Pavowski Locks it Down

[Pavowski]

I ran as an Assassin in the last couple of challenges, but it's time to check in with my Scout side this time. The Assassins are a high-octane bunch and I love pushing myself over there -- the Scouts are a little bit more low-key, and I think I need a little of that this time around.

 

Well, the summer is almost over, and for teachers like me, that means it's time to take off the rose-colored glasses of vacation and turn toward new students, new co-workers, and my new job. I pushed my boundaries pretty far with my last challenge, so this challenge is about casting those gains and accomplishments in bronze. I don't want to lose the progress I've made or the momentum I've established, but things are going to be different as I get back to work -- so rather than work on doing more, better, faster, I need to maintain and shift my focus to my new job.

 

So I'm setting a couple of job-specific goals which are of course non-fitness related. Specifically, I need to read some plays and prepare some lessons in preparation for teaching all-new theater classes at the school I'm headed to. Which is exciting! But intimidating, too.

 

Of course, I've still got my eye on fitness, too, partially because my runs have been better than ever later and I want to maintain that, but also because I still have Savage Race to prepare for (September 24 here in Atlanta, WOO!). So: some simple running and body weight workouts every week, with my focus on maintaining if not actively improving.

 

Finally, I'm still working on writing and getting published, so the third leg of my challenge will sit there. That means continuing to write every day and to send my completed work out.

 

Goals, then!

 

Goal A: Read at least 6 One-Act plays before school starts (Aug 1), prepare unit plans for the first month (at least) of class by the end of the first week (Aug 6).

So this one will be done before the challenge ends, but that's okay! I need to read a few dramas and a few comedies, and I especially need to make sure to spend some time doing in-depth stuff with my introductory classes, since they'll need the most structure: I can always do scene studies and monologues with my more advanced kids.

 

 

 

Goal B: Five workouts per week.

Of those: three runs, with at least one of those a long run of 5+ miles every weekend (Savage Race will be a 10k or so after all), and at least two body weight workouts per week. Bonus points for doing some of my running barefoot. Bonus points for doing more with my rings, because rings are awesome.

 

Goal C: 500 words/day on the current project, 4 submissions of my completed novel to literary agents. 

Same challenge and same goal as last time, because what I need most in this area of my life is consistency.

 

Sometimes the simple challenges are the best.

Get it, scouts!

[Princess Pineapple]

Red pandas and Ron Swanson.  Best thread ever!

[Pavowski]

Okay. Just ordered a whole bunch of plays to read; they should arrive in a couple of days, and then I can get down to reading (and thinking about what we're going to put on this fall!).

 

Gonna be prepared on this one.

[Princess Pineapple]

What age are your students?   

[Schaengel]

Following of course...so prepare for the haggling

 

(Also I kinda miss the times where 5k+ were the long runs ;P)

 

[Pavowski]

On 7/17/2016 at 0:30 PM, Princess Pineapple said:

What age are your students?   

I teach high school, so 14-18.

[Pavowski]

6 hours ago, Schaengel said:

Following of course...so prepare for the haggling

 

(Also I kinda miss the times where 5k+ were the long runs ;P)

 

Awesome Schaengel! And yeah, I totally feel that. Nowadays I seriously think, if it's not even 5k, why bother?

[Pavowski]

Day 1: 3.3 mile run, avg pace 9:53. Plus a couple more miles run/walked at the playground with my wife and kids (my son was determined to go running with me, and he managed almost a mile walk/running himself. Not bad for a 4-year old!).

 

585 words written in the novel. Did my writing later in the day than I like, but I was exhausted all day after the morning run and the playground. My tracker says I did something like 21,000 steps today, which is ridiculous.

 

Whee!

[Princess Pineapple]

4 hours ago, Pavowski said:

I teach high school, so 14-18.

 

Nice age.  I tend to get on better with teenagers than younger children.

4 hours ago, Pavowski said:

Day 1: 3.3 mile run, avg pace 9:53. Plus a couple more miles run/walked at the playground with my wife and kids (my son was determined to go running with me, and he managed almost a mile walk/running himself. Not bad for a 4-year old!).

 

585 words written in the novel. Did my writing later in the day than I like, but I was exhausted all day after the morning run and the playground. My tracker says I did something like 21,000 steps today, which is ridiculous.

 

Whee!

Nice stuff!  4 year olds have so much energy and then they just drop!  Well done mini Pavowski!

[Basement Cat]

You're doing great! Keep it up!

[Pavowski]

14 hours ago, Princess Pineapple said:

 

Nice age.  I tend to get on better with teenagers than younger children.

Nice stuff!  4 year olds have so much energy and then they just drop!  Well done mini Pavowski!

I couldn't even imagine working with elementary aged kids all day. I taught middle school for three years ... never again.

[Pavowski]

Yesterday: Early writing session, good for 900 words! Actually that's inflated a bit, since a good chunk of that was characterization and not verbage in the novel proper, but I'll take it, since these characters desperately need some fleshing out.

