LIV.
So you write that post Monday morning, schedule it for Tuesday morning, and you're thinking about Gregor's family in Kafka's Metamorphosis, about how in the end they were able to make it on their own with Gregor making himself miserable as a traveling salesman.
The point of half marathon training is being happy and healthy, not the race itself. You shouldn't delay health and happiness for another five weeks for the sake of the half marathon. That thoughts still gnaws at you.
The first of the month is always a good time to start something new, Feb 1 is Thursday, you could scrap all this half marathon nonsense for the moment and make that your start of a new weight loss plan.
No need to rush the decision, Monday morning's training workout is 4.5 miles at an easy pace, and doing a 45 min easy run would likely be part of a weight loss routine, you can do that run and continue to introspect.
4.5 miles is 3 times around large loop around my neighborhood, you can do that. It's cold Monday morning so you wear a long sleeve shirt over your favorite running T-shirt plus your Pittsburgh Steelers beanie.
You can shed the beanie after the first loop and the long sleeve shirt after the second, it can all be so symbolic you think.
The first lap feels great, the mellow songs you picked for this morning's running playlist sound perfect. You toss your beanie in your driveway after your first loop and it's still colder than you expect, which is great weather for running.
A half mile into your second loop you start messing with the music, wanting a change from you preselected playlist. It's windy, so Siri is having a hard time picking up your voice commands over your AirPods. You finally get the song changed but then hit the wrong button on your watch when you try to turn up the volume, and something messes up, your watch seemingly switches off.
Perfect, you think. You don't need your watch to track your 3 loops, 45 min, 4.5 miles. This is somehow part of the symbolism you'll work out later. With no music, you take out your AirPods from your ears and put them in your zipper pocket of your running shorts. Now, you won't have to worry about accidentally knocking them out and being unable to find them in the dark when you shed your long sleeve shirt on your driveway after loop 2.
A quarter mile from you house, you notice how cold it still feels, thinking to yourself, if it weren't for the symbolism, you'd probably keep the long sleeve shirt on for the final loop.
You notice your watch is actually on as you come around the bend toward your house. You can see the time, because you were late getting off the couch after your morning coffee--thinking all these running vs. weight loss thoughts--you will be cutting it close going around another loop, another 15 min, to get home, change clothes, collect your youngest son, and drive him to school at the normal time.
But that's what you deal with half marathon training, you have to stick to the schedule, sometimes cutting it close in other areas of your life. Except that you don't have to.
You get to your house after the second loop, meaning that's 30 min, 3 mi. Instead of shedding your long sleeve shirt, you stop to walk. You walk past your house for a few min, then walk back for a few min, a cool down walk. You cut the run short as part of your half marathon training program, but still part of an overall healthy life plan. A 30 min easy pace run on a Monday morning is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
So you I guess you've made your decision.











