Wednesday Weigh In

     Sore is the only word that comes to mind when I think about how I feel right now.  Today I had my longest run yet, and as great as I feel I am so glad next week is a step back week to allow my body to rest a little.  

     As far as my weight loss journey is concerned, the losses have been a little smaller than usual but steady non the less.  Now this week on the other hand, the increase in mileage combined with my ability to maintain a reasonable calorie intake (except last Friday of course) I finally had a big weigh in.  I was shocked but quite happy!  If anything I was pretty surprised following my pig out session on Friday.  A whole plate of nachos and large greasy breaded wings in BBQ sauce, Mmmmmm I am getting hungry just typing this, better change the subject :) Just looking back at the last 7 days, I managed to burn roughly 4800 calories just in my running alone.  Now combine that with maintaining a good calorie intake and the rest of my daily activities, I guess it is no surprise how much I was able to lose.

7/30/14 official weigh in

182.5 lbs

Change: -2.5 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 134.5 lbs

Current BMI: 28.5 (overweight)

Change: -.4

     As I stated earlier, today's long run was my longest yet!  Seventeen miles sure is a long way and to think that I just got done running that truly amazes me.  Sometimes when I sit here and type out these run recaps, I think back to the days when running one mile was such a challenge for me and how I would run a few laps and then have to walk a few over and over, always wondering if I would ever get to run a mile non stop.  Its times like this when the mantra I adopted "Only the Committed will Survive" really rings true.

     

     Last night I mapped out my route using the course function at runningahead.com.  Its a great little tool that allows you to draw your route on a map and gives you the mileage and elevation changes.  I don't want to finish to far from home and I don't want to get back home only to have to head back out because I didn't get enough miles so by using the course creator I know exactly where to go so I finish right back at my house.  I also checked the weather as thunderstorms were forecast for today.  I new I would be out for almost 3 hours so I got up a little earlier so I could finish by noon and stay ahead of any potential weather, which didn't show up till almost 6:00. 

    

      I got all packed up and ready to go and noticed it was mostly overcast and the temp was still quite cool.  Last week when I took off, even though I held a steady pace it felt tough to get any pace much below the 10 minute per mile mark, today it felt so much easier and was actually hard to keep my pace slow.  My body just kept wanting to go faster and I had to fight it most of the run.

     My run got a little slow around mile 6; I seemed to have taken a funny step because my ankle began to hurt.  I tried pushing through it and slowed my pace down.  The pain wasn't more than a 4 on a scale of ten so I pushed on and eventually the pain vanished.  Mile 10 was the other time things got a little slow for me.  I think my legs were just trying to get me to say hey its ok to quit or take a little break, but I pushed through and ignored them.  I was also proud of myself for maintaining a nice steady pace in the middle of my run while I was listening to a podcast.  If you remember last time I did this my pace fell off quite a bit and had to shut off the podcast and put my music back on to recover my pace.  I listened to the entire 45 minute podcast and only slowed a couple of seconds per mile.  

     I am happy to report that the Clif Shot Bloks are working quite well for me.  So far I have not had any GI issues and I have been able to get down every one I attempt to eat.  As of now I have been eating one blok every 2 miles and taking a drink immediately after swallowing it.  The one thing I notice this time is at around 2 and a half hours my stomach was grumbling a little telling me I was starting to get really hungry.  I may need to rethink my strategy a little bit and consider adding a more tradition food to my fueling strategy.  

     Once I hit mile 15 I was again breaking new ground as I went 2 miles further than I ever had before.   To top it off, those were my two fastest miles out of the whole run.  I decided to take the governor off and not worry how fast or slow I was going and just go with what felt good.  It was nice to see I could go faster on tired legs!