Sunday, March 30, 2014

Now where did I put that?

So..what is the secret to being healthy and fit?  Cardio fitness? Strength? Discipline? Great nutritional plan?  The answer is..none of the above.  The true secret is organization!  And unfortunately for me that is one of my major weaknesses.  No matter how hard I try or what I do to get organized I end up becoming even more unorganized.

 For example..a training log is supposed to help you plan and log your exercises. Mine doesn't. Not because of the system I use..but because I use multiple systems and forget what I have put in each one.  Currently I am using Beginner Triathlete, Final Surge, Garmin Connect, a paper calendar, my ipad calendar and sometimes my phone for my training log. To track my nutrition I use Spark People, My fitness pal, a hand written food journal and beginner triathlete.  Why do I use so many?  Because I have a problem!! I see one and I think.. that works great..then I see another and think..that works better and use that until I decide the first one was the best.  What ends up happening is I don't know what I am using and then don't log at all.  I should be seeing a therapist..or going to AA (applications anonymous)

What is worse is that this skill of being unorganized persists through all aspects of my life.  Perfect example..my wife and daughter left for a 3 day trip to Wisconsin...When they left the house was in immaculate condition.  The pictures below are 36 hours after their departure.








That is just some of the damage I did.  Now granted..in the first pic I had just gotten done installing the moulding in the room. The stuff on the floor is oatmeal.  I knocked over a glass ball filled with candle "oil".  All a rag did was spread it around further, so a suggestion on facebook lead me to spreading oatmeal on the floor.  It actually worked for the most part. And the house was picked up before the wife got home..although it took a good 5 hours.

The oatmeal and oil is not bad considering last year at this time my wife left the house and this happened.



 In the third and fourth pictures above you can see the room where I keep my workout stuff..along with 2 or 3 of my gym bags.  Yes. I thought it was a good idea to have one for running and one for swimming and another for emergencies.  What ends up happening is I forget which one I have placed my mp3 player in..or lock ..or sunglasses..or even shoes. I have ended up at the pool to swim without goggles..at the park to ride my bike without shoes and the gym without shorts.  So much for organization.  The only thing that saves me at work is I have two people who are paid to keep me organized.

If I am lucky to make it to a ride I have somehow forgotten my water bottles or tire pump.  Once I had packed the car with every possible thing I needed and driven about 15 minutes toward the rendezvous when I realized my bike was not on top of the car.   Yes, I realize there may be some memory issues involved here along with the organizational problems.

My nutrition also suffers from my terrible organizational skills. I plan on making lunch and eating healthy and 1. either don't pack the lunch the night before..2. forget the lunch in the fridge..or 3. bring a salad and forget the dressing.
 
Luckily for my daughter she has my wife's organizational skills.  She gets up in the morning, gets dressed, makes herself breakfast most mornings and reminds me what I need to do and if there is anything special I need to take to school for her.   Honestly it is scary that my life and fitness level would be so much better if I acted like my six year old daughter.  Today it was..Dad..we need to get out on the bikes, the triathlon is in two months.  But I don't want to go outside..the basketball game is on...

I am afraid that I am going to have to get over this organizational hurdle or just give up the ship..provided I haven't already misplaced it. It seems like the more I try to get organized the more unorganized I become.   So I guess I need to just make a list for the week and make sure everything gets done..now should I do the list on my ipad calendar..my phone task list..the weekly calendar or the daily?  Screw it...

I made one interesting observation dealing with gear this week. In my last post I told everyone I joined a facebook group From Fat to Finish Line.  In that group I asked what shoe everyone liked for running,  The overwhelming majority picked Brooks.  What was really interesting was that Newtons was one of the least favored shoes.  Now this group is almost all runners and most of them beginners but a few are veteran race runners.  If I asked the same question of my triathlon friends I think the vast majority would say Newtons were their go to shoe?  So why is that? Does Newton do that much more advertising directed toward triathletes?  Or does the Newton price tag keep every day runners away, where triathletes who are used to paying a large amount for their gear are less likely to shy away from the cost?  Things that make you go hmmmm.

And a shout out to my friend Kelli who as I type this is completing Ironman Cabo..her first!  And John who competed in his first triathlon as a member of a relay..Way to go John..although you cannot get the title triathlete until you finish a swim leg...rules is rules.

Lastly...Go Badgers!




I honestly don't take sports all that seriously but anyone rooting against them is dead to me.  You know who you are.




No comments:

Post a Comment