New Year's Resolutions Are Highly Overrated

Dec. 27, 2012

Well we're just a few days before the old New Year's resolutions start to kick in.

You can usually tell it's getting to be that time of year when the television is filled with ads for Weight Watchers and NutriSystem and your email is full of get-thin-quick schemes.

I suppose I'm just like everybody else out there who wishes they were 20 pounds lighter so you can run faster, jump higher and drop everyone on hill climbs when you're out on the bike. And each year about this time as I leaf through Runner's World or Bicycling I think this is the year when a balanced diet replaces stress eating I'll make that 20-pound drop.

Well I'm just like the rest of the world. I get about a week or two or three into a program of drinking more water and eating better food and something always trips me up. Life has a way of tricking us that way, so I don't make any rash New Year's resolutions.

But there's still a part of me that would love to run and ride faster, so I battle on like the rest of America.

I snuck outside again today for a run. It was a brisk winter day, but a bright sun and proper clothing made the experience quite enjoyable. Left, right, left I made my way around one of my normal loops. Five miles in just about an hour or so seemed fairly reasonable. 

I usually run more by time than by distance. It feels a little more Zen that way, and I don't really stress out about being the world's slowest human.

OK, so I did indulge in a little self pity today when I stopped to walk up a hill and a woman with a noticeable limp due to what appeared to be a hamstring pull raced by me at a pretty good clip. By this point in my run I had pretty much given over to walking on some of the long rises in my route.

I thought the runner was pretty amazing, not only was she noticeably favoring one leg during her run, but she was out in shorts and a running shirt on a 30-degree day, while wimpy me had on three shirts, a jacket, a pair of tights and some wind pants. When she looped back toward me all I could think is "there goes a real runner."

So competing in an Iron Man triathlon is not in my future. But at last I'm out there moving and feeling alive regardless of the fact that I am the world's slowest human.

Good luck to all my friends who load up on New Year's resolutions this time of year. Remember, in a week or two, you'll be right back with the rest of us slackers.