Makin' Time

You can spend all your time, makin' money.
You can spend all your love, makin' time.
The Eagles

Hello?  Anyone still out there?

I'm here.  I'm alive.  I'm moved.  Work is crazy busy.  I'm trying to stay away from the flu of swine and any needles connected to same.  Got my old place rented out to My Boys.  Moving sucks but I'm in a good place with a good friend (I'd forgotten how fun it can be to have a roommate!).  She's not afraid  of the BBQ and I'm not afraid of the grocery store.  We're both anal retentive and like to eat.  It's a good match.

I'm still running, though.  Mostly like a chicken with its head cut off these past few weeks but I'm running all the same.  I just ditched the blogging!  How is a girl supposed to fit it all in????  When I took up the marathon a friend noted that I would have to plan my life around it.  No problem, I thought.  I'm great at making lists and schedules (see anal retentive comment above).  I LOVE being efficient with my time.  I get excited thinking about how to arrange the calendar - what errand I can run on my way home from this or how to piggyback something onto something else to take care of that.

Other than the week after Thanksgiving, when the packing and moving were in full swing, I have been able to get most of my runs in.  But I couldn't find the time to sit down and write.  I *gasp* was overcommitted.  A laughable thing for someone who inherited her mother's Type A-ness and makes a living off of making To-Do lists.  Also laughable for someone who's 38 and unmarried.

My time is maxed out.  It makes me nervous to think about what it will be like when I'm running really long distances.  Come marathon time, my entire Sunday will be spent in my running shoes.  When will I have time to do anything else?  I'm already trying to think of how I can fit in my runs while fitting in the other things I have to do.  I was going to run to my book club meeting last week but it was too far.  I'm thinking of running to the grocery store with a backpack and then walking back.

I'm worried that I'll start to resent all the running I have to do.  Right now I don't really WANT to do it.  It's an obligation.  And when it starts eating away at time for the things I DO want to do, it will make me cranky.  This is what discipline is all about, I suppose.

I think that this, really, will be less about time than energy.  I do have time but usually not enough energy to do it all.  So how do I make the energy?  When l start to love it,  guess.

Highlights from the past month:

* I ran my first race 10k race.  I made some time doing that - 2 minutes faster than my fastest 10k!  I felt pretty good.  My biggest fear was being last.  Someone always has to be and I laid awake nights worrying that it was going to be me.  But I finished respectably in the middle.
* I ran 4k straight through - first time ever - and it felt good.
* I have my first running injury: patellafermellanutellawhatever.  The under-the-kneecap pain.  Not fun but I'm hoping not too serious.  It's cramping my style a bit right now.
* I'm in a half-marathon clinic!  Our goal race is the Hypodermic Half in February...gawd...
* Still eating like a horse.


Want to learn more about the charity I work for and am running for?   www.larchecalgary.org


Want to make a donation to my running endeavour?  www.canadahelps.org/gp/5210


Want to read up on the Marathon du Medoc?   www.marathondumedoc.com