I am in the first year where I have been given time in my day to be a coach. Previously I have done it all before/during school, on my prep time and on lunch. I am incredibly appreciative of the school board for approving this time and have truly enjoyed the time to work with teacher more intentionally. However, I am beginning to lose steam. I need a down week.
When I train for half-marathons, I usually find a training plan I like and stick to it, pretty religiously. In these plans there are down weeks; weeks where the runner decreases overall mileage. Pete Rea, coach at ZAP Fitness in Blowing Rock, N.C., believes that "regularly incorporating down weeks allows an athlete to complete successfully a full four-to five-month training cycle, avoid injury and ultimately make fitness leaps and achieve a high level of performance." It allows the athlete to absorb the training they did during each block and prepare for even better training in the next block.
So this got me thinking of down weeks during coaching cycles. I have been really busy coaching since the beginning of school, about 8 weeks now. I also have common planning meetings coming up in which I facilitate literacy PLCs. I have to plan and deliver these to 6 different groups of teachers this week. I can sense my stress building and I am lacking time to reflect. I feel like, just in my running, I need to absorb the coaching I have done, reflect on the processes and make a plan to be even better when I start up coaching rounds again.
I intend on starting new coaching cycles refreshed, energized and ready to be even better than I previously have been.
