A year ago I had just signed up for the Bayshore Marathon that took place on Memorial Day Weekend. I knew it was going to be hard, not only because 26.2 miles is inherently hard, but because my schedule was so jammed packed that I was concerned that I would not have the time to train properly.
"Don't have time." That's an interesting phrase that is often said but isn't true in the context of how it is most often used. People usually say it to mean that there isn't enough time in a set period, a day or week for instance, to engage in a certain activity. Actually, we all have the same amount of time as everyone else (unless we're talking bigger, about mortality, when everyone's 'time' is variable and unknown). There are 24 hours in everyone's day and 7 days in everyone's week. So what we are actually saying is that of all the competing possible uses of our time, we are prioritizing that particular activity out. In other words, it's not as important enough to us as the other things we actually do.
When you start to look at your time that way it starts to get a little scary from a self-awareness standpoint. If you or I forego a noble activity, like volunteering at a homeless shelter, because we "don't have time", we are in essence admitting that we value everything else we do more than that noble activity, including, for example, watching mindless TV, surfing the internet, playing Angry Birds on your iPhone. staring blankly at walls, or reading this blog (the last is, of course, also a very noble activity).
Many of us would like to run but say we "don't have time". I am not saying that there is something wrong with you if it is not a high enough priority to actually get done. We all make choices. What I am saying is that there are significant benefits to how we are able to use the rest of our time if we do chose to run or exercise in some other way.
The first benefit is the statistic probability that we will live longer, and therefore have more time with which to work. The next is that many people feel that they are able to be more productive and healthy the rest of the time when regular exercise is part of the uses of our time. The third is, admittedly, a little vain, but we look better, fitter, and feel more self-confident, so that while we aren't getting more time, we enjoy the time we have a little more. In summary; more time, more productive time, more enjoyable time.
So back to last year's marathon. The training last year was particularly hard because I teach religious class every weekday morning at 6 am to high school kids. I also have kids with whom I enjoy spending time. So in order to "have time" to train I got up at 4:30 each morning to run. To get enough sleep I went to bed at around 8:30 each night. (I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my wife who spent a lot of lonely nights doing housework in order for me to reach my goal.) I can happily say that I completed the training and finished the marathon with a (rather slow) PR.
And now to the present. I still teach the class. I still have the same priorities competing for my time, but I find myself in a little bit of a funk with regards to running. Spending time with my wife has become more important, whether it's spent completing our family room renovation (which turned out great, by the way) or watching a show. So I stay up too late to be able to crawl out of bed early enough to run.
In a couple of weeks I will begin my training regimen for the Martian Half Marathon. When that happens running will climb a couple of notches up my priority list. In the meantime I have embraced the funk and am okay with running just a few times a week and view the scale-back as a valuable recovery period.
By the way, my friend and talented author, Rob Wells, wrote an insightful blog about this subject with regards to aspiring authors making time to write. You can find it
here.
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Of course, consuming dessert should be on everyone's priority list. This caramel sauce goes with nearly everything.
Caramel Sauce4 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup of tightly packed dark brown sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
¾ cup heavy whipping cream (not ultra-pasteurized)
½ Tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp kosher salt
Before you begin, make sure you have everything ready to go - the cream and the brown sugar next to the pan, measured and waiting.
In a heavy bottomed stainless steel 2 quart saucepan, melt butter over low to medium heat. Just before butter is melted, add all dark brown sugar at once and stir with wooden spoon until sugar is uniformly wet. Add corn syrup. Stir infrequently until mixture goes from looking grainy to molten lava. Make sure to get into the corners of your pot, and watch closely to notice how the mixture changes. It will take about 3 to 5 minutes.
Right before you add the cream, the caramelizing brown sugar will begin to look and feel more like liquid and less like thick wet sand. Add all the cream at once and replace your spoon with a whisk. Lower heat a little and whisk cream into mixture. When liquid is uniform, turn heat back to medium and whisk every few minutes for a total of 10 minutes. Stir in half of the vanilla and half the salt.
After liquid has been boiling on the stove for its 10 minutes, turn heat off and let rest for a minute or two before transferring into a heatproof storage vessel. (I prefer a stainless steel or glass bowl.) Cool to room temperature. Add additional vanilla and salt to taste.
Chill butterscotch sauce in a non-reactive container with a tightly fitting lid only after sauce has chilled completely. It will keep for one month refrigerated, that is if you can keep from eating it all the moment it has cooled down and been seasoned to your liking.
