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Long week, much gain Monday, May 8, 2006 Last week was very tiring and long, but a lot of fun. Coaching has been going very well, and we've got our first meet tomorrow. It's more fun than I had even imagined, and I am super-ecited to watch my kids race. I also had duathlon nationals yesterday, in which I placed 6th overall! The race was incredible. It's too bad I can't make it to worlds to back up my performance with another solid race.
I have started doing the recess supervisor job again at one of teh local schools here. I forgot how much I missed those kids: while there are some who drive me nuts, I really enjoy being around most of them. The good weather has also made being outside a lot of fun, although it looks like rain is headed our way later this week.
My legs hurt My legs still hurt from Sunday, so I gave them another day of rest. I really will have to get back on the bike tomorrow, rain or shine, because I still need to prepare for Mohican Valley. After that, I may very well take a week completely off to give my body a rest. I feel pretty beat up, and motivation is not oozing from my skin at the moment. I'm still trying to decide how much I want to race over the summer, and how far I am willing to travel. I'm committed to Columbus, but beyond that, I guess my schedule will depend on whether or not I'm working, as well as any travel I need to do for interviews.
I'm still waiting to hear back from schools and districts, so no news on that front. I just found out that the school I was really jazzed about last year, which is in Marin County, CA, is once more looking for a PE teacher. I jumped all over that and sent a cover letter and resume - I would LOVE to teach there and live in the Bay area. That would rock my socks. Fingers crossed.
Piecing myself back together
The weather is nasty and cold, which gave me a convenient excuse to avoid training today. My legs felt fine yesterday as I ran with my team, but I woke up today with a vicious pain in one hip. Again, another convenient excuse. This week just gets better and better. I really want to get out and train, but my body is conspiring against me. This is probably what I get for not training the way I should have in the month before nationals.
Nastiness all around
Today's weather didn't get any better than yesterday - in fact, I think it was colder today - so I stayed in for most of the day. My hip hurts something fierce right now, too, so I spent just about all day reading to stay off of it. I think it feels better now as I go up and down the stairs to do laundry, so my plan is to try running on it tomorrow. There seems to be no end in sight for this awful cold rain, but hopefully that will take my mind off of my hip.
Memo to self: suck it up I really don't know what's gotten into me. I have been acting like an idiot lately. I got out on the bike today, despite the rain, and it was neither as wet or as miserable as I thought it would be. I also ran right afterwards, and my hip gave me no trouble at all. It hurt a bit for the first half of the ride, especially while I was aero, but I guess it decided to suddenly loosen up and chill out. Time to hit it again: I'm ready to get back into some serious training and get faster.
I also spent the rest of today being productive, exactly the opposite of what I did all of yesterday. It felt good. I obviously need to keep myself occupied from now on, and bust my own chops when I don't feel like training, because it's way past time to get serious.
Ouch Well, my legs want to fall off. I ran with my kids yesterday, and we did the equivalent of a pretty tough R-paced workout. It was pretty hard to get out of bed this morning. I managed, though, and got a nice ride in before running with the kids again today. They have their second meet tomorrow, and I'm excited to see if they do any better.
Best moment of the month so far: a couple of the kids at the school where I supervise recess apparently decided that my body markings from nationals were so cool that they needed some too. I didn't discover this until yesterday, but they had drawn "25" in purple sharpie on their right calves to match the "25" that I had. I saw them and at first had no idea why they had numbers on their legs, but they quickly set me straight. Pretty funny stuff, that.
Mohican Valley and other fun This weekend was pretty fun, all told. I drove down to north-central Ohio on Friday after work, where I met up with my parents at the family vacation house. We spent Saturday morning putting the (heavy!) dock in the lake, and then I headed south a bit to check in and scout the course for today's race. I raced this morning, spent the early afternoon relaxing, and then drove back to Ann Arbor.
I am sick and tired of my excuses. They get me nowhere, and my bike is suffering because of it. I got blown away in my race by a stronger biker, and had I actually stopped whining and started training this spring, I might have stayed with him. I am buckling down starting now, because I can't stand it anymore. I will race well this summer, and I will not let the bike hold me back. Grrr.
Getting there I'm getting back on track, slowly but surely. I'm trying to procrastinate less and get more things done. Tomorrow will be a true test of willpower, since I will need to ride very early, and then run after work and a long track meet with my kids. We'll see how that goes, but I will be upset at myself if I don't get both workouts in.
I have decided that I will race long course worlds in Richmond next fall. I will probably race in both Nationals races (short and long course) but will focus most of my 2007 on long course racing.
Yeah buddy
Doing it right I've been getting in some good training this week, finally. The weather turned in our favor - it's now topping out above 80 and pretty humid in the afternoons - which is way better than 50 and rain. I got a couple hours in on the bike this morning because I had an afternoon appointment to be fitted with Angel, whi is Cadence Cycle's F.I.S.T.-certified bike fitter.
As it turns out, I've got just about everything set up well on my bike already. We're making one position change, a new stem that drops my front end down a bit more; and one mostly cosmetic change, a slightly longer crankset that will also happen to be carbon. With those two changes, I will finally have my TT bike set up about as perfectly as I could possibly imagine. Now I just need to make a salary, so I can afford the multitude of changes and repairs that my poor, neglected road bike needs...
One of those weeks My legs are once again ready to fall off. That's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned, although it does tend to make workouts a little less enjoyable sometimes. I've been working hard to get myself back up to decent mileage, about where I hope to be all summer (assuming my plans don't change). I will probably have to back off a little bit when I get home, since Pittsburgh is significantly hillier than Ann Arbor, but once I have adapted, I'll be back at it.
Man, this spring has really flown by. I've only got one more week in Ann Arbor - my four and a half year tenure here is finally over. After next week, I'm chaperoning the middle school's 8th grade trip to Chicago for four days, and then I'm outta here. I don't think it has sunk in yet, that I'm leaving for good, and although the vast majority of me is jumping for joy, I'm sure a little part will be sad. There are a lot of great people here that I will miss.
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