I QUIT!!

Ever just get the feeling you can't do what you set out to do?  Does life ever just catch up to you, pass you, then leave you in the dust wondering why you can't ever reach your goals?  If you've never felt like this I would like to meet you...

My last post was a wandering rant about many things that bug me - about myself, others, this, that, etc.  Well, today is May the freaking 1st, and on the one hand I'm still discouraged, but on the other there are a few things that are going better.

So here's the reason for the title of this post, I guess: it's May, I've lost a grand total of 8 pounds so far this year (yeah, yeah, I know, it's something...), and the month of April was a nearly complete piece of s**t.  4 workouts the entire month.  FOUR.  WTF?  And like I said last time, a great many of the ones I didn't do were because I was just cranky.

So I get to that point where I just say "chuck it" (well, it rhymes with "chuck it," anyway; I promised to keep this rated G...) and go do whatever I want to.  Which is frequently not exercise.  

But all is not lost, faithful reader.  No, no, I will not quit.  There are seven months left in the year (actually, as I proofread, I realize that since it's May 1, there are really EIGHT).  That's more than half!  So I will somehow soldier on and figure out how to make the best of it.  Today, for instance, was a gorgeous day, so I rode my bike to the gym!  Two birds with one stone, as they say.  And tomorrow promises to be nice as well, so I will head out on the road bike in the afternoon and see where I end up.

Speaking of riding, I figured out over spring break that I have ridden a bicycle in eight states - Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Tennessee, Georgia, New York, and Vermont.  I think that's pretty cool.  I would like to add a few more - Alabama would be easy, based on the Natchez Trace near my in-laws' house.  (I didn't get to ride that during spring break.  I was pissed.  Seriously.  But the distance I would have had to travel to get to the start, plus the ride and then the return trip, would have made a very long day for whoever ended up having to be my driver.  And since we were spending time with family, not riding, I decided against it.  I ended up doing several miles in the local mountain bike trails, making it at least twice as far as I did last year, so that was cool.  Alabama next time!!)  And our travels through the Smoky Mountains on the way home, even in cold, horrible rain, made me want to go back and enjoy their beauty on a bicycle.  

Well, like I said, it's May 1, so here's the monthly update:

    Starting weight, ca. Jan 1 - 226 lbs
    Weight on May 1 - 218 lbs
    Net loss 8 lbs
    April workouts - 4
        - 29 bike miles
        - 1 gym workout
        - 2800 calories burned
  355 miles so far on the bike for the year, pretty much all of which have been inside.  (That's more than I thought...)
    - Update on the tendinitis in my shoulder, in case you were wondering (if you weren't, I guess you can skip this...) -  movement is improving, the pain is lessening, but I can still really feel it when I do certain things.  Today in the gym there were several things I just couldn't do.  I've been stretching, icing, and taking ibuprofen.  Things are looking up.  The PT promises some new exercises to stretch and strengthen when I go back Friday.  (Why is it spelled "tendinitis," anyway?  It's about your tendON, so shouldn't it be "tedONitis"??  But it's not.)

There's probably more that I could write, but if I use all my stuff at once then you have nothing to look forward to!!  See you out on the road.  OR...  on the trail!  A down payment has been made not on the cool Cervelo S5 road bike that I considered, but rather a 2013 Salsa Mukluk 2 fat bike.  Here's a pic:

 Perhaps a ride to the beach, followed by a ride on the beach.  And stuff like that.  We shall see.  I will give you an update on that purchase, and other exciting life events, in the near future.  Stay tuned!!