Blog Revival

It has been over seven months since my last blog post. In that time, there have been some changes in my life. In summary, I've changed jobs (same company; new plant and new role) and I have given up running for the most part. I still run occasionally, but it's no longer the cornerstone of my exercise program that it once was.

First, the new job. I don't like to give too many personal details on my blog, but the critical information is that I've moved back into Quality Assurance from Operations. This is a good thing as I've always felt more at home in the QA role. It just fits my personality and approach better. I now have three people who report in to me as opposed to 22 in my last job. This is a huge win for me; especially during mid-year and end of year review time (22 reviews = an awful lot of work). The new job really wasn't a promotion per se as I actually moved from the Ops organization into Quality, but the compensation is better and there is a lot more opportunity for advancement. The plant where I previously worked had about 250 employees. My new plant has about 1500! The plant houses our corporate headquarters and there are whole departments in the building that didn't even exist at my old facility.

Now, on to the exercise portion. For the longest time, I kept trying to convince myself that I needed to get back to training for and running marathons. It got to the point where I was forcing myself to do something that I didn't really want to do. As a result, running became a real chore and something to be dreaded. I've come to realize that I just don't have a desire to run marathons right now. Will I ever run another? Who knows? Right now, I have no interest in doing any more, but someday that could change.

I finally had the epiphany that I don't need to be a marathon runner to be in good shape. There were times in my life prior to my marathoning days that my overall fitness and conditioning level was better than during the marathon era. I have completed eight marathons and each time I greatly enjoyed the experience of training and racing, but that chapter of my life has passed. I have nothing to prove. Now it's time for me to move on to new and different things. Being fit and strong is important to me, but I don't need to run 30+ miles a week to meet that goal. It's how I feel and look that is most important to me. As Kevin Spacey said in American Beauty, "I wanna look good naked."

We have a really nice fitness center at our facility that I've been using three to four times a week. I lift weights, walk on the treadmill, run on the track occasionally, hit the heavy bag, and ride the recumbent bike. After I quit marathon training (and essentially running) at the end of August, I gained about 15 pounds. Right around Christmas, I decided that I'd had enough and started eating better and working out. As of right now, I've only actually lost about eight pounds, but I feel much better. I know that I have gained some muscle from working out because I can see it in my performance and in the mirror. I still need to lose about ten more pounds, but I'm more concerned about how I feel and look. I'm not hung up about numbers on a scale. Back in December, there actually came a point where bending over to tie my shoes was uncomfortable because my gut got in the way. That is no longer an issue. I've been working my abs hard three days a week and have lost a considerable amount of fat. I'm doing a variety of activities now and plan to add more including some running in the near future. The key is that I'm enjoying working out again and not dreading every workout.

That is all I will write for now. I really want to try and start blogging more. It's a good release for me and a novel way for me to encapsulate my thoughts on life. More to come.