Day 114: Inter arma enim silent leges

Training for the marathon has been the most regimented part of my life for the past few months. I consider myself fairly undisciplined, and motivation for various endeavors is often a problem in general -- but sticking with the training plan has really helped me to focus. Unfortunately, there aren't training plans for the other parts of my life: anything -- or nothing -- goes, as usual.

Per the plan (or, as I call it with Katie, the 'regimen,' which is a distinct part of a total-life 'plan'), I completed a dozen more miles this morning. Would have made it a baker's dozen, but around mile 5 I started to worry that I was going to have some stomach troubles, so I decided to turn around at (what I guessed was) mile 6 instead of mile 6.5. Turned out to be a false alarm, but better to be safe than sorry.

Somewhat in the same vein, Carson and I made plans to do a 40- or 50-mile bike ride tomorrow to take advantage of the sparkling Boston autumn (I reasoned that 50 miles pedaling has got to equal 4 miles running). But the plans were suspended: my grandmother is unwell and I will jet down to New York tomorrow for the day, to be with her and my mother. Sometimes you just have to sweep everything aside to address what is truly important, and this is one of those times.