A good friend had a knee replacement scheduled for last week and the Dr's put it off. It seems his glucose level is now way too high. Diabetes was mentioned. He wouldn't get real specific about it. I'm thinking he might be in denial.
Frankly I wasn't at all surprised. This is a guy who went to see his Dr a couple of days after my heart attack because he too had been feeling some "funny things." He walked out a couple of days later sporting a shiny new Stent installed in one of his main arteries. Still, he didn't really get serious about making any real changes until a year or so later when his first knee replacement was being discussed. The Dr.s told him they wouldn't operate unless he dropped some weight. He did South Beach and dropped a lot of weight and they did the surgery. After the surgery he quit South Beach and put all the weight plus some back on... Right before his surgery I told him that all that weight loss was a great thing since all things considered he had been looking straight down the barrel at diabetes.
Anyway, so we're talking about food stuff the other night and they want to know what my carb intake is. I tell them 40% or more and they are all pretty flabbergasted. I tell them many runners are up in the 60% range and then I try to work in a mention of how doing any kind of exercise can actually expand your food options. It was during that discussion that it was tossed out there...
"Yeah, but it's easy for you, you're obsessed with running."
I chuckled and really didn't comment about it or refute it. It wasn't until the next day while out running that I even started thinking about it and why most don't seem to get it.
I have an obsessive personality, hell I know and admit that. But, in the sense they meant running, actually being obsessed with the physical act of running... I don't think so. I haven't been enjoying it much since I started trying to increase my run intervals. It's really fucking hard.
Admittedly last spring after all that marathon training the 1/1's were easy and there were a lot of days I really enjoyed being out there physically just running laps. Still, even when it's actually very enjoyable I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with the act of running.
I'd say I'm very obsessed with finding ways to maintain the motivation and ultimately the discipline necessary to keep getting out there and running every week. I'm obsessed with figuring out a long training plan that will help my achieve my goals. I'm obsessed with how many miles I ran this week, this month, last year. I'm obsessed with logging the miles and the times. I'm obsessed with watching the miles add up to numbers I thought way beyond impossible for me. I'm obsessed with trying to improve my pace, a faster lap, a faster mile, an easier mile. I'm obsessed with finishing a 10K, the Half Marathon, the Marathon, and yes, eventually a 50K. I'm obsessed with the next event...
I guess in the grand scheme of things that all falls under the "running" umbrella but that's not the way they meant it and sadly, I don't think they'll really ever understand it...
Ultimately what I'm totally obsessed with is trying to improve my damaged hearts' health and yes, my mental health. Running is simply the means I've chosen to try to do that.
