I had an awesome week of prac! This week my theme was the winter Olympics. We had an opening ceremony, lessons on hockey, bobsled, skiing/snowboarding, mascots, paralympics and medals. They all went pretty well (expectations can't be terribly high).
I also planned and implemented a week of reading groups and a few maths lessons. Did more teaching than my prac teachers! (Jenni and Tracey)
I also managed 7.5 hours of training (hopefully more this week). Did 1 hour of cycling on Monday and increased that by 15 minutes each morning til I was at 2 hours by Friday morning.
Yesterday was Halloween. There was a party at a "Canadian" house but I'm happy to say that Jared, Julia and I WEREN'T there. :) Not a fan of most of these Canadians that are here, they're friggin' weiners and it's scary that some of 'em are going to be teachers. Not people I want to socialize with. We had a great day though yesterday nonetheless.
I did 3 hours of cycling immediately followed by a 30 minute run. Ate and then Jared came over and we went out to the beach for 2:30 - 4. Crashed some MAJOR huge waves which was a blast then just chilled out on the beach tannin' up. Nice and relaxing! The awesome weather is finally back. After that we came home, met up with Tune and the three of us left here at about 5ish, walked down to Jared's to pick up a couple DVDs and then walked around North beach and the Harbour for a bit and then eventually up to a Pizza place called "Crust". They have UNBELIEVABLE pizzas. We each had a medium (kinda like a small back home). Mine had lamb, bocconcini cheese, veggies etc... awesome. We took them back down to South beach and ate 'em down there as it got dark. We finally got back home at about 8:15PM and just chilled out and watched a couple of SNL DVDs that Jerry picked up for $5 each at the Reject Shop. I started passing out at about 9:30 and was out by 10PM. Slept in til 5:30AM and looking forward to a similar day today! Except less outside stuff unfortunately, as I have a tono f planning to do for this week, otherwise I'll be killing myself every night after school. I'm going to go for a 2.5 horu run this morning and an hour on the bike, then maybe hit the beach til early/mid afternoon but then it's pure planning stuff for the rest of the day. This week's theme is famous Canadians. :) I think tomorrow I'll do a lesson on theinteractive whiteboard, introducing Ray and showing some videos of him.
OK, gotta get this party started! Summer is here! It's 6:30AM and SUUUUUUNNNNNNYYYYY!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Krazy Kinders in Kanada
That's a pretty neat title isn't it?
I had one HECK of a week of prac! It went by SO fast and I had a blast with the kids. Lots of planning and lots of work but I made it to the weekend and have a chance to catch my breath. I'm planning ahead big time for this upcoming week. Most of the planning I do is centred around my own themed unit. We're doing a unit on Canada. So basically, during these 5 weeks, we'll be learning all about Canada and doing a ton pof activities related to that topic (as well as a Sea Creature theme ran by my supervising teachers). Last week I did the intro where I gave them airplane tickets and we boarded our plane and flew to Canada (watched a couple of videos on Canada, and discussed the whole idea of our Canadian Travels.) Then I gave them a "My Canada Scrapbook" which we will fill up throughout the unit with activities they do. So far we've listed some animals and drawn our favourite, and wrote the title "Winnie the Pooh" and drew him. THIS WEEK IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!!!!!!!
My them for this week is the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. I've planned 7 lessons that we'll do throughout the week and it's going to be SO MUCH FUN!
Lesson 1:
intro, so them the website on the interactive whiteboard (awesome technology) and then have a mock opening ceremony where they will "march" back to class, each representing a country as if they were walking into the stadium! Hahahaha, that's gonna be AWESOME!
Lesson2:
entry in scrapbook "Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics", draw rings and design their own mascot. We will have looked at the mascots in the lesson 1, which is on the same day.
Lesson 3:
hockey! All about it, at the olympics, watch a couple short videos and then they can play it on the computer, found a free online game.
Lesson 4:
Paralympics. Explore the sports of the paralympics and discuss different types of disabilities etc.
Maybe go outside and have them blindfolded and leading each other.
Lesson 5: Bobsleigh. Watch a couple vids from cool runnings (funny), discuss and then have them line up as if they were in a bobsled and show a virtual ride video I found on youtube. should be funny.
Lesson 6:
Speed skating, skiing, snowboarding.
Not completely finished yet, but they have a famous Aussie athlete who won gold in 2002 (total fluke but whatever) so I'll show that youtube video.
Lesson 7:
Discuss medals and placing and such. Crative arts activity where they design and create their own medal. gonna get some white ribbon and make a little cardboard medal that they can decorate. THEN I will have a mock podium set up and I'll have them stand on the number one spot, wear a laurel wreath and i'll take their photo. Medals will go on the "Canada wall" and photos will be developed and they can pasted them in their books on Monday. How funny will that be?!?!?!
