Month: January 2022

Fit Five Friday and January 2022 Runfessions

It’s the last Friday of the month which means Marcia has opened the Runfessional!  It’s also time for another edition of Fit Five Friday hosted by DarleneRenéeJennMichelle, and me!  Let’s get started, shall we?!

I runfess…
That I am being a wimp with this weather.  I haven’t run outside since the 18th.  Only a week.  I thought it was longer than that.  But prior to that my last run was on the 3rd.  I do not miss running right now.  At first I did but now none at all.  I am still keeping active with the Peloton.  I’ve done a class everyday this month.  Sometimes even 2, 3 or 4 rides each day which includes a warm up and a cool down.  I am proud of myself!

I runfess…
That I am postponing my 50k that I was planning to do in March.  And I am OK with it.  What was I thinking when I agreed in October knowing that I would have to train throughout the Winter?  Our Winters here are horrible!  I know others have been running outside but I really do not want to.

I runfess…
That I do not understand the whole hype with Wordle.  I see people post about it on social media and some numbers with it but don’t know what that is about either.  Do you play Wordle?

I runfess…
That I saw a post from 3 days ago about one of my favorite races – The Shamrock Shuffle.  Registration was $40 (now it is $50).  I was tempted so sign up because I love that race.  However, who knows how things will be on March 20th?  Will the race still take place?  Will it be cancelled?  I know I can run it in the morning and still make it to my coworker’s wedding in the afternoon.

I runfess…
That for some weird reason I am obsessed with the song “Tennessee Whiskey”.  There is something about the music and the voice.  I find it very relaxing.  I’ve never heard of Chris Stapleton but that song I do love.  “You’re as smooth as Tennessee whiskey.  You’re as sweet as strawberry wine.  You’re as warm as a glass of brandy.  And honey, I stay stoned on your love all the time”.  🎵 🎵 🎵

Thanks for linking up with us again this week!  We’ve got FIVE incredible co-hosts, and we are ready to link up every Friday to share YOUR weekly fitness favorites!  Join hosts My First 5K and MoreRunning With AttitudeRun Laugh Eat PieRuns with Pugsand Zenaida every Friday for Fit Five Friday!  Please add your link below.  I am also linking up with Marcia for Runfessions.

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Tuesday Topics: Finding Joy in 2021

This week’s Tuesday Topic is a FREE topic.  Feel free to post any running related blog post.  Remember to link up with Kim and Zenaida!  Visit at least two of the other linked posts – the more the merrier!  Remember to come back for later linkers!

My word for 2021 was Joy.  As much as we were all looking forward to 2020, it did not turn out to be like we expected.  Now that it is 2022, will it be better?  Who knows but like everyone else, I am tired.  Simply tired of Covid and all of its variants (how many can there be?) and the effects on everyone.  I thought 2021 was a bit better but not all great either.  Still, I looked for joy in it.  While it wasn’t easy I did find it.

My health.  Luckily I did not encounter any health issues.  I am grateful that I managed to stay away from the doctor or hospital (I did go for my annual physical exam and mammogram).

My students.  It was a ROUGH year and I hated it.  I started off the year teaching in a semi-empty classroom to having 22 students in my room.  I did get frustrated many times but also had many fun moments.  No matter what, they’re still kids.  

My running.  The beginning of 2021 was nonstop with snow and I hated it.  However, I managed to still run everyday for my run streak.  Running is what got me started in the morning.  I love the solitude and being able to “forget” what was happening in the world.

Spending more time with my mom.  Growing up we weren’t close.  I never had that mother/daughter relationship that most people have.  However, it has been different ever since her stroke.  She is no longer independent and relies on her daughters to help her in many aspects.  We spent HOURS listening to music while enjoying the warm days of Summer, we also watched TV, and cooked a lot.  She now tells me that since I know how to cook, that I can get married.  🤣 🤣

My friends. Unfortunately, I did not spend too much time with them.  However, I was still happy to get a message here and there knowing they were doing well.

My coworkers.  I don’t know what I would do without them.  They are always there for me.  The 2nd grade team works very well together and we tackled many difficult tasks last year.  2021 was rough for many teachers but my coworkers sure made it a bit better.  We talked and laughed a lot and made the best of it.

My cats.  My fur babies!!  They are the best.  Too bad Lola and Mateo still do not get along.  They’re both very different.  Lola is more serious and loves following me around.  Mateo is the trouble maker but still makes me laugh.

My iMac.  It was the best thing I purchased for remote learning in 2020.  I hate the small screen on my work computer.  Last year I used it mostly to catch up on work.  Now I have it in my classroom and hope I don’t get in trouble.  No where does it say we cannot take our own devices but administrators like to make their own rules.

My Brooks shoes.  I spent HOURS running in my Brooks shoes.  I was done with my  run streak in August so I ran everyday in them for almost 8 months.

My Oiselle long roga shorts.  I love running in shorts and wear long rogas on all of my runs.  I also ran many miles in these beautiful shorts.  Another great pair are the Oiselle pocket joggers.  They’re great for also storing my small water bottles.  I’ve lost count but I think I have almost 30 pairs of the long rogas.

