Fit to Be...

Super Awesome Wife and Dirtbag Baby are on the mainland right now visiting her family. I'm still on island because we decided I should save sick days for Mommy/Baby Needs Daddy days. So I'm home alone. On my run today I got to thinking about what I would say to a person if they asked me why they should get fit. I think it's a good question, what would you say? Do you have real reasons for being fit? I spent the run thinking about that and came home and wrote it out. Then I decided that instead of just posting words, like normal, I'd play around with the camera built into the computer and make it into a simple video. For fun. Because this should be fun. So below is the video and below that is the text from the video. Thanks for playing along!

Fit to Be

Fit is variable.
Fit is mental.
Fit is an idea.
Fit to be...
Fit to be healthy.
Fit to be dedicated to a goal.
Fit to be balanced. To expend negative energy in positive ways.
Fit to have a reason not to sit on the couch after sitting at work.
Fit to be a parent who’s kids grow up with fitness.
Fit to learn limits. Fit to learn to surpass limits.
Fit to accomplish something every day.
Fit to be sexy? No. Sexy is an external value placed on you by others. Fit is not always sexy.
Fit to be self confident then. Self confidence is always sexy. Fit builds self confidence.
Fit to conquer and subdue ego. Fit to build a healthier ego.
Fit to be accepting weakness in yourself and others. Fit to know weakness is not a permanent state.
Fit to be happy. To quote a guilty pleasure, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands, they just don't.”
Fit to eat the occasional pint of ice cream after a long day.
Fit to be better at suffering. Fit to understand pain passes eventually, but not always easily.
Fit to be in control of something in your life. Fit to have something to hold to.
Fit to be better than you were the day before and understanding sometimes that just isn’t possible. Fit means going again anyway.
Fit to be free.

Talking and Swimming is Hard

Swim

1 x 200- warm-up
10 x 100- 10 seconds rest
3 x 50- sideline kick
1 x 500- odd 50 easy/even 50 hard
1 x 50- cool down

Morning workouts were old hat for a long time. But stopping getting up at 5am is the easiest habit to break in the world. And getting back into that habit can be brutal when the other option is staying in bed with a tiny human and a wife. (Yeah, we are co-sleeping hippies. And yeah, we are super careful and light sleepers.) Not hitting snooze and rolling over is a matter of guilting myself into getting up. Thinking thoughts like, "Don't be full of weak sauce. You used to do this all the time. Just get up." And the kicker, "You know you're going to be pissed at yourself if you don't." Which is true. I'm always hard on myself when I miss a workout. Trying to be extra hard on myself now because I'm in the midst of getting back into the groove and I need to set the routine back up.
My other big problem with morning workouts is I'm not planning ahead like I used to. Part of packing my bag the night before was always grabbing some paper and writing my workout for the morning down, keeping in mind goals and objectives for the workout and the training cycle as a whole. I haven't done that since my last Honu training swim. This is a terrible habit to be in. It is so much easier to bail on a set when it isn't in black and white in front of me. Before my next swim I need to write down a workout rather than plan it on my way down the hill to my truck.
I'm still not fit so I'm not swimming on time standards yet. I don't feel like I can be pumping like would make me happy so I'm moving my body, getting back into the feel, getting my stroke back instead. It's amazing how fast the stroke goes away. I can feel the wiggles, the looseness, the lack of power and grab. I have to keep telling myself it will come back. It takes patience and regularity.
 It also means staying focused in the water. Sometimes the mind will wander, and when it does sometimes I talk to myself. This isn't so bad on the bike, is slightly more troublesome on a run, and can be quite an issue on a swim. I'm not really sure what I was talking about, sometimes my Ego thinks it will be invited to an active.com panel at some conference (neither of these things exist as far as I know), and I will be able to talk and talk and talk to a rapt audience. My Ego is that kind of guy. My Ego is used to being a teacher. I make no excuses. I started a blog for no one but myself, so imagining myself talking to an imaginary audience is not really that big of a leap. I'm also giving a talk at a national teachers conference in Vegas this summer so I'm thinking a lot about talking in front of groups. Anyway, what were we talking about?
Oh yeah, Manti Te'o is a big fat liar liar pants on fire. If you believe his story that he was totally fooled for four years then you believe he is the dumbest person on the planet. Naive doesn't even begin to cover it. He was in on it, he was in on it the whole time. Otherwise he would have come angrily clean the moment he found out he'd been duped. Wouldn't you have been so very pissed? What, we are supposed to believe that the people tricking him were so involved that they stayed on the phone with Te'o for hours at a time listening to each other breathe? We are supposed to believe he never once asked to Skype with his girlfriend? That he didn't go to her funeral because she said she wanted him to play football instead? That he never ever tried to visit her when he came to Hawaii, a state so small there is a race that started by three guys riding their bikes around it? He's been in on it the whole time. He continued to lie after he claims he found out it was a hoax. I don't know why he lied, but he is so full of it. I don't even know why it's important, other that FOOTBALL PLAYER FAKE DEAD GIRLFRIEND HOAX is the best combination of English words I've ever seen on a newspaper.

