bloomsday

I have my goal for the year....

Bloomsday run. Spokane, Washington. Sometime in the near future. It's a seven or eight mile race and I want to do it. It's my only physical goal for the year. If I can run the whole thing without stopping, then I will have completed a small goal which should help me achieve some other goal with a bit more confidence.

I FINALLY got my ass back to the gym. It only took two months, 11 days and a bunch of hours, but I am back in the gym. I HAVE NEVER... been in more pain in my life and I am pretty sure that there is nothing but blood sludge in my veins. None of my extremities are getting any oxygen and my legs feel like there are being weighed down with rocks. My lungs are on fire! I am not sure if running seven or eight miles is a great idea or even plausible. It sounds more like a torture at this point.. AND that's why... I am going to do it.

I think it's pretty easy to give in to the condition of your body and just let it rule your lifestyle. I know that I have had moments where I didn't care that I was out of shape or flabby and there wasn't anything that anyone could do to change my mind. I was going to just "accept myself for who and what I am, and everyone should love me for my inside, not my outside". Of course, this never lasts as a validation, but it sounds good, doesn't it? Somehow a brief window of self-discipline opens and I am back in the gym, addicted to the endorphin high of working out and ready to let everyone love the outside as much as they love the inside. Gone is the five meal a day sloth and arrived is the 5 hours of sleep, two meal a day, gym nazi. Everyone loves a gym nazi. Especially one with an agenda. "I'm going to run Bloomsday!!"

The road to Bloomsday starts now and I plan on finishing that race in under 45 minutes. It may sound too ambitious for someone as out of shape as I am, but I like the challenge. Not only do I have to finish on my feet, but I have to finish the race quickly.

Road runners are different people than gym runners, and rarely do the two groups ever see eye-to-eye on any and all issues, running. Every time there is a race like Bloomsday, you can see the two groups warming up differently and in different areas. Gym people warm up in one place and road runners use a wider area. They do this eyeing each other, stretching their hammies and "focusing". At some point, you would expect that each group would start to circle the other and start snapping their fingers. A mad show down of malnourished people in short shorts and pinned on numbers. Of course, runners aren't generally known as great fighters, but they are devious and cleaver and they have been known to bump others off the course into a ravine if they can. Mean little skinny people, mean.

I have thirty pounds that I need to lose. I'm not overweight, but I have thirty pounds of weight that needs to leave to make the running easier on my knees. I don't want to be so skinny that I'm Ethopian or Somali, but I do want to tone down the large look and settle into a reasonable healthy look. Something that will allow me to look good in mirror without having to adjust the lighting. Something more streamline. Not easy for someone with Native blood. We tend to be pretty husky people.

First thing I have to do is figure out when the damn race is and then I have to find out if I am touring at the time or not. It would be sad if I missed the race because I was drinking wine in Turin or drinking beer in Hamburg, but these things happen. I guess that would mean I would have to put the race off until next year, which means I can take the year off from training and just start getting back into shape next January. Hell, I like this idea...