Pavowski Locks it Down

[Pavowski]

Man, this week has blown me up. Getting back to work is no joke. I have to re-learn how to make time for all the things I want to do in the day and ... it's only going okay.

 

Since Monday:

 

Took Tuesday off. Bleh. Didn't mean to, but just couldn't find the time or the energy to sneak in a workout.

Wednesday: Up early for a 5k. I've just about given up any hope of getting decent pace on these morning runs while we're still under this heat plague. Avg pace 9:41, and that was with a bit of pushing. Not really impressed, but at least I got out there.

Today: We get to go in a little late since we have to stay SUPER late for open house tonight, so I took advantage of the long morning to get in a rings workout: dips, top holds, reverse tucks, row/sitbacks, tucks. Will get some pull-ups this evening.

 

And the writing?

It sucks. I haven't been able to work on the novel at all this week. I just haven't had the gaps in the schedule. Gotta fix that.

[Princess Pineapple]

Change in routine is so hard!  Well done for not giving up!

[Pavowski]

I got through the weekend with a tiny -- TINY -- body weight workout on Saturday. I got in a pretty decent run on Sunday, 5 miles with a decent pace, but it left me feeling weak and wobbly (and with the pain in my heel creeping back in) for the rest of the day.

 

And I got back on track somewhat with my writing, to the tune of 1100 words on Saturday, and 570 words on Sunday. So the week isn't a total loss there, but I'm about 800 words behind schedule.

 

But now it's Monday again, and I feel like Rocky about five minutes before the comeback. Bruised, bloody, beaten down. Eye swollen so much I can't see out of it. So exhausted and punch-drunk he can barely stand.

 

I have no energy to work out tonight. I *might* be able to force myself to write a little, but all I really want to do is crawl into bed and sleep.

 

And it's only Monday.

 

Usually I say this is the time to dig deep, buckle down and make the time count anyway, no matter how hard it is, but I am having serious doubts about my challenge at this point. I haven't done the first bit of research toward submitting my novel. I just feel so freaking tired.

 

Well, that's all very uplifting, innit?

 

Ugh.

 

The positive in all this is that I'm starting back to work at a new school for a new year, and that's all looking very promising and encouraging. But that feels like a tiny crumb on the other side of the scale right about now.

[Schaengel]

Come on. Life pretty much is defeat and comeback over and over again...so "try, fail, try again, fail better"!!

 

[Pavowski]

Well, I got back on track for writing this week. This is a good thing: about 3000 words in the bag, a little over quota.

 

And my runs stayed on point, hitting them every other day. That meant only three runs this week, but that's okay. They were slow as all hell, but I think I can comfortably blame the heat for that. Nice 5.5 mile run yesterday, and that feels good.

 

I'm behind on my strength workouts, but I'm going to try and make time for that today, maybe while the kids are napping

 

So, yeah. This quest may be salvageable. Just one more week, right? 

 

RIGHT???

[Schaengel]

One more week, that's like nothing! So come one give it your best again!!

[Pavowski]

This challenge sucked so bad. Actually, I've got that wrong: I sucked so bad at this challenge.

 

It was aptly named, that's for sure. Keeping my shit locked down was about like trying to wrestle a fifty-pound halibut out of the ocean with my bare hands. So I'm glad I didn't aim any higher. In fact, I might have aimed just right. Being back at work with my new job has taxed me in ways I just didn't foresee. Let's review:

 

1. The reading of plays and the planning of plans. I read plenty of plays, and while I forgot to explicitly plan, I've ended up with solid outlines for my first six weeks or so in every course I'm teaching (not bad, considering I've got three). So this is an A. HOLY CRAP AN A, I never would have called that.

 

2.  Five workouts per week. Yeah, this was too ambitious for coming back off of summer vacation. While I did get five workouts in on three out of the four weeks, I didn't get all the body weight workouts I wanted. That's always been the weak link in my workout routine -- I love my runs, so those are never in doubt, but for as much as I like body weight exercise over slinging iron, it's hard to get excited about them. So I ended up with just one strength session, or one and a half, for three of the four weeks. Not ideal. My runs kept the slack out of the line, but I could have been better here. That'll be a B. Meh.

 

3. Creative endeavors. Another mixed bag. I stumbled hard out of the gate, getting virtually nothing done in my first week. But I made much of it up that weekend, and found a groove that allowed me to get the word count in. I didn't keep perfect track of my daily word counts outside of logging at least 500 on every weekday I did write. If I had to bet money, I'd bet I ended up within 500 words of the 10,000 this challenge should have netted me. Considering the month I've had, I'll call that good enough. Unfortunately, I was supposed to keep submitting my manuscript to agents, and that did not happen at all. That sort of thing takes a whole other kind of energy, it turns out, and I just haven't had it in the tank. I'm tempted to give myself a B here since I clung to my daily counts, but that'd be too generous, since the word count is the easy part, and the submissions are the things I really need to be doing. So this is a C. For crap.

 

I guess in retrospect, it didn't go as badly as I feared it did at the time. Still, this challenge didn't exactly instill me with a lot of confidence. On the other hand, though, the fact that I was able to keep trucking with my runs and my daily writing does carry some weight.

 

So not exactly a win, but definitely not a total fail. I guess that's life, innit?