Toil and Trouble

Some of you may know that I have a defective stomach. I mean, that's not medically sound at all, and since I've never actually been to a doctor about the various stomach problems I have, I'm not entirely sure what goes on in there. All I know for sure is that it ain't right. I highly doubt that most people with functional GI systems stock up on nausea medication on a regular basis and tend to go through bottles of Pepto bismol at the rate most people go through a quart of milk!

I kid, I kid. Slightly. My stomach has problems. I need to see a doctor. It has prevented me from running for the past two days. I've had to limit my food intake to BRAT-diet type foods (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast, tea--innocuous, bland, low fiber foods). Anything else I eat makes me unhappy.

Life has been a bit out of order since I decided to not run the National marathon. I really appreciated reading your training ideas and tips. I think I am partially going through a period of adjustment to not having anything to train for, partially still adjusting to my work schedule, and partially just getting a bit depressed from the other partials in my life (see first and second items). The result is that last week I made it to the gym once, and the week before I don't think I made it at all. I've been once this week, and would really like to run tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday. I just don't feel like myself anymore these days. I feel so bad about how inconsistent I have been with everything, and feeling this bad just makes it harder for me to get back into a rhythm. I tend to end up thinking, "If I can't run 25-30 miles this week then I shouldn't bother running at all." Productive, right? Because that's when I end up letting the week go by without a single trip to the gym.

What I am going to try instead is to just get up and move for 20-30 minutes a day, whether it is going for a run, lifting weights, or just going for a walk. I just need some sort of movement to pull me out of this slump and get me moving again. My guess is that, most of the time, this 20-30 minutes will turn into 45-60. If it doesn't, though, that's alright.

Who knows? Maybe the stomach problems will go away when I start feeling better about other stuff. One can but hope.