Well under 15.

Well, it's all working. I weighed myself at my folks' yesterday, fully clothed and wearing a fleece, and the scale said a fraction, a tiny fraction over 15 stone. Which means it's more like 14 stone 7ish. Though later, when I find someone nearby with scales, I will weigh clothes to make sure!

Feeling very pleased with self, especially as still running under 20 miles a week. Cutting right, right back on beer may have something to do with it... Though I weighed in after 5pm, which they say not to do, the wise people that they are. So maybe the weight loss is greater? Whatever it is, i'll take it.

Only thing that worries me about weight loss is the lady attention that follows. I have a mind too, women of shropshire! I'm not just a sex object!!! Though I am that as well, of course.

Anyway, so far, so good. Expect under 14 by mid February...

...and under 15 again.

It's all going rather well. The new exercise regime is interesting - I am both stronger in my gait and faster as a result of running fewer miles, quicker. And yesterday, I ran up one of the biggest hills in the area, and down the other side, without any real problems.

Lots of people have been saying "Crikey*, you've lost a lot of weight", but I haven't really. I've firmed up in some places, and I have lost some fat, but I always think of weight as numbers, and the numbers are largely consistent.

Except, I made a game-changing alteration - I pretty much stopped drinking. In three weeks, I have been drunk precisely three times, and each time I have A) not enjoyed it and B) woken up thinking 'what a waste - I woke up feeling so good every other day this week and now I feel like this!'. I'm retraining myself to not enjoy it at all, and I must say, it's working!

When I don't drink, I am often up at 5:30am for a 6am run, back home, stretch, wash up, make sandwiches for The Child, wake Wifelet up with a cup of tea, then walk the hounds. After a drink, I still walk the dogs but that's about it!

Anyway, I feel like weight is actually moving now that my exercise has changed, and my consumption habits. I've enjoyed sobriety more than I thought I would, but the urge to misbehave remains, and I hope it always will.

I weighted myself at my parents' house last night, and the scales revealed I weighed 15st 2lbs, or just a shade under. Fully clothed, and after a solid day's eating and drinking. So I reckon I can reasonably claim four or five pounds for my clothes, which puts me quite comfortably under 15st. And that's worth celebrating with a doughnut.

Just kidding.

But it is.

I haven't been this light since I started running, and weighed myself after massive fluid loss in my first half marathon (somehow still a personal best of 2:08). I feel absolutely fantastic, and I haven't even started the next marathon training cycle yet. Everything looks achievable, even - dare I say it - 13.5st. Or even less.

What's been really strange, and I pointed this out to Wifelet to her surprise yesterday, is that I have lost muscle mass from my legs. They've shrunk. Unless it was cunningly disguised fat, of course.

The worry - and this will sound dumber than dumb - is that women will start finding me attractive. I don;t know why, but that annoys me sometimes. It's hard to explain. Of course, if my wife were to find me utterly irresistible, that is a bonus and a damn fine one. Everyone else can just look.

....Now I HAVE weighed myself...

...and I'm still 15 stones 2lbs, despite a concerted drinking effort etc since I last weighed myself. Actually, I haven;t been drinking a great deal. Much less frequently, too. Most evenings I am in bed by 9:15, and awake bright and early for a run or a long dog walk, or both. Most days, I cover around 9-10 miles before breakfast; four running, the rest walking hills with the dogs.

Dogs, plural - we are now dogsitting Darcy, a beautiful Wisla cross boy, for the next couple of years. His owners are in Dubai, so we decided amongst us that he would have a much better quality of life here in Shropshire than in sunny Dubai, and he and Millie get on well, so it's win-win.

Anyway, I'm really pleased that my weight is consistent. I also just changed my running routine, so two runs a week are now much faster. So it'll be two easy runs (four miles each), two faster runs (one two miles, one three miles) and one long run (probably just six miles, but adding a mile a week to it) for a total, when I'm ready (I'm building the mileage slowly, it helps to avoid injury!) of 19 miles a week as a base to build on. By the time London comes around next April, I will be running 40-50 miles a week.

I shall look like a racing snake.

In other news, I have stomach muscles. You can't see them yet, but you can feel them. A nice by-product of the exercises I do to keep my arse strong.

Oh, and I'm now getting paid to write about running, so there's absolutely no excuse not to immerse myself in it now... Racing Snakesville, here I come.

I haven't weighed myself

...but lots of people have commented on how 'healthy' I look, and that I have lost weight. I don't think I have, but I feel pretty excellent. Maybe I'll weigh myself soon.

This is the longest injury-free period I have had from running since I started. Little niggles, annoyances, nothing major, but enough to put me off for fear of a bigger injury. Now I'm super strong, I have stomach muscles, and my legs are frankly pretty awesome. Even my arse is rock solid, or as close as it'll ever get. So I feel good, and I feel very, very strong indeed. By the end of next week, this will also be the first year I've competed in three races - one full marathon and two half marathons. I feel I could have done a lot more, as well, but I'm building toward a lunatic project next year, and something much bigger in 2013.

