Back on the trail

Today was the first day I had a morning run since October 21st, not to mention the first exercise I've done in about 2 weeks. It felt great. I suppose this post has been a long time coming.

Mid January of last year I had began a new full time career, graduated college, and was in full glutton mode. No exercise, loved fast food. I weighed the most I had ever weighed. 215ish lbs was a big difference from my freshman cross country weight of 165. I know a couple tricks that work in motivating myself. The one that I applied then was to bring out my competitive nature.

We were at a lowriders and gangsters party at my cousin's house. We were drinking 40's all night, sippin' on gin & juice, and I ended up challenging my cousin to a bet that I would weigh less then him by Xmas of next year (roughly 11 months away). He laughed, and took out a scale. He was 177, and I was 227. Such a nice round difference, 50 pounds, which turns out to be the amount of money we placed on the bet.

I would like to say after that party I was running daily, but sadly I have a detailed records of everything I have done this year, and it wasn't till about 3 months later I actually got my ass in gear. Much like Ric's knack for writing lists, I use this power to motivate myself on the calendar. When I get into a healthy lifestyle it's nearly a requirement that I record every run on a calendar. So then if I get a week of running every day, that 8th day is that much harder to skip. It blares out from the calendar as an empty void lazy space.

So I have the calendar on my lap, and I remember starting finally, very later in March. A couple friends had brought up a calorie counter website and started tracking calorie intake along with exercises. This finally got me going, couple 30 minute runs, and I wrote down on Easter that I weighed 215. Then a fire was lit under my ass apparently. April is nearly covered with highlighted workouts. 13 two-a-days and 10 regular runs. My two-a-days consisted of getting up at 5am, making breakfast (early it was eggs, later turned into cereal), then leaving the house for the gym at 6am. I then lifted for 30 minutes, and ran for 35. After work I would then go back to the Gym, but choose to run outside for another 30-35 minutes. At the end of April I have myself weighing 209. At this rate the bet seemed lofty, but achievable.

May was similar, I had 10 two-a-days, even found time to run before my softball games. Ending the month in 202 lb. June summer laziness came and I only had 3 two-a-days, 10 regular days. I was apparently too disgusted to write down my weight fluctuations. In July I was a year older, and the fire was back. Of the 31 days in the month I ran 18 two-a-days, sadly my weight loss slowed and I finished at 204 (looking back I was probably gaining muscle from all the lifting). I wish I had my cell phone because I would take a picture of August. 20 of the 30 days in August I worked out before and after work. Ending August weigh in shows 198. September goes back to moderate pace, 12 doubles, 8 singles, weighed ending 195. October I began to lose my fire, and I only lifted 6 days, I continued a couple more doubles, mostly running from home so I could sleep in more. November was abysmal, I had 2 weeks off where I was up north hunting. We hunt in a camper with no real shower opportunities. You don't want to sweat much or the deer never show up, so I knew these weeks would provide no exercises short of hiking 60-80 lb's of gun and deerstand out into the woods. I ended November with 7 single 30-minute runs, weighing 193. And that was it, it was now December, Xmas month, and the weigh in would be right around the corner. I still couldn't dig deep enough for a August repeat, I simply ran 13 single days and cut back on my junkfood. Christmas day, a week or two ago, I weighed in fully clothed at 190. I know I took the bet a year ago telling myself "Would you pay $50 to weigh under 200lbs come next year? Yes." So paying was not a problem.

I don't really have any big insightful ending to post. I've been wanting to share my story on here for awhile, but never wanted to talk too much in case my cousin ran across this website and saw what I was up to. Well, the bets over and the new year is here. A lot of people posted about their resolutions, and what to expect in the next year. I have never been one to make a resolution, but I guess I would say that I will do 1 marathon before the end of the year. All this running has built my long distance foundation back up and I think with a good workout program I can actually get the big Marathon under my belt. Something I feel I need to conquer as a human with a Odometer tattooed on his calf.

Thanks for sticking in there readers, and thanks everyone for their strong words, workout advice, confidence, encouragement, and humor during the year. Most of all thanks for putting up with my zombie days where I had no energy to even smile or laugh during lunch.