This morning when I opened my front door to retrieve the Sunday newspaper, there was a youngish raccoon asleep curled up in a ball just outside my front door. The net net is that my neighbor called the police to have animal control retrieve him/her, who is hopefully, resting in peace in raccoon heaven. Poor little guy was either injured or sick, and while I truly wanted to take it to a wildlife shelter, they just won't accept the common raccoon. It did munch a little on a pine cone before it was taken away. I balled my eyes out. Again, I was thinking why do I continue to be tested? See, I'm a lot more sensitive to certain things than many people think I am. Ever since I was a young child, I would care for injured/sick wildlife and you win some you lose some. I appreciate the food chain in nature, yet it always pains me to see an animal suffer. I'm crying as I write this. I've watched every Jacques Cousteau, Nature, and any animal educational TV since I was tiny; so I appreciate all the variety that nature provides us. I am a many-year contributor to National Wildlife and the Audobon Society, and I try my best to live a life that has the least impact on the wildlife and environment that I can.
I did pretty well against my goals for last week and training, but not good enough. I can do better, but at least I know I'm coming around. I did go get measured for the bike, and sadly, the Eddy Merckx frames are too big, so now I've got my sights set on a Pinarello, and I better get it, because I already have a name picked out (secret until said frame is confirmed to be mine). I had so much fun at the bike shop yesterday, I can't describe it, and then I hung out at the nearby running shop to jawbone for about an hour. I am truly blessed in that I know so many excellent athletes who are all extremely intelligent and seem to share most of the values that I hold dear.
Well here it goes, and now I'm back on my old format:
Weekly Totals 02/26/2007-03/04/2007
Swim: 7900 yards (4.48 miles) in 2.75 hours; 21% of weekly workout time; approx. 963 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 77.87 miles in 4.45 hours; 34% of weekly workout time; approx. 2140 calories burned
Run: Approx. 24.12 miles in 3.78 hours; 29% of weekly workout time; approx. 1722 calories burned
Strength: 2.25 hours; 17% of weekly workout time; approx. 563 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 106.47 miles in 13.23 hours; approx. 5388 calories burned
Sleep: 8.07 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.47 hours. Massage: 1.5 hours
Goals from Last Week:
- Work no more than 40 hours. CHECK!
- Sleep at least 8 hours per night. I average over 8, so CHECK.
- One less cup of coffee in the morningl. Not so much--but let's say 1/2 cup less.
- No alcohol for the foreseeable future. Well, the chicken fricasee tonight called for "a good red wine," so NOPE.
- Stretch :30/day except the day I get a massage. Not quite, but good enough.
- No more Valentine's candy until my weekly hours go over 14. Had to finish the last open bag. NO CIGAR.
- Back on strength training (I skipped it last week except for shoveling). CHECK.
- Get in 3 solid swims of at least 2500 yards. CHECK.
Goals for Next Week:
- Finalize bike frame and component (fingers crossed, you won't believe it if I get what I want)
- Kick ASS at the next race on Sunday 3/11. Since I'm going to be (cough, cough) SICK on Friday, I will have Saturday off.
- Kick down the coffee one more notch.
- Enjoy the fact that I'm on MAINTENANCE STRENGTH TRAINING!!!!
- Increase the sleep. It's coming, trust me.
- Lose that last stupid pound of weight that is hanging around (although I suppose it could be muscle, so it's not really a concern).
- Hope that nothing weird or strange happens and nobody close to me or any wild animals die in front of me or bite me. PLEASE GOD I'M BEGGING YOU!!!
- Enjoy the heck out of my next week of life.
5 comments:
Nope, averagin' does NOT count. If you said get at least 8 hrs/night, then get at least 8/night. With your insane training schedule, 9 would be better ! :)
I take care of the feral cats in my neighborhood and try and trap them, get them "fixed" and then release them back..I almost had one female "tamed"- she liked chicken. She was really skinny so I named her "Olive" after "Olive Oyl"-she dropped three kittens in my back yard and refused to take care of them. We had to put them to sleep because the shelters here are over-flowing. She died in our back yard a short time later...so she "knew" she couldn't take care of the kittens. I cried alot that week! Hope you are feeling better and best of luck next weekend! (I am racing too!)
Awwww, that would be hard seeing such a little furball and knowing it had to go. I hear you on the "sensitive" thing, especially with animals. I was always the kid trying to save some baby bird with an eyedropper.
I'm glad you had a fun time at the bike shop though, picking out a new bike is always exciting! Can't wait to hear your new secret name and see a pic.
oh, girl, i am so sorry about the little raccoon. i've never been a real animal person until recently and when my pup, fay, died - it was like i'd lost a part of my family. you have a good heart.
your workout goals are fierce! i'm going to try to adopt a few of them (just not the no alcohol thing...) :-)
here's to a much better week for the both of us!
Awww, I love 'coons... I love any little thing. Read about my chipmunk rescue here:
http://elliesjourneys.blogspot.com/2006/05/rescue.html
Like your goals. I might try a similar quest.
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