When it's not going well.

While I am generally prolific and full of ideas, there are times when I feel tapped out and barren. I'm feeling a bit like that now. Not a great deal to say--writing this blog, which generally comes fairly easy to me, comes grudgingly lately. Ideas at work, writing scripts, having thoughts, seem to have abandoned me.

When I was young I was quite a decent long-distance runner. Not super-fast, but strong and steady, capable of running 7-minute miles pretty much all day. Along the way I decided to start running marathons.

Running a marathon--at least at my level of athleticism and no matter how much you train, is not a sure thing. You could get a cramp in your leg. The weather could be too warm. You could start out too fast and fade too soon.

Still, your job in running a marathon is to finish the marathon. When you get to those miles that feel like they're entirely up-hill, where your legs feel as heavy as telephone poles, you can't go home for the night and try again tomorrow. You keep running.

To be more precise runners have a certain posture when they are running well. When you run lousy, you lose that posture. So when I hit one of those bad patches I minded my posture. I stood up straight. Kept my arms low and looked straight ahead.

That's what I'm doing now. Minding my posture. Putting one foot in front of the other. And moving forward.