Apparently I gave up running for lent. I don't want to shock anyone, so if you have a-fib please take a seat, but I have run exactly once in March. Yesterday. And it was not a good run.
And in February the only reason my monthly mileage total was even a pitiful 38 miles was because I ran the marathon that month.
I've just been SO SICK. In February I missed 12 days thanks to sickness and three for a pulled groin. In March I've so far missed 13 while sick! Actually one of those days was supposed to be a marathon recovery day, then I'd specifically planned 2 gym days, so those don't count. And I guess the day when I got dressed to run, stuck my head out the door, and decided it was too cold doesn't count either. So I missed ten days. I'm going to go run in a few minutes, but it's a bad plan. I'm still weak!
Now for the interesting part. I don't know if it's being sick, a jacked-up metabolism from running fevers over 103 for days on end, or if it's tied to not running, but I'm wasting away. I don't have a scale, or I'd give you some stats, but I can tell by how I look that I've lost weight. My face looks gaunt and my clothes are loose. It's not a pretty site. Now of all the theories I mentioned above, I'm blaming not running. My reasoning is that my appetite has significantly decreased. When I run a lot, I also eat A LOT. Now that I'm not running, I'm eating less, and disproportionately less. What I mean is, if I'm starving all food looks good to me and I'll go to great lengths to get some food. This means that if there's cheesecake in the house, I'll eat the cheesecake. If there's no food in the house at all, I will go out and buy pasta and scallops and fresh parsley and make dinner and eat it. All of it! So when I have a big appetite, I eat. But when I don't desire food I don't eat the cheesecake sitting on the counter. And I fall prey to the lazy man's diet: that is, if there isn't any food handy, I'm too lazy to make any. I'm still hungry, but I'm not starving, so I'm not willing to go to too much trouble to forage for food.
There's a slightly more scientific version of this argument here.
Of course, there's also the argument that I've been really, really, really sick recently so I suppose that could still be the culprit.
In other news:
I cut my hair. Drastically. About 12 inches came off. But I haven't had a chance to bribe the hubby into taking pictures for your viewing pleasure. Pictures will come soon.
Take care of yourself my dear! Feel better soon!!!
ReplyDeleteI want pictures of that new hair. :-)
I'm about 3 lbs. lighter post the series of chest colds from hell that attacked me in Jan.and Feb. and, like you, it made a huge dent in my running. And now that I'm back to working out a lot - I'm *starving* which isn't necessarily a good thing b/c I have definitely been eating a lot of junk. On the other hand, the scale hasn't started drifting upwards, so hopefully the ton of exercise (I'm really excited to be able to work out again and thus working out a lot) I'm getting is balancing out the ton of calories.
ReplyDeleteI will say that I looked better, 3 lbs. and all, last Nov. when I was training for my half marathon. I've gotten mushy in my convalescence.