Making Plans for Amy

Oh my gosh, I just read a recent post by fellow artist Lisa Congdon on her blog: Changing the story

It's just what I needed to read right now. Just minutes ago I shared a video on my Facebook wall about the benefits of waking up early (like 4:30am early!), too – it's on my mind because tomorrow I need to get up early in order to get my run in and not have to rush around getting ready for work afterward. I generally don't think of myself as a morning person, like Lisa, but realize that I do pretty OK most of the time I am forced to. I am a 9 to 5er, after all! There is nothing more satisfying than getting up early and getting things done that make you feel good for the rest of the day, and running always does that for me. I never, ever say that I regretted an early morning run.

While it'll be tough getting up extra early tomorrow after having a long weekend off, it'll be worth the effort and it'll be a great way to start the work week. So, I am setting my mind up for that expectation.

Since I wrote last, it's been a mixed bag – a real roller coaster as far as what I'm trying to accomplish here. The week started well both exercise and eating-wise, but then Tuesday night I stubbed my baby toe so bad that I couldn't fit my foot into a regular shoe the next day, much less go on a walk or run. It hurt like crazy on Wednesday and into the night and next morning... and then, like some miracle I stood up from my desk Thursday afternoon and it no longer hurt, almost at all! I have no idea what that was about, but I was so grateful for it. When the accident happened, I was so upset about the prospect of not being able to run for a while, but as it turns out I was able to do my Thursday run on Friday without missing a beat. I rested on Saturday, but come Sunday morning my partner was raring to go for a couple short, easy hikes and we were out the door by 9am! We had a great time and did a total of 2.3 miles together, and then stopped at a local farm market to stock up on produce for the coming week. (Visited my mom briefly, too!) Later that day I also got my Saturday-scheduled run on the books – 1.25 miles, slowly building my endurance back up.

Me at the tail end of the Swallow Hollow trail at the Iroquois Refuge in Alabama, NY.

Over the weekend I also did something mildly crazy... I put into my Google calendar a running training schedule that takes me all the way to August 2017 and potentially, best case scenario, to a marathon. Now, I'm not really sure that's going to happen, but it could. I have set up schedules for myself and then not ended up sticking with them. The difference this time is that I've made sure that the schedule is more gradual in building distance so that I don't get hurt or burn out. I mashed together various Hal Higdon programs: Novice 5K, Novice 10K, and Novice Supreme Marathon into one that I think will serve me well. If I stick with it, I'll be able to easily do a 5K in December like I planned before. Then, I should be set for the 10K distance by February; after that the marathon training starts, and starts easy but adds one more day of running each week, so it'll be four instead of three. I'll get back to two- to four-mile distances for the first month or so (it's a 30 week schedule!) and then I'll work my way back up to longer distances each week, slowly.

By the end of May I could very well be ready for a half marathon. I've got two races marked on the calendar as a wait-and-see how it goes before thinking about committing to one – but I sure would like to, considering how bad I felt about not following through with the Wineglass Half this year.

According to the schedule, I could run a marathon in August, but honestly I'll probably want to take things a bit more slowly. It's in the calendar as is now, but I won't be afraid to run a couple weeks of the schedule twice if I need to – just like how they suggest in the Couch to 5K program.

Anyway, I know it's super ambitious, but I am very excited to think about what I could accomplish in the coming year if I remain diligent and focused. Looking at the calendar shows me that if I just do the work each day, I can build it up to do something really spectacular not too far down the road. It's pretty exciting and motivating.

Oh, and by the way, weight update? Not super pretty. I was back up to 299 again a couple days ago, but today back down to 296 and change. The past couple days have been "good" ones and again, trying to take it one day at a time to get this shit done. I'm not too far off schedule to get the last of this year's goals achieved.

(Bonus points if you got my XTC reference in this post's title!)