My Thoughts on Taking a $15,000 Pay Cut at Work

Edited: After initially publishing this post, I did decide to pull it down and edit it. Sometimes I am a little too honest, and I felt like I shared a little bit too much.

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Ran this morning at 5:30 a.m.

Distance: 7 miles

Time: 58 minutes

It was a good run—no pain, which always makes me happy. But man it is still chilly in the mornings; it was 32*F this morning. My lungs never bother me in the cold air, but they hurt a little bit this morning, which was odd.

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Last spring, I decided I was going to resign from teaching as a elementary physical education teacher. I wanted to do something different. . . . .something completely different. Well, now I am in home mortgage!

I knew that if I was going to do a complete 180 degree change in career fields, I was going to have to start with something entry-level and at the bottom of the ladder. I knew I would have to work my way up, and I was okay with that and excited about the new opportunities.

With an entry level, it also meant I had to take a significant pay cut. I ended up cutting my yearly salary by $15,000. Anyone knows that huge! But I often wonder, was it worth?

Stack of Money

I ended up teaching for a total of four years, and as with any job, it has its ups and downs, but there were a lot of perks: decent pay, I didn’t have to sit at a desk all day, summers off, and the content was something I am very passionate about.

Currently at my job, I like that I leave work at work, it is stress-free, I’ve made some good friends, but of course I am strapped to a desk all day and took that large pay cut. The other thing is that since I am in an entry-level job, I am not using my degree and not really passionate about the content. For right now it is a job and it pays the bills. I always told myself I wasn’t going to care how much I was paid–just as long as I liked it. But a real-life situation makes me reconsider this.

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I go back and forth on whether or not it was worth it, and I still can’t decide. Of course now as summer approaches I dream about my carefree days of being a “professional” (in my mind) runner, getting enough sleep, spending 2-3 weeks visiting my family and friends in Minnesota, and having more time to spend with Craig in the evenings.

I realize you can’t have it all, but it seems like there could be a happy medium??

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Question

Who else has taken a rather large pay cut at their job? Please share your experiences!

Snow in May

Another Saturday = another long run = a (mostly) happy Michelle.

And look, I even listened to music during the entire run! I think I like listening to music if I run later in the day, but I don’t care to listen to it in the early mornings because it is just too quiet and peaceful during that part of the day.

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I was a mostly happy camper, except for the white stuff on the ground! This marks 232 days between the first snowfall and the last snowfall of the season. I’m not convinced summer will ever come.

I talked to my dad on the phone before I went out for my run and we started talking about the weather, naturally, since we are from Minnesota. I told him it was 28* F. He said, “switch those two numbers and you have our temperature.” Sigh. . . . .

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I was not very excited to go for a run this morning, and I know it was merely due to the fact that there was snow on the ground. Seriously, it could have been the same temperature and same everything else, but since that darn snow was on the ground made me not-so-excited to run. DSC_0004

BUT I am way too addicted to not run, so out I went.

Distance: 13 miles

Time: 1:43

Average pace: 7:58 minutes/mile

Here’s how my splits broke down:

Mile 0 – I felt like I was running in a blizzard!

Mile 1 – 8:04

Mile 2 – 7:47

Mile 3 – 7:49 (Nice, I’m keeping a pretty decent pace.)

Mile 4 – 7:47 (Hearing birds chirping and seeing seagulls flying through the neighborhood was strange with snow on the ground.)

Mile 5 – 7:54 (Mile 5 and 6 I ran through a heavily wooded neighborhood, and I know my Garmin wasn’t picking up a very good signal.)

Mile 6 – 8:00 (Mile 6.5 took half of this Espresso Love GU—one of my favorite flavors.)

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Mile 7 -8:04 (Mile 7.5 my hamstring started hurting, so I stopped and stretched it out, which seemed to help.)

Mile 8 – 8:09 (Started running slower to protect my hamstring and because I was starting to run out of steam.)

Mile 9 – 8:10 (Took the second half of the GU.)

Mile 10 – 8:09

Mile 11 – 8:00 (I really tried to pick it up and push the pace the last few miles. I was mostly successful, but I was hoping for some splits around 7:45.)

Mile 12 – 7:49

Mile 13 – 7:50DSC_0006

I wore my Zensah gloves on my run today. I had completely forgotten about them. When I first reviewed them, I remembered thinking they weren’t anything special, but I’m a big fan now! They are super soft on the inside and fit like a glove (no pun intended). DSC_0009

I have been spending the past couple of hours following my post-long run recovery protocol, but Craig is getting bored, so it is probably time to get out of the house.

I Can’t Believe

I can’t believe this weather we are having!!

Yes, that would be snow on my windshield on my way home from work.

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Seriously Alaska! I am just glad it isn’t really sticking. . . . . . .yet!

Last year on this day we were celebrating my sister’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Kristy!) and the last day of school for me!! In the sunshine of course!

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Luckily I didn’t have to run in the snow this morning during my run. It was raining though.

Distance: 4 miles

Time: 33:10

Nice easy run before my long run tomorrow morning.

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I signed up for another race!

My sister and I ran the Trent/Waldron Glacier Half Marathon last year. It is one of the smaller half marathons in Anchorage, but it was still fun. I set a new PR last year, but I am way behind where I was last year in my training, so I will definitely not be setting a new PR this year.

I can’t believe it only cost me $30 to register for the race.

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I can’t decide if I should run the half marathon or full marathon in June at the Mayor’s Marathon.

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Reasons to run the half-marathon:

- I am not in that great of shape to run a full marathon.

Reasons to run the full marathon:

- I love running marathons!

So, I do want to do the full marathon, but I’m worried I am going to crash and burn since I’m not sure my body is ready to run another marathon so close to the Boston Marathon. I really don’t have much time to prepare and don’t know if I will be able to squeeze in a 20-miler beforehand (although I could probably make it happen). But I don’t know this would be the best thing for my body. I could wait until August to run a different marathon, but I want to do this one! I did it two summers ago, so I know the course and it is the marathon of the summer for this area. But. . .I would be very unprepared, so maybe I should just stick to the half.

Any thoughts?

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I can’t believe I actually like this song

Light ‘Em Up – Fall Out Boy

This is much heavier music than I usually listen to, but I love the beat to this song. I could see this being a good pump-up song when running. Maybe I’ll have to change my musicless ways and put this song on repeat for my next marathon. . . .or at least for the last couple of miles.

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Questions

What is something you can’t believe happened?

What are your running plans for the weekend?