I failed to plan, but I don't plan to fail.

It is now about a month and a half from the half marathon.  April 28th is the date.  I still do not have a training plan for it.  That is, I am not following any plan.  I typically print out a plan and then follow it to some degree.  I always stray a bit from the plan, but I still have a plan.  This year, I have none.  This does not mean I am not training, because I am.  I do not want to be accused of saying that I am not training and then I magically have a good time for the half.  Nor do I want to be accused of saying I'm not training and then, not so magically, not getting a good time and blaming it on not training.  I just am not following a plan.  At this point, it is really too late for me to come up with a plan.  I am doing a test, though.  I am kicking up my strength training and my kettlebell training, and my speed and power workouts.  For some reason right now, I am really more into lifting and step work and that sort of thing.  I have been riding my bike more as well.  I'm beating the hell out of my legs.  I think any success I will have this year will be because my overall strength is good.  I feel like the Christopher Columbus of running right now.  He too, did not have a plan.  He just got on the Mayflower and headed for India.  He was thinking, "I'm going to see if the world is flat and I'm going to stop in India for some stuff."  As we all now know, he ended up in the United States.   Scared, lonely, hungry for spice and in a land that was not which he sought.  Yet, it worked out for him.  I don't want anyone to think that I would refer to myself as Christopher Columbus, but there are similarities.  I set out in some Saucony Kinvaras to see if I can get a good time in the half marathon in a different way than I have before.  I'm scared and lonely too.  Being a history major, I feel the need to interject some historical data into my running stories.  If I majored in astronomy, maybe somehow I would work in the Milky Way or a worm hole.

Plan B of my non plan is to fluctuate my weight up and down three or four pounds a week.  This confuses my legs and my body and makes each run that much more interesting.  I have thought about running with weight packs but I save money by just filling my love handles.  For a few days, I will eat pretty healthy.  Then for a few days, I will eat everything I see.  Many trainers talk of muscle confusion.  I like to confuse my stomach.  On the day of the half, I could quite possible have the strongest stomach ever.  I will just laugh at all the people standing in line at the Porta Potty, because I will be able to hold everything in.  My abs will be strong from the inside out.  I'm working on a reverse six pack.  You can't see it, but I know it is there.  Beauty is skin deep, right?  My beauty is skin, lard and stomach lining deep.  Or it will be.

I have had good runs, I have had bad runs and I've had so so runs.  My lifting is going great.  I have not felt this strong in a long time.  I attribute much of the gains in strength to the pushups I do.  Simple yet effective.  My legs are tired and a bit sore from the added lifting, steps, biking and  sprints that I am doing.  My legs will be used to all this well before the half and I'm anxious to see how the running feels when this happens.  I decided today to pre-make some meals for the week so I can control my food intake.  I think this will enable me to be at least 5 pounds lighter by the half.  I'll start increasing the long runs.  The long runs are the part of all this that I am enjoying the least, but I have to do it.

I'll close with my brief sermon on exercise.  Yesterday morning I just felt kind of gross.  Headache, a tiny bit nauseous and not at all motivated to run.  I went out anyway and just told myself to let my body dictate the run.  I went out three on a nice trail with my friends and started feeling tired, so I turned.  I did a combo of running, sprinting and walking the three miles back.  It felt awesome.  The short sprints I did, with the river to my right, felt really good.  My stride felt right.  My knee didn't hurt.  My head didn't hurt.  Running, exercise and fresh air.  Nature's medicine.

I can't honestly say that I'm looking forward to the half, but I'm pretty exited to see what I can do.