This Weekend in Neverland...

Weekends at work are loooooong. I work every other weekend here. I show up at 0600 in the morning on Friday, work all day Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning. Liberty is not granted to my section until boat and engineer checks are completed on all five boats, the station is spotless, (which is like pulling teeth to get guys to do), quarters has been held, (the morning briefing and official section swap), and endless last minute work lists and training and such. So basically I don't get off until late Monday morning. Luckily, the weekends can tend to be a little laid back unless a member of the command is here for whatever reason. We can go to the gym, the guys watch a TON of TV and football, we can relax and work on personal projects and such.

The days are finally starting to get longer! I like to go out in the morning to do boat checks and get the privilege of watching the sun rise over the water and shipyards. I've started drinking coffee again so add that into the picture as well... mornings aren’t so bad at work. As soon as the sun starts rising around 0600 I can start riding my jet ski into work again. I LOVE doing that, and it is easier on Wes because then he doesn't have to disconnect from his machine to drive me into work, then come back to finish the cycle, then dive back in to go to work.
Wes and I are finally going to be taking ASA (American Sailing Association) lessons hopefully starting in February. We put them off for SO LONG because of Wes' health, and money issues. Getting this certification not only teaches you how to sail, but it is also a "license" to use a boat anywhere. For example, if Wes and I went to Hawaii or the Caribbean or wherever we could rent a boat there because we would have an internationally recognized license that proves we know what we are doing. I am very excited about this and will keep you all posted on our progress.
As far as my 1/2 marathon training has gone, I took 2.5 days off last week, then tried to start running outside on Thursday, but I had a really bad earache so I didn't run for very long at all. As a result though, I got shin splints and could only run for 15 minutes yesterday. So I worked the elliptical and abs instead. I am hoping to see improvement today but we shall see...

Endurance

Morning watch again this today. The watch stander that is temporarily standing a COMS watch in our building kept me up all night last night with his music and movies... not to mention the radio announcements every 30-45 minuets. So I am feeling very tired and coffee isn't working very well.
Last night I went over to the Navy gym and did a 5 min warm up on the treadmill then pushed myself and ran for 50 min straight. Overall I did 80 min and covered 8 miles. This has probably been the longest I have ever run in my entire life. I was very happy knowing that I can do something like that. Running is just not my forte. Sunday was a rest day so usually the day after a rest day I like to see how my body feels during warm ups and if nothing is in pain or cramping I like to increase my time or distance to see where my endurance level is at. Running on a treadmill is nothing compared to outside though, it will be quite a shocker to my body when I get to that point.

While I was over there the Commanding Officer of Sector Portland came over to work out after his work day. He was impressed that I have goals and have been sticking to them. Weight standards are always an issue over at Sector because alot of them sit at desks all day, eat at the galley (which WILL pack on those pounds), then choose not to work out even though the facilities are free. There are those who are in the fitness "click" and we keep each other motivated. Just like when you get complements about how good you look when you lose some weight, the same sort of complements you give and receive on progress in fitness help give you that extra motivation to stick with it. I could give myself a MILLION reasons why I don't want to run on a given day, or ever again... but I am stronger than that. I look at myself in the mirror and tell myself why I am doing this, why I want this. Everyone has been so supportive of my goals and I return the favor as much as possible. Thank you all for your support!

Here are the "major" injuries I have "suffered" so far...
First Blood...

And this one was pretty painful, a blister on a blister...

Peter contemplates the quality of life

I am on morning watch today. 0600-1200. My preferred watch rotation. I like standing this watch because it means I have more freedom in the "after-work" hours starting at 1600 in the afternoon. Now that I am fully qualified I can do projects and activities that I have never been to do before. I used to spend all my "extra" time studying or getting underway for training. Now I am focusing on things I have pushed to the side for several months. I have personal goals again. I have started to train for a half-marathon. I have projects to work on at the boat. I can focus on important things like taking better care of my health and well being. I can help out more with Wes's medical needs. I can hang out with friends and make new ones. I can get some semblance of a life back...
For those of you interested in my training I have run/walked a total of 86.5 miles since January first. I started training December 27, the day I became fully qualified. (Also my birthday) I don't believe in New Year's resolutions. I've never really kept them and I know very few people who have. Kudos to anyone who has, I know how hard it is. So I started all my resolutions on my birthday, they mean more to me that way. So since December 27th I have run/walked a total of 96.25 miles.
I am happy that I am trying to do this. I loved the quality of life when I was in competition shape in 2008. I had abounding energy, and was overall very happy and confident with myself. After boot camp being stationed at Sector Portland started a big downward spiral for me internally. I know that I could have been diagnosed with chronic depression which can damage a Coast Guard career if not taken care of. It is on the medical discharge list, so I put on a very good show for everyone and pretended that everything was ok. Then Wes was hospitalized and I tried to put on a better show... but there were definitely too many queues and lines that were missed and I had to find an outlet. I turned to my Mom, online TV, and food. I developed bad habits, habits that I am very ashamed of. Within the last two months I have been able to start the road to recovery and get back on track with where I would like to be in life. I have begun to "snap-out-of-it".
Fitness was a big part of my life two years ago, I am bringing that back. In the months between March and December of last year I probably worked out a little over 10 times...only to relieve stress. I now try and go to the Navy gym as often as I am on duty and have the proper time to put into it. I get all my work done as early as possible to ensure that I might have an hour in the evening to spend training for the half-marathon. Wes has been a huge encouragement to me by walking on the treadmill next to me as I run/walk. He still wants to try walking it with any family members who are interested.
The weather here has been quite yucky so I have not trained outside at all yet. I am worried about the heat in Utah, I don't acclimate very fast :-/ heat can have a huge affect on running. Just a few temperature degrees difference can slow you down significantly. But I am not planning on running this for an "amazing" PR (personal record) time, I am doing this for myself, (as bad as that may sound, I really need this), for family, and to be able to say that I have tried to succeed at something I hate more than golf...or pink...
I have been working on the boat more recently. Wes is happy about that... I put in new carpet on our lower deck and have put de-humidifiers in low-ventilated areas to combat the mold from to much condensation. Wes installed internet on the boat and has been making use of that. We are all set for the new season of LOST to air!!! As soon as the weather clears up I want to start over-hauling the outside decks. I need to completely re-do the hatchway to prevent leakage and further water damage in the bulkheads. As soon as we can scrape together some serious money we are going to have a custom dodger (a water-proof plastic and canvas cover) designed for the cockpit of our boat. The list of things we would like to do on the boat is a little daunting but I am excited to get started!