That Wasn't So Bad

Ride
time- 1:55
distance- 25.8mi

I haven't been out on the bike since Dirtbag Fetus became Dirtbag Baby. It feels like a much bigger time commitment than going for a run or a swim and I haven't wanted to be away for that long. But The Grey knows I'm turning into a lazy couch-dweller and sent me a text Sunday night telling me he was kidnapping me for a bike ride Monday, it being a day off and all. I asked Dirtbag Baby what he thought and he agreed that I was getting depressing. I warned the Grey that I was out of shape and lame and he promised a short ride. It helped that he'd paced someone for a 20 mile loop on the HURT 100 the day before. Well, helped me.
We got out and went down Pineapple and back. Since I moved that added a couple of miles to that particular route and it was great to get out. It was freaking cold (for Hawaii) that early in the morning and I thought I was totally over the head cold I'd been dealing with since Wednesday. Turns out not so much as there was a ton of stuff in my forehead that felt like it was freezing as the wind whistled by while we shot down the hill. Yeah, I know the temperature was probably more like 65* and anyone who reads this who doesn't live in Hawaii thinks I'm being a big giant wussy wuss in my tight pants and arm sleeves and to those people I say...nyah nyah nyahnyah nyaaaaah I think it's cold when it's 65*, you have to ride when it's 10*! (By the way, my stats claim I have three readers in Ukraine, and five in Malaysia. And 91 in Russia! So hello to all the computers that for some reason bounce their signal off my blog for probably some illicit reason or possible legit readers in other countries! Seriously, if you aren't in the US and you're reading this drop a comment in the box. That would be cool.)
I figured Pineapple would suck seeing as I have no bike fitness right now, but it really wasn't that bad. I wasn't racing up the hill, I was probably riding just as fast as I could have up the hill, but it didn't suck as bad as I thought. Having ridden Pineapple so many times at this point probably helps. I know the hill and where I am on it and mentally that is a huge booster. The Grey being there pushing and talking helps too.
I'm slowly getting back into a semi-regular fitness routine and that's good. I need it. Baby needs to be around it. I will figure this fit dad thing out.

Baby push-ups. Come on, buddy, ten more, let's go!

Almost Back to a Groove

Swim
1 x 200- Warm-up
5 x 200
5 x 100- 1, 2, 3, Swim

The swim this week (god, that sentence is depressing) was ok. It wasn't fast and it wasn't challenging, I didn't do much pushing, but it got did. Right now that is important. I'm still in the midst of finding the balance of working out and coming home after work to be dad. Dad is, obviously, more important. But fitness keeps me sane. Even after one mediocre morning swim I feel better.
And then the next day I get sick. Started feeling it Wednesday evening and by Thursday I was in it with stuffy nose, head cold, sore throat, tight neck muscles (whenever my traps get sore I know I'm getting sick, for some reason I carry it there). The whole shebang. Which kind of killed follow-up workout plans for the next few days. Better to be healthy, especially now since Sick Dad doesn't get to snuggle with Baby Dirtbag nearly enough. Can't be getting the tiny human sick.
Also, I did the Magic Island Biathlon last weekend. I need to write a race report, probably will in the next few days. Don't let me forget.

I haz the dying

How Workouts Go Sometimes Now

Yesterday I woke up a little early, told Super Awesome Wife that I needed to get a swim in, and grabbed a light breakfast so I'd have some energy in the water. Baby was still asleep and she was too for the most part. I told her that I'd stick around if she needed me to but no, it's ok. Then Roland woke up to eat. After he ate he decided that not only was he not hungry anymore, it was also time for The Fussy Baby Show. Super Awesome Wife hadn't gotten a ton of sleep the night before and was pretty knocked out. So instead of riding up to the gym and getting my swim on and stayed home hanging out with baby in my swim gear so that mom could get some rest and I could get some baby time.
No complaints, I signed up for this and holding a sleeping child is pretty awesome. Screaming child not so much but he settled down pretty fast.
That's been the case a lot this week. I mean to workout but then something child-related comes up. I'm still figuring out the balance. I'm also now at the bottom of Bad Habit Valley officially, and I need to climb out. Bad Habit Valley is where you realize just how much easier it is to sit on your ass eating tortilla chips and watching tv than it is getting out of the house for a workout. From the bottom of Bad Habit Valley a thirty minute run suddenly seems like a HUGE time commitment. Not working out is such an easy thing to slip into, and I'm so there. It's strange. One part of my brain is going "RUN! SWIM! RIDE! YOU WUSS!" and another is very, "...meh."
And sometimes, like yesterday, the workout side wins and loses anyway.
The biathlon I have coming up should be an interesting journey in lack of fitness, pain, and Adjusted Dad Expectations.

