At the time of the last blog entry, my runs were averaging around ten minutes per mile. Part of this was because of the training that I was putting myself through. While my shoulder was injured and I was looking to lose weight, I decided to do the maximum that I could do decrease calories as opposed to being able to run faster. So twice a week I would run five miles, and twice a week I would do sprint days while doing lower body weight lifting. My running did improve, but very slowly.
Now that I'm happy with my weight (more on that later), I decided to knock the dust off an old Higdon training plan. I'm only doing the first two weeks of the program, which are the same except for the sprint day and the long run (which I'm keeping at five miles for now). The first run of the week is three miles, and when I did it last Monday, I found out that I can run much faster when I'm not saving fuel for the last two miles. So I averaged about 9:30 per mile. The next time I ran three miles I averaged about 9:15 per mile. On Saturday, I ran five miles with a finishing time of 46:03. That's just a millisecond over 9:12 per mile. I should have no problem going below nine minutes on my next three mile run (tomorrow). Knock on wood.
One of the reasons why my five mile run was so good was that I have made Saturday my designated "cheat day" on my diet. I used it as an excuse to carbo-load. I ate pancakes for breakfast and had a small pizza for lunch. It was more starch than I had eaten in a month. I'm back to eating low carbs for the rest of the week.
My goal is to eventually run five miles in under forty minutes (less than eight minutes per mile).
As far as my strength training goes, I started doing drop sets to increase my upper body strength quickly. Drop sets methods vary, but for me it was taking the most weight I could do with one rep and doing that; then, reducing the weight and doing as many reps as I could. I continued doing that until I was either bench-pressing ten pounds, or I had reached a weight so low that I could lift it more than 20 times. It's worked very well for me.
I found out that I hadn't lost a lot of strength in my back. Apparently carrying a three year old and an infant around is a pretty good back workout. :) So this week I'm going to start training to do my first chin-up. I've never been able to do a chin-up or a pull-up in my life, not even when I was a skinny kid. It's always been something I want to be able to do. I like the way this plan is looking, so I'll give it a chance.
I've also decided that I'm not going to run a full marathon next year. I'll still do the Crim race with my wife, but there's a lot of stuff I want to be doing aside from running a very long race. I might change my mind down the line about that eventually, but for now I want to increase my strength, and if I can find the money for it (not happening right now-my ass is broke), go back into martial arts.
As far as the money issue goes on martial arts, I'm not going to let myself make any excuses on that, either. I used to be a black belt in Tang Soo Do. I still know how to do most of the moves in my head. There's no reason that I can't practice on my own until I can get the money to go to classes. I'm going to have to start making time for training. When I get the money I'll expand into MMA so I can increase my grappling abilities, but for now I'm more than capable of doing what I learned fifteen years ago.
Now for some really good news!
Last week my wife and I left our kids with her mom for the weekend. We used this as an excuse to have some alone time. We even checked into a hotel like we used to do before we got married. The room had a full body mirror, and I kept staring at myself in the mirror, completely naked. I was completely stunned with how good I look! I just kept looking at my front, then turning to my side. I struggled to walk away from the mirror every time I saw myself in it.
There's many things that give you good feelings, but none of them are nearly as effective as looking at yourself in the mirror naked, and loving how you look.
I guess this means my weight loss journey is at an end. I'm not dieting anymore to lose weight. I'm eating healthy to maintain the body I already have. This is a new experience for me. I either binge-ate whatever I felt like eating at any given time and didn't care if I gained weight, or I was on a diet and trying to meet a weight-loss goal. As of now, the number on the scale doesn't mean anything. I will still workout and eat right, and for that I will lose body fat and gain muscle, but as far as the number on the scale goes, I really don't give a shit.
This isn't to say I'll never weigh myself again. I'll still do that from time to time to make sure I'm not slipping up too badly. I just don't have a goal to move the numbers on the scale in any particular direction. If I gain ten pounds and it's all muscle, that's great. If I notice that my stomach is bulging a little, the scale will show that too, and it'll mean I have to be more careful. But my goal isn't to be thin. That's accomplished. My goal is to get stronger, faster, and better than I was before. The scale doesn't show any of that.
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