Anyways, so that's my week of Canada stuff. On top of that I need to plan a series of lessons/activities with the letters CEO (I chose that group because "Hockey" Vancouver" "Olympics") and a group of words and such. SHOULD BE SOOOOOO MUCH FUUUUUUN!!! And maths is on Mass. I made a work sheet already for one station. They'll be estimating what's heavier by hefting. I'm using my IMC medal, canada pencil, canada patch, glue stick, calculator and stapeler. gotta do a few more of those for the week. I also got my hands on a copy of that popular Canadian book "The Hockey Sweater"... remember that one? Really old, the one about the kid who's a Canadiens fan but his jersey is all ratty so he gets a new one as a gift but it's a Leafs one... yadda yadda yadda... that should be good. haha
Week 4 we're going to the Sydney aquarium! Wednesday the 11th of November. That'll be a blast!
This weekend i did 3 hours of cycling Sat and Sun! Woo WOOOOOOO!!! The legs are WRECKED! But I feel goooooood!
All this planning is so that I'm not doing it every day after school. I want to get as much done and organized during the week so the weekdays I can get to bed early, and up early to train! This week and next are two important weeks for IM training. 6 weeks left!
Jubes is workin' her little bee-hind off of course. Napping as we speak before she goes in to work at the buffet.
Gotta go to Bunnings now to looks for some resources. :)
I had one HECK of a week of prac! It went by SO fast and I had a blast with the kids. Lots of planning and lots of work but I made it to the weekend and have a chance to catch my breath. I'm planning ahead big time for this upcoming week. Most of the planning I do is centred around my own themed unit. We're doing a unit on Canada. So basically, during these 5 weeks, we'll be learning all about Canada and doing a ton pof activities related to that topic (as well as a Sea Creature theme ran by my supervising teachers). Last week I did the intro where I gave them airplane tickets and we boarded our plane and flew to Canada (watched a couple of videos on Canada, and discussed the whole idea of our Canadian Travels.) Then I gave them a "My Canada Scrapbook" which we will fill up throughout the unit with activities they do. So far we've listed some animals and drawn our favourite, and wrote the title "Winnie the Pooh" and drew him. THIS WEEK IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!!!!!!!
My them for this week is the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. I've planned 7 lessons that we'll do throughout the week and it's going to be SO MUCH FUN!
Lesson 1:
intro, so them the website on the interactive whiteboard (awesome technology) and then have a mock opening ceremony where they will "march" back to class, each representing a country as if they were walking into the stadium! Hahahaha, that's gonna be AWESOME!
Lesson2:
entry in scrapbook "Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics", draw rings and design their own mascot. We will have looked at the mascots in the lesson 1, which is on the same day.
Lesson 3:
hockey! All about it, at the olympics, watch a couple short videos and then they can play it on the computer, found a free online game.
Lesson 4:
Paralympics. Explore the sports of the paralympics and discuss different types of disabilities etc.
Maybe go outside and have them blindfolded and leading each other.
Lesson 5: Bobsleigh. Watch a couple vids from cool runnings (funny), discuss and then have them line up as if they were in a bobsled and show a virtual ride video I found on youtube. should be funny.
Lesson 6:
Speed skating, skiing, snowboarding.
Not completely finished yet, but they have a famous Aussie athlete who won gold in 2002 (total fluke but whatever) so I'll show that youtube video.
Lesson 7:
Discuss medals and placing and such. Crative arts activity where they design and create their own medal. gonna get some white ribbon and make a little cardboard medal that they can decorate. THEN I will have a mock podium set up and I'll have them stand on the number one spot, wear a laurel wreath and i'll take their photo. Medals will go on the "Canada wall" and photos will be developed and they can pasted them in their books on Monday. How funny will that be?!?!?!
Anyways, so that's my week of Canada stuff. On top of that I need to plan a series of lessons/activities with the letters CEO (I chose that group because "Hockey" Vancouver" "Olympics") and a group of words and such. SHOULD BE SOOOOOO MUCH FUUUUUUN!!! And maths is on Mass. I made a work sheet already for one station. They'll be estimating what's heavier by hefting. I'm using my IMC medal, canada pencil, canada patch, glue stick, calculator and stapeler. gotta do a few more of those for the week. I also got my hands on a copy of that popular Canadian book "The Hockey Sweater"... remember that one? Really old, the one about the kid who's a Canadiens fan but his jersey is all ratty so he gets a new one as a gift but it's a Leafs one... yadda yadda yadda... that should be good. haha
Week 4 we're going to the Sydney aquarium! Wednesday the 11th of November. That'll be a blast!
