Continuing on from my last post I think I’ve gotten my head straight after some tough times. I’ve settled into a really good routine that I’m happy with. It involves running, martial arts, and body weight strength training. I just need to hold on to the focus, plan ahead, and don’t let disruptions derail my mind. These derailments are difficult and come from many places. I can’t plan ahead I just need to accept it and move on. Smile. Realize it’s not that big of a deal.

River Severn still flooding near Worcester 

My running fitness is rebounding it seems. After a fairly solid break one assumes you’ve lost a lot of fitness and gone backwards but in reality you come back sluggish and return most likely stronger. Currently on a rest week but will still try to get in a solid long run tomorrow, Monday, which is my normal routine. They aren’t hard, just long, so pertinent for a rest week depending on how I feel. 

Severn near Stourport. 

The flooding Severn can be annoying but I’m trying to embrace it this time around. Usually it forces me to change my routine running routes and I get frustrated. This time I literally ran with it. I avoid the flood normally but this ti e explored it. I saw the river and my usual routes in a different light. I was forced to take new paths and see new places. I was likely trespassing, hopping fences, getting wet feet, and running out and back as I ran into impassible routes. It was good. I think I get frustrated because I’m usually on a strict timeline to get home and routine routes give me a sense of comfort since I’m familiar with time frames and distance. The river is on it’s way down now though, so hopefully routine will return, it’s not good or bad, just normal, but I’m looking forward to the next mix up of routine.

Swollen River Severn looking towards Bewdley

My martial arts habit I committed to in November has solidly stuck. Despite a break while in Minnesota I’m back at it practicing every day. I’m enjoying it very much so and am slowly increasing that time as I can. It’s mainly technique work but I hope to add in more fitness focused fight work as well. 

Adding in a few days of focused strength work is the new addition of an old habit. I used to crank out body weight exercises at home but that got put to the back burner at some point. Well, I trying to get it back even if just a couple days per week. My favorite routine is called the “Holy Trinity.” 30 minutes, non stop of push ups, pull ups, dips. It’s solid, it hurts, and is extremely effective! My record is 140 pull ups, 140, dips, and I believe 260 push ups. Here’s how it goes. So when the clock starts I’ll do 5 push ups, 3 pull ups, 3 dips on the corner of the kitchen counter. Repeat until the clock hits 30. No rush just consistent one to the next. I’m currently far from my record and started last week with the “Half Trinity,” 15 minutes. I had DOMS for three days. Just what I needed. To start I’m hoping to do that twice a week and add in anything extra in between as I can. Sit-ups, leg raises, and other core work I can sneak in while the kids are reading before bed. If I have time while cooking some handstand work adds up quick. Grease the groove.

One major thing my life lacks is time with my wife. We have few if any options for child care. The only time we have together is the final hour before we go to bed. The time we are exhausted trying to keep our eyes open to watch and laugh together at a tv show. This time is slowly being taken by the kids are they grow older the push to “stay up late” and steal more of our time. It hurts our relationship, we both know it, it always has, but it seems that the other challenges in life, particularly those involving our kids take priority as does taking time for ourselves to just be left alone. We both have birthdays coming up and then Valentine’s Day which you’d think we could sort something out but we shall see. 

I got back on track I think. It’s amazing how running in particular helps with my mental health. Martial arts doesn’t fill that void and I don’t know why. I just need to take a deep breath sometimes and keep on truckin’. It’s tough though when the days are gray, dark, and rainy. Not too motivating really. 

I thought I was back at it, rebuilding the fitness I lost over December. Then life hits and I seemingly have zero time to train. One side of me says time to move on, stop running, just do martial arts. The other side says no, you can’t stop it’s who you are, it’s the last shred of who you are as a person that is left. Besides it’s my job, how can I do what I do and not run?

I have between 9pm and 530am to train outside of Sunday and Monday. I don’t know how I did it last year. UTMB was a huge event I suppose so the drive was high. Snowdonia’s course is on the same scale but the event itself not the same, however I could actually do well overall because of that aspect. 

Why do I care? No one else really gives a shit whether I run or not. No one is concerned whether it’s going well or not or even if I enjoy it. My kids have never even seen me race and I don’t know if it would even be inspirational to them. Maybe I’m holding on to some dream of being good at something but I’m too old now. Maybe this is a midlife crisis. I don’t make money so I’m not buying crazy ass houses, cars, and crap that justifies my success. 

Hopefully this is just a blip and I should go to bed, get some rest, and regroup my thinking tomorrow. There’s got to be a way around it.