My little sisters and their husbands completed the Green Bay half marathon this morning in blustery weather. For three of them, it was their first half and my baby sister set her PR in diffficult conditions. Pretty awesome for all of them, since I don't think they'd be offended if I pointed out that none of them is the world's most natural athlete (well maybe more than me, but none of us are real natural).
I was very proud of all of them, but I must admit I felt jealous too. I had been training for that particular race myself until my hamstring decided to remind me that I was 40 and fat early in March. I continue to be fascinated by this insane competitive streak that lives inside me. As I looked at their times, I couldn't help but wonder how I would have done. Sometimes this feels a tad too narcissistic. I am proud of myself (narcissism again), that I was able to get out of my head and just be happy for them. The competitive residue is my desire to want to find a race of my own down the road, but I know I have work to do before that is an option.
Mostly I'm thrilled for all of them and looking forward to a time when I can join them...and beat them (damn it damn it damn it)...
Exercise update: Yesterday was a trip to the YMCA (ahh poetry). I spent 37 aggressive minutes on the elliptical and did a complete circuit around the cybex machines. This met my hour workout goal, so I felt pretty good about that. Elliptical still feels like the coward's exercise, but I can tell my endurance is improving on it and it protects my knees while I dream of bigger things.
Running is such a conundrum for me. It beats up my body, I don' t particularly love it, but when I am running fit, I feel fitter than any other version of fit.
Still shooting for July sprint triathlon and September Olympic. And of course today I'm dreaming of half marathons.
Today's exercise will be just walking the dog, I need some rest, but I want to earn calories for pizza tonight.
Nutrition update: Yesterday was a mixed bag. I didn't track everything, but I think I stayed within my limits. The two areas of question came in the evening. Both my kids had overnight guests and we made a cheese, meat, and cracker tray for them to dine on. I did most of the slicing and did a bit of munching too. I wasn't sure how to catalog that, so I reacted by not really eating any dinner. This in turn led to me feeling very hungry and having late night ice cream for the first time in a while.
As I said, I think it all fit within the calorie limits my tracker sets, but nutritionally it wasn't real good. And truthfully it felt a little out of control
Tonight will have a similar challenge as delivery pizza and I face off for the first time in a while. I am trying to be moderate but healthy today and then just eat 2-3 slices tonight and see how that goes. Tuesday is weigh in day and I'd like to keep my small momentum growing.
Random crap: This feels like a big week on a couple fronts. For fitness, it feels like a chance to get rolling. Students are gone after Monday, so work mellows for a few weeks and I can dial in. I'd like to transition back towards training for events after a few weeks focused on weight loss behavior (if not results...).
On the personal front, I should get word from Edgewood this week and will need to make some decisions that way. If you asked me today, I'd say I'm pretty content doing what I'm doing and I don't need a doctorate to validate me. I'm trying to get over external validation anyway. Of course I could feel differently tomorrow, or later today.
Maybe my boss can help me figure it out. Or maybe not...
Looking forward to the day we can run one together too big brother! Today was a great day, it was amazing to share this experience with so many people that I love and I know it will be great when we are able to share our first half together. Of course, I will have to beat you :-)
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