I have passed my first month of career in sports fields. I look back at my progress and realize that I have done something amazing that started with a promise I made to myself to get going immediately after car racing. The promise was easy, everyone makes promises to themselves and breaks them all the time. The difference here was that I mustered enough courage, strength to take the first step and repeat until I was done.
I prepared by walking the dog a mile every day for a couple of weeks before my first run, but the result is a success because of the planned walk.
The last day of my first month I was very nervous about my race, I was looking at the long term goal which was to complete 6 miles. Just like the first day, I decided that I would take the first step and move. My pace was a little different today because I had been tracking my workouts and before I started I only had 600 more yards to go than my last run to reach my goal.
One observation I made during my career was my lack of focus on utility poles. Normally my goal is to run past each utility pole, this time my focus was on the end of each field length 300+ yards away.
This race was serious, so when the tunes started playing in my head for the first mile, I turned them off because it was too early for that. I never dreamed of this race, as some dog owners decided to let their dogs run free to run through the fields. I run with my dog on a leash, but the loose dogs created distractions that kept me from reaching my dream state (the zone). We kept running no matter what was happening around us.
I had read an article about eating while running. The fuel you put into your body must be of the highest quality, which means you can’t just eat whatever you want. The biggest danger to your plan is people telling you you can eat crap because you just ran a couple of miles. A sit-down meal from the trash can more than undo the calories burned running in a week. A week may sound like an exaggeration, but feelings of hunger will lead to more consumption later in the day or the next day.
I never thought I would be a salad eater, but I found a way to enjoy a great salad by adding beef to my salads. A few days ago I was wandering the isles of a large Asian grocery store. I noticed very thinly sliced meat packages. The round beef eye slices were thicker than lunch meat but thinner than I could cut through beef. I had to stop and stare at it for a while as my mind figured out different ways to eat thinly sliced beef.
You could eat this stir-fry, put it on a sandwich, add it to an omelet, or put it in a salad. When my mind said we could poach it, chill it, slice it thin, and throw it in a salad, I grabbed a packet. Thinly sliced beef does two important things for me: first, it allows me to eat my salad much slower, which helps prevent overeating; Second, it gives the salad some staying power so I don’t feel hungry right after eating my salad.