A Disturbing Run
I’m sitting here with fresh puncture wounds and deep scratches on my palms and knees due to a very strange set of circumstances on this morning’s run.  It was 9 easy, I was having a really nice time enjoying myself, thinking some happy crap and on the return, I take the skinny dirt trail adjacent to the bike path.

At one point, I see a dead animal laid along a cement slab on the short stone wall between the path and the river.  There are tons of flies swarming around it but I had to stop because it looked like a red fox and…

1. Back in 2008 I thought I saw what might have been 2 foxes fighting but it seemed too far-fetched and I always regretted not stopping to investigate.
2. Foxes were in a conversation I’d had with someone just yesterday…freaky
3. It was weird, laying there on that slab.

So as I verify that it is indeed a fox (wow!) it sinks in that someone has cut open this fox, pulled out its guts and lain them there next to it.  It was too neat a job to have been done by another animal and besides, what type of animal could do this?  We don’t have bears or lions here.

I decide that was enough of a viewing and start back up running, but my thoughts are dark now, thinking of the creepy person who would do such a thing.  I should have known better than to remain on the dirt trail because on another distracted morning I fell hard there, there are too many roots and rocks that you have to pay attention to, so of course…I fell hard.  The one thing I was able to do is roll so I didn’t fall on the knee that’s been opened up 3 times, taking most of the brunt in my hands.  I’m cool though, I didn’t sprain anything and it’s only skin stuff.

Headband Giveaway!
Back to frothier matters, I wanted to announce the first GIM Headband Giveaway!  Marcia, from Running Off At The Mouth is having a giveaway for 2 free GIM Headbands of your choice.  She also wrote the most kick-ass review, so I’m pleased as punch and hope you guys check it out and enter to win.

Da Weight
I’m almost 7 weeks in from the start of my weight-loss adventure.  To show you how it’s been going, I made a handy-dandy graph that begins on July 23rd, when I started counting calories.  Body fat tracking starts a couple weeks later when I got the new scale.

With great timing, I’m able to say I am right this second at last year’s “best race weight”.  It’s 116.4 on the new scale (= 115.5 on the old scale since that one was off by a pound).

As background, I started on 1800 calories and lost a nice amount pretty quickly.  Too quickly, I thought, one week it was about 2.5lbs, which was the initial reason I had for raising it to 2000/day.  But right after the big drop, at around 118.5, it kept shifting up and down for about 3 weeks, though my calories were constant.  I think my body knew I was up to something, so staged a minor revolt.

I knew to eat more rather than less because I went through the same pattern last year, and now I’m running a bit more mileage.  Plus, the addition of the headband biz makes me less sedentary – I’m not exactly doing jumping jacks around the room or anything, but moving around a tad more.

It worked, the weight started dropping again, but it’s still an up and down thing as you can see by the jagged lines (though we’re dealing with decimals, not major swings).  As I mentioned in another post, having the fancy-ass scale appeases me while my weight shifts, since the body fat number lets me know good things are happening even when the weight doesn’t bear it out.

I imagine that unless you have a large amount to lose, you’d see a pattern like this, too, as opposed to a steady drop.  I’m lucky to have last year’s info as comparison, otherwise I might have cut calories further when the opposite was warranted.

A word on body fat
When I first got my scale, I followed Tanita’s advice and weighed myself before dinner – they say you’re most hydrated then – but I feel that I get a more consistent read in the morning since I don’t always drink the same amount throughout the day.  Also, it seems more realistic to think I’m in the higher range found in the morning’s weigh-in, rather than 14 to 12.5% pre-dinner, which is more like a bodybuilder’s numbers.  It’s irrelevant but just for truthiness’ sake.

Body fat is trending downwards: the first week averages 16.31% while the last 7 days average 15.47%.

Calorie Counting
It’s making all the difference.  When I tried to lose without counting, I was never sure if I was eating low enough or high enough and if one day the weight was up, I’d bitch at myself for being “bad” and there was always an air of of that around…a real negative vibe from one day to the next.

The wildest thing is that from the day I started counting this time, July 23rd, I haven’t had one ass-kicking moment over my weight.  Not one.  Contrast this with me bitching at myself about weight constantly from January through July this year.  I swear, at the risk of sounding all Kumbaya, by counting calories and treating it as a math equation, it literally turned the act of weight-loss from an exercise in self-disgust into an expression of empowerment.

As I touched on in an earlier post, when you count calories, all the emotion is gone.  And I mean ALL the emotion is gone.  It’s no longer a question of being “bad”, because you know what you ate, the proof is on paper and if you choose to eat more or cheaty, it’s a conscious decision, one you (ahem) weigh before making.  At least that’s how it’s worked for me.

How Do I Look?
Not much different, though a little more compact than when I was at this weight last year.  When I did this from Winter-Spring 2009, I’d just started the pushups challenge and had added a few chinups – I’ve been maintaining both ever since then.  I also spent a few months recently concentrating on core, though I’ve temporarily let that slide in favor of hip exercises (I’m a monogamous exerciser) the sides of my trunk going around to my back seem harder now.

Other than that, I don’t see much of a change in the mirror, my thighs are a little smaller but that’s about it.  I’m more sure than ever that 110-112lbs. will do me well without stepping into twig territory.

What’s It Doing For Me?
It’s making me faster.   How many seconds per pound, I’ve no idea, because it’s mixed in with a challenging training cycle.  But in the past 3 weeks or so, I’ve surprised myself by being able to do workouts that I would have assuredly struggled with…and it’s not like it got cooler,  it’s still been full-on summer.

I’m niggle-free.  Completely.  Got nothing hurting, nagging or bugging (aside from today’s puncture wounds).  Seems like I had an assortment of little things all year until now.  Not saying this is the weight-loss, but it’s timed interestingly, at the peak of my cycle when I’d expect more of that, not less.

As far as fitness predictions, I remain cautious but have a sense that I’m a hair’s breadth away from last year’s PR season and am confident the final few lbs. will see me surpassing it.

I am beginning to dream again.

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