Obsessive

The secret of my success

Round Hiker says that the traits he doesn't like about me are the far end of a continuum of traits that he does like about me.  He likes my tenacity, but  he sometimes doesn't like my obsessiveness.  But, as he well knows, you don't get one without the other.  If I had to point to any one trait of mine that leads to the many successes I've had in life it's the tenacity--------obsession continuum that I have to credit.  But there are some downsides.  With obsession comes rigidity (for me).  I really want to loose weight, and I found a pattern that worked, so I worked it until there was a problem.  And then there was trouble!  [that's a little side joke for all you parents of toddlers obsessed with Thomas The Tank Engine]

I've been running, barring injury, since about January.  I'm on my second left-foot injury (which actually pre-dates the metatarsalia I had in February) and I know that to get rid of this Achilles tendonitis I'm going to have to change what I am doing for a while - perhaps a longer while than I would like.  I've been doing nothing work-out wise for 3 weeks and my foot is very very slowly starting to feel better.  I'm on Mobic (a prescription anti-inflammatory drug) and for the last week I've been doing my physical therapy exercises.  My doc said to call her if I didn't start feeling better within 6 weeks - but she never said that I would feel completely better within 6 weeks.  And she also told me to no run while my foot hurt.  What to do?

Learning to be more flexible

It seems that I am being given the amazing opportunity to exercise all sorts of life skills during my quest to loose weight, get into running and hopefully avoid more cancer.  I've  had to put aside my tenacity during one foot injury, and now I have to do it again.  But it seems that you can't do things the same way twice - this is looking to be a much longer layup that the 4 week running vacation I took in February.  So, in the spirit of flexibility, I looked at everything I was doing and have made some decisions.  Dum dum duuuuummmmmmm.....

1) I want to loose weight
2) I can't run for an unknown period of time, and winter is creeping up on me
3) I loose focus and drive to exercise outside of the house in winter because it is damn cold out
4) I was planning on running out side this winter, but I wasn't particularly planning on liking it

The solution? A decent treadmill

After my usual obsessive research and shopping around behavior I am going to go to Costo after work tonight and buy a Freemotion XTR treadmill.  I looked around a while ago on KSL.com's classifieds (a surprisingly effective free classified section run by a local tv station) and found that the vast majority of the MANY treadmills listed are fairly low-end machines.  They often have less than a 2.0 CHP motor, which means that they won't last as long, aren't suited for running on, and are LOUD.  In fact, my KSL shopping convinced me that a treadmill wouldn't work for me because I want one in the living room and the ones I tried out would be too noisy. 

Then I saw an add (in the classifieds!) for a discount exercise equipment place.  I checked out their models and they were all very acceptably quiet because they all had at least a 2.5 CHP motor, and the bigger the motor the quieter the machine.  But like Goldilocks, I didn't buy there because the fit wasn't just right.  The machines were at a discount because their packaging had gotten damaged in shipping which voided their warranties.  Yuck.  But armed with new knowledge I went to Costco and looked at what they had and decided it was a great buy and that I was willing to shell out the ducats necessary to purchase my in-home walking machine.  I'll let you know how the living room re-arranging and treadmill assembly go.  I expect lots of swearing to happen and maybe even some tears.