March 28, 2024

Life and Workouts

This is a constant theme for my friend Cathy and me:  life getting in the way of workouts.

My daughter had her wisdom teeth out yesterday. I had hoped that she would feel well enough that I could sneak out to run a powerline loop with my friend Carrie and her group. But my girl didn’t feel up to me not being around, so I didn’t go.

I had tentatively scheduled a bike ride for this morning with a friend who was going to introduce me to Bee Caves,  but my girl hadn’t woken up yet and I didn’t want to leave without knowing how she felt, whether she had issues with her pain, if she understood how to take her medicines, etc. So no ride.

Hubby gets back in town tonight, so I am very hopeful that I will be able to get out to run Ken’s Loop with a friend this evening. We’ll see. Right now, the only given is walking the dog (I may see if he’s up to a run today; even though he’s a young dog, he’s not really a runner. He’s a major sprinter. What he likes is to run at TOP SPEED for about 30 seconds, then amble around, and then sprint some more. The slow-for-him and steady running that I do is just not his cup of tea. Now, we work well together on a trail; he zooms ahead, waits for me, zooms again. But there are very few places where I feel comfortable with him off lead like that…and after what happened to Rick, I’m gun shy about being off by myself, deep on a trail).

Back to life intruding:  I wouldn’t do anything differently…and it’s my choice to structure my day the way I do. It’s just that every now and then I wish others’ needs could not play such a large part in what I can and can’t do. In four years, I’ll have no kids at home and so my time will be my own again. It’s just it’s been 19 years since I came first. Sometimes people don’t understand what a luxury it is to just pick up and say, “I’m going to do this” and just do it.

Am I whining? God, I hope not — I hate a whiner.

BTW, I saw my beloved coach Andreas on the trail Monday. He always said, “A workout missed is a workout missed.” You’re right Andreas, and I’ll shut up about what I can’t do and just focus on what I can.

Later — So I took Boo for his walk and decided that he would just have to do a little running in there. We walked for about 1-1.5 miles and then we jogged (and I purposefully use the word “jog” because it was nowhere near a run for old, slow me) for 20 minutes. 

You’d have thought I was setting world record pace by his reaction:  lag behind, amble along, resist picking up the pace even on a DOWNHILL. We certainly didn’t cover 2 miles in that time. Then we finished our walk back home with another mile. He’s used to long walks and quite a few miles, so it’s not the distance. I think I’m going to do that little run in the middle of our walks from now on and gradually get him comfortable. Plus it will give me plenty of time in my easy heart rate zone!!
 

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Leah Nyfeler

I'm a writer, content marketer, and adventurer who is always looking for the another story, exciting adventure, new trail, and good meal/book/movie. I love sharing things I'm curious about, what I know, and how I've come to learn it. Read my blog, "Enjoying the Journey: Observations on the Fit Life" (leahruns100.com) and find my articles in a variety of print and online magazines.

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0 thoughts on “Life and Workouts

  1. Hi Leah!

    I wish I could say that it gets better as you gear up for IM training, but it definitely requires some discipline to get all of the workouts in. Something Jack taught me a while back is the 20 minute rule: if life conspires in such a way that getting in a workout would be infeasible, just do something for 20 minutes. A quick swim or run or spin on the trainer. It\’s more a mental than physical exercise, as it relieves you of the guilt of missing a workout. Of course, it takes discipline to only use this rule when absolutely necessary. =)

    Owning greyhounds, I can completely sympathize with your sprint/walk problems. Ours would rather run at high speed or lay in bed, at around a 1:100 ratio.

    1. Ha! Our dogs are twins.

      I like your advice regarding the 20 minute rule. I had to punt again today, as coj, piccola, and I had a swim at Barton Springs followed by a long bike ride all planned for the early AM but this darn RAIN ruined everything. So I wound up at the gym spinning and swimming laps. It was an okay substitute. I feel good for doing something, and I can still run this evening if I feel like it.

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