Balance

My Mom often proffers the following advice when I update her & my Dad with what I've been up to lately: Keep your balance.

Wise words.

It's very easy to let things get out of balance, even when I may feel I have it all pretty well under control. The biggest thing I must balance is maintaining my recovery as the #1 priority in life. I feel I do a good job of that overall. Room for improvement? Of course! But that's why I stick with working my Program on an ongoing basis - I'm always learning.

But smaller upsets in my balance can easily grow and oscillate into other areas, so that's what I need to remain well aware of. While the vast majority of things happening in my life do not pose any sort of direct threat to my recovery efforts, improperly handling them certainly has the potential to snowball dangerously ("Serenity NOW!!!")

Right now, I'm taking some me-time to reassess my training plan & goals.

I began this season with the upcoming Twin Cities Marathon (TCM) as my "A-race" for the year. Then, mid-season, I decided to get into triathlons, but wisely shelved any immediate entry there (i.e. significant races) until next year. However, I have been accumulating tri gear, equipment, and training plans, and have admittedly been quite distracted by this exciting new world of tri. I am very pumped to hit triathlons hard next season, but I have to remain faithful to this season's plan - a good show at the TCM.

I've recently been blessed with a fantastic opportunity to participate in the 2009 Ragnar Relay, and I'm very much looking forward to that! Though I remain focused on the TCM as the big fish in the pond, I don't see any real conflict with that and Ragnar. However, I did sign up for two sprint triathlons this season ("Just to get a feel for things"), but one didn't end up working out schedule-wise in the end, and the second one is scheduled for the same weekend as Ragnar. While there's an outside chance I could still do that second tri, I don't see it happening. It doesn't make sense to push that hard - especially considering it would be my first tri race. So, while it stinks to eat those race entry fees, it's a small price to pay in terms of experience if it means I stay healthy and true to my goal for this season.

Continuing that theme, there's simply no good reason to push so hard in general to mishmash in so many adventures & experiences just because I seemingly can. I'm young, I'm blessed with amazing health these days, and I've got many, many years of running and racing ahead of me - plenty of time in the future for many more goals!

So, it's time for me to throttle back a bit. One nagging result of my distracted training imbalance has been this tight right calf. Still there. Not worse, but not better. I've decided to take some time off from running to give it a rest. That will also be a good time for me to reassess my game plan for the final months going into the TCM. I'll plan to do some swimming in the meantime, but overall, I'm taking a break from scheduled training - I need it to restore my balance, and I'm very confident good things will result ;)

A work in progress...
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