Again to Gym and facing the Scale

This cold really has me knocked out. I feel more doped-up now than when I was on the pain meds. And I'm not even on cold medicine right now. However, about an hour before hitting the gym, I took a pill with a decongestant and antihistamine. I was in la-la land for my workout which I guess wasn't such a bad thing. Hit the elliptical for 30 minutes, keeping the resistance low since my knee was pretty stiff today. At 10 and 20 minutes I stopped for a few seconds to bend the knee and loosen it up a bit. It still doesn't like all the blood rushing through it though the bruises are really subsiding. The staples are definitely ready to come out as they're irritating the skin just a bit. Have to wait for my appointment of Friday.

So now to tackle the bigger issue. Which luckily is not as big as it was about a month ago. My weight. If I want to be at all competitive again, I have to drop to a reasonable racing weight. I do not know exactly what that is. In high school, it was nearly constantly 137 pounds. In college before I was hurt, it was between 145 and 150. I ran my 5,000m PR nearly 10 pounds heavier than my high school weight which probably indicates a gain in muscle and height rather than fat. I was 1/2 - 1 inch taller by winter break freshman year and clearly stronger based on my times.

So then there's me today. I was 176 pounds this afternoon. That's fat. However, I've also shown myself over the past month that I can lose weight, as I peaked somewhere around 185, maybe to the 190 side, in mid-April. I ran a bit in late-April and early-May, but the gains (errr... losses) really came from watching what I ate. I virtually eliminated fried foods and stopped gorging myself on delicious Somerville/Medford take-out. At home, it's really easy to eat healthy. Whole wheat pastas, long grain rice, lean chicken, beans, fruit, vegetables, salad, yogurt, and other nutritious items are readily available, and I have plenty of time (and clean dishes) to cook. Basically, I need to make sure any weight loss comes from training and healthy food choices, not starving myself. Besides, I love food too much to do such a thing.

So time to set some goals which are subject to change suddenly and drastically. I figure I'll be around 170 again (same as last summer) at the start of work at summer camp June 15th. And I'll just be starting to run. The combination of running and knock-me-on-my-ass work days is always a great recipe for weight loss. So 1-2 weeks into July, I'm aiming for 165; first week of August, I'm looking at 160; and at the start of XC camp in September, I want to be at a (relatively) lean 155. Cross country season can then knock off any weight it wants to. I'm just gonna focus on running my fucking ass off all season. Of course, I've never worried much about weight before so if I'm 160 or 165 in September but ran almost every day of the summer, so be it.

And since I really don't care about my weight goals, I just wasted 15 minutes of my time typing this and 5 minutes of yours if you read it. What can I say? I'm stir-crazy between no work, no school, and no running.