Gold Coast! HAPPPPPY CANADA DAY!!!!

And we're OFF! ALMOST!

It's 3:40AM, Canada Day. We've been up since 3 as we have to catch our train at 4:30AM to head to the airport this morning to catch our 8:30 flight to the Gold Coast! We arrive there at 10:00AM and then HOPEFULLY can catch a buss at 10:42AM to take us to our hotel, another hour or so. Today will just be a chill out day, get some groceries, get settled and organized for the week and do a little sightseeing in the immediate vicinity.

Tomorrow we're going to the expo! That's where the real race excitement begins! The atmosphere will be incredible! I can't wait!

Anyways, I don't really have a ton of time to type up some stuff here but we're both pumped to get goin' and we're surely going to take about 800 pictures!

We're both excited to race. I'm prettttttty confident about my 3:10 goal this year and Julia is confident to go under 4 hours for her first marathon! Despite her knee being a liiiiiiittle wonky still. I can't wait to finish, run and get the camera and capture her finishing. I looked at the course on satelite view in google, looks amazing. check it out!

OK, well I guess I'll try and hand-write (so old school! :p) some blogs over the next coupla days and type 'em up when we get home. I wish I could bring the comp but there is NO room. I'm wearing 4 tshirts, shorts AND pants and two pairs of socks, just to save room. We only have carry-on, it's cheaper that way. :)

OK BYE!

Live from KPS

Today is a special edition blog entry, live from the Keriaville Public School staffroom! I’m here with my laptop, working on the slowmations that the students have made. I’m really proud of them! They were at an automatic disadvantage because we didn’t have a tripod stand at our disposal, so the photos are a little jumpy, but they still grasped the concept VERY well and the videos aren’t half bad at all.

This was all my project, and they managed to get it done over about 4 lessons. They had a lesson of just an introduction to slowmations and were put into groups, then they had a lesson where they planned their slowmation, from resources, to the topic and info and the script. They even made a storyboard! Lesson three, most groups finished their planning and built their resources. Lesson four saw everyone get to film, some groups were behind with the resources so others went first, but all groups managed! That was yesterday. Today I brought in my laptop and recorded each student’s voice as they read through their script. Now I’ve just finished playing with the photos a little and making the voices go well with what you see. All 5 videos are complete and published. I’m proud! I mean they’re not GOLD standard, but given that a prac student ran it, with limited resources (no tripod) and year 2/3s I’m pretty damn proud!
Tomorrow we’re making ice cream. Again this is something that I’m planning and going to teach. It’s linked to both literacy and science and tech because they have to write down the instructions (procedural text) and then understand the concepts of heat exchange and how the ice cream is actually being made. Even if they don’t grasp that though, IT’S FUN! I’m going to bring in the ingredients as a gift for the students, as this is my last week, and I’ll bring in that Sens T-shirt mom got me for Michelle.

I’m going to miss Keiraville! The kids, despite being little turds at times are great! I love help them figure it all out.

OH! gotta run! :)

The enormity of it.

It's hitting me. It's just about time to put up or shut up. I've been bombarding myself and others with '3:10 To Boston'. Everyone at school knows about it. Everyone on facebook knows about it. I put it way out there as extra motivation to train my ass off, accountability is an excellent motivational tool. It's worked. Many a time I've imagined the two scenarios, one where I have to tell people how disappointed I am that I've once again failed to meet my marathon goal, and one of true elation, where I can be SO proud of myself that I've accomplished this enormous goal. The Boston Marathon means more and more to me. It's somewhat of a symbol of success in what I do, a gold standard that separates those who just like to run, from those who really like to push limits and see what they can do. I know I WILL run the Boston Marathon, that's not in question. I get better and better every single year, just a week ago I ran 42.2k in training! And ran it 8 minutes faster than my previous marathon record (and only previous 42.2k run). Those who know me know how impatient I am. I want it NOW. I've been a runner for a few years, I ran my first marathon last year, but I want this NOW. It'll be a testament to the lifestyle I lead and justify it. This is huge. I CAN'T wait to get there. I can't wait to get in the excitement of a race weekend and get to be a part of it. I've raced twice, but they were relatively low-key races, and went to Ironman Australia, but wasn't racing. I crave that feeling of being a part of something huge! There's NO feeling in the world like being at a race, the energy is simply unbelievable, SO many positive people in one area.

