Jan 22, 2012 A Day of Recovery and Reflection

The history of our grandparents is remembered not with rose petals but in the laughter and tears of their children and their children's children.  It is into us that the lives of grandparents have gone.  It is in us that their history becomes a future.  ~Charles and Ann Morse




Its always hard to predict how quickly my body can recover from a race.  Yesterday's half marathon took a lot out of me as evidenced by my 3 hour nap yesterday and 10 hours of sleep I got last night.  I thought that my body would be sore and achy today but surprisingly my legs were moving pretty good and my mind was looking forward to my morning workout.  I would say that today's routine was going to be easy, but biking 17 miles this morning after racing 13 miles the day before was not going to be a walk in the park.  Since this type of routine is new to me, I wasn't really sure how my body was going to respond to this.  I just knew that whatever I was going to do, I was going to give it my all.  


My coach scheduled today's workout as a 17 mile recovery ride.  It's purpose was to flush out the legs.   Worked up a great sweat. I was looking forward to seeing what Susanne had in store for me in the coming week.  I must be crazy because I can compare the excitement of seeing my weekly workouts to opening presents on Christmas morning.  Fun and exciting.  Well, lets not say always fun, but maybe challenging is a better word.  Either way, I know that I always have a hard week of workouts in front of me and that all this effort is just going to make me a stronger athlete, both physically and mentally.


I think some of the adrenaline I was feeling on today's ride was born of frustration and sorrow that I am trying to work through.  My 92 year old Grandmother suffered a stroke this weekend and is fighting for her life.  She is one of a kind.  She always had an opinion about something and great stories to tell about the depression and how she got by on almost nothing.  She is one of the strongest willed people I know and it hurts to see her lying-in bed unable to move or speak.  I can see wheels turning in her head as we talk to her.  She so badly wants to say something but can't speak.  My son brought a picture to the hospital today that he drew for her.  He laid it in the bed next to her so she would know he was thinking about her.  Although she couldn't tell him thank you, you could see by the twinkle in her eye that she loved his artwork.  She is my last surviving grandparent and has always expressed to me the importance of knowing our family history.  Last year, my daughter and I interviewed her about our family.  We videotaped her telling stories about where she grew up, about the jobs she had, the men in her life and our American Indian Heritage.  Listening to her share her life with us was something special and something I will never forget.  When we would chat on the phone, she would always ask if I was still running and when I would say yes, she would ask me why?  That always made me chuckle.  When I saw her today, I told her about my race yesterday hoping that she would ask me why I was running, but there was no response.  She just looked at me with her beautiful blue eyes and even though she didn't utter a word, I knew what she was thinking.  Right now, she is resting comfortably and is in God's hands.  I consider myself blessed to have such a kind, caring, fighting, and rebellious Grandmother in my life.   I will always carry her strength  and determination with me.