Resumption

Updates on a project are not fun to write when there isn’t any progress to report (and, logically, also pointless). During the downtime in July from a prolonged IT band flare-up and, immediately after healing from that, a recovery period for my calves, I packed some weight back on. It’s hard to avoid when you’re couch-bound during a record hot summer, when heat-induced sloth and gluttony start undermining your willpower. As much as I hate losing progress made and having to compensate for results that were already achieved, this last time was particularly upsetting due to how close I was to breaking into a new weight threshold. At the end of June, I was weighing in at 192, and on the cusp of breaking into the the 180’s. By the end of July, I was back on the verge of crossing into the 200’s. After the first week of August, I aggressively set off towards getting myself back on track. Over three weeks of continuous running later – a couple of them my new extended 10 mile route – I got back down to my end-of-June range between 192 and 193 lbs.

This past week, I broke the chain. My run on the 9th earned me an entire set of blisters on my right-foot toes, which was a bit perplexing since I didn’t get any the first time I ran the long route and I hadn’t taken any protective measures that time. Even though new blisters rarely elicit any sensations of pain at this point, the sheer size of it made me hesitant to keep going at full effort and risk unnecessary and serious aggravation.

In addition to the blisters, I also came to realize on Thursday afternoon that I’m dealing, for the first time ever in my life, an inflammation of a different kind of a much more personal nature that’s also been prohibitive to my distance running. Today marks the fifth day that I’ve been on break from my training, resting and recovering with generous applications of ointments and heat/cold treatments in all my afflicted areas. It’s getting close to the end of the day, and I feel like I’ll be back in prime form to resume the running madness of the past few weeks. At the end of June, I was 192 lbs and wearing size 36 pants. Last week, I was at 193 lbs and fitting size 34 pants. This next week will likely end up being damage control for the past five vacation days, and by the start of October I should see myself under the 190 lb mark and in the 180s. Not only will that finally put me under the tolerance threshold I set for myself years ago before I’d allow myself to grow my hair back out, but also in the weight range where my fitness plan expands it’s focus on cardio & weight loss and into more active weight training and muscle growth.
More importantly, the more I’ve been actively working on this aspect of my life and achieving measurable progress, the more inspired I’ve been feeling to actually sit down and write an update. Good stuff is happening, transition is in full swing.