Thirty-third weight progress report

This post is yet another weight progress report, continuing the previous one, part of a long series since I started in January 2015.

Starting teaching again, with the daily commute up the hill and skipping lunches has helped start bring my weight back down.

I still have about 10 pounds to lose to get back to the weight I want—where I was a year ago.

My exercise for January included about 4.44 miles/day of cycling, and I’m now doing 2km every other day. That’s not going to get me to my goal of eventually running a marathon, but it should keep mr from injuring myself again, while maintaining enough muscle and flexibility so that I don’t have to start all over next summer.

My speed is not great (equivalent to an 8–8:30-minute mile), but I’m not exhausted at the end of 2km.

Thirty-second weight progress report

This post is yet another weight progress report, continuing the previous one, part of a long series since I started in January 2015.

This year has been really bad for my weight maintenance.

My weight is getting close to what it was before I started my diet 4 years ago.

My exercise for December included only 2.06 miles/day of cycling (including one 10-mile outing with my son to Wilder Ranch to ride the trails there—a long-wheelbase recumbent is not really well designed for mountain biking).

I started jogging again in December, even though my right hip is still bothering me. The running does not seem to make the ache in the hip any worse, and stopping for three months didn’t make it any better. I’m just doing short distances now (1.5km every couple of days)—not trying to improve my fitness, but just to maintain it so I don’t have to start all over next summer.

I started out very slow when taking up the jogging again, begin cautious about aggravating my hip, but I’m back to about the same speed as before my 3-month break.

Thirty-first weight progress report

This post is yet another weight progress report, continuing the previous one, part of a long series since I started in January 2015.

My weight is getting perilously close to the point where it was before I decided to diet.

This past year has been a disaster for weight control.  I’m hoping that when classes start again in January and I bike up to campus 5 days a week that my weight will come back down.

I think that part of the problem with both summer and fall is that I stayed home more, which means much less exercise and more snacking. For September–November 2018, I only averaged 2.22 miles/day on my bicycle.

I also stopped running in mid-September, because my right hip started aching. I’ve not been able to figure out whether the ache is in the bone, the joint, the ligaments, the tendons, or the muscles.

It still aches, particularly after I’ve been sitting and working at the computer for a while.  I’ve been thinking of trying jogging again to see if it makes any difference to the ache—if not, I’ll probably start doing short distances again when the weather is good.

Thirtieth weight progress report

This post is yet another weight progress report, continuing the previous one, part of a long series since I started in January 2015.

I have not been able to keep my weight within my self-imposed target range for the past several months.

Summers seem to be bad for my weight, as both last summer and this summer were high-weight points for the year.

I think that part of the problem with summer weight is that I stay home more, which means much less exercise and more snacking. In August 2018, I only averaged 1.23 miles/day on my bicycle (under 30% of my usual exercise).

Although I restarted running at the beginning of July, I did not not run much in August, because I got a long-lasting cold on my trip to Boulder.  I was there to visit my Dad in the nursing-home/rehab-center where he was recovering from a stroke that caused him to lose almost all sensation on the left side of his body.  He has been continuing to improve, but we’re going to have to move him from an independent-living community to an assisted-living community, because he still needs at least minimal assistance for many activities.

There was a long break in my running in August, because of getting a long-lasting cold on my trip to Boulder, CO. I’m only just starting up again.

I didn’t do  Bike Santa Cruz County’s  12km run on 26 August 2018—not even the 4km short run, as I was still feeling the effects of the cold, had not gotten my training up to doing longer runs, and couldn’t see the point of biking over to Wilder Ranch to do just a 4km run at low speed.

I’m still running fairly slowly—between 10 and 12 km/h, which translates to a mile pace of 8:00 to 9:40, depending on distance (8:22 at 1 mile).

Twenty-ninth weight progress report

This post is yet another weight progress report, continuing the previous one, part of a long series since I started in January 2015.

This past year has seen repeated attempts to recover from the weight gain of the previous two years.

I’m right on the upper edge of my self-imposed weight range. If I stop paying attention to my weight or start snacking to cope with the stress of grading, my weight shoots up rather quickly.

As I mentioned in Starting jogging, I started running over Memorial Day weekend. I’ve kept it up for 9 days, with only minor aches from stretching out muscles and tendons that don’t get used on my bicycle.  During March, April, and May I also averaged 4.66 miles a day of bicycling (mainly my bike commute to work).  The bicycling helps loosen up muscles that tighten from the running.

I started jogging over Memorial Day weekend, and have gradually been increasing my distance. (For those who prefer Imperial units, 12 km/h is an 8-minute, 3-second mile pace, and 2km is 1 mile 1282 feet.)

I plan to continue running throughout the summer, with distances gradually increasing. Once I get up to about 3km, I’ll start alternating short and long days, to give my muscles some time to heal between the longer runs.  When I get up to 10km, I’ll probably switch to a long-rest-short cycle, to allow more healing time.

I’m in better shape now than I was in summer 1970 when I couldn’t run a mile, but not in as good shape as summer 1971 when I could run a 6-minute mile (16 km/h) and could run up to 15km (though only at 12 km/h).  Although I’ve been keeping to around 12 km/h so far, I expect to slow down as the distances increase.  I’d like to keep above 10km/hr (a 9:40 mile pace), though, or the running will take up too much time.

My current goal is 12km runs by  Bike Santa Cruz County’s  12km run on 26 August 2018 and 15km runs by the end of October.  If I don’t injure myself, I’d like to get to the point where I run a marathon before the end of 2021.

So far, I’ve been running in my Teva sandals, which have more padding in the soles than any of my other shoes, and which fit comfortably.  I’ll be buying some running shoes in a couple of weeks, once I have some spare time.  I’ve been recommended Altra and Brooks Cascadia shoes, and both lines are carried at Santa Cruz Running Company (along with half a dozen others brands).  The method they describe for helping customers pick shoes sounds reasonable, and better than just picking a low-cost shoe randomly from Amazon (which is pretty much how I choose my bicycling shoes every 4 or 5 years).