A Quick 180

Well I went to lift today and was overwhelmed with a feeling of guilt for not completing my half marathon goal. It really bothered me a lot that I was quitting and I didn't like feeling like that.

So when I got back to my desk I checked the local half marathon prices and it's only $60 on race day which is a lot better than I thought, so I wouldn't be wasting as much money to register twice as I thought. The down side is that I only have 3 weeks to prepare after being off of my training program for three weeks due to a sore knee, sinus infection, and thrown out back respectively.

I probably won't be able to run the race as fast as I wanted to, but at least I will finish what I started. Despite what I said below, I need to do this.

Fitness Update

Sorry I haven't had many informative posts lately. (Assuming anyone is still reading my blog at this point to notice my apology), but I have tried to fit tidbits of real life into my quick posts lately.

Things have been very busy and blogging has been on the back burner.

I'm a little sad and a little happy at the same time today. My goal to run the half marathon is over. Our lodging fell through and our friends that planned to show us around the city can't go. I hate to give up on it but after three weeks of fighting injuries instead of running and wishing I was lifting instead of running, I've decided to call it quits. On one hand I hate not completing a goal I set for myself, but it's the right decision. I plan to start back lifting again today, and doing the HIIT that I have been reading about for a while.

I plan to do the workouts in The New Rules of Lifting, on M-W-F, and do the HIIT training on tuesdays and thursdays. At this point I don't have clear cut goal which is bad. I need to pack on muscle so that the next time I try to cut, I actually have something to cut. I have been so obsessed with cutting my fat that I haven't spent enough time building muscle. I'm going to go through a few cycles of this training plan and see where I'm at after that. If I've built a bunch of muscle and feel ready for a cutting cycle then fine, but I really want to see some REAL gains in strength and size before I get to that point again. The HIIT training will help keep my metabolism up and hopefully keep me from adding too much fat. Perhaps I have finally found the way to build muscle and cut fat at the same time? We'll see...

HIIT = High Impact Interval Training by the way. It will consist of 15-20 second sprints followed by 1 minute walk/jogs. Supposedly this is by far the most effective way to burn fat and keep my metabolism up. My hope is that this will counteract the extra eating I will be doing but not keep me from building muscle.

Eating-wise I plan to eat a maintenance calorie level for 185 pounds. My hope is that by staying at that level and focusing on my protein intake, I may lose a little fat but still make gains. I may need to eat more than that but I'm not sure. I don't want to make the mistake of not eating enough but I also don't want to eat so much that I'm putting on as much fat as muscle.

So we'll see how it goes. Hopefully I'm on the right track, and I can stick to it pretty well.

Confusion

So what is the difference between life insurance and Funeral Insurance? I really have no idea. I read something that mentioned it and I realized that I have no idea what the difference is. If you have life insurance do you also need funeral insurance? I always thought that life insurance covered all that stuff too. Maybe it's just if your life insurance is bad, but I would think that if you couldn't qualify for good life insurance then how would you get good funeral insurance? Clearly I have no idea about this stuff. I suppose it doesn't really matter, I don't need to understand everything.

Extra Reading

I'm working on trying to read through the Bible right now. I've been working on it for longer than the standard 1 year but nevertheless I intend to do it. I guess I'm lucky that I'm not Catholic because the catholic bible has a few extra books that we don't have. Right now I'm in Psalms which puts me about half way. There are plenty of books in the latter half of the Old Testament that I'm not sure I have ever read so I think that this will do me some good. Obviously reading my Bible regularly will also be a big help to my walk with God, which is ultimately the point.

Next For Me

I'm at a crossroads in my workout plan right now. I don't know which way to go. I've done the diet trial, the heavy lifting, the circuit training, and the distance running and I need to make a decision.

I have been training all spring to run a half marathon and now most of the people that I was planning to go with, aren't going so I'm having trouble deciding if I should still do it or not. A big part of me just wants to scrap it and go back to lifting, whereas a smaller part hates to give up on something that I had set as a goal.

I just have a hard time continuing to train for something that I'm going to have to do without the fanfare and fun that I was expecting when we were all going as a group. Suddenly it feels like a chore, and I don't like doing chores. I've given myself until Monday to decide what I'm going to do so I will have to do some serious thinking this weekend.

Disney

Our kids are getting to the age that it won't be too long before we are planning a trip to Florida to go to the big money pit that is Disney. The girls would love it beyond words as they are glued to the tv anytime we put in a disney movie these days. Orlando Rental here we come! I only hope that we can find a package that will keep us out of the poor house. At the same time I really would love to do that for them, because I'm sure it would be an experience they wouldn't forget.

Conundrum

So here's the thing. If everything works out and we get this house that we want, what do we do with all the furniture we have that doesn't match the new house. Things like sectional sofas, end tables and lamps don't always "go" with a new space. They might look right and they might not and buying all new furniture is not really an option for us. I guess in all reality, it will be a good problem to have if things work out and we get our house sold. I drove by today and the house we want is still up for sale, so keep us in your prayers, and hopefully it will all work out.

Slow

Today has been ridiculously busy, and my computer has not been totally cooperative. At one point it just about died trying to open a directory. I don't think I need a computer memory upgrade, but there has got to be some sort of problem. I need serious computing horse power to do my job, and when it goes away I notice in a hurry, and I'm not too happy about it. This has been a very busy week already and I don't see it getting better soon. Now that we are trying to get our house back on the market, I can't see myself doing too much in the way of relaxation for quite some time. Such is life I guess..

Morale Is Up

We stopped and looked at a house yesterday that we liked. We had seen it before but they were having an open house so we went in. To say this house would be perfect for us would be the understatement of the century. It had almost everything we care about and then some. There would be some logistical issues such as living room arrangements and we'd have to get some new kids bedroom furniture, but who cares. It had 4 bedrooms, a fireplace and you can quite literally see our church from the back door. Plus it's a 10 minute walk from my parents house. 10 minute WALK! Now if we could just get our house sold...