2012: Life is Too Short

As far as 2011 goes, I am not looking back and not speaking of it. My aunt recently said something so great; time only moves forward and there is absolutely no way to go back to the past or change it, we can only move forward - and so we must. Therefore, my theme for 2012 is "life is too short, we only get one."

After essentially taking off the month of December from training, I was refreshed; it was nice to relax. However, it is now the end of January and training has resumed and I am thankful to be back at it. We have started with bits of turnover work, some 1-minute pickups, 200s (which I do not recommend flying around the track in horrendous Nike trainers that feel like moon shoes and cause your foot to slide all over the place...), 400s, light tempos, and building up a long run. We are slowly diving back in.

There is no racing plan as of yet, however, I am beginning to feel the ravenous hunger to get out there and compete.My body has been slightly confused and irritated with me; afterall, I made it go several years with 80 mile/week averages to drop off sharply to maybe 20 miles/week through December. It was as though my body was looking up at me like a perplexed puppy cocking its head to the side and saying "HUH?"

Well, I think I've made it angry.

As of now, running close to 50 miles/week is more painful than running 30 more a week! It makes no sense, I tell you! However, if I did take away anything from the year I do not speak of - it's that with everything, there is a process that takes time, for every action there is a reaction, and instead of worrying so much about what the future holds, how races will go, somedays I need to soak up every moment of that particular day - because we are not promised tomorrow. So even though my hamstrings, and shoulders, and shins, and ankles, and hips, et al. are perturbed with me, I am going to trust and enjoy the process of getting back into shape, and really try to get the most out of each day...because that is the most I can do, ...and keep moving forward, because time's not going to stop moving forward for me. Cheers to a New Year of running!