Workouts, Unicorns, & Rhinos.

I have been crazy busy again, whomping up presentations for other school districts, occasionally teaching a class or two at my high school, and stopping students from putting plastics on my hot plates:

So, since last we met, here's the working out rundown:

• Treadmill Tuesday was full of high running fashion
• Wednesday was an easy 5 mile run, which I did on the treadmill because I had no interest in losing body parts as a result of frostbite.  And when I say easy, I mean easy:

One of my training resolutions this time around is to make the easy days easy so I can run my quality days with quality.  Just trying not to get injured.  Again.

• Thursday was an 8-mile tempo run, 6 of which were run at a comfortably hard pace.  Lesson from this run?  "Comfortably hard" does not mean "running all out."  I have to convince my legs that tempo runs are NOT races; they are supposed to be kinder, gentler speed work, not runs that have me wondering if I'm going to freaking finish.  Plus, I learned that running after work sucks, mainly because I'm tired because I walk and/or stand around all day watching younger humans learn.  
• Today's workout was upper-body weights, doing my fave Pyramid Upper Body workout.  I think the bicep track, which usually has me emitting noises that are from another planet by the end, is getting easier.  Not much, but a little.  I also think I have an unnatural love of the dumbbell pullover that might require therapy at some point.

On a more serious note, I shared this picture on facebook this morning:

I expressed the sentiment that I often felt like the rhino in the picture.  I know people think I'm totally nuts (about a lot of things), but once you have been overweight (see the "About" page for a good hard look at the old me)  it's hard to get out of the rhino mentality--your image of yourself gets distorted much like what you see in a funhouse mirror.   And my mirror has especially been all sorts of funhouse crazy since I found out  that I have gained about 14 pounds since I quit smoking over 2.5 years ago, which I have rationalized in all sorts of crazy ways.  But, bottom line, I'm scared to death about looking like I once was.

What I think I have to realize about this whole weight/body image thing is that:

• I am healthier
• I am more active
• I have done things I never thought I would ever do (running a half-marathon or a Ragnar wasn't exactly on my to-do list when I was 80+ pounds heavier)
• I no longer get irritated by sweat pouring out of any back-fat rolls during the summer
• I own no clothing with sizes that begin with a "2" anymore
• I like bulleted lists

I also have to realize that, like one astute Facebook friend stated, I am already the unicorn.  But maybe just a species that is genetically predisposed to store fat in case of dramatic climate change.  Genetic variation is the spice of natural selection, you know.