WEEK 15 (November 05-November 11)

Total Running Miles: 0

Weight: 194.6 (-15.8 lbs.)

Training Days Remaining: 50

After 15 weeks of training I’ve trimmed down considerably, especially around my face and midsection.

Notes: No exercise this week. I took all seven days off to heal my right ankle. It’s somewhat better but not great. I need to ice it more. This isn’t an impact injury. It resulted from my wearing some dead running shoes to an event where I had to carry my 18-pound baby around for like two hours; going up and down the theater steps and walking around the lobby in an effort to keep her amused. It worked but my ankle is swollen to the size of a golf ball around the front of my joint, making it painful to take a forward step.

On the plus side, by dieting I managed to hold my weight even without exercising. This week I will rejoin the weight loss fight. I may not be able to run but I will find another means of exercise. I have 50 days to lose 14 pounds. Thanksgiving and Christmas are never easy times to stay on a diet, but with solid exercise I can earn some wiggle room to graze.

I’m definitely eating less these days and it requires less food to fill me up. I still haven’t been able to get my water intake back on track from where it was before the weather turned cool. That will change this week as well.

I think taking this past week off will pay dividends going forward. I had trained 10 straight weeks hard. Sometimes it is a good idea to step away from your training for a minute. It’s difficult for the results to sink in when you continue to pound on your body.

With seven weeks remaining, now it’s time to do some sculpting.

By taking a week off, all that work was able to assimilate into my body, and I feel considerably more rested this Monday than last. Before I would have kept pushing myself to stay on schedule and perhaps injured myself worse. Instead I took the time off my body requested and I’m situated to close this workout program with my goal in sight.

It’s all about minimizing the damage, and getting back out there to sweat. Doesn’t matter so much if I’m running again yet. I can take another week off if necessary so long as I crosstrain. My injury in Week 3 was similar to this one and it took the better part of 10-14 days for me to heal.

Looks like me and the local YMCA are going to get chummy this week.