Over the hump

Sort of an odd title -- Over the Hump --- but fitting. It seems that with any training program, the toughest part is the beginning, when you feel clunky and heavy. If there is some past memory of being fit, your brain seems to enjoy reminding you about it. From the dark, pessimistic corners, a stream of thinking goes like this: "Remember when you were fit? Wow, those were the days. Now look at you. Look at how slow you're going! Look at how you plod along! Remember how nimble and light you were? Now you're older, your fat and your slow. It will take years to get a taste of that again."

Although I wouldn't call myself fast by any means, the clunkiness is gone, and I am back in the groove of training. It feels so good to be back in this state that, as I mentioned to coach Walton, I've become nervous on the days he has slotted as off days. There's a fear (no doubt issued from the same region of the brain) that a day without training will vault me back to where I was a couple of months ago.

This is the trick, of course. Once you get over this hump, training becomes more of an affirmation of possibilities than an affirmation of being out of shape. It's a profound difference. Before, you rely heavily on every trick in the book to ignore negative thoughts and commit to a workout. After, you have to hold yourself back.

This week is a 12-hour training week. This will be about twice the number of training hours Brian started me off with. My weight is down to 195. That's a seven pound drop from early January, and going back to October, I've now lost about 20 pounds. As Brian suggested, when the weight starts burning off, my back problems would fade. And that's exactly what's happened.