Just Following the Plan

The training plan I wrote up to carry me to the Vermont 100 is going well I think. This is a strange thing. I have had some very good coaches at times in my running life. No matter how accomplished these people were, I always secretly questioned the training plans. I would think "this is impossible, I can't do all this training!" or "this is ridiculously easy. I've got to add a few workouts of my own." I was always kind of like Goldilocks with the soup too hot or the soup too cold, or the bed too hard or the bed too soft. My coaches' advice never felt "just right." This is probably because I never gave them enough feedback. I never felt confident enough to speak up to those more-accomplished runners.

By thinking things through, asking myself what my current goals really are, and admitting that I am not Superwoman, I have come up with a plan that will work for me. I no longer feel the desire to place in races or run PRs, instead I want to stay healthy and fit and be able to enjoy running for many years to come. The plan I have written up for myself is low mileage, but challenging. It progresses through the season. I look at what I need to do each day and don't question it. I find myself thinking, like Goldilocks, "Ahhh, this is just right!"

Today I thought I had a five miler planned, but checking my spreadsheet I saw that I only had a measly little 3 miles to do. Instead of thinking, "3 miles?! That's nothing!" I thought, "OK, 3 miles. What ever it says made sense when I wrote this thing up so I'll just do it." I'd been out on the roads a lot lately because the mud and ice is pretty bad around here. Today I decided to move it back into the woods for my short easy run. Just for the joy of it I ran the wonderful River Run Trails. It felt great to be slipping and sliding and slogging along in these late Winter/ early Spring trail conditions. Cloudy sky, rotten snow, mud, water, and ice didn't deter my mood at all. I just felt good to be among the trees listening to the river.