Soulless & Feral

I’ve been admittedly slack on my fitness routine this past month or so… I’d love to attribute it to having too much to do, or being injured, or anything that does not involve me being a lazy bastard, but… I can’t. Because that’s what it -is-; I’ve been a lazy bastard. I mean, I -have- been busy, but no so much that I couldn’t have made the time to work in some runs and some weight training. So that’s that. I’ve been a lazy bastard. What’s more, my diet had gone to shit, so combining my lack of exercise with my lack of proper eating made me gain a wee bit of weight.

Repeat after me: UGH.

(more…)

Some quick, preliminary goals for my year long montage.

Montage of the Mind

I’m going to finish up as many credits toward a Bachelor’s degree as I can handle. Depending on my workload, I hope to get through at least the first year. I know, I know… a full credit load is a lot to shoot for. I won’t be disappointed if I can’t get to that point, but if I -can- get to that point, well… rock on. At this point, I have no idea what I’d want to study, though. Information Technology is the obvious (and thus boring) choice and Business Administration is general purpose and generally not interesting. I’d love to do something medical, but access to medical courses in Iraq may be somewhat limited. Failing all else, I will knock out the non-specific courses and work on the actual study focus ones later.

(more…)

After some thought and evaluation, I think I am going to ditch the Shamrock Half Marathon. Between injuries and interruptions, I am just not going to have enough time to run the race. That isn’t to say that I am giving up on the half marathon idea. I’m simply delaying it until later, when I feel I am ready to tackle a 12 mile run. I could probably push 7 miles if I tried right now, but I want to do well and I want to feel like I met my goal… neither of which I am going to be able to do by March 21st.

Considering my current motivation as far as distance running is concerned, this is probably a good thing. I am always, ALWAYS off peak in the winter. I can push through, but the combination of short-ass days and the cold (and delicious holiday food) make keeping in peak-for-me shape difficult as hell.  It’s a personal issue, and I’m getting better at managing it… but I still have not figured out that magical formula that will push me through the shit winter months without lagging.

So, to summarize: Shamrock Half Marathon <– Cancelled. 12 mile run <– Not cancelled, but delayed. I may shoot for the Rock and Roll Half. We shall see.

So… plan scrapped, moving on, working on training program to fit my current needs.

FIP Exam Tip: Applied FIP Principle in this case is honesty to one’s self and acceptance of personal responsibility. It is a minor personal failure to have to scrap the plan, but a bigger failure would be to continue on and give it a half-assed effort.

FIP Exam Tip 2: Recognizing one’s undesirable traits as undesirable is the first step to fixing them.  The second step is proactive action.

On the bright side, this means I can ditch the current training model and go with what I’ve been planning on doing after March 21st anyway! I’m going to go back to interval / speed training. I’m kinda… really… slow at the moment. I’d like to get back to running sub 8 minute miles, at the very least. I’m no speed demon, but I can be better than I am now.

Enough.

Let’s talk about school and certifications. I am (to reject humility and wallow in pride) fucking AWESOME when it comes to studying. I am about a week and some change ahead of schedule with my “12 in 12″ plan, with two of the planned 12 tests already passed and out of the way. I suspect I might actually be ready for the next one in three weeks, putting me WELL ahead of schedule.  This, of course, leads into my goal of being rich. While tech certs alone will not make me independently wealthy, they work to get me into a place where I have money to risk on further acceleration.

So far, I’ve done the 70-646 course (a harder course in the AD* of life) and Security+ (a test that proved that since I rejected the idea of taking it 3 years ago, I have become many times more awesome) with 70-640, 70-642, and 70-647 in my definite future.

Enough.

Work? Work is work. If you’ve talked to me before, you know you will get fuck-all in the way of complaints or compliments out of me about work… at least online.

More? More later. I have a lot to say, but it has to wait until I have less projects in the works.

So, I have a drinking problem.

No, I’m not addicted to booze. I’m just trying to lose weight and, well, the alcohol is interfering with that. See… when I drink, I get hungry. And, alcohol being what it is, my usual stalwart resistance against excessive snacking is shattered, thus causing me delicious, pretzel, hummus, salsa, tortilla chip indulgence. I then get knocked the fuck out in bed, thus processing those extra calories into fat.

So… welcome to weekday prohibition.

Pretty much, I am going to refrain from alcohol consumption on Sunday night through Friday afternoon, leaving me two nights to drink if I so choose. Of course, any drinking done on a Friday is going to be light due to running, so I’m really only leaving myself Saturday for any real indulgence.

After I drop… let’s say 10 pounds. After I drop 10 pounds, I’ll re-evaluate!