High school track season started this week! The first day of practice was Monday, March 2nd. The weather was eerily perfect: sunny, mid 50s, with a light breeze. I kept waiting for the wind, rain, and cold blustery weather to come, but that waited till Tuesday. Monday was lovely! Being a track coach is a master class in savoring the golden moment and accepting that it probably won't last, haha.
Journal excerpts from the week, interspersed with the sparse pictures I took that day:
Monday, March 2nd: So. Tired. Wow. Coaching always hits hard on day one of the season, even for us volunteer coaches. After I dropped Amber off at school, I was feeling kind of heavy and grouchy and off emotionally. I called my amazing long-suffering Mom to talk, and while we talked, I realized that I was holding in my heart so many little hard things that happened over the weekend. Telling my Mom about them was like siphoning off internal pressure. I felt so much better and calmer and ready to face the day after we talked for over an hour. My mom is the best.
At track practice, Jeff gave me a clipboard to take attendance of all the 50+ new girls today, so it was intense! Then we did some sorting with a sprint workout and plyos. I even attempted a small handful of speed ladder pogo hops on my tentative tendons. They are so tired from it. I wonder how long it'll be before my ankle, Achilles, and arch tendons feel fully normal again. Anyways, HS track practice day 1 went well! Jeff is amazing, demonstrating the sprint drills in an impressive way that elicited "wow" from the group several times. I had fun seeing athletes from my past middle school teams and from cross country. I was surprised at how many kids I already knew, and also at how many new faces there were that I didn't know!
I ran and did my pull-up-prep workout right before track practice today. It was 63° and sunny with a gentle breeze. Unheard of weather for day one of track season! By 3pm today, 186 high schoolers had signed up for track. Only 112 showed up for practice, but still. Even that number was huge when everyone started the warm-up jog around the track at the same time!
Rose left after just 30 minutes of track practice today to walk over to driver's ed class. Jeff picked her up and took her to piano lessons right after that. Whew! Science fair may be over, but Rose is still plenty busy! When Rose got home from piano lessons at 6:40pm tonight, she told us there was an awards night for science fair at 7pm. Jeff and I balked. We made the call: Rose needed to stay home and eat dinner and recover! She had been going nonstop for 13 hours! So we stayed home.
Around 8pm, a friend texted us saying that Rose got first place in the 9th grade science fair! Rose was so excited! I felt bad that we didn't go to the awards, but also...we would've sat there for an hour or more... and Rose needed dinner...but she worked so hard on her science fair project... Anyways, go Rose! She was in tears during dinner tonight because her science fair notebook, which she left right by her display board as instructed at the fair on Saturday, disappeared! Today when she arrived at school it was nowhere to be found. Poor Rose! She is so confused and sad. She looked all over our house and car, just in case she accidentally brought it home, but it was nowhere. I told her to pray for help, and we prayed for the notebook to be found during family prayer too.
I made peanut sauce and noodles so they were ready for dinner when we got home from practice. I cooked the linguine noodles while I was eating lunch, and forgot to stir them after the first two minutes, so a layer of the long noodles stuck to the bottom of the pot and burned. Yeah. I burned pasta. In water. I'm telling you, the first Monday of track season hit me hard!
Tuesday, March 3rd: So. Tired. Coaching is exhausting. Such a shock to the system. I'm more tired today because I got cold at practice and it drained me even more. I also talked to a lot of kids at practice and that drained me too. Thankfully I had dinner hot, homemade, and ready to eat in the oven and crock pot when we got home.
Rose found her science fair notebook today! It had been somehow stuck in someone else's binder, and they found it today and returned it! She texted me so relieved. Our many lost notebook prayers were answered! While I was driving Amber home after practice today, I told her the notebook news, making sure to highlight that our prayers were answered. Amber thought for a second and then replied, "I bet Satan isn't too happy right now." I laughed and joked back "Not today, Satan!" Amber cracked up at that.
Rose walked from school to driver's ed today in time for her first instructor drive at 3pm (no track practice for her today). Right after the drive, Rose had her 2 hour driver's ed class till 6pm. Several of the new girls on the track team asked me, "Where is Rose? She told us to sign up for track, but she's not here!" I told them about driver's ed, and they nodded in understanding. One girl said "Rose is so nice!" Several other girls nodded in agreement. I told them, "I think so too." Rose is a star so far in high school! She's so sweet and hardworking.
Tonight, Jay got ahold of the patriarch and set up an appointment to get his patriarchal blessing on April 19th! Yay! I'll probably weep the whole time.
Jeff is feeling so good this week suddenly. His system regulated yesterday and he had so much energy today, he went to the barn and lifted weights after track practice today. Practically unheard of! I hope it lasts, even though I know good times are never guaranteed with his dysautonomia rollercoaster.