My MAC patent polish lip pencil in Ruby.  These were discontinued in 2020 and I bought a whole bunch of them hoping to wear them in 2021.  Unfortunately I didn’t because I rarely went anywhere and when I did I had a mask.  My lip pencils are still in two boxes (yes I bought that many) and hopefully soon I can wear them.

Cooking with my mom.  I’ve learned so much from her.  We spent hours together and cooked many meals together.  I do regret not doing this sooner but am glad I am doing this now.

My new car.  I still miss my old car but I do love my new one.  Now, if I only I can get it to stay clean.  One of these days I will take it to get detailed.  There is absolutely no reason why it isn’t clean inside.  The best thing about my car is the remote starter.  Though I did confess that I didn’t find out about it till months later.  Haha, better late than never.

My running playlist.  I love running with music.  My playlist consists of Spanish and English music.  Definitely a great combo!  I use Amazon Music for my playlist and like adding new songs to it.

Making apple martinis.  My favorite drink.  I honestly do not know why I did not make them more last year.  I did have a lot of wine.  

My pens and highlighters.  Ha, I have way too many pens but I use them a lot every day.  It depends on my mood but sometimes I use black ink, then switch to purple, red, or blue.  Oh, I also have those with glitter and those with a fruity scent.  

Working with my coach.  He is truly the best.  Very patient with me.  He has always been there for me when I have great and bad runs.  He was also very supportive during my run streak.  

My blogger friends.  They’re truly the best group of running friends.  Even though I haven’t met everyone (yet), I am so lucky they’re my friends. THANK YOU!

My family.  I am grateful for the great times we had together.  We ate.  We laughed.  We talked.  We celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations.  Hopefully we can continue to do that this year.

Topic for next week – What’s on your Winter bucket list?  Feel free to write about this or any running related topic.  We hope you’ll link up with us!

Tuesday Topics

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Tuesday Topics: My plan to achieve my 2022 goals

This week’s Tuesday Topic is: What’s your plan to achieve your 2022 goals?  You can write about this topic or feel free to post any running related blog post.  Remember to link up with Kim and Zenaida!  Visit at least two of the other linked posts – the more the merrier!  Remember to come back for later linkers!

In December I wrote about my 2022 goals.  Let me tell you how I plan to achieve these goals.

Stay injury free.  Being injured is no fun.  The two worst ones I’ve had were a calf strain and plantar fasciitis.  But I can say that the latter one was more painful.  The first time I experienced this (that I can remember) was during the Missoula Half Marathon in 2019.  I was miserable towards the end because my feet were hurting.  It wasn’t until a month later that I got an official diagnosis.  Anyway, my plan is to do more cross training, use my massage gun, and my mom’s foot and calf massager.  Any other suggestions?

✅ Buy a house.  Besides looking, I need to expand my search area.  Right now I am looking at a specific area and nothing.  Well, there have been a few but either someone else makes an offer before me or they make an offer way more than I am willing to spend.  It is ridiculous how expensive it is.  Something else I am doing is looking for a house with an unfinished or semi-finished basement.  At least with that option I can customize it and hopefully more available to buy.

✅ Travel.  I have a new passport.  I am ready to go.  I guess I don’t really need to travel internationally.  🙂 My sister is planning to visit from Mexico in May.  Then the plan is for me to go for 2-3 weeks there in the Summer.  I don’t want to go during Spring Break for just one week.  To me it isn’t worth it.  I want to go for a longer period of time.  But before I can travel I need to make sure my siblings can stay with my cats.  A tentative trip I am also planning is to Fargo for the Fargo Half Marathon.  I still need to run in 8 states for my 50+1 state goal.

✅ Continue to be patient at work and at home.   Pick my battles, step away, and not keep quiet.  I think I am doing OK with it.  I remind myself that sometimes it isn’t worth getting all frustrated and annoyed.  I don’t have access to my work email on my phone and that has helped.  I also think about things that make me happy like coffee, my family, my cats, etc.  Watching TV has also helped me relax.

✅ PR in my 50k.  Just run and follow the plan?  I may have to switch my race because I’ve missed a lot of runs due to the weather.  Yesterday was my first time running in 2 weeks.  It ran 2 miles and it felt hard!  By picking a race later in the year will give me more time to train and hopefully get a PR.

✅ Run 1,200 miles.  In order to do this I need to run an average of 100 miles each month.  I am not starting off the year correctly because for this month I have 7 miles.  Hopefully once it clears up then I can bump up the mileage.  Plus I know training for a 50k will add lots of miles there too.

Complete 300 Peloton rides.  I started off the year with 136 Peloton rides.  Yep, I was slacking.  Now I’ve done 157 rides and need 143 to meet my goal.  With 11 months left in the year, I will need an average of 14 rides a month, 3-4 per week.  It is hard to fit in a bike class while running 6 days a week but thinking of doing a 20 minute ride in the evening on the days I do a hard run.  I will need to talk to my coach and see what he thinks.  

Topic for next week – FREE topic .  Feel free to write about this or any running related topic.  We hope you’ll link up with us!