In short, I feel great. I even had a beer-free week recently which was a real eye-opener - I had loads of energy, woke up naturally most mornings, went to bed very early every night and my running was wonderful. Hmmmm. Perhaps there's a lesson there.

...and over 15

Weighed myself at the doctor's today and he reckoned, allowing for clothes etc, I am about 15st 2lbs. Which, considering I spent the week drunk after the marathon, and had a chest infection two weeks prior to that which meant no exercise, is pretty fucking good, I think.

Have run 15.5 miles already this week, will do another 5.5 in the morning, plus a 13.1 mile half marathon on Sunday. That will, assuming I do it all, make this the first week ever, I think, where I have run more than 30 miles. And the first 15 wasn't even that hard. Mind you, that's how they get you…

Beer is slowly taking a back seat in my life after I asked myself a difficult question or two in another blog. I'm out tomorrow celebrating my beautiful wife's birthday, and after that the next time I drink might well be when I am in Spain at the end of the month, or in Macau a few days after that. We shall see. But the weight, I can assure you, will come down. I aim to be around 14 stone by the end of the summer. THere, I've said it, it's in print*.

The doctor said to me this morning, "If you're going to do a lot of running, you need to look after yourself better." All that expensive doctorly education was not wasted on me, I can assure you.


*If I have ever made any other such declarations, they are rendered null and void with this one. Even if I didn't actually do them. Especially if I didn't do them.

Under 15...

...stone, that is. And if I had managed my diet more effectively, I would be a heck of a lot lighter than that. I've been able to run 20+ miles a week (hell, 20+ miles in a single run) for the first time in ages recently, and the weight's come off nicely. I weighed myself at my folks' the other night and the scales said 15st 3lb, so I allowed four pounds for clothes to put me just under 15stone. Which is... 209lbs, US Fat Fans. Lightest I've been for a while, but there is more to come. I've signed up for another race after London for a different hospice, though it's only a half marathon. But it means I have to keep going, and there's not going to be any time for any 'what do I do now, where's my motivation' kind of thoughts post-London Marathon, which is good.

In short, if I drank less beer, I would be loads and loads lighter. So that's the next plan...

Z goes to work on an egg, if not a bike

I've not had a lot to say.  Unusually for me, however, I haven't said anything.

I've not taken any exercise for the past couple of months, I have to admit.  I went on holiday at the beginning of November and, not too long after I returned, the weather turned cold and the roads weren't suitable for cycling.  Phil kept on cycling mind you, but even he had a couple of falls on the ice.  I wasn't going to take risks and besides, it was damn cold.

This week, I finally got back on the bike and, not in the least to my surprise, found that my fitness level was on the floor.  I did cycle up a hill that I couldn't manage when I first started cycling, more than three years ago, but that really isn't saying a lot.  And I haven't been on the bike since - okay, that just means I didn't do it yesterday, but I won't today or tomorrow.  Might on Friday.

Someone in a comment on the other blog suggested I use a Wii - yes, possibly, but the thing is, would I?  Frankly, I'd find it really embarrassing in front of the Sage and he's often around.  It'd be just as embarrassing to shut him out.  And I've little idea what exercises are involved - okay, don't tell me, I've got to google it.  Ronan has a Wii and I've played games on it with him, but he doesn't live here any more.

I've been eating an egg for breakfast most days instead of porridge.  It certainly is as filling.  I sometimes don't want lunch - at least, not at lunchtime.  Thing is though, if I skip lunch or have very little, I get tired by the time dinner is ready around 7.30.  It's too long to wait.  On Monday, for example, I had a banana at lunchtime and some yoghurt, toast and Marmite about 4.30 when I arrived home again.  Not sure if this will be a good idea.  It's an interesting thing that one egg is really filling at breakfast time, when it wouldn't be enough for lunch.  I poach it and have it on dry toast.

Actually, it's lovely, so I hope I won't get fat on it!  I fill the kettle, put it on while I get everything ready and pour a glass of juice, put water in a pan when it boils, put a slice of bread to toast, crack the egg in the water, make tea, flip the toast while the tea brews, take the pan off the heat, infuser out of the mug, put toast on plate, drain egg on piece of kitchen paper, put onto toast.  The only extra time over making toast is the time it takes to boil a pint of water instead of half a pint.  We have fresh bantam eggs every day, so I can always have a new-laid egg (fresh eggs are the secret of good poaching - even a week-old egg's white will start to spread).

The extra few pounds I mentioned back in June haven't vanished.  Got to do something.  There isn't the incentive now, just shows how I need an impetus to do anything.  Saying "I must" isn't enough.