Greetings, Tribe!
Sunday marked the end of my school year. I teach violin, viola and various orchestras around Indianapolis, and Sunday marked my last concert of the season. The Metropolitan Youth Orchestra (MYO) performed their final concert of the year, Latin Music! As the season closed, we said goodbye to our high school seniors (tear!) and reflected on how far the kids have come. How much they’ve grown physically, musically, in maturity. MYO is my family away from my family, so goodbyes (even for the summer) are always hard, but the celebrations are always grand.
This May Athletic Annex (our awesome local running store where I get to work) started having early morning coffee runs once a week. I have LOVED the accountability and fellowship with other runners. It has also been a great tool for me to connect with friends who haven’t run in a LONG time and are working towards a 5k. So far, one of my neighbors joined us (totally kicked butt!) and now I have colleagues from MYO who have joined and/or will be joining (once their school’s are over for the year). While I might not be pushing myself on these runs, I absolutely love being a small part of my friends’ journeys in running. Just this morning, I woke up and my friend who yesterday joined us for the first time messaged me about how she felt post-run and her plans for her run tomorrow. Now if that isn’t the best way to wake up, I don’t know what is! Love love love hearing about my friends getting stronger!!!
Marathon training starts in about a month, so I’m progressively getting focused on creating good habits. Last week was the first week that I strength trained 3 times in one week. I was sore, but it was such a good sore! I miss that feeling! Dehydration has also been an issue in the past, so I’ve increased my water intake (not exponentially, but slowly getting there) and am drinking more NUUN to keep my electrolytes in check as I’m running more and as it’s getting hotter outside. Picking a training plan is still on my to-do list. I can’t decide if I should follow one specific plan or create a hybrid. Thoughts? Finally, I need to find a shoe as my current pair is just about on their last leg. Colleagues and friends have shared some good ideas to treat my bad toes, so fingers crossed!
In two weeks I’ll be at Camp Saucony (my first running camp!!!!) and then marathon training begins!!!! What was a slow Spring of training is about to become a busy Summer of running. As Carrie Tollefson says, I’m going to “Get after it!”
Happy trails, my friends!
In Search of My Running Tribe 