Re-examining my priorities

I'm alive and well. I promise.

Due to an incredibly busy schedule, I haven't been able to update my fitness blog for about a month. I'm back though, and here's an update. The half marathon is tomorrow and I'm incredibly nervous about it. I haven't been this anxious about an event since my Bear Lake Crossing more than a year ago. Training was going very well until a little over three weeks ago, when my knee started hurting again after a long run with Jessica. Her and Kelly will be running the race, too.

Time for a run? No thanks. I'll watch Star Trek with my son instead. Maybe, if I'm lucky, he'll fall asleep.

I backed off my running a bit and amped up my workouts during swim class. Although I didn't stop exercising entirely, my dryland training came to a screeching halt, and I'm not entirely sure I'm ready for tomorrow morning's race. I never ran more than nine miles at once during my training, and somehow, I'm going to have to muscle through 13. Knowing that I never quite reached my training goal for Bear Lake, and still somehow managed to pull off that event does give me some hope that tomorrow will be OK, though. Even if it's just false confidence.

Work has been incredibly busy and my free time isn't really "free" as I am trying my best to spend that time with my family. Every new father thinks they know what is coming, and no matter how much you read in advance, you are never fully prepared. Despite all the diaper changing, play time, crying and simply trying to give Jen a bit of a break from the duties of motherhood whenever possible, it really has been an enjoyable experience thus far. But it has forced me to re-examine my priorities.

Fitness is very important, and I need to make sure I don't stray from it. However, I don't think intense training -- often sucking up multiple hours per day -- is a great thing for me or for my family right now. Now that Cooper is here, I find it very selfish to spend too much of my free time training for monster fitness events. He and Jen need me far more than I need these selfish "accomplishments." There is always more to every story, and every person has different circumstances in their lives, but I just don't see how people with multiple children can train for and participate in all of these marathon events (for any sport) and still give their families the attention they need and deserve. Somehow, I need to find a balance between staying fit and healthy, but not getting caught up in too many races, which are more of a hobby. Needs vs. wants, if you will.

Anyway, enough of my personal anecdotes. In a perfect world, I will finish tomorrow's half marathon in under 2 hours and 25 minutes with little or no knee pain. That probably won't happen, but who knows. ... maybe I'll get lucky.