Team Challenge is officially under way! I had the great pleasure of attending the kick-off party in Charlotte this past weekend. It was a long drive by myself, through snow and ice, but it was worth it.
We started with an information session for some possible participants where a couple of the mentors spoke and I got up to talk about my experience with Crohn’s disease as the team honoree. It was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. I think I told the story well, hitting on the main points but not getting bogged down in too much detail, but I had an emotional time with it, too. But I made it through and had a great time afterwards talking to some of the people who were considering joining.
Several signed up and a few more stopped by to join in the kick-off party that followed. It was a great time of getting to know the participants and playing a few games to help break the ice. It was also good to see some of the people I’d worked with last season, like one of the mentors Bret and our coach Carly, who I roomed with in Vegas. (She also helped me figure out how to help alleviate some of the muscle pain I’ve been having.)
This just made me even more excited for this season. I even have someone here in the Triangle who is signed up and I’m looking forward to getting to know her and helping out how I can. I do still have to work on securing my donations, but I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t had to time to focus on that. I really need this to be my full-time job! I could get a lot more done that way.
But now to quickly touch on my recent training. I’m glad that I kept up with my running recently, but I’m going to start from scratch on the training. The coaches have put together a 6-days-a-week training schedule, including three days of running, two days of cross-training, one day of “active recovery” (such as yoga or something similar) and one day of rest. I got started on the running and cross-training already this week and am feeling good about jumping right into the routine. I’m glad to have a schedule to follow, I think it will help keep me motivated and on track.