The Life I Wanted

When I was in university I had a friend who, at the time, I thought had the perfect life. B's life was like a beer commercial: tons of friends, party weekends at the cottage, and just a generally full life. I used to sit back in envy of her life and wish that I had a life like that.

I wasted most of my twenties sitting on the sidelines, feeling "less than" and eating away the pain of an unfulfilled existence.

Flash forward to yesterday... I was grabbing my keys as I was heading out the door to meet my friends for a run. All of a sudden the fullness of my life flashed in front of me. Earlier in the day I had been mildly stressing about all the social events I have to go to over the next two weekends. I also made a list of all the birthday cards I have to buy in the next couple of days for all the friends who are having birthdays within the next three to four weeks (about a dozen).

But in that moment as I rushed out the door it came to me: I have the life I always wanted. And it turned up without me even noticing it.

*******

Well, I think I might have found my exercise mojo. I don't know if I've found the whole thing, but I've found part of it. I had an outstanding run last night. I had planned to go out with a group that was doing a 5K tempo run, but when I got there I didn't really care for the route they were doing, so I opted for an easier run with a couple of other friends. Once we got out there, the pace was pretty quick for me, but it felt good. Just as I was about to turn off and head back to where we'd started (about 30-min in), my friend SM convinced me to go just a little further. Next thing I knew, I had run just over 8K in about 50 minutes. I felt sooooooo good when it was over (not that it was over, but just great for having done it).

I got off work a little early today, so I was able to pick my new bike up from the store. It still doesn't have any pedals (they're on order), so I can't ride it just yet. Man, it's just KILLING ME to see her sitting there in the hallway next to her sisters and I can't even put her on the trainer for a ride. This evening, I got on the old Queen Bee for what will likely be her farewell tour over the next week or so. I'm going to keep her, but I'll be spending more and more time on Vroom Hilda in the coming months.

Workout stats for November:

Running: 97 km
Cycling: 149.10 km
Swimming: 1.80 km
Yoga: 1:30
Floor Hockey: 4x55-minute games
Strength: 1hr, 50min
Elliptical Trainer: 9.09 km

Year-to-date stats:

Total run in 2005 (to date): 858.69km
Total cycled in 2005 (to date): 2,673.05km

Total weight lost since Jan: approx. 15 pounds