Plateaus

It's been a while since my last post. Sounds almost like a confession, forgive me runners, it's been almost 4 weeks since my last post. I've had negative thoughts about my running. Blah Blah Blah. I am making enormous progress in that I am running. I am putting my shoes on and going out for a run. The big challenge is not to make too many major lifestyle changes at the same time. I've been going out of my mind, but I keep putting my shoes on and getting out the door. It has been quite difficult in that it freezing. When I went out this morning, it was 11 degrees F. In my mind I think I'm breaking land speed records with my runs, but when I look at the clock, I'm hitting between 10 and 11 minute miles. I'm convinced the cold is slowing me down at the atomic level...I have been running between 3 and 4 days per week with a "long" run on Sundays. Today I went 6 miles and am looking forward to breaking double digits on the miles.

I've signed up for the Long Island half-marathon which is in May. I've built my training plan around the Hal Higdon Beginners Half Marathon training plan and start with week 1 this week. My mileage will be less for the first couple of weeks but will slowly build up to more that what I'm doing now, peaking at 25 miles for the week before the race. I'm running with my friend Chris and our only goal is to to finish. I am looking forward to getting out there and running. I'm looking at it like a long run with a friend where we'll have about 2 1/2 hours of discussion time. Who knows what kind of lies we can tell in that amount of time.

My weight loss has been hovering around 25 pounds. I've not been able to break through this point, but I haven't really been restrictive with my diet. My clothes are feeling a ton better and physically I'm feeling really great (except for the tendinitis in my right ankle and left shoulder).

The 6 miles I did today was quite challenging for me in that the course is quite hilly and the iPod ran out of juice about 30 minutes into the run so I had lots of time to think. What was neat is I started to take inventory of my body. Pain in right ankle, bad, move on, breathing good, hold on to that, stride feels good, move on, check points all around the body. It was so cold. I am just rambling here, but I haven't written in quite some time so I have scattered thoughts. What I am thinking about now is how much work it takes to get better at something. I've been running consistently now since Thanksgiving so what's that late Nov., Dec., Jan, and beg of Feb, so 12 weeks, and I've not been able to go double digits, my ankle still hurts, I'm carrying too much weight still, blah blah blah. I'm just thinking that today I went 6 miles and it felt really good (except for the ankle) and when I took up running, albeit, not consistently, I couldn't run for 10 minutes without the feeling that I was going to die. So all is well, I am still running. I am keeping a log in excel. I've not been good about posting lately because it all seems the same. I am at a plateau now that I know will be transcended if I only keep putting my running shoes on and getting out the door.

Until then I will keep on running and I look forward to meeting you as I jog down the path of self discovery.

Best, David