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May 30, 2005
Memorial Day
This morning I came to the realization that this Memorial Day is the first time I have not raced on the "unoffical start of summer" in five or six years. The race that I used to always participate in, a fundraiser in memory of a boy who I went to high school with, has been cancelled. That may not be the best term, the family was raising a set amount of money for a scholarship and has achieved that number. The new Memorial Day race in the area is about 25 minutes south of here and not an appealing course, so I didn't race at all.
We had a morning workout instead of an evening track workout today. It just makes more sense when everyone is off from work to get together in the morning so that people can spend time with their families during the day and go to cookouts for dinner. Of course, this weekend we have had beautiful weather in the morning and then pop-up storms around dinner time, so we lucked out in the weather department too. There was a bigger than usual group and a big reunion since there were people who have not been to a track workout in at least a year! We did our usual 2.5 mile warm-up and then the workout was basically geared to the 5K. I didn't get to do the workout, but I understood what they were doing and know that this is part of what I will be doing for the rest of the year. We did 4 100 striders, then a 2 mile push on the track. The entire goal of this was to run the first mile fast and then run the second mile within 5 seconds of what the first mile was. After that, it was a lap jog and some more striders. I got to be the clock operator since we even set up a clock on the track. While everyone ran their 2 miles, I jogged around on the grass for about 10 minutes. I tried to do the second set of striders, but got kicked off the track. J and I both know that my speed is lacking and that we need to work on my short speed. This means that during the summer I am going to be doing the mile quite a bit to get used to running 5:45 or faster again. My body felt pretty good and I can feel my regular pace coming back to me.
There is something that has been weighing on me recently. I seem to have put on some weight and can not get rid of it. I never weigh myself anymore since I went through a period of being too obsessive about the number on the scale. I know that I have put on a few pounds since most of my clothes are tight on me. Even some of my "chunky" clothes are tight. I understand that eating is a big part of being healthy, I need to shed a few of these unwanted pounds. Another thing that bothers me is that when I was running my fastest, I was my absolute skinniest. Probably too skinny, my brother would ask our mother if I was eating at that time. I don't really want to get back to that point again, but I know that right now I feel sluggish and heavy. I do not want to turn this blog into an obsessive eating entry, but this is something that I do struggle with and it needs to be mentioned. I would not say that I have a full blown eating disorder, but I do have a distorted body image and have disturbed eating patterns-this much I do know.
I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and took a moment to remember those who have fought in the wars.
Posted by Blondie at May 30, 2005 06:03 PM