Run, Fat Man, Run

Photo: Tony..., Flickr Creative Commons

I don't know how people can talk about their satisfaction in losing less than five pounds. This is not me being a dismissive jerk. It's just the fact that, at least in my case, anything less than five pounds could be a simple fluke of biology. For example, I weighed myself Thursday morning after my shower and before I ate or drank anything, which is what I normally do. I wear the same exact thing every time. I was very pleased that morning as I had reached a new low weight. Fast forward to Sunday morning. Five pounds heavier. I did not eat to excess in the time that passed between checks. I did drink a bit with the friends I was staying with Friday night, but I also ran a 5k and walked a 5k round trip to and from the race itself. Nothing about my intake or output suggests that I should have gained 5 lbs. This morning the 5-lb. gain had shrunk to a 4-lb. gain. Sure, that's a step in the right direction, but I shouldn't be able to gain 5 lbs. in two days when one of those days includes ample exercise and neither of them included gorging.

Of course, this is part of why I've adding cycling into my off days from running. It will keep me active every day of the week on good weeks and at least have me moving more than four days on the weeks where other obligations keep me working until after dark. The creepy part of my sudden weight gain was that I biked twice (once for 13.5 miles and once for 4.5 miles) last week while I ran a little over 3 miles on each of my three running days. I really doubt my thighs added 5 lbs. of muscle.

As soon as the water warms enough (and this weekend made that seem only a couple of weeks away, although I know better), I'll be adding swimming. This brings me to my new athletic goal. I'm hoping to complete a sprint triathlon on the coast in late May. I'm talking to friends who have cycling and running experience to do it as a relay with me, in which case I'd switch to doing the Olympic length, but if I can't find two partners to do the relay version with me, I'll be setting my goal on the shorter version to complete on my own. Swimming a quarter mile, biking 12 miles, and running a 5k is still a significant accomplishment from my perspective. Now I just need to get in the water. I haven't done any real swimming since the 6th grade. I know how; I competed in the distance events as a kid on the swim team, but that was almost 20 years ago. We'll see how this turns out.