Those of you who know me well know that I have an exceeding fondness for The Plan, both daily and long-term. I am a consummate organizer, I live and die by my Outlook Calendar. The act of formulating The Plan makes me happy; it gives me direction and focus. I take great comfort in The Plan; I am soothed by the knowledge of what’s happening next, so I can be prepared. I’ve never been good at improvising, I’m not graceful under pressure, so if there is no plan or (worse) plans go awry, I tend to stress out more than your average duck.
This characteristic surely added to my distress over suspending my training and canceling my trip to race the Flora London Marathon. My plan–not only for London but for the year–was seriously derailed; and all my running goals for 2009 would have to be reevaluated (could I even meet one of them now?). Even so, I acknowledged that setting a new plan without knowing when I’ll be able to run again was foolish.
Now that my orthopedist and physical therapist have the MRI report in hand and can proceed from a diagnosis (microtear in my adductor brevis, the highest and deepest of the three adductors), I know that I’m not allowed to run until May 26th at the earliest, which leads me to four stepping-stone dates:
May 10, 2009: I’ll walk our family tradition race, the Mother’s Day Title 9k in Boulder, CO.
June 20, 2009: My leg of the Green Mountain Relay probably needs to be one of the easiest, since I won’t have even four weeks of training under me by then.
October 10, 2009: I’ve registered for the Baltimore Half-Marathon, which will be the race I run for Dan this year (he lives in Baltimore).
April 25, 2010: Team Fox confirmed that I can defer my registration for the London Marathon to the 2010 race, so that will be my next marathon.
The plan is this: make as few plans as possible. Don’t even set goals, other than get better, get stronger, and maintain. All those goals I set back in January? I hereby declare them null, void and obsolete. I release myself from their clingy demands, effective immediately.
I have a loose framework and a general direction. For now, that’s about all I am willing to hazard. For 2009 (a.k.a. “the year which refuses to stop sucking”), the planned non-plan is going to have to be enough.
I may need your help to go with the flow here. Anyone know any deep-breathing techniques?
Pigtails Flying 
You can have both — just make all your near-term goals about recovering. A woman I follow (who is injured) runs by time only. So her goals are something like, “Run for 20 minutes on Monday, Run for 30 minutes on Friday,” etc.
Sorry for the suckishness. It’s funny, when I was watching the men take off in London, I thought of you — there was a missing face in the crowd.
Well, whatever happens, we will be in that messy van together for the big relay. I am SO looking forward to it.
And deep breathing tricks? Girl, are you not aware that I am A TRAINED CLASSICAL SINGER?!?!?! Oh yeah. I employ my “opera breathing” all the time when I’m running. 🙂 I’ll give you some tips, oh yes.
Thanks ladies. Yes, I am pretty sure that my first month of so of training is going to be running based on time rather than distance or speed. It will take some of the pressure off at first, I think.
Well, I use booze.
Actually, since I’m a compulsive list maker/worrier/planner/freak all that I can say is “good luck” I’m pulling for you.
I tried booze. It worked, then it stopped working. I’ve tried other things too (food, sex, sleep) and they all fail after a while as well.
I guess I’m just gonna have to be healthy. Awe, damn.
So, no NYC this year?
On walking the family race in Boulder — At least you won’t have to deal with the nastiness of running at elevation. 🙂 (I won’t be running my family tradition race this year either… Since the Bolder Boulder is the week between the Delaware Marathon and the Brooklyn Half, I decided to walk/jog it with my Dad. No racing at elevation this year… Yippee!)
And, let me be the first to say, (or one of the first) good luck in London 2010!
No New York City marathon for me this year. I have pretty much come to the conclusion that my body is not strong enough for more than one marathon a year. I never felt 100% while I was training for London–I am pretty sure it’s because I didn’t give myself enough down-time after NYC before I started ramping up my mileage again. London 2010 is my next Goal marathon, so even though I registered for NYC (since I qualified on the 9+1 option) I will be postponing that entry until probably 2011. (Did I just effing schedule a race for November 2011?!)
Here’s to all of us holding our goals lightly. You know, we say “it’s just running,” but I understand deeply that running means an awful lot. Here’s sending you healing waves.
Already planning 2011? You are off to a good start…
I believe that you and I were meant to meet YEARS ago. I have an agenda/ schedule for everything; running, cooking, travel, socializing. You should see my Google calendar, it is a monster!
I don’t think I am going to try to run London 2010 anymore after hearing the date. Will aim to do Edinburgh instead, but first need to get through NYC 2009 :-0
xx
T