The War of Attrition

Track season is a war of attrition. Little by little over the long weeks of late night meets and daily practices, the fatigue builds. Add in a sprinkling of extra-intense weeks with more responsibilities and that wear and tear speeds up. This season we seem to have had a few more of those extra-intense weeks than usual. Either that or the busy weeks we had were just closer together?  We are one week away from the high school district meet and two days away from the last middle school meet, and let me tell you, we are feeling it. All of it: the fatigue and readiness for track season to be over, but also the fun and satisfaction of the whole season of coaching coming together. It's a potent mix of emotions and energies. 

My trip to Virginia last weekend was a welcome fun break from the intensity of track season, but I also didn't get much sleep during that trip so diving back into the busy-ness of real life when I got back felt extra hard. I'm not sure how I peeled myself out of bed to get Jay to seminary on Monday morning! This week was extra intense for me because I was all booked up during the 5.5 hour school day between when I take Amber to school and when I leave for middle school track practice. 

On Monday, I had a chiropractor appointment and groceries to pick up, followed by a run and some weeding. Even though I was overjoyed to be reunited with my pretty piano after 5 days apart, I only had energy to play the piano for less than half of my usual daily time. It was piano lessons night for Rose and Amber, so dinner was out of the crock pot and on-your-own. Later that night, I found myself cleaning up dinner alone while everyone else lounged around, so I stopped, called everyone into the kitchen and told them what to do. It was maddening. Then Tuesday morning three things were still unfinished: 2 unwashed dishes and the counters weren't wiped. Sigh. Jeff is usually in charge of cleanup. He was extra tired from the weekend, but so was I! Sigh. I am definitely still taking unfinished kitchen cleaning personally over here. How do I stop?????

On Tuesday, I had an appointment at the eye doctor in the morning. Jeff stayed home today to recover from lots of long exhausting days, but we never discussed who would drive Jay and Rose to school. When he said he could "probably drive them," I kind of grumpily said "how noble of you," and stalked away. I felt indignant at the time because Jeff always drives them and I was exhausted too, and I was already going to drive Amber to school, and Jeff didn't ask me to drive them when he planned on taking the day off from work. Jeff drove Jay and Rose to school. When I got back from taking Amber to school and the optometrist, I apologized to Jeff for my cranky irritated words. I confessed that I get a little jealous when he takes a day off of work to rest, because I don't get to do that. Or I very very rarely get to do that, and even when I do, I still have things that I have to do around my rest. 

Basically, I needed SLEEP that wasn't coming. We had our 4th middle school track meet on Tuesday afternoon, waaaay out in Ellensburg (a 1 hour 30 minute bus ride away--the most far-away middle school meet). I left home at 12:30pm and got home at 11:11pm. The meet was cold and so windy, with 19mph sustained winds plus huge gusts. The wind blew the high jump bar off the standard while our high jumper was running towards it, before he even jumped! Rose ran a 6:58 mile, and a 3:15 800. She threw the discus a season best of 48'4". We spent another too-long 85 minutes at McDonald's after the end of the meet.

On Wednesday, I was pretty tired, but I muddled through with my limited decision making abilities. I did my hip/glute PT and then drove Amber to school. From there I took our van in to the dealership for an oil change and maintenance. I waited an hour there, and when they told me the maintenance would take another 2 hours, I took their shuttle home-- they actually dropped me off in front of my house! At home, I did a blog post about Virginia, then played piano and ate lunch. I had to call and ask if the van was done at 1:20pm (over 3 hours after they said it would be done). Thankfully it was "almost done" so I told them I'd be there by 2:15. I changed into my running clothes, packed my phone, credit card, and driver's license into the pockets of my sportsbra, and ran the 4.5 miles from our house to the dealership. I paid the painful bill, and then drove the freshly tuned van to track practice. It felt so efficient and self contained. I was proud of myself and a little relieved that it worked out so nicely, but it also took up my whole day!

On Thursday, I lifted weights with friends in the barn for an hour in the mid-morning. I still didn't have the energy to play the piano for my full regular daily time. I did manage to sit down long enough to watch almost an entire episode of a K-drama before track practice for the first time all week, which felt so good I wanted more rest! Track practice went well. We did box drops and jumps, and then played capture the flag. I was home for about half an hour between track practice and my next appointment: physical therapy in Pasco at 6pm. That's a 53 minute drive one way. This appointment lasted 2 hours! It was half excruciating PT, half brutal running drills. I was wobbly and worn out when I left. I got home at 9pm. 

On Friday morning, Jeff and I worked at the Special Olympics track meet for 3.5 hours. I had almost 3 hours between that and leaving for Jay's track meet in Yakima. During that time, I ran 3 miles and worked on poisoning gophers in our back yard--a new massive rash of holes appeared all over the place! I showered, ate, played piano for 12 minutes, and then left to pick up Rose and Amber from school. We went straight to Yakima (45 minute drive) for the meet. Jay ran a 5:03 mile!! A 9 second PR! We barely made it for the last 2.5 laps of his race because I had to get gas. We saw the beginning of lap 2 from the while pulling into the school, and sprinted through the full parking lot to the track! Jay ran so strong and so well!! It was his last 1600 of his sophomore track season. He runs the 3200 at the district meet next Saturday. Go Jay!

