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!