If You Thought Last Week Sucked.....

The real long road of running

WOW! Another crappy running week. 34 miles. No long run. No tempoish run. Not much fun. Too many runs in the dark. 

The culprit? Work.

Work? Yep, work. In case you don't know, I train/teach/facilitate/instruct sales courses (mostly real estate, but other industries too). I've really only ever done two things in my work life; teaching and real estate. When I am working, it usually means one of two things: I am actually in front of a group of people (anywhere from 12 to 1200), OR I am preparing for being in front of a group of people. When prepping, the running thing is easy. With a little self-discipline and effort, "being" a runner is a piece of cake. I get up (usually between 5 and 6), I work for a few hours, I run, then I work. Life is simple. Life is easy.

When actually fronting my work, it's a different story. Those days the work is rigidly scheduled and runs must fit around the work. Half the year that means running when it's dark or cold, or dark and cold. It means running when I'm groggy or running when I'm tired. Tired is, at this stage of my life, an understatement. When I am in front of a group, I work, and I work hard. If you're in my audience, you get all of me. I pour it out to you. And these are most often full day or two day courses/classes. So, there's not much left, I'm tired. 

By the way, if I were younger: 35, or 42, or even 50, this burning of the candle at both ends might not be as big a deal. At 66, however, with 111,000 miles on the transport mechanism, it is. AND..... with age comes slowing, which means it takes LONGER to get in the miles. When I was in my twenties, a one hour run yielded 10 miles (or more). Today, not as many. That takes time, and TIME is the critical variable. I know you know this, but there are 24 hours in the day and I, or you, have yet to figure out how to create more (I'm working on that, but even Einstein, Edison, or Gates failed on that one).

Don't get me wrong. I AM NOT COMPLAINING (Did I emphasize that enough?)! The lack of time is a wonderful bi-product of being busy, really busy, and the beginning of this year has exploded. In all of last year, I taught 79 days. So far, on this writing January 28th, I have 74 already booked, and I haven't really begun focusing on the booking thing. I think that's absolutely awesome because I LOVE what I do and I love placing my wife and myself in a better financial position. It also means, however, that choices must be made; priorities must be shuffled. It's all about adaptability: physical, mental, emotional.

In the end, I run less and maybe, just maybe, I'm not as prepared for that race as I'd like to be, or maybe, as in the case of the Canyonlands Half in Moab in March, I have to skip it. I think I'm okay with that. At least for now. I think..... maybe.

In the course of 51 1/2 years, my relationship with my running has been an always evolving thing. I've run to win, I've run to race, I've run for weight loss, I've run for sanity, I've run to think, I've run to create. I've run, at times, for all of the above all at the same time. In the end, what's most significant to me is that I've run. And...... I will tomorrow.

Run on.