Ren McCormack

and the concept of Did Not Finish...

Towards the beginning of last week I found myself having an internal conversation with the Gym Man, blaming his not sending me a vegetarian alternative to the transformation diet on my non performance, before somehow working out that it was then his fault that I no longer want to go to the gym and as a result could I please have my money back.  Thankfully I didn't have time to construct this into an email.  I know the response would have been one telling me to take responsibility for my own actions and that cake and copious pieces of toast weren't on the diet sheet, meat eaters or otherwise, so whose fault is it that I've still been eating them? As for not wanting to go to the gym, as I rarely see him when I go and he doesn't acknowledge me when I do, I'm not sure how off putting he really is, I am, it seems, just intent on finding an excuse to quit.

Finding a rare five minutes last week to check Twitter to see how my 'friend' Ira did at the Trans Gran Canaria Ultra Marathon (only seventy eight miles and a total elevation gain of twenty eight thousand feet!) I learned that he, along with three hundred and forty six other people - one person less than half of those who started - didn't finish.  Reading his blog* I was however filled with optimism about recognising when enough is enough.

So I have decided to put the past three weeks of my six week transformation plan into the category of DNF.  This time, this wasn't for me.

As a result I have then been able to dissect and analyse why.  First and foremost did I just not want it enough? Possibly.  In addition I think I underestimated the time that committing to it fully would take and by jumping in and trying to do everything at once, I ended up doing all of it rather half heartedly. By failing to plan how I was going to incorporate this into my daily routine, I also set myself up to fail as the rest of my life not only caught up with me, but also kind of swallowed me whole as I tried unsuccessfully to fit everything in.  Under pressure my desire to eat cake intensified. Pushed to my limits my body decided it needed some time out and I succumbed to a rather horribly lurgy which knocked me off my feet for a while, whilst I tried to run screaming for cover in a pile of fabric to fashion into costumes that I've spent far too long on, but has stopped me having to think about anything else in the meantime!

Question now is, where do I go from here? Answer.... back to the gym!

But that's all.  No diet, no airing cupboard. Just the gym. Monday, Wednesday and possibly Friday. Fitted in without the rest of my jobs coming to a standstill.

I don't want to go.  In fact I'm dreading it.  But this time it is going to be different.  This time I am not going alone.  In the aforementioned blog, the talented Ira Rainey, shared what he has coined the 'Footloose Syndrome' - that basically it is OK to happily exist within the safety of the boundaries that we build around ourselves but that we all need a metaphorical Ren McCormack to come and shake us out of our comfort zones every once in a while. For Ira, his Ren is running, for me, at this present moment in time, it's the gym...  although (sorry Al) I think I'd get on much better if I imagine Kevin Bacon actually being there! Although that said, perhaps it's all for the best that he's only there in my mind's eye - the gym would be way too busy for me to even set foot in if he actually was!

M - 422

Liverpool Half - 91

Glasgow Half - 203
Total Distance covered   506.3 miles

http://www.notbionic.co.uk/random/footloose-syndrome/