The 5,000

My favorite track race in college was the five thousand kilometers, also known as the five thousand for short, or the 5k, or sometimes just "the five." It's 12.5 laps of speed and endurance. The fastest I ever ran the five thousand was when in college when I was 19 years old, at the 2006 Jopson Invitational at Bridgewater College. My time was 20:12. I never managed to break that large looming 20 minute barrier, and I am at peace with that. Marriage, motherhood, and real life are full and happy and good. I never expected to want to run a lifetime personal record after college. But the more Jeff and I learn about training methods, the more we see what we did wrong in college. We were always sore and fatigued from imbalanced overly intense workouts. I slowly realized that I probably never reached my true potential in my young spry days of college running.  

The District XC Meet

We attended the grand finale district cross country meet on Thursday, October 28th. The meet was held in Wenatchee, WA at Walla Walla Point Park by the Columbia River, which is about a 2.5 hour school bus ride from Sunnyside High School. It was another long haul twelve hour cross country meet day. Five of those twelve hours was spent crunched on a bouncy-jouncy school bus rocketing through curvy minor highways. Getting to Wenatchee on a school bus is no picnic. The journey is always a challenge to my tendency for motion sickness. Thankfully, I survived with bearable nausea levels.

Octoberlicious

This post is composed of miscellaneous Octoberlicious everyday journal clips from the past few weeks, since it helps me feel more organized. Random journal clips are fun peeks into daily life:

Monday, October 11th: I made a massive pot of chicken chowder for dinner tonight. It was creamy and warming and 100% dairy free! (almond cashew milk and olive oil instead of cream and butter). The kids loved it. Even Amber had a few spoonfuls: "MMMM! This is way gooder than last time!" Hah. Jeff had parent teacher conferences tonight. After dinner, the kids and I played a long game of Slamwich together for family game night/FHE. Amber ran out of cards early and was sad, so I kept donating some of my wins to her to get her back in the game. Rose ended up winning and Amber came in second. It was a good ending. It's been a long time since I spend mom time with just me and my kids, and we had fun together. Tonight reminded me of our Wedventures that we went on last fall. They were so fun. I love my kids.

Running at the Gorge

Our seventh of seven consecutive Saturday cross country meets was held in the middle of nowhere central Washington at the Columbia River Gorge Amphitheater on October 16th. It was about an 80 minute drive from Sunnyside on bus-bouncing minor state highways. This was the Moses Lake Invitational, and it was the last race of the middle school cross country season--Jay's last race in his first official cross country season! The high school team still has two more weeks in its season, but this was it for the middle schoolers!

Notes from a tired mom

It's been a tired week. I had several restless nights of minimal sleep, which led me to feeling tired, which led me to feeling cranky and trapped by the expectations placed on me-- by myself, by my family, and by others. This morning I felt down and worn thin and just kind of sad. So I called my mom and while we were talking, I realized that I am allowed to be tired. I am allowed to be tired, even if my life isn't as hectic or hard in the same ways as it has been in the past. I am allowed to be tired now, regardless of how my circumstances compare to others.

Clips

It was another busy week. I barely took any pictures and only wrote in my journal out of sheer willpower. Here are some journal clips from the past week, with corresponding daily pictures:

September Books

It's book report time! September was a 14 book month, somehow.  

Some eloquent trees from Sunnyside's Central Park in September.

Autumn Gold Album

"The air smelled so clean that breathing deep felt like medicine." --Kathryn Nicolai, Nothing Much Happens.

My running shadow, cast upon a mowed mint field, with golden corn tassels in the background and grapes to the far right.

The Myth of the Lazy Mom

Setup: While Jay was saying the dinner prayer a few nights ago, he said "we're thankful for this food, even though it's just leftovers." 

Then Thursday morning over breakfast (while I was attempting to read my scriptures but getting interrupted every other verse), Rose looked across the table at me and said "Mom, I wish I could stay home all day and do nothing, like you." 

It's so fun being devalued by the humans whom I descended nigh unto death to grow, bear, and raise.

Official Cross Country Takeover

Over the past month, we have been walking the line between life and CROSS COUNTRY. This weekend we slipped and fell headfirst into a full-on cross country takeover. Our high school cross country team did not have a meet on Saturday. It was a much-needed breather at the halfway point in our season. The middle school team did have a meet, however, and our entire family rode the bus to this meet for several excellent reasons: 

1. Our son is on the middle school team.
2. Jeff and I are both cross country coaches.
3. The middle school team only has one coach (no assistant)
4. We are trying to build the running program in our school district from the foundation (aka middle school), which involves cooperation between high school and middle school teams to foster connections and trust (and get those middle schoolers to sign up for high school cross country).

Remember September

September is such a busy intense month that it is hard to find energy to write about it. When I open my journal at the end of each day, I am too tired to want to write about what made me tired! But even saying "I'm tired" is pretty much redundant for anyone involved in the school district, from those who send their kids to school and school activities to those who are school teachers and/or coaches. Or anyone living life in general. I'm trying to banish the scarcity mindset when it comes to sleep and rest and accept that I have enough of both for the day at hand, but it's hard when I generally do feel that I would benefit from two or more extra hours of sleep and/or rest each day. 

During school hours, my days are divinely quiet and mostly Shaina-centered (as I have planned them to be), but outside of that glorious six hours per day, it is full steam ahead with all of the busy intensity that this season has to offer. I am so thankful that I have those hours during school to recoup both our house and myself in preparation for the next onslaught of cross country practices, dinnertime, and kid-taxiing. After long Saturdays at cross country meets, it takes me till practically Thursday before I feel caught up on rest and life again. Then another Saturday with another meet comes back at me with a vengeance and the cycle begins again! As busy September gets, however, it's still worth remembering. Here's my attempt, from the trenches.

August Books

August: summer ended and school started. I read 14 books during that month of shifting routines. When I was writing this post, I realized that I didn't have too much to say about the fluffy fun fiction that I read, but I had a whole lot more to say about the two quality nonfiction books I read. Fiction rests my mind so I have the brainpower to take on the thought provoking nonfiction! Stress, rest, repeat: the time-honored method for building strength--works on both the mind and the body.