A Writer's Journey Part XIII

Title: A Writer’s Journey

Part XIII

So... last Friday I had the bright idea of running 6.7 miles to practice.  My original plan was to start out with plenty of time to leisurely run it.  Instead, I got out the door later than I liked and had to push harder than I wanted to.  What’s the big deal about that?  One, I live in a very hilly area, and two, I had a 5K the next morning.  As I come into the high school parking lot, I think, “That wasn’t so bad!  As long as I take it easy in the long run today I should be fine.”  Dylan Draper, a kid who works very hard, asked me, “What do you think about course three, Coach?”  Course three?  I had been imagining maybe a gentle run down course one.  Now, course one is still hilly, but it is easier than course three and shorter.  Still, it was a good day to push my distance athletes and they would have the weekend to recover. 

“Let me think about it, Dylan,” I said, my mind racing.  One side of me was like, “You are insane if you run course three, right now!  You have a 5K in the morning!”  The other side of me was like, “Don’t be a baby!  It will be better for the kids and you can just jog it!”

Cash, Pink, Dezzi, and Kahley, were warming up with Dylan and my mind was made up.  If I wanted my distance girls to get good, we needed to take the course three challenge.  I was worried about our modified girl though.  I walked up to Kahley and said, “We are going 3.6 miles, is that going to be okay?”  She replied, “I ran a 5K at 28 something last year.”  I blinked.  “Oh,” I said surprised, “you’ll be fine then.” 

Off we went, Dylan pulling powerfully away from us, and the girls running in a pack, with me gently bringing up the rear.  I was going to take it easy after all!  I had a race in the morning, did I mention that?  The first hill is a vicious one, about a mile long!  The girls kept a good brisk pace for a while but finally they started walking.  I slowly gained on them and then passed them.  “An easy run for sure,” I thought.  The poor things had burned themselves out and I would later rescue them in my car.  But that was not to be.  Cash was my championship XC mod runner, Pink my sectional patch varsity runner, and Dezzi is very promising.  At the top of the hill they blew by me and went down the hill on the other side! 

I should have let them go but the old warhorse started striding out a bit down the hill to make up a little time.  (The old war horse being me:)  I would glance nervously behind me but the plucky Kahley was still coming.  We crossed the road onto a dirt road and encountered yet another hill.  The girls kept running bravely but finally they started walking.  I should have just gently jogged up the hill but no, I took it going past the girls to the top of the hill.  Surely they were tired now and would fall back, letting me coast to the end.  As I extended my stride down the hill the girls blew by me again!!  Now I’m beginning to feel the lactic acid flooding my muscles.  My legs began to feel dead but I began to power up the sharp incline ahead.  I go past the girls again and Pink says, “You’re crazy coach!”  She is more right than she knows.  I am running a race in the morning!  But again I assumed the girls would fall back and I could coast through the last mile to the school.  Yeah, no, that was not to be.  My girls (still in a tight pack) were getting closer and closer! 

My mind yelled, “Oh, for crying out loud, you idiot!  Let them beat you.”  And then, it said, in a cheeky voice, “In a few weeks they’ll be beating you easily!  Might as well let them pass now and rest a little!”  I ignored the voices in my head (probably a good thing too do... having a three way conversation with yourself is just weird!)  and I began to quicken my stride up the last incline then flew down the hill.  I swung round the last corner and dashed to the gate.  Dylan was waiting for me there with Coach David.  Dylan seemed nervous.  “Coach, I hope you are not mad at me.”

My tired mind spun in neutral.  What could Dylan be sorry about?  The pack of three came around the corner together.  “They are going to be good,” my mind said proudly.  I was pleased too!  “Good job, girls!” I called.  Then I asked Dylan, “What are you sorry about?”

“When I got back, I ran an all out 400 around the track!  I couldn’t help it.”

I guess I didn’t specifically tell him to do that but it sounded like a good idea to me.  Then a dread thought occurred to me.  “Did you get hurt?” I asked, nervously.  “Oh, no I’m fine!  It felt good!” he replied.

“That’s great then,” I said with a tired smile.  Did the girls flop to the ground and die?  No, they joined their short distance counterparts and asked, “Coach, can we pole vault?”  “Sure,” I replied, “just let me make sure Kahley is in and then we’ll do that!  Go get the covers off!”  Kahley was coming around the corner and powered into the finish!  “Good job!” I told her impressed.  Course three is not for the faint of heart and I have had to rescue more than one athlete from its dread clutches before.  Not these girls:)

I walk over and Pink asks me, “Hey, coach, can we try high jumping?”  They just got back from running a solid training time on COURSE THREE and they want to HIGH JUMP???  These are my kind of girls!  I ran them through two standard drills and then put up a bungee.  They all did really well over it but I wasn’t sure what height it was.  Dylan had come back with the boys a crate full of boys discus’ that he had been throwing for a few minutes.  “Hey, coach, I’ve got to get going.”  I’m like, “That’s fine.  Would you bring me a tape measure before you go?”  He did so and I measured it.  Hmm... it was low.  I moved it up to 4’2”.  I tell the girls, “You can score points in a league meet at this height.”  (Hey, we’re class D, okay, and even then, it is not a lock at that height.  Still, I felt that was high enough for beginners.)  I put up a bungee that was higher.  I told them, “Aim for the upper bungee and you will clear the lower one for sure!”  By and large, this is what happened. 

