No Shortcuts to Paris!

There are no shortcuts to Paris.  I think this will be the title of my book LOL.  The book that I write between now, and going to Paris in April.

I'll write the final chapters AFTER my marathon which takes place on April 6th.

Here's what I mean by no shortcuts.  Today I registered for the Marathon.  I paid my 134 Euros and obtained my Bib number which is 61234.

That is all well and good, that was a basic requirement for me to do in order to actually participate IN the Paris Marathon of 2014 in Paris, France.  I bought my whiteboard at Costco, I charted out my training schedule for the next 22 weeks, putting my mileage goals in each running day, and "R" in each rest day (see picture attached below!).  I have running shoes, I have sunscreen, I have my big floppy sun hat, my ipod with great tunes on it, my Strava application which will keep track of my miles as I'm running them, my running pants and shirt, yes I've got all of it.  I've got my little Moleskine journal with a map of Paris in it, I'll be buying my plane ticket on the 15th of November.  This is well planned out.

Because I'm a planner.

But now comes the most necessary part of this entire equation:  I've got to log the miles over the next 22 weeks.  I can't take ANY shortcuts in my weekly and daily regimen.  There are NO shortcuts to Paris.

I've got to log the miles. 

Logging the miles, actually putting on those running shoes and the running gear, getting my proper nutrition and hydration, and getting out there and RUNNING THE MILES (even the hard ones!) is the ONLY thing that will actually get me there to my goal.  Planning alone won't.  Strategizing all the possibilities of what if this or what if that won't.  Buying the plane ticket won't.  The ONLY thing that will actually GET me to my goal is DOING THE WORK.  Logging the miles.

Even when no one is watching.  Especially when no one is watching.

This is the crux of the thing, doing the work.  I will not get the results I want if I don't do the work.  And to be honest, I'm not DREADING the work.  I'm looking FORWARD to the process of logging the miles.  I don't want it to just "be done already, be done with it and be at my goal."

Why?

Because it is only on those lonely stretches of hard work and perspiration, it is only doing that which I MUST DO myself, WHEN I must do it, it is at THOSE times that my character is developed, that the muscles are trained, and that my MIND is changed over and over and I develop the mental toughness, the mental attitude which will carry me over the finish line at the actual event.

Without logging those miles, without going through the PROCESS that is necessary over the TIME that is necessary, truly, I'd have nothing to give at the start of the race.

It is truly the JOURNEY which prepares me to achieve my goal.

It is the same in our journey to get optimally healthy, isn't it?

We've GOT to log the MEALS.  Those lonely stretches of time when NO ONE is looking.  Especially when no one is looking.  Because during the process of attaining a healthy weight, we are also learning the mental toughness which will be required to MAINTAIN our healthy weight once we are there.  Without the TRAINING period that we go through in the weight loss PROCESS, we will not achieve or maintain our goal.  We will not be mentally FIT to sustain any measurable success if we don't log the meals, if we don't do the work.

So I stopped saying "I wish this were just done already" a long time ago.  Because as Newt Gingrich is famously quoted as saying, "Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of the hard work you have already done."

My journey to get healthy has been a lifetime in the making.  And I AM a healthy weight.  And I AM going to run the Paris Marathon in 2014.  It is not the END of my achievement, it is merely another mile marker on my journey.  And one I will be a hootin' and a hollerin' when I cross it.  Then I'll go have a glass of red wine at a little cafe by the Seine River and fill up a journal with my scribblings.

Log the miles.  Log the meals.

Rinse and Repeat!