179.5 and sick

Almost without fail, I get sick every two weeks. Typically it is some sort of head cold or cough that is more irritating than debillitating. Running is not fun because I have to run more slowly than desired and I can't breathe. This week has been particularly frustrating because the noon-time weather has been perfect for running. I slogged through my routine run today and the pace was OK. But, I had new shoes and the weather was perfect. Should have been a tempo run. I keep telling myself that I would rather run relatively slow and spend time with my boys, but I really do want to train seriously for a race before I'm 50. The whole weight thing will solve itself if I had a goal race to train for....

Whatever, I run enough to still identify myself as a runner, that's good enough.

Bridges Run

Yesterday, I identified one of my lunch runs as the "bridges run." I work on Capitol Hill in DC and this run starts at the top of said hill. After a nice little warm up trotting down the hill, I run along the mall in a westerly direction, dodging leagues of school kids acting like, well, school kids. The construction that is the Folklife Festival preparation has added additional impediments, but on the whole, the mall is a great place to run. The WWII memorial is a choke point, which is a good thing. About once a week, a group of elderly veterans, many in wheel chairs, will cluster around the memorial. I cannot imagine the memories that well up in those guys; I'm glad they now have their spot on the mall.

The run continues over the memorial bridge, with the Arlington House in clear view. I loop down to the Mt. Vernon Trail and run south (more or less) to the 14th st. bridge. This part is unpleasant, unless you have run the Marine Corps Marathon. Running next to the interstate is better than running on the interstate as one does in the MCM. At least on my run, you can look down at the water and imagine how good it would feel to be in the water. In the MCM, there's no view from the HOV lanes. A run through the grass field adjacent to the Jefferson Memorial and over a wee little bridge separating the tidal basin from the washington channel, leaves me at the best spot to watch the MCM (Mike will attest to that). A short run north on 15th st. gets me back to the mall where I head east and back to work. Blech. Anyway, after that run I can scratch 7.3 miles in my log and I have run through two states (well, a District and a Commomwealth) and three bridges. I will have run past the US Capitol, the Washington Monument, WWII and Korean War Memorials, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and run past Arlington Cemetary. Not bad for under an hour.

Well, who's counting anyway?

I have still been running and weighing in every morning. Exactly one week after day one, I was at 180, so I lost one pound in a week. That's actually pretty good considering I did not get in a long run last week and only logged 28 or so miles. This week was pretty grueling with the heat index up over 100 Monday and Tuesday. Each run, however, was better than the last. I capped off the workday runs today with a run of the bridges, roughly 7.3 miles, so I am already up to 24.1 miles for the week. The pace today was down around 7:30/mi, a little slow for a 7 miler, but I am still "heavy." I am hoping to get two runs in this weekend, so I sould be up into the low thirties for the week. Once I get back to long runs, I should be able to hit 40/week without too much additional effort.

What does this picture hve to do with anything? Well, about a month ago I said I would post a picture of my gardening project. So I am a little behind, what of it? I have actually done a little more since this picture, stay tuned.

179?

Well, who knows? Yesterday's run went well, 38:52 for the same 5.6 mile loop, but apparently I gained weight, 2.5 lbs. My guess is that (1) I was dehydrated yesterday morning when I weighed and (2) I had not eaten breakfast. Neverthelss, this leads me to believe that yesterday was the abnormal reading and that the 181 on day one may have been accurate. Who knows. I can see now why they say weighing once a week is a better strategy, but then what would I bore you with?

Today's run may be the 7.2 miler, if I am motivated to run over the bridge when I get to the lincoln memorial. The extra 2 miles or so will not add much to my overall fitness, but there is something about running for 52 minutes versus 40 minutes. Seems much more like running for a purpose and less like simple maintenance exercise. We'll see.

176.5

No, I don't think I really lost 4.5 lbs in 24 hours. Nevertheless, that's what the scale said two of the four times I stepped on it this morning. I suppose I could have stepped on the thing 30 times to ensure large enough sample for a mean, but decided the median after four tries was good enough. Yesterday's reading was probably high, but it is common for me to pop up and down as I am one of those guys that loses (and adds) water weight rapidly. The 181 was also surprising given my clothes still fit, though they are not "loose" like they are around marathon time. My "true" wieght yesterday was probably around 179. The good news in all of this is that I am much farther from the "overwieght" BMI level (184) than I orginally feared.

My run yesterday was good. 40:04 for 5.6 miles. Anything at or under 40 is a good run for me at that distance. I'll do the same thing today, see how it feels now that I am 4.5 pounds lighter...

181

That's what the scale said this morning. I have not stepped on the scale since my last marathon because I was afraid of what it might say. Though I am disappointed that I am about 10 lbs heavier than I would like to be, I am not "overweight" by BMI standards, barely. The wieght gain has a couple of causes. One, I have not been doing any long runs as our new son Ian, born, as it happens, on the same day as my last marathon, is a higher priority than getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and running for a couple of hours. And two, I have helped myself to more than the occasional beer as I have no marathon or long run looming in the near future. My eating has been about the same as pre-Ian, but if I am running 60% to 70% of the mileage I was before Ian, I should probably cut back more than I have. There are some other excuses such as being sick every other week, a general lack of sleep reducing motivation, and poor weather, but I can't control those things.

So today I start the official back to fitness campaign. I will run my standard 5.6 mile loop at lunch today, which I will repeat a couple of times during the week. And, I will chug through a 7.2 miler later in the week. And, more importantly, I'll limit adult drinks to Fridays and Saturdays (and baseball games). Each day I'll report my weight on the blog. I'll write it in my running journal too, but that doesn't have the same impact as publishing it here. As for the long runs, we'll see. That imposes strains on the family that will have to be negotiated before making a public commitment. Ian is likely getting the dreaded ear tubes sometime soon. We are hoping that will help with sleep and increase general family happiness. The long runs will start after that on a limited basis (maybe).