The Last Week

This is the last week of school! The most stressful, nerve-wracking, heart-breaking week in all of school. Well, for most people. I, on the other hand, have been handing in final papers and projects over the past few weeks, leaving me with only two finals. Not a bad week at all, actually. My biggest enemy will be boredom, methinks.
I got the results from my blood work back last Thursday. I am anemic, which really does explain a lot, but it also makes me think as to how long this has been going on- I've had these symptoms for almost a year now, so does that mean I have wasted a year of what could have been good training? Either way, I'm glad this got figured out before summer. My B12 and D levels were below what is considered "normal," so they were much too low for an athlete. My iron level was in the low end of "normal," which means that it was too low for an athlete. What do I do now? THe doctor told me to take 1000 IU of D and 1000 micrograms of B12 eery day; until I get the vitamins, I will be upping my consumption of all meat and (lactose-free) dairy, because those are the only natural sources of B12. I'm trying to get back on track with my training, with more of an emphasis on running to get ready from Cross Country in the fall. It's gonna be a good summer of training.
On a totally unrelated note, my roommate got engaged this weekend. He had told me last week that he was going to propose, but no one else expected him to do it until after the summer, which made the surprise that much sweeter. They really are the perfect couple, complementing (and complimenting) each other in many ways. No date for the wedding yet, but I know that he'll make sure all they guys on our team are able to make it.

End of the Season Blues

My track season ended abruptly, curtailed by various injuries and mysterious symptoms. Brief history: burn out at end of last cross-country, built a road bike and began cycling, spent the winter biking/running roughly 10 hours a week, sat out of indoor track season, came into outdoor season less prepared than I had anticipated, raced at a mediocre level, and finished. I don't know what the problem was; I just couldn't get myself going at the intensity needed. My parents believe that I've lost too much weight and am suffering the consequences of that; my coaches think it might be anemia, iron deficiency, and so I had blood taken the other day for testing. I won't get the results until the end of this week. And finally, I've had nagging injuries. Several weeks ago I bought a new saddle for my bike, but my body did not take to it and I developed piriformis problems in my left hip. After a few weeks I switched my saddles, but now I'm having problems behind my right knee, which I think is a compensation injury. I did some research, and more than anything it seems to be a meniscus tear; all the symptoms line up, but I don't know how I could have done it. So, as it stands, I've spend the last week, and probably this week too, not doing much training other than weightlifting an core. This is good, though, because it gives me plenty of time to focus on finals. I just hope all of this will be cleared up before the summer so I can begin training again, racing some tri's as well as looking forward to XC 2012!

The week that was

The period of 7 days known as a week simply does not make much sense to me. At the beginning of a week, 7 days feels like an eternity and the week goes slowly; the middle of the week still feels slow, but you can see both the beginning and the end; by the end of the week, though, you're left wondering what just happened and where did all my time go. So much can happen in a week, too. Two Sundays ago, Palm Sunday, the pastor at Grace Baptist gave a short summary of Jesus' entire ministry. What struck me the most was that Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on what we know as Palm Sunday was less than a week before he was crucified. He came into Jerusalem heralded as the conquering king who would rescue the Jews from Roman rule, but only five days later he as condemned to be crucified by the same people. I never really though about how short of a time period that really was.

The same thing goes for a normal week too. I can start a week thinking one thing, but by the end of the week I probably will have changed my views, because a week ago seems to have been so long ago. Injuries, bad workouts, conversations, classes, books, videos, they all serve to shape what I think, and when I look back over the course of several weeks, months, not to mention years, I am amazed by how much my view of the world has changed as a result of my experiences.

Wait, what?

I am not really good at this. The best laid plans of mice and men... So much has changed since last time. My XC season ended in a spectacular blowup-burnout: I was 5th man after the first race but by the time conference rolled around I only beat one other guy the team, who just happened to be my younger brother, putting me around 20th guy. Feef. What happened? I think it was a variety of things, the main thing being that I burned the candle at both ends. I was training too hard and trying to lose weight at the same time; I don't think I took a day off all season, becoming unreasonably anal about mileage. I ended the season early, taking time to get fat and lift weights and generally relax; throughout the semester I had been buying parts to build a bike, and over Thanksgiving I finally put it all together. It is a thing of beauty: a simple road bike with classic geometry, something that I can knock around on. Since then, I haven't really stopped biking, doing my best to mix it up with running and rowing. I took the indoor track season off, instead just building a base and focusing on school. I'm doing outdoor track now, but I'm still not in the shape I would like to be so this season will just be another training period for triathlon this summer and ultimately XC in the fall. I keep saying this, but I'm going to do my best to keep up with this, if only just as a place for me to think out loud and work things out.