Tomorrow marks the day

Over the last couple weeks I have found myself struggling to complete the necessary training tasks. I’m not sure why, I only know that it can’t continue this way. At the beginning I was getting sick because I was training too hard, and now I don’t feel great and I’m hardly training at all. I still finish the long runs without too much effort, but I know that they will be REALLY hard if I continue this way.

Starting tomorrow, I will be back on track. I’m going to sleep tonight at 10pm and waking up at 6 to train. I just need to drill it into my head that there’s only about 6 weeks until the marathon and in order to achieve my goal of having an awesome time in San Diego for the entire day, not just the marathon, I need to get my ass into optimal shape. I will take up a schedule that can be done without causing pain, injury, sickness, etc. That’s just about the last thing I can have occurring right now.

Another thing, I have found that I only write journals when I work out, and this has shown my dedication, writing about 2-3 journals per week. I even skipped my beloved spinning class on Monday because of the NCAA basketball championship, which I didn’t even really care about. I was hanging out with some friends, and their lazy day turned into my relaxing additional day off. I was still kind of sore from the long run, but I should have at least stretched.

I have also been working in the garden a lot, preparing the soil, digging deep holes, laying bricks, creating pathways, shoveling endless amounts of dirt, but this is usually only for an hour or 2, and certainly not a cardio workout. I must say, it’s looking nice and with this rain hopefully it will create an amazing harvest.

I must admit, there have been a lot of things on my mind, but during college and this last autumn I would use running as my stress release, and because I only run 2-3 times per week, and not at will, I find myself dwelling on more unnecessary information. Hopefully once I begin the workouts regularly this lethargic attitude will cease.

Maybe these last few weeks were just my mind telling my body to relax and recover from the last few months, quiet my body and give me the strength to finish strong and well into the future. That could be wishful thinking, but it would make sense as the mind controls the body and knows exactly what it should do to conserve energy and when to act, assuming it really thinks it needs to complete a multiple hour endurance event. The three weeks I essentially took “off” will show up in either good or bad as the marathon approaches and becomes reality. I just hope that they were the right decision and not detrimental to my training.

Anyway, tomorrow marks the day of a new routine, more stretching, higher quality sleep, better state of mind, more daily journals, and ultimately more fun.

I really appreciate all of the support from everybody thus far and hope that people continue to wish me luck and ask me how the training is going. It’s a constant reminder of what I am really fulfilling. It’s for the people who will be helped by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s mission to cure blood cancers, for those who want to set and reach a long term goal, for anybody with a positive mindset and good intentions.

I’m planning a fund raising concert on Thursday April 30 at Blue Chalk Café in Palo Alto, with the awesome band Whiskey Hill, some giveaways and a silent auction. I’ll have more information about it soon. It should be a good time, if you spread the word, it will be more fun.

Take care,
Ryan