We kicked the weekend off with a visit to a new “Indian street food” restaurant in Altamont last night. Their inexpensive, pretty tasty, somewhat exotic offerings are sure to be a hit with the hipster crowd, but we went because my Sweet Lady spent a year in India and the menu included somethings not typically available in our regular haunts. One assumes that the authenticity of the “street food” does not extend to “communicable diseases.” Nevertheless, we had a good meal and, not being quite full, we went next door and got “American Chain Franchise Ice Cream” before watching the autumnal dance of the swifts. (Note to the van loads of Carson-Newman students who were dumbfounded by the sidewalk full of aging hippies looking up at nothing: yes, we are very strange here.)
We arrived home in time to catch some HGTV before bedtime. If someone could tell me when this quit being the channel for people interested in design for the interior and exterior of your home and became the channel for dramatization of real estate transactions, I would be very indebted. The house hunting couple being portrayed was a young, seemingly newly married pair with two dogs and no kids. They had left a 4,000 square foot (yes, 4,000) house when they moved an hour and a half north for new jobs that were each about an hour from where they were living. At one point, they were looking at a home which did not have kitchen appliances and estimated that it would take $10,000 to finish the project. For the appliances, not the whole thing.
The difference between the choices they were making and the choices we had made were striking. It is not at all inconceivable that, should we be willing to move to a major metropolitan area and commute for hours each day, my Sweet Lady and I could conceivably double if not triple our income. It’s not that we are right in our choice or this couple is right in theirs, its just that our choices are so different as to be very striking in comparison. This was noted, and as the show wound down, MSL noted that she had ass-whuppin class in the morning, and would I be done with my long run in time to be home with Tallulah when she needed to leave. “Um, sure,” says I without really thinking about it.
And then I began to think, which is where most of my problems begin. The time has come for me to begin serious training for the foolishness which will occur in November. Could I complete a 26.2 mile course today? Perhaps. Would it be enjoyable by any definition? Probably not. This weekend should include a 16 mile run if I am to stay on schedule for training. I know this, but I have failed up to now to consider things like route, time, and nutrition. I wasn’t going to get into this because there is a point at which I assume you would rather hear about what I am doing as opposed to what I think I ought to be doing.
What I am — or was — doing was finding all sorts of reasons why it was not my fault that I wasn’t getting a long run in. Improper nutrition was to blame because Indian street food and ice cream are not the best choice for carb loading. (No accounting here for the fact that I suggested the restaurant experience.) An insistence on sleeping in on Saturday does not help getting out for a long run. Sure, one could argue that Tallulah should be made to tag along to ass-whuppin’, but there are larger strategic considerations in that particular scenario.
The short of it is that I have not been intentional in considering the impact of certain of my decisions on other goals I have. The young DINKs have chosen to work long hours at jobs that require much commuting in order to have a big house to come home and hang out in. Fine. If I am choosing a smaller house in a smaller city with a job that is perhaps less demanding, what am I choosing that for? There are certain things I know about myself, my training, and my family. My life gives me the flexibility to incorporate a number of things that are important to me. But I have to make choices and plan them. The idea that things will just work out is fine if I don’t care all that much about the outcome.
So six miles today and ten miles tomorrow equals 16 for the weekend, right? That’s what the total would have been in any event.