My consistency in blogging bears no lack of similarity with my consistency in running. I run much more than I blog, but I definitely spend more days, weeks, and months not running than running. "Couch suck" seems to kick in on a regular basis. My knee hurts...a little. My foot hurts...a lot. I sprained my back (being an idiot). Work is too hard. Family life is too busy. It's too early. It's too late. Every excuse seems valid at the time, every validation, however hollow, seems acceptable. Until yesterday. Until bombs set by as-yet-unnamed terrorists blew two holes in the crowd of spectators at the Boston Marathon and blew a huge hole in the heart of the running community. Blew a huge hole in my heart. I can't say that I have a personal connection to those killed or injured in the bombing or that I knew someone who was racing. Even if I had somehow been racing at Boston, my time would have been closer to 3:30 than t...
When I started training for my first marathon, I only had one goal - beat everyone I was related to. I verified their times, did a couple of training runs and was pretty confident that, with enough work, beating 4:30 was achievable. Plus, it gave the added advantage of beating Oprah (4:29). Then uncertainty and a little bit of over-confidence set it. It turned out my dad wasn't absolutely sure on his time. Was it 4:30 or did he break 4:30 or was it maybe closer to 4:20? "Well," my over-confidence stepped up and said, "We'll just beat all those times. How about 4:15 as a goal?" Oops, I'm sorry. That statement was actually what my confidence said. My over-confidence took one look at 4:15, let out a cocky laugh and said, "Tod, my friend, we are going sub 4 hours." Well, here we are, over 7 years later, with 4 marathons and 8 half-marathons under my belt, and I have proven my confidence right by breaking 4:15 twice. My over-confidence contin...
OK, so last post (almost a year ago) I stated that one of my goals was not to run too many marathons. Well, I can check that one off. Grand total of marathons run since then? Zero. It turns out that, while setting an ambitious goal like "Qualify for Boston" sounds really good and is great shorthand for what you are trying to do, it does very little for helping you actually achieve the goal. Also not helpful when you're a procrastinator who likes to do things at the last minute. People love to explain certain tasks by saying "It's not a sprint, it's a marathon." Well, qualifying for the Boston marathon is not just "not a sprint" it's not a marathon either. It's like a marathon of marathons. So, while some business theories state that your goals should be Big, Hairy, and Audacious Goals (note to inventors of term: come up with a theory that has a better acroynm than BHAG), setting that goal is just the start. Then you have to set...
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