I also look forward to seeing Julia finish her marathon and realize her own potential, that will be special also, and hopefully I'll be able to get some good photos of her finish! But who knows, she may finish ahead of me again, just like in Canberra. :)

Ode to Papa

It's Sunday here, which is father's day back home. It's not father's day here, here it's later in the year (sept or oct). Weird because Mother's day is the same date. So anyways, I love you dad and hope you have a great day! I'm sure you'll spend it with Annie and John and Sierra and mom, maybe at their place? I'll be thinkin' about you. I decided to write a funny little poem for you for father's day:

My father is a man who’s taught me lots of stuff
He’s taught me to work hard, even when it’s tough
He’s taught me proper manners and how I should act
He’s been the perfect role model and that is a fact!

He’s given me love and support and always a second chance
But after number two it’s a swift kick in the pants
It takes a bit of time, to see how he’s been right
But I’ll never admit it! Not without a fight!

Whenever I need help, he’s always there for me
Advice, food and shelter, all without a fee!
I could never ever repay him, for all that he has done
Except to make him proud, either in school or when I run!

I am who I am, because he is who he is
A man of many talents, a genius, maybe a whiz!
Determined and hard working and never one to coast
Culinary specialties are brownies and burnt toast!

I look up to him in awe, it’s true I really do
Because a man like him, there are so very few
I guess when I grow up, it wouldn’t be so bad
If I ended up, just like my awesome dad!

What a day!

Yesterday was my lil Tuna's birthday. She said that for her birthday she wanted to go down to the water and watch a sunrise. I was up at my normal 4:30AM and she got up at 5:30 and we headed down there around 6:30AM to see the sunrise. We walked out the little retaining wall that encloses the harbour (google wollongong, look at the map, you'll know what I mean) and sat on some massive rocks. It was simply gorgeous. Not many folks out, relatively warm and just super peaceful. We sat and waited, watching birds and just pinching each other to make sure this was our reality. It was a cloudy morning so even when the sun was rising it was behind some clouds, but it still peered through and was as beautiful as ever!We took a bunch of pictures of each other and us together out there and just enjoyed it for an hour or so.

We got back home just before 8 and I got my running gear on ASAP. i had 16k to run and just wanted to get it done so we could have the rest of the day together (and you never know when the weather is going to turn on you!). I got out and had an AMAZING run. I ran 4 or so km and then Jupey came out on the bike and found me and rode with me for the rest of it. At the 4km mark I was averaging 4:30/km and feeling pretty good. Having Tunes there made me wanna show off a little to her so I started to pick up the pace a little bit, not really paying attention to the numbers, just running at or near the threshold of what is a comfortable pace, the fastest I felt I could hold "comfortably". That was pretty fast! It felt great the whole way and before I knew it I was at 14km, with an avg pace of 4:10/km! That's my pace for my record half marathon! Cool! 2 more km and I was home, with an overall avg pace of 4:09/km, running the last 10k in a little over 40 minutes!

The rest of the day we just hung out as it was raining a ton out. We did go out for a little bit to Aldi, Wooly's and a nut and bean (bulk barn-ish) place.

Today Julia works and I gotta put in 28k and then do some prep for school. :)

2 Weeks today!

Big Week! Where do I start?!

This was a big week, lots goin' on and it literally FLEW by. I want to make sure I at least mention everything significant that happened, in about 10 minutes because I have to leave for Prac at 8 and it's 7:40. :)

Prac: Lots of teaching! I've done a ton of teaching this week and it's great, I'm trying new strategies, some work, some don't but I'm learning right? :) I've introduced the project of doing a slowmation (like we had to make in our sci-tech KLA at Uni). This should be interesting as it's a whole unit, by me. I introduced them to the concept and had them search some on the website and then take down a little info about them and then I put them in groups. Wednesday we worked on the planning process for nearly 2 hours! They got a ton done and I was impressed with what they had accomplished. Michelle (prac supervisor) has been sick for the past couple of days and there have been some casuals on her class, but I know the routine and such more than they do so I've been taking a lot of responsibility in terms of what happens throughout the day, which is pretty cool. Today is the same story, she's off and I will be teaching pretty much the whole morning block, maths and then more work on the slowmation.