 

Then, I jumped in the Assassins mini challenge (why don't Scouts have minis? :() and destroyed myself. The mini calls for a simple circuit:

5 pushups (I did decline diamonds)

10 lunges each side

15sec plank (I did 20s)

20 air squats

 

Simple, right? It was. Until the 5th set. And the 6th. And 7th. Then 8th, 9th, and 10th.

 

Yeah, those lunatics called for 10 iterations of that circuit. If you're doing the math, that's 100 lunges on each leg and 200 squats. I would have happily traded some leg work for more push-ups or plank time, but THAT AIN'T HOW IT WORKS. And holy crap my legs are jelly.

 

 

To be fair, they didn't require it all to be done in the same workout, but I'm dumb like that, so, whee?

 

Today: Got up at 5 for a 5k. Not gonna lie, it was not easy on my dead legs, but I got through it with an average pace of 9:42. Respectable.

[Basement Cat]

49 minutes ago, Pavowski said:

Today: Got up at 5 for a 5k. Not gonna lie, it was not easy on my dead legs, but I got through it with an average pace of 9:42. Respectable.

I totally understand that! I get up early to run too. It's nicer when there is no traffic.

 

How do you calculate pace?

[Pavowski]

1 hour ago, Basement Cat said:

I totally understand that! I get up early to run too. It's nicer when there is no traffic.

 

How do you calculate pace?

 

I count all my steps, figure the average length of stride, and multiply to find the distance covered. Then, I take the time it took me to run and divide out. I prefer to do this longhand, because the only numbers I trust are the ones I write down myself.

 

Just kidding, Garmin and SmashRun crunch those numbers for me.

[Princess Pineapple]

2 hours ago, Pavowski said:

 

I count all my steps, figure the average length of stride, and multiply to find the distance covered. Then, I take the time it took me to run and divide out. I prefer to do this longhand, because the only numbers I trust are the ones I write down myself.

 

Just kidding, Garmin and SmashRun crunch those numbers for me.

Haha!  I was thinking, why not just get a Garmin?

 

I am sure we used to have mini challenges but I never did them.  Maybe no-one did.

 

[Pavowski]

9 minutes ago, Princess Pineapple said:

Haha!  I was thinking, why not just get a Garmin?

 

I am sure we used to have mini challenges but I never did them.  Maybe no-one did.

 

 

MAYBE WE SHOULD MAKE ONE.

[Princess Pineapple]

14 hours ago, Pavowski said:

 

MAYBE WE SHOULD MAKE ONE.

Off you go then! Haha!

[Schaengel]

Thats a really hard training...like alsways. Good keep that up

 

Also a scout mini would be awesome...I love the assassin mini but it just doesn't fit my training needs right now (so sadly no mini for me :,/ )

[noxiousGnome]

Scouts had minis at one point but not a lot participated

[Pavowski]

Not a lot of time the past couple days for posting, but I got the workouts in.

 

Wed: later in the day I got on and wrote about 900 words, nice.

 

Thur: A body weight workout almost exclusively using rings at the playground while my kids flerped around -- yay! Included: pull-ups (3x7), RTO dips (3x7), push-ups (3x10), top position holds (3x10 sec), inverted holds (3x not sure how long really), and some inverted roll over thing which I'm sure has a name but I sure don't know it (3x3). Woo! And some jump-rope too (3x40).

 

 

And another 700 words or so later on that afternoon.

 

Today: Up early for a 5k, and then a long day of pre-planning at school. Didn't get any writing done (and probably won't -- I'm exhausted), so it's a good thing I put in extra earlier in the week.

 

Tomorrow's a rest day -- thank goodness.

[Princess Pineapple]

"Dad, get off the rings and push me!"

[Myrdinn]

Man you're doing great. Congratulations on the writing too. I have a short-story to submit for an anthology project that's due this week and I'm way off finishing it. Gonna have to take some inspiration from you!

[Pavowski]

2 hours ago, Myrdinn said:

Man you're doing great. Congratulations on the writing too. I have a short-story to submit for an anthology project that's due this week and I'm way off finishing it. Gonna have to take some inspiration from you!

Awesome. Teamwork makes the dream work, or some such motivational nonsense

[Pavowski]

Yesterday: 5 miles with the stroller. 5 miles! I don't even bother looking at my pace for those runs, since the weight of that stroller increases the workload by about 50%, I have no doubt.

 

No writing over the weekend, but that's okay -- my schedule allows for weekends off. I did read one of the one-act plays on my list and a couple of 10-minute pieces (I'll consider three 10-minute plays to be worth one one-act), so progress is coming there.

 

This morning: up early for a 5k before I go in for my FIRST OFFICIAL DAY OF WORK for this school year.

 

Why stress myself out over getting up so early on the first day back, you say?

Because run days are always better.

 

*vanishes into the bowels of a school building built in the 70s*

[Princess Pineapple]

Well done.  I hope back to work day went well.