This weekend i did 3 hours of cycling Sat and Sun! Woo WOOOOOOO!!! The legs are WRECKED! But I feel goooooood!
All this planning is so that I'm not doing it every day after school. I want to get as much done and organized during the week so the weekdays I can get to bed early, and up early to train! This week and next are two important weeks for IM training. 6 weeks left!
Jubes is workin' her little bee-hind off of course. Napping as we speak before she goes in to work at the buffet.
Gotta go to Bunnings now to looks for some resources. :)
Monday, October 19, 2009
Shortest yet i bet
Yesterday was utter chaos! First day of prac. So much going on my head is still spinning this morning!
Today, day 2, I'm teaching 3 x 45 minute lessons. 2 of my Canada unit and one maths one. I spent the better part of 6 hours yesterday AFTER school preparing, as well as this morning (with some help from the Tuna).
We'll see how she goes!
Today, day 2, I'm teaching 3 x 45 minute lessons. 2 of my Canada unit and one maths one. I spent the better part of 6 hours yesterday AFTER school preparing, as well as this morning (with some help from the Tuna).
We'll see how she goes!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
A Mohawk, a Moustache and a lot 'o fun!
I have a feeling this one’s gonna be long, but it’s 6:30PM now and I start prac tomorrow morning.
As my taper week drew longer I started to get all the usual self-doubt and nervousness that goes along with tapering. Then I went to pick up our car on Saturday morning and the one they showed me had a brutally small trunk. 4 people and a bike are travelling to Canberra and you give me THIS?! It all worked out though, I just had to take off both wheels and the seat. I should mention that Friday evening the Mohawk was carved, and the following morning Jared carved himself one fine moustache, and the theme for the weekend was created, M&M. Anyways, we got to Canberra with no dramas this time! Straight up 3 hours with like 4 pee breaks and 1 stop for directions (but we WERE on the right track anyhow). We got into Canberra and went straight down to the race site so I could check in and get my bib number and cap (had to do that between 12 and 2). Then we went back to the hotel for just after noon but we couldn’t check in til after two so we went to the Australian War Memorial (museum). Real cool stuff actually, lots of real artifacts (no shit) and we saw some soldiers’ journals from I believe December 14th, 1914, during WWI. Crazy, not unlike grampa’s. After the museum we headed straight over the Australian Institute of Sport for a guided tour (by a paralympic swimmer) of the facilities. That was pretty awesome too to see where all these elite athletes train. Wouldn’t that be the life, genetics are a bitch. J So anyways, completely random but when the guy was asking where everyone was from a couple of other girls in our little group (like 15 of us total) were from Ottawa! Nuts, didn’t get their full story though. Oh well. After the museum we headed back and checked in, pounded some pasta and then went out for groceries, drove up to some lookout, that sucked ass, and they wanted to charge you for the good views. After that we drove the bike course real quick to give me an idea of what it was all about (2 x 40k loop, so we only had to drive 40k to know it). Got back to the hotel, ate a little more and watched some home alone 2 and retired for the evening. Out like a light around 9PM. Up to take a pee at 2:45AM and couldn’t get back to bed, crazy race thoughts going through my head. I laid there til 4AM when my alarm went off and got up to do all the normal race morning pizzazz. The morning was pretty uneventful and we got out only 5 minutes late! Well done Lee and Julia!! J
Got to race site at 7AM and got all my stuff into transition and set up. Went out for a quick ride on the bike, and a quick jaunt in the runners. All is good. Got the wetsuit on and headed down to the terribly cold water to figure out this poorly marked 2.2K course. Got a half decent idea of the route and figured I could follow some other people as well. I know some people switched to the duathlon (we had the option because of the water temperature being so cold) but our group wasn’t too too big, but hopefully I could find some mediocre swimmers to follow. J Well we got to goin’ and soon enough the fast guys were just GONE. I followed their splash and the yellow buoy way off in the distance as best I could for as long as possible. Finally I noticed a couple more guys around and we pretty much worked the rest of the course together (turns out there were 4 of us total, one just hung at the back the whole time). Out of the water in under 41 minutes! Wicked! This is s low budget race so they just have the dudes with stopwatches and look at your bib number, and he was sitting halfway up the shoot to transition. I was on my bike and on the road by 43:xx. AWESOME! My goal was 45 minutes to on bike time. The guy who was racked right beside me was in my group and we had a quick chat about cold water, numb feet and arm warmers, wished each other good luck and ran out of transition together to each start our 80K ride. Well he went off ahead and I just sorta kept him in my sight. Eventually I got into a rhythm, despite freezing cold muscles, and started picking up my speed and caught up to him and passed him, he said something to me (not sure what) but I just kept on goin’. After about another 5K on an uphill he went by again, but not with much conviction, so I knew I could keep him in my sights for a while and pace off him. Long story short we did this together for 80K of riding. Couldn’t have asked for a better situation, but I GUARANTEE you there was no drafting on either of our behalfs so don’t even go there! I heard his wife tell him he was 15th out of the swim, so I was 16th. Anyways, on the course there’s this sick downhill (a nice longy) where I hit 60K!/hr! And then you have to hit the breaks towards the bottom of it because you go kinda sharp right, cross a bridge and climb a Muskoka-esque hill. Not too bad, but gets ya outta the saddle for a few mins of grindin’. Got up that and there’s a few more rollers on the way out. The rest of the ride is just ROLLIN’ ROLLIN’ ROLLIN’. I definitely underestimated it, thought it was a lot flatter than that, but it was still achievable. It was a mixed bag of country road, city road, city highway and nice parkway, over brides, under bridges, shitty pavement that makes your whole core rattle and pavement as smooth as a baby’s bottom. Long story short (well it wasn’t really short by any means) we moved up to 7th and 8th overall!
