What a Difference a Year Makes

Wanted to share a couple of pictures with you.  The one on the left was made on June 19, 2010, and the one on the right was made on June 18, 2011.  What a difference a year makes.

Too Much Too Soon

This past week was a week of many challenges. I did have a good week overall. When I got off the road on Wednesday I was going to go to the gym that night but decided to wait until Thursday to go for a run outside. It had been a while since I had ran and the weather was going to be cooler Thursday morning. I left for my run about 9:00 and the temperature was a nice 70 degrees. By the time I had ran five and a half miles it had already hit 82 degrees. It was a good run until about an hour or so after.

I had no pain at all during the entire run but within an hour I was having some serious leg problems. I did a little research and found that it was my IT band and took some ibuprofen. That helped a little. Friday morning it was better and by Saturday morning it was gone. I did have another problem brewing though.

When I first started my journey to a healthier lifestyle I had gout in my left wrist. That was the second time in less than a year I had had it in that area. Before that I had gotten it in my right foot and ankle. This time it showed back up in my foot and ankle. It started just being a slight pain at first but by Saturday morning it was really hurting. I do have medicine that will keep my body from making uric acid so I started taking it. Unfortunately, it does get worse and then it gets better. It will probably take me another few days to get completely rid of it but it is better today.

With all the trouble that I am having I have slowed down a lot this month and have only ran 10.1 miles. I have still been exercising at the gym on the stationary bike. It’s not my favorite but it will do. I’ve been giving some of my running muscle a rest and working some of the other muscles.

There are lots of ways to keep from getting injured and you can find articles at Active.com and many more places online. The main reason for injury is “too much too soon”. I don’t think that is what caused me to have problems before but I think it was this time. I should have started back at two or three miles and worked back up to the six.

That’s going to do me for this week. Have a great week and I will see you again Thursday. It’s going to be a little late on purpose.

Do You Feel Any Better?

As of today I have been soda free for 76 days. Some days are tougher than others but I find that it has been worth it. I did kind of quit cold turkey but when I did quit I was only drinking about 2 or 3 soda a week.

Last week I posted on Facebook that I had reached the 69 day mark and only had three more weeks to reach reach my goal of going 90 days without a soda. I was asked at the time if I felt any different and decided that I would answer that question in this weeks post.

I can't say with any certainty that I feel any different but one thing that I have noticed is that I don't think I crave sugar as much. Anytime that I drank a diet soda I felt that I craved sugar for a long time after. I didn't drink regular soda at all and even if I did I don't want to drink my calories. I just have to believe that when I did drink that diet soda (Mountain Dew most of the time) I would just later go ahead and eat something with sugar in it. Fast forward to today and I still have sugar cravings but I normally eat a banana. I will admit that I do still eat a candy bar or a snack cake but not as often as I did several months ago.

This past week saw a big drop in mileage because I did have some leg pain but also I had some congestion in my chest and couldn't run very far without running out of breath. Instead of running I decided to get my workout in with a stationary bike. I ended the week with 1.5 miles or running and a little over 16 miles on the bike. I also did some weight training while I was at the gym too.

Now for the scales part. I haven't said anything about the scales in a couple of weeks because at this point in my journey I am satisfied with my weight but if I can get more off then that will be okay. I did step on the scales this past weekend and was up 0.2. That still makes my weight lose 40.8 pounds since October 10, 2010. Not to pat myself on the back but I am really proud that I have taken all this weight off and know that I can keep it off if I just keep on doing what I've been doing.

Thanks for stopping by this week and sorry this was a day late but my schedule has been really busy the last couple of days. Have a great rest of the week and will see you again next week.

Running with the King

Me, "Elvis" & Rob

This past week was a good week but a hot one. I ran 10.7 miles including the Running with the King 5K that I did with Rob. I won’t spoil it by telling you what he ran but I ran it in 37:14. The heat really slowed me down.

One of the things that disappointed me about the race was it only had one water station about the half way mark. Is that the norm? With the heat I felt that there should have been a station at the first and second mile. The peanut butter and banana sandwiches that were served were good but they weren’t fried like Elvis liked them. All-in-all I did have a good race and was satisfied with my time. Thanks Rob for letting me be a part of your first race.

I know this was short but that is going to do me for this week and I’ll have something to share with you next week for sure.