I'm still fat

Because I'm pretty sure I fractured my foot a week and a half ago, I took it fairly easy last week.  I rode my recumbent bike in the mancave mostly, while giving my foot some time off.  I tried to eat a little better, and by that I mean I cut back on potato chips and tried my best to only drink one beer a night.  That sounds easy enough, but I just went to the beer store last week and brought home some choice swill (Goose Island Bourbon County Stout for the win.  15% ABV.  Can't wait.)

There are a couple ways of looking at the results.  Last Monday I was 'down' to 190.2.  I saw as low as 184.8 on Friday morning but the weekend killed me again somehow.  I really did make it a point to eat better, but the scale suggested it was all for naught this morning with a 187.2 showing.  So, depending on how you want to look at it, I gained another 2.4 pounds over the weekend or I lost 3 pounds from the previous Monday.  I'm a pessimist, so I choose to look at the 2.4 pound gain.

Giving my foot some rest was a big help.  I'd been talking with my cousin, Bryan, about his training to run in a marathon and he forwarded to me a training program for speed training.  In going over what he sent, I thought it made good sense to use a dreadmill, since it's more or less just running up a hill at race pace.  He confirmed that he used a dreadmill sometimes, so that's what I went with.

Bryan told me the workout was brutal and that I'd hate him.  He was correct on both assertions.  I even toned it down because I'm not like the other crazies who can run forever.  I started off with a nice little half mile run, then started the hill part.  I went for an eighth of a mile at a incline of 9 at what I thought was my race pace, then slowed way down for the next eighth of a mile at no incline to catch my breath.  Then did it again, and again, and once more after that.  I took a couple minutes to get a drink and went 'up the hill' two more times.  I was completely worn out.  But if felt so good, though it was still brutal and I still hate my cousin for it.

On Saturday, I had the house to myself so I thought I'd run on the dreadmill again, this time just to burn some calories and avoid the pounding of the pavement outside.  At no incline, I jogged a mile, walked a quarter and repeated that three more times.  I stopped once in the middle to get a drink, but that was my only stop.  5 miles and I was completely soaked in sweat but again, it felt so good.

Yesterday I went to Wally World to pick up some groceries.  It turned out to be quite entertaining (as it usually is).  As soon as I got out of my car, I heard some guy screaming.  It's not uncommon for me to get accosted at Wally World (I've been lectured on my parenting by one lady, and another lady actually followed my  into the parking lot to tell me my driving sucked), but this was the first time I can recall the yelling hasn't been directed at me.  I looked around and finally spotted a Mexican looking dude just ripping someone a new one.  I tried not to look, but this was just too good. I never saw who was the beneficiary of this fatherly advice, but apparently it was one of his children, and I'm guessing a child who isn't exactly an angel, as evidenced by him screaming, 'What did you steal this time?"

Most of the rest of my Wally World trip was uneventful, except I did happen to find some running socks that have cushioning on the bottom.  Given my broken foot, I felt it would have been irresponsible of me not to run around the neighborhood with shock absorber socks on, so I picked up the three pack.

This morning I went out to get the paper and it was chilly.  I did some P90X leg exercises yesterday, but wanted to go ahead and get in a short run today.  Armed with my shock absorber socks, I left the house in the 37 degree weather and headed out on what I'd measured to be a two-mile round trip run.  The socks did ok and I came home in the still-37 degree weather, albeit in a slight drizzle, and only a hint of a sore foot.

My stupid GPS registered that I'd run 2.18 miles, so something is off to the extent of almost 10%.  My bike computer says the round trip should have been 2.00 and for some reason I believe that to be correct.  Another thing that leads me to believe the running GPS thing is wrong is because it tells me I'm going a bit faster than I think I am.  I went out reasonably slow today and it said I averaged 6.3 MPH.  However, on the dreadmill, I can't keep up even at 6 MPH for much more than a half mile.  When I adjusted the distance down to 2.0 miles for 20 minutes and 46 seconds it tells me I ran 5.8 MPH which seems more reasonable.  I'm going to try another GPS thing next time and see what it says.

Regardless, it's disappointing because I'm still fat.  I'd like to think I ate too much salt yesterday and I'm retaining fluids.  Jennifer and Hayden made potato soup yesterday and any kind of soup usually packs on pounds to my frame.  Normally it's just water weight and I lose it pretty quickly.  Sadly I don't think that's the case this time.  I think I'm just still fat.  Based on the scale, I need to drop 7 pounds by Thanksgiving because I'm going to put on at least that much over the holiday weekend.