Over the years, I’ve followed several different training plans for half and full marathons. Training plans with names in them like Higdon, Galloway and Bingham. Great training plans, every last one. But the thing is, although the plans are great, rarely does real life mimic my “plan”. You know the old saying – if you want to hear God laugh, make a plan:). Or, to take it directly from scripture, Proverbs 16:9 – “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his path.”

Things rarely turn out exactly as we plan and I would like to use yesterday’s long run as an example. Scott and I had 15 miles on the schedule for yesterday for quite some time and were ready and willing and up for the task. We ate well and hydrated well the day before. The only true mistake was that one of us (who shall remain nameless) decided to get his flu shot and that may have caused some of our troubles. (woops, I said his so I guess I gave it away . . oh well).

We were off to a rather slow start as one of us didn’t quite have all HIS gear lined up the night before so there were a few tense minutes of searching for spibelts and headphones and candy corn (my new go to sugar source on anything over 10 miles). Once on our way, I could tell the weather wasn’t great – very windy and very humid. Not hot and yes, we’re Texans, so we could manage but it wasn’t the gorgeous fall day I had hoped for. And Scott just wasn’t feeling well (did I mention the flu shot??). We went from 2:1 intervals to doing 3 run/walk intervals and one of all walking. It actually worked out fine but 10 miles in we realized that 15 was not in the cards for us. In addition to the flu shot getting him down, he was wrestling with our rather large men children last week and one of them landed square on his left quad and that was acting up as well. We were fine – we were moving forward – but it just wasn’t the glorious attempt that we wish happened every time.

We only ended up being off pace by about 30 seconds per mile so no big deal and 12 miles is no slouch. The old me would have flipped out and tried to figure out how to “cram” the extra mileage in. But the new, relaxed, only slightly neurotic me just re-worked our plan and made it work. I actually had put one 3 week break between super long runs on purpose (knowing that this might happen) and this easily allowed me to fill in the blanks and still come up with decent mileage that will take us to the starting line ready to conquer our 26.2 miles together.

I learned two important things on yesterday’s run.

1. Men are huge whiny babies. (OK, maybe that’s not fair . . not ALL men . . just Scott when his leg hurts and he’s had a flu shot;)
2. Training plans have to flex or they will break.

So here’s to all of you who’s plans aren’t turning out exactly as you had planned. I’m betting, if you really think about your goals and the non-negotiables, you’ll come up with something perfect for you that will give you the race you want.

Happy Running!!

ps Scott really is a great guy and a great husband and father – the above is good natured ribbing and yes, he read it:)

Jen