That's Better

Today I had my second run of the week. I was still a little bit sore and remembering how laborious running at an 11:00 pace was, I slowed it down to 12:00. I'm in no rush!

On Monday I had to divide up my two miles of running into four segments: 8 minutes, 3 minutes, 5.5 minutes, and then 5 minutes. Today, I managed the whole two miles without stopping or even changing my pace, which is awesome! It definitely shows that I'm out of shape, but I've still got some oomf in me.

I think I'll increase my speed on the machine by 0.1 each week to bring me from 5.0 (12:00) to 6.0 (10:00) or better by race time. That change seems gradual enough that I can achieve it! As for my outdoor runs, I'll just have to pay attention to my watch.

So fitness is going well this week, but food is going poorly! The food that I'm eating is healthy, but I can't manage to eat enough of it. Oh, the woes of being a poor college student! I get paid tomorrow though (phew!), so I can finally go food shopping and eat something besides oatmeal, rice & beans, eggs, and grapefruit (a little bit of an exaggeration, but not far from the truth). I've got to hit my nutrition ranges! I've been killing the fiber and water, though :)

Until tomorrow!

Weight Loss

Obviously, as a 200+ pounder, weight loss is the primary goal of running, at least for me. Every time I "get back on the horse" I make it down to about the point I'm currently at, 207/208 lbs., and give up. I refuse to let that happen this time. When I came to college, I was ~235, so I've lost a good chunk of weight, and kept ~20 lbs. off for three years, but every time I stop running and stop paying attention to what I eat, I got back up to around 215.

When I started running again three weeks ago, I weighed 214.6 lbs. My last weigh-in on Saturday put me in at 208 lbs. I REALLY want to be under 207 this week. It would be the lowest weight I've been since I can remember - probably since freshman year of high school. I'm not going to brood over it if I don't, though. I should be getting my period this week, which means bloating and whatnot, so I won't be surprised if I'm 208 again.

Anyway, here's my plan. I'm eating. I'm not really restricting myself from foods, but I'm monitoring my intake and controlling portion sizes. It's so funny how we stretch our stomachs to the extent that we need a huge plate full of food to feel full - that's so unnecessary! Other than that, I am limiting myself on sweets. I was raised in an environment where greasy, salty, fried snacks were always around, and after-dinner desserts were assumed. That's not right, and that's not healthy. It wasn't until I got to college that I realized that not everyone had dessert EVERY night (seriously). So I'm not cutting desserts out, just cutting them waaaaaay back.

I have a goal to run at least 7 miles a week. So far I've run 2 on Sunday, 2 on Monday. Today's an impromptu rest day for me, for three reasons: (1) I've run on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so my muscles could use a day to rest; (2) I got a massive blister on my achilles during my run yesterday, so I'm giving it another day to heal; and (3) I have too much to do today (worst of the reasons). I'm doing stregth training 3x a week, with upper-body on Mondays, lower-body on Wednesdays, and core on Fridays.

Also drinking a TON of water, and trying to be as optimistic as possible about life in general.

So that's that. I've got to go get some work done, but I'll be checking back in soon!