Sunday, July 26, 2009

Just an Ounce at a Time

It’s been three months and a day since I ran / walked the Country Music Half Marathon. I’ve been pretty sedentary, for me, since then. Now sedentary as I define it means walking around town at lunch, walking thousands of steps at work each day, and climbing about 20 - 30 floors on the stairs at work every day instead of using the elevator. I’ve done some hiking, as you can see on my hiking blog, and I try to do an hour of water aerobics once or twice a week. So it is not as if I have been a total couch potato. But it also has meant not getting out and running and walking 4-6 miles before work, and sleeping in on Saturdays instead of getting out with Team in Training and putting in another 8 – 13 miles.

Partly it has been laziness. It is very easy each night to say “I won’t get up tomorrow and run but I will the day after,” then repeat that the next night. It is tough getting up early and missing out on sleep. Without having to do that, maybe I would stay up a little later reading or working on the computer, and then realize that I would only get 6 hours of sleep if I got up and run, so I would just defer it.

And partly has been the foot pain, which just kept getting a little worse. I thought by resting the foot more it would go away, but it never did. The cortisone shot actually made it worse for a couple of weeks but now it feels better, so it is time to try some miles again.

I’ve noticed my weight creeping up. My pants and shorts are all feeling a bit tighter. I don’t own a scale but there are scales downtown in the banks. Every time I would get on one my weight would be just a little higher since stopping intense training. Not good, because from January to April I lost 11 pounds by working out so much and was pretty close to my ideal weight. I noted the other day that I have gained 6 pounds of that back since the race on April 25. That translates to only about an ounce a day on average for three months, but it adds up.

So enough is enough! Since I will be a fashion model for a night in less than 3 weeks, I want to be in good shape for that. Therefore, my goal is to lose at least 3 of those pounds in that time so I will look pretty good strutting down that runway! Yesterday, I got up and walked and ran four miles, running about 20 minutes of it. That is probably only the 5th time I have run since the race! It made my right knee a little sore, so this morning I walked 4 miles but didn’t run. Hopefully if I can keep doing this and watch the snacks, some of those extra pounds will come off by the time I strut my stuff in the fashion show!

Later today, I am going to hit the elliptical machine for 40 minutes or so, and the weight room. We fashion models have to stay in shape! :)

2 comments:

TNTcoach Ken said...

You models only care about your looks, ha! Get you Mojo back and kick some butt.

o2bhiking said...

Damn, you're on to me, Coach Ken! We are such prima donnas! OK, I'll get my butt in gear, don't worry!