Torn Between Two Lovers

For the first time in several days the sun has graced us with its presence on the coast. It was a perfect day for gardening. When the house first closed escrow, the first thing I did was plant seeds for flowers and vegetables. I had everything well planned out in nice, neat rows. Everything went well until the blistering heat wave in July last year. My garden was toast. There was nothing I could do to save it. This year I had plans to have an orderly garden, with neat rows and everything well marked, just like last year. I did plant a couple rows of zinnia flowers. I thought it was peculiar that they didn't come up because just about anybody can grow zinnias from seeds. It turns out the dog had her own ideas and dug where I planted the seeds. There are now sprouts of zinnias in the pattern of where the dog dug up MY efforts. I spent yesterday and part of today transplanting the sprouts to where they are supposed to be. As for the vegetable garden, that's developing all by itself. Without trying, the bok choy that didn't come up last year, yellow squash, cucumbers and sunflower seeds are poking through, and not in neat rows, either. I must say that the bok choi is beautiful and I am anxious to use it. The garden is growing just fine, orderly or not, weeds included.

I am somewhat torn on which direction to take my athletic goals to. I really enjoy running. It gives me a sense of being centered when everything else in my life is chaos. I also REALLY like what weight training does for my physique. I'd like to get back a lot of the upper body strength that I know I've lost, not to mention more toned arms. Running was not my very first cardio of choice, swimming was, but to drop body fat more effectively I needed high intensity cardio in addition to intense circuit training (with free weights) to get everything in gear -- Oh yeah, and paying attention to nutrition helped. It worked. It has been three years since my first marathon, and now closing in on a third, and weight training as I used to do, prior to running life as I know it now, has taken a back seat. I wish I could successfully meld the two (weight training and long distance running) without needing help. My weight hasn't been a big issue for me in a long time, but I'd like to see a lower body fat percentage. I know how hard it is to do heavy duty weight training and train for a marathon. There are some people who can do it. Since this is now year three of marathoning and long distance running in general, maybe now I have the endurance to bump up the weight training to how it once was. The question I keep asking myself about the weight training/running thing is "can I do both without killing myself?" The only way to find out is to just go for it. I plan on kicking my own ass with heavy duty weight training and running starting in July, once the buzz from the SDRNR Marathon is over.

Peace