Evaluating my priorities

It has been a great weekend. It started out on Friday night, when I came home after work and did a 4-mile run. Then yesterday, after doing some chores around the house, our family spent the afternoon sitting outside on our back patio, soaking in the warm sun. One of my favorite things to do in the whole world is sit outside, soak in sun, and drink cold beer while hanging out with my husband, daughters, and friends. The problem with doing this every weekend during the warm weather is that I drink in a lot of calories with the beer (and other beverages) that I drink, and I don’t eat so healthy. One thing that I’ve discovered is that chips go great with beer, don’t they? So does snack mix, and anything else salty, crunchy, and fatty.

This really wasn’t an issue when I was training for a 5K. I could run the next day after one of these backyard patio parties; it might be a bit of a struggle, but I always managed to get my running in. However, now that I’m training for longer runs (a 7-mile race at the end of July, and a half-marathon at the end of August), I really need to figure out what’s more important: drinking a lot and eating junk OR training for my running goals. I can’t do both.

I learned that hard lesson today when I set out to do a 7-mile run and about 3 miles in felt nauseous and dehydrated. Yep, I thought as I was struggling through mile 2: there’s the four beers I drank yesterday afternoon and the huge bowl of snack mix I ate last night for dinner. Dumbass.

So I’ve decided that until I meet my running goals (and I WILL meeting my running goals), I need to have fun without all of the beer and junk food. I’ll start with moderation and see how that goes. I don’t think a glass or two of beer or wine is going to hurt, but if necessary, I’ll cut it all out in order to meet my goals. This is how badly I want to do a half-marathon. Hopefully, though, I can find a healthy balance between indulging just a bit and still staying healthy and fit enough to meet my running goals.