Planting Seeds

Finishing Comrades gives the runner a real 'high'.  Not finishing Comrades gives the runner a real 'low'.  In both cases, the final outcome is actually the same.  One is raring to Go !  Either you feel awesome and want to restart training and push harder.  Or, you feel crushed and disappointed and want to restart training and push harder.  

You simply cant wait to get back on the road.

I somehow managed to keep my enthusiasm in check and took rest.  After about 3 weeks of complete rest after Comrades, I was simply bursting at the seams, literally and figuratively.  I was bursting with enthusiasm to start again. My growing waist line was bursting out of my pants.

I requested my office colleague to make my new log book.  I told him to keep the start date as 28th June 2015 and end date as 29 May 2016 (Comrades 2016)
I had Neepa register both of us for The BNP Enduro 25k on July 18th, The Hyderabad marathon on Aug 30th, and The Satara Half on September 6th.

I had figured it all out.  From the first week itself, I was going to hit the gym at least 3 times a week.  I was going to run with my friends at Top Gear Mig 3 times a week and run by myself for another 3 days of the week.

Life, was pretty sorted.

On Sunday 28th of June 2015, I started my new running year.  I ran a 10k.  I've been in bed ever since.  I have caught a stomach bug.

The first full week of entries in my log book reads :
Mon: Sick,
Tue: Sick
Wed: Sick
Thus: Sick
Fri:Sick

I had such plans !!  I am distraught with grief and disappointment.

In these moments of grief, I thought of a joke.

One day Osho was walking on the street,  He met Mulla Nasruddin on the road.  He was walking with his two children.
"So", said Osho, " How are your two children?"
Nasruddin replied, "Both are good."
Osha asked, "How old are they?"
Mulla Nasruddin replied, " The doctor is five and the lawyer is seven."

I laughed at this clown Nasruddin but i realised that I was no different.   I was making all sorts of plans for the future even when the next moment was so totally out of my control.

So is there a way ? Osho says, that planning too much is wrong.  But he also says that if you don't plan you will drift and drifting is also wrong.  So plant the seed, he says.  Without planting the seed no tree will grow.  At the same time, we need to relax.  We cannot dig up the seed everyday to check whether it is growing.  We need to leave it alone.  We need to let nature take its course.  We need to let Life happen, for things to evolve.

Don't plan, Don't drift.  Find a balance.

I don't know, about all this!

All this wisdom is hard to assimilate when I have stomach cramps, nausea, an empty log book, a 25k coming up on 18th July, and a wife who is up and about every morning and running as hard as she can!