Snapshot of this week’s ideas.  Workout highlight: The benefits of yoga.  Food highlight: Treats!  Words of Wisdom highlight: Love your passengers.

Click here for the video recap for the blog.

MAF Update:

Putting in more MAF work.  I have been playing around with my clip position on my bike shoes and it was messing with my legs.  I read that the middle of the foot is better, so I tried that. The front of my knees were more sore, especially after the longer rides.  After the adjusting the position of the clip more to the ball of my foot, I felt better and was able to increase my virtual distances a bit.  Hopefully the improvements will continue.

This week’s work:

Tuesday- 20-minute ride for 9.24 virtual miles

Wednesday- 30-minute ride for 13.51 virtual miles.

Friday- 60-minute ride for 27.69 virtual miles.

Sunday- 30-minute ride for 13.78 virtual miles.

Food Highlight:

Christmas time has some delicious treats, and our house is full of them.  Sometimes you just have to enjoy some treats.  The problem that I am going to have is that I am home on break this week. There will be a lot of opportunities to walk past the containers and grab a treat.  I will have to be strong.  I know I can do it. Don’t believe that you have to swear off sugar because what fun is that?  Enjoy the treats, but just do it in moderation.

Workout Highlight:

Yoga is very underrated.  I wrote a whole post about yoga that you can find here.  Some people think about yoga, and they stereotype it as for girls and hippies.  Those stereotypes are so wrong because Yoga has so many benefits for everyone.  I love it right before races and on a day where my legs need a good reset.

Wisdom of the Week:

For this week’s wisdom, I am going to back to Jon Gordon.  I talked about his book, The Energy Bus, in an earlier MAF Experiment, but I am going to go into something specific from that book this week.  One of the Bus rules is “love your passengers.”  You choose who you let on your ride, so make sure you love them.  I have used this idea in my classroom, and it has helped my mental well-being considerably.

Third-graders, no matter how great the student, will find ways to be frustrating at times.  It is the nature of a child.  One thing I have started doing is focusing on the things I love about the child, and that takes the moment of frustration away.  I have a student who is high energy, but I focus on the fact that he is the biggest cheerleader of his classmates.  Another student has trouble separating big problems from small ones, and creates drama.  I like to focus on her wonderful artistic ability and chat about that often.  Focusing on the things you love makes dealing with the things you don’t a whole lot easier.

Another side to loving your passengers is to make sure those on your bus know that you love them.  My school family lost an amazing person this past week.  We all loved this man, but I am not sure how much we told him.  He knew he was appreciated, but I know that I did not express my gratitude toward him enough.  Make sure you don’t miss a chance to love up those wonderful people in your life and let them know just how much they mean to you.

That’s just a bit of my experience.  Have a great week.