Where Am I?

I'm still around. I'm trying as hard as I know how to avoid losing too much fitness during the time off.

I tried running Sunday morning. Nobody but me showed up for the weekly 10 miler, and that was probably a good thing for me. I started very slowly, and I could feel my calf. There was no pain, but I knew that if I went farther or faster that it would start hurting, so I just quit. If someone else had showed up, I probably would have run with him and done more damage. I'm taking a full two weeks from Sunday and then I'll test it again. If all goes well, I'll start base building so I can hit August 8 (the first day of my 18 week marathon training schedule) ready to endure the grind.

In the mean time, I'm doing weights, spinning, recumbent bike, core work, etc. I'm really hitting those exercises hard. I'm watching my diet very closely. Yet the pounds relentlessly appear. I've gained 6 pounds since the first sign of the injury. Maybe they're not all bad pounds because I do think I look a little better in the mirror! :) (But that's not nearly as objective a measure as the scale itself.)

One thing I've learned in my 38 years is that I am not a person who can just go on auto-pilot when it comes to body weight. I have to watch it very closely all the time. I'll never have it licked. I'll have to be disciplined with it for the rest of my life or I'll weigh 250-300 pounds or more. I envy people who can eat cookies and ice cream and cake and fast food and not gain weight. I am not one of you. Even at 70-80 miles per week during training for Country Music Marathon, I gained weight because I got lazy and unfocused with my diet. Ugh. And to me, saying "no" to ice cream is more difficult than grinding out that 5th 1200m interval at sub 5k pace.