Progress and Setbacks

There’s been and lot of progress lately, along with one setback. First the progress.

After my last race, the Marine Corps 17.75K, which gave me automatic entry into the Marine Corps Marathon, I took my trainer’s advice, pulled back on my weekly mileage, and added more time at the gym lifting weights. The gym work has addressed all of the major muscle groups, but has paid extra attention to legs. So Deliverable #1: less miles, more weights.

Deliverable #2 was to finally drop the last ten pounds. I had been plateaued for some time, so I just focused on creating healthy calorie deficit. In combination with the gym work, those last few pounds started coming off. I’m not there yet, but I can see it from here.

The payoff has been that my “normal” running pace has dropped by about a minute per mile. The physics are simple: stronger muscles pushing less weight. I saw a similar drop last fall as my training progressed. It seems to plateau for a bit until my physical condition crosses some unseen threshold.

Another payoff has been that my asthma has been fighting me less while I run. My asthma is not specifically exercise-induced, but all asthma can respond to exertion. Adding strength and dropping weight has led to less exertion, which has kept the asthma at bay.

The setback came as a result of a week-long company trip. We do an all-hands event where everyone in the company descends on HQ for a week. It’s a great time for team-building and collaboration. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of socializing. When I stepped onto the plane to go there, I was two pounds from my goal weight and had the best average resting heart rate I’d had in a while. When I got home, my resting heart heart was ten beats higher and I was twelve pounds from my goal weight.

It was a week of little sleep, a lot of food, not enough water, and a few too many adult beverages. It was simply not how I go about my normal day, and my body responded accordingly.

This week, since I’ve been home, I’ve doubled down on running, the gym, water, and sleep. I’m also very carefully watching what I eat. I’ve dropped seven of the ten pounds I brought home. What goes on quickly usually comes off quickly.

The bottom line, however, is that I went into all-hands week without a plan. It wasn’t my first such trip, so I knew what to expect. I simply didn’t prepare and experienced the setback I should have seen coming. I have no one to blame but myself.

I have another work trip to Texas for a conference in June. I will be better prepared.