Sleep, Fuel, and Thought - Only Things Left to Worry About

Things are going well, really well, with my C25K program.  I had W9D2 today and like the last run decided to ignore the prescribed program and go as far as I could.  Today's run was 3.99m in 45:32.


(you can click on the right edge to get the stats)

Today was a lazy day for me. I got up early to see my wife off on her workday, in which she was on back country day patrol. I can't remember the number, but I think she had more than 9 miles of hiking mapped out. Yup, she gets paid for this.

I was feeling tired so went back to bed and woke up around lunch time. Sleep, check. I made a sandwich featured in the other post today and set back down lazily on the couch. Fuel, check. About an hour and half later, I thought lunch had settled sufficiently and the internet was losing my interest (we still don't have TV here and I really don't want it) AND I could see from my C25K progress chart that W9D2 was still undone. So, I got up, dressed out and on the road. Thought...check.

As I was running today, things felt pretty good. I wasn't going to carry on a deep conversation , but my breathing was in reasonable control. I didn't feel any warning pains. I basically felt that, assuming that my runs continue in this same manner, that I really don't have to worry about bone, muscle, tendon, heart, and lungs to be my impediments. I really just need to make sure I'm well rested, properly fueled, and have my mind right about what I'm out to do.

I think I would have even been able to go a bit further, but I was thinking about my run, what I'd write about it (yup, I think about you guys most times when I do any health related stuff) and thought to myself "Kyle, you are doing great, but you gotta leave something to improve on." And no sooner was that ridiculous thought in my head than my legs literally went to a walk. I was done.

Sleep and Fuel are critical, but easily within control.

The mind, damn. It is what it is some days. Whether it is going beyond your mentally imposed athletic limits or stepping back from a building food binge. We need to know that we have that control.  Much like mastering meditation (which I absolutely suck at), some thoughts need to just be allowed to float in, be recognized, and float out without allowing them to fully register.  We can master this.

As many of you have probably heard through the blog world, Bethany (The Great Reduction), passed away at a young age. I have never read her blog before her untimely death was brought to my attention.  What her passing has enforced in me is the continued revelation that time is not within our control.  While it is good to have goals and to reach those goals by a desired time frame, it is only that day that you have to act.  You can't act for tomorrow, next week, or next year.  You can only act for your moment in time.  Should I really have been thinking that I really need to conserve myself for a bigger distance another day?  Absolutely not, that is what made that thought so ridiculous.  Do I have another run in my future?  I certainly hope so, but how I did today is all that should have mattered.

My Blog is titled "Getting Better and Better"...not because I know what my BEST is and when I will  achieved it...it is because I don't really know what my BEST actually is and I don't know how long I'll have to get there.  And like other Eastern philosophies extol, we will never reach our true BEST.  We can only do what we can do, each day, this moment, to toughen our resolve, carry out our plans, and fight like hell to get better and better.  Bless you and Bethany's family.

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