Month: February 2006

Ran last night. I haven’t been running as much as I used to and it bothers me. I only seem to get out and run 2-3 times a week. I want to increase that. Is it because of the cold and the dark and the cold? Probably. Might also have to do with my cutting calories – less energy overall while I burn some of this excess poundage.

Anyway, last night: 30 minutes, treadmill, mostly did a steady 10:30 pace, incline level 2, wore my Asics. Used my (probably only helpful due to placebo effect) inhaler beforehand. Did stop to walk once, around the 24:00 mark, for one minute. I know, I know, I should have just kept going, but I had just done a 4:00 section at a 9:30 pace and needed some kind of rest.

One more thing: I haven’t been wearing my Adidas Supernovas at all for the past two weeks when I run. Just sticking with the Asics. Dunno. Just like them better. Although in a month or two I’ll need a new pair of shoes. Maybe after the Shamrock Run.

I have to start working in some speedwork, and some longer runs, one of each each week.

And calorie-wise, I was only maintaining my weight at 2500 calories per day – kept hovering around the 200 lb mark, not good. So starting this week (as of last Monday) I’m at 2200 calories per day. And the past two days I’ve been under that, so that’s good. I’m guessing that 2500 calories per day would be good to burn fat if I was running as much as I did last summer, but until I get the miles up I need even fewer calories.

Luckily, Starbucks’ cinnamon rolls are only 260 calories! Have you seen those? They’re practically the size of my head! Mmmmm… So, eight of those and that still leaves me 120 calories for other food in a day.

For the second week in a row, my running plans have been dashed to smithereens by reality.

Reality is a harsh mistress. My least favorite kind, actually.

At any rate, after my 1-mile warmup run, I haven’t run again since. Was going to Thursday – didn’t. Was going to on Friday – didn’t. Was going to run today – but I’m not, because there’s a race tomorrow and maybe I’ll do better with rested legs.

I have, however, been continuing with my calorie-cutback, and this morning I weighed in at 198.5 lb., which is significantly lower than the 203.0 I showed a week ago. I’m sure that most of that is water loss and mainly from the severe cutback I did last weekend, but there’s gotta be a half-pound or pound of actual fat loss in there.

As of last night I was actually 399 calories under par for the week, and that’s even after accidentally eating a slice of leftover German chocolate cake on Thursday (yum). I love calorie-counting for my diet because a) I get to eat whatever I want as long as I track it, and b) it’s like having a watch that tells me when to stop eating for the day, so I can focus on other things, like how much I’m not running and should be, argh.

At any rate, I’m going to give it my all tomorrow at the 5K and see if I can improve over my New Year’s Day run time. I will be running with Max – can’t wait to see how he does. It’s gonna be coooooooooooooooooooooooold, though.

I didn’t do my planned speedwork last night. I was somewhat rushed because I had been reminded by my nephew Max that his school’s Science Fair was last night, and I wanted to see his project.

Plus, and, this might be a psychosomatic symptom, but my left ankle had been sore all day, and when I started running to warm up (I did make it to the gym and do some running) it felt like it would get much worse if I stepped on it wrong. So I ran an easy mile and then stretched out and showered off. After I stretched out, it felt much better and I didn’t have any pain afterward. So I’m modifying my plan – I’ll do my speedwork tomorrow, take Saturday off (or do strength training), and then there’s a 5K run on Sunday that I will probably do, one that I had forgotten about when I made up my schedule.

Oh, and Max’s project? He was testing the changes that a ghost might make to temperature, light, sound and smell.