It's Been a Long Week...Luckily

School started on Tuesday.  I'm a special education teacher; I have a class for kids in grades K-5 who have cognitive disabilities.  I'm fortunate to work in a great school district; my students are wonderful and they have involved, supportive parents; and I'm blessed to be working with four of the best paraprofessionals ever to tread a classroom floor.  Still, there's a huge difference in the energy requirement for my typical summer day (get up at 7, go skating, then spend the rest of the day doing pretty much exactly what I feel like) versus a typical school day (get up at 5:30, race around getting ready, spend the school day racing around meeting students' needs, come home, collapse on the couch, go to bed at 9).  And it's even worse the first week of school, because I need to spend a lot of time figuring out where 7 kids and almost-but-not-quite-enough adults are going to be every minute of the day, and what they're going to be doing.  Scheduling is a huge nightmare, kind of like those GRE logic problems:  "so and so has to be at Music at 2:15, but so and so has to be in PE and these other two have to be doing reading but they can't be paired together and one of the paras doesn't even have a lunch break yet...so who will be doing what with who?"  I'd love to get it done before school starts, but a lot of the schedule hinges on when my students' mainstream classes are doing activities that my kids can participate in, and that isn't typically decided until the day or two before the kids start.  And then there are always changes that I need to make when I try an activity or student grouping and discover that it's one of those "what was I thinking" things.  So I have a bag full of the kids' and paras' and my schedules sitting next to the computer right now, waiting to be revised...


This year, though, I thought I'd be smart.  Normally I have 3 hard Oval skating workouts that I do during the week--which are REALLY tough to do the first week of school--and then a couple recovery workouts on the weekend.  This time, though, I realized that, with TieGuy out of state and thus not coming to the workouts, there was no particular reason to do the hard workouts after a full day of school.  So, I decided to do the one of the hard workouts on a weekday, and the other 2 on the weekends (which would also allow me to start early in the morning, thus avoiding the dreaded Skate Park Punks Patrons).  I would then do a recovery workout mid-week...which would also set me up nicely for my (if I'm not too tired for it) first trip to the Pettit Oval in Milwaukee next weekend.  Perfect plan.


And it worked fairly well...until I actually skated on Thursday.  I had a beyond-horrible workout--and it was all my own fault.  I'm still trying to figure out optimal thyroid med timing...I felt like it was optimized last fall and winter and I felt like my normal self on the ice, but since I've needed the med adjustments this spring and summer I just haven't felt like I've gotten the timing dialed in.  So I tried a new schedule...with disastrous results.  Remember when I said that too much thyroid hormone is just as bad as too little?  Well, I always knew that in the theoretical sense...but now I've experienced it in the practical realm, as well.  I definitely had too much before the workout, and felt like crap.  I quit after only the first of the prescribed 5x5K, and gave the workout a .5 on the old 1-10 scale.  Yes, that's a point 5; I considered going to negative numbers but figured that would be needlessly dramatic.


Then, since I had screwed up the week's workouts by essentially skipping one, I had to call TieGuy and ask how I should deal with having 3 workouts left to do--in 2 days. (He said to skip the endurance one I had quit).  And while I always enjoy talking to TieGuy, it's always a little depressing, too, because it reminds me of how good I used to have it when I had my coach there at the track for almost every workout.  (I had to wait 10 years after I started skating to find a coach who would work with a masters skater, and I was incredibly lucky to find a great one.  Most kids who start speedskating join a club and have coaching on the track at every practice; in some areas of the country there are clubs that will take masters skaters, but mine is not one of those areas.)


So anyway, I was already tired and a bit bummed (and I'm pretty sure I forgot to take my "let's not be a cranky peri-menopausal woman, now, shall we?" supplement that day, which was not helping matters).


And then I found the pictures.


A friend had posted pictures on Facebook from a masters competition last year.  Those of me were, shall we say, less than impressive (the skating, not the photography).


Here I am, coasting gingerly past a couple skaters.  I'm assuming I came skating around the corner, saw them, freaked, and started coasting (we're all in the warmup lane, so no one is racing).  Notice, too, how my right ankle is "flopping over."  Nice.

And here I am, giving a graphic visual of how not to skate:

There's so much wrong with my technique in this picture that I don't even know where to start.  Arms everywhere, hips and shoulders in the wrong place, right ankle "flop," probably just finished toe-flicking with the left foot...and, of course, I'm way too high.  I emailed the photo to TieGuy with the observation that pretty much every body part was doing the wrong thing...he replied with "GET ON THE BLOCKS"


Oh, yeah...that too.


Here's what it's supposed to look like:

This is Bruce Conner, who is literally the fastest over-50 man in the world in the 500 and 1000 meters.  Notice how you can draw straight lines through each of his arms and legs (and there's no chicken wing!)  That means the force he's exerting is getting to the ice, rather than going...somewhere else...as it does with me.  While I love looking at photos of skaters like Bruce, they always also make me a little sad, because despite how long and hard I (and coach TieGuy) have worked on it, my technique still seems to be worlds away from that.


And then I went out this morning to do my tempo workout, and it was slow...very, very slow.


So by this afternoon, I was feeling a bit down about my skating, about how much work I have to do, about how tired I am.  And then I read this article in our local paper http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/129568213.html about Mia, a 10 year old girl who was diagnosed last year with terminal brain cancer.  Here is her comment the day she was diagnosed: 


"I love life," Mia said. "I have no reason not to love life because I've had nine long years of life. Anything happens now is just extra. It's sprinkles on a cake. I've had such a wonderful life and I just love life."


Wow...this kid figures that, since she's had "nine long years," anything else is just extra.  I've had almost 48 "long years" (and very good ones), and I'd be feeling awfully cheated if I knew they were coming to an end soon.  She has a truly amazing attitude.


I'm usually pretty good at appreciating the moment, being grateful for what I have, and enjoying all that life has to offer.  Still, I do become bogged down in the daily fatigues and frustrations, and it never hurts to be reminded, when I think I'm having a long week, of how lucky I truly am.


So today I'm going to revise those schedules, and tomorrow I'm going to go do my interval workout.  And no matter how lengthy the work, or how slow the intervals, I'll be grateful for all the "sprinkles" I've had in my life...