Slipping Up on Posting

Naughty me, or was it busy me, but I missed a few days of postings, but glad to report that I have been running, amongst the busy times.

Teaching is taking up a lot of time for me, and I will never again state that Teachers have an easy life with all those holidays (although I do like them!), and finishing work at 3 pm etc... In my relatively short "career" as a teacher, I am finding out how much time goes into preparation of classes. One on one students are hard enough to prepare for, but when it comes to setting up a 2 hour class for my teenage First Certificate in English Class, it can take 5 hours a week to prepare for the one class! getting the materials together, preparing handouts, designing the class to keep their attention, and then assessing how it went afterwards - Much as I love the teaching, I think I would have burnt out long ago if I had decided on this path from school - And these are all students who want to learn - So hats off to all those who are teachers in the "Real world".

Anyway, back to running, and I am still operating on my alternate days strategy as I rebuild, and it seems to be working. On Friday, I decided to head to the gym, and did a range of exercises, including some good stretching. I am still feeling a soreness (can't really explain it much better) in my right hip, upper thigh, and whilst not stopping me run at all, or impede my movements, I am still keeping an eye on it, and will head to the physio when I am home next month. After my warm ups, i went for a treadmill run. It was only a short one of 2Km, but at under 11 minutes, it was quite sharp, and, I have to confess, not as easy as I expected at that pace, but I was reasonably happy at the progress, and went out of Friday night, Frinking with a spring in my step.

Saturday was one of those alternate days with no runs, and on Sunday morning I was out on a cool damp morning, after a heavy rainstorm overnight had lowered the temperatures to something more akin to a Dublin day in October. I ran my 5.8 Km run that I have started to use as a measuring stick, and again, iI didn't feel I was trying hard, simply running smoothly, and with light traffic resulting in no junction delays, I completed the course almost a minute faster than previously. For those concerned about running to the clock, I am not clock watching, just using the results to gauge the improvements. Realistically, I should be running this course in around 27 minutes, and when I do, I know I will be capable of running under 50 minutes for 10 km - Still a long way to go.... Sundays was 30:31...

Monday was an alternate day, spent preparing classes for the week, and teaching, but it also involved my weekly weight in - And I can report more success, as I dropped another kilo, down to 89 Kgs, 196 lbs, which is a little milestone in iself, as under Imperial Weight that is the 14 stone mark. I am well on target for my goal of 176 lbs by the end of June, and exactly half way from the starting point of 216 lbs back in February - So, whilst my speed may seem slow when I'm running, the weight loss is continuing at a great pace.

Next run will be later today after my classes, so hopefully I can get another good run in amd start to maybe add an extra run a week in as the build up continues.