« I Never Knew . . . | Main | I'm Back (for real this time) »
January 30, 2005
The Running Goddesses Have Officially Cursed Me
I know I refer often to my running gods and goddesses - I suppose I believe in positive energy and running prayers. Well, I haven't been saying my thanks lately, and I suddenly find myself digging my legs out of another cursed ditch.
First, let me recap the past few weeks that I have been suspiciously quiet. First, I am having a particularly hard time balancing school and teaching. I can understand why universities throw unexperienced TAs into classrooms to teach 24 unsuspecting minds, but it is KILLING me. I have no concept of time management and I tend to throw all of my energy into one basket: the one for my students. For example, last week I slept a total of 12 hours from Monday - Friday. I had a TON of coursework, but I also had some really awful papers that needed some serious attention; they took me 12 hours to grade! YIKES. And then - because I always feel horribly under-prepared - I totally over-prepared my lessons. All of this resulted in a terrible day on Friday when I had 4 students walk in 17 minutes late and declare that they could care less about my class or the book that I am teaching. Ouch. THAT HURT. Why do I still love them? Anyway, I am staring at 9 more final drafts that I have to grade tonight before I get around to my own readings for my classes. I am dying inside - a slow and painful intellectual death.
On to running. Running - what running? My running has virtually disappeared. I was keeping up until this week . . . when I decided to shovel and I ended up on the floor in back pain. I considered going to the ER, but my friend, M., had some muscle relaxers (I DO NOT recommend this, but I was desperate, in tremendous pain, and I had to teach in a hour!). I barely ran this week. In fact, Alision put in more miles in one day than I managed to put in this entire week.
I am exhausted - mentally and emotionally. I finally feel like my running has to go until I can figure out how to balance all of this. I am so sad. Any advice on how to figure this out? I considered running at 4:30 AM, but considering the fact that I do not hit the pillow until 2-3AM every night, I don't think that is a viable option.
I want to cry. Off to grade papers . . . until 2AM.
Posted by bridget at January 30, 2005 08:55 PM