It was great to see Tunes, Jerry and Bingy again! A nice little pick me up before 20k of running. The first few k were dedicated to getting into a rhythm and finding the running legs, or something that resemble them. My swimming/riding buddy went out pretty fast and I figured he was just a really good runner so I let him go and before I knew it he had about 200m on me. After a while though he wasn’t getting a bigger lead, we were pretty much just goin’ the same pace. Soon I was AROUND 4:30s and just got in a groove. Caught him after the first lap (10k) and we ran the second lap shoulder to should ALMOST in complete silence, Mark Allen and Dave Scott (sorry to say I was the Mark Allen of the early years). Incredible feeling to just run literally shoulder to shoulder the whole way (almost) for the second lap. We got passed by two people (I think, results aren’t up yet) on the run, but then there was NOONE for a long time after us, and we just pushed each other. I think we just paced each other and kept each other honest the whole way. I felt terrible a couple times and just keeping him on my right shoulder kept me goin’. At 15k I was almost ready to let him go, but just shut my brain up and kept goin’ with him for as long as possible. On a short in and out I saw a guy who was about 350m behind us (that was around 17k). We continued on and at about the 18k mark I just said “I can’t hang with you man, I gotta let ya go”. Bad idea? Maybe in retrospect, but I was feeling kinda terrible and couldn’t hold his pace, and didn’t wanna blow up and lost to him AND have the guy catch me from behind in the last couple k. I let him get away and slowed down a wee bit and just kept checking behind for the next guy. My buddy went out about 30m ahead but again, at 19k I felt good for a second so just “hammered” and slowly reeled him back. As we approached the finishing shoot he had about 10m on me, turned right into the chute and looked back at me sprinting at him and he sprinted down the chute and beat me by about a second! Unbelievable experience to have swam, biked and literally ran the race with him. Again, it was great to see the three amigos at the finish! They were proud of me! Hahaha.... had some water and banana and orange and watermelon. I was 3rd in the 20-29AG! Dunno how many were even in my group, could’ve been 3, but the winner of the race was 20-29 so there were some fasties in my group for sure. It was pretty neat to get a trophy!
After a few minutes I grabbed my stuff from transition, we packed up the car, I changed real quick and then we were on the road, homebound.
I must say the entire weekend was just awesome. Great friends and my best friend in the whole world were there to support me and just have a good time. Can’t thank Jared, Lee and Tunes enough for their support this weekend. Have to thank Michelle Majovsky who always supports me too in these sort of things and have to admit that i thought of her a couple of times out on the run when it was tough, didn’t wanna disappoint her! Thought of mom and dad a lot too, who are probably my biggest supporters apart from of Julia. Definitely gotta give a big shout out to Marco also who was the inspiration for both the Mohawk as well as the overall mental attitude for the weekend. The man sets the bar pretty damn high and I look forward to getting my ass smashed all over Muskoka and Peterborough next year!
