Bump In the Road

This blog is becoming a metaphor for a consistent life, as I don't update it very consistently. In my quest for inner peace and fitness, I hit a bump in the road today.

Jilian's rocking it...she's lost weight and is on track to run a half marathon over Labor Day, but I haven't been as disciplined as her. We went for a run today, and I realized a few things that have to be in place in order for me to have a successful, longer run. Today I was hyper aware of these things because I didn't meet them, and I had to end the run about half-way through and walked the rest of the way. With that, my reflections:

1. Give myself at least 2-3 hours to digest if I've eaten. This morning we had a moderately sized breakfast/lunch but ran about an hour and a half afterwards. Jilian had a sideache, and I had the feeling in my stomach that told me "hey, too soon." No fun
2. Drink plenty of fluids. I had a cup of coffee and a smoothie for breakfast, which wasn't enough. I quickly realized into the run that I didn't drink enough because I had a fuzzy feeling in my head as well as my arms and hands. When that got to be too much, I knew I had to stop and take it easy.

I'm pretty dispirited about the whole venture, despite an excellent start, I know that I need to get back into my routine and stick to the truisms I know best: mornings are the best for me, I have time and wake up, and I eat after I run so nothing's "sitting around." I also have enough water from the day before.

Last weekend I started investigating nearby gyms that I get a discount to under my insurance plan. There's one close to Greenlake that I'm going to "try out" on Monday, 7:30 AM. This will help me stick to my morning workout mantra. Given that it's an introductory, they'll likely pair me with a personal trainer *sigh*. I'll report on that experience next week, but my last experience was, what I imagine to be, typical. "Yo brah, let's do some squats. C'mon, push it." Exciting.

Wish me luck ;-)