Week 6: Yin and Yang

The week started out good with an easy 40 minute run with generous walk breaks. I swear, it doesn't make that much difference in time if I take walk breaks. My knee has been good, for the most part. I was working at home, so I took the opportunity to run at about 7 a.m. in the park. It always amazes me the number of people running in the park on a weekday, during rush hour when most people are commuting to work. There's some equipment sitting in the middle of the lake, but I never took much notice of it before. Today, I saw the equipment in action and realized that the algae is periodically removed from the lake.

This week, I did three workouts--run, bike, and run--on consecutive days. The whole thing is making me incredibly sore, and I'm a bit discouraged. I took Saturday off due to muscle soreness, skipped the swim workout, and then closed the week by running on Sunday (after volunteering at IronGirl). I'm also frustrated with wearing the knee band, which seems to help prevent knee soreness on longer runs. When people see me at the end of a workout with that band on, more than once I've been asked "Are you OK?" Yes, I'm OK!

I'm trying to figure out how to juggle all of the workouts so that I can complete everything without falling apart. I believe that the developers of the training plan envisioned that people were going to be doing a very leisurely bike ride or a very slow swim on their cross training days. Instead, I'm able to bring some conditioning to both sports and I'm an experienced swimmer, so I may be doing these workouts at a greater intensity and overdoing my crosstraining. Maybe juggling days will help and watching the overall intensity level of crosstraining will help. Maybe, just maybe, my body might adapt someday.

Phase I of my CAE prep came to a close. This weekend, I didn't do any real reading; instead, I'm reviewing my flash cards prior to my online class starting. I think I'll also go back and tackle the new edition of PPAM and take notes on the marketing book. Every time I turn around, I find a new book that's recommended reading, and now a book on core competencies in professional development is recommended reading before ASAE's course. I quickly ordered it and I'll tackle it when it arrives on my doorstep.

I think I finally comprehend the meaning of studying and running. To my understanding, it's like yin and yang -- the equal and opposing forces of mental and physical that when combined in proportion can complement and counterbalance each other to bring about an equilibrium to life.