Stopping By The Woods

Today I celebrated my arrival on the planet 52 years ago by running once more. I had not run in three days. It was a pleasant enough run, given that my hip flexor is still bothering me. I kept it gentle, and I am continuing my exercises and physical therapy. I doubt if I will be able to do the Hangover Classic on Jan. 1 (10 miles), but I sure would like to get better and heal up fast. If getting to where I can run long distances again means that I have to wait to run those distances, though, so be it.

Here are my morning numbers:

This morning I completed my long run for the week.  For the past three weekends in a row, I have been doing 10 miles.  Previously I incorporated about three miles of trail running into the ten mile run, but today, I just stuck to the roads.   I covered the distance in 1:41:57 at a pace of 10:09.  The temp was not too bad, 41.4°F, with a slight wind of around 6 mph.  By the time I started running at 7:30 am, the sun was already up, and it was nice to run in daylight for a change.  I normally have been trying to run five days a week.  Monday through Thursday I get in three miles a day before work, and it is usually quite dark then.  I try to take Fridays off, then a long run on Saturday, and a recovery day off on Sunday. 

Perhaps a little history is in order.  This past July, I weighed 267 pounds.  I stand about six two or so and have a large frame, but there was no doubt about it, I was way overweight.  I think an apt description would be fat.  I had tried to start running again this summer (I had done some running back in 2001 but never trained properly and gave it up), attempting to jog and walk a bit on the weekends, but I was not backing that effort up with additional weekday attempts, nor was I even the slightest bit considering going on a diet.  I had not been a meat eater for quite some time, but I consumed lots of soft drinks and chips and pizza and pasta, and I never wanted to exercise that much, even though I have actually always loved getting out to the woods, and going on the occasional bike ride.  But as my weight kept increasing, I was finding those activities harder and harder to do.

So around the first week of August this year, a friend decided she was going to try a diet, even though, in my opinion, she didn’t need to go on one, and I did.  It was called the Fat Smash Diet.  I never had much belief in diets, yet alone something with a “fad name,” but something about how she described it to me made sense…I could eat all the fruits and vegetables I wanted, and I had to incorporate cardio.  This seemed quite a logical and healthy way to lose weight.

When I first started out, I was hardly running at all. In fact, for that first month, I barely could run for 5 minutes without significant pain in my knees and ankles, and I was totally out of breath after about one minute.  But I still lost about 20 pounds, just from eating better.   To be honest, I haven’t even read the Fat Smash book fully.   I just followed the general guidelines, and it’s been working.  The bottom line is I have lost over 40 pounds (with a goal of losing about 30 more) and I am now running about 22 miles a week.   Oh yeah, and I am now a running addict.