Of Goals and Obstacles
Wherein stuff happens . . . .
Life.
Here I am, trying to get back into marathon shape three years after my last half-hearted attempt at the distance and many years after my last committed effort, and, well, things are happening.
And generally not helpful things.
First, the intervening years have left me older, and my body’s metabolism isn’t — you’ll pardon the pun — keeping pace with my training plan. I had to scratch a run this week because I was too tired from the previous run. It’s too early to adjust expectations for my December marathon, but if I have to incorporate more recovery days into my training, well, let’s just say a sub-4-hour marathon may have to wait until next year. Or later.
This aging thing sucks, said every person, everywhere.
But railing against the wind changes nothing, leaving adaptation as the only answer. I’ll give it another couple weeks before adjusting my training plan, hoping that my tiredness is just a reaction to the first stretch of consistent training in a long time. Plus I’ll get my nutrition dialed in, so I have plenty of protein to rebuild tissues stressed by my workouts and plenty of energy to fuel those workouts. And I’ll get to bed at night to give the old bod maximal downtime to repair and rebuild and recharge.
Sure I will.
Second thing: weather.
Thanks to the gift of climate change, we had nearly two weeks of scorching temperatures here in the northwestern United States. Extreme heat tends to dry out things like plants and trees, which makes them more susceptible to fire. Which creates smoke. So even if I were to run in the morning before it became ungodly hot, the smoke in the air coating my heaving lungs probably isn’t the best thing for my long-term health.
Which leaves the treadmill.
But when the heatwave is broken by a thunderstorm with 80mph straightline winds, an awful lot of trees and branches come down. Sometimes on power lines. Treadmills don’t work without power, and much of my part of western Montana is still without power a few days after the storm. The wildfires still burn though, so the air quality is still not where I’m comfortable exercising outside.
But fires don’t burn forever, and eventually power companies get everyone back online, so I’m hopeful that my future runs will be smoke-free and that my cross-training and core conditioning will happen in a gym that’s open regular hours.
Third, my motivation works better with habit. And regular training has not been a habit for a while. So this one comes down to determination. As in getting off my growing ass and getting those workouts in.
Which is complicated by isolation.
We’ve established that I am far more likely to work out when I have someone to start with, whether or not we do the exact same workout. But I don’t have people to work out with in Montana, and I’m a bit farther from my California friends even when I’m in California, so most of the time I’m dependent on me, myself, and I to do the work.
So, determination.
Which, I guess, is really what usually differentiates success from failure. Things happen to everyone, and the next road to a goal that unfolds without a single obstacle will be the first. Barring a global pandemic or perhaps a war, the level of determination we show pretty much predicts success.
Am I determined enough to get my goal?
I think so, but time, as always, will tell the tale. Stay tuned.