As my taper week drew longer I started to get all the usual self-doubt and nervousness that goes along with tapering. Then I went to pick up our car on Saturday morning and the one they showed me had a brutally small trunk. 4 people and a bike are travelling to Canberra and you give me THIS?! It all worked out though, I just had to take off both wheels and the seat. I should mention that Friday evening the Mohawk was carved, and the following morning Jared carved himself one fine moustache, and the theme for the weekend was created, M&M. Anyways, we got to Canberra with no dramas this time! Straight up 3 hours with like 4 pee breaks and 1 stop for directions (but we WERE on the right track anyhow). We got into Canberra and went straight down to the race site so I could check in and get my bib number and cap (had to do that between 12 and 2). Then we went back to the hotel for just after noon but we couldn’t check in til after two so we went to the Australian War Memorial (museum). Real cool stuff actually, lots of real artifacts (no shit) and we saw some soldiers’ journals from I believe December 14th, 1914, during WWI. Crazy, not unlike grampa’s. After the museum we headed straight over the Australian Institute of Sport for a guided tour (by a paralympic swimmer) of the facilities. That was pretty awesome too to see where all these elite athletes train. Wouldn’t that be the life, genetics are a bitch. J So anyways, completely random but when the guy was asking where everyone was from a couple of other girls in our little group (like 15 of us total) were from Ottawa! Nuts, didn’t get their full story though. Oh well. After the museum we headed back and checked in, pounded some pasta and then went out for groceries, drove up to some lookout, that sucked ass, and they wanted to charge you for the good views. After that we drove the bike course real quick to give me an idea of what it was all about (2 x 40k loop, so we only had to drive 40k to know it). Got back to the hotel, ate a little more and watched some home alone 2 and retired for the evening. Out like a light around 9PM. Up to take a pee at 2:45AM and couldn’t get back to bed, crazy race thoughts going through my head. I laid there til 4AM when my alarm went off and got up to do all the normal race morning pizzazz. The morning was pretty uneventful and we got out only 5 minutes late! Well done Lee and Julia!! J
Got to race site at 7AM and got all my stuff into transition and set up. Went out for a quick ride on the bike, and a quick jaunt in the runners. All is good. Got the wetsuit on and headed down to the terribly cold water to figure out this poorly marked 2.2K course. Got a half decent idea of the route and figured I could follow some other people as well. I know some people switched to the duathlon (we had the option because of the water temperature being so cold) but our group wasn’t too too big, but hopefully I could find some mediocre swimmers to follow. J Well we got to goin’ and soon enough the fast guys were just GONE. I followed their splash and the yellow buoy way off in the distance as best I could for as long as possible. Finally I noticed a couple more guys around and we pretty much worked the rest of the course together (turns out there were 4 of us total, one just hung at the back the whole time). Out of the water in under 41 minutes! Wicked! This is s low budget race so they just have the dudes with stopwatches and look at your bib number, and he was sitting halfway up the shoot to transition. I was on my bike and on the road by 43:xx. AWESOME! My goal was 45 minutes to on bike time. The guy who was racked right beside me was in my group and we had a quick chat about cold water, numb feet and arm warmers, wished each other good luck and ran out of transition together to each start our 80K ride. Well he went off ahead and I just sorta kept him in my sight. Eventually I got into a rhythm, despite freezing cold muscles, and started picking up my speed and caught up to him and passed him, he said something to me (not sure what) but I just kept on goin’. After about another 5K on an uphill he went by again, but not with much conviction, so I knew I could keep him in my sights for a while and pace off him. Long story short we did this together for 80K of riding. Couldn’t have asked for a better situation, but I GUARANTEE you there was no drafting on either of our behalfs so don’t even go there! I heard his wife tell him he was 15th out of the swim, so I was 16th. Anyways, on the course there’s this sick downhill (a nice longy) where I hit 60K!/hr! And then you have to hit the breaks towards the bottom of it because you go kinda sharp right, cross a bridge and climb a Muskoka-esque hill. Not too bad, but gets ya outta the saddle for a few mins of grindin’. Got up that and there’s a few more rollers on the way out. The rest of the ride is just ROLLIN’ ROLLIN’ ROLLIN’. I definitely underestimated it, thought it was a lot flatter than that, but it was still achievable. It was a mixed bag of country road, city road, city highway and nice parkway, over brides, under bridges, shitty pavement that makes your whole core rattle and pavement as smooth as a baby’s bottom. Long story short (well it wasn’t really short by any means) we moved up to 7th and 8th overall!