Training: this week has been awesome! After the Sunday run I took Monday off. Normally I don't take days off (I'll bike on mondays instead of rest) but figured it would be a good idea. Then Tuesday I didn't run in the morning because it was pouring rain. I did 90 minutes on the trainer in the basement, good workout. Wednesday I got out early and did 16km in about 1:10 which was great, light sprinkle, but nothing serious. Yesterday I did another 18km in the morning. Got out at about 6:00Am and it was raingin lightly, about 3k in it started to POUR and I started heading home but was about 2k out. Luckily the rain completely let up after a good 6 minutes of dumping and I was able to get in my 18k in another good time of 1:20. I'm feeling fit! Today it was raining again this morning and I'm feeling a LITTLE cold coming on so I didn't go out for a run, instead I had a STELLAR bike ride in the basement. MAJOR INTENSITY! Felt awesome.

TUNA'S BIRTHDAY!
So it's my lil Tuna's birthday on Saturday, she'll be 23! We're pretty poor and decided not to get presents, as anything we NEED we'll get anyways. Instead I decided to cook her a delectable meal, inspired by our favourite Aussie TV show: MasterChef Australia. This will certainly be one of our big memories of Australia. It's a reality show, now we're down to the top 7. :) Anyways, I made her a Pumpkin Risotto with pine nuts and spinach <---- DELICIOUS! And for desert I made a sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce and an almond praline. the praline didn't quite turn out simply because I didn't have any wax paper, so the shape of it was all messed up, but it was delicious nonetheless! And the rest of it (despite no chocolate) SHE LOVED! There's a bit left over for her for today or tomorrow. I'm really glad it all turned out and she really loved the food so I'm ecstatic. Don't worry, she'll get chocolate.... on Saturday. :)

That's it! it's 7:53! gotta run! :)

CRAP! I had a job interview at Rebel! Group thing, kinda weird, but I got a call back for a face to face interview with 2 of the managers! It'll be around July 8th or so. :)

RECORD!

Wow! Today was meant to be a long run, somewhere in the 34 - 36k range. I was hoping o just go well and not have any issues as I did on last Sunday's long run. I had a great week of running leading up to today so I was excited to go well.

I got out at 7:30AM (race start time) and started my usual (as of late) route around town for about 8k before heading to the water. I got down to the water and ran around south beach for a bit, took a leak at La Vendi (cafe near the harbour) and then headed South along the paths for about 3 - 4km, turned around and came back. I passed by the harbour again at around the 20k marker, feeling great. I figured I'd head straight out, seeing how I felt, but do some extra running in the neighbourhoods in Fairy Meadow and Towradgi so I didn't go out TOO far in case something turned bad. By the time I got to Towradgi I was still feeling good and ran around that neighbourhood, checked my garmin and I was at 32k by the time I was ready to leave and head back. I was about 6.5 - 8.5k from home, depending on the roue I took back. More importantly, I was 10k from running a full marathon in training, and seeing what I was capable of when not even really "racing". I got back to the harbour at Wollongong around 35k, meaning I was now 7k from the marathon distance. I ran down to South beach and around WIN stadium and back up one of my favourite stretches of path, along the ocean, coming up towards the light tower. I knew it was going to happen and started to get excited. I was on pace to beat my marathon PB of 3:23. I could do the last 4k in 20 minutes and hit ~3:19 - 3:20. I didn't hold back though, I felt "good" and wanted to give myself the confidence that I can finish strong so I tried to keep the pace up (4:15 - 4:20/km) and just empty out the tank. I finished 42.2km in 3:14:38! Wicked! A marathon PB of like 8 minutes! and only 4 minutes of BQ time! (they give you to 3:10:59) My confidence for the Gold Coast Marathon is now sky high and I'm excited to get out there and race well. with our money situation, it very well may be my only race of the year, so I'm treating it as such.

Speaking of the money situ, it's gettin' bleaker and bleaker. We're barely scrapin' by here, wonderin' how we're gona cover everything and HOPING that we'll both find new jobs ASAP. It's hard for me right now because I'm in prac which takes most of my days Mon - Fri, and when retail closes at like 5ish most days during the week, the only week day I could work is Thursday eening, that's not great availability. On top of that, people are paid based on age here, and you get time and a half on Sat and double time on Sunday, so most businesses would rather save the $$$ and pay a 15 year old to work the weekend shifts. Anyways, no excuses. I'm still applying wherever I can think of, but not getting much back. I'll hafta really give 'er hell after we get back in July and see what I can scrape up. Believe me, I ain't picky at this point! I can't wait to get home and read this and laugh my ass off at myself. Either way this is a great learning experience. Julia too will have to find something SUPER fast when we get back because she can't work much longer at the Buffet place. As much as she hates the place, I think I'm gonna try and go in and see if I can get a job to replace her when she's done there. It's at least something, and I can always look for something else.