Tuesday Topics

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Tuesday Topics: Fun things I did over the holidays

This week’s Tuesday Topic is:  What’s one fun running related thing you did over the holidays?  You can write about this topic or feel free to post any running related blog post.  Remember to link up with Kim and Zenaida!  Visit at least two of the other linked posts – the more the merrier!  Remember to come back for later linkers!

Yesterday was my first day back at work after being off for 2 1/2 weeks.  It was great to be off but I was looking forward to being back at work.  Weird, right?  In December I wrote about the 5 things I was looking forward to during Winter Break.  I will update you on that and then tell you other fun things I did during that time.

☃️ Not be out running in the dark.  I ran one week and then didn’t run last week because of the weather.  

☃️ Not drive to school or anywhere else.  I drove once to the gym, to the store, and to take my mother to the doctor.  That’s it.

☃️ Watch TV.  Yep, every single day.  I finished watching “Castle”.  I was sad to see it end but was happy with how it ended.

☃️ Read.  Started reading “Such a quiet place” but haven’t finished it.  Luckily the library renews it automatically for me and no one else has requested it.  I did not watch “A Star is Born” because I couldn’t get the DVD player to work.  I am not sure why since I bought last year.

☃️ Teach a Winter Break Boot Camp to my students.  It was actually fun.  My students enjoyed it too.  Glad I did it.

Other things I did:

✔️ Spent a lot of time with my cats.  Lola followed me everywhere.  For some reason I cannot upload a recent photo of my cats.  Below is one from a few weeks ago.

✔️ Made mole with my mother for Christmas.  That was the 3rd time I made it.  I see now it isn’t that complicated.  I like cooking with her and learning how to make traditional Mexican food.  I am getting good at it.  Now she just observes and supervises me.  😀

✔️ Upgraded to the iPhone 13.  I had to wait about 45 minutes for an agent and then the whole upgrade took about 3 hours.  I haven’t noticed that much difference from the iPhone X.  The T-Mobile agent told me I needed a different charger which prompted me to go to Target to buy new ones for my house, school, and my car (it had to be plugged in the cigarette lighter and in my new car I had no idea where it was).  It turns out that I could still use iPhone X phone charger.  

✔️ Ran 1,000 miles.  What a great day!

✔️ Began using the Peloton bike again.  No running so the bike it is.  I LOVE Camila.  Yesterday I took a 30 minute class and almost got a PR.  I missed it by 6 points.  Tonight I am planning to take her live class at 7pm.  I am looking forward to it.

Topic for next week – What’s your plan to achieve your 2022 goals?  Feel free to write about this or any running related topic.  We hope you’ll link up with us!

Tuesday Topics

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Fit Five Friday and January 2022 Ultimate Coffee Date


Happy New Year!  I am so happy that it’s Friday!  Today is my last day of Winter Break and will go back to work on Monday.  I’m starting off the weekend with a little catch-up over the Ultimate Coffee Date hosted by Coco and Deborah.  So grab a mug of your favorite beverage and let’s chat for a bit!

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that as much as I enjoyed my break, in a way I am looking forward to going back to work on Monday.  I miss my students and my routine.  I like being at home but I need a different environment.  I will miss having access to the bathroom and going whenever I want to.  I have been cutting down on coffee and have noticed a difference in the number of times I use the bathroom.  However, I am not looking forward to having to wear my mask all day again.  Also, I am not looking forward to the stupid expectations and political issues that really have nothing to do with education.  It seems like administrators want to have their cake and eat it too.  It doesn’t work that way. 

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that I have not run at all this week.  And I am OK with it.  It is too cold outside.  On Monday I joined the gym to have access to the treadmill but I couldn’t stand being there.  I had to wear a mask while running and it was awful.  I was in tears in the dressing room when I was getting ready to go home.  Not sure how one week of not running will affect my training but I am OK with it.  No pressure.

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that since I haven’t been running, I’ve been spending more time on my Peloton.  I’ve taken one class each day since January 1st.  Now that is a record for me!  My new favorite instructor is Camila Ramón.  I love her energy and attitude.  I also love that some of her classes are in Spanish.  She is so fun and reminds me of Cody.

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that my plan on New Year’s Eve was to go to bed early.  I got home around 6 and watched TV.  I couldn’t stop.  I was hooked on Castle (finally watched all 8 seasons) and watched it till 11pm.  And then I went to sleep.  I guess I could have stayed up for another hour but I didn’t.  I was already tired.  😀 Did you stay up past midnight?

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that besides patience with myself and others, I am also looking at being more positive.  Too much?  These past two years were awful for many reasons and I am simply tired of it.  I want this year to be a bit different.  How different?  Not sure but hopefully being more positive will help.

Thanks for linking up with us again this week!  We’ve got FIVE incredible co-hosts, and we are ready to link up every Friday to share YOUR weekly fitness favorites!  Join hosts My First 5K and MoreRunning With AttitudeRun Laugh Eat PieRuns with Pugsand Zenaida every Friday for Fit Five Friday!  Please add your link below.  I am also linking up with Running with Perseverance and Confessions of a Mother Runner for the Ultimate Coffee Date.

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