It was great to see Tunes, Jerry and Bingy again! A nice little pick me up before 20k of running. The first few k were dedicated to getting into a rhythm and finding the running legs, or something that resemble them. My swimming/riding buddy went out pretty fast and I figured he was just a really good runner so I let him go and before I knew it he had about 200m on me. After a while though he wasn’t getting a bigger lead, we were pretty much just goin’ the same pace. Soon I was AROUND 4:30s and just got in a groove. Caught him after the first lap (10k) and we ran the second lap shoulder to should ALMOST in complete silence, Mark Allen and Dave Scott (sorry to say I was the Mark Allen of the early years). Incredible feeling to just run literally shoulder to shoulder the whole way (almost) for the second lap. We got passed by two people (I think, results aren’t up yet) on the run, but then there was NOONE for a long time after us, and we just pushed each other. I think we just paced each other and kept each other honest the whole way. I felt terrible a couple times and just keeping him on my right shoulder kept me goin’. At 15k I was almost ready to let him go, but just shut my brain up and kept goin’ with him for as long as possible. On a short in and out I saw a guy who was about 350m behind us (that was around 17k). We continued on and at about the 18k mark I just said “I can’t hang with you man, I gotta let ya go”. Bad idea? Maybe in retrospect, but I was feeling kinda terrible and couldn’t hold his pace, and didn’t wanna blow up and lost to him AND have the guy catch me from behind in the last couple k. I let him get away and slowed down a wee bit and just kept checking behind for the next guy. My buddy went out about 30m ahead but again, at 19k I felt good for a second so just “hammered” and slowly reeled him back. As we approached the finishing shoot he had about 10m on me, turned right into the chute and looked back at me sprinting at him and he sprinted down the chute and beat me by about a second! Unbelievable experience to have swam, biked and literally ran the race with him. Again, it was great to see the three amigos at the finish! They were proud of me! Hahaha.... had some water and banana and orange and watermelon. I was 3rd in the 20-29AG! Dunno how many were even in my group, could’ve been 3, but the winner of the race was 20-29 so there were some fasties in my group for sure. It was pretty neat to get a trophy!
After a few minutes I grabbed my stuff from transition, we packed up the car, I changed real quick and then we were on the road, homebound.
I must say the entire weekend was just awesome. Great friends and my best friend in the whole world were there to support me and just have a good time. Can’t thank Jared, Lee and Tunes enough for their support this weekend. Have to thank Michelle Majovsky who always supports me too in these sort of things and have to admit that i thought of her a couple of times out on the run when it was tough, didn’t wanna disappoint her! Thought of mom and dad a lot too, who are probably my biggest supporters apart from of Julia. Definitely gotta give a big shout out to Marco also who was the inspiration for both the Mohawk as well as the overall mental attitude for the weekend. The man sets the bar pretty damn high and I look forward to getting my ass smashed all over Muskoka and Peterborough next year!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
3 Days to go
Til race day! They're gonna check the water temp tomorrow and make a final decision about the swim. If it's ~15C the swim will probably proceed, but if they feel it poses a serious health risk to participants then they'll change it to a duathlon and replace my swim with a 5k run before the bike. I'd prefer to swim I think. I wanna race a tri. This morning I went down to that pool at the harbour that you can see when you see the famous Wollongong photo and swam, it ocean water, salty and chilly, but i was wearing my wtsuit so it wasn't half bad. We'll see what they do, either way I can't wait to let 'er rip!
Tomorrow morning I have my last test in this program. Last day at uni. wow. Then we leave Saturday morning and we'll be back and I'll be in prac before I know it! Then 5 short weeks and I'll be a teacher! I'm excited for prac but realize it'll be a lot of work. I really wanna try some different things with the kids and come up with some good ideas.
It's Thursday evening now. Gonna do a little more studying this evening and start preparing for tomorrow and the weekend! Wooooo hooooooooooo!!!!!!
Tomorrow morning I have my last test in this program. Last day at uni. wow. Then we leave Saturday morning and we'll be back and I'll be in prac before I know it! Then 5 short weeks and I'll be a teacher! I'm excited for prac but realize it'll be a lot of work. I really wanna try some different things with the kids and come up with some good ideas.
It's Thursday evening now. Gonna do a little more studying this evening and start preparing for tomorrow and the weekend! Wooooo hooooooooooo!!!!!!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Holla... I'm a schola!
haha. But seriously, I'm getting really good marks this term! So far a 68%, 72% x 2, 74%, 84% x 2 and 85%! Not too shabby eh? I'll say. One more test on Friday and then 5 week prac starting next week! Wow. It's come and gone! Where'd it go? It's crazy, last term is just starting to sink in!
I race this weekend! I'm pretty excited about it as I feel as though I'm really fit and can race fast, so lets keep our fingers crossed!!!!
Also, great email from Aunti Terri out in Perth, sounds like they're gonna take great care of us when we're there! The excitement is starting to build BIG time for this adventure of a lifetime! Christmas on a beach?! Oh ya baby! We'll be somewhere southern Queensland/northern New South Wales by then.
So that's it for today I guess. Onward and upward!
I race this weekend! I'm pretty excited about it as I feel as though I'm really fit and can race fast, so lets keep our fingers crossed!!!!
Also, great email from Aunti Terri out in Perth, sounds like they're gonna take great care of us when we're there! The excitement is starting to build BIG time for this adventure of a lifetime! Christmas on a beach?! Oh ya baby! We'll be somewhere southern Queensland/northern New South Wales by then.
