Sunday, March 9, 2014

Quoting the Big Book

I spent a few years in Al-anon. They use a lot of catch-phrases there. One of them is "Let go and let God." I paraphrase this in my head constantly (as much as the "Keep Calm and..." people do). This morning I started repeating, "Let go and... assume the miles will pile on soon enough."

I ended February 7 miles short of my goal, and this week I'm behind 4 miles. The outlook for next week isn't very positive either. Cramps, dizziness, dehydration or just lack of being able to eat, have all slid running down the list of priorities. There is no sucking it up when something tiny and amazing is sucking it all out of you. Which sucks, but in a way I wouldn't ever trade.

So being 11 miles behind, I've had to let go of my iron grip on the goal, and trust the process. I trust that, in a few weeks, I'll be back on my feet, and watching the miles tick by again. Sure, I'll slow down in the summer, and might miss an entire month or so later... but 10 miles a week is a doable goal if I can see the entire year in my mind's eye.

Let go and let it ride.
Let go and, seriously, let go.
Let go and it'll happen.

Keep calm and... seriously, just calm the 'f' down.
Keep calm and try to run tomorrow.

2 comments:

Ali K. said...

I love the idea of keeping the long-goal in mind. If you're able to run throughout your entire pregnancy and stay healthy/fit for you and baby, then you'll have succeeded!

Annie Crow said...

And I'll follow up by saying, if you're able to keep *moving* through your entire pregnancy (might not be running) and stay healthy/fit, then you'll have won!

Glad you've got some good mantra to help as you have to adjust your expectaions of yourself. One of mine this year is "let small bad things happen". As in, don't sweat the small stuff. Or, the perfect is the enemy of the good. These are things I need on a regular basis.