Wednesday Weigh In

     11/5/14 official weigh in

177 lbs

Change: -2 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 140 lbs

Current BMI: 27.7 (overweight)

Change: -.3

     Closer and closer I get to that "Goal Number" I have chosen as my stopping point.  It is strange to think that I am only four pounds away from my freshman wrestling weight.  Yes that is right, I said my freshman wrestling weight.  When I started wrestling my freshman year I weighed in at 200lbs, which was the heavy weight division.  I was getting my ass handed to me because most in that class were six foot or taller and no less than 260lbs.  I spent that first month working my ass of getting down to the next weight class, which was 175.  When I finally achieved it I pretty much hovered right around the 173 mark for the remainder of the season.  Why did I choose that as my goal weight?  Well mainly because that was the last time in my life I remember being in such great shape, so it seemed like the best place to get to.

     Today I wanted to get a run in, but with my injury from my last run I didn't want to push it.  I decided to head to the gym for the first time since February or March and get my foot pod calibrated for indoor use.  The indoor track at my local YMCA is 9 laps to equal a mile and even though it is so much better than running on a treadmill but it can still get a little monotonous.  I walked a couple of laps to get warmed up and then turned my GPS off and linked my shoe pod.  To calibrate the shoe pod I first ran 9 laps at an easy pace.  When I finished that ninth lap I stopped my watch, which showed a final distance of 1.09 miles.  Through some minor mathematical calculations I got from my friend Katie's blog runsforcookies.com  .  I reset the calibration on the foot pod and ran another 9 laps at an easy pace to see if I needed to make another adjustment.  What do you know, it was spot on.  Each lap was calculated as .11 of a mile and the total added up to exactly a mile.   

     Now that my foot pod was calibrated, I really wanted to get six miles in for the day and I also wanted to see how the pod would do on an extended run.  I had two miles down, which left me 36 laps left to get my six miles in, well my knee / IT band had other ideas.  I was doing just fine until I got started on mile three.  I started to get light pain on the outside of my right knee again, but it felt like a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10 so I continued.  When I got to mile 2.5 the pain jumped up to 4 or 5, but stubborn me wanted to keep going.  I stopped when I got to the end of mile three.  I just couldn't do it anymore, the pain was up to a 6 or even a seven.  It almost immediately went away when I started walking, but an aching pain slowly returned.  As far as the foot pod goes, it was pretty damn accurate after the three miles.  When I finished, the watch registered a distance of 2.99 miles.  If the pod stays that accurate throughout this winter, I will be a happy runner.

     As for the knee, I guess I am pushing myself to quickly since Columbus.  These little nagging injuries are starting to piss me off when all I want to do is run.  I am not really sure what I should do.  I am sure the smartest and best option is to just stop running for a while, but that is like asking me not to eat.       

I'M BACK!!............Almost

     So much for daylight savings time and getting an extra hour of sleep when you have a puppy.  Yesterday I had a really long day working a little over 12 hours and I was hoping to be able to sleep well into the morning, but Jedi had other plans.  We played with him for awhile till we could get him all tuckered out, but by that time I was wide awake, so no more sleep for me.  I took this picture of him just after he woke from his nap and it was so cute I had to share it.

     What a great run I had today and I owe it all to the clock that I forgot to turn back for daylight savings time.  I recently renewed my track membership at the YMCA and I had planned on going in at noon for an easy run and to calibrate my foot pod.  I got all geared up and ready to go when I saw the time on my phone and realized I still had an hour and a half till they opened.  I didn't really want to wait and it didn't feel as cold outside as it said on my phone, so I said screw it, outside run it is.

     For a cold day the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  The sun was shinning with not a cloud in the sky and barely a breeze to even mention it.  I was feeling pretty good, but I really didn't have an idea on how this run was going to go.  I planned on doing four miles and stretch it to six if things were going well and as far as my pace goes I though I would let how I felt dictate it.

     Within seconds of starting this run I felt like my old self again.  My pace immediately was hovering around the 8:50s without feeling like I was putting in much effort.  Once I hit the first quarter mile I told myself that if I still felt this good by the first mile mark I was going to go for the full six miles.  Surprise, surprise, I was still feeling good by mile one and so my run went from four to six.  As the run went on I picked up the pace taking the next two miles into the mid 8:30s.  When I hit mile four I was starting to get a little light pain on the front of my leg just above my ankle.  I slowed the pace into the 8:40s and then into the 8:50s.  The pain started to subside and I got a little over zealous and pushed it back up to an 8:30 pace for the last mile.  I got through it just fine, but sitting here typing this the pain is back and hurts when I point my toes and then bring my foot back toward the front of my leg.  I am gonna give it some ice therapy, rest and the next couple of runs I won't push the pace either.  After the run I stretched out and did my push ups, first set 40 reps, second set 20 reps and the third set 10 reps.  I think I am gonna try and hit 100 reps by the end of the year.