It was my first day back after spring break at this particular school and while it was nice seeing my students, it seemed as if every half-hour, there was another fire to put out.
Something #1: Someone forgot their instrument at home
Something #2: Someone mistakenly took the music that I had sent to the printer when they picked up their own job
Something #3: Someone had a note from their parents saying they had permission to quit band
Something #4: Someone else mistakenly took the 2nd copy of music that I had sent to the printer when they picked up their own job
Something #'s 5-8: Some other yahoos forgot their instruments at home....
You can see where this is going, right?
As I collapsed into my car, rather uncomfortably because I didn't even have time to use the bathroom before I had to hurry home, I sighed loudly and exclaimed, "It's always SOMETHING!"
It reminded me of the last two months and my preparation for the Earth Day 50K. Back in January I took the plunge and decided to sign up for my first 50K. That was hard enough! Just jumping off of that cliff!
Then soon after starting the training, I started having IT band issues. After a month of foam rolling, stretching and praying a lot that it would go away, I realized it was not. Last time I wrote, I decided to take a week off and see what happened. I am SO excited to say that it seemed to be just what I needed, because I jumped right back into the training plan after the week off and was able to complete 20 miles with no pain! I am so thankful for the help and encouragement of my friends and that I listened to them and my body and rested!
With the help of their words of encouragement and a knee brace, I soldiered on. Here are some of the fun things I've been doing since then
It was supposed to be a really horrible day weather-wise. The prediction was rain and wind literally all morning. When I parked at 8am, the sky was gray and the air was thick with moisture.
"It's now or never," I thought and I entered through the leafy curtains of the woods. At this point, I had never ventured into Sterne's by myself so I was a little nervous to attempt to spend literally ALL morning finding my way around. But I have a pretty good sense of direction and there are some landmarks to help keep your bearings.
The first handful of miles went really well. I made my way back to the car at around mile 6 to refill water bottles and get more food. When I went back in, I started to feel like I knew my way around more. Then something awesome happened: The sun came out!
So I finished 20 in Sternes woods that morning...well,it was afternoon by the time I finished, to be honest. And it felt pretty awesome, I have to say. But there's always SOMEthing. And that day's SOMEthing was that it took me over 5 hours. And I'm trying not to fall into the trap of self-doubt thinking about the fact that my pace that day is not fast enough to get me done with 31 miles within the 8 hour cut-off. Because I still have 3 weeks to spend time in the woods, pushing myself and learning what I can do. If it's not one thing it's another and worrying about time isn't going to make the clock run any slower.
Two and a half weeks until Earth Day, friends! If you'd like to volunteer at the race, I know they could still use people to help! You can find more info HERE. I can't wait to report back with how it went!
Now that it's lighter much later, fun runs are back at The Running Depot on Wednesday nights at 6:30pm! Come out and be with your people! Running is so much more fun with friends!
Thank you so much for reading!