Erstwhile Okie on St. Mark's Place. "That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past."
34 days until 5k
The alarm this morning jolted me out of such a deep sleep I didn't know who or where I was for a couple of seconds.
Yesterday I brewed a pot of coffee with 1.5x the usual grounds, then I put it in the freezer until a lot of ice formed, and I drained the liquid into another container, presumably removing water and making something more concentrated. Did this two or three times and put what was left in a Gatorade bottle in the fridge. Took a shot of it when I got out of bed then went to the gym.
Was surprised to see a red-tailed hawk perched on a fence in Tompkins Square Park. I don't remember seeing one here before. He was tracking a rat blithely strolling in and out of a bush.
I hate the gym. I hate running. I hate treadmills. As always, from the second I started it I wanted to quit and knew I wouldn't be able to do as much as I wanted. Yesterday I managed 10m30s at 6.5mph and felt like I could have kept on a fair bit, so today I'd thought maybe I could manage fifteen minutes, but I knew pretty early on it wasn't going to happen. Felt worse than yesterday, but still powered through to have at least some improvement and stuck with it for 11 minutes. Exercise playlist went through Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk, Godzilla by Eminem, Go Speed Racer Go by Ali Dee and the Dekompressors.
Used some of the machines after that. Weighed in at 174.3 when I got home. Less than yesterday but negligibly. The amount that could be accounted for by a glass of water.
Yesterday I had a protein shake for breakfast, two pre-cooked chicken thighs with some frozen onion and pepper slivers for lunch, then there was a cookout at church after the evening service where I had two hamburgers, then a small sundae, which I would have foregone but the Grace Church Women's organization put together the sundae bar and twisted my arm.
Picked up baby carrots and pickles on the way home since my understanding is you can eat all you like of those and it has no meaningful impact. Planning to stick more or less to the same diet today.
35 days until 5K
To be clear, I recognize that 5Ks are not a big deal. My older son ran one without any prep and finished in 26 minutes, which is probably beyond my capabilities, even with over a month of preparation. But it's still more than I've tackled before, so we'll pretend it's a big(ish) deal.
That said, I've had periods in the past where I woke at 5:40am and went to the gym every weekday. It's been at least a year since I've gone with any consistency, and a couple months since I've been at all. My routine lately has been getting out of bed just in time to put a shirt on, get the kettle going for the French press, and slide into my morning stand up with nickel slots for eyes.
On the flip side, I'll be up until 1 or 2, in bed scrolling TikTok or Instagram with Roku TV playing in the background.
So last night, I set my alarm to 5:30 with very little conviction and prayed with similarly little conviction that God would give me the inclination to rise with it, if I felt like it. To my astonishment, when the alarm went off, I said "well this won't be any more appealing tomorrow" and I got up and dressed and walked to the gym, just a couple blocks away.
I didn't have high hopes. 10 minutes at 6mph has always been my absolute bear minimum baseline, which I should be able to do at any time (though I remember working up to it when I first started messing about with treadmills in 2021), so I set it to 6.5mph, and ran for 10m30s.
I could have pushed for more, but opted to not kill myself on the first day back. Hopped onto the chest press machine after, then came home. Had a pot of coffee, protein shake, vitamins, showered, shaved, dressed, Duolingo, Bible reading (Colossians), and now sitting down to work.
Like anything else, I hate getting up early, I love having gotten up early.
Weighed in at 174.6lbs this morning. Not terrible. Would love to be down to 160 by race day, but not focusing too much on weight loss. Tracking it anyway...
My friend texted me today asking if I wanted to run a 5k at the end of August. He's a fairly serious runner and I mentioned a couple of years ago that I'd been getting into a running routine (on a treadmill) and he said we ought to do a 5k. We never did and I've long since stopped running.
But I agreed and am glad to have a real, concrete goal. Gives me a reason to get back on a daily regimen which I always mean to do and never bother, and also something to use this space for. Small daily updates on my progress.
The 5k is in 36 days.