Somebody Start Me!

In the Mask, Jim Carrey delivers the line, "Somebody STOP me." 

I need something different..... Somebody START me!

Is it the change of weather? Is it that I've already FAR exceeded my mileage goals for the year? Is it that I lost my "haven't missed a day all year" streak? ORRRRR, d) all of the above.

The last few weeks have been the least motivated I have been in a long, long time. Yeah, I'm still logging some miles, but there is not even the slightest movement towards anything substantial. And yes, I realize that this is SUBjective. Many runners would be excited to run 40-50 miles a week. They wouldn't be whining about it. HOWEVER...... I gotta tell you, I'm struggling to get out of the door.

I realize, too, that if I continue to average about 45 miles a week, I will get to 2700 for the year and that would be my best mileage year since 2012. I was younger then...... I will also get past 119,000 lifetime miles. Nice.

The bottom line here is that while I'd like to get motivated, there really isn't a good reason to do so. It's not like a race can motivate me, or running in/at a particular location. New shoes? Probably not. Actually, I think I'm pretty okay with this the more I write about it. That is a good thing!

A shout out to the thousands of fall marathoners, especially my son-in-law, Brian Bergquist, who tackled the Boston - New York double. Run on.

And I'll get there..... pretty soon.

70? Seriously?

Tomorrow I turn seventy (looks better written than as a number). That means I have been on the planet a decent amount of time. That also means that I have spent almost 80% of that time running. Not many things I have done longer. Nonetheless, seventy means several other things.

First and foremost, I have moved up an age group. That is always a nice perk. Unfortunately, since I don't race, that perk doesn't carry much weight. It exists, just the same.

Next, it reinforces that age is just a number. I felt better at 40 than at 30. I hope to feel just as good at seventy as I did at 60. I'm still doing that thing I love and I am doing it consistently and with passion. Couldn't ask for more than that.

AND..... Today's run put me at 2304 for the year. That's not a bad total for a guy who was supposed to have his knee replaced a few years ago. It is my hope to average about 50m a week for the next eight weeks which ought to firmly land me at over 2700 miles for 2021. That would be the most in a year since 2012. In fact, I ran 2788 the year I turned 60. Hmmmmmmmm..... motivation.......

It also means that I can no longer afford to carry this extra weight around. Dangerous at any age, worse as we get older. SO....... time to lift, maybe yoga, time to hydrate, time to drop back into more veggies and fruits. Time to just take better care of this vehicle that has transported me for a long time.

I'm guessing that when I wake up tomorrow, I won't feel much different than today. Birthdays are like that. They're just days. Pass the cake.

Run on!