After running my 3:30 in Boston, my confidence was sky-high. My head was spinning with all the goals I wanted to accomplish in the remainder of this year, and I knew as soon as I recovered, I'd be back at the track, working hard again, and chasing down more PRs.
Then I never really recovered properly, and paid the price, with a couple of tough races, followed by several weeks of really rough running.
Then, just as I was starting to feel good again, summer arrived. The heat and humidity are literally sucking the life out of my runs. After two or three weeks, I'm starting to feel slightly more acclimated to it, and I have had a couple of good runs, but this morning's track workout was not one of them.
I know it's the weather, and I know I need to cut myself some slack. But today is one of those days it's bugging me. I program my workouts into my Garmin, and it not only beeps to tell me when to start and stop my repeats and rest intervals, but it also 'helpfully' beeps to let me know if I should be running faster.
Usually I only hear a beep once in a while, but this morning was almost constant beeping - which was accompanied by an equally annoying "Speed Up!" message flashing on the display. I seriously thought about taking the thing off my wrist and throwing it into the woods.
Yes, the humid air makes running very difficult. Yes, I need to go easy on myself and recognize that I put in my best effort, and that has to be good enough right now. Yes, I know I haven't lost all the fitness I gained through the months of Boston training, even though that's how I'm feeling at the moment. Yes, I'm being a little dramatic about what was simply a tough run in tough conditions.
And I know tomorrow, I'll probably feel way better about it, and turn my attitude around, and be ready to tackle my next workout. Today is just one of those days it got to me.
Complicating matters is the fact that I've barely had time to stop and catch my breath since we left for our vacation at the end of June, and although our time has been filled with lots of very fun stuff, I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed.
Carmine, I think, would have been perfectly content to not go anywhere at all, he was so thrilled with the little rolling suitcase I bought him for our trip. He spent the two days before we left rolling it around the house, and a good portion of our first day in Morrill was spent the same way. And as I put his clothes in, I told him that I was packing, so the suitcase was then referred to as his 'pack.' Probably one of the most exciting parts of the trip for him.
Gabe was excited, but also a little concerned about our big international travel plans, and questioned us at length about our border crossing into Canada. "Do we need to have shots? Is the food ok to eat? What is the food like? What will it look like there?" It was certainly not as exotic as I think he imagined it might be, but he was pretty impressed with the scenery - and happy that Canada had pizza.
Dante was the most excited, and had been counting down for weeks. His excitement and enthusiasm for life in general is just amazing - one of the things I love most about him. He whiled away many of his hours in the car sketching - and when he wasn't sketching, he was talking our ears off, and making sure that I was taking pictures of everything for the photo album he wants to put together to show his friends.
I did, of course, take pictures of everything, and we had a fabulous time - first in coastal Maine and then in way-the-hell-up-there northern Maine (and Canada). We explored Acadia National Park in the fog, had some good laughs and delicious meals with my aunt and uncle, and survived many, many hours in the car.
And then we spent many more hours in the car and explored Caribou, where my dad grew up. Seeing my boys standing in the same fields that I ran around in as a kid, and knowing they were learning about their Grampy's heritage, and seeing how happy it made him to have them there - it made all those hours in the car totally and completely worth it. Oh, and they were pretty excited that they got to drive tractors, too!
A side trip to Canada to see some breathtaking scenery and more family history,
and then the long journey back home, with a few more stops along the way.
It was everything a family road trip should be, complete with bickering and whining to balance out the fun and laughter and memories.
And just as I got the vacation laundry completed, the day after we got home, we had last-minute houseguests for the 4th, and enjoyed a fabulous 4th of July beach day and cousin sleepover. More awesome summer memories for the boys.
But the fun didn't stop there! A full weekend of beachgoing led us right into this week's craziness - the boys first week of summer camp, and my first-ever Kids Running Camp. It runs for 4 mornings this week, and I think we're off to a good start. The kids seem to be having fun, and I'm doing my best to mix things up a lot for them and keep them interested and keep them moving. The heat does not seem to be slowing them down the way it slows me down - they just want to keep running and running and running!
My smartest last-minute addition to my camp supplies - a spray bottle filled with ice-cold water. They love running over for a mist of cold water on their heads - and I've sprayed my own head a few times, too.
I'm so glad we got enough kids to make it a go this year. I tried last year, but got the info out too late, and only had a couple kids enroll, so had to cancel. This year, it actually filled up about a month ago, and I had a couple of kids on a waitlist! If the feedback from this year is positive, I may do it again next year.
There may be other things on the horizon next year, too, since my crazy schedule is continuing into this coming weekend, when I head up to Salem, MA for my RRCA Coaching certification course.
A weekend away to talk/learn about running for two days straight, a night in a hotel by myself (ah, the solitude!), a get-together with old friends from my Boston days - it's going to be a great little getaway!
And then once that's done, we will finally resume our regular summer schedule of beach, beach, and more beach!
Luckily, for as much as I hate running in this weather, in all other respects I love it, because it's perfect beach-going weather, and I am looking forward to lots and lots of beach time with my guys this summer. Gabe and Dante are pretty darn easy to handle at the beach now - they spend most of the time in the water on their boogie boards - and Carmine is far easier now than he was last year.
Still not a lot of relaxing and reading going on, but I know that soon enough, they'll all be off with their friends, wanting nothing to do with building sand castles, and mortified at the thought of boogie boarding with their mom.
So I'm going to join in on the fun while I can.
All those books I want to read will still be there when I have the time for them.
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