November 5, 2007 is when I started this little project, so I've been doing this a year now. I went from unhealthy and fat and out of shape to healthy, 40 pounds thinner, and running marathons in the span of one year.
Um, yeah.
For the next year, I'm looking at much of the same. I've got three marathons scheduled, plus a few other scattered races here and there. I assume I'll keep losing weight, because that's what happens when I run more than I eat. I've been in dire need of some new clothes, but I'm afraid to buy too many because either I could lose more, or gain it all back. I have one pair of slim pants that I was really proud to buy when I started losing weight, and they just fall off of me now. I'd hate to buy a bunch more clothes now, and have them start falling off in a couple of months. Conversely, I'd hate to buy them a little small and have them get too tight as I chunk out again. I don't quite know what to do about that other than to pick a weight and stick with it. Basically, if my weight starts getting too low, or otherwise gets to a point I like, I'll start actively eating more to level it out, and then go buy clothes to fit.
One change I'll make is to stop tracking my blood pressure. I'll check it every week or two to see where it is, but I've pretty much got that licked now. So, I'm not going to compulsively track it anymore. The actual measurements I took were all over the place, but once I enter it into Excel and have it graph a trend line, you can see the definite downward trend:
Year 1 in Review
Briefly summarized, here's what I did for a year:
In November, I started this project of tracking what I eat, tracking my blood pressure, and tracking my exercise with the intent of seeing how far I could get in eight weeks. I made a specific plan to start running again with the only goal to be able to run 3 miles or 30 minutes without stopping. I got some new shoes, and started a specific running schedule. I had everything mapped out with intervals of walking and running, starting with only 1 minute of running, then ramping up to increasing lengths of runs and decreasing lengths of walks. The high point of my weight was November 8th, with 222 pounds (this was not my all time high, unfortunately).
At the beginning of December, I did the Tucson Half-Marathon, running 1/4 mile for every 3/4 mile that I walked. It was a little bit more than I should have done at that point, and I was out of commission for a week with soreness and a hurt foot. The foot kept bothering me, and I didn't make a whole lot of progress the rest of the month. I got to the point where I could run 7 minutes at a time, but ultimately felt that eight weeks wasn't enough time to really gauge an overall change in my health. So, I extended my plan.
I was sick a lot in January, which caused me to miss a lot of runs. I also went to Mexico for a while, which slowed down my weight loss considerably. Still, by the end of the month I had worked up to the point where I could do 14 minutes of running twice with only 2 minutes of walking between. Also, I got bit by a dog.
In February, I finally made the goal of being able to run 30 minutes uninterrupted, and by the end of the month was running 5 miles. I also ran a 5k with a time of 28:33.
At the beginning of March, I baited my little brother Steven into running a 10k with no training at all, thinking that I could beat him handily since I had been running a few months. I got the shin splints really bad at the beginning of the month, and was pretty crippled by the time of the 10k at the end of the month. I did the 10k in 1:03:17 and suffered a very humiliating defeat. I had my first daily weigh-in under 200 pounds, which was the first time in 10 years.
I took a lot of April off to rest my shin splints, then finally went to the doctor about it. He diagnosed me with flat feet and overpronation and prescribed inserts and/or stability shoes. I got inserts, then later got new shoes, and my shins have been fine since. At the end of April, I decided to start marathon training for 3 reasons. One, I need a schedule or a goal to keep going and I couldn't think of anything else to do since there weren't any 5k or 10k races in the summer here. Two, Scott was goading me into trying for the Park City Marathon, and I wanted to prove to him that it's impossible to train for a marathon in the summer in Tucson. Three, if I didn't die training, I would actually have the option of doing it.
May was all marathon training, and I was beginning to discover just how difficult it was to run in the heat.
In June, we went on a cruise and then to Walt Disney World. I had intended to keep up my training schedule on the ship and in Florida, but didn't. I had built a couple of extra weeks into the schedule, so this was not a big deal. So, I ran more and it got hotter.
July was hotter still, and I began to set my affairs in order preparatory to my certain demise. I also decided to actually commit to the marathon.
In August, I ran said marathon with Scott and Shane. I didn't do that well time-wise, but I finished, and I had a much easier time of it than my long runs in training. I also got a bloody nipple earlier in the month, and some new shoes later in the month.
In September, I ran a mountain race in Vegas, then ran up Mt. Wrightson the next week.
For the first couple of weeks of October, I was really sore from the mountain run, so it took a while to get back to a normal running schedule. I got my lab results back this month, and they were impressive, showing me in excellent health.
So that brings me to now. Next week: the Stake 5k!
2 comments:
One thing I would like to see is your yearly totals for miles run, average pace, etc. I've never tracked mine, so that would be cool.
It's pretty amazing what you accomplished. Most people just talk about needing to get out and exercise. 15 years and 2 heart attacks later, they finally get around to it.
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