Along the Way.

Okay, so today marks the beginning of Week 2 on my new life schedule. So far, so good.

I learned some things last week and need to make some small changes, but overall, I think I did a pretty good job designing it. I’ll give the schedule itself 4 out of 5 stars.

Me, on the other hand, I had some trouble getting on board entirely. I give myself 2 out of 5 stars. Most of my own problems so far have been related to the ongoing shoulder pain. This has made it hard to stick to the schedule. For instance, I’m supposed to be doing yoga in the morning right when I wake up at 6am. I only managed that ONE of the mornings last week because the shoulder is just too stiff and painful in the mornings. I did not do the yoga this morning, but I after being very gentle with my body and getting a lot of sleep over the weekend, I am willing to (cautiously) say that I think the shoulder is a little better today.

Similarly, in the evenings after my run, I’m supposed to make dinner and then spend time writing and reading. Most of my evening time is currently scheduled for these activities, but I’ve had trouble with these because after sitting at a desk working for 8 hours during the day, it hurts the shoulder to then spend more time sitting at this desk typing away on a different keyboard. Reading is a little easier, but it has been difficult to concentrate when the shoulder intermittently starts to throb and/or spasm. So that has been fun.

Under normal circumstances I would have already gone to the doctor, but these are Covid times and going to the doctor just isn’t worth the additional risk that would create for myself and others. So I have been doing the little arm exercises I learned in physical therapy a couple years ago when this happened. I do my little “spider walk” stretches up and down on the wall throughout the day. I do the one where I put a rubber band on my fingers and open and close them. That all seems to help a little.

So what’s ahead for this week? Well, I need to dial in the schedule a little, but I also need to get ready for the time change next weekend. This winter has been hard and I don’t know that I have ever been as adversely affected by a time change as I was by this last one. It was dark when I started working and dark again by the time I finished. I’ve really appreciated these last few weeks where I could at least get an hour of running in between the end of the work day and the sunset. 

Next week is going to be awesome! I will get an extra hour of running time! Last week I was doing 3 or 4 or 5 miles. Once the time changes I can start working toward the longer runs I really like: 6, 8, 9 miles. I haven’t run a half-marathon since 2019 and I was in much better shape in 2019, but low key it is my goal to be able to do that again all on my own and I have plenty enough trails right outside my door to be able to do it. It will take awhile though to get my body back into that kind of state though.

Also this week, I have to figure out a plan for the weekends. I feel I’ve had enough success with the schedule I built for the weekdays that I could probably figure out at least a broad template for the weekends. I’m not sure how to do this yet. It’s funny, when you start to think of your time as your own, as something you can spend however you want, you are forced to ask yourself what you, in fact, WANT to be doing with your time. So it becomes not simply a question of time, but really a question of values and priorities.

These are the kinds of problems I enjoy solving: the kind that do not come with a clear set of instructions and which require some real work and evaluation. For most of quarantine all I did not the weekends was eat pizza and drink red wine. Turns out that’s not actually what I want to be doing, but I had to actually stop and pay attention in order to realize that.

So we will see. I have the next 5 work days to work out a solution to the weekends.

Like I said, so far so good. 

Not great, but you can’t get to great without passing good along the way.

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