New Year's Resolutions

I resolve to lose weight and become a faster runner.  To eat healthier and get better quality sleep.  To help old ladies cross the road.  To end hunger and spread peace.  To,… to,.. OMG how am I ever going to do all of this?!?

I'm not really a New Year's resolution type of guy.  When I crossed the 160lb level and had to start wearing the next size larger jeans, I vowed to lose weight and today am closer to 165.  That's still in the "healthy weight" range on the BMI charts, but the trend is in the wrong direction.

But my company shuts down over the holidays and that gives me a chance to reflect on what my goals are and what's working and what's not.  Obviously whatever I'm doing to lose weight is in the "not" category.  Actually, I'm not sure quite sure how the weight is supposed to come off, as I vowed to lose weight and then kept right on with my usual eating and exercise habits.

In truth, I have tried to cut back on my calorie intake, but the results were not as expected.  I expected to be hungry and perhaps a bit tired.  If only it were that easy.  When in calorie deficit, my body prefers to do a good imitation of fibromyalgia combined with depression.   As a result, everything hurts and any activity that might result in a single extra calorie being burned seems pointless.

It's also true that "lose weight" and "become a faster runner" are at odds with each other.  Building muscle generally requires a caloric surplus and hard running.  Even with the calorie surplus, all the hard running will lead to joint and muscle pain and a temporary diminishment of enthusiasm for, well, everything.  Running hard while in calorie deficit is just asking for trouble.

It's quite the quandary without any easy answers.  My latest experiment was limiting myself to only two slices of pepperoni pizza, then getting up from in front of the TV and organizing my sock drawer.  That's not the sexy answer that will sell a diet book, but it is an incremental change that seems to work in reality.  As a bonus, I can now spend more time running and less time looking for a matching pair of socks.

Still Running

I haven't been posting about it much, but yes I am still running regularly.  I don't have any goal races planned, so there isn't much to talk about.  I've just been focused on ramping up the quality and quantity of my mileage, and my knee has been well behaved until recently.

Ah yes, that bout of runner's knee.  It's been doing well for quite some time, so I got a bit lazy about working on strengthening and stretching the legs.  As I get better, faster, and stronger, my knee is definitively telling me that it's not bionic, and won't tolerate all the abuse imposed by muscles that aren't doing their jobs properly.  It's tired of being the person at the office that fixes everybody else's mistakes.

I'm also approaching my running differently than before.  While still a fan of walk breaks, I'm now trying to do more of my shorter runs without them.  It's actually pretty challenging in unexpected ways.  Briefly, walk breaks work by allowing tired sections a muscle a chance to recover.  However, muscle that's allowed to recover doesn't get damaged, and thus doesn't have a chance to rebuild itself with new infrastructure that will prevent future damage.  So when first giving up walk breaks, it quickly becomes apparent which sections of muscle have been slacking off.  It's an experience in running very slowly in lots of pain.  To compound matters, tired muscles cause bad form which aggravates things like runner's knee.

Form is another weak point of mine.  My natural inclination it to take long bounding strides, sort of like I'm doing a series of long jumps rather than running.  I read a lot of advice online, such as increasing stride rate will automatically lead to shorter strides and better form.  Or to lean forward from the ankles.  I haven't quite figured out how to lean forward from the ankles.  Instead I try to keep my foot on the ground longer, it ends up being further behind me when it does come off the ground, and that forces me into a leaning from the ankle sort of form, at least for that end of the stride.

It's also difficult to make tired legs take more steps per minute.  Here a Jedi mind trick is useful.  It's much easier to swing your arms faster.  Since the legs and arms want to move opposite each other, a faster arm swing will automatically cause a faster stride rate, and the mind is focused on the arms, which are very happy not to be the legs about now.  Life is good if you’re an arm out for a long run.

So no exotic destination races for me at the moment, just running around the same old routes, swinging my arms faster, pushing my legs behind me, and gritting my teeth while not taking walk breaks.  And also the occasional ice pack on the knee and strengthening and stretching.  Can't forget about those.  Again.