Geez...over 2 months since my last entry.
See, this is the reason I could never become a professional writer! I could never keep deadlines or come up with something worthwhile to put down in a pinch. I has to be when I'm ready. Although when I do get something out its usually quality, my well is very shallow and runs dry very quickly.
So here's whats been going on...
As I sit here I am getting that "butterflies" feeling in the pit of my gut. I am entered into a 5 mile run through Heckscher State Park at 7pm. Wondering what I should eat, what I shouldn't. Should I go to the gym and do something light or just lay off until after the run. Blah Blah Blah.
But never in my life did I ever think I'd see one of those numbered tags hanging from a shirt, and that shirt belonging to me!
This will be my 2nd race. On a whim I entered a 5K last month in the Long Island Marathon. I did quite well finishing in under 35 min. My goal was just to finish, and I managed to pull off a pretty good time! So keeping with challenging myself I am doing 5 miles (2.85 m more that a 5K) this week and next week a 10K. That number scares me! Why, not sure. I do the same thing every run. When my body tells me to stop, my mind tells it NO NOT YET! Its worked pretty good so far.
I also feel I have a leg up with my new found athleticism. Because I didn't play any organized sports growing up, in high school or college I'm not injury plagued like a lot of people who are. My knees aren't torn up, my ankles aren't shot and my back is still pretty good. You would think that after all the years of humping stretchers and carrying people down multiple flights of stairs that would have done me in like a lot of my EMS brethren but not the case. I am proud to say that in almost 20 years I have never spent any time out as a result of an on the job injury. Not a day of LODI and No aided#. The only time I was light duty was when I twisted my ankle carrying my son off the bus when he fell asleep on the way home and even that I rushed to get back out on the street.
Anyway, I digress...
So at 43, I had the hubris at times to believe I was indestructible. Then a couple of things happened that reminded me I wasn't. A couple of days before my 5K race I was running and pulled a muscle or a tendon in my hip. It wasn't unbearable but it was enough to remind me that next time I ran it was going to hurt. And it did, but I still ran. Even the day of the race it was a bit tender, but I ran anyway. And even with this race coming up to day I had a sobering reminder that it could happen any time when I was moving a patient to a stair chair and felt a CRACK in the same hip. I yelled when it happened and pain shot down my leg. I really though I dislocated my hip but after walking around a bit it seemed to be okay, but the same nagging soreness from the last was there....
I think the point I am trying to make is I feel the mark a truly dedicated athlete is to work through pain!
We'll see how truly dedicated I am in the coming months.
So I am still doing my routine at the gym. Trying desperately to build up upper body strength and core strength and although I have made some significant progress I feel I do have a couple of shortcomings that if I do not improve, will severely affect my performance in October....
I cannot do even 1 pull up. (unassisted) and I can maybe do 3 or 4 unassisted dips. Which basically means I am not strong enough yet to pull my own body weight. So I know what needs to be done. Obviously continue to strengthen my arms and my back to give me the extra pull I need...that pretty easy. The other, LOOSE MORE WEIGHT! that's hard. I have plateaued big time. Although I have had obvious body changes, I have lost a lot of body fat that you can see in my face, feel it in how loose my old pants are and the fact that I went down a shirt size (XXL shirts look like hospital scrubs on me now) I have been avoiding the scale to prevent my discouragement. For the last few months I have been teetering in the 250-260 lb area and I just can't seem to break it despite what I am doing. So now I have to consult some experts that I have been working with to see what I need to do. I know one of the big things is going to be DIET! I'm not gonna lie, I still indulge plenty. But for the most part I eat good. The only fast food I eat is Subway. I have completely cut soda and diet soda out! I tried a DR Pepper the other day, too too sips and poured the rest out, completely lost the taste for it. I know something that is going to be a big sacrifice in the coming months...ALCOHOL! When I'm home at night, I love a beer or 2, a glass of wine, whiskey or scotch. But I know its not helpful to weight loss, at all! Sometimes it falls back on ol' will power.
I have the 4 races coming up. I feel I need to do at least 1 lower tier endurance race before the Mudder. Probably the Warrior Dash or something along the lines of that.
I'll try to write sooner next time.
131 Days to go....yikes!
