Why hello everyone! It’s been a couple months since I’ve written here, and I do regret that very much. A lot has happened since the last check in, so here’s another update.
My social media presence has been solid, but I’m not writing posts here, I’ll make it more of an effort to write here as it serves a better journal than Facebook or Instagram.
Big picture update: Signed up for the Chicago Bears 5k again, which will be in 2 weeks, had a minor hiccup in May, but I’ve bounced back with lots of momentum on my side. As of writing this, my weight is just a pound less than in April, but my performance (especially cardio) is the best it’s ever been!
Life Update
These are the times I wish I wrote in here more, because now I find myself scouring social media to see what was going on. The remainder of April must have been stressful for me, because I only had 4 workouts during the calendar month and each of the posts I wrote about how tired I felt.
I also stopped weighing myself, which is always a bad sign.
May came back with a surprising force, I had 11 workouts and 1 outside run, I didn’t start weighing myself until the end of the month and there I was 284.3, which is a pound heavier than I was beginning of April.
That can be considered a win, especially because the middle of May featured a pair of funerals (one on each side of the family) just days within each other. The timing of everything led to 3 2-hour long trips (each way) to Indiana and a couple trips an hour south of where I am.
The stress of driving for so long, along with the poor nutrition when attending wakes (the only foods really are sandwiches, cookies, and whatnot), combined with the emotional stress of the situation. I wouldn’t be surprised if I went back up to my seemingly now ‘normal-not focused’ state around 290 lbs.
In June, I’ve either gone to Orange Theory or ran outside every other day. My last weigh in had me at 282.4, a pound lighter than in April. In fact, I’m the lightest I’ve been in 2017, all while performing at my best maybe ever!
I would love to get into the 270s for the 5k in two weeks. So time to keep training and tighten up the nutrition once again!
New Gear!
Also, I got some new gear to show off. Towards the end of April I began having little nagging pain at the top of my left foot. Considering my old shoes were 2 years old, after 4 5k races it was time to retire them and get some new shoes.
My friends over at DNA Athletics helped me get a pair of new pairs of shoes!
They’re so nice and give me great support that I didn’t realize I was missing.
Another thing that I didn’t consider was my older pairs of shoes were broken in with my older running form pre-physical therapy for my Achilles. This gives me a chance to start fresh and run correctly for good.
This theory proved to be true because I used the old shoes when I was on set a few weeks back and I definitely felt like the angle my foot sat in those shoes were closer to the old way I used to walk/run/stand.
Phat Beatsies
I also got some new headphones, bluetooth ones so I’ll stop getting tangled while running!
My friend recommended the Symphonized XTC headphones. So far they’ve been great, albeit, I’ve never had bluetooth headphones to compare them to, but they get the job done, that’s for sure.
So if anyone has any recommendations for some phat new beatsies for me to add to the running playlist, let me know!
Training Update (General)
Even after doing this for over 2 years now, it still surprises me how EVERYTHING to do with health is non-linear. Weight loss, training progression, everything happens in waves.
With weight loss, I can understand it with monthly body cycles, water weight, to me it makes sense that sometimes you’ll be hung at the same weight for a week and then drop 3 lbs overnight. It’s more surprising to me how it happens with training.
My buddy put it best when I was discussing this with him over text: “Your body basically uses intervals to build and then to whine about building.” HAHAHA, SO TRUE!
Point being, I’ve been keeping the same speed on the treadmill for a while, but I’ve steadily been trying to increase the speed. It’s always interesting to feel the pattern of cardio can’t handle it and heart rate flys up, then heart rate is good but then body is lagging, repeat forever.
I was at the faster speed for a week and a half and was just dying afterward every time, until one day it was just easy (relatively speaking). 3.5mph is a slow jog for my tiny legs, it’s been a goal of mine to have that as my true “base pace” at the gym.
I usually warm up at 3mph, however a few days ago I was warming up at 3.5 mph and was able to hold a conversation no problem. In fact, I was going at this pace for a long time before my heart rate even hit the green zone (70% max heart rate). That gave me a huge bounce in confidence.
The past week I’ve bumped my “push pace” speed to 5 mph, and my all-out sprint is between 6-6.5 mph, which is what it’s been for a while. I’m really happy about this progress as of late and hopefully it’ll mean a good performance in 2 weeks!
5k Training Update
Well, I WAS confident about this training, until I looked at my numbers from previous training sessions….
2 week ago, I decided to do a test long run. Essentially, go at a lighter pace and see how far I could go. I ended up doing 3.5 miles in 58:37 minutes, which puts me at a 16:45 min/mi pace, or about 3.6 mph. Slow, which was intended, but the distance/endurance was there, so I was pleased.
This past weekend I decided to amp up the speed. There I ended up going 2.84 miles in 45:15, which gives a pace of 15:54 min/mi or, 3.77 mph. Ok, so it wasn’t that much faster overall, but the first mile was completed in 14:52. Not bad, I was pleased at the time.
Now I check how my training was going in previous races and I was going 15:44 and 15:04 before Hot Chocolate (posted about it here) that honestly takes some wind out of my sails. My performance at the gym is better than it was then, my weight is a few pounds lighter than it was then……
Perhaps the difference is because both runs so far have been near my mom’s house, which has hills while my runs near my apartment are all flat. So I guess the real test will be this Thursday and Saturday for my next planned outside runs.
That being said, since my Hot Chocolate triumph of running the entire time, that’s now the floor of goals. The other two goals have remained what they’ve always been:
- Run the entire time
- PR (Hot Chocolate was 48:18)
- Sub 45
I’ll keep you all updated here, but check out the Facebook or Instagram for more of the day-to-day updates!