Being 60 might not be that bad

I have had about 3 weeks to digest the fact that I am 60 years old. It might not be that bad! I am more active that I have been in a long time. I have almost 6 weeks where I have consistently ran 30 miles a week. During the last 17 years I have alway ran. Most of my running was training for a event. I guess over the years I ran so many 5k's, 10k's, halves, marathons, 50k's and 50 milers that my running got stale. I ran a lot, but I don't think I ran for fitness. I started running at 175 pounds. In 1992 I started a new career which was very stressful. During this time I ran for stress relief. Before starting this job I never had to watch what I ate. The next time I got on the scale I weighed 190 lbs. I remember running with my friends and complaning about how hard running had become. Marty said: I can't imagine running with a 30 lb. pack on my back. That how much extra weight I was packing. This was the start on my yo-yo dieting. I will most likely write more on this later since I did get up to 251 pounds. My point here is now I am running for health and not to get into shape for a race. The last couple of months have been fun, even though I have did a race in March, April, May and June. Running more relaxed and working on my health instead of burning myself out trying to get into race ready shape is more fun. A benefit for this is the weight is slowly coming off....60 might not be that bad!

Reflections of the past

My youngest son is in the Air Force, TDY, in Afganistan. Away for 3 to 4 months from his family which are in Okinawa. Once I spent almost a year away from my family and it was hard. This was another Me, not the one I am now. I am a recovering alcholic so the more I missed my family back then the more I would drink. It always was the answer to any hardship that would fall on me. My son is handling it different that I did. He runs to make the time go by faster. This also makes him healthier when he returns home to his family. My outlet was to drink myself into a stupper each day and his is to run so much that he just falls asleep until his next shift. I was thinging of how proud I am of him, the way he has chose to pass the idle time during his TDY. He could have easily taken up the bad habits of his father but instead chose another way. With the example that I was for my children they could have turned out so much different than they have. My children turned out to be my heros. Each one could have went down a different pathway, especially with the example that I was for them. They have all turned out rather well.

Weekends

While I am at work Monday thru Thursday I follow a structured eating plan. On those day when I get home I eat fairly good. Then comes the weekend and everything I have lost on those 4 days goes away in 3. I had the will power to run 32.22 miles which took 6 hr. 07 min. and burned 5731 calories. That is 5 very good workouts and a couple days of rest. Thursday I was down to 226 lbs. and Monday I was back to 229. Another thing I am starting to realize is my allergies are not as bad during the week as on the weekends. Might be that during the week I do all the right things to keep me healthy, not so during the weekend. I do mow the lawn and grass pollen is high now but mowing the lawn on Saturday shouldn't still be bothering me Monday morning. Just writing what I am thinking, isn't that what this is for---

"Sleep"

I try and stay conscious in all things concerning my health. Every morning when in wake up I take my blood pressure and pulse, then weigh myself. My blood pressure has been border line high the last while, (130's/90's). When I lose weight and eat right my blood pressure goes down, imagine that. Since the Ogden Marathon on May 16th it has been a little high with an elevated pulse,(70s instead of the low 60s). I usually get between 6.5 to 7.5 hours sleep on a work night. Last night I got 8.5 hours sleep in and I felt wonderful this morning. My blood pressure was down to 117/79 and my pulse was 64, close to normal. I am going to do an experment and see how these reading go up or down with the amount of sleep that I get. My workout for Thursday: ran 6.18 miles in 70 minutes and burned 1099 calories. Now here is my problem. I ate good at work all day long. We went to an early movie this evening and I eat a medium popcorn, a large good n plenty, and part of a box of hot tomales. That is my dinner for the evening. Pretty much empty calories, nothing to rebuild my body. No vits., no minerals, no protein, just junk. I don't like soda so I only drank water. Need to try harder. till next time

When I workout and eat right I sure feel better about myself. I know this to be true from past experience. I know how I feel when I let myself down and eat the wrong foods. When I miss several workouts in a row. When I stay on track even turning 60 in 6 days don't seem so bad. I ran 6.15 miles which took me 70 minutes and burned 1110 calories. These runs are still hard because I am so over weight. I know if I keep it up the weight will come off and the running will become easier. Along with that I will feel better about myself. I ate good yesterday and the scale proved it. This morning I weighed 226 lbs. I have the Utah Valley Marathon on June 13th and would like to down to 220 lbs. 60 might not be to bad if I keep having days like yesterday.

Staying consistent

I have started this blog to help me cope with turning 60 years old. I have never had a problem with aging until now. Why 60? That was what I always considered being old. You are close to retirement and it seems that really big changes happen in the 60's. Some I am looking forward to, some not. I will use this space to write how I am dealing with life in the 60's. I will also use this space to write my daily exercises. I will write whether I have keep my eating under control or not. Today is June 1st, 2009 and I ran for 70 minutes covering 6.12 miles and burned 1100 calories. My weight today was 227 lbs. I am 5' 10" tall. So you can see that I need to lose a few pounds. I have ran 27 marathons since 1994, with many 5k's, 10k's, half marathons, several 50k's and two 50 mile mountain runs. As you can see I am an active man with an eating problem. I will use this site to try and put some sence to the bad habits I have fallen into over a lifetime. This is a start, until next time