8 Week Countdown to Johan's!
Posted by Samantha Fugate on Tuesday, April 27, 2010
I keep meaning to update my blog, but with so many exams in the last two weeks of medical school, I have found it hard to find the time to write an update! I currently have about 15 minutes until my next exam, an OMM practical, but I don't do very well with last minute studying. So why not get a quick update in?
Right now I cannot wait for this semester to be over, it has been very tough and very challenging. This week I was supposed to start the next phase of the training schedule that I found during the off season, but after speaking with a good friend I have decided to scrap those 8 weeks and go in a different direction. Hopefully this direction will, as my friend says, make a "bigger splash" than what I had planned on before. But I do have to say that at this point in my training I feel pretty darn good, considering how difficult scheduling enough training sessions has been. But this past weekend I learned a wonderful lesson from my little sister, and it had nothing to do with triathlon, but taught me something I will take into the season.
My sister went through a horrible experience with a coach at her previous college where she was playing soccer. About a week ago, I received an email from a past soccer coach of mine whom I have a lot of respect for. He asked if my sister and I would like to play with the MSU Club Team against my sister's old school. I was a little worried about how my sister would react, the experience was only last semester and it was very hard on her. I can easily say that it changed her soccer style completely so that she was now scared and timid on the field and didn't want the ball. I told my sister she should play and I would play with her, so she agreed to play.
The day before the game, my sister came home and started crying because she didn't want to go back to that school and play. I spoke to her about facing her fears if she really wanted soccer back in her life. You see, when I had my bad experience with a soccer coach, I walked away from soccer. Oh, I come back every once in a while when someone asks me to play, but soccer will never be the same for me again. The fire, the passion and the desire are gone for me and now completely attached to triathlon. But my sister didn't want to let soccer go... and she has no interest in triathlon! So she dried her tears and packed a uniform.
Long story short, we lost the game, but the score does not matter. During the second half I saw my sister play soccer in a way she hasn't played since she started at that school. I literally had to hold back tears during the game. I didn't care that we were losing, I was yelling praise and playing with spirit and passion again, borrowed from her. After the game I felt like we had won. My sister faced her fears and inspired me to face mine: the run.
If you really love something, you need to get through the fears and the doubts and ignore the haters. My sister, who is 4 years younger than me and arguably much less mature than I am (love you Bean!) did exactly that in a way I'm not sure I can. In 90 minutes my sister changed her life. I can only hope that through the wonderful girls I have met on the Playmakers running team I will be able to do the same thing my sister did and face my fears of the run, face my doubts of the run and show the haters who say I'm too big to run fast that they are wrong. I'm not big, I'm powerful : ) Thanks Mike for starting the process of thinking of myself as powerful instead of big, thanks to the girls of Playmakers and thank you to my sister who taught me an important lesson.
Right now I cannot wait for this semester to be over, it has been very tough and very challenging. This week I was supposed to start the next phase of the training schedule that I found during the off season, but after speaking with a good friend I have decided to scrap those 8 weeks and go in a different direction. Hopefully this direction will, as my friend says, make a "bigger splash" than what I had planned on before. But I do have to say that at this point in my training I feel pretty darn good, considering how difficult scheduling enough training sessions has been. But this past weekend I learned a wonderful lesson from my little sister, and it had nothing to do with triathlon, but taught me something I will take into the season.
My sister went through a horrible experience with a coach at her previous college where she was playing soccer. About a week ago, I received an email from a past soccer coach of mine whom I have a lot of respect for. He asked if my sister and I would like to play with the MSU Club Team against my sister's old school. I was a little worried about how my sister would react, the experience was only last semester and it was very hard on her. I can easily say that it changed her soccer style completely so that she was now scared and timid on the field and didn't want the ball. I told my sister she should play and I would play with her, so she agreed to play.
The day before the game, my sister came home and started crying because she didn't want to go back to that school and play. I spoke to her about facing her fears if she really wanted soccer back in her life. You see, when I had my bad experience with a soccer coach, I walked away from soccer. Oh, I come back every once in a while when someone asks me to play, but soccer will never be the same for me again. The fire, the passion and the desire are gone for me and now completely attached to triathlon. But my sister didn't want to let soccer go... and she has no interest in triathlon! So she dried her tears and packed a uniform.
Long story short, we lost the game, but the score does not matter. During the second half I saw my sister play soccer in a way she hasn't played since she started at that school. I literally had to hold back tears during the game. I didn't care that we were losing, I was yelling praise and playing with spirit and passion again, borrowed from her. After the game I felt like we had won. My sister faced her fears and inspired me to face mine: the run.
If you really love something, you need to get through the fears and the doubts and ignore the haters. My sister, who is 4 years younger than me and arguably much less mature than I am (love you Bean!) did exactly that in a way I'm not sure I can. In 90 minutes my sister changed her life. I can only hope that through the wonderful girls I have met on the Playmakers running team I will be able to do the same thing my sister did and face my fears of the run, face my doubts of the run and show the haters who say I'm too big to run fast that they are wrong. I'm not big, I'm powerful : ) Thanks Mike for starting the process of thinking of myself as powerful instead of big, thanks to the girls of Playmakers and thank you to my sister who taught me an important lesson.
