A brief break

And a look ahead to 2023

Photo by Tom Henell on Unsplash

Right now is one of my favorite times of the year, if for nothing else than it’s a chance to slow down, take a pause, and just be. The elves have arrived in our house, which means there’s nothing else my 9-year-old wants to talk about. And we’re enjoying this as much as we can, because we know the “end of the magic” isn’t too far off, you know?

(As I’m writing this to you, right now in this moment, my son just asked me if “the tooth fairy is really real.” A kid at his after-school program apparently told him he’d found a collection of his old teeth, along with his notes to the tooth fairy, in his parents’ bedside table drawer. So, the clock is ticking here…)

I also realized that since we started the half marathon training program at the end of the summer, around mid-August, I’ve been writing about two to three newsletter issues each week — which explains why, this week, I’ve begun to feel like my creative well is starting to run dry.

Once back in the nineties, when he was still working on his now-iconic sitcom, Jerry Seinfeld was asked in an interview what he hoped people would take away from the show. I’ve never forgotten his reply: “That every one was good. And I mean that — every one. That every episode was funny, and that the audience got to laugh every time.”

That line has stuck with me ever since, and I think about it with anything I do creatively; I never want you to read an issue and think to yourself, “okay, it might be time to put this thing out to pasture.”

So I’m going to take a couple of weeks off to rest and recharge, and will be back in action in the last couple of weeks of December, to kick us off for the new year.

Which brings me to another topic I’d love your thoughts on: this newsletter has gone through an evolution ever since the pandemic hit. Before, it was focused primarily on bringing you the best and most interesting races I could find. But when Covid led to race cancellations everywhere, I had to pivot.

So we focused on training for a virtual race together, first in the fall of 2020 and then again the following year. We’ve followed a similar training program this year, as you’ve probably noticed.

Now, however, races are largely back to normal. And during Covid, we really could train together virtually — now, we’re all running different schedules, based what’s going on with our lives, jobs and families, as life has (more or less) returned to normal. Which means, I’m not sure a week-by-week training schedule works for us the way it did a year or two ago.

So, I’d love to turn the microphone over to you and ask, what would you like to see here in 2023? (Hey, that rhymed! 😃)

The sense of community we’ve built here together is the thing that makes it so wonderful, and makes writing it worthwhile for me — I’d love to know if there’s anything you have to share too, that could make it more worthwhile for all of us in the coming year, especially if it’s something we can do together.

Feel free to share it in the comments, or in reply back to me. As always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going.

Your friend,

— Terrell

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Have you been running the 16-week training program? I hope you know I didn’t forget about you, even though I neglected to include the schedule in last week’s issue.

So, here are the mileage numbers to hit for the final three weeks of the program — let me know how it goes!

Week 14

• Thursday, Dec. 1 — 4-5 miles/40-55 minutes

• Saturday, Dec. 3 — 12 miles/120-135 minutes

• Sunday, Dec. 4 — 2 miles/20-25 minutes

• Tuesday, Dec. 6 — 5-6 miles/50-65 minutes

• Wednesday, Dec. 7 — off

Week 15

• Thursday, Dec. 8 — 4-5 miles/40-55 minutes

• Saturday, Dec. 10 — 6 miles/60-65 minutes

• Sunday, Dec. 11 — 3 miles/30-35 minutes

• Tuesday, Dec. 13 — 4-5 miles/40-55 minutes

• Wednesday, Dec. 14 — off

Week 16

• Thursday, Dec. 15 — 4-5 miles/40-55 minutes

• Saturday, Dec. 17 — 13.1 miles!

• Sunday, Dec. 18 — a well-deserved nap 😃