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TGIA! Saturday, April 1, 2006 I love April. The weather starts to turn, plants start to bloom and blossom again, daylight savings time starts (tonight!), and both my birthday and graduation are rapidly approaching. I really think this month is going to turn out well. It has started out on a good note, with a 10K standalone PR this morning at the Meteor 10K. I know my running is going just fine, so now it's time to back that off a little bit and focus on the bike between now and nationals.
Coaching will mostly finish this week, although I will be earning my paycheck with three game days in a row. It's a lot easier now that the kids are playing other schools, but it is still stressful and I'll be happy when the season finally ends on the 10th. I'll finally have lots of afternoon time for training after next week.
Days like today... I hate Michigan. This weather can go take a running jump. My long ride today started out cool and windy, and then turned into cool, windy, and rainy. It took me an hour to get warm again. I took another day off from running to let my legs recover from yesterday - I could barely walk after my ride, so I think that was the right decision.
My training has really kind of sucked since the second week of March. I really need to do something about that. I know I shouldn't compare my training numbers to other people, but I don't feel that I'm doing as much as I should, and I know that I'm not even doing as much as I've been planning for myself. I might be able to change that this week, with daylight savings time and all, even though coaching will keep me busy most afternoons. If not, it won't be the end of the world, since I am keying up for Dooby in a week. I can always step it up after Dooby for a mini epic cycle to get myself prepared for nationals. One way or another, things will change. I just want them to change now, because I like training hard. I guess I am just too impatient - and too busy. Gotta work on that.
Oh my Talk about a crazy week. I had a job fair on Thursday (my birthday!) that I spent all week preparing for, to the exclusion of everything else outside of teaching and coaching. I managed to get zero training in all week, which was definitely not planned. It was frustrating, but the job fair went well as a result of my hard work. I'm also less than a week away from being totally done with my undergraduate career - I finish student teaching on the thirteenth, and will be completely obligation-free until graduation late in the month. That means lots of time to ramp my training up for nationals (and to actually update my blog more often).
My speedwork is all out of whack now, but I will just try to pick up where I left off and get myself fine-tuned as much as possible. The early season this year has been pretty frustrating, marred by setbacks of all types, but my racing seems to be going pretty well so far. We shall see how well I can put everything together a month from now in Mason.
Disaster! Flood! My room was invaded by water on Monday evening. The short version is that the sprinkler system one floor above my room was broken on Monday (by a knucklehead and a soccer ball) and there was an inundation on 2nd, 1st and basement floors. My room is in the process of drying right now, but I am not allowed to sleep in it or really to spend much time here (although I do anyway). I have been unable to train since Sunday's race, which is really frustrating, but it has given me time to recover.
The word going around is taht we may be allowed back in our rooms to try to restore life to somewhat normal tomorrow afternoon. My fingers are crossed, because I really need to get back out on the bike.
The end of the tunnel Incredible. I have finally reached the end of the tunnel - I am done with my undergraduate career, ready to move on to bigger and better things. I am working hard on finding a job, and I get to spend the next month and a half just relaxing in Ann Arbor, coaching track at the middle school and training a lot. Then I'll go back home to Pittsburgh for the rest of the summer to live at home while I finish my job search and plan the big move to wherever I'll be living in the fall.
I also finally got back into training today, riding for a couple hours and running one of my favorite loops in town. I've got to get myself back into the swing of things quickly, since nationals is creeping up a lot faster than I'd like.
Total relaxation This is the best I've felt in a long time. I'm back in the swing of training, it's warming up quite nicely outside, I have zero responsibilities to school anymore, and life is just peachy. I got word today that I have been re-sponsored by Zipp for 2006, which is awesome. I also got paid for my subbing at the middle school, and I found out that one of the schools I am interested in didn't just throw my resume out the window at first glance. Things are working out pretty well.
I'll be heading home to Pittsburgh for a day on Wednesday to renew my driver's license - always a good thing. I'm looking forward to a nice longish run at home.
Familiar feeling Well, back to being exhausted. The overnight train/bus trips in the past two nights have wreaked havoc on my body, and running long at home in the hills (we have real hills in Pittsburgh, not like the bumps in the road in Ann Arbor) really took a lot out of me. I could only manage an hour on the bike today, going pretty slow.
I think the fact that I am done with college is starting to sink in as graduation approaches. I've been job-hunting for a while now, but being a part of the working world hasn't really hit home until just recently. A large part of me is looking forward to it: having a teaching job will be challenging and rewarding, and will provide me with structure (not to mention a real paycheck), but it also means a little loss of freedom and time. I managed to totally drain myself of energy while student teaching, so I am going to have to figure that out before I get to wherever it is I'll be working.
Almost epic week This has not been an epic camp, but it certainly has been pretty tough. With one day still remaining (my training weeks go Monday to Sunday), I have put in about the same number of miles on the bike. My run miles are significantly lower, which is a little frustrating, but two overnight train trips in a row made hard training a little difficult. With only two weeks until nationals, I can't really up my mileage too much at the last minute, so I will have to do what I can to fine-tune my running form.
Coaching starts on Monday, which I am very excited about. This is the first time I will have a group of runners solely under my control, and their performance will be directly affected by how good of a program I design for them. Granted, it's middle school, so there's no huge pressure, but we would like to win the city championships this year, and to do so, we will need a strong distance squad.
Flash Me + Flash = a lot of wasted time. After having figured out something that has been frustrating me for a long time, I have spent the past couple days playing around with Flash to make some short clips. You have probably seen the intro already (if not, click here), and I also made a little clip for my sponsors' logos on the home page.
I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning to run, and put together a decent workout on the road. I was a little surprised, because I expected my legs to be totally dead from the past few days of training. That was definitely a pleasant surprise, and a good indicator that I can keep the intensity high next week as I start thinking about tapering for nationals.
Track attack
It's coaching time again, but this time I'm coaching something I know a little more about: track. I'm the distance coach (although technically I'm the girls coach) at the middle school, and our practices started yesterday. I'm adjusting to the new schedule after a week of having zero responsibilities, which is weird. I feel like I have completely lost the rhythm that I had when I was student teaching of getting up early and going to bed early as well. I can't even settle into this rhythm for long, since things will change drastically once I move out of the dorm and I have to do things like cook for myself. Here comes the real world... yikes!
Great week & graduation! This week has been really great:
- I got word that the school I've been looking at in Santa Barbara, CA, wants to do a phone interview with me.
I guess I can't ask for much more than that. After seven years of some fun and a lot more misery, college is finally over and I can start making a real name for myself in the working world. Woo WOOO!
Fun and excitement Finally done! The moment I'd been working towards for seven years finally arrived on Friday. The ceremony itself was ok: nothing special, but I finally got to wear the cap and gown and flip the tassel! The family, minus my brother who is in New York, were in town for the festivities, and we had a party at the hotel after graduation. My parents floored me when they handed me the keys to a car! They got me a '99 Toyota Rav4 for hauling my bikes and stuff around in. Unbelieveable. I also found out that I passed my final certification test with flying colors, so I will soon be licensed to teach! On Saturday, I moved out of the dorm for the very last time, and moved into a house with some cycling friends. I also went shopping and am currently trying to figure out how to cook food for myself, a skill I have never had to hone before. With all of the craziness yesterday, I took the day off from training and was still exhausted by mid-afternoon. This turned out to be the first day off in nearly two weeks, so it was well-needed. I got back in the swing of things this morning, however, and my legs bounced back from their fatigued state to feel pretty fresh. I ran and rode today, and I will start tapering off in preparation for this weekend. I am already starting to feel strong, so I have a good feeling about my race.
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