let what may change, change; yet hold that which remains.

earlier today i told sweet baby james that i am planophobic, but after having given it some more thought, i realize that's not precisely accurate - i am not afraid of plans. i am not averse to plans. it's more a nihilism, if i am using the term correctly. why make a plan if the plan is going to be frogged up - why bother? some of you will see an ironicalness here that i make a living of making plans, but i will tell you i hold fast to the notion that all plans turn to poop. HOWEVER. it's not the plan that matters - what matters is the execution. any planner who believes the plan takes precedence over execution is an idiot and any planner who doesn't plan on changing the plan as the execution progresses is an idiot.

ace. what's the point?

i registered for a marathon, a running event, scheduled for approx 4 months from now.

my usual modus operandi when approaching a marathon is to simply run. and, run more. and, run some more. run a lot and run every day and run as much as possible all the time and then run some more. simply running a lot is not a plan and having executed this unplan in the past, i can tell you it results generally in my being completely worn out and sometimes injured but just fiercely hanging on to the confidence that by god i must be ready because i ran so much. how could i not be prepared? all that running has got to result in being prepared. right?

so anyway, this time i thought why not throw caution to the wind and get all crazylike and take up a plan. crazy! so i scooted on over to the website of the famous mr hal higdon and downloaded the beginner plan. NOVICE I. i am not a novice runner and not precisely a novice marathoner, having run 7 in my life (plus like 3 halfs and myriad other road races), but i am a novice planner. this is a whole new way for me to approach my running, so why not start at the bottom?

i looked it over and it looks like fun. you run some, you rest some, you do a little cross training. looking at an actual plan that has lower mileage at the END than i thought i'd be doing next week is truly a comfort. suddenly, i am released from the requirement of running every day, released from running as much as i possibly can, released from adding more every week, pushing it to the limit every day.

that's right - a mere piece of paper is standing in the gap between me & self-destruction. some of you are nodding sagely right now but some of you are shaking your heads in wonderment - "what's your damage, ace? you can't stop running unless hal tells you it's okay? jeez, ace, just sit the fock down, why don'tcha?" either you understand already, so i don't need to explain, or you'll never understand, so i don't need to explain. (see also: addictive personality, narcissism)

this is an actual plan that actual people use to prepare for actual marathons so there must be a level on which it works. running until i can't walk isn't working so bout as well give hal's plan a try. i have nothing to lose but my 5-hour marathon PR.

and, yeah, best laid plans and all that. blah blah blah.

bring it on!