The New new plan

Morning exercises

When I was loosing weight rapidly in Miami I would work out before breakfast.  I got to a point where I hated to do that because I would totally run out of energy before my workout was over.  Of course, I was being a bit nutty about it all - I roller bladed 10 miles before breakfast or rode my bike for 20 miles.  I was totally bonking on no breakfast.  Over the past year or so I've read a few articles about how you burn more fat exercising before you break your fast, but  my aversion from previous experience kept me from trying it again.  I read another quick article about it again, and this one motivated me to give it a try.  Anything to stave off holiday weight gain (except not eating holiday treats....)  I got up yesterday morning and walked on the  treadmill before breakfast, and it was totally fine.  I did it again this morning too with no ill effects.  I suspect I will be able to run/walk before breakfast as well.  If I get to the point that I am training for an actual race I will probably shift to eating breakfast before running, but that seems to be a ways away from the moment.  We shall see if this one tweak to my routine has any positive effects.  I was 200.8 lbs on Monday.  I'll be curious to see where I am on Friday.

What about running?

My feet are feeling great.  I am still adjusting to my new Terra Plana vivobarefoot shoes.  I wake up with a little soreness in my feet (overall) that fades as I walk around.  I can feel my general walking pace picking up, and I'm up to walking at a 2.6 mph pace on the treadmill.  These are all fabulous things.  I have done a few walk/run sessions on the treadmill.  I've decided to lay off on that until about January 15th, 2011.  This will give me about a month of walking around totally barefoot style.  I can feel my feet getting stronger, but since I am still experiencing some foot fatigue I want to be darn sure I'm ready to take the next step.

When I can run again I will run for 2 minutes 30 seconds for four sprints during my roughly 30 minutes on the treadmill.  I'll start the process by run/walk one day, walk for 2 days in a row and then run again.  My week will go run, walk walk, run, walk walk.  Once I have NO foot soreness from this set up I will move up to a run walk run walk pattern.  Again, once I have NO foot soreness at all I will move on to extending my running segments past 2 minutes and 30 seconds (which is the average length of a commercial break).  I may end up with a full month going by between changes, rather than a week.  But since all of my recent foot misery (metatarsalia, Achilles tendinitis) has come from rushing into running, I think I will slow down and remember my mantra: This is for the rest of my life.  If it takes me a year to get to running 30 minutes without a break, so what?  I will get there.  And go past that.  And run a marathon.  I have time.  And if I don't, I don't know it so why get all worked up about it?

What about weight lifting?

I think winter has worked it's usual "meh" magic on my weight-lifting.  I want to lift, but I think it would be better if I do this in the evening after dinner.  It's not like I'm doing anything that I can't work around between 6 pm and 9 pm (when I go to bed).  I seem to need a somewhat rigid schedule in the morning 30 minutes on the treadmill provides - I don't really like having to think much about what I am doing at 6 am.