Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Today was one of those days. Last Saturday I went out and ran 13 miles in 1:46 ish. I say "ish" because it's more like 12.8 or 12.9 miles. But regardless, when I finished my watch said 1:46. Today however was a different story. I went out running crazy fast. Finished the first 6 miles at 8 minutes per mile (48 minutes total) and all of a sudden my body said "NO!" and pretty much stopped trying. My legs weren't tired, my lungs weren't tired, but my... engine was out of gas. I ended up completing the run in 2:10. I don't care that I finished a 13 mile distance, 25 minutes slower is a failure to me.

I am not one to make a lot of excuses, at least I think that I'm not. It was a bad run, that's all that matters to me. But my only consolation is that I donated platelets yesterday. If anyone doesn't know what that is, you sit there for 2 hours while 3 pints of blood gets taken out of your body. By the end of the two hours, those 3 pints will have been filtered for platelets and plasma and 2 pints of your blood are given back to you. So naturally it takes a toll on your body, whether that had an effect on today, who knows. Side note: I passed 8 gallons donated lifetime yesterday, I'm pretty excited about that.

But I did get something out of the failure. Walking part of the 6 miles back from downtown Durham makes you think a lot of things.

Anyone who reads this blog probably knows I'm a very goal oriented person. If I'm not working toward some goal, then what's the point of certain activities? I started thinking about how every little tiny decision in your life affects the goals you aspire to achieve. I just got started thinking about all the decisions I make that undermine my goals. For example, two very large goals in my life right now are to lose 26 pounds this year in order to run faster and train for a marathon in the Summer/Fall. It's amazing how many decisions I've made in the last week that undermines those goals:

• Wednesday Run - Skipped, no time: UNDERMINES goals
• Thursday Dinner - Moes plus milkshake at Chick-fil-a: UNDERMINES goals
  
• Friday Lunch - Chick-fil-a: UNDERMINES goals
  
• Saturday Lunch - Burger, Fries at Farmer's Market Restaurant: UNDERMINES goals.
  

I just continue to ruin progress I've made toward those goals. Why do I do those things? I don't really have an answer. Back in January I blogged about "Becoming a Machine". That thought process lasted maybe a month and floated away with our trip to Mexico. Lately I haven't been eating "machine-like", it's been more of a "future-biggest-loser-contestant" diet. Without running, I'd be lost. If there's one thing my failed run today taught me, it's that I need to make sure every decision in my life is made for the purpose of a goal. "Does this decision affect my goals?" It might not be worth my time.

So to that end, there are two changes to my New Year's Resolutions I am making today. In addition to removing all soda from my diet (which is still going), I am including beer (alcohol actually, but I never drink wine or liquor) and ice cream with it. Those two items serve absolutely no purpose for any of my goals. I don't drink much beer anyway, but I will have one every other day with dinner or a movie or sports or something. But I don't need it and I certainly don't need ice cream for anything. The only exceptions to this addition to my resolutions will be my Birthday (cuz I have a super double awesome plan for that) and the cruise in December. Other than those two events, no beer or ice cream for the rest of the year.

Hold me to it because I have goals to achieve... so I guess this day wasn't a total failure.