Workout Monday

Call my crazy but today I walked home from the gym.  I live in the Sta. Mesa/Manila area and the gym is in Xavier School, Greenhills.  Normally, I'd take a bus ride home which is the most convenient way.  That is, if the driver is unavailable for me to use.  I've always wanted to try walking because anyway according to the app Waze, I only live 2.6KMs away.  So in the gym, I did my long run (did not take note of the KMs anymore, just made sure to run 2 hours straight) and did some strength exercises after (lunges, squats, weights, push-ups, sit-ups, etc).

Gym selfie in between weighted squats.  Must work on those arms!

I finished at 11AM and told myself, okay, since there's no work and I'm in no rush, today, I will walk home.  From Xavier, I walked out to Ortigas Avenue and walked straight until I reached Santolan.  Turned in to M. Paterno - where I started to feel hunger pangs! Hahaha.  After all, I just had a peanut butter sandwich pre-run and 2 small bananas while running.  I stopped at a vendor to buy puto and was told, "Naku ma'am, sold out na po!" WHAT?! Ugh.  So I walked some more... and saw a buko vendor! I ordered a glass and was happy (even if that glass tasted more like water than buko.  Sad).  I reached N. Domingo and turned left and walked more... Until I reached Araneta Avenue, the bridge and was relieved.  Malapit na.

After 48 minutes, I finally reach home.  I'm glad I crossed that off my to-do list but will I do it again? Probably not - streets in the Manila simply do not encourage walking.  Plus, I'd die of pollution if I were to do this regularly.

Home sweet home :)

One Week To Go!

I'm a week a way from my 7th first day of school as a teacher.  I suppose that explains the silence, hehe.  But my silence does mean productivity! I've been going to the gym 3-4x a week (save for last week when I wasn't feeling well), working hard on lesson plans and school-related documents and of course, making each day count with the little boy.

This year, I will be handling seven sections of about 40 students each (that's a whopping 280 students, woot) and also a co-curricular club.  I'm not too sure how I feel about not being a class adviser, since I have always been one for the last 6 years.  While it may be sad not to have a section to call 'home' this school year, I am also welcoming all the extra time I will have in the mornings (no need to be in the classroom everyday from 7:20 to 7:40, woohoo).

Sadly, I haven't been running much (what's new).  I ran 2 weeks ago, 5kms for 42minutes, HAHA.  And last Monday, 3kms of interval training.  In the gym, I usually join the spinning class with which I am able to burn 500-550 calories/class (50 minutes/class).  Not bad, right? Then there's also the Boot Camp class which I joined last week (it's on Thursdays) - it's like a lighter, more purposeful version of the Insanity workout.  Can't wait for the spinning+boot camp classes tomorrow! As for running, although I did sign up for the Run United 2 last Sunday (just 10km), I did not get to go! :( Sorry, RFB.  Someone else end up running the race bib though so at least hindi nasayang.  Buti nalang 'teacherontherun' ang pangalan ng blog na ito.  Motivates me to run AND teach well.

As for the mommy part, I can say it comes naturally so no deliberate motivation needed :)

The DREADmill

One of my school's activities, Days with the Lord, is a retreat that juniors have to take for 2 days and 2 nights (Friday night to Sunday night).  Since I'm the girls' junior teacher, I am also required to stay in school with them.  I used to be fine with having to sleep in school for a night (the other night is my supervisor's turn to make bantay) but not now that I have Liam + long runs on weekends! It's not just a sleepover since actually, there really is no sleep from Friday to Saturday - I wait for all the activities to finish before I get to sleep (usually around 5AM).

So I couldn't run last Saturday, right.  Since I badly wanted to sleep in Sunday morning, I had to bear the consequences of having to do my long run on the treadmill, or as I put it, DREADMILL :(( It's no biggie running 5km on it but 18.  EIGHTEEN LONG KILOMETERS.  GAHH.  Thanks to the podcast I just recently discovered (Running Wild by Coach Ige Lopez, Toby Martin and Chock the Great) ... I managed to finish my run in 2 hours, 11 minutes.  That makes for a 7:18 average pace, if I'm not mistaken.  Not too shabby for a long run, at least for my standards.

This weekend, I'm supposed to do 20 then 22 the next and 21 again for Condura Skyway half-marathon on February 3! Can't wait :D