Depressing Week

This has not been a great week for me. Cable issues at home have limited how often I am online, so I apologize for not posting sooner. I got my results from the testing I did at NIFS. I am very overweight. I believe I am in the obese category. I have to take some it this with a grain of salt, because this is not a doctor, but a series of tests which are rudimentary. Still it is disheartening.

I am also feeling down about what I am doing these days. I suspect most of this is because I am approaching 50. I am not feeling like I am accomplishing things. I have felt frustrated with the directions I am headed. Am I doing what I should be doing?

Yes, a run would help, but work is really hampering my running. It's funny, people assume you run a lot when you work in a running store....nope not true. You run less, or at least a good many of us in the business run less.

I am plotting out a running schedule for next week though.

In the meantime, I am trying to figure out my place in the world. Do I stay in the running business? I still love it, but I feel there are other things I want to do in life. Not ready to talk about what those other things are, but I would like to figure if they can co-exist with my career.

I am hating approaching 50....I feel down. Guess mid-life crisis has hit?

Charlie

Limitations

I have long written about the limitations I have with being physically active, due to issues surrounding my clubbed feet. Yesterday was another issue to overcome. Mark and I are having our fitness evaluated at NIFS, and in the course of the evaluation, you are asked to do various types of exercise. I wasn't able to do about 30% of them.

It depresses me, but I always try to see what I can do.

The trainer doing the evaluation was bothering me a bit, because she told me she would stop the activity if I "broke" the routine at all. So the first sign I couldn't complete an activity, she would stop me. I explained to her that I like to try all exercises thrown at me, and was wondering if she could see what I could do. She told me that wasn't how the test works. Understood.

During the course of the interview portion, she asked me activity questions. She and the intern present took notes, but from this I could tell who was listening to me. She asked me my goals. I told her I would like to be fitter, so I could run easier, and get better times in my races, and just better overall health. The intern asked me about my marathoning. We spoke for about 5 minutes about my races.

When it came time for me to do the run portion, the trainer asked me if I was, "comfortable running 1 mile." Both the intern and I looked at her oddly. I said, "I think I can do that." To which the intern said,"Would you rather run your 26.2 instead?" We both smiled, and the trainer looked confused.

The 1 mile run was a good one. Typically I run 6 minutes, and walk 1 minute, but since this was a test, I ran the whole mile - no walk break. I hadn't done that in years. I did it, and it felt good. I was upbeat when I finished.

Then the limitations set in again. The trainer had me do some more exercises I could not initially do. I got a bit frustrated and said, "I suppose this test is really about what I can't do." She smiled and said that wasn't the case at all. Still that was how I felt.

I get the results in about a week. From these results an exercise program will be created for me. I did "learn" something yesterday - as the trainer said, "You run pretty well." Uh huh.

Charlie