Wednesday, March 4th: So tired. I took a recliner nap today too. Track practice really takes it out of me! It was windy and cloudy with a not-nice cold rainfall right in the middle of practice today. My feet stayed wet the rest of practice.
This morning I put on my running clothes, took Amber to school, and went to my chiropractor appointment. My plan was to run on the bike path after my appointment. When I came out of the chiropractor office, it was still 46°, windy, and raining steadily. I couldn't face running in that, so I went home and changed out of my running clothes. I felt so tired and blah that I reluctantly took it easy all morning. One of the hardest questions I ask myself almost daily is: am I being lazy or am I taking care of myself? The answer is different every day because the situation is different every day. Today I felt a little lazy and pathetic, but I took time to rest before track practice and it made a difference.
I was able to do some running at the track before practice started. It was a whatever run: I ran a few laps alone, then one or two with Rose, then one with Kennedy. Then I jumped into Rose and Joshua's short 200m workout that they did before leaving for driver's ed. Speed is hard! I ran 5x 200 in 39-40 seconds each. Whew! My hammies! Once practice got underway, I did the sprint drills with the newbies and discovered yet again, with precision, how weak my right inner ankle tendons are. They are sore again now.
Amber walked to the track after school, ran a mile around the track, and then snagged a ride home with Jay earlier than her coach parents. She's pretty savvy! I ended up bumming around Grocery Outlet for half an hour after practice in my windblown state, while waiting for Rose to be done at driver's ed, since there wasn't quite enough time to make going home first worthwhile.
We had family prayer with one scripture verse after the kids got back from their youth activity at the church tonight. (2 Nephi 2:11 about opposition in all things felt extra relevant after the windy rainy brutal track practice.) We rarely manage family scripture and prayer on Wednesday nights, so it felt extra good.
Thursday, March 5th: My nephew Steve got his mission call today! He's going to Mexico City Chalco mission, reporting June 24th!
So. Tired. It was windy at track practice today. At least it didn't rain, but whew wind is exhausting and so overstimulating. The new HS track kids seemed more comfortable around me today for some reason. They kept coming up to me to ask questions and tell me things. It was sweet.
I lifted with Liz and Danae this morning. They are such sweet good friends and I'm glad to know them. I did all my productive housework before driving Amber to school (clean bathrooms and vacuum carpet) so I could rest after lifting, because I was so tired. I took a 30+ minute recliner nap instead of watching (aka while trying to watch) and episode before track practice. It was necessary.
Rose had her last driver's ed class instruction today. She takes the written test tomorrow and the state written test on Monday. And she still has five more drives to do with an instructor. Then she'll be done!
Amber had fun playing with two other coaches' kids in the wind at track practice today. They built a fort out of plastic storage bins. She also ran a mile on the track, weaving around the HS runners. Amber is so confident! It's cute. She told me with an eye roll that they had "another puberty talk" at school today, "and I disclosed that I have a period." The way she talks is so funny sometimes! I asked if anyone else said they have a period, and Amber said nobody said anything, "but this one girl is taller than me so I think she must have a period too." Height equals menstruation and maturity, apparently.
Tomorrow is the last day of the trimester in HS, and Jay says he has nothing left to do in any of his classes, so it's going to be a boring day. I could use a boring day-- I only had time and energy to play piano for 11 minutes today.
Scripture thought from Thursday, because it goes with the picture:
Alma 33:22. "Then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God"
This reminded me of the sky over the past 15 hours: Yesterday afternoon at track practice, a massive thick dark cloud slowly slid across the sky right over the track like an evil spaceship, blocking the sun. The wind picked up and it started to rain big cold raindrops. "Can we go inside?" one kid asked. "No!" I told him, "this is track practice!" As the rain fell (slanted) and wind blew, we continued with practice: jumping, running, sprinting and throwing as usual.
15 minutes later, the rain tapered off. The big dark cloud continued its progress across the sky, and the sun came out again. Even the wind got gentler! Our clothes dried as we continued practice. A rainbow appeared on the far side of the retreating dark cloud. Then a second rainbow appeared next to the first.
This morning, a massive dark cloud sat stubbornly over our house. As I was eating breakfast looking out the window, the rising sun lit the bottom of that huge cloud and turned it gold. Another layer of dark gray cloud was behind it, and behind both the gold cloud and the dark gray cloud was the almost-full moon. The round coin of a moon slipped through both clouds, sinking slowly toward the horizon as it set. 10 minutes later, the gold had faded from the cloud and the sky was bland again.
These two experiences with the dynamic sky came to my mind when I read Alma 33:22 today. Darkness can't exist where light shines. Cast about your eyes, even in darkness, and find the light. Keep going through the storm with faith that God will help. Find God's love amidst the storm, even if it's just for a minute.
