though, I am going to do some volunteer work with the organization and help coach at another school.  More on that to come!!