Any other tired teachers out there?

Before I elicit too much sympathy from anyone else :wink: I appreciate that we all have tiring moments in our work careers at different points.

It’s just a question to see if there are any other teachers on TR?
I just seem to find myself getting really tired near the end of terms and then finding the TR workouts even harder than they should be. I’m just wondering if it’s me, the way I work, or are there similarities with other teachers? I try and get my full sleep with this in mind, knowing that I’m going to get even more rundown if I don’t.

I certainly find that when I get to a break/holiday I have all these plans on doing a bit extra, or maybe even an interesting outdoor ride, but then I feel too tired. I try to listen to my body and give myself time to recover and recuperate, but then end up feeling grumpy that another ‘opportunity’ has gone by.

Anyone?

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Teacher here!

How long have you been in? If you’re still new I can see it being a bit more exhausting; I’m currently in my 7th year teaching and have things pretty much down to a pattern now. I almost never take any work home, grading, planning, reading, etc… none of it comes home with me. I do bring my computer home with me each day in case of emergencies, but other than that I push myself to make sure that I get everything I need to get done while I’m at school during contract hours. That’s what they’re paying you for.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my students, they’re awesome (most of them anyways) but our profession tends to have a bit of a martyr complex to see who can sacrifice the most to their career.

I have a wife and two kids as well, so most of my off-season weekday rides happen around 7pm (after bedtime). This allows me to ride, eat, shower, and spend time with the wife and be in bed by 10:30pm. I get up at 6am during the week as well. This is also considering that throughout the week my wife and I are split with different things like tutoring, coaching, and miscellaneous appointments.

I race at a fairly high level, Cat 2 in the US, racing mostly P12 and 123 races. And I have intrinsic motivation to push myself in training, so I love the breaks throughout the year that allow me to get in a bit of extra load on stress. Over our winter break (2 weeks) I did 30 hours of training. It was a lot, but it was well worth it.

Summers are awesome since my wife teaches summer school most of the time, I’m able to hang out with the kids in the morning, then everyone when she gets home, and then go out in the afternoon/evening and ride with friends.

I feel like I’ve gotten my training/work/personal life down fairly well, so I’m happy to answer more questions you might have!

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Very impressive training, well done!

I’ve been teaching for over 20 years ( I’m nearly 50) so maybe it’s an age thing.

I normally take work home with me, otherwise things just wouldn’t get marked or lessons planned. Leaving earlyish means I can avoid the worst of the rush hour so I train about 5pm a couple of times a week and then on Sunday morning.

But your reply gives me hope that I might be doing things wrong so I’ll take another look at my routine. I’d love to only work my contracted hours but…

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Teacher here. I teach in a very diverse low income middle school and feel your pain. Although I do not have to take much work home I am often times emotionally and physically drained at the end of the day. Then add on taking my own kids to their activities leaves me with small windows to train. Often It can be a struggle to be ready emotionally to get on the bike and train. Luckily my wife and kids ride and 3 of the 4 kids are on the high school mtb team and I help coach. Riding in the summer is definitely easier. This year Im focussing on being consistent even if I shorten or do minus versions. currently doing low volume with some runs thrown in. Hang in there!!!

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I’ve been teaching HS for 20 years – and racing for over 30.

I can manage an interval workout one day per five day work week – I usually do that on Tues. The other intensity day is Saturday. Everything else is just pedalling.

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I had 10 years of class time. Trained seriously the last 3 years of that. You are at the point of the year where EVERYONE is tired. What helped me was knowing that after a long day, I had the workout coming. I came home and just hit it. Everything was setup and I just got it done. I was able to be present during the workout. When it was done, I moved to something else. My wife is like that with her runs - get home (she fusses around some as I encourage her to get going) and gets to the run. Then onto something else.

Perhaps spin easier instead of really hard workouts on those days you are just tired. I can handle Sweet Spot pretty easy – the High Intensity really wears me out.

When are you working out? How long have you been training?

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In a similar situation as David. I’m in year 6 of teaching, and first time getting to repeat a grade, before I changed content each year. Finally getting to reuse some stuff which is super helpful. I find that I am doing a lot more grading on participation/discussions as well as are they trying during the class. I find it okay for students to make mistakes in class, and then assessments they get the summative grade.

