Lent 2024

 

Hilarious memes aside, today marks the beginning of the season of Lent, which will go on for a total of 46 days, concluding with Holy Saturday on March 30th. I'm going to try a little separation from the Rhythm of the Sword spreadsheet, focusing less on streak numbers and more on general preparedness. My theme for this Lent is twofold:

130 | Si vis pacem, para bellum.

27 | Do not be afraid. Christ is risen.

The two numbers refer to Psalms 130 and 27, which relate to the two phrases. The first is Latin for "If you want peace, prepare for war." To me, this has to do with preparedness, both in a spiritual sense and in a worldly sense. The second is of course about the hope of the resurrection of the dead, and the courage that this evokes in the Christian heart.

If you read long enough in this blog, you'll see that I struggle a lot to stick with periods of discipline like Lent. This time around, I'm operating on the theory that if my level of training is high enough, day in and day out, then at critical and difficult times I will fall to my level of training, and not collapse completely. I'm going to shape my Lenten habits to keep myself out of situations that cause collapse, and then train constantly and work ahead to keep from letting it all catch up with me. For instance, I'll go especially hard on grading, planning, and Psalms when time isn't tight, so that as deadlines approach, I am mentally prepared and practically on track. 

Perhaps the saying is true, that the battle is won not when confronted with the enemy, but in the days and weeks of preparation leading up to the encounter. Kipchoge doesn't dominate because of his tactical brilliance and heroic strength on race day, but because of his "very well preparation" as he put it. 

With that in mind, I'm going to stop writing this and start making progress on some tasks I want to avoid.