Nice Kitty....

After a long day of not leaving the house, I finally got outside at about 10:30 tonight and went for a run. And I actually ran a lot more than usual today, so that was pretty cool. I'm starting to feel a difference both when I am running and just in my normal day to day stuff. I'm not really losing any weight, but I am starting to feel a little lighter on my feet. Once I start dropping the pounds, I can't imagine how I am going to feel. It is damn sad that I can't remember what it feels like to be in shape.

I think I may have had a breakthrough in my running form tonight. It took awhile to get there, but I think I figured it out. I mentioned some time last month that I was reading a book about Chi Running, and one of the main points was not to overtax the smaller muscles and tendons. The main way to avoid that seemed to be a good forward lean (without leaning from at the waist), concentrating on relaxing your feet, and shifting your stride focus to lifting from the hip instead of pushing off with your calves or feet. It is hard to describe in print, but I think I got it figured out tonight. One of the main things that helped seems to be shortening my stride and speeding up the turnover rate. I'm sure it looks a little funny, but it seemed to pound my knees a lot less and I actually started feeling it in my hip flexors instead of in my ITB.

So that brings us back to the diet. Daylen mentioned in a comment on one of the other posts that I should spend a couple of weeks eating and working out with him and it would seem like boot camp. While the thought of spending any more time than necessary with Daylen seems a little nauseating, the idea of a diet and exercise boot camp seems pretty interesting. One of the things Navy SEALs have to endure during training is Hell Week. It is pretty much what it sounds like. It is a week of almost no sleep, and constant punishment from the instructors. Besides fostering teamwork, the main point of this is to prove to the trainees how much their minds and bodies can withstand. Once you make it through Hell Week, everything seems easier. The weight loss challenge ends in about 2 weeks, so I am going to try and see how much weight I can lose in the next two weeks. So I am going to think of the next 2 weeks as Hell Weeks and really bear down on my eating and working out. I may not make weight, but any weight I lose is a good thing.

By the way, I have said numerous times how much I love running at night, and tonight was no exception. I got to pet one of the neighbor dogs for a little bit and I even saw a cat that I had never seen around the neighborhood before. A very pretty little black cat with 2 white stripes down his back. He wasn't very friendly, though. Every time I tried to pet him, he would turn around and raise his tail like he was going to run away. He must have been scared to death of me, poor thing. It was pretty dark, though, so maybe he just couldn't see me very well. I will have to keep an eye out for him next time, and maybe we can be friends. Who knows?