Courtenay Brown

(I am practicing for when grad school starts in a few months, and my writing will have to take on a more learned tone).

Well the family reunion has been and gone. It was really fun. I’m exhausted, which is confusing, because I think I washed maybe one dish the whole weekend! But staying up late, getting up early, and playing tag (which, man, that gets kind of boring after about 5 minutes, but when one is proving to one’s siblings and cousins that one is not a stick-in-the-mud, one has to play tag with little kids), all are exhausting I guess!

But I don't WANT to swim in Aunt Sally's Above-Ground Swimming Pool

So how did this impact my training? Eh, not sure. I’m tired but somehow everything isn’t sucking. I planned a rest week for last week, so I could be bright-eyed (read: in a good mood) for the reunion, and so that I wouldn’t have to do a lot of training when everyone was in town. I learned my lesson from previous years… Ma, when did everyone play tennis/go sailing/visit Alice/do that cool thing in that photo? WELL. YOU were off on a BIKE RIDE. Missing out can suck sometimes. So, no regrets this year, I pretty much didn’t miss out, but I also didn’t feel at all rested after “resting”.

The cool thing is, my training has actually been going well. It has been going well the whole time I have been home, I’m getting it done and the stuff that’s supposed to improve is improving. The conscious decision to enjoy time with family, to allow my ideal training schedule to get derailed by whatever random thing is happening on that day (this afternoon I spent a half hour tromping around the pasture helping my mom catch Fox, who can be so obnoxious sometimes, then I gave him a bath because he looked like he needed it, THEN I went and recovered from my track workout and prepared for my blessedly decent threshold intervals on the bike, yes I did take an unintentional nap on the floor, but hey)… anyway, consciously being flexible has helped me subconsciously set myself up for success in training.

Oh look at me, I just learned that having balance and perspective is a really good thing.