All Manner of Pressing Issues

According to the birds I have heard singing all day, spring is on its way! The changing of the seasons makes me ready for all sorts of change! I get in the mood to reorganize, rearrange and try new things (the menu I have planned this week is evidence of this!).

To make a long story short, I have some tendons in my left foot that are not well and I have stepped foot on a treadmill only  3 times in the past 3 weeks. Between the injury, snow storm and our move my exercise routine has taken a back seat. This has been fortunate for me in the long run though because the hiatus has caused me to take a step back and evaluate my training.

Previously, my routine consisted of waking each day at 4:45 and running 5 miles on the treadmill nearly 5 days/week and then running a long run (for marathon training) on Saturdays at 7:00 a.m. As you can imagine, this took a toll on me in lots of ways I didn’t see at the time, but see now. My feet are letting me know about it!

During this 3 week break I’ve been on, I have thought a lot about whether I want to continue racing. I thought that maybe I wouldn’t do marathons anymore and I’d stick to shorter races like 10Ks and 12Ks. However, I kept going back to how much I loved every step of the marathon and the feeling I had around mile 18 when I felt like I could run for another 20 miles and had the wind at my back! Why would I not want to experience that again???

I finally concluded that, yes, I will continue to race. I am not fast. I will most likely never win a race  (I’ll never say never!). However, I love the atmosphere at races and I enjoy trying to beat my previous times. So, now my new plan is to actually follow a marathon training program instead of ignoring it. I am confident that if I follow “directions” I will be able to run injury free. So, I’ll run 3 days a week instead of 6-7. Sounds much more reasonable,don’t you think?

I am also going to start taking spinning and yoga classes. This will give me something different to do on my cross training days. I also am now the proud owner of an aqua-jogger. I will be able to use this whenever the mood strikes or if I do happen to get injured again. I aqua-jogged quite a bit through college; it’s not just for older people!

Hopefully this new plan will enable me to finish many more marathons injury free!

Next races: Shamrock Half Marathon (Virginia Beach) and Marine Corps Marathon (DC)

I’m sure there will be other races in between those!

This is what I found on my desk this afternoon–exactly like this–I didn’t move anything before snapping a photo of it. Every so often one of my students will leave a little note for me on my desk. I love their little surprises!

I will soon be back in reality. I have not been to work since February 4 and I have left my house 3 times in a car since then. Getting dressed for the day has consisted of showering and putting on clean yoga pants and a t-shirt or fleece. My daily routine has involved cooking (3 meals/day!!), knitting, laundry, exercising, straightening the house, cleaning and walking the dog. I can’t believe that starting tomorrow I’ll be doing all of this plus working full time. Whew! It feels like I have been off work for much longer than just 11 days.

Having said all of that…  believe it or not I am eager to get back into a routine and get back to work. I have kept myself very busy at home, but even still I am much more productive on a tighter schedule. Also, I’ve missed my students! We have a 2 hour delay tomorrow because of road conditions. I am glad for that though because that will give me extra time to get our classroom ready. I think I cleaned it before I left, but I honestly don’t remember. I have most of our lessons planned for the week, but need to fine-tune everything early tomorrow morning before my little darlings arrive! I know they’ll have lots of stories to share and write about! Can’t wait!!!

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

I wouldn’t want to live this adventure,

With anyone but you!

After spending a week in 2+ feet of snow with no waterproof shoes, these are on their way to my house.

I don’t know if you can tell from this picture or not, but the snow fall has begun!