In Which I Am An Idiot

Run
distance- approx. 2.3mi
time- ?

Allow me to set the stage, my friends. First, you need to loosen your neck muscles. I don't want you to strain yourselves when you start shaking your head at me. Next warm-up your jaw. You may pull something as it drops to your chest.
I live just under a mile from the gym up a very steep hill. While my knee is giving me trouble I don't run up the hill. Instead I hop on my mountain bike and ride up the hill, then lock the bike at the gym and run from there, where it is more level and knee-friendly. I have the smallest version of my stuff in a little arm pouch, my Garmin on my wrist, and the bike lock wrapped around the cross bar of the bike.

When I get to the gym (your neck and jaw should be ready now), I turn on my Garmin and take it off. I take it off because it finds the satellite signal better when it isn't moving. So I take it off and I put it right behind my foot. Right behind me. Then I go about the business of locking up my bike. So I put my three hundred dollar watch on the ground and turn my back on it.
Guess what happened yesterday. Betcha can. Betcha can't believe it.
Turned around after locking the bike, went to pick up my watch. No watch. Gone. Empty sidewalk. Nothing there. I do the thing we all would do. Grab my wrist. Did I put it back on? No. My shorts have no pockets but I check them anyway. I look all over. There are some people walking by, but no one is acting like they just pulled off a sucker theft. I search the surrounding sidewalk in case the watch somehow moved itself. I run into the gym and ask if anyone turned in a watch they found on the sidewalk (hey, it could happen). No. Course not. It couldn't happen.
Fuck.
The surprising thing is I didn't tweak out. I thought I was going to, but there was no rush of anger. Just disappointment and frustration. This was totally my fault. I was stupid to put it on the ground and then turn away. Is it amazingly bold of someone to steal something from right behind me? Yeah. But I might as well have hung a sign on my back that read SUCKER.
I still went for my run. What else could I do at that point? And it was a good run. No pain. Not fast but not painful, so that counts. I muttered to myself for most of it.
Went home and emailed Garmin, asking if they can track it using the GPS. They say it isn't set up for that but to not take the registration off my Garmin profile so no one else can register it. So now I'm keeping an eye on craigslist hoping the thief will try to fence it. But that's my only option.
I'll buy myself another one. My awesome sponsor who I forgot to thank after the Christmas Biathlon (my bad, but there was a lot going on) has been helping me out and I think I have enough saved up to cover most if not all of a replacement. Big thanks again to Background Profiles. Please check them out.
Trying not to be too hard on myself, but this was a big Doi! common sense vacuum moment as far as I'm concerned. Also trying not to be too Fuck Everyone Ever because that doesn't help either and I don't need that negativity around Roland.
In fact, let's close with a Christmasy picture of him so we don't end on a downer.

Happy holidays from Dirtbag Fitness.

Reasons Aren't Excuses

Run
2.3mi
23 minutes

I did not run far today, and I did not do it fast. I was sucking wind by the halfway point and my inner knee started to give me trouble around then too. There's a slight climb early in the course that destroyed my pace. My form felt wonky.
And I should not be frustrated by any of that.
The last time I ran was 19 days ago, during the Christmas Biathlon. That day my son was born. I've worked out maybe twice since. I've been busy doing other things like learning about the new human in my house. So there has been quite a lot of sitting on my ass. There has been too much snacking.
Of course my run sucked. Garbage in, garbage out.
I'm in the unique, for me, position of trying not to be frustrated and put off by bad performance and by a feeling of high effort/poor result. Getting back into the groove after time off is always hard and I haven't seriously workout out since the Honu. Of course, the Honu seriously fucked up what my internal version of "serious workouts" are, so maybe that's not true. Either way, I don't feel fit right now, and I know it is going to take a lot of work to get back to what I consider baseline fitness. I think I might register for the next two events in the Biathlon Series. There's one in two weeks and one at the start of February. Maybe having those, plus the Warrior Dash, will help me get up and get moving.
But right now I'm interested in staying positive and trying to get back into a regular workout schedule. The hardest part of working out is putting on your shoes. I see the mountain. I've been up it before. I just need to put on my shoes.