Being on the Team

Hey all,

For about the last week now, I have not been running with my team at practice. Due to my workload, Scott (the head coach) and Ian (a Caltech alum who runs with us) let me train on my own Mon/Wed/Fri. On Tues/Thurs/Sat - when we do our interval workouts - I go with the rest of the guys.

At first, I thought this would be a great idea. My hope was that by tailoring practice on those days around my working schedule, I could be a bit more productive. (I mean, who wants to do homework over lunch? So instead, if I went for a run, that would take care of my practice for the day, and free up a large chunk of time in the afternoon for me to study. Or perhaps I choose to get up super-early {that's before 7 o'clock for college students!} and go out. Either way, I get more continuity in my blocks of time, and that's especially great.) 

I have been doing this for a couple of weeks now, and I will admit it has helped. I'm still spending the same amount of time doing homework, but I'm not staying up until 3 in the morning to finish it. So on the academic side of things, this idea was smart. Also, having good sleep is definitely a plus!

On the other hand, I see less of my teammates. And that's something that is concerning to me, especially after last week. As I mentioned above, I usually do intervals with the team. Recently though, I accidentally slept through practice on Thursday and Saturday. So from last Tuesday to yesterday, I had not been training with the team. This in and of itself is particularly concerning, but when coupled with the fact that we have our conference meet this Saturday, well....then the situation does look worse. I have to run with my team at that meet, and if I don't run with them at practice, we become out of sync, so to speak. During the race, we tend to run in groups, and so practicing with the group I'm in is critical if we are to do well (as a group) at the meet.

However, that's not what I'm particularly concerned with. Sure, races are important, but I feel being a good team member means more than just racing. Our team is so small that everyone is pretty decent friends with everyone else; a good teammate does their best to be a good friend. Thus, I feel my lack of presence in the last week is bad because I lose touch with my teammates when I'm not physically at practice. (We're a diverse group of people, so we are not in very many classes together; therefore, it's hard to find time to meet up. Practice is, for all intents and purposes, that time.)

Moreover, I do enjoy being with the team. We talk about some interesting topics, we joke around - it's "all good", so to say. Just yesterday, while we stretched, we were discussing how to communicate the idea of left and right to an alien civilization. (...only at Caltech!) It's very difficult to get bored when you are around such bright and engaged people. 

So I guess I'm going through a kind of withdrawal. This last week has shown me how important a team is, and I am quite grateful for the teammates I have here at Caltech. 

Ciao.

"Together we stand, together we fall, together we're winners, and winners take all." ~Unknown