Eleven months: Finding the right fit
This past week can best be summed up as the week that was. I started out full of energy and enthusiasm. After eight days of exercising every single day I crashed. My body screamed for a rest! What are you doing? It asked and I had to have some down time.
I didn’t miss either of my 6 am runs this week. Monday’s run was brutal though. It was freezing cold, dark and not a pleasant morning to be out. Again I asked myself, why? But at 6 am my brain was in no position to figure out an answer so I just ran. Sometimes the best part of a run is when it is over and this was the case on Monday. We did hill work. Again. I took it easy because of my ankle but because I’ve been babying it, it is doing fine.
I had great plans for Tuesday but they quickly dissipated in light of a heavy work week. If I don’t exercise early in the day, I am exhausted in the evening and there’s only about a 90 per cent chance I’ll turn around and head out again on a cold winter’s night.
Ah well, I told myself, Wednesday is a Roche day and I never miss that! I knew I had that commitment and believe me, it’s the commitment to another person that is so key here. But life is life and it doesn’t always go as planned. On Tuesday evening Roche sent me an apologetic email saying she had to cancel Wednesday morning’s appointment and could we reschedule? Of course I still promised to go to the gym without her.
On Wednesday night I called my BFF and confessed that I am a loser. “A loser?” She asked. “How much did you lose?”
“Not that kind of a loser,” I informed her. “A loser loser. I skipped the gym Tuesday and Wednesday. Wah wah….” I whined.
“Stop that negative talk,” she said. “Go tomorrow.”
So I did. I was at the gym by 6 am and had an amazing workout. I felt great all day.
And on Friday morning, I was up at 5:30 for my 6 am run and happy I was. It was lightly snowing and the still darkened world looked magical. It wasn’t cold and Una took it easy on us. I had a lovely run and my ankle hardly bothered me at all.
We spent Saturday skiing at Mount Washington. There’s been lots of new snow lately and the loose stuff makes you work. Really work! My thighs were burning after a few runs and I didn’t want to confess this to my sister-in-law so I was happy when she said she was feeling it too! We weren’t the only ones. I overheard a few people saying they could only do a few runs and then they had to take a break so I didn’t feel so bad.
Monday, January 23 is Chinese New Years. In light of that, I thought it fitting to share a quote with that Terri Cramb, owner of the newly opened T-Fit Yoga and Fitness Studio shared with us at Toastmasters this past week. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Chinese Proverb.
I thought about this and decided it was exactly what I needed to hear. I was being (pretty) good about exercising for the most part but my diet hadn’t changed. Roche always tells me you can’t out train a lousy diet and I know she is right. I just have to find the willpower, the discipline, and the determination to change my eating habits if I want to see real results!
Maybe next week.
