Balancing the Books

Another week, another blog post, but like my running, the cadence of these has been a bit slow.

I had hoped, and indeed, I do hope the site will offer more useful content rather than just my own rambles. I’d like to add some book and gear reviews, discuss different training approaches, and go into more detail about how I’m making this project happen. But that isn’t happening right now.

Life gets in the way.

My Instagram feed is full of athletic men, being very manly and powering through amazing feats of endurance because you need to sacrifice everything for the grind. I’m not so keen on that approach. Grinding and being all macho sounds like a lot of work. Besides, I don’t have all the muscles on muscles for that. 

I think you can achieve really cool and interesting things by mostly just bumbling along and seeing what happens. Or at least, I hope you can. That’s what I’m trying to do. But running the length of Japan isn’t an at-all-cost thing for me. I’m not even sure that for the men posing on Instagram what they are doing is all grind and sacrifice either. I suspect they’re making good money presenting it that way because it looks appealing. There’s something attractive about that spartan and stoic approach.

For most of us mere mortals, life is a bit more messy. Other things take priority.

I’m not paid to run around, at least not yet. And this adventure run is going to be expensive. So, one of my priorities is working. I do some personal training, and supporting my clients comes way ahead of writing blog posts or reading running books. I do freelance IT work, which scratches a different itch in my brain and helps pay the bills and fund my running habit. 

Work naturally comes before doing all the social media and blogging bits. Will that change if I end up getting paid to do this? To an extent, but I like doing odd IT projects, I love my coaching work, and I expect to still be doing some of both. 

Another priority is my training. I let myself get wildly unfit and I’m on the wrong side of 40. Seriously, if you’re fit and reading this in your thirties – stay fit. It’s scary how quickly you lose it as you get older. Even without the Japan run, I need to get fit for my own health. This adventure is a vehicle that helps me focus my mind on that fitness goal. But there’s no point in me getting ready to run the length of a country by writing a lot of blog posts and making cool YouTube videos. I need to train.

And my third, and most important priority is the relationships in my life. Maintaining those relationships is more important than squeezing in another run, let alone posting another Instagram reel. Besides, it would be rather sad to run the length of an entire country and not have people to share that adventure with.

So I’m planting my flag in the ground here, on this hill that I’m probably not going to die on. But I’m pretty sure I can run the length of Japan without completely sacrificing my work or my relationships. That I can have fun training, without taking it all too seriously and still end up with a strong enough body to carry me through 3,500 kilometres of running. 

Sure, this is going to be hard work. Sure, there will be sacrifices – less TV, fewer beers. But the sacrifices will be the smaller things, not the important things that make life worthwhile. 

As I get more organised and efficient with balancing work, relationships and training, you’ll start seeing more of me on social media and find this website a busier place.

But until then, you’ll just have to make do with today’s YouTube video of me running around Hoan Kiem Lake.