Tomorrow we go to the science centre on a field trip! It shold be interesting to see the dynamics of a field trip with a bunch of 7 - 9 year olds. I'll then show them some clips of slowmations and introduce the idea of doing one of these as a project, with the solar system theme. I'm excited!

Catch-Up

What a whirl wind (is that the saying, oh well, doesn't matter really). I HAVE HAD A JAM PACKED WEEK! This was my first week back to prac. We're back at the same school and same class. I'm loving it again, as usual. Today we had sport at another school and I was off to Figtree with our 3 - 6 boys to play some touch footy. (rugby) That took us up to lunch-time. Then after lunch we worked on some maths groups and then had assembly in the last hour of the day. Overall it was a fun day with the kids.

Jared and I were successful in our consecutive early morning wake-up calls (4:30AM for alllll prac). I got in 3 runs on the 4 mornings and the other day I did about 450 push-ups in the morning. I LOVE going out when it's dark and coming back when it's bright. I've seen my first three sunrises in Wollongong and it's been amazing. There's tons of folks out training at like 6AM in the dark as well. Lots of folks walking, riding, running, groups doing yoga and other group training stuff down by the beach. Wow, this is a DREAM. Really. I will never forget these runs for the rest of my life, GUARANTEEEED. Today I ran 18.35km on 4:38/km pace and it felt easy peasy. This weekend will be a "cautious" test of my overall fitness leading up to the GCM. Three weeks to go! This is getting intense now. Oh ya, this morning I ran through town and found this big park with three fields (2 rugby, one soccer) and just ran laps around them and back a forth for about fifteen minutes, in the dark. So cool. I'm addicted to it now, this super early morning thing, getting out before sunrise, so amazing.

We're now planning our Gold Coast trip. $49 airfare each way and then $30 each per night for hostel and then probably like $100 for a hotel for one night. Leaving on Canada day, coming back the 7th or 8th. LOVELY!

I couldn't be more excited with everything at the moment. Not to mention we're going to do TWO experiments/assignments that I want to do with the kids. One is a slowmation, like I did for class (which we'll start next week) and one is the homemade ice cream thing (that we did ourselves in tutorial one day). I'm super excited for those!!! :)

Three Days of BLISS!

The Sunday run went "interesting". I felt good, real good for the first 12 - 13km, as I was forcing myself to go at a pace of no faster than 5:00/km, which is what I SHOULD be doing for my long runs, given my time goal for the marathon. Legs felt great throughout the entire run, but my stomach went bad after about 15k and that was hell for a long while. The run was supposed to be only 34km, but for some reason I just kept on going out further and further, feeling terrible (sometimes good though) and knowing that it would end up being around 40k if I turned around at a certain point. So I turned around and started heading back at about 27km, which woulda had me getting home with a total run of somehwere between 40 - 41km, and I probably would have mashed out another kilometre or two just to kill a marathon in training. We planned for Julia to come out and meet me on the bike to see how I was doing, so I started just thinking about that to get me through the stomach issues. Finally I saw her around the 31km mark and i was feeling terrible. I managed to get anohter 3.5km in and had to stop running for a bit. But I couldn't get it going again and ended up taking the bike from her 6km from and biking home, while she walked the rest. She didn't mind because she had her camera and was taking all sorts of pictures. I got home, ate a bunch of food and my stomach came around. For having run almost 35k my legs felt amazing, so when my stomach felt 100% again the three of us went out to tackle Mt. Keira. THAT was another 3.5 hour trek (40 mins each way walk to the base). LOTS of climbing, it's about 1500 feet of climbing throughwoods, along paths. That was another big challenge of the day, but we got some amazing views from up there. Real beautiful.