Friday, March 6th: It was a beautiful day outside today! I slept in till nearly 6:30am (no seminary on Fridays is medicinal). I got all of my work done before driving Amber to school, so I was able to play piano for a satisfying amount of time. This afternoon I ran a glorious 6 miles on the bike path. It was sunny and 62° with a gentle breeze. I ran in shorts and my favorite ducky patterned sportsbra, and felt so happy the whole time!
HS track practice came right after my run. Jeff and I have finished sorting all 70+ newbies! Whew! A few will probably still shuffle between events over the next two weeks, but we made it through the first week of track season! Whew! Only one coach quit last minute this year, unlike the three that happened last year. Thankfully a former coach was waiting to get his old coaching job back, so we didn't have to wait long to fill the empty position.
Rose walked to the driver's ed place to take her written test this afternoon before track practice--she passed! She's not done yet--just done with the daily 2 hour classes. Now she has to do five hours of driving with an instructor and take a second written test and two driving tests. Washington state does not mess around with teenagers on the road!
We had family movie night tonight and I totally resisted the siren call of pizza-- delicious, dairy-laden, digestive destroying, zero-kitchen-effort pizza. I had home-cooked healthy leftovers and my tummy thanked me.
I am tired! My various tender spots (tendons, muscles, joints) are doing relatively well after my 6 mile run, but we'll see how they feel tomorrow!
[end journal entries]
Saturday, March 7th was the annual Red and Black Trials for the high school track team--a mini intra-squad practice meet. Basically, it's a team time trial. Jeff likes to air out the automatic timing system and make sure it's in good working order at the beginning of the season, so he created this low-key event. Coaches arrived at 8:30am to set up. Jeff gave us all a lesson in how to set up the timing system. It involves so many cables and delicate equipment! Once all of that was ready to go, I got my clerk clipboard and went to work organizing kids and marshaling them into place for their events. We only did five track events, so it was much simpler than a full meet, but there were still over 20 heats total for me to line up.
Only one girl was present for the 600 meter race, so we combined her with the boys' race. This girl was new and I had a feeling that she wouldn't want to run all by herself significantly behind all of the boys. So I tossed my clipboard on the grass and offered to run the 600 next to her so she wouldn't have to do it alone. She readily agreed. I was prepared, wearing my PBJ patterned shorts and singlet under my sweats and jacket. What I wasn't prepared for was how fast a new runner could start a 600 meter race! We went very close to an all-out spring for the first 200 meters, and then the girl crashed and burned and nearly crawled to the finish over the last 400 meters. Who needs a warm-up anyways? ME! Haha, oh well, there was no time for that.
Fifteen minutes later, Jay, Rose, and Amber ran the 1600m. Once again, ignoring my body's need for a proper warmup, I tossed my clipboard aside and jumped into the1600 to pace Amber. Amber was hoping to run under 7 minutes, but it became clear after the first lap and a half that she did not have it in her that day. She got mad at me for encouraging her to run next to me, so I decided to speed up and run the last lap with Rose.
I caught up to Rose with just under 300 meters to go, and encouraged her to race me to the finish...but she ignored me! I passed her and she did not respond at all. So I backed off and ran a little ahead of her, trying to tantalize her into speeding up. Finally, during the last 60 meters, she sped up a little. So I sped up too and didn't let her have it, haha. My time was 7:09, Rose was 7:10, and Amber was 7:19. I don't know if the way I ran this mile counts as good coaching or a mom-coach-fail. Hahaha.
Meanwhile, Jay was so revved up to finally break 5 minutes in the mile that he blitzed the first 200 meters in 30 seconds and then spent the rest of the race doing battle with the consequences of that choice. He finished in 5:17. This time trial did make me wonder how fast I could run a mile if I was running it for myself. Next time I definitely need to do a warm-up, though...and a cool-down.
Saturday's weather was glorious and perfect, but when we got home from the track, all I wanted to do was veg. I managed to shower and then collapsed into my chair with a k-drama. It is inordinately difficult to do yardwork during coaching seasons. I felt the tug of responsibility to do yardwork, but couldn't muster the energy or gumption to take it on. The forecast for the upcoming week is all wind all the time, soooo I totally should've done yardwork while the weather was nice! Hopefully that will motivate me to get to work on the next nice (non-windy) day.
The down side to clerking the track time trial and then randomly running two events was I took zero pictures of my kids running! I have zero pictures of the first track event of the season. Oh well, track pictures all look the same, right? haha. This was a rare opportunity though--since we combined the boys and girls into one race for the 1600m, all three of my kids were running the same exact race at the same exact time! Rose wished that I had gotten a picture of Jay right before he lapped her in the mile, so she could have a picture that made it look like she was running in front of Jay and beating him in a race, haha.
1 comment:
I’d say your coaching/parenting style is excellent—very much like how Jesus “coaches” us: explain—>demonstrate—>encourage—>allow us to choose whether to follow His coaching.😊
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