Michael & Liz are Bloggable

I went for a run today and started thinking about how much of my life is reliant upon numbers. Most everything I set out to accomplish relies on something calculable or quantifiable. And if it wasn't quantifiable, at least you could see, touch, smell, taste, or feel the results. I think that's why sometimes I struggle with faith because most of it is intangible. I'm just not designed to believe what I can't see. But I do my best anyway, and if God is God, then he understands that. But I digress.

What I'm trying to say is that between running, losing weight, my job, anything, numbers are everything. Have I gotten faster? How many miles have I run this year? (261 so far) Have I lost weight? How many sodas have I had this year? (0 by the way). How many beers have I had since April 15th? (0 also). It's not too often that I'd make a goal that didn't have a big fat red line of success. Cross it and you succeeded, fall short of it and you failed.

That's the way I like it though. Is it nice to feel more in shape? ...sure. Is that enough to say I accomplished something? ...not a chance. Every time I go out for a run, I say to Liz, "Not looking to break any records today". And yet my mind set whenever I start is "How fast have I done this run before? Can I go faster? Was my first mile on pace with my best first mile in the past?" I just find myself rarely accepting of an average run.

So when I'm running I'm constantly thinking numbers. If I stay on this pace, I'll finish in... If I want to finish in 1 hour exactly, I have to run the last 3 miles in... I've run for 17 minutes now, my average quarter mile pace was... I would probably drive running partners nuts if I spoke everything I thought during a run... in fact, I've been known to drive them nuts despite my restraint.

I'm super thrilled today because my running goals and my weight goals are really going well, numbers wise. Yesterday I ran 5 miles in 41:33 and when I finished I was ecstatic because 40 minutes is probably one of my fastest 5 mile runs. So to get so close means I'm improving. Today I went for an 8 mile run and ironically enough, I passed the 5 mile mark right exactly at 41:33. I laughed a little when I glanced at my watch and decided to speed up the last 3 miles finishing in 1:04:39. I can't exclaim enough how excited I am about running right now.

Weight wise, I started the year weighing 196 looking to drop 26 pounds as my New Year's Resolution. Yesterday morning (granted I weighed myself after my 5 mile run) I weighed 177. 19 pounds! This morning I was back at 180 seeing as I chugged water the rest of the day. But I really feel like the 20 pound point is going to be hit this week and I'm hoping to get to under 170 by my birthday. At least that's the goal, but without the numbers, I feel like I'd have no goal. Would I have tried to lose weight without having weighed myself to begin with? Probably not.

What's nice is that Liz is not only supportive of the goals, but encouraging of them, despite my moments of insanity with silly statistics.

"Success is the pile of failures you're standing on."

[I apologize for the constant barrage of rhetorical questions. Can you tell I like using them?]