Sneaking Back

I have been quietly sneaking back into the running scene. I am literally doing it minute by minute.

Seriously.

I walked 70 minutes today and threw in an 8 minute jog in the middle. If the MRI comes up negative then what I am doing is probably the right thing. Just coming back very slowly and staying on the flats and thinking about where I want to be in about 6 months versus next week. Yesterday was 7 minutes. The day before 6 and so on.

I am really far down the feeding chain as far as running is concerned. I am a junior jogger back in the primordial swamp of my exercising existence. I walk therefore I am...

A WALKER!

I told Jake that once I am out of this job and school starts, we can go back to running the dam (or in my case the track.....at first) and then have breakfast.

I told my wife last night over wine that I would rather work than coach high school kids. It would be fun to help Jake now and then but going to the meets and actually trying to have serious conversations with teenagers is beyond my capacity. I can do it but it's not a abiding strength. I am lucky that I can talk to my son but these days he is 22 and knows more than I do. We get along. I like to hang out with him, smoke cigars, whatever.

Back to running. What would it take to create the perfect storm. In other words the right environment for me to train 30-35 mpw and not bonk.

1. Stop working at anything resembling stressful**. Work is a stress and I need to be very choosy about whether it adds or subtracts to my available energy reserves. OK, they are not what they were at age 30 or even 40 but relative to my age my competition, I still have some energy and the question is how to best tap it.

So bottom line: Less work.

2. Get enough sleep. Stress has eaten into my sleep. It's a vicious cycle. Fix number 1 and number 2 will take care of itself.

3. Eat well. That means not overeating but eat what I need to give me energy to compete and recover from my workouts. Eat enough t get down to fighting weight.

4. Be very smart about what I do when I train. I would like to run 5-6 days a week but it may be better to double and take every other day off. I will need to figure this out.

I should be able to do either if I take care of the first 3 items.

5. Learn how to compete again. On my terms but still competition. I can't even begin to approach this unless I take care of the first 4 items. This requires focus and I don't have that right now. I am focusing on not getting enough sleep and work stress and life stress and even though I am a poor man's millionaire, I worry about money. It is undermining things. I am still happy but that may be my nature. But I am not satisfied.

** This may require a work fast. In other words detaching myself from what I used to be when I needed to work because that is the way I am acting right now. I see my friends who have retired doing a good job of this but I, the career coach, the transition coach, can't seem to let go. A work fast means creating a qualifying event that takes me away from work as I know it and put it on my terms.

I need to accomplish the above five things this year. It's mid August already and time is slipping away.