An Ending, A Beginning, or a Turnaround?

I stepped on the scale this morning, after shortening my usual 4 mile weekday run to 3 due to timing issues, and was, frankly stunned. The red line indicating my weight was on the left side of the black line marking 140 pounds.

This was the lightest I’ve been since … well, since I started calling myself “fat” and I started doing that in the 150s.

The point of this blog was to document my return to the weight and shape I was back when I was racing “really, really well” and counting on some math and dedication to bring me there. However the math failed me completely [there is NO WAY that I ran 400 more miles than the beer I drank; if anything I owe more to the run column than I did at the beginning].

So, the weight is gone … Am I faster? Faster than I was when I started 400 Beers? Certainly, and improving every day … well, not every day but on the whole, week-by-week. I’ve slipped the 9:00 miles and am now flirting with 8:30s. I’ve come real close to 8:00 on a couple 5K training runs [mostly because I knew that if I got home after D’Kid was up, I’d get my ass kicked. Being tired, sweaty, thirsty, and getting yelled at before my first cup of coffee is not my idea of a good morning]

I know that I’ll never get back to my glory days. I have accepted that. There are Before-Dadhood PRs, and After-Dadhood PRs. Why not? I’m not the same person, after all. 3 miles in 24:24 the other week may not be my PR, but it was my fastest in quite a while, so that’s the mark to beat!

Which brings the question? Have we, in fact, Rebuilt the Monster?

That’s the trouble with self-improvement … knowing when to stop.

Let’s look at the specs:

Size, shape and weight are about the same. Speed is off, but improving. The measurables [heart rate, BP, Advil consumption, Tums-ishness] are about where I expect, since I never paid attention to them anyway, back then. On another plane: I’ve got my mojo, I found my Zen, anger and depression have been replaced by clarity and joy. My often broken heart has been spot-welded and reinforced with concrete and rebar. I’m not training alone anymore, with no goals in sight, but with a bunch of 1s and 0s that I call my friends [those names to the left, there], whom I can’t wait to meet up with on the line.

So, I would say yes. The Monster has been rebuilt, has completed some road trails, and is ready to go.




To go for what?

I have some ideas. After all, this is My Running Career v2.0, nothing is set in stone. In fact it’s less set in stone then when I was younger, and felt compelled to establish PRs at every distance and at every race.

Let me think about it …

Over a beer.