Ah, San Francisco! So pretty. And I live with my best friend:
Oh, Stella!
I run a fitness business with my brother.
And yet I still struggle with my own fitness. 4 years ago, I didn't give much thought to working out. I started working for my brother and voila! I was addicted. 2 years ago this month I was running 4 times each week, doing all sorts of other workouts and prepping for the Kaiser Half-Marathon (a beautiful San Francisco race in February) without as much as a second thought. I was in great shape. I ran a timed 1.5 mile at 11:22 on November 26, 2007 (per my old blog archives!). And if memory serves, my time at the mile marker was 7:35.
And I was happy. I rode my bike all over the city in my free time, spent lots of time going out to eat with my friends and I wrote. Basically I was doing all the things that I love most in life. Sometimes in life it's hard to pinpoint when exactly things changed, but right after Stella entered my life in March 2008, I was running and ended up with this:
And yes, that IS a running injury! I'd always thought I'd end up with a knee injury, not a cast on my hand! But this is what happens when you trail run and trip on tree root that you just didn't see. And fall very hard. And break and dislocate your ring finger. And dislocate a few extra fingers for good measure. Eick!
Fast forward to today, experience a bad relationship, work stress, a run of general bad luck and you'll see that I'm 20 pounds heavier. Oh noes! It's interesting how this happens. Because I'll be honest, I haven't been just sitting on the couch these past months. I've been working out. But it's been less. Mostly I'm pretty sure the weight is due to the fact that I haven't watched what I eat. I'll gladly topple a bottle of wine or 4 beers out with friends. I've been eating pizza and spent the summer in Europe eating croissants. It's been great in some ways, but honestly it's getting old. I'm much happier when I'm active and spending time in my kitchen creating healthy eats.
But I'm back! Oh baby I'm back and I'm here to talk about it. I recently started running again on a regular basis. It feels great! It's hard to describe but there is some sort of inner joy that comes from working out and I wasn't feeling it in the last year. Every time I worked out, it was a complete chore. But that changed. It was a distinct moment about 2 weeks ago while I was running up Fell Street in SF and something just boiled up in me and I felt SO GOOD. Can't describe it.
But I'll admit that my joints have noticed the extra weight. And I've been taking it much easier on the boozey and the foodsy. I even registered for the Kaiser Half-Marathon that is on February 7th. I'm excited to do this race because it's meaningful for me. It's the only race I've ever ran, it's in my favorite place in the whole world (Golden Gate Park in San Francisco!) and it will be a great sense of accomplishment for me to finish it. Probably even more meaningful the 2nd time around since it is going to take a lot of work for me to get back to where I was.
But I'll admit that my joints have noticed the extra weight. And I've been taking it much easier on the boozey and the foodsy. I even registered for the Kaiser Half-Marathon that is on February 7th. I'm excited to do this race because it's meaningful for me. It's the only race I've ever ran, it's in my favorite place in the whole world (Golden Gate Park in San Francisco!) and it will be a great sense of accomplishment for me to finish it. Probably even more meaningful the 2nd time around since it is going to take a lot of work for me to get back to where I was.
So I'll be here, detailing my progress and hopefully using this blog to help motivate me when the last thing I want to do is run! And on that note, I'm due for a trip to the gym!
See you outside!
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