Testing complete, now to prepare for the hurt of camp

Hello!

I was about to go to bed and was not quite tired so thought this would be a good time to write of my latest adventures.

This past week included a bundle of wonderful testing in a 24 hr period starting Tues afternoon and ending Wed morning.  After the previous week where I had never been so fatigued physically and mentally I was not sure how I was going to recover in time for testing.  Truth be told, I don't think I did completely, but everyone was in a similar boat. 
Tuesday morning I woke up, did a warm up paddle on the water then headed home to wait for the first test; a 6k erg (rowing machine) test.  I was confident from the previous evening workout that I could crush the erg but as I started to warm up I realized that somewhere in the last 12 hrs  my body had a whole new set of fatigue set in.  I did my best to wrap my mind around it and set out to reach my goal of sub 22'.
After some mental struggle due to the physical fatigue I came out the end of the piece at 21:57.  I was disappointed that I could not do what the night before had indicated but I was not upset with the sub 22.  It was after all what I set out to do.
I walked away and prepared my body for the next morning's first test, 2 times 2km in my 1x on the water.  I hopped into an epsom salt bath after a good meal with my adopted family here and headed to bed relatively early.
Wednesday morning I woke up to my usual routine and headed to the lake.  As I set out on the water I had to remind myself to take it one piece at a time and to stay relaxed.  I don't know that I was too successful at that but it is a work in progress.  It was not easy rowing but I was glad to have the wind calm for us briefly so we could get down the course with less extraneous challenges.  I felt good overall with my pieces, although they were not too fast I know I put what I could into them for the moment.
Next step and last test was the same work but in the 2x (double) with my lightweight partner.  These were not fantastic pieces especially after the hurt of the last 2 tests but we made things work best we could with little time we have been rowing together. 

At the end of the day I had learned more about my speed, strengths, weaknesses, and competitors (teammates).  Even in some disappointment you can find valuable information if you are willing to accept the kick in the shin or punch in the face.  That said the coaches seemed to be pleased for now and continue to encourage me to push ahead and work away.

I have noticed I have a lot more up and down days.  Some days and even hours of the day I am confident in my future here, and others I am unsure.  However, at the end of the day positivity and that gut feeling win over and I lift my heart, head and hands up and say "I know you've got things covered God, just help me do what I need to along the way".

Oh one last note, today in church we were talking about the story of the rich man who asked Jesus what he had to do to get into the kingdom of heaven and the idea of Christians thinking they are above others came up.  The pastor made an interesting point, to be hold is to be set apart, not set above.  When I think about my journey and the destination, wherever that may be, I want to be set apart.  As you may recall a few posts back talked about this.  God wants us to be set apart from the rest of the world, to look, sound, be different than the worldly norm.  At the end of my life I would rather be known for being set apart than to be part of the crowd.
I challenge you to think about it this week, and think about areas in your life where you can stand out and have more faith that God is there.  Dreams happen and miracles happen but it takes stepping out of the status quo and comfort of our own plans to bring them to life in their full!

Continued prayer for health, healing, injury prevention and mental preservation is greatly appreciated.  I have a rough road ahead but the reward for myself but first and foremost, God's kingdom is unimaginable.  I believe.