There's always one.

There's always one of those weeks during a training season when everything gets unmanageable. In the past it's been work projects: that big proposal or wrap-up of a project. 500 cookies. (Yes...I have this dream/side hustle. Come check me out here or here.) Last week it was the following perfect storm: first day/week of school; not feeling well; cookies.

First day/week of school: Mothers (and ok, probably some fathers) 'round the world know the upheaval this can bring to a household in which kids have been sleeping in and doing whatever they please for 8 weeks. Combine this with not one but TWO new schools. Kid 1 is going to one new place, Kid 2, another new school One rides the bus. THAT LEAVES AT 6:38 AM!! The other rides with me. We go to work, hang out a bit, then I take her to school. Then I come back and search for parking (no easy task.) Then I go BACK to get her. Then I come BACK to work and work a bit, and then we leave again. Some days I take her to ballet. Other days we go back north to get her sister from her afterschool program. Other days we get a call from the bus company that Kid 2 forgot to go to afterschool and then we're racing up Lakeshore Drive to meet her at the bus stop. SIGH. It's an insane schedule that even I wasn't quite ready for.

Not feeling well: I won't say that I was sick. But Sunday/Monday I was feeling feverish. Monday-Wednesday I had a scratchy throat, running nose and occasional cough. Felt fine by the weekend. It could have been worse, i'm not complaining. There is some huge virus floating around Illinois and a ton of people in my office have been sick. Get away, ye sick folk!

Cookies: Last weekend I was scheduled to participate as a vendor in the Champaign-Urbana PrideFest. I sold cookies there last year and was excited to go again. Normally I would prep all week for this, but given the above, I finally got down to work on Thursday.. THURSDAY!!! Yikes! I took off work on Friday and worked, in the midst of Mom pickup duties before they went off with their dad for the weekend. I worked into the evening until I could barely stand anymore at 11pm (I was literally standing and closing my eyes) and then went to sleep "for an hour," waking up at 1:30 and working until I left for Champaign at about 10:30. BB helped me get ready for the festival and then that's where I was until about 7:30. Then we went out! I wasn't even tired, just relieved that the week was over and I could finally relax. And relax and have a good time, we did!

C-U PrideFest Cookies

SOOOOOOOOOOO....this is why I only had one run last week. I'd planned on having everything done by Friday morning so that Friday I'd do my long run of 19 miles before heading down to Champaign, having plenty of time to chill Saturday morning before moseying on over to the PrideFest. None of that happened. Sunday afternoon when I got home, I COULD have run, but laid on the couch watching football.

I'm considering making up that 19 mile run tomorrow. I don't have the girls on Wed and Thur night this week, but DO have pickup/dropoff duty, so this means I won't get started until about 6pm. And THAT means I won't get done til well after dark. Somehow, dark running in the evening doesn't seem nearly as frightening as at 5am when drivers aren't awake and evil people are lurking around every corner. Still on the fence, but I know that mentally I will feel much better if I go ahead and do this. I simply NEED to have a decent long run, it's been awhile. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, now that I've gone ahead and gotten "that one week" out of the way, it's full steam ahead. 4+ weeks til the Chicago Marathon, and 7+ weeks til NYC.