Well. This is a bummer.

This week I wrapped up my four week two-a-day routine (temporarily). I think it’s very important to switch up your workout routine every four weeks or so for multiple reasons that include keeping your body on its toes metabolism-wise and in my case: to give my body a rest. Starting next week I’m knocking off all of my evening exercises, keeping my M & Tr spin classes and my T, W & F Couch-to-5k with an added Saturday run. It’s been a difficult but rewarding four weeks but now that I’ve wrapped it up I’m concerned that maybe I’ve been over-training. My weight loss has been slow but steady, roughly 1-2 lbs per week so that’s cool…

…Except this week. After last week I gained about two pounds around mid-week but was able to bring them all back down by yesterday morning. In fact, I was so close to being down a pound I was semi-confident I’d be able to report being down another in this blog but, unfortunately, it was not meant to be. So now for the second week, I’m reporting only being down 21 lbs. I know this isn’t anything to be ashamed of – 21 lbs is a lot – but I really had my heart set on 22 or 23 this week.

Due to the holiday weekend, my spin class tomorrow is off but I didn’t want to skip a workout so I added an extra run – a “free” run – at the park Saturday morning. My goal was to see if I could run a mile without stopping since my running portion of Couch-to-5k program has me running over 1.5 miles total, just not consecutively. So at sunrise I hit the pavement but wondered “off the beaten trail”. After a .25 mile walking lap, I hit the gas, found my pace and hit “run” mode. One lap around the trail but then around the first parking lot, into the next lot and up into the third. My intention was to loop around and run my route in reverse then call it quits but at the end of parking lot 3 I found an opening to a trail that ran through the woods edging the lake. Unable to resist I hit it.

And I’m very glad I did. I was able to see a lot of neat stuff: nature in general, downed trees, trees growing into each other, lovely rock formations on banks, the morning sun rising over the mountains and glistening off of the still lake. It was wonderful. I got to a nice vantage point for a photo op and considered it the “halfway” mark. I snapped some photos, took a few deep breaths and made my way back through the woods, out of parking lot 3 and eventually back to the track for another .25 cool down walk. When I got to my car, I swigged some water and checked my stats: 2.35 miles total, 1.85 miles of which was spent running! At this point I’m not concerned with time, especially on a Saturday morning “free” run so I was beyond excited to see those numbers. I still have five weeks left of Couch to 5k and at this point I’m able to run 2 miles. I’m rounding up because I hit 1.85 miles running and finished strong – I could’ve gone longer. I CAN NOT WAIT for the end of November where I get to run my first 5k. Bring it on!

I mentioned a photo op. Here’s what I got:

http://instagram.com/p/sUmvUHL2QE

http://instagram.com/p/sUmb0ZL2fq

So yeah, I didn’t lose any weight this week but I was able to prove to myself yesterday that I’m doing way better than I thought. I’m still down 21 lbs, I tested my blood sugar this morning and it’s very close to being normal again, my blood pressure has been consistently normal for the last month or so. I’m finally taking control and it’s working.

While we’ve had tickets for a while now I decided I was going to consider our trip to Side Splitters last night to see the great Lavell Crawford a celebration for a 4 week job well done. I, admittedly, had three beers last night. I have another month before my 3 month follow up appointment with my doctor and I’m ready to rock it. Let’s jam.