What a difference a few weeks make

We finally weighed in on Saturday - it turns out what I suspected was true - I had gained at least 5 pounds in about a month. For months the weight had been slowly creeping up but that was quite drastic - no wonder I was feeling horrible.

I weigh in again on Saturday and expect to have already lost at least a few of those pounds.  Those of us with some experience know that if you gain weight fast you can lose it fast, and vice versa.

The timing has worked out because we also signed up for a 5K color run on April 20th and so I immediately started on a 6 week 5K training program.  I'm glad I did because after completing the first week of training yesterday (it's a 4 day/week program), I realized that as much as speed  and cardio endurance is important since I was out of shape, the bigger issue was that I hadn't done that kind of mileage in years, so my legs needed to be stronger.  (Since college I had transitioned from a 3 mile walk/runner to a 2 mile walk/runner, in part to save time - now that I'm older that 3rd mile is a challenge!)  This training is VERY WALK INTENSIVE.  In fact, it's really testing my patience because I don't like to just walk on a treadmill (which for me, I have to do most of the time to ward off allergies), it bores the heck out of me.

For example, last night my training was:  Walk 3-5 miles, including 10 run/walk intervals (run 30 seconds, walk 1 minutes) in the last mile.

I did a 1/2 mile with Curtis and Kenny outside, then went in the gym, did 1.5 miles walking and the last mile as instructed, with intervals.   I just don't have the patience for any more walking with that.  So I'm going to use my 5th day of training this week to add a few miles on to my week total and enjoy some freedom from the training program (meaning more running less walking for a shorter distance).  Thursday will probably be an off day or elliptical, and week 2 starts Friday. 

I can safely say I already feel better than a did just a few weeks ago - I'm eating really well and my clothes already fit properly again. This week I opted to not count activity points in an effort to drop the weight a little faster, so I'm excited to weigh-in on Saturday and looking forward to continuing this 5K program.