So that's it for today I guess. Onward and upward!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
A week's worth
Really? Since Monday. Thanks for the reminder mom!
This week has just been really busy I guess.
Me:
I'm tapering for Canberra, a 2 week taper this week at 12 hours, next week 8 hours plus the race. Bad news was it's looking like it will PROABLY be a duathlon as the water temp is still too cold to go ahead with swims. Kinda crappy, but I still look forward to racing fast on the bike and run.
I've been rockin' through these assignments. Handed in HSIE on Wednesday. Finished PDHPE yesterday (due Monday), Art is more than half due (due Tuesday) Learners with special needs has beens tarted (due Wed) and then I'll study for the test next Friday in Quality Teaching. I'm also still working on ideas for this "Canada" unit for prac. So that's pretty much what I've been doing. Lots of school stuff. Weather this whole week has been crappy-ish. Decent in the morning, but chilly, then clouds over in the afternoon and rains/t-storms over night. People are saying this is the coldest it's been here in forever. Greeeeeeeat.
I'm listening to the sens game right now at the computer lab at school, between lecture and tutorial.
Julia is working her little tail off. Yesterday she started at 6AM and finished after 2PM, over 8 hours on feet at a "go-go-go" pace. She was hamemred by the time she got home, and had a fly in her eye. I made her lunch and she slowly came around, but went to bed uber early.
Last night I watched a show about the gang wars in Melbourne. The real story behind the "Underbelly" tv series.
Not really much more to say. It's just a countdown every day. Every day is a day closer to prac, a day to close to my race, a day closer to being done, a day closer to Ironman and a day clsoer to our travels.
OH! I did get an email from Auntie Terri. Wow, I have a feeling we're going to be SPOILED rotten! She's going to pick us up from the airport, and then has a place booked in or near Busselton. We'll have to buy them a gift or take them out to dinner to thank them!
The Ironman World Championship in Kona is this weekend. 2 days away! I'm excited to follow it. The men's race will be INSANE! So many top guys, past champions and really fast young guys. It'll be really cool. I can't wait to get there one day.
That's it really. What else is there to say? We do groceries most days, walk around and make jokes.
My quality teaching lecturer is a friggin' joke. Absolutely terrible and can't believe she's banking the paycheque she is for the "quality" she puts out.
This week has just been really busy I guess.
Me:
I'm tapering for Canberra, a 2 week taper this week at 12 hours, next week 8 hours plus the race. Bad news was it's looking like it will PROABLY be a duathlon as the water temp is still too cold to go ahead with swims. Kinda crappy, but I still look forward to racing fast on the bike and run.
I've been rockin' through these assignments. Handed in HSIE on Wednesday. Finished PDHPE yesterday (due Monday), Art is more than half due (due Tuesday) Learners with special needs has beens tarted (due Wed) and then I'll study for the test next Friday in Quality Teaching. I'm also still working on ideas for this "Canada" unit for prac. So that's pretty much what I've been doing. Lots of school stuff. Weather this whole week has been crappy-ish. Decent in the morning, but chilly, then clouds over in the afternoon and rains/t-storms over night. People are saying this is the coldest it's been here in forever. Greeeeeeeat.
I'm listening to the sens game right now at the computer lab at school, between lecture and tutorial.
Julia is working her little tail off. Yesterday she started at 6AM and finished after 2PM, over 8 hours on feet at a "go-go-go" pace. She was hamemred by the time she got home, and had a fly in her eye. I made her lunch and she slowly came around, but went to bed uber early.
Last night I watched a show about the gang wars in Melbourne. The real story behind the "Underbelly" tv series.
Not really much more to say. It's just a countdown every day. Every day is a day closer to prac, a day to close to my race, a day closer to being done, a day closer to Ironman and a day clsoer to our travels.
OH! I did get an email from Auntie Terri. Wow, I have a feeling we're going to be SPOILED rotten! She's going to pick us up from the airport, and then has a place booked in or near Busselton. We'll have to buy them a gift or take them out to dinner to thank them!
The Ironman World Championship in Kona is this weekend. 2 days away! I'm excited to follow it. The men's race will be INSANE! So many top guys, past champions and really fast young guys. It'll be really cool. I can't wait to get there one day.
That's it really. What else is there to say? We do groceries most days, walk around and make jokes.
My quality teaching lecturer is a friggin' joke. Absolutely terrible and can't believe she's banking the paycheque she is for the "quality" she puts out.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Another Entry, Another Title
I wonder what will come of all these blog entries. I mean, will we actually read them all, or will it all just end up in a heap somewhere, never to be looked at again? Interesting. Regardless, I've enjoyed writing them to date, it's definitely been one constant all year long!
