Training Log Archive: coach ld

Still feeling lousy, stuffed up, foggy-brained, tired etc. Maybe it's SAD?

C • SAD 2

Still no voice this morning so I stayed home, went back to bed - for a good 20 minutes. Oh yeah, forgot we're in a construction zone, beep, beep, beep etc.
So I drove up to Hockley Valley and hiked with poles on the Bruce Trail, just as the skies cleared. It was absolutely gorgeous and I concentrated very hard at staying at low intensity. I shuffled on the flats - so, not much. I classic poled on the gentle slopes - so not much of that either. And I off-set up the steep pitches - so a lot of that. But it was so beautiful, I felt better. I only had 2 coughing fits and felt ok otherwise. Couldn't get over how much green there was still, not just no snow, but lots of very verdant ferns and other forest floor plants that you'd expect in early spring before the trees leaf out. And the cedar and hemlock enchanted woods along the braids of the upper Nottawasaga were as Hermes would say - "magical". How can you not feel better beside a babbling brook, with tiny water falls burbling over moss covered rocks and logs?

Feeling worse today. Can't get my voice back, dry cough, and exhausted. Managed the class circuits but could only do a 20 min. jog in Bolton Camp. i think I need snow.

C • Aw, crap 3

Not as bright and clear as yesterday, pretty grey and chilly. The trail was greasy in places where it had been frozen then slowly thawed a bit. My shoes weighed 100lbs each after going through the soft clay section. Went slowly to prevent a coughing fit. Still had one afterward. Had several last night.

The skies cleared by 11 and it was a bright beautiful day - windless, cloudless but cold, about 0. Had a very nice pole run in Palgrave Conserv. area, trying to keep it low intesnity so as not to cause a coughing fit. Felt good. Classic bounding up long slopes, off-set bounding on short steep pitches.

After the pole run, headed to Buckstown Rd. and roller skied the loop over Mt.Hope on Indiana and across to Mt. Pleasant. Thumbs/wrists hurt but otherwise pretty good.
Wish there were some sign of snow though.

Found out late last night that a colleague from our sister elementary school took his life yesterday. Brett Everett, great guy, worked with him every spring and fall to help with the public school xc running and track and field meets. His brother and sister-in-law work at my school, he was Kynyn's phys.ed. teacher at James Bolton P.S. Always positive, polite, pleasant, patient, calm, kind, organized and professional. Kids loved him, he loved the kids. Last time I spoke with him in April, when I asked how things were going he said "Living the dream, teaching phys.ed. to great kids. Doesn't get better than that." How does someone go from "living the dream" to the nightmare of depression, so dark that suicide becomes the only option?
Tough to have a good day with that news. Didn't even try.
Just cried with my co-workers and students.

C • Terrible News 3