Preparation

It was a week of planning and preparation for middle school track season. Middle school track practice begins today (Monday, March 17th), so I went into full prep mode last week: adjusting practice plans, updating the team roster spreadsheet, dreaming up new workouts, etc. All of the prep work is done. It's time to take the leap into the busiest 8 weeks of the entire year, where both Jeff and I are head track coaches. I already went through the first week of track practice chaos with Jeff two weeks ago, but now I get to start over with my own middle school team chaos! Bring it on. Power pose. Yes I can. 

Since this is my third season as head middle school track coach, I'm not nervous in the same ways I have been in the past, but I definitely feel tense and poised for action. It's like I'm standing on the edge of a high dive, looking at all the things that may or may not happen once I take that one final step over the edge. If I focus and remember what I need to do and adapt to circumstances, I will not belly flop when I hit the water, but there will still probably be some amount of discomfort! I think there's an equal amount of comfort and discomfort from having done this before: I have all of my plans in place and they only took minor tweaking to get ready for the season to start, but I am familiar with all of the things that have gone wrong and all of the challenges I am going to have to overcome. I know exactly how much mental and physical energy the next 8 weeks will require of me. This is the starting line. The gun is about to go off. Deep breath.

While we're waiting for middle school track practice to begin, here's a silly story from Saturday:

Saturday (March 15th), I had a PLAN. I was going to the high school track jamboree in Yakima (45 minutes away), so I decided to make the most of the morning "in town." My plan was to drive to Yakima and run on the Yakima Greenway path (for a dog-free change of scenery). Then on my way to the track meet (a 15 minute drive from the path): pick up bananas and PBJ supplies for the track team at the grocery store, drop off a box of donations at the stake center, and change out of my running clothes, all by 11am so I could be at the track when the meet started. It was a realistic plan that took care of myself, the Relief Society stake activity, and the track kids. I was ready to rock and roll!

It was such a nice sunny morning, the pathway was pleasant, and I was in my pillowy light Nike Zoom Fly shoes, so I ran an extra mile out along the Yakima Greenway path, turning around to retrace my steps back to the car. That extra mile out transformed my run from 6 miles to 8 miles. It was a perfect day for my longest run in 6 months, so I went for it! My mid-run calculations told me that once I got back to my car, I would have 30 minutes to zip by the grocery store and stake center before the meet began--just enough time to make it all work if I was super efficient.

In my calculations, I did not account for one key variable. The Yakima Greenway path is kind of fragmented near the east end, which was where I parked. I had to run through the woods for over half a mile on an unpaved foot path to access the paved bike path. On the way back, the paved path suddenly dead ended into the woods sooner than expected. There was no packed foot path anywhere that I could see. I thought maybe I just didn't remember exactly where the foot path was, so I jogged slowly around the woods for a while, searching for the path. When I crossed a murky green creek (on an uncomfortably thin wobbly log), I was pretty certain that I was not where I wanted to be (since I didn't cross a creek earlier), but I still thought I could get to where I needed to be if I just went far enough into the woods. 

The thought to get out my phone and look at Google maps flitted through my head, but I wasn't lost; I was in between the Yakima River and Highway 82! I knew where I was and what direction I had to go; I simply could not find the path! By this point I was walking instead of running, picking my way around mud and over large rocks through the trees. The path got rockier and worse, until I finally felt completely desperately frustrated and annoyed. I said a prayer for help to find my way back and got out my phone to check the map. I retraced my steps through the rocks and across the creek, then followed the idea to jog back down the paved path a quarter mile or so. There I found a fork in the path that I had completely run past earlier. I recognized it immediately and finally was on the right path again! Another mile later, I was finally back at the car. My total run distance was 9 miles.

I barely had time to hurry over to the track meet--no time to get food for the runners and no time to even swing by the stake center! I parked waaaay out in the crowded parking lot and booked it into the meet just in time to see the first handoff of the first relay of the meet! 

That was a long saga, but it was just so ridiculous! The seven word summary of this run is my new claim to fame: I got lost on a bike path. HAH! It really was ridiculous. As I thought about it, though, I began to see a lesson in the experience. My pride and trusting in my own abilities got me absolutely nowhere when I was wandering through the woods. Even though I wasn't lost or confused as to where I was, I didn't know how to get to where I needed to be from there. Within a two minutes of my prayer for help, I was on the right path! And later, my friend, who was at the meet to watch her daughter run, volunteered to take the box of donations to the stake center for me. I never got the PBJ supplies for the track team, but they did end up stopping at a restaurant for dinner after the meet. I did have to wear my running clothes all day, layered with my warm wind gear on top, but I survived. My plan went completely awry, but everything worked out in the end. It felt like a little divine hug.

I spent the rest of Saturday at the track meet, even though Jay didn't even run a race! Jay injured his ankle last week and was waiting for it to heal fully before running again, but I couldn't resist going to the meet to support all of the lovable kids on the team that I have gotten to know at high school track practice over the past two weeks, plus all of the other dear kids that I already knew! It was a 50 degree SUPER windy day with patchy sun and clouds, so it was cold and exhausting being out there from 11am to 6:30pm, but it was also worth it to cheer on the team and spend time with them.

Rose and Amber stayed home all day on Saturday, and I left them each one big chore to do: Rose had to clean the barn floors, and Amber had to vacuum the basement. I found out later some of the other things they did together. Apparently Rose drilled Amber in her spelling words till Amber could spell them perfectly, and they practiced their piano duet together. They also watched at least one movie, and Amber made pancakes for dinner from scratch--her first time without adult assistance and supervision.

I'll let the handful of pictures I took this week do the talking for the rest of the week: 

Amber has been collecting these squishy animals from the prize box at school for a few years now. She got them all out to show us one night. She remembered when she got each animal.

This is the stray dog we call Spot that has been living on the edges of our yard for the past few weeks. One morning last week I saw spot jogging up the side yard with a rodent swinging from her mouth. She can feed herself and she never barks or comes closer to me than 30 feet: my ideal dog! Haha.

Jay had an orchestra concert on Thursday night. He looked pretty cool up there playing the bass!

Go Jay!

Blurry zoomed in cell phone picture.

One of the broken edges of the Yakima Greenway path dead ended into the Yakima River.

The Yakima River was high.

The other broken edge of the pathway dropping off into the river. I ran through the woods between these two dead ends.

Once I got out of the woods, I had to tiptoe on the edge of the river bank to get to the path.

Still early in the run, feeling happy tree vibes.

Interesting scenery: Yakima River on the right, auto junkyard on the left.

Snowy hills in the distance.

The big lumpy rocky path that I followed for too long before realizing it was NOT taking me where I needed to go.

The inadequate creek crossing--the stuff reflecting sunlight on the right is green scum growing on the surface of the water.

Matching Nike Zoom Fly flame coach shoes at the meet: Dan Winger, Jeff, and me.

I caved and got myself a jug of raspberry lemonade at the grocery store on the way home. Sweet nectar! I didn't drink the whole thing, but it soothed my tiredness on the dark drive home.

Jeff started letting Rose drive up the driveway, so I let her drive me up the driveway for the first time on Sunday after church. It was less terrifying having my second child in the driver's seat than it was for my first child, haha.

It was still intense. Rose did great. I was mostly fine.