After Jay finished, we watched a few more races before heading out to a kind family's house 8 minutes from the track, where Jay and Bethany took showers and changed into their nice clothes for the stake formal dance/activity. A family from our stake was so nice to let them shower at their house! Us moms chatted on the couch while we waited for Jay and Bethany to get ready. When Jay was walking in from the car, he said "time to go get my dapper on." I love my boy! We took a quick picture of them together outside, and then Liz drove them to the dance (5 minutes away). They ended up arriving at the dance at the same time as the van with the rest of their friend group, and Jay said they stuck together as a group for the whole activity, playing games and food, with a little bit of dancing. The dance was outside in a big backyard, and they had foosball and ping pong and tennis plus tacos and cheesecake. Jay and Bethany rode home in their friend's van. Jay got home around 11:30pm! He was so tired. I was barely conscious enough to welcome him home. Nigh owls we are not.

Saturday morning I didn't get out of bed until 8am. It was cloudy so I didn't realize it was so late while I was dozing in bed, haha. I did my PT and 30 minutes on the elliptical, then donned my overalls and did 3.5 hours of yardwork: poisoning the rest of the endless gopher holes took an entire hour. Then I pulled the bigger driveway wees and sprayed weedkiller on the smaller ones. I helped Jay gather and burn the grass clippings from Rose's mowing. Amber loved being in charge of lighting the fire. It was pretty smoky, but worth it to get rid of that grass. We still have a huge pile of grass clippings from the backyard because they were too green to burn. 

I took a brief lunch break in the middle, but when I finished in the yard, I barely had enough time to shower before heading out to the girls' piano studio recital at 3:30pm. Both girls did their best battling with a moment or two of tangled fingers in their songs. All in all, I think both girls were glad to be done with the recital. We had some sweet refreshments before heading home. I finally managed to play the piano for a whole hour at once for the first time all week, and then vegged the rest of the evening.

TGFS: Thank Goodness For Sunday. A day of rest. And catching up on the blog.

Ellensburg middle school track meet: this picture looks deceptively beautiful whereas we were actually freezing in crazy winds.

Rose, running into a 19mph headwind on the backstretch during her 1600 meter race.

Me, in three hoods and a hat: I bundled up in my merino hoodie, down coat, and rain jacket. Cold windy days coaching at track meets are pretty miserable.

I gave my puffy blanket to these three cute girls (Rose, Mia, and Allyson) so they could attempt staying warm before the 800 meter race.

Rose in the 800!

The homestretch, with the wind at her back (finally!)

I was an exchange zone judge for three relay heats, and I had to disqualify two teams for botched handoffs! One team dropped the baton, and the other team didn't hand off the baton within the boundaries of the exchange zone. I kept waving my red flag and running across the field to tell the timers what happened.

Coach Alfredo got ice cream for everyone who ran, jumped, or threw a season best mark at McDonald's after the meet. I felt even colder just watching them eat their ice cream, haha.

I sent a selfie to the sister from our stake whose house Jay showered at on Friday night, so she would recognize us. Jeff joined in.

I forgot to get a picture of the Special Olympics track meet, so I took a t-shirt selfie in the parking lot on my way out.

Jay and his buddy Jordan, waiting for the bus to the Friday afternoon track meet.

Jay, tearing up the track during his fastest 1600 meter race ever!

Go Jay!

Amber likes climbing this tree every time we go to track meets at Eisenhower High School.

Jay and Bethany, transformed from sweaty runners into a glamorous formal friend-date.

The Sunnyside friend group at the dance! 7/8 of these kids are all in our ward and all in the same grade. I love them.

Amber learned how to do a complicated friendship bracelet at her primary activity this week, and she has been weaving string in all of her spare time ever since. She completed two bracelets in just four days!

While I was in Virginia, my mother in law Leslie gave us some flowers. I was not home enough this week to notice that they were past the end of their vase lifespan. I put the chairs on the kitchen table so the Roomba has space to maneuver, so the chairs kind of blocked the flowers' demise. Amber gleefully painted in the pollen and stacked the fallen petals. I still haven't found the gumption to clean this mess up.

Floral disaster.

CURSE THE GOPHERS! I'm learning that they don't always cast up a nice big visible mound when they burrow, so it took me close to 2 hours to find and dump poison peanut pellets down all of the many many holes in our large backyard this week. UGH. DIE, rodents!

Our next door neighbors recently moved the fence so it sits right along our property boundary (previously it was about 15 feet away from the boundary), so their heifers are right up next to our yard. While I was out poisoning gophers on Saturday, these endearing bovines followed me up and down the fence, imploring me with their big wide eyes. I did not give them any of my poison peanut pellets, no matter how much they looked at me.

My favorite neighbors are not human, haha.

The weather was pretty moody on Saturday. These cows all lined up along the fence made me laugh.

I let Amber light our pile of grass clippings on fire. She was very willing to help with this part of yardwork.

We eventually added a couple of wood pallets to get the fire to burn better.

Amber, playing The Happy Farmer at her piano recital.

Rose, playing Solfeggietto at the piano recital.

Amber, standing up front with her piano teacher and fellow four-year music students (our teacher teaches violin and piano lessons). It's crazy to think that Amber is only one year away from taking piano lessons for as long as I did.

Rose was the lone 5 year piano student this year. She got a trophy for it. (Rose has taken 7 years of piano lessons--she took piano lessons for the first 2 years with a different teacher before we switched studios.)