Today is the first day of a 3 week challenge for Jared and I to get up at 4:30AM every morning to train before we go to prac. He goes to the gym at school and then over to his school, and I run outside and then head over to my school, after breakfast and a shower of course. :) We're both pretty pumped up about this, as it gets the training out of the way first thing in the morning and we don't have to worry about fitting it in later on in the day after school, and I can always throw in an hour bike ride here or there if I have the time. I've also started a push-up challenge during prac as well, "push-ups for prac". Keeping with my Boston Qualifying theme, I'm doing 310 every day for 18 days. Today it took me 28:56. I do a set, then do some homework, then do a set, then do some homework etc etc.

First day of prac went really well, right back into the swing of things! Seems like I coulda been there this whole time, didn't miss a beat. I'm doing a modelled reading lesson tomorrow! I'll be reading the kids the Big Book "Sea Stars" as they are doing a unit on space, and my teacher seems to think it's somehow related. And then we'll discuss what an information report it and how it is structured. I love it! :) The days at prac just fly by, 2 hours in the morning, then it's lunch, then about an hour and a half and then it's recess, then one hour and we're gonezo!

BAD news is, Julia only got TWO shifts (about 7 hours) at the buffet this week. For some reason her hours are getting cut back too, but she's at least still working some hours at the café as well. I've got to get some more applications going myself. We've prety much called off most of our 3 week break trip 'cause we just can't make it happen, gotta pay rent and bills first. We're still doing the marathon thing in Gold Coast, but not gonna go to Cairns or anywhere else. We're still living the adventure being here period so we don't mind, and if we can make it happen later in December then we will, but just gotta be smart at this point in time.

Did I mention how nice it is to have NO roommates for at least 2 weeks! :) So peaceful up in here!

Love everyone!

The Long Haul...

Today's the day, and it almost feels like race day. Today is Sunday which means long run day, and I'm finally 100% with 5 consistent runs this week, so I'm pumped to get out there and go crazy. Well not go crazy, crazy, I've still got to take it 'easy' in terms of pace and be smart, but I'm excited to run far today. The goal I think is going to be in the range of 34 - 36km. I'm going to start by going up to the Harbour (1.2km) and then going South for about 5ish km and then turning around and coming BACK by the harbour and out North. I'll do the math as I pass the harbour to see how far North I have to go to get in that 34 -36km range. I'm also excited because about 1.5 hours after I leave, Julia will be leaving as well on the mountain bike to meet up with me and see how I'm doing. So if I see her a couple hours after I start it'll feel great! And she's going to bring the camera to take some pictures of our lovely run route here, it's truly amazing scenery we're spoiled with, and we obviously want to share it with everyone! She's also going to bring me my second bottle of Gatorade and trade with me. :)

The run itself is really important for the upcoming marathon. It's one of my last chances to test myself and see how I'm doing in terms of endurance, as I'll have to start backing right off in a couple weeks to taper for the race. We're 4 weeks away today.

3:10 3:10 3:10 3:10 3:10 3:10 3:10 3:10 3:10!!!!!

Yesterday we had the pleasure of skyping our WHOLE family at once! That was amazing! We literally saw EVERYONE. ALL 10! It was cool to see them all together back home while the REASON they are all together is 1000s of miles away! :) I hope everyone enjoyed their dinner and Tim Tams. :)

OK that's it for now, gotta start gettin' ready for this run! :) Maybe another post AFTER the run for a run report. :)

More than half way...

We're 5 months done in a 12 month journey, but I'd say I'm more than halfway, or just about halfway to the big prize of completing my education.

Today I have to go drop off a couple of assignments at school and that will signify the end of my first term of uni classes! Next week (Tuesday, as Monday is a public holiday here) I go back for 3 more weeks of prac! Back to the same school and same class as before. I'm REALLY looking forward to it. So it would seem that halfway might be in a couple of weeks because I still have another term of classes and another 5 week prac later in October/November. BUT, the way I see it, next term will be so easy that in terms of workload I'm past halfway NOW. :) Next term instead of English, Science and Numeracy KLAs we have Mathematics (still kinda like numberacy), Creative arts (joke) and HSIE (Human Society and the Environment). Then we have three other core courses instead of 4, and ONE of them is PDHPE (basically gym and health!)

So next term should be FUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

Training is going well, getting fitter and fitter, and loving the high volume. I had an amazing 18k run yesterday morning.

***************The coffee is working, maybe I'll make two posts today? :)