I have some good news, after weighing myself this morning, I’m finally officially down 20lbs from my “official” largest point! I’m exactly half way between my largest and smallest, although I can say my athletic performance is the best it’s ever been.

However, I did get some of the wind knocked out of my sails when verifying my pre-weight loss challenge weight. I’m just going to bullet point my thoughts.

• I wrote that a couple months before the challenge I weighed 287, and I was disappointed that I let myself get to that size. Now I’m celebrating a 281 weigh-in.
  • Although, I didn’t know the grasp of everything then, so take that as it is.
• With this, I can’t let past failures diminish my current accomplishments. Although I do allow it (all the freaking time)
• Another aside, losing weight has been more difficult this time around, maybe I’m not as aggressive as during the weight loss challenge. Then again, that nutrition plan proved to be unsustainable as it derailed as soon as I got into a stressful situation.

Looking Positively

More importantly, as I mentioned above, my performance is the best it’s ever been, especially cardio! This morning I ran 2 miles at 14:30 pace! Here’s proof!

This is almost 30 seconds quicker than my stretch goal pace of a 45 minute 5k! Although my endurance isn’t there at this higher pace. I stopped short because feet started going numb and IT Band on right side started hurting. Better to cut this training short than to push through, injure myself, and have to sit out next week.

PT/Flexibility

Speaking of my IT Band, that’s where I’ve been feeling a lot of the pressure when running. It’s just like my physical therapist predicted last year. It’s almost as if he’s a trained professional that knows what he’s talking about, lol!

But in all seriousness, that means I should really focus on my core and hips more, now that it’s bearing more of the load. Also to keep stretching as much as possible, I think that will definitely help out with running.

It’s beginning to reach the point where my flexibility is the glaring weak point in getting me to the next level. I’ve been stretching a lot and have noticed marked improvements over the past month, so I just have to keep it up.

In the meantime, I have the shirt, bag, and bib for the 5k next week. Just received it in the mail. The Ditka plush my sister got me for Christmas will keep it safe until next week.