Last night, I completed my first 8K race. (pause for a congratulatory woot! woot!) It was the Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest – or the Rockville Twilighter for short. 4.97 miles through an urban neighborhood, college campus and town center. I did not train. I should have. I tried but only managed to run once a week (rather than 3 times) and no more than 3 miles, if that. And I’m feeling it today. Oh, boy, am I feeling it today. Stairs are not my friend. I easily ran the first two miles – in light rain and on slick pavement – but got discouraged and walked the next hill. It didn’t help that the second mile marker intersected with the finish line, which runners were crossing at the time (24 minutes in)! I kept going, mostly running, walking more hills. When I got to mile 4, I kept on running. I was determined to finish strong. My running partner and I crossed the finish line in just under an hour (our goal) – 58:57! The highlight for me was hearing my … [Read more...]
Why Writing is Like Running
I haven’t posted in a while because my site was down and I wasn’t sure how to fix it (thank you DreamHost for coming to my rescue). I have been writing in my head, though, so look out for a slew of posts to come, hopefully, more regularly. Yesterday, as I was driving, I had an epiphany as to why I haven’t written a novel yet. Writing a novel is like running a marathon – it takes a good chunk of time to get from the start to the finish. I doubt I’m the first person to come up with this analogy but it was an a-ha moment for me. I have no desire to run a marathon but, if I did, I would train. Training builds strength and endurance and requires discipline. So maybe I should apply that same concept to writing. What if I adapted a marathon training schedule to writing? I could replace miles with minutes. Over the course of several weeks, I’d dedicate a few days to writing, gradually increasing the amount of time spent until I produce a novel. Here’s the Novel Writing Training Schedule I … [Read more...]
