Checkup

Three years ago, in the midst of preparing for the spring season, I was sitting at the table, typing away on one laptop, clicking between a series of pictures on a second laptop.  I'd lost complete track of time, but felt that it was closing in on bed time.  I kept telling myself, "just a few more minutes, one more series, and I'll head to bed."

I got a message.

"Why are you still up?"

It should be noted that I'm giving you the abridged, cleaned up version of the message.  It was from a friend who lives in Boston, 3 hours ahead of us Left Coasters, who was preparing to go for her morning workout session, and saw that I was still online.

I would like to say that I shut down immediately and headed for bed, and I'd love to say even more that I had actually just gotten up. Neither was the truth.  The truth was that it was late March, the season had just begun, and I was already pulling all night sessions, and this particular incident wasn't the first.

Flash forward to now.  I'm currently at work for the first time since November 5th, and I'm about half way through only my second day of "coach" work.  If you take away the 5 days I was in Oklahoma City - which I don't count - I've worked a grand total of 7 days since we broke.  This compared to last year when I was working about 6 hours a day on season plans, reviews, etc. and to three years ago when I didn't take a break, even on my summer vacation to Virginia Beach.  I have backed off substantially from the "work" that I tend to create out of a necessity to keep busy, boredom, and this need to constantly improve or learn.

Late last year, just after we'd returned from WIRAs and were preparing to close up shop for the season, my friend in Boston and I sat down over Skype for what turned out to be a four hour jam session.  At the end of that talk, we'd come to the agreement that I would finish out my projects for the summer training plan, I could e-mail the team, but I was to take the entire month of June off.  I could start getting back into the swing of things in July, and really start get the wheels turning in August.  The final part of the agreement was that by the end of our fall season, I would have winter and spring training plans set, or to a stage where I felt comfortable with them, and then I would step back again, and enjoy winter.

Which brings us to this picture, inspired by this article - I posted about this earlier - and a list which now stays with my binder, my notebooks, and above my bed.  And as much as I hate to admit it, because we don't enjoy being wrong, this really has been the best winter in a very, very long time.  I brought all of my binders home from Willamette - not to work, but because I'm paranoid that something might happen to them - and they've stayed neatly stacked on a bookshelf.

In other words, I'm living up to my list.  I still have friends who find it incredible that I'm texting or calling them to go to dinner or a movie.  I don't have daily headaches, I'm not eating at random hours, or eating terribly - fast food, and I'm not sitting at my desk, table, or at a coffee house, surrounded by fall, winter, and spring.

I'm feeling refreshed, not quite ready to start the spring season - starting to get that vibe though - and am looking forward to a long overdue vacation with some friends.