I like having a plan. I have always been one to plan out things in advance. I toss different scenarios around in my head, you know different plans: plan A, plan B, plan C, just in case the original plan doesn't work out, I have already planned out a possible new plan.
When you train for marathons, you have a plan- a training plan. A four month program written out in pencil that you adjust on the go, since you never really know how you'll recover from workout to workout. Even though the plan is in pencil, its still a plan.
This year I planned to train harder than ever before. I planned a high mileage program with lots of midweek 10K-half marathon pace workouts and weekend long runs with pace workouts thrown in after a good warm up. Everything went according to plan, mostly. Sure there were a few unplanned hiccups. Having a pair of Brooks Green Silence shoes wear out after only 200mi and getting shooting pains on the side of my right calf was not in the plan. Having Kevin massage my calf and causing my medial ankle to swell up like a golf ball was not in the plan. Re-pulling my hamstring and having psoas issues was not in the plan. But, I adjusted, re-wrote the plan, and pulled through having a phenomenal half marathon PR and doing what I though my body was never meant to do, running 19:30 in the 5K with no 5K training. Yep, the plan was still on!
Into taper week, I realize my body no longer likes the plan. Its ready for a break from all this planning and its on its own plan. A minor strain in my calf muscle after the week of PRs, and the old knee tightness from a year ago have once again made me realize that no matter how much I plan, I cannot control what is the greater plan.
God and I have been talking a lot throughout this marathon training season. I've come to him numerous times just begging to get to the starting line healthy. I pray about having a breakthrough marathon and ask for his help to run a 3:10 marathon. All along I thought he was listening, hearing me, watching over me. But after this last week of amazing running, and feeling like I was a runner floating on clouds, to now having pain during this final taper, I found myself asking him "why?". Why now? Why this?
Over the past 6 days, as I prepare for Easter, I find myself becoming calmer, and more accepting of the new plan. I realized, no matter how much I plan, I can never be truly prepared for the greater plan that God has in store. I look to this new plan as a blessing. It may be the rest and taper that my body truly needed. It may be a way of showing me what's more important than running. It may be a way to show me how not to take my gifts for granted, or how not to trust so deeply in my own plan, but in the greater plan for me.
Every runner in training has a plan. Every runner's plan A turns into a plan B and a plan C, and a "ok I no longer have a plan" at some point. But I think we all need to know that no matter how much we plan, there's always a greater plan at work. Everything happens for a reason. God only wants what's best for us, and my faith in him helps me to know everything is going to be ok following his plan.
Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
