Last night I returned from a long weekend that started with a LOT of shit beer (I had the choice of Coors Light or Miller Light – I went with Coors.), and switched to REALLY shit wine when the beer ran out. After I spent a few hours sobering up, I headed to my friend Patricia’s house, where I stayed until Monday evening (last night). I would have posted something yesterday, but my computer and her wireless router were having difficulties and I couldn’t be bothered to worry about it.

Trish lives on 7 acres, so there’s plenty of room to move around. Plus she lives not far from a State Forest and a nice lake, with a long creek that shoots off from it. She also has some very nice animals, including pets and a little livestock. It’s a very peaceful setting with some laid-back people and intelligent offspring. I really enjoy spending time there, and love that I can still get some exercise in, even when I’m taking a few days off!

So, even though I did some exercise over the past few days, it really wasn’t up to my normal workout. On the other hand, I took so long to get back on the trolley, that I’ll have to work my way back up to the level I was working at. Also, I’m hoping to surpass, instead of staying there when I get there.

I have to, because I’M NOW IN TRAINING! More on that in a moment.

The mantra – yeah, I woke up and, like many mornings, just didn’t want to do this. I get a little disappointed with myself, because I know when I started doing this, those whiny, bitchy little voices had almost no control over me. They’d say “Oh, I’m tired” and I’d tell them “SHUT UP” (imagine a deep voice) and they would. Now they keep bitching, and more loudly. They’ve conspired with my muscles and joints, to remind me of just how much they’d prefer that I keep my ass right on the couch. What’s worse is that my inner drill sergeant doesn’t seem to be nearly as loud as the voices of those hippies telling me to take it easy. All this worries me, because, as I’ve said before, I have to keep this from being a chore, and now, when I’m waking up, it feels a LOT like a chore.

It also occurs to me that when I would wake up and look forward to working out, I wasn’t really working out. I was just stretching and warming up. I believed that’s all I was going to do, and I knew it would make me feel good, not just in the moment, but well into the day! And it would only take 10 minutes!

Now it takes a good 15 minutes, and is followed by a workout, and a cooldown. I remember that in those first days, I had no plans to exercise, but after a few days, I’d do some kind of exercise after the warmup anyway, just because I felt so damn good! And yet, the next day, I could still motivate myself easily into the warmup.

It seems that making the workout part of the routine is what is bringing me down. I have to decide what I can do about that. This morning, as I considered it, it occurred that there were only two real options -

1. Keep on hacking at it, the way I have been (technically, do nothing) – yeah… and what do I expect from that? Will this trend of discontent subside? Ben Franklin taught us the definition of insanity – you’ve probably heard it before: Doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting different results (Paraphrased). I’m not interested in that.

2. Give up – that’s what my body and mind are telling me to do, at least until I overcome them and get my warmup going.

3. Change it up! That’s what has been working for me so far, so that’s probably the answer for me now. The only question is… what change?

So, instead of hopping up and starting my warmup… I delayed. I don’t like to do that, because far too often, if I put off my warmup, my workout is at risk of not getting accomplished that day. But today it was necessary. I needed a plan of change. I examined the issue at hand – I don’t want to exercise. I’d rather lay around for a while, like I used to, back when I ALWAYS felt shitty.

Well, that’s the other side of the issue, isn’t it? If I do what my body, or maybe, what my id is telling me to do, I have to deal with the consequences, and I have no intention of ever having to deal with those consequences again. I’d rather get rich, marry a gold-digger, get divorced, lose all my money, and die in abject poverty, than to go through all this crap again. At least I’ll die a healthy man.

I needed to examine my thoughts, either aloud or on paper. My handwriting is for crap and there were people around, so I typed up my thoughts and organized them a bit. What I came up with is my change – a mantra. Every morning, before I even get off the couch, I’m going to read this aloud, until it’s committed to memory, at which point I’ll recite it.

My Mantra

I’m tired and I’m bitchy and I DON’T want to exercise.

