These are lessons I’ve learned from training for a marathon this year. I go on 5 runs a week and am learning from an excellent coach, Jeff Cunningham.

These lessons are painfully obvious in running, but I think can be applied more systematically to learning the violin (where mistakes aren’t as painful).

1. Consistently Good > Occasionally Great

This is one of Jeff’s quotes that has changed my life. His concept is that all we need to be successful is a stack of good days. And consistent good effort will always beat out a single, occasional perfect workout. In fact, the effort it takes to be perfect will probably disrupt all of the other systems in your life that support consistency. 

So just stay good. Stay consistent. Ignore the desire to be perfect. Perfect is often an illusion that lets you of the hook.

There are many days we I can’t complete the scheduled workout perfectly because I don’t quite enough time or the exact right conditions. Rather than giving up, I just get done what I can. It is good enough, but not perfect.

Thankfully, good is all we need.

2. Don’t control outputs, control inputs

I can’t will my body to run 26.2 miles at a particular pace. 

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I’ve defined 2023 as the year I take on the marathon.

In high school my two loves were violin and running. Obviously I have taken violin quite seriously and continued to play it in college, in graduate school, and then in teaching and performing since. Running did not get the same treatment.

In high school I was the captain of our cross country team and attended the regional meets beginning sophomore year. I had a real passion for the sport and pushing my perceived limitations. 

I loved that our sport was another sport’s punishment. I loved that we did more than most before most had even gotten up for the day. I loved spending time with a group of people who voluntarily chose to wake up and run at six in the morning– while in high school.

Some of my clearest memories are races, practices, and recovery sessions with my cross country team mates.

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