Today it's crap out, weather wise. Rainy all day. I did a wicked hour and a half on the trainer this morning. REAL hard. 20 minute warm-up, then an hour at ~38km/h! Overall average was 36.3km/hr! Woot woot! The power is there. The taper is on folks!
Jubee worked today. 5 horus @ ~$44/hr! Gotta love public holidays here! she's napping now and then the three musketeers are going to go for a walk. ONE MORE TIIIIIIME!
I got some homework done today. For PDHPE class we have to write up a unit plan. I'm doing one on nutrition! Gonna be for year 5. So far my activities include a crossword (which I made) a nutrition based scategories game (which I made) an advertisement for a healthy food item that they choose, where they have to convince us to buy it, some internet games that I found, a cooking lesson (still in the works) and a diet journal (5 day, that we will analyse).
TODAY I OFFICIALLY REGISTERED FOR IRONMAN WESTERN AUSTRALIA!
It's on! 9 weeks to go. I have my week by week training schedule up on the wall. 9 weeks! I can't wait!
Had a good/quick skype with mom and dad this morning also! Saw Lucas too which is always great! Can't wait to get home and see Sierra!
We have enough airmiles to fly to Vancouver return in low or high season for one of us. 1700 more and we can both go in low season. :) We'll get there in a year or so! We were also thinking Newfoundland though. not sure yet. :) I know I know, we need to get home and start paying off debt, don't worry, the priorities are in check.
Ok that's it.
Oh yeah, maybe skype Ray tonight.
Today it's crap out, weather wise. Rainy all day. I did a wicked hour and a half on the trainer this morning. REAL hard. 20 minute warm-up, then an hour at ~38km/h! Overall average was 36.3km/hr! Woot woot! The power is there. The taper is on folks!
Jubee worked today. 5 horus @ ~$44/hr! Gotta love public holidays here! she's napping now and then the three musketeers are going to go for a walk. ONE MORE TIIIIIIME!
I got some homework done today. For PDHPE class we have to write up a unit plan. I'm doing one on nutrition! Gonna be for year 5. So far my activities include a crossword (which I made) a nutrition based scategories game (which I made) an advertisement for a healthy food item that they choose, where they have to convince us to buy it, some internet games that I found, a cooking lesson (still in the works) and a diet journal (5 day, that we will analyse).
TODAY I OFFICIALLY REGISTERED FOR IRONMAN WESTERN AUSTRALIA!
It's on! 9 weeks to go. I have my week by week training schedule up on the wall. 9 weeks! I can't wait!
Had a good/quick skype with mom and dad this morning also! Saw Lucas too which is always great! Can't wait to get home and see Sierra!
We have enough airmiles to fly to Vancouver return in low or high season for one of us. 1700 more and we can both go in low season. :) We'll get there in a year or so! We were also thinking Newfoundland though. not sure yet. :) I know I know, we need to get home and start paying off debt, don't worry, the priorities are in check.
Ok that's it.
Oh yeah, maybe skype Ray tonight.
Friday, October 2, 2009
October-bike-fest!
Holy, it's Ocotober 3rd! I can't believe it's already October! I mean I can, but it's just all flying by! I'm sure I'll have written that 100 times before we leave, but seriously, this year is like a blurr!
I got some real good school work done yesteutay (no training) and today had an amazing workout. Yesterday, Jared and I joined Lee on her way up to Sydney to drop her mom off at the airport. I had Lee stop off at a store in Taren's Point to pick up some bodyglide, as they don't really stock it in many places.
Today I had one of those workouts that I'm sure I'll look back on when I'm really hurtin' in a couple of weeks, or more importantly in December. It was 3.5 hours on the trainer, then a 50 minute run. I had a bunch of movies prepped on youtube (cuz I don't get internet in the basement) and some other podcasts downloaded to listen to. Long story short, after an hour it was all out the window and all I had for 2.5 horus was my Ipod! That was a mental grind. But I got through it and ended up with 121km on the bike, then immediately went out for my 50 minute run. Light rain, nice and cool, perfect for running. I felt awesome. For having done that much cycling, I felt fantastic! I couldn't believe it. Makes me real excited for Canberra.
Then, Jared and I went to the Library (returned 5 DVDs, took out 5 more (3 on soccer, one on Perth and one on 9/11) and to Wooly's and the Reject Shop.
now I'm just eatin', gonna do some homework for a bit then Jared's coming back over and we're going to watch that 9/11 movie. Should be coooool!
ok. That's it. I'm starin' at a big ole bowl of pasta with cotto and pepper. DELIGHTFUL!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)