Milestone- down over 25lbs

I'm officially down over 25lbs as of this morning. I was 237.4 this morning, the least I have been since starting my journey down and the least since about two years ago (man, it kills me to type that, I danced in the mid 240's for almost a year, telling myself that since I was "fast" on the bike the 240's were just fine for me) I had myself convinced that my body was just there at 240, 243, 245, 248, 250, 253, 255, 259, etc due to a random bump in weight, and that as long as I kept biking I'd come back down.

Let me tell you all, that's a cop out. It's every bit as much of a cop out as the hundreds of excuses we as a lazy society make for not working out. It's bs, and even when we're selling it to ourselves, I don't think we're really buying it. I know I wasn't. It sounded good, but I know that in my mind I really was aware I was backsliding, and badly. Had I kept going I have no doubt I'd be the 300lb guy who still bikes to work. I don't want to be that guy, I want to be the 190lb guy who runs at lunch, competes every year in multiple runs, tri's and maybe even an honest to goodness bike race sometime. I want to push myself so that I don't have the option of ending up on the wrong side of 240 again. I have found that when I lack goals, I lack focus, and when I lack focus, I find excuses. I have some pretty interesting goals for this year-

Complete a 5k in under 30 min.
Complete a sprint duathlon (not sure on time here yet)
Complete my first triathlon (sprint)
Complete my first Olympic Triathlon

From there, I am forming up next years goals in my mind already-

I'd like to do a 1/2 marathon
I'd like to do another olympic tri, as well as a sprint again
and I'd like to train for a 1/2 iron.

The following is the ultimate goal-

Reward completion of the 1/2 iron with a nice tri specific carbon bike (built up by myself of course, I love building bikes)

And with said bike, compete, before age 45, in my first Ironman. And win it.

Ok ok, I know I'm most likely not going to win it. I will however finish it, and that will be a win for me.

So, there they are, in print on the blog that only I read (I'll have to make sure I work on that too, have to have someone holding me accountable huh?)

F2PH

Perspective

I have had many lessons in perspective over my life, but many more have made themselves evident since I have started paying attention to them. We attempted a foolish trip this past weekend, we tried to go to visit my wifes parents, in western pa. We got on the road early on Friday, thinking we might get there before the roads got bad. We succeeded in getting halfway there before the storm truly hit. The roads got bad fast, and to our credit, we stopped being dumb just in time. We stopped in Somerset and hunkered down for the night in a hotel, fully expecting everything to be cleared up early the next day and to finish our trip. Well, 33 inches of snow fell in Somerset, and we were stranded there for the weekend. What did we do? Well, our daughter made a friend, and they played most of the time, we visited with the new friends mom, and others at the hotel, and pretty much had a great time.

Just when we were focusing on how things were not what we had expected, my wife realized she had misplaced her wallet. We had walked though the snow down to a fast food place to get something quick to eat, and it turns out she left it there. The good news is, we got it back, and that had a very nice effect in reminding us it could always be worse. It's funny how that happens.

Life often gives us little reminders that things that go wrong, could have gone a lot more wrong, and we ought be happy with where things ended up, even if it's not always where we set our sights on when we started. The first step to being depressed is focusing on that first negative thought. It really is that simple, and it's taken me many years to figure that out. Hopefully I don't find a way to forget that simple lesson any time soon.

F2PH

A little ouchy

Well, I'm back! Good January this year, feeling good, well till this morning that is. I was biking to work, in the snow, made it here without issue (thank you studded tires). I get to work, and there is this little path (paved) I take behind the building, it's made for walking, so the only turn it has is a nice 90% turn, the path is about 2 feet wide, so that turn is a bit tricky even when it's dry. I'm back up on the bike, taking my time (I had pushed the bike, and had considered pushing it the whole path, but thought riding would be more fun) so I'm coming around the corner, really taking my time, taking my time, taking so much time that, well, I must have stopped, and over the bike went! :) I hit with my right knee, looking at it this afternoon it looks like I hit the edge of the pavement, then slid into the gravel, and stopped. I stood right back up, got my bike, hopped back on, and pedaled though the parking lot to work. I thought "man, there goes my run today, F&*K! Well, that's what I thought, but as the morning went on, the knee while nowhere near normal, just didn't hurt all that bad....

Fast forward to lunch, I suit up, and go for my run, I'm on couch to 5k, week6, and this is day 2. I hit the same path, on foot this time (not as far to fall!) and start running, I feel my knee not doing great, but not too bad either. Now for the funny part of the story, this is my "good" knee, my other knee is weak from being dislocated several times, so I now have no way to limp and provide help for my "bad" knee, as my "good" knee isn't so good today either. Result is I think I ran more balanced than normal. Now on to why this is worth a post.

5 years ago, I wouldn't have run over lunch if you had been chasing me on the back of one of those raptors from Jurassic park. I'd have just given up, actually, I had kind of given up, on health anyway. Today I had a crash, albeit not a major one, it would have however served as a most excellent excuse as to why it just wasn't wise for me to run today. I don't think anyone would have argued the point, and I could have sold it to myself as well. Difference is, I didn't want to sell it to myself, I wanted to run. I wanted to get out there and get those miles in, I had been looking forward to it since my last run. My life, and my outlook, are vastly different than they were just a few years ago. I can't imagine going back to that way of thinking, and that way of feeling. I love being active, and I love looking forward to miles and miles of human powered travel in the coming years.

F2PH