Coach Jen B

and today we have a 2 hour delay, because of this:   Will it ever end?   and, we put the shovels away.    Ugh.   Weather Speaking of weather - it's almost time to obsessively watch the Boston weather and drive Ward absolutely crazy.  He hates it when I start announcing the forecast.  Especially when it's 10 days out.  His response is always going to be "it's too early to tell".  Oh heck, I'll start now.  I'd LOVE it if the above were true.  Fingers crossed.   It's taper time.   I'm not going crazy.  Yet.   The mileage is going down and I'm giving my legs the much needed rest they need.   This week Ward and I will maybe log 25 miles.  It seems like that's not even running at all.   I remember the days when I thought 20 miles was a ton!  Things have changed for sure.    Where do you track your mileage?  For the longest time, I tracked it onlin...

It's been a few months.  We've all had crazy schedules.  BUT somehow we pulled it off this morning.   The four of us joined up at the gym.....and ran side by side on the treadmills.  Yep.   We took over the gym this morning.  And that's me.  Hogging the window treadmill.  We are blurry because we were running SOOO fast!   The great thing about treadmills is that we didn't have to run in 7F.  Which, is super warm compared to the -36F windchill yesterday.  But I still didn't want to run outside.  I'm just getting over a cold and didn't want to upset my asthma anymore.  Since it HAS been angry since this summer.   Carrie finishing up her run But we got it done.  8 miles on the treadmill.  Lots of laughing and great times.  This is why I love my girls.  I am so lucky to have them!   After my run, I picked up the kids at my inlaws house (across the street) ...

One of the reasons why I became a teacher was for days like Monday - Snow Days!  Not really, but they are an added perk. Having Monday off was perfect.  It gave me an extra day to be with the kids and hold them closer, because I wasn't quite ready to send them off to their destinations yet after the devastating events at Sandy Hook. It also gave me another time to run with the husband, in the snow.  I really do love running in the snow.  Especially a fresh new snow.  You know the kind of snow I'm talking about.  It's still white and fluffy.  But there are a few challenges that come with running in the snow. What do I wear on my feet?   Shoes of course!  But not any old shoes.  I suggest wearing a pair of shoes with some traction.  My Mizuno Wave Rider 15s were fabulous last winter.  Currently, the only shoe I have with some decent traction are my Saucony Kinvara 3's.  They don't have tons but it was better than ...

When it comes to running, I definitely prefer to run outside.  There is something about the fresh air and running to a destination that is much more pleasing to me.  Last year, I somehow managed to run outside for almost every run.  I believe I only "came inside" 1 or 2 times and I had to borrow my day care provider's treadmill. This year is FAR different.  I now work at a local gym, which = access to a treadmill basically anytime I want AND I work at my local high school that has a fantastic fitness room - just a few doors down from my classroom!  I went to having access to zero treadmills to TWO!  Anytime I want.   As you know, fitting in longer runs can be a challenge for me when it comes to my work schedule, Ward's work schedule and taking care of/being around for the kids.  For some reason, Ward worked from home on Wednesday and Thursday which to me = GO RUN JEN!  So I did.   On Wednesday I took on 10 miles afterschool o...

You all know teachers love snow days just as much more than kids do.  I know, I know.  I JUST had a break last week, but a midweek break is always incredibly nice as well and I'll never turn down a day off!   I started off my day with a bike ride in the comfort of my living room.  It was a scheduled rest day, but I knew I needed to do something.  Since I had both the kids and Ward was working, it meant biking.   As soon as I got off the bike, little Miss Isabella went to her bedroom and grabbed  her  laptop and set it on the table and got on the bike and exclaimed "my turn!".   How adorable.  Yes, I push that little table up to the bike so I can catch up on fb, twitter and blogs during my rides.  This is definitely one huge plus to biking inside.   Then of course, we had to get outside and play.  What is a snow day without bundling up and getting outside to play in the snow?     This little girl d...

If I wanted to get my run in today, it meant I had to do it before Ward went to work.  No biggie.   I enjoy running in the morning.   But this one was different than many of my recent morning runs. Maine finally got some snow this morning.  We only got a few inches and it was that awesome, wet & sticky snow.  You know that stuff.  Well, maybe you do.  Sorry, southerners!  Excellent snowball snow. Anyway, the timing of my run was when the snow was still falling and the plow hadn't been down my road yet.  This made for the perfect combination to break out the Yak Trax.  My thought is that if I was running on my road, I'd need to jump off to the side when I saw a car coming and these babies would help out a lot.  And help they did.  Boy was it slick! love love love my Mizuno Wave Rider 15s & my yak trax I went out for 5 miles.  It was a recovery run as last night I did a 5.5 mile fartlek run. ...

Today was supposed to be a 1/2 day of conferences.  Note: yesterday was a 1/2 student day with conferences then going from 1pm to 8pm last night - making for a super long day, especially when I get to school at 7am (2 hours prior to the start of school).    BUT, we're getting a snow storm right now.  Yep - our 2nd one for this season and it isn't even December yet.  I am really hoping that having the Halloween storm and now the Thanksgiving storm, mother nature can say she's done with storms.  But I completely fear that it's going to be one hell of a winter.  Grrrr.  OR is this the season where we'll only have holiday storms.  I can handle that!   yes - it's still dark - I have a very hard time going back to bed after that 5 am text comes in Anyway, back to the storm.  I got my text this morning telling me that BSD was closed this morning.  Yay!  BUT, do I have to make up this day in June?  Really?  It's a ...

The best quote of the day went like this: Ward: “You never even said, should we go to the race? Or asked if the roads were okay.   You’re only concern was   ‘What should I wear? These shoes?   What about these pants? Should I wear capris? Should I wear a thicker shirt?’”   Funny how I had completely made up my mind and that I was definitely going to run this race this morning even though I didn’t pre-register for the darn race.  You got it.  I’m just plain ol’ crazy.  The sad part is that the debut 5kers – Tucker and my dad – did not run today.  They will someday.  I know it.  Yes, Maine got hit with a Nor’easter late last night and the snow continued on for some time this morning.  I think it ended sometime during the race, but I do remember some icy pellets hitting me in the face.   This is the earliest I remember getting snow in Maine.  I remember seeing snow flakes on Halloween night a few years, but n...