Balance and Accountablility

Vince Lombardi is credited with saying that "there are three things that are important to every man in this locker room.  His God, his family, and the Green Bay Packers.  In that order."

Well I by no means am a football fan. However I appreciate these words are full of wisdom.  A balanced life means having the right priorities in place.  Once activities like work take priority over family, then your life is out of balance. Once family becomes more important than your relationship with God, then life is out of balance.

Trail running has its place in a balanced life.  It provides an a way to mitigate the stress at work, spend time with the family, and appreciate God's creation. 

However, if you have been occasionally reading this blog over the years, you may have noticed  that I haven't posted since May.  Shortly after that post, I stopped both running or commuting by bicycle on a regular basis.  One of the reasons was due to lagging injury caused by an ice skating fall back in January.  The fall caused a herniated disk in my neck that would sporadically flair up.  I also started a new job in January and I been having too much fun at work.  I have also allowed additional stress to prove I provide value since I fear time I was laid off 4 years ago as well as working at a company that was not that great of a fit.

Found this buck while I was hiking with my wife.

Well, on the positive side, I haven't had the neck issue in a couple of months.  The problem of taking this much time is that genetics have kicked in resulting in a 25 pound weight gain. This has added to my stress.  What has worked in to relieve stress?  Running and commuting by bike.  What have I not been doing during the last four months?  Running and commuting by bike.

Way past time to gain balance.  Which brings me to the second half of the title...


Accountability

To be frank, when I started this blog, I used this to feed my desire to write.  I used to love to write when I was a kid.  It also brought balance by relieving stress. And by reviewing what I wrote I could make adjustments.  Also by writing down my thoughts it brought about a basic level of accountability.

Before this day, I never rode the trails with my daughter.

Blogging allowed me to bridge an old pastime with a new love, running, to be able to express my self.  Also, having lost a lot of weight, I found that maintaining this blog put a level of accountability to maintain a certain level of fitness.  I also have used Strava to further accountability.  Some how convincing yourself that you are accountable to your friends on Strava and those who read this blog keeps you pushing and trying to improve.  But it is easy to loose balance by putting too much focus on accountability. 

I also found that the reason I ran changed.  Instead of a fun activity I enjoyed with my family, running became a way to push my limits. That in itself isn't bad.  However, when it the family enjoyment in the activity suffers for my own selfish gain, well there is where I was imbalanced.  I think you will find that some of my posts reflect that.  

The morning of the Color run.

Back to Balance with Accountability


This past week I had the benefit of taking the week off.  We went nowhere.  We just did activities as a family.  We went and saw a movie.  We went bowling.  We took a short hike.  In fact we have been doing that a lot lately.

A couple of weeks ago we did a Color run.  Not my favorite activity.  I much rather be on the trails and having people throwing colored cornstarch at you as you are trying to breath, well seems contrary to a good time.  

One happy boy....and papa!

The course ran the Embarcadero, along my old running course when I worked at my previous company and ran through AT&T park along the warning track.  It had rained a couple of hours before so the course was a sloppy muddy mess.  Perfect condition for a trail runner not so much for these runners.  These folks were about to get covered in dust but tip-toed around mud puddles.  But my family made me proud  running with abandon through the brown slop as they were stared at with disgust buy these other runners.

At the end, I had a great time running with my family.  Balance......

Also, I have been running a bit.  Short distances. Some hills.  But I am taking the time to enjoy the run.  Yes I am still using Strava (I downgraded from Premium) but it is more for my accountability with my self, not others. Balance...

And thus the reason for this post.  I am back to blogging.  This weekend has further re-grounded and balanced me.  I will write because I like to write.  I run because I like to run.

But the real reason I will post is accountability to myself and to my family.  I need to be healthy.  And this blog has been a proven method to keep me accountable to healthy living.  So you may find me write more about my family here.  You may find activities that have nothing to do with running or a racing...Just more balance.....

That said, you will always find some awesome pictures of the Bay Area trails through out this blog.  I have also added my Instagram feed which will serve as a bit of micro-blogging also.  It seems like I am enjoying photography also.