I have noticed over the past few months that as I have weighed myself (semi-regularly) that the numbers have been slowly going up. I have not been eating in a very healthy fashion as of late and I have been using half marathon training as an excuse to not work on my weight. I will not give myself a hard time about it...I will look forward and make a change in my focus. I know that working on healthier eating will help me drop the weight and, when I do, my running pace and fitness will improve because I will not be lugging around an extra 15 pounds.
My race on Saturday went really well. I used a Runner's World training plan and listened to my body throughout the training. I took extra rest days, and even shortened some training runs because I was experiencing pain or feeling more tired than normal. I will say that sleep played a much more prominent role in this fall's training. That was definitely helpful in so many ways. Now to add in the importance of healthy eating and I should see a few more changes.
As I shared my race experience with a friend I shared how I ran faster than I expected....which was a good thing, my body was ready. I guess I was surprised because I thought I would take the 5K easy and then slowly speed up during the 10 miler. Well the pace of race day got me off to a quicker start than I had anticipated, but it felt good. When I hit the starting line for the 10 miler I was warmed up and ready to run. I held my 5K pace for the first few miles, slowed down on the hilly section (but kept running) and then caught up to the 5K pace as it flattened out in the last 5 miles.
And then I ran the steps....because it was the Rocky Balboa Run.
At some point during the 5K, I did feel some heel pain. Because of that, I will not run until that has totally gone away. I was a bit achy yesterday in my legs (primarily my quads) and will embrace the recovery time this week.
Those recovery days will be filled with reading, stretching and some easy cross training when my body feels up for it.
I'll be working on a menu that fits in with South Beach Phase 1, since that has worked well in the past to make a healthy eating shift and to shed some pounds right away.
I know weight loss isn't a quick thing and I also know that it is an ongoing challenge for me. So here I am, recommitting to focusing on watching what I eat, logging what I eat, and working on making sure I'm taking in healthy meals that feed my muscles and strengthen them for future training.
I have several cookbooks to help with the healthy meal planning and prep.
I'll be blogging my weigh ins on a weekly basis because that helps me keep accountability.
If this is an ongoing struggle or challenge for you know that you have support and that you are not going through this alone.
Until the next post...
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