Mortality, Morbidly, and Muscles

I'd beat myself up more for not writing, but my father in law had a massive heart attack and has been in a coma, so I think I get a little bit of a pass.

But time spent in the ICU at Harborview Medical Center means less training time, while I ponder my own mortality. When we look at the risks for what happened to him (at 64) we check a lot of boxes that for ME would not be checked:

• Smoker FIL-Y Me- N
• Heavy Drinker FIL- Y Me- N
• High Blood Pressure FIL-Y Me-N
• High Cholesterol FIL-Y Me-N
• Over 60 FIL-Y Me-Not yet :)

But then there are boxes the other way:

• Congenital Heart Defect: Me- Y FIL-N
• BMI over 30(get it, morbidly obese?): Me- Y FIL-N

So since the tri, I have not been great about keeping up with my workouts. I've been on my bike... nope, no times. Just one time on the bike at the gym. I've been to the pool once, and open water once each. And Wunning... I have done NO wunning. Or walking in an exercise fashion. Or even pilates in the last week.

So if I'm going to work on my BMI bullet, then I need to get on that horse. Or at least off of my ass.

I tweeted earlier in the week about the TIME Magazine article on weight loss & exercise. And for me it makes sense. If I work out, it's OK to have an ice cream bar. Oh, and it's a 100 cal Skinny Cow. So I get two, right? No wonder I'm not losing my fat suit. I keep putting it on as fast as I work on taking it off.

So in a triathlon, which event is likely the hardest on your body, but burns the most calories? Ding, ding, yep, you guessed it- running!

And if you've been reading along, which is the event that I loathe, despise, and avoid any time I can make an excuse? Yep, I've even changed the usage of the word since I avoid it so much, it's running.

So since I'm in random crazy mode, I signed up for some group training called, from couch to 5k, with coach Beth at Running Evolution. We met for the first workout today, and I think it was a good choice. I'm running with other women who are at my level (or lack there of) so I don't beat myself up, or feel like I'm holding others back the same way I did with my other group. And I'm training for a 5k on Sept 12, a week before the Trek, the Irongirl. It looks like a lot of fun, and the big thing I've learned, is that I CAN train all alone... but I don't work as hard or do as well.

Even when I did the tri- I felt like all of the other women were already GOING to do better than me, so there was no point in pushing my boundries. 104th best was OK. I'm still not trying to win my age division or anything, but I could and SHOULD push for MY best. And now I will. Even if it means moving further out of my comfortzone and running.

Maybe I'll figure out why on earth other people do it on purpose.