When 13.1 Doesn't Count

I ran 13.1 miles - a half marathon - for the first time the other day.
I wanted to prove that I'd be physically capable of running the full distance of the  Chicago Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in about two weeks.

But I ran it on a treadmill - and in my mind, that doesn't count.
Running it indoors was nothing like running a half marathon outside. 

Even if the distance is the same... it's not.
Despite trying to replicate normal conditions as best as possible - running with the exact same clothes and hydration belt - it felt too different.

After: "Meh"

Inside, it was 70 degrees. Fans going above. I had a TV on. I put unused headphones in holders, instead of carrying them. I drenched myself with water twice in the bathroom. I didn't have to worry about twisting ankles jumping off of curbs. My knees weren't a problem.The only way I could tell I'd run the full distance was watching the LED ticker on the screen. I had a foam roller ready for immediate use afterward.

Outside, it was 105 degrees and sunny, a blast furnace.

Running 13.1 for the first time should produce jubilation.
Barely feels like an accomplishment.

I have no clue if I'm going to be able to even finish this upcoming half - even with low impact, I stopped completely about eight or nine times.
Hell, at this point, if this weather keeps up the way it's been lately, it might get canceled.

I'd never run more than five minutes on the treadmill before. After the dissatisfaction of that run, I don't plan on making it a regular habit, if I can avoid it.


Also learned:
Gatorade powder mixed full strength with water is delicious and effective against burnout. 
Gatorade powder at 1/4 the proscribed strength against water is disgusting.

Shrinkage

This might be my favorite picture of myself in years, for a very simple reason:

I'm wearing a men's size medium shirt. It fits.
At least in workout clothes from Target, and t-shirts from Old Navy, I'm there.
Down three sizes from xxl. 
Considering I'm about an inch and a half under six feet tall, I can't imagine I'll ever fit into a men's small - so this is likely the last smaller shirt size I achieve.

As for pants:

Not as good a picture.

Down to a size 32 waist, down from 42.

I donated almost all of my oversize clothes yesterday. I had way more than I had expected:

12 full bags, with a conservative estimate of about 30 pieces in each bag... over 350 articles of clothing out the door.

Now I'm wondering if I'll need to get rid of all my large shirts, too.

Weighing and Tracking

Some people find it counterproductive to weigh-in daily... I take to the other extreme: I weigh myself twice daily. On two different scales each time.
Immediately before sleeping in the morning, and right after waking up at night, I jump on the scales, see where I'm at, and record the results.

Using two scales might seem like overkill, but it's a habit now. The first I've had for months, whereas the second is also a bodyfat scale. Since I've had scales that have gotten out of whack without warning in the past, I can compare the results and ensure they're still more or less precise. 
Weighing twice daily shows how my actions, such as how I ate, drank, and either lased about or beat the hell out of myself, impacted body weight since the last weigh-in, though I'm aware (and the results have confirmed) sometimes it takes several days for those results to be shown.

I've found that weighing twice a day keeps me accountable to my plan - and as the saying goes, "What's measured is managed." I don't think I'd fly off the rails completely without weighing constantly, but it's a fear.
Strangely, weighing-in has become one of my favorite moments of my day. I actively look forward to it when I think I'm going to hit a milestone, and hope I didn't do as badly as anticipated when I screw up. I'm disappointed when I'm not home to weigh-in, and I've even lugged the older scale along with me when I've slept elsewhere for a night or two.

But probably my favorite part is my monthly analysis of my results, comparing and contrasting progress.
I'm a very visual person, so seeing trends drawn out helps, and so I created a series of very simple graphs from the data I've recorded so far, from February to June, 2012.
Hopefully it's not just interesting to me alone.

First, the monthly daily data:

 

When combined:

Obviously, there are daily fluctuations which seem to throw things off - so I enjoy taking the time to break it down a bit more into trends.

If I only weighed weekly, my results would look like this:

Saturday chosen because I weighed-in most consistently on that day

But I DON'T do that, because if before weighing-in I had, for example, a particularly rough day or an intense run, it could throw off the results of a full week and short-change me. 

Eventually, I probably will get to the point where I'm comfortable only jumping on the scale - but I'm not there yet.

And I've found not thinking of weight in terms of daily numbers, but in terms of weekly average, can be very helpful to void out outlier results:

And finally, figuring out how well I did each week:

Maybe my favorite part: 16 weeks of straight loss; five consecutive of at least a pound a week. 

Apparently I'm doing something right.