Week 19 Wrapup

The running went well this week except for the fact that my legs are still really sore. They have this biting sort of pain in the shins that kicks in with every step I take, although it goes away when I run. It's hard to really tell from the pain if it's muscle or bone, or which particular muscle or bone it would be related to, since it's so generalized to the whole area underneath my knees.

It's clearly the result of overuse, though, and were it not for the upcoming 10k, I'd rest for a week and let it heal or something. As it is, I'll try to finish the 10k training as scheduled, but maybe modify the schedule to do it a little easier. Then, after the 10k, I'll take a week off before starting whatever's next. If I don't make my 10k goal, I'll jump back in to training for another 10k. If I do make my goal, I'll start looking for something else to do.

I'm starting to think that it's possible that my shoes are worn out already and that's the cause of at least some of my pain. There's not too much visible tread wear, but it's possible the cushioning is shot already. I've only had this pair since the end of November, but I've been averaging 15-20 miles a week since then, so this pair could have 250-300 miles by now. I had hoped they would last a lot longer, but in their defense, I've been over 200 pounds this whole time. My limited knowledge of physics is enough to guess that 200 pounds has got to put a lot more force into each step than, say, 150.

I went ahead and ordered another pair of the exact same kind I've got (Mizuno Wave Rider 10, regular width, size 12), except a slightly different color. If the new ones feel noticeably better, I'll just assume that the old ones wore out kind of soon, and maybe look for another kind next time. If there's not a big difference between the new and the old, I'll be able to rotate both pairs and prolong the wearing out of the old pair. Then, at some point, I theoretically should be able to see a difference between the two. I should be able to more directly gauge how they're wearing since I'll have sort of a "control shoe" to compare to.

Since my legs were hurting so much, I took Friday off to let them rest. Then, on Saturday, I disregarded all of my previous good intentions about resting, and decided it would be a good idea to do an actual dry run at 10k. I ran 10 kilometers in 1:01:30, just a minute and a half shy of my goal. I did feel like I was holding back a little because I didn't want to be in too much pain the next day. But, I also felt like if I didn't care what I felt like afterwards, I would have been able to beat an hour with no problem.

This bodes well for the race in two weeks. However, the big differences between this run and the race are that the race course is a little bit hilly and my running path is not, and the race is 8 AM. I'm used to running after having already been awake and moving around for many hours. This makes no small difference for me.

The other item of note this week is that I slipped under 200 pounds for the first time. By the end of the week it was over 200 again, but that's been fairly typical for me. Going back over my logs, I'm seeing a lot of big jumps forward followed by a couple of days of small slips back. My theory is that this is mostly relating to what's in my bowels at any given time, and that a great momentous movement must surely coincide with all of the large drops in weight. However, I have not kept detailed enough logs to know if this is true.

So, it's not a big deal to slip back over 200, but it is unfortunate that I'm going to Mexico for most of next week. Trips to Mexico for our family mean large all day meals and never ending food, so it's entirely possible for that reason alone that it will be a couple of weeks before I see the underside of 200 again.

The 200 pound mark is notable because it's the first time in 10 years that my weight has been that low. A (not so) brief history of my weight follows:

My first driver's license said 150 pounds on it, and for some reason, that didn't get updated on there until about 8 years later. In actual reality, I was probably about 180 by the time I graduated from high school. When I went to college in 1991, I put on several pounds of dorm food, and by my third semester in the dorms, had gone over 200 for the first time.

In early 1993, I was out of school for a while and trying to live and work on my own. I had no car and no money, so I walked everywhere and ate either ramen or whatever I could scrounge at the fast food place where I worked. I lost a lot of weight in a couple of months, so much so that I got flagged at the plasma center where I was selling my plasma for having too quick of a weight loss, and had to get medical clearance so they could be sure I didn't have some nasty disease. If I remember right, I got down to a low of 182 or thereabouts.

When things got more stable, my weight went back up so that by 1996 I had settled into my norm of 220-230. In 1998, I made my only serious effort to lose weight. My sister worked at Jenny Craig and could get the food at a significant discount, so I decided to try that for a few months. In 3 months, I went from 225 to 193. It was a loss of 32 pounds, which was quite remarkable. But then, the company I worked for was sold and I moved to Arizona for a year, and put some of the weight back on. By 1999 I was back in Provo, but my diet was mainly fast food, and by 2000, I was back up into the 220s.

In 2001, I ran for the summer, which you would think would have a positive effect on my weight. However, this was while I was at the company with the unlimited free candy and pop and the daily free lunches out. So, any running I was doing was just slowing the inevitable weight gain.

In 2004, I tried to lose a few pounds because the otolaryngologist who was going to do surgery on my nose and throat wanted to be sure my problem wasn't weight related first. I got down to 209, which I gather was enough for him to go ahead with the surgery. Somewhere in 2005 or 2006, I clocked an all time high of 233. Late summer of 2006 was the lightning strike that started the chain reaction that led to the whole business you're reading about now.

Again, this isn't a weight loss quest. It's a general health and fitness quest. Any weight loss is just a positive side effect. That said, it does feel good to hit that magical 200 pound mark, and I am very pleased.