Now What?

In the days that have passed since the marathon, I have gotten the question, "Now What?" quite a bit.  I guess the people in my life know me well and know I always have something that I am working towards.

Except right now, I don't.  Sure, I am still running, but this is sort of my 'off season'.  I want to continue to run 2-3 days a week, with a long run on Saturday of around 6-10 miles, but running will definitely not be my focus until next June when I start training for the Chicago marathon.  I kind of hate not having a race to train for, but I know my body needs a break - and I need a less structured schedule.  So the months between now and June will be more about cross training and less about obsessively counting/analyzing the miles I run each month.  I am tossing around the idea of getting a gym membership, as I miss being able to go to classes and I'd like access to a pool...  but I could also make my condo gym work and save myself a lot of money over the coming months.  Decisions, decisions.

The next thing on the horizon for me is CFA studying.  Yes, it's almost that time of year again.  I will start studying for the 3rd and FINAL level on December 26th.  It's a bit surreal to think that I will begin studying again in just under 2 months!  I am hoping that this final study season is not as hard on me as the previous 2 were.  I have talked about the challenges of studying on my blog, and my family and closest friends have definitely gotten a sense of how hard it is on me.  Suffice it to say, it is harder than anything I've done.  Harder than my travel schedule for work.  Harder than training for a marathon.  Harder than obtaining an MBA.  I am hoping that knowing it is the last level will help with that somewhat, but I also keep thinking of the comment my former boss's wife makes about his last spring of studying.  She said, "He studied so hard, it's like he broke something."  I felt a little bit broken last spring when studying for level 2, so I know what she is talking about.  And I know I'll likely study even HARDER this time around as there is no way I am going to risk having to study for this test another year.  I NEED to be done with it!

But - it's still 2 months away.  So my focus now turns to enjoying the next 2 months as much as possible.  I want to fill those 2 months with time with friends and weekend morning spent sleeping in and lounging in bed.  I want to have more dinners with family and friends, and fill up my weekends with fun activities, like trips to the book store with my nephews.  I want to go ice skating in December and bake banana bread on a quiet Sunday afternoon.  I want to try new recipes, eat dinners at my table, and relish the fact that my table is not covered with textbooks.  I want to look at my calendar each week and enjoy the fact that I don't have study hours planned 5-6 days of the week.

Time has a way of flying by if we don't intentionally and purposely acknowledge the good things in life.  So that is what I intend to do these next 2 month.  I'm going to close with a passage from Mary Anne Radmacher's book, "Lean Forward into Your Life," which is so applicable to how I plan to spend the next 2 months:

"chance are... forever is... sitting outside my door.  Why am I doing the dishes?  Days speedily tick past.  My future, ink, pours from this pen of today, written with apparent ease.  A precious vapor disappears.  In the clearing of it I shall see that I am aged.  I shall wonder how I could have dedicated so many days to the pursuit of nonessential things.  What of all those days can I recall?  As I learn to embrace the gray and the wrinkle, I open the door to chance.  I whisper to forever, "let's now go dance and leave the dishes for later."

Is there a certain part of each year that is especially draining and difficult for you?  If so, do you fixate on that phase or focus on trying to enjoy the quieter times of life?  Truth be told, I fixate on the stress I know is coming, but this year I am trying to enjoy the blissful hear and now.