I’m sore and I’m sleepy and I just don’t want to!

But if I don’t exercise, I’ll continue to feel like shit,

and I won’t lose weight; I’ll end up gaining it back.

And if I just warm up, stretch and loosen up,

I’ll be awake, feel better, and I’ll WANT to exercise.

I just need a cup of coffee first.

And, of course, the next step is a nice “cuppa” (coffee). And next? You guessed it! A nap! Hahaha, after my cup, I ended up taking my setup (laptop – for music, quart jar of ice water, aluminum pitcher of ice water) outside and set it up in the bed of my truck. It’s so nice out these days, I need to take advantage of it.

So, I mentioned I’m in training. It’s true. Recently I linked to a post from SheBANGS’s blog last week; she’d been thinking of doing a mud run, but it turns out she can’t. Instead, she’s doing a 5k called “Run for Your Lives!”, which is a zombie themed race, complete with zombies chasing and obstacles to complete. The zombies attack you by taking a flag off of the flag belt you have to wear. If you lose all of your flags, you become a zombie when you finish the race.

I had been toying with the idea of taking part, as I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a mud run, or, at the very least, a 5k walk, for a while. Saturday, as I was preparing to leave for my night of imbibery, I got a call from my health coach, Dr. Eeks. She was catching up with me and in talking, I’d asked if she’d seen the link that talked about the “zombie run”. I told her about it, and she was seriously excited. I asked if she wanted to enter it with me. SUPER excited! I looked up the locations and found that there’s one in Baltimore, MD in October. We are now committed to this. Which means that at the VERY least, I have to be able to walk 3.1(ish) miles. This is not my new goal. I believe that in order to be able to do something well, you have to TRAIN to do more than that.

For example – consider the actors in a one-night performance. Do they rehearse once? Do they rehearse once a day? No – their rehearsals tend to last longer than the hour or so that the actual play will. In truth, if they want to be good, they rehearse all day long, until they are ready to do it once, correctly.

So, I believe I have to work myself up to at LEAST 5 miles. My goal is to able to walk the 5k without killing myself (figuratively speaking). If it turns out I can run or even jog, great, I’ll do that. But that’s not the goal. Anything over the goal is bonus. I don’t even care if I end the race as a human or a zombie. I don’t even care if I get through the obstacles or not. This is my starting point. And it’s going to be a fun one!

So, for the next few months or so, you may get a little sick of hearing about this damn 5k, but if you’re up for it, and don’t mind traveling to MD, you can join Dr. Eeks and I. I’m already talking to one person who says he’s interested in taking part, and is determined to be ready by October. Anyone else that wants in is welcome. Maybe we can even qualify for a nice hotel discount!

TODAY’S WORKOUT

Not much to say about today’s workout. I did it. Not sure how long I went, probably not as long as before though. I will say this, I did it all outside! It was kind of neat – my folks have a nice long driveway that widens up by the house. That allowed me to do my walking laps (that I usually do around the inside of the house) up and down the long path. My “in place” exercises were done next to the truck (for balance, when needed) and the walking exercises were done back and forth across the wide portion, by the house.

No music today – I listened, but didn’t make note of what the songs were.

TODAY’S SPECIALS

A favorite blog of mine, Natural Knowledge 24/7, wrote a great blog post about exercises that are effective at building your energy.

Another blog I regularly read, by SheBANGS, celebrates some wonderful thinning around her waist! Congratulate this woman, please!

I rarely share a link from The Better Man Project, but that doesn’t mean I don’t read it. It can be very inspirational, but he’s on a far different level than I am. However, I think this post, about not giving up, and using your low points to your advantage, can be of great use to our readers. Enjoy.

SOME THINGS BEAUTIFUL

Both of our beautiful images come from Photobotos today. I need to get working on new image sources, or they’ll all be coming from Photobotos (not that this would be so terrible).

All that’s missing among these horses is the cherry tree.

This photo makes me think of all kinds of wonderful, calming things.