I need a vacation

from vacationing.

So I ran my mile intervals yesterday.  IN addition to my failure at a tempo run the previous Friday, I am clearly in a Pennsylvania related running slump.  There are times when I *really* feel like giving up, but I think I’ve learned a very important lesson in perseverence.  Never before has something seemed so impossible and futile, yet I keep trying anyways.  I’ve been trying for a year now, really trying.  There’ve been some results…I just wonder if they should be coming faster.

So we saw Traitor last night.  It was a pretty stereotypical movie with not much to surprise.  As is typical with all post 9/11 movies concerning radical Islamists, they mentioned how the greatest Jihad is the internal Jihad.  Very true, and I feel, very applicable to my current situation.  There are times when I am running when my mind becomes clouded with thoughts of failure and I feel as if I am drowning in the fog of negativity.  I notice that my physical body performs like shit as a result.  My current method of dealing with that is to take a break and just keep working….keep going until I meet some sort of goal.  I guess I try and minimize the damage done by not completing a workout, hoping that I am able to reap some benefit from the prematurely aborted exercise. 

Tempo running is, by far, hardest for me.  After a whole year, I still blow at setting a good pace right below my lactic threshold.  When I was running in Winnipeg, I was able to rock a solid 27:28 3 mile on flat ground….but here, I have a hard time maintaining a 9:25 pace!  Wtf??  Seriously, I wonder what the deal is.  As far as I know, my nutrition is ok…I’m sleeping enough and getting plenty of recovery…but still my quads become sore as that acid builds up.  I hate feeling that my personal record was a flaw 😛  Its just that optimal conditions seem so totally random…

So I am playing around with the notion of going to see the recruiter in Downingtown.   Maybe have a talk, possibly meet some of the current poolees (kids who are waiting to ship out to boot).  I want to get a feel for what it is I want to get into besides the physical part, which I know will be grueling beyond belief for a sedentary fat body like me.  Physically, I don’t think I’ll be in good enough shape to avoid going to PCP (Physical Conditioning Platoon – think of it as the Marine’s version of The Biggest Loser or whatever that gay show is called) for a while yet.  Progress with cardio improvement as well as weight loss seems to have plateaued a bit.  But yea, I think I have to put the idea of being a commissioned officer on hold because, quite frankly, I am just too fat.  Hahahaha!  Before anyone thinks to console me on my body image…it’s true.  The thing holding me back the most is the extra 20lbs or so I am carrying around on my stomach.  God bless my lifestyle prior to a year ago.  As a result, my only option for entering the service is going to be an enlistment.  Hopefully that lifestyle will give me the boost I need to go to OCS.

I have a feeling that my mom logged onto my OD and read things yesterday.  I hate feeling that I am being spyed upon.  Naturally, the solution would be to move out…thusly ushering in a whole host of financial problems I do not need hindering this weight loss and shaping up period. 

My dad keeps telling me that I need to watch this movie for its "father-son interaction."  He does enrage me sometimes!  Perhaps I should devote my life to filming How to be a father videos so that I can simply hand them to my son and tell him to watch them and feel that any duty I had to listen to my offspring be absolved.

That is all I have to say now.  Anyone who hasn’t seen the opening scene to my musical "Hitler Goes West," please proceed back an entry and crank dat speaker(boy).