TUESDAY
At home morning weight: 216.2/Last WI: 220.4
Well I did very well yesterday. I ran outside and stayed w/in my points. With regard to running, here's my story. I started running in law school around 2000. It took me almost 6 months to be able to run a mile comfortably, and then I slowly got up to being able to do 3 easily. After I made goal the first time, I felt invicible and my first year out of law school I trained for and ran a marathon in Nashville TN, April 2003. Since then my running has been up and down. I will do great for 6 months - working up to being able to do 5-6 miles easy then I'll take a few months off and slack. I've done a number of races, but after putting all this weight back on, my speed and dropped significantly. I still do running when I'm being good b/c it is truly the most efficient exercise. I burn more calories doing that per minute than anything else I've found. And I'm all about efficiency when it comes to exercise.
Well - the last 6 months have been my normal up and down with running. Last fall I thought about trying to train for the new Georgia marathon that happens this month in Atlanta, but I didn't really commit to it and eventually had to admit I wouldn't be trained for it. So, with periods of commitment and slacking, this winter has been typical. In the last month, I've been on the slack part of the cycle and just came back to running last week. On Wednesday last week I got on the treadmill at the gym and did 3 miles without too much trouble. I usually keep it at about 5.8- 6.0 when I'm coming back into training. I kicked it up at the last mile and finished the 3 in just under 30 minutes.
Here's my thing with running, and I'm somewhat unique in this aspect. I actually prefer to run on the treadmill. Even when I'm doing longer distanes like 6-10 miles. Most people are the exact opposite. They HATE the treadmill b/c it's "boring". For me, a sort of logical/analytical type person, I love having all of my stats right there staring me in the face. I can play lots of games like "run fast 2 minutes, jog 2 minutes" or increase hill grade 1% every 4 minutes, etc. This makes my workouts interesting and can help with speed and strength. The other reason I prefer the treadmill is that I seem to do so much better. Now I know some of the reason for this is that treadmills don't have wind resistance, you don't have to run in the sun, you have your water right there with you, and you have some "cushoning" when you run on good treadmills. All of that, however, can't seem to account for how BAD I do outside. For example, as I said last Wednesday I ran on the treadmill 3 miles in 30 minutes. It was a work out but didn't kill me. Yesterday the weather was lovely here so I decided to run outside for the first time since last fall. I had 3 miles clocked out and knew my route. I got about 1.2 miles in and had to take a walk break. I then ran/walked the rest of the way - probably walking 40% of it. Now on the treadmill I don't have to walk at all! WTF? Granted, where I live there are a lot of hills and although I pick the least hilly route I can find, there are still significant hills. That's a factor. But I just feel different outside. I'm not sure if it's psychological or not. I just don't get it. I ended up doing the 3 miles in about 38-39 minutes.
So I'm going to work on doing better outside. My quads are sore today so I know the hills were good for me. But it's going to take time I think. I LOVE that the weather is getting warmer and w/ day light savings time changing I have a lot more daylight after work to deal with.
So tonight - I'm going back to the gym, although they say it's supposed to be georgous today. I want to get in a good run b/c Erik and I are going out to dinner tonight.
Background on Erik - we started dating in June 2005. We had both relatively recently gotten out of other serious relationships - him a marriage, me an engagement. We hit it off right away and have been dating every since. We're three months shy of 2 years and are now talking a bit about marriage. We took it slow to be sure it wasn't rebound, but I think we're ready. We've lived together for a little over a year and things are great. We really don't fight very often and when we do one of us is usually drunk. :-)
Anyway, Erik has an adorable son who just turned 4 this past weekend. He shares custody with his ex-wife and gets him about 40% of the time. Erik's family is from Michigan and his parents came down for Daniel's 4th birthday party. It was great having them here, and it's wonderful for Daniel to be close to his grandparents. As with any company though - your plans are limited while they're in town. Erik and I didn't go out at all this weekend of course and in fact I haven't driving my car in over a week! (I drive a county car to work). Erik's parents left to go back to Michigan this morning, and he doesn't have Daniel tonight so we're going out to play poker and have a few drinks.
Thus why I need to get the good workout in. :-) I'm doing very well this week - my recommitment week. That's not at all unusual, but I certainly want to take advantage of this new motivation and see a good loss when I WI on Thursday.
Ok - I might have more to say but I'll do another post if necessary.
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