So break is over and I'm back in CoMo for my last semester. The plan was to plunge right into my Master's project right away, which is a photography book based on last year's Missouri Photo Workshop that I'll be editing. Unfortunately the work-study job that will pay for my last round of tuition has ended up eating up far more time than I'd expected and I haven't done a thing yet towards starting. Hopefully that will change first thing tomorrow morning however when I plan to devote the entire day to devising a concrete project game plan.
The good news however, at least in terms of the supposed focus of this blog, is that I've done a decent job of getting my running schedule back on track. I'm running 6 miles pretty consistently 4x a week or so and as of this past weekend, I've started swimming and lifting again too. The lifting left my chest and shoulders in a state of profound discomfort but I try to tell myself that's just the feeling of the muscles getting stronger.
It's been a long, long time since I've been fast now, but that doesn't mean that I've forgotten how I got there the first time. Consistent. Slow. Distance. Emphasis on slow. I lost the strap for my heart rate monitor when I left New York in August of 2008, but I've got a shiny new one sitting on my desk right now and I'm ready to rock with it.
I'm going to be calling this "the training plan" and as I will discuss further with some of you, it goes far beyond getting a sub-3 marathon this time around. The methods are pretty much the same though. I hope to get back to running at least five days a week, between 4 and 9 miles at a pop, but always keeping my heart rate below 150. That's no easy thing for me, especially when I'm not in the greatest of shape to begin with, but I learned last time that it's in that trudgingly low hr range where all my aerobic miracles happen.
The first milepost goal will possibly com on April 3rd, with a 2.5 mi/15 mi/2.5 mi run/bike/run duathlon here in Columbia. A month later, I really want to do that same sprint triathlon that I did last year. After that I'm not making any big plans until early October, but I'll write more about that goal later.
As motivated as I am right now to stay committed to these goals, I know that life has a way of interfering. My mom's health is an ever present worry these days and I'm never sure when I'm going to have to hop a plane back to Richmond. I know I'm going to be spending a week or two out in Virginia in mid-April when my brother and his wife will be having their first baby, but of course I should be able to run while I'm there. And of course this damn Master's project has to get done. I keep joking that I don't have to graduate in May, but I should keep that date in my sights as the ideal target date for the moment anyway.
So, that's the plan. Get started on the editing project, get consistent with the running and swimming, triathlon on May 2nd, graduation on May 14th and then I'll have all summer to plan for October and start my new life in St. Louis with Jack.
