Two-week hiatus

Perched on a parking meter.

A friend sent me this quote yesterday:

Life is truly sweeter for those who truly live it. The world belongs, and will always belong, to the people who participate. Those who stand on the outside, who never risk, who never fail, cannot now, or will they ever, understand the beauty of each breath of life. So don't feel sorry for those who fail, feel sorry for the majority that never participate. They'll just never understand, let alone feel, all that life can and should be.

How appropriate. It's been an interesting two weeks for me. My parents were here visiting from California and I am astounded at how different I am from my Mother. To sum it up, our lifestyles are not compatible. She is right now as overweight as she ever was, and worse I was when I weighed 400 lbs. and at 62 years old, she just seems unwilling to change her lifestyle for the better. I have tried to be an example for her - and have encouraged her, both gently and forcefully, to adopt a healthier lifestyle by exercising and avoiding certain foods that she seems to be addicted to, but her response is usually downright hostile, and followed by behind-my-back justifications of herself by bringing up my own faults (usually from more than ten years ago, when I weighed 400 lbs.)

I wouldn't even bring it up if I didn't care. Last night I told my wife that I should have my head examined for not giving up hope - like my father seems to have done - and draining myself emotionally whenever she disappoints. To make matters worse, she criticizes me for some of the stuff I do, and has told my wife that she hopes my son, her grandson, doesn't adopt a few of the things I'm into - Rock climbing, for example.

Yeah.

Anyway, I ran yesterday. Taking the advice of an MD who advised me to rest until I completely recovered, it was my first run since my marathon two weeks ago. It was rough. My heart rate has seemed unusually high lately, even at rest - and I'm not sure why. It has been high ever since I ran that marathon with the headcold. The cold has finally succumbed to the power of my awesome immune system, yet my heart rate is still high - by about 15 beats/minute. Not sure what's going on there, but if it's still like that in a week, I may go see a doctor.

Anyway, I went out at a decent pace (for me) - 10:20 miles, and ran just over 2½ miles. I wanted to run as long as an hour, but I cut it to 30 minutes because of the high heart rate and (ahem) gastrointestinal difficulties. I felt very good immediately after the run, but the run itself was unusually uncomfortable. Since it was my first run in two weeks, I was at least hoping to feel rested, but alas, the immediate 170 heart rate made sure that didn't happen. By the end of the run, it was pushing 190 according to the monitor, and while I was definitely working hard, I didn't feel like I was working *that* hard.

It definitely didn't help that my nutrition has been utter crap for two weeks. Between that and the lack of exercise, I've gained at least 5 lbs. I'm not concerned - I'll lose it quickly - and hopefully get back on the fast track. I'd love to be 250 by the start of ski season.

I will probably take today off, just because of my schedule, but tomorrow I intend to run, maybe in the gunks on the way home from work.