This year I have way more “fathering” going on with students, which I find is almost taking more out of me then last year of coming up with stuff.

I get the stress when it comes time to riding. I find that most of the time once I settle into the workout I’m good, but the process of getting on has me thinking I’m too tired to get the work done. Prepare the bottles the night before, have clothes out so it’s easy to change. Anything to set yourself up for success is helpful!

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Not sure this will help, I’ve posted it before and on other forums, but here is kind of what my training week and a daily routine looks like:

This was my last training block which included winter break

My normal weekly schedule looks like this for off-season:

Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun
Off 90min SST 60-90m Active Recovery 90min SST Off 120-240min SST 120-240min Intervals

Once race season starts and summer hits I’m usually riding almost every day, with Monday usually being my only day completely off the bike.

A typical daily schedule for me on a day with a workout:

6/6:15am Wake up

7:20am arrive at school

3:15pm leave school & pick up kindergartner

4pm(ish) arrive home, work on kiddo’s schoolwork and hang out

5pm Wife (also a teacher) and baby daughter arrive home

5:30pm Eat dinner with family, hang out till bedtime

7pm bedtime, kiss kids goodnight and hop on trainer

8:30/9pm finish riding, shower, eat post ride nutrition

10/10:30pm hang out with wife till we go to sleep (with intermittent wake ups for the baby)

On days that I’m not working out, I’m all in on spending it with the family at home. And since I do spend so much time on the bike throughout the year I find it really important to do so to make sure they feel appreciated and loved.

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My daily schedule during the school year:

4:00 – wake up
4:05-5:15 – read, write, catch up e-mails to/from editors and/or lit journals
6:15-3:15 at school.
3:45-6:00 train
6:15-8:00 eat, hang out with my wife
8:00 bed

today and tomorrow

4:00 – wake
4:10-6:10 – trainer
6:45-7:30 at school (late night to work registration for next year)
8:00 bed

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Hi - Well I teach in the UK and it’s half term hols which is great. I have been teaching 23 years (Physics/science/maths) and I never take work home. I set myself an afterschool deadline and ensure I leave then regardless as I need a work/life balance - I just want to live while I’m alive - to quote Bon Jovi. That said I have had 4 days off ill in 23 years - 1 in 2003, 3 in Feb last year and I always show up and teach regardless which my pupils appreciate. I always mark there assessments for the next lesson to show I respect there efforts but day to day marking fits in around my life. If I have a meeting I go straight home. When I get home I’m straight on the turbo on TR - no ifs/no buts in winter or the same in summer (maybe a midweek race/chain gang as well). I did HV last year but it made me ill (as mentioned) so I cut to MV plus a gym session this year. I find that I can hack 60-90 mins in the evening but not 2 hours as my weight drops (I’m only 60.5kg so it can’t afford to). I’m single (was in a 17 year relationship up until 2 years ago and I don’t think TR was an issue in the break up as I had been a marathon runner all through the relationship - in fact cycling helped me deal with all the stress of that). I also have no kids of my own which is of course a massive issue. Finally if you teach Physics and maths in the UK you are VERY in demand which allows me to not be scared of making decisions about my own work life balance. :smiley:

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My wife has been teaching 10 year-olds for 27ish years. She is ready for this year to be done. Some years are harder than others. This year is not a good one. She trains to clear her head of the stresses of the work.

By Friday, she is just drained. BUT, after many years of HIMs, this she is going to do her first Ironman. So, with a focus on getting green boxes for completing the coach assigned workouts, she is staying determined. Some days it is hard to get moving, but she gets it done.

I could never do her/your job. My deepest respect to all public school teachers.

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My wife is a teacher. Hats off to all of you. It’s breaking her and she doesn’t ride…

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Academic teacher here…I have started to ride a bike because of mental exhaustion with my PhD and teaching… on the other hand two of my students were keen cyclist and national triathlon competitors and they infected me with “cyclosis” :slight_smile: cycling is the only thing that keeps me sane.

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I’m in my 20th year teaching elementary special education(learning support). I train in the morning. Wake up at 4:55 every morning during the school week. I’m on the trainer or at the gym by 6 am. Luckily I live and have a gym that is less than 10 minutes from where I work. I stop working out at about 7:45 and shower and get dressed. I get to school by my contracted start time at 8:10. I’ve been doing this routine for way to long but it works for me.

