Day’s Verse:
Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything.
1 Peter 4:8-ish

The Whibey Island training went very well. I had four participants, all PE teachers at Langley Middle School. They were engaged, enthusiastic, and eager to get started, all ingredients for a successful training. On top of this, they already do a number of revolutionary PE units — roller derby, in-line skating, boxing, kayaking, among others — so they worried far less about the logistics of running a bicycle unit than most of the teachers we train. Also, it was quite refreshing to have them not the least bit worried about lice in helmets. They’ve had almost 20 years of using shared helmets with no issues, and practically scoffed at my comment that it worried many teachers I’d trained.

Also, Langley is a lovely town. Most of the areas I’ve gone to have had a certain type of natural beauty, but usually when I leave, I know it’s the last time I’ll visit that town. Langley is one of the first towns where I’d actually choose to visit there for fun. And it had the added bonus of being just over an hour from home, which made driving back after I finished the training ever so much more enjoyable, an enjoyment significantly increased by the fact that I had a ferry ride in the middle of it.

As I mentioned before, this is the first training I’ve done since November-ish. What’s special about that? This is the first training I’ve done while (knowingly) pregnant. During the training, I felt pretty normal; I maintained a pretty normal level of energy, I think. I spent 22 hours working in two days, slept badly in the (of course) somewhat strange motel, and arrived home on Friday evening pretty tired. That was standard. The trainings always left me feeling drained and exhausted; typically I slept really well and the next day perked back up.

Not so after this training. Not in the least. I had planned on doing a good long training ride Saturday or Sunday afternoon, with some other moderate-distance ride the other weekend day. Instead, I woke up on Saturday and could not believe the level of exhaustion I felt. Here are some of the recent times I’ve felt most tired:

• Recovering from having the real flu for 10 days.
• Riding High Pass Challenge.
• Using a pickaxe to break up the clay soil to dig the French drain.
• Flying to London and having to stay awake until evening.

These things all tired me out, undoubtedly, but what I felt on Saturday and, to a lesser extent, Sunday put these all to shame. I had clearly borrowed energy from some personal energy bank to do the training, and on the weekend, I paid it back, with interest. Instead of doing a bike ride, I spent Saturday morning kind of blankly stumbling around, and people kept wondering if I was sick or something. The afternoon I napped, ate, and went to bed. I literally could not keep my eyes open. Sunday I had recovered enough to help with the cleanup my church did at Kirkland Jr. High; instead of a bike ride, Ian and I went for a walk, and in the evening we went to Ian’s improv showcase. Only on Monday did I feel energetic enough to actually do anything involving a bicycle.

That’s a lot of words, but I’ll summarize: The bike training went well, but I borrowed energy to do it, and unlike previous times I’ve taught, my body immediately exacted a dramatic toll for using that energy. This growing a baby thing is no joke, I’m telling you.