Connor Beard, my vet modified boy pole vaulter came over and wanted to jump too.  Wow!  He was almost clearing 4’9” (the higher bungee) fairly easily.  Later I told him, “If you jump like that in vaulting you will go much higher!”  Some of the girls followed him back over to pole vault but Cash stayed there.  She wanted to go higher.  “How high would I have to go to win?” she asked.  I measured carefully and put it up to 4’4”.  I said, “This might not win a league meet but you will probably score points at this height.”  After running 3.6 miles and jumping for awhile, she still cleared it!  In between teaching pole vault, I came over and jacked it up to 4’6”.  “You’ll win for sure at this height... in a league meet anyway.”  (That is an over simplification.  Even during a league meet in D and C, you will have girls that clear 4’8” or more, but 4’6” is very respectable.)  Cash almost cleared it but her back was touching the bungee now.  “You’re getting tired,” I told her.  “Why don’t you call it a day?”  “Can you put it back to 4’2”?” she begged.  I shook my head with a smile but did so.  She jumped longer. 

Over in pole vault, we corrected some of Connor’s mistakes and he was soon soaring into the blue sky.  Autumn was working on bending an FX pole and was learning a higher grip.  She looked pretty good for the difficulty level of that kind of pole.  In the middle of this I went to show kids a drill to demonstrate they are not using their arm muscles or abs.  What I do is vault 4’6” or 5” while walking slowly at the box.  Then I teach the kid to do that.  Except when I went do it, I couldn’t jump.  My legs were like, “Do you remember, moron, that you just ran over ten miles faster than you planned?  Did you forget you did some massive speed work on Thursday night with the short distance unit?” 

My daughter said something about me being an old and that spurred me on.  I got up and over the bungee... sort of:)  The girls did the drill and their vaulting improved greatly!  Kahley got over 4’6 carrying the pole with her.  We worked on throwing it and she almost got it before we had to quit.  Pink had been jumping with coach David (after high jumping for a good thirty minutes and running 3.6 miles at a fair clip!)  “I’m tired but let me take one vault!” she said.  Dezie worked hard at high jump and pole vault and shows some promise in the pole. 

I got home and my muscles were dead.  I began to ingest ibuprofen and ice bathed a little.  I got up early in the morning and I was still stiff.  I took Aleve and seriously got into the ice bath.  Clenching my first tightly, I fought the misery of the water to bring my muscles back online.  I knew they would struggle in the race but I was afraid of getting injured.  The good news is I didn’t get injured and I ran a great first mile (7:11, a great time for me!)  I wasn’t able to hold onto it and even though I beat my time last year by almost thirty seconds, I didn’t get what I wanted but I’m just starting my season!  It is a mistake to rest too much early in the season.

As a writer, it is a mistake rest while writing a book or fail to take a break after you are done getting a novel out.  That is just my opinion, mind you!  Sometimes as a writer, you have to push through the grind of the editing process or through a slow part in your novel.  To rest then is a mistake.  There are little tricks in writing like a runner taking Aleve or ice bathing.  One is don’t read any novels until you are done writing your own novel.  Sometimes this will drive you to get done so you can enjoy your favorite author!  Another is don’t begin a new novel while you are finishing up an old one.  There are exceptions to this rule but I will go over them a different time.  Force yourself to sit down and write.  As a running coach, do you think I like doing speed work after doing it for over 15 years?  No.  Sometimes I like it but not all the time.  In fact, sometimes I don’t even feel like taking an easy run.  It is times like that you have to just do it!  “I don’t feel like writing, right now,” is a HORRIBLE excuse.  Do you always FEEL like going to work?  Do you always FEEL like doing paperwork?  The exception to this is college.  Somehow that drained my mental energy as effectively as the speed work out Thursday and the long run Friday, drained me in running.  In normal life though, I find if you sit down, it begins to flow and sometimes you don’t want to stop once you get rolling.  It is just as important to limit your writing time too (unless it is your legit job or you are independently wealthy and need something to do with all your free time.)  Writing is a long haul, not a sprint.  Don’t sacrifice God, your family, or your life for books.  This is also like running.  What I did Friday was crazy BUT it would be stupid to try the same stunt again this coming week.  Eventually, I would get hurt, and that would really nuke my running times! 

*** Author Adrian Essigmann has eighteen books in print on Amazon.com, soon to be nineteen!  All of them are $.99 cents on Kindle, with the exception of “An Assumed Risk” which will be (Lord willing) an e-book before summer.  All of his books are available in soft cover too!  Type Amazon Adrian Essigmann and his author’s page should come up ***

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“Ariel Wilson, ‘Jack’ to her friends, has a mother determined to make her a superstar. During the school year, she is in lessons, classes, and sports, but she never wins...at least at anything her mom cares about. During the summer, Ariel becomes “Little Wolf”, living with her father just as Native Americans did centuries ago. Then Ariel gets kidnapped by a group of men who want to blackmail her mother. These men are professional kidnappers who have abducted dangerous men before, so they’re not worried about some rich teenage girl. They should be, though, because they haven’t kidnapped a girl... they’ve got a wolf!”