If I were 20

If only I were 20 years old.  I do not think that I am in mid-life crisis or anything, but it certainly seems to me that this entire venture would be easier if I were still 20 years old... or so.

When I was 20, I was focused, dedicated, unencumbered.  I would wake up every morning and workout or run with my team.  I would workout and often run 6 days a week, every week.  I would and could run every day.  I would go eat a big meal and then go run wind sprints.  We had practices sometimes three times a day, often times twice a day.  We ran, and sweat, and worked out with weights.  Sure, we were sore sometimes, but we would just work through the soreness -- "walk it off".  I have heard that so many times I cannot count.

When I was 20, I did not have a wife or kids.  I did not have a job.  I had few responsibilities.  I was free to go eat and go work out.  I ate whatever I wanted, AS MUCH AS I WANTED.  I was TRYING to gain weight.  I ran as much as I wanted... and more than I wanted.  I worked out as much as I wanted... and more than I wanted.

When I was 20,  I was never worried about injury.  I had knee surgery.  I had ankle sprains and tendinitis and bumps and bruises and cuts and maybe a concussion or two, bone bruises, deep muscle bruises.  These things were simply a way of life and we would ice them and tape them up, and "walk it off".  I was strong and fit, not a care in the world.

If I were 20, I could have run 50 half marathons in 50 states in 50 weeks.... physically.  Where I would get the money to do any of it is an entirely different novela, but physically it would have been a piece of cake,

Now that I am 46 years old -- 46!!  Holy moly, that sounds old when associated with my name -- everything just seems more difficult, more complicated.  I don't necessarily mean more complex, but complicated.  Complicated by the fact that I have a job and a wife and kids and church events and other responsibilities.  Just the time factor alone is much more complicated. I do not have several hours a day that I can dedicate to training.  Many people wake up early and train in the morning before work.  Makes sense,  My issue with that is that I start seeing patients at 7:00am.  So, I would have to get up before 5:00am to run for an hour, which is not so bad, but then there is the cool down period.  If I go run for an hour, then get in the shower and get dress, I am STILL SWEATING.  Now picture this for me... You are my first patient of the day and I walk in to greet you and I am sweating, you are sweating because you are nervous, but we both wipe our brows and we begin the procedure.  As we are working, beads of sweat are dripping off of my nose and forehead and I am jerking my head to the side in an attempt to sling the sweat drop off to the side so that it does not drop into your mouth... OK, I am being dramatic, but you get the idea.  I am still sweating.  This is why I d not like to run before work.  I wanted to build a shower in my office, so that I could just run to work.  You know, save the planet and all... but I would still have the sweating problem.

After work is a nice time for me to run, which is why you will see most of my runs on Strava or MapMyRun are afternoon runs, after work, before dinner.  This is not always so easy, though.  LET ME BE CLEAR HERE, my wife takes care of MOST EVERYTHING, and she does it EXTREMELY WELL, but there are times that I have to go pick up one of the kids from this place or that, or I just have something that I need to do or some place that I need to be and running just does not fit into the equation.

Weekends are a similar issue.  I have a pretty cushy life, thank you Valerie, but there are times when the weekend is booked up with "stuff"... although, I have to say that I can USUALLY find a free moment to run on the weekends, especially in the morning before everyone gets up.  They don't seem to care if I am sweating or not.

Time and family obligations are only a part of the difficulty that I am having though.  When I am considering running now, I have to do a body assessment.  How does my body feel?  I NEVER had to do that before.  "Walk it off". Now if I "walk it off", I might have to take the rest of the week off.  So, I am planning on running this afternoon, after work.  I have a race on Sunday, the Brandon 5k.  It is really just an excuse to get me out running so that I can train for the half marathon in SC., next weekend.  So, I need to train and stay in shape for SC and just use this race as a training run.  I ran last Thursday, Thanksgiving.  I ran Saturday, then again on Monday.  Wanted to rest my leg on Tuesday, then when Wednesday came around, I was trying to decide how to spend my time.  Running was in the plan.  But then I began to do a body assessment.  I can't believe I have to admit that I have to do this.  I wanted to get in a long run.  I had the time.  I had three hours that I could have made the time.  I started to feel my IT band, so I thought I would play racquetball instead of a long run that would aggravate my IT band.  I played three matches of racquetball and felt fine, but did not feel like running after.  Now today I am planning on running after work and my leg kinda aches.  Do I REALLY need to take a day or two off every time I run?  This is getting ridiculous. I think if I try hard enough I could come up with a viable excuse every day, every time.  I'm sure that my wife could use some help around the house.  I'm sure that I could be out playing catch with one of the kids or carting them around town to their various activities.  I'm sure I could do some things at work.  I am certain there are church activities that I could devote more time to.  Various clubs and organizations and community events that I am involved with could use some of my time and attention... etc., etc., etc...

If I were 20 years old...