Bad Attitudes and Good Workouts

It's been awhile!  To tell you the truth, I have been avoiding blogging.  Well, I've half been avoiding blogging and half haven't had the time or energy to blog.  I try to keep a positive, light attitude on the blog, but I haven't been feeling very positive this week.  We are back in school, and are wasting no time digging into intense curriculum.  And I'm more than a little overwhelmed.  I like my class a whole lot--they are really wonderful kids, albeit squirrely and distractable.  When I'm teaching them, I feel good.  But it's that whole other part of teaching--the planning, the data, the standards, the pressure--that's really getting to me.  I've been kind of a hot mess all week and have had a really negative attitude.  I don't really even recognize myself right now!  I know that it is rubbing off on my teammates, and that my stress-induced snippy-ness is probably rubbing people the wrong way.

The truth is, I just haven't been feeling like myself.  

One of my wonderful coworkers sat me down yesterday and had a talk with me about how I need to relax and  simplify and let some things go.  She's noticed I haven't been acting like myself lately, and is concerned that, with so many new teammates and staff in my building this year, I might be giving people the wrong impression about who I am.  Mostly she said she's worried about me.  I really thought about our talk and decided to commit to changing.  I love teaching.  I love it too much to let the "other" stuff get to me.  So I emailed my teammates and apologized for my bad attitude and let them know how much I appreciate them.  Hopefully there are no hard feelings!  I fully plan to bring you a picture-filled, positive, exciting post about the goings-on in my classroom next week!

ANYWAYS, amidst a hectic first full (loooong) week of teaching, I did manage to fit in some good workouts! Monday evening I met my Dad for a bike ride.  Dad and I have been biking together my whole life, and he has always bee way faster than me.  Dad loves long bike rides and has the endurance of a CHAMP, but he isn't into racing or anything.  He rides a hybrid, and I realized Monday that it isn't that DAD is faster than me, it was that his bike was faster than my junky mountain bike.  On my new road bike, I was faster than him!  I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty exciting! :)

Just because I am in love with my bike, here's one more picture...

Anyways, Tuesday evening I convinced my college teacher buddy Miss R to meet me for an evening run!  Miss R is brand new to running (she calls it "jogging"!), and during our run she tested out a pair of my recovery socks.  Needless to say, she loved them too. :)

Thursday we were in the midst of a random heatwave!!!  I put off my run as long as I could, but knew that I needed to head out before it really started getting dark, so I ended up starting my run at 7:30pm in close to 90 degree heat.  Ouch.  It turns out I don't really know what time it gets dark anymore, OR how isolated some parts of my route were, because I really started to get concerned after a couple miles!  Let me tell you: there is nothing like darkness and fear of being kidnapped to get you moving quickly!  I ran my fastest 3 miles since before my injury break.  By no means fast, or even fast for my slow standards, but I'm slowly getting there!

Don't mind my marker-covered fingers!  Hi, I'm a teacher...

What's a sweaty girl to do after a run but lay on a towel on the floor and watch a running documentary?  Earlier this week I watched Hood to Coast--AMAZING!  I cried the whole time.  Thanks again, XLMIC, for the giveaway!  This time, though, it was Running the Sahara.  Also amazing!  I loved it--so inspiring.  Maybe next I'll have to go old school and watch Chariots of Fire or something like that. :)

I've got a couple fun product reviews and giveaways in the works, so stay tuned!!

How do you keep a positive attitude when life gets you down?