The numbers game

Try to fit 12 hours of teaching at 3 different schools into 2 days (13 hours max) for 11 weeks out of a 13-week term. Take into account travel, school break times, different school start/end times and other logistics. Then ring schools to ask about availability of rooms for those particular days and times. Wind up with something like 10-minute lunch breaks. (Oh well.)

Done?

After timetables are despatched to all schools, wait for School A to ring back to say "take these students off, add these students."

Then try to fit what amounts to 16 hours in a weekly maximum of 13. Um.... Play around with spare weeks, but try to schedule things so students don't have lessons too close or too far apart. Reshuffle Thursday schools onto Tuesdays, Tuesday morning school to Tuesday afternoon and make other changes because of room and student availability. Ring schools to check if it's alright and feel like an idiot for messing people around. Resend new timetables.

Wait for School B to ring back and say, "Oh, by the way, there are two more who have applied..."

Repeat up to four times. Make sure to turn timetable topsy-turvy each time.

Finally plan a varying weekly timetable to precision for an entire 13 weeks. I think I've cracked it. (My brain, that is.) But wait till I have to explain to payroll about how it all works out.

On more positive numbers:

Friday run: 20-25 minutes, with a few sprints -

1st 400: 85 seconds
1st 800 (including earlier 400): 3 minutes

2nd 400: 90 seconds
2nd 800: 3:20

Time-out called after that. Too slow.

Saturday: 3.5 miles tempo run, including 5K in 22:12. That's okay for me.

Miles run since: 0
Guilt: 0
Reps done: about one or two sets a day

At my main school (4 days a week) where the timetable is planned for me, I've managed to tweak it - to the irritation of the department heads - such that I can do a long run on Wednesday lunch times, possibly a short one on Monday, and not have to leave for school at the ungodly hour of 6:40am on a Saturday.

I'm exhausted just getting the work life in motion.