"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -- WOW-- What a Ride!"

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Mid-week Update

Time for a mid-week update:

A little quieter work schedule means I can get back to blogging a little more often.  Yay!  Right?

This week I weighed myself for the first time in about 3 months.  I went up by about 10 pounds.  Ack!  So, back to logging what I eat to get control of it.  I've concluded that I was snacking way too much without thinking about it.  I also need to weigh myself a little more often to nip these things in the bud before it becomes a problem.  Spending the summer working on the road and eating out a lot didn't help either.

Lately I've been working on keeping the easy runs easy.  I have a tendency to just take off at my normal pace and before I know it my easy run has turned into a medium effort run.  That's counterproductive and increases my risk of injury.  What I didn't realize was how much mental concentration it takes to slow down and keep to an easy effort.  By the end my brain is tired.

In October I am contemplating taking two weeks off from running entirely.  I'm sensing that a break like that would do my body good.  More on this later.

So, what's up with you all?

5 comments:

Ed said...

Well right now I am getting ready to head on a work trip for about three weeks...the weather here has been bad and I haven't been able to get out for a run....hopefully tonight though!

Rusty Shackleford said...

Hope you can get out there tonight Ed. Running while traveling can be fun. You get to see some new places from a different perspective.

Jeff said...

I find taking breaks to be helpful, although I usually don't quit running altogether. I tried that once after an ultra I felt terrible the whole time!

Anonymous said...

Ouch! Hope it comes back off easy for you. Ive avoided weighing myself because I know Ive gained. I really should step on the scale for the motivation Im sure it will give me, but I just dont want the disappointment.

Rusty Shackleford said...

Courtney - It's coming off for sure. It shouldn't take long. If I get back to weighing myself once a week I can stay more in tune with what's happening and make small adjustments to my diet as I go.

Jeff - My break won't be completely sedentary. There will be much hiking and biking involved. More of a break from running to do some extended XT. Kind of a mental break from running so to speak.