Boy did the motivation disappear fast!  It was raining again on Monday and I was very sleepy in the morning plus I had some work pressure.  I blew off the morning run option so fast it wasn’t even funny…  I took workout clothes to work to make up for my laziness but was overcome by work schedule pressures again and did not exercise.  This morning was almost the same…  In bed, my thoughts danced around excuses and the little devil almost won again!  However, I dragged myself out of bed and even with heavy pressure made myself go out and run…  I shortened up the distance and walked the last 1/4 of the run but I did it…  And, my calves didn’t start to hurt until about half way through the run.  That is good, but they did talk to me eventually and I listened.  I did however run on the balls of my feet almost entirely.  Occasionally, I would use a gentle “heal striking” stride to rest the calves but went back to the balls…  I feel like I can use my heals with a very gentle landing and roll the foot for low impact but I am being advised not to do this…  🙂  The lungs felt much stronger and I was not breathing really hard until after the halfway point.  I still need to stay in the “consistency training” range and not make things too hard.

My Monday morning weigh in was around 254 lbs…

I swam a mile today…although it took me 45 minutes to do it…  Not blazing speed but it felt good.  Actually, I was just short of a mile.  I thought I remembered a mile swim being 1,650 yards but afterward, I did the math and it’s 1,760 yards.  I was one football field short.  Damn!  I took the stairs up to my office (4th floor) this morning to see how the calves were feeling and they didn’t really hurt.  This is very good because I really want to run more…  I am enjoying the runs (although painful) because they are not as boring as the swimming.  I forgot how much I love being outdoors at dawn.  It is a very beautiful time of day and I also get inspired when I see other people running in the morning…  Alarm at 5:15 is becoming more normal also and it is getting easier to get up every day knowing that I am doing the right thing…

I had 5 fried eggs wrapping in iceberg lettuce with a little salt & pepper and Tapatio hot sauce after my swim…  Happy Friday!!!

Day 11:  When are my calves going to stop hurting?  I ran this morning with the usual warm up and warm down but went a little farther….maybe another half mile.  I walked for about 100 yards somewhere in the middle just to “settle things down”.  My calves still hurt right at the base of the muscle….maybe it’s more of a tendon thing than a muscle thing.  I definitely felt a little stronger with my stride and felt good about what I was doing.  I took yesterday off after struggling with going to work or taking a swim.  Work pressure prevailed but I am still holding to my commitments.  I think I’ll try to swim tomorrow instead of running to give the calves a chance at recovery…  I want to be able to run without that pain…  Thanks again for all the support everyone!

Day 9:  Yesterday was hard!!!  It was raining in the morning (or at least I thought it was raining) so I slept in until 7:00.  I grabbed my gym bag and some clothes and went to work after the usual morning of helping the kids and Shelley…  I went to the gym at work at around 1:30pm and got on the the treadmill.  I did 45 minutes but the first few minutes were just figuring out how the damn thing worked.  It was very awkward and I felt like I was going to fall off the thing almost the entire time…  The good part about it was that you can make the “hill” as steep as you want.  So, I never really jogged at all (I was sure I would wipe out if I tried) and I worked very hard just walking uphill the entire time.  I got my heart rate up over 140 and it would go between 140 and 155 depending on the steepness…  I admit that I really don’t like doing cardio in the Gym and sweating profusely in front of a bunch of other people…  😉  It did not feel very good and I got a little sleepy later in the afternoon.

Today was good.  I did the same 3.5 miles this morning as last week but jogged the entire trip with the exception of the first 2 blocks and the last 2 blocks.  Warm up and warm down is important…  I felt the calves and the lower back talking to me again but with much softer voices.  I also admit that I didn’t listen so well near the end of the run because I wanted to finish the whole distance.  I felt very good again driving to work.  Water is heavy….!  I weighed myself before my run and after my run and I was 2.2 lbs lighter afterward.  This means I sweated over 1/4 of a gallon of water! (a little more than a quart)  WOW!

Weight before run: 260.2 lbs – Weight after run: 258.0 lbs  My weight has been fluctuating a lot depending on when I weigh myself so I’m not paying much attention to these numbers yet…

Day 5:  OK…  I fulfilled my commitment to walk/jog for 30 minutes each morning this work week with one day off.  I have done it!  I took our dog Rio with me this morning knowing that it would be hard to jog steadily with him since he wants to stop and smell/pee on everything.  He is out of shape too and was fairly cooperative with some coaching especially on the way back because he was already pooped (pun intended).  We did 42 minutes and went almost as far as yesterday.  I jogged “off and on” for a few short blocks  but the calves were still burning and I could feel my lower back “talking” so I walked the rest of the way.  The shins felt much better however so that is good.  I also verified my heart rate was at 135 after stopping which is in the correct range for cardio although the low end.  Afterward, I actually did some stretching and leg lifts for the Abs…

Time for a new commitment:  I am going to let my calves rest this weekend and then do the same thing next week with the intention of jogging the entire distance each day and maybe going a bit further.  I will listen to my body and replace jogging with swimming if necessary.  I am also going to get my bike fixed up so I can mix it up a bit and glue the sole of my shoe back on…  🙂

Until Monday…