Focus

    Yesterday was my typical, exciting Saturday night: Swim, legwork in the pool, followed by hard upper body strength training. Yes, I am a party animal. The result of this particular workout is, as you might expect, sore shoulders and chest. One of the best things I have found for this is my Tai Chi workout. It is a great whole body workout with fluid movement, controlled breathing, and lots of chest opening moves. So I started my day with an hour of Tai Chi with Scott Cole. If I had the time I would do Tai Chi every day. I have planted a special circle of grass in my backyard as an outdoor "Hall of Harmony" for summer use.
    I am determined to increase my flexibility and strength, and am taking steps to this end. So today started with Tai Chi and ended with an hour on the bike, and an hour of leg work: step up, calf raises, hip raise, side lunge, dead lift, squat, split squat, bridge, bridge march, high knees, side leg raise, kettle bell swing. Three sets each in super sets of three exercises (my typical pattern). I am really focused on hip and glute strength, balance and flexibility.
    I finally reassembled my treadmill. I tore it apart about two months ago to try and get it working right. For some reason it shuts off after about 1/4 mile. There is a fuse that is triggering and wont reset until the thing has been turned off, unplugged, and let rest for a few minutes. Not exactly conducive to a goo aerobic workout. I had hoped that a good cleaning and lube would set things to right. Trying to put it back together I got frustrated and just put it all away for a bit. Then trying to get motivated to spend a few precious hours putting the thing back together too a while. Finally, today, I had decided to take a day off from my usual hard work on home owner projects. I meant to have a lazy day, but got restless and decided to attack the treadmill again. It did take nearly two hours to reassemble and get the belt tension right. I eagerly started it up, and it was much quieter, and seemed to be running smoothly. I set it to a quick walking pace with high hopes. Not even a quarter mile into it and it shut down *heavy sigh*. So all my work was for nothing. I had really hoped to add it back into my weekly training regimen. I am tempted to sell it cheap and get an elliptical trainer.
    But despite the disappointment of the treadmill I still got in two quality workouts today. That is the plan for my days off, as it used to be back when I was training with intent. I do need to get signed up for some kind of event so I can regain that intent. But I can't sign up until I know I can run again. It is the rock and a hard place: I want events so I can focus my training, I can't have an event until my focused training will let me run, but I can't sign up for an event unless I know I can run, and without events on the agenda it is hard to maintain my focus. I have vowed to myself that I will keep my focus, even if it just to maintain the level of fitness that I have come to expect from my body. Focus. Focus. Focus.