My wife is also a teacher with an earlier start time than me so I would have to get up this early no matter what.

I find getting my workout in before school helps me during the day. I have no pressures when I get home and find that working out helps clear my mind for the day and makes me a more relaxed person. It also helped when we had kids at home. I was able to support them and their activities which were always after school and evenings.

I’ve learned to leave work at school over the years which is a huge help.

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I’m a senior speech and language therapist, working full time in a school for children with special needs and autism. 8.30 - 4.45, no work comes home.
Sometimes they are challenging and “bitey” and for 2 terms out of 3, very snotty. And that’s just the staff😉
Mostly my work demands enormous amounts of enthusiasm, creativity, empathy and genuine joy and I love it.
But the first thing I do after a break is count the days till my next one. If one of my team are in early, it’s already been calculated when I walk in the door. And from that moment it’s an endurance event. And even if I have enough my energy were to continue, everyone, including the kids have nothing left by the final week.
My training is unproductive in the final week. Even if I go for an easy ride round the local woods on the first Saturday of a school holiday, it’s extremely hard. I just wait for “things” to come back.
I get anxious about my energy levels for the first 12 hour pairs xc of the season. It’s a big journey and camping weekend which starts 2 days after the end of the year. I’ve learnt to create a false finish line to the end of term. I try to get all the stressful planning for September out of the way and find a way to coast, allow a breather, before I pick myself up and say, “right, you’re back on it now. Rely on all your hard work earlier in the year. It’s still in there. Let it come back now.”
It’s probably easier for me than being a teacher as therapy stops for that final week. Although I help to supervise things like bouncy castle and icecream (mostly making sure the two don’t mix), I’m not responsible for a class and can start to let go a bit.
I admire the teachers I work with. I help them out all I can, but I wouldn’t want to do it myself.
I’m also rubbish at training on a Friday. I have a complete rest day. We usually leave early on a Friday and I come home and have a long nap.

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If I don’t have lunch duty, and don’t have any AP essays to grade, I will take a nice 20-30 min nap under my desk during lunch.

Sleep and vegetables. I’m hoping those are my secret weapons this year.

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Thanks for all the replies.

I guess it shows that it is possible but I need to get more efficient with my time. I still think that I’m going to get tired by the end of term.

I think the most annoying bit is just personal. When I meet up with non-teachers they think I must spend all of my holiday riding when instead I’m too knackered to clean my bike!

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It can be tough at times - but…come end of July I can just ride my bike for 6 weeks and chill out ….wouldn’t do the job if there were no fringe benefits…sure as hell doesn’t pay as well as the careers most of my other graduate friends have!

Teacher from Germany here - I teach English, German and Computer Science. I’m currently having to move more towards an admin role due colleagues who used to plan the schedules having to take sick leave. Just teaching I rode a medium plan, sometimes I dropped the Wednesday workout. The weeks since Christmas were rough as I found myself suddenly in charge of all the scheduling business and having to switch to a different scheduling software - I dropped to a low volume plan and added a zone 2 Sunday ride (that didn’t always happen) … I found I sometimes just lacked the mental toughness to gut out the VO2 max intervals.

I have since gotten into the new position a lot better and was able to reduce the hours I’m in the classroom. It’s a lot better now.

Things I do to stay sane:

  • Preparing lessons way in advance (3-5 weeks) so any sudden craziness doesn’t derail you.
  • Grading almost everything in school and not taking anything home (except senior class German essays - they are a pain to grade: 1 batch takes 25-30 hours but I have those only 4 times a year)
  • Scheduling everything in Google Calendar - all my lessons, prep time and grading time is in there. This way I don’t waste time.
  • Not trying to be perfect in grading and preparing. Mistakes are bound to happen, no use fretting about it.

One thing I do really diligently at work: Talking with my students when I’m not teaching at that moment.

It’s been going quite well.

Edit: Also make sure not to invest too much time. The self sacrifice is one of the biggest problems we as teachers face. We cannot save everyone and we cannot make everyone happy. Stay true to yourself! And a large percentage of the paperwork we have to do ist just plain idiotic…

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