Life: Exercise Re-continued

Yet another setback in the weight department. This time around it was moving into a bigger place, then spent time trying to fill the place. I gained like 20 pounds during that time. How did that even happen?! Sigh...

Anyways, I am back in running mode again. I went out a few times to the gym and "ran" on the treadmill. I walked most of it, jogged a 5mph pace for like 5 minutes, and was dying. One day, American Ninja was on and that was surprisingly motivating as I kept walking or jogging into the front bar. I probably did that every other day for a couple weeks. I gained like 2-3 pounds. This is most likely me just regaining muscle mass again.

Then my "sponsor" (can bring a free guest to the gym) took a break, so I started running at a nearby park. I "ran" the 5k trail. This takes me about an hour the first time. At first, my right calf seems to tighten up a lot. I'm not sure what is causing this. Usually around the 9 minute mark. Couple minutes later, my ankle and foot feel really sore. At this point, I would just walk and it will go away. Then I would jog again for another minute or two until it comes back. After another couple weeks, I cut this down to 40 minutes. My calf, ankle, and foot no longer bother me.

It also seems that I improve (by which I mean that it feels easier to run) when I run every other day. Even if I do a light (mostly walking) day in between, I feel that the run is not much easier than the previous run. I think I also improve if I take 2 days off. 3 days does not seem to make much difference. This still works if I work on other exercises like crunches and other upper body exercises. Working on my abs seem to also improve me run quite a bit.

At this point, I have lost about 5 pounds from my last max weight. I have also stopped eating "midnight" snacks. That habit was difficult to get rid of because it somehow prevented me from sleeping. Just recently, I had an opportunity to run on the treadmill and I have been able to run a 6mph pace for 10 minutes, then I just do a bunch of runs and walks in 2-5 minute intervals for about an hour. I was able to do the first 5k in 38.5 minutes (my best time post-college was 31 minutes).

I'm glad that things are starting to settle down. For some reason, I just cannot find time to workout when I have other things to do. Hopefully, I'll have more success going forward.