Marathon Training, Week 2, Days 1-3: Kona's First 5+ Miler

I won't be doing IM FL 2009. Why? I can't get Friday off to drive up and volunteer this weekend.

Le sigh.

Anyway.

As you can imagine, I don't often allow Kona to sleep in my bed. There are a number of reasons. First, he is 60+ pounds of solid muscle and he hogs the pillows (as you can see here - this is his Serious Face aka the I Just Woke Up From Lounging on Your Pillows Face). He also has Canine ADD and gets up every 20-30 minutes to chase the cats around the bedroom. He also snores, grunts and occasionally stands over me snuffling and slurping my face, just to remind me he's still in bed with me (as if I could forget). I do, however, let him come on runs with me as often as he wants - which, judging by today's results, will probably be every run under 10 miles.

Yesterday I had to take my 2nd rest day because I overslept in the morning thanks to an unexpected string of nights riddled with insomnia. Then I didn't get home from class until close to 10 p.m. I wasn't worried about it, though, since I walked almost 2 miles with Kona on Monday and passed my midterm last night WITH FLYING COLORS!

I've never been so nervous about a test in my life - I barely had the time or mental energy to study, but I somehow managed to pull it off, even with all the trauma I've experienced recently. The whole night re-framed my idea of . . . . everything. All of a sudden, the advice my dad's given me my whole life about "everything in moderation" really hit me. You see, my idea about tests - about school, about work, about training - and I've probably mentioned this - has always been very black and white. In general, I have a problem with grey areas. (This is in direct conflict with my tendency to be a big picture person - I don't excel at details.) I didn't have the normal 12-15 hours I usually spend on tests and homework for this test (thanks to obvious events in my life) and I was absolutely panic-stricken. But, for some reason, after I passed the test with an A- , I stopped and realized that I don't need to devote 12-15 hours studying for one exam in order to pass it. I don't have to memorize the minutiae to prove I know the material. And then I started thinking deeper about it and realized the same goes for work - I don't need to be earning promotions and raises to prove I'm doing something, just doing my job and learning. And then I realized it is the same for training - if I can't make a 9-mile run, but I still have time for 2 miles, that 2 miles is more miles than I would have logged if I'd just given up and said "Damn, I can't run today." Doing everything is better than doing something, but doing something is better than doing nothing.

Thank you, Captain Obvious!

So I made myself a deal. From now on, whether it's paying bills, working, training, studying, visiting friends, volunteering - I'm going to start respecting that I can't do everything. But. immediately after I acknowledge that, I'm going to make a commitment to do something. Anything. No matter how tiny the effort is, even if I'm sick as hell and all I can do is run to the park and back, read one chapter, finish one set of documents, or commit to a future race.

You know that hokey equation about finishing races that goes DLF>DNF>DNS? Here's mine for life: Everything>Something>Nothing.

Today: Almost 6 miles, Kona made it the whole way, 1:19 and change.
Tomorrow: 3mi.
Friday: 3mi.
Saturday: Lake Nona 5k.
Sunday: 6-8 mi.
2 Weeks: Celebration Founders' Day 10k.
5 Weeks: OUC Half Marathon.
15 weeks: Melbourne Marathon.

Triathlon schedule for 2009 will follow.