Indulgence

Wow..9 weeks since the Halstead marathon and I have hardly written a post and my running frequency took a huge hit. 

Since Halstead I took some time out from running as my knee / thigh issue hadn't cleared up. The niggle first developed about 3 weeks before the marathon but didn't hinder the last few weeks up to the race. After  taking a traditional recovery week after the marathon I got out 3 times a week for a couple of weeks with some really easy running but my leg didn't get any better . So I took a week off then another week by which time it was the middle of June. This wasn't good at all.

I had been going down the gym a fair bit but I had let myself go diet wise and packed on quite a few pounds (small amount of muscle). Having weighed myself I had the shock of my life when I weight myself and could see that I had put on 10 pounds since Halstead. I really wasn't happy of course but on the flip side my leg had pretty much repaired itself with the complete rest from running

There and then I set myself the target of getting back in shape and putting an autumn marathon in the calendar to focus on. Getting back in shape and being mentally focused on setting new goals to achieve was all that was needed. So I booked the Chelmsford Parks marathon which is relatively local to me and a brand new race. I am very results driven of course and a new PB is the target but I am thinking of adding a few other races around it to at least add a bit of variety to this training cycle but I haven't decided 100% yet as this could impact me pushing for another big PB.

The immediate goal is of course to drop body fat, lose some overall body weight (be at least where I was pre-Halstead 178 pounds), rebuild my base mileage and focus on recovering between workouts. So far during the last 3 weeks it's been very painful getting back into a regular cadence but there has been progress. This week I ran just under 40 miles over 5 days with the target being everyday for the upcoming week. The pace has been embarrassingly slow but my resting heart rate has come down quite dramatically and is almost back to where it was pre-Halstead.

From tomorrow I am cutting out all the crap I have indulged in the past few weeks on a regular basis that should also aid in losing weight. I am treating tonight as a kind of farewell party for the crap by eating the  Tortilla chips and salsa dip I have left before I this stuff from my diet for the next couple of months. I don't like going 100% free of indulgence because that's just stupid but I am focused here on a challenge I haven't had to think about for quite some time.

So with around 14 weeks until the race there is lots to do and it will be another great challenge however  knowing that I want to be in better shape than last time I know that if I commit myself to this with great discipline I will again come out on top.

Time to start feeling like a runner again!