Skip to main content

Day one


Today is ‘Day One’ of the training schedule!

I have always been a sucker for ‘day one’.
‘Day one’ is like a ‘clean slate’. A new beginning. Fresh! Perfect! The start of something exciting!
Nothing bad has happened yet. Because it’s only ‘day one’. The future stretches before you on ‘day one’, unblemished, untainted with any notion of failure. 
The marathon training schedule I will follow is 16 weeks long and, it’s good to know that, on day one, I havent yet missed a single day of training. My record, so far, is perfect, on this very perfect day.
Today is full of potential. And possibility. The sky is the limit and the world is my oyster.
By the time I get to day ‘100’ I will have only 12 days to go. That’s when the shit could possibly hit the fan.
I suspect that, by then, all those days I didn’t get out of bed in time will be starting to take their toll. But not yet! It’s only ‘day one’ and all those days I ruined by cheating and making excuses haven’t happened. -  All those days that didn’t quite go according to plan for one (very good) reason or another. Well, they have yet to be. And, at this very early stage, I will not be giving them the time of day.
Because today I’m feeling good. 

‘Day one’ is like the swimming pool that hasn’t been swum in yet, (surface tension fully in tact). It’s like the cake that has yet to be sliced, the toothpaste tube that has yet to be squeezed, the marmite jar with yeast extract still smooth as silk. Not a knife mark in sight.

‘Day one’ is like the crispest sheets in town.  Just out-of-the-packet sheets that have yet to be slept in. Patiently they wait -  wrinkle free and fresh as starch on your freshly made bed. . . 

Day one is the ‘first day’ of the rest of my running life. It’s a ‘clean slate’ and a ‘new beginning’. Anything is possible on this very special day. Today, in the very distant future  I may ‘potentially’ be able to run a marathon.

‘Day one’ is the start of the school year with the new desk and the new teacher and the brand new exercise book that has yet to be written in. All that exists is today’s date, written with a freshly sharpened pencil and underlined painstakingly with my brand new ruler.
There! Perfect!
‘Day one’ is January the first and a brand new diary. The year has yet to happen. Resolutions have yet to be broken. February will be a different story but lets not go there yet. 
‘Day one’ is like the freshly raked garden with nothing planted yet.
It will never be ‘day one’ again. Because tomorrow will be ‘day two’ and what’s so special about that?!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to run a marathon

How to run a marathon (Post-race reflections) The marathon was three weeks ago and the body is slowly falling back into place. I can’t believe it’s been 19 weeks since I first embarked on this adventure. In the beginning it seemed an impossibility and it was with great trepidation that I began my training. But. . . I have always wanted to run a marathon and with age 60 looming large I knew it was now or never.   I followed the schedule with the aim of increasing my mileage and endurance to the point where I could contemplate going the distance. The long runs became steadily longer   - 60 mins became 70 then 80 then 90. Two hours loomed at the six week mark. The improvement was gradual and I tried not to think about the 36 kms that would be required at the end of week 13. While I learned to push myself just a little bit further with each and every run I still had grave doubts that my 60 year old bod would ever cope with 42.2 kms. The truth was, the runs were hard and I
Post a Comment
Read more

Time to taper

Time to taper The big day is nearly here. In the past week my training runs have gone down. And down. And down. Aunty Lydia (running mentor and creator of 16 week schedule) tells me it’s time to taper.   ‘Taper?” I am only learning about this aspect of training for the first time. In the schedule it appears alongside words like ‘easy’ and ‘rest’. The mileage has gone down, the rest days have gone up.   In the dictionary ‘taper’ appears alongside words like   - narrow; wane; die down; dwindle; lessen; recede; subside; abate; diminish; rescind; slacken off. Words that make me feel uneasy. Words that feel like the opposite of what I should be doing.   The crux of this ‘tapering’ lark appears to be to ‘slacken off.’   Which is obviously appealing after 16 weeks of ‘cranking up’. So what, I hear you ask, is my problem?! My problem, I am fast realising, is my need to over-do stuff. To over-prepare. To over-compensate. To always try and do just that ‘little bit more’ than
2 comments
Read more

What to do with a broken toe

What to do with a broken toe! It’s week 11 of training. But it’s has been ‘one of those weeks’. It all started with an unexpected head cold. A running nose. A pounding head. A barking cough. Throat on fire. The works.   Then the hubby went off to China for a week, which meant I had to keep the home fires burning on my own. (We have a very labour-intensive fire that requires much hauling of wood -)   I also had lots of extra tutoring to do, which meant long hours at the workplace.   It was all getting bit knackering. Then. . . To top it all off. . .   I think I broke my toe. I know! Careless! Stupid!   Unlucky! It was one of those ridiculous accidents involving a bare right foot, a chair leg and a very innocent little ‘clip’. I didn’t think much of it at the time. A slight shriek, some mad hopping, a few swear words, and that was it. Because it was 8:30 on a Saturday morning and I had a two hour run to complete. There was no time for fuss. This run was har
2 comments
Read more