jimsjournal
| Training for the Blessing of the Fleet -- 05/25/03 |
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Okay, today is Sunday, May 25th. The Narragansett Blessing of the Fleet 10 mile road race will be Friday, July 25th. That gives me two months to train up for it. If I had been running perhaps 15 miles per week with a five mile long run on the weekend, why I'd be in fine shape, really easy to ramp up for the ten miler. But I couldn't work out for several weeks after fracturing my heel (doctor's orders, not even using my exercise bike). And then, when he said I didn't need the cast any more, I was able to use the exercise bike... and then, a couple weeks ago I began using the exercise bike and then running half a mile or a mile on the treadmill. This past Monday I went out for a real run -- two miles. More of a slow jog, but I survived, no heel pain. Unfortunately I did not get in any other runs this past week, nor did I even get in much workout on the exercise bike. Yeah, the usual "too busy" -- *sigh* -- and on Thursday I was excited about the new job so when I got home from work instead of working out I took Nancy out to dinner to celebrate. Friday I didn't have time in the morning -- sometimes I can get up early enough to have a cup of coffee and stretch and warm up and then work out... but if I'm not downstairs by quarter to six at the absolute latest, I simply don't have time.... and then when I get home from work (which can be as early as six, but too often is closer to seven) I'm too tired and I need to start fixing dinner. (Nancy is pretty tolerant of not eating dinner until eight o'clock many nights, but I don't think she'd be happy with nine p.m. meal time... this isn't bright lights, big city... it's small town Rhode Island!) My daughter and I had talked about running in a 5k race Saturday morning, but when Saturday morning came and it was chilly and cloudy with wind and a bit of light rain from time to time and she was tired after getting home from stocking supermarket shelves all night long... we decided to skip this race and do one in a couple of weeks instead. I kept telling myself that I would get in a good workout later in the day, but I never did. Nancy has been sick all weekend and I think I may have had a touch of her cold or something because I was just never able to motivate myself to accomplish much of anything. Now I have two months to go from just about zero to being able to run in a ten mile race. A five kilometer run is easy -- oh, it can be hard if you are really racing it, but if you are just jogging along, having fun, it's really not too bad -- ah, but ten miles, now that is an entirely different thing. [Uh, and I had to admit it, but now that I'm almost a month past celebrating the 30th anniversary of my 30th birthday... it is especially not easy for us geezers.] I'm also fat. Oh, okay, not exactly fat, but definitely overweight. Old, overweight, and out of shape. For the past few weeks I have been thinking how in the past I have posted a little log of my workout activities here and also my weight. For some reason, that helped me knock of ten or twelve pounds each time (uh, yes, and then I put them back on each fall and winter, yes, I know....) So, once again inspired by the example set by Bev Sykes (thanks for the inspiration, Bev!), I think I will try to embarass myself into regular workouts and to trying to really dump some weight. Hey, I'm never going to cover those ten miles unless I can shed at least ten pounds between now and then!
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