Stupid, Stupid, How does it feel?

One of my all time favorite moments in Cops! is an episode focusing on some Neighborhood Watch yokels that were running off drug dealers in their neighborhood. One of the dealers was in the back of a cop car and the yokels were chanting, "Stupid, Stupid, How does it feel? Sittin' in the back of a police mobile." Awesome.

Anyway, stupidity is what I have displayed in abundance this week. I decided that my hammy had had enough rest and that it was time for me to begin training hard again. Yesterday was a hill repeats workout on the bike. My coach said to stay on the flat, but I did the hills anyway. I felt okay when I started my 40 minute run today, but 13:25 in, I felt my hamstring go. I had to walk back to my apartment 1 1/2 miles in the rain. I am an idiot.

I really need to take care of my hammy before it gets worse. Rest, stretching, ice, compression, and elevation...right?

Training Low Point

I've hit a low point in my training and I need to work through it. Here's what's making it bad...I can't stop eating and gaining weight. Since I essentially have no job, I sit around all day reading, playing Sudoku, applying for jobs, day dreaming, and generally dicking around while waiting for that day's training. I also feel really shitty about two beings that, for separate reasons, I no longer have contact with. (no, not the obvious being.) Anyway, when I am bored, my energy surges. I have a horrible habit of turning to food to kill my energy surges. Thuis I have gained 10 pounds since early December. These 10 pounds are slowing me in the water and probably screwed my running form and caused me to tweak my hammy. I have got to find a better way of dealing with inactivity than eating. I also like spending money to kill time, but that's also extremely detrimental. School starts Feb. 12 and I can't wait. This is an endeavor I can throw myself into. In the meantime, I need to hope that one of these job interviews leads to something into which I can throw my energy.

Injury

I really want to start posting more. I have a lot of writing coming down the pike so I'd like to get more comfortable with writing. Last Thursday, Ihad a 20 minute run on my schedule. When I hear 20 minute run, I immediately think about running as fast as I possible can. It gets me excited because I want to get faster. Anyway, I pushed it to hard and pulled my hamstring. My response was to ignore it and do a 40 minute base run on Friday,2500 meters in the pool Friday night, and a 4 hour bike session on Saturday. I had a 1 1/2 hr run on Sunday AM. I got 5 minutes in and had to turn around because each step was killing me. I took off this week and I'm experiencing some intersting sensation. At first, I felt like I was cheating because I wasn't working out. I secretly wondered if I'd quit now that I had an injury. Physically, I can feel my body healing itself and I have had some of the most intense sleep sessions in memory. Now, I'm going stir crazy. I feel waves of energy surge through me witrh no place to go. I know I have to take care of this injury and nor aggravate it, but I also love training and miss it.

Best Year Ever

I have been formulating this post in my head for almost 3 weeks now. If I don't write it soon, I'll be stuck in this non-blogging space and I can't share all of the fascinating thoughts drifting through my head.

I realized sometime late last year that 2006 was the best year of my life. You may be astonished and say to yourself, "That's crazy! How can a year where Matt gets divorced, moves out of a $3 million house in the hills, is banished from seeing his dogs ever again and is publicly accused of stealing money by his ex-wife be a good year?" The answer is that that was one tiny part of the year and, compared to the 5 previous years, was a small price to pay for getting my life back and being happy. Besides, I am constantly learning over and over again that there will always be challenges in my life. How I handle them will decide whether I am happy or not.

Here's a list of why 2006 was amazing.
1. I reconnected with friends from the entirety of my past and made peace with a lot of my history. Spending time with my family, Dennis, Tony, Dave, Katie, Mike, Kara, Jackie, Joe, Erica, Erik, Jason, Collin, Karl, Donovan, Amy, Chris, Chris, Jorge, Shawna, Mike, Rebekah, Jesse, James, Tanya, Paul, Donny, Brian, Brad, Greg, and many more forced me to see in a George Bailey-esque way, the impact I have had on the people close to me and what affect they have had on me. I love them all and I am grateful that they are still here to reconnect with.
2. Visits to Iraq, Kuwait, Costa Rica, Egypt, Germany, Mexico as well as a couple of trips in the USA including stops in DC, The Outer Banks, New Palz, North Dakota, Council Bluffs, Iowa City, Atlanta. All the places that I have emotional connections with, some good some bad. Seeing these places as an adult coming to terms with myself helped me remember things that I had buried or forgotten. I have lived a lot of life and the places I have been have helped create the person I am. I don't want to forget about any of them.
3. New experiences like Surfing and Triathlon have opened up a side of myself that I had kept buried. It turns out I have an incredible amount of energy, I just need to focus it in positive directions (thank you Jamie). I have spent so much time with no direction focusing my energies on the negative that I have ignored the possibilities. I can complete an Ironman and I can catch waves. That fills me with joy and I want as much of that as I can get.
4. Making new friends. Whether it was my fellow surfers in Costa Rica, my fellow travellers in Egypt, my fellow Ironmen and Ironwomen on the Ironteam, new co-workers, friends of old friends or anyone that stumbled across my path. I made more friends this year than any other year in my life. I want to be affected by as many people as possible because there is so much to learn from them, both about myself and the world.
Also, there were little things like the Steelers winning the Super Bowl, being a part of a show that was nominated for an Emmy, the Democrats taking back congress, etc that added to the richness of the year. How could sad, crazy people that are on there way out of my life ruin all of that.