Focus

I know a lot of bloggers come back from a "hiatus" with excuses and promises, and I'm not going to do either. For me, there are only so many things that I can focus on at one time and this hasn't been one of them. But really, I think its because I felt like what I wanted to write about was pretty negative. My running has been going pretty well, but I've been struggling with my eating and I've added a few pounds since I hit my low weight. Further, I've been struggling with refocusing on eating right and continuing along that path of weight loss. I know what I've accomplished was difficult and that I should be proud, and I am.  But there is still more to go. A baseball team can be proud of having an 8 game lead at the all star break, but if they don't keep winning, then they won't reach their goal of winning the division.

So I think the real reason I haven't been writing is that I haven't been real proud of my direction in my weight loss so I'd rather not write than broadcast that to the world. I started getting a lot of readers after my cruise review series, and it sort of paralyzed me.  All in my head, I know, but it is what it is. So now I'm refocused and getting back on the path to my goals.  I'm going to take each day as it comes and do what I need to do to accomplish my goals for the year.

On the running side, I've been doing very well. Those of you who follow my twitter or dailymile have seen that I've been consistently getting at least 3 and sometimes 4 days a week in. My mileage has increased too,  averaging 12 per week in the last 5 weeks. Last Sunday I did my first 6 mile run, and yesterday I made the full 10K (which is 6.2 miles). I'm still not moving very quickly, but I feel much stronger.

I'm registered for 3 races in the next few months. The Boulder Dash 5K here in Cumming next week. Its been in my mind from the beginning because it runs through the local quarry and I think that'll be pretty neat. I don't have high expectations for my time, as I think it'll be pretty hilly and I've only really done one day of hills this year. Then I'm registered for two 10K's. One is the Peachtree, which I also don't have high expectations for as I hear the crowds are thick, but its an event and I'm really looking forward to it. Because I don't think it'll be a good test of my fitness, I signed up for a 10K the month before in Buford. The Buford Run the Rails 10K will be in June and I look forward to seeing how I can do there. I hope to be able to break 1:15 there.

A long term goal is beginning to gel out of the mist as well. I've mentioned before that I'm thinking about a half marathon in the fall. Ideally I'd love to run at the Philly marathon, but I don't think that's going to work out for me logistically, so I'm looking at the Savannah Rock n Roll on Nov. 3. Its fairly flat and not too far away. I know people who ran it last year and they all said they really enjoyed it, though there were transportation problems at the start. I haven't registered yet, as I want to see how the next few weeks go, how I make it through the increased distance, but I have booked a hotel in Savannah for the weekend, and one that's near the start in case they mess up the shuttles again. I know that in order to be successful in getting through that distance, I'm going to need to continue to lose weight. So I'll use that as motivation to make the right decisions for each meal and continue to focus on making my runs.

Of course, I couldn't finish without saying that I do want to push myself to continue writing, good or bad. I must force myself to write about the bad times as well as the good. None of us are perfect and I'm learning to accept that bad days, bad decisions are going to happen but if I can minimize their impact by not letting them pile up then I can keep on going. One day at a time is pretty cliche, but cliche's become cliche's because they are pretty apt. So, I'll take it one day, one meal at a time. I have long term vision and long term goals, but as any runner knows you get to the finish line one step at a time.