dreadedmonkeygod . net

The whole idea of Lent is that you're supposed to give up a staple of your daily life. Something that you feel you "need" to get through your day. The idea is that after 40 days of not having coffee or caffeine, I'm supposed to realize that the coffee I "needed" to get through my day wasn't important at all. I have realized the opposite: it is important.

It's as important to me as running, working out, or seeing my friends. They're all coping mechanisms. And right now, I'm not coping especially well. With a busted knee keeping me sidelined and my no-coffee Lenten vow in effect, I have no outlet for my stress, so I'm forced to cut it off at the source.

And I think that's part of the reason my training lately has been sporadic. I keep getting sick, and injured, because I'm using excercise as a coping mechanism rather than as a way to improve my body and my life. I ran too far, too soon, because I needed to blow off steam, and end up missing the event that I've been training for since last July.

Getting sick once happens. Getting sick over, and over, and over again doesn't "just happen." It means I'm not taking care of myself. Time to fix that.