Day 50

The dog and I ran 30 minutes today. Actually it was 29:30 because we came back a little more quickly. I'm going to try to jog a bit this afternoon too. In not-quite two weeks, I start a two-week practical--it's 5K away and there are showers, towels, and scrubs provided. Perfect! All I have to do is get used to jogging twice a day.

Meanwhile, I'm gradually increasing resistance exercises. I'm still a wuss with pushups, but the situps are coming along well. I've been doing the full ones and they seem much more effective than crunches. I'm doing 30 on easy days and 40 on the tough days this week. As for pushups...well, 10 girl ones on easy days, 15 (hopefully up to 20) on hard days, plus I throw in a few full ones a few times a day. Eventually it'll click!

Other resistance exercises...loads of clamshells and leg raises and hip lifts and squats, of course, and I found my ankle weights and dumbbells yesterday, finally (they were packed in a box with CDs), so I'll start adding weight. I've also recently added single-leg squats and calf raises and side planks. If all goes well, in another month I'll start adding plyometrics.

My legs are still a bit sluggish on runs, but the mishap on Friday didn't help! I've recently noticed at times, when they start to get heavier, that I'm not breathing much. This sounds nuts perhaps; I held onto my endurance/aerobic strength pretty well, but lost most of my stamina. So I can jog slowly very easily, but a more honest easy run effort is an odd step. I get distracted by my legs feeling like lead and forget that I could be breathing more often and more deeply. I guess I got unused to breathing as much. So I got into a good deep 4-2 rhythm and things picked up a bit. My muscles will get used to it. They're not sore, just unused, under-activated, my iron levels are probably still low, too, which hampers oxygen transport.

At any rate, I'm feeling fitter. I think I look fitter too. Less junk in the trunk hopefully. I'm not losing any weight, though--was at 129.5 this morning. Maybe I'll never get back down to the old 115-118 range. I have to remember that I was having absorption issues then so perhaps that wasn't a healthy weight for me. It seemed healthy enough compared to the 100-105 range, which happened a few times when I got especially ill (and I looked horrible) so 115ish seemed fine then. But maybe my healthy weight is around 125. Or even heavier: before the gut issue got bad, I was at my strongest at 139ish, although I was doing more biking than running at the time. Perhaps as I run more, my weight will go down, or maybe it'll go up as I build more muscle. I don't care about the weight (certainly not as much as the fat I see!) unless that's what is making my legs feel heavy, hefting around the rest of me. 15 extra pounds is a change. At any rate, I'll try to eat enough protein and fruit and vegetables and not too soon before bed, and cut down on the snacks.

Edit: short run in the late afternoon, 30 minutes.