The Journey

This week was the first week back for teachers here. I spent the first part of the week in meetings and the last part in my room, if you want to call it that. It seemed I was doing so many things that I actually had very little time to work in my room. I did get it looking pretty good by adding a couple of cute plaques with sayings I like..."Happiness is a choice that happens ahead of time" and a vinyl wall quote that says "The journey of 1000 miles begins with one step."

That last phrase is one that has multiple layers and meanings in my room. First, of course, it reminds me of my running and training and how, even when I don't think I'm getting very far or at least not very far very fast, I'm on the journey. Second, I'm going to be working with my students on mapping out their own life journey. The idea is that if you don't know where you want to end up, you won't get there. I'm looking forward to passing this lesson on to my kids.

However, with being back to work, trying to coordinate running and biking has been a challenge. We're doing fine in sharing the week, but I'm having a hard time getting a ride in on my own or getting a long ride in together. My mom was up for keeping the kids this morning, so we headed out with a goal of 15-20 miles with no set time frame in mind.

The ride itself was really pretty good. Our race is just a week away and up to this point, I hadn't gone farther than 12 miles. Today was our dress rehearsal of sorts. We both were trying new Camelbaks (which we both liked a lot). The weather was warm, but we had a nice breeze (or wind, depending on which way we were going). We stopped at about 8 miles for a quick drink and a few chews. Then we really didn't stop again until we had to dump the rest of Chad's water into his Camelbak so he could have something to drink the last couple of miles. I did learn that I need to put Gatorade or Nuun in my water bottle and leave my Camelbak for water. I've just got to have some electrolytes, I guess, if I want to avoid a headache afterwards.

We were definitely pleased with our ride. We're not breaking any speed records, but we're ok with that. Bike riding is a little different than running. It's hard to explain though. We were definitely out longer, so there's a mental toughness you have to have just to keep riding. Nothing really hurts, which is good. But it's not all easy-breezy either. I think I have to come back to that idea I put on my wall this week...it's about the journey. I'm so glad that my husband and I can ride together on this journey.

Mileage Report:
Weekly: 7.5 miles running + 21 miles biking. For my yearly miles, I'll call that 18 miles this week.
Yearly: 482.35 miles