A Fatty wanders the holiday streets

This blog title has become a bit of a misnomer. Well not entirely, I mean I still run, just not as often as I strength train. Still I like the ring(or thud) or Fatty Goes Running and so it will remain.

Last night was a run night.

Twas the night before Thursday, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The lights were hung on the cacti with care,
In hopes that a neighbor would see them there.

The skinnies were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of being naked in front of the conference room danced in their heads.
And mamma in her nightgown and poppa in his cap,
Had all settled down for their long winters nap.

When out on the street there arose such a clatter,
The dogs all sprang from their beds to see what was the matter.
Away to the windows they flew like a flash,
Barking and shredding the poor dusty sash.

The streetlamps gave the street a weird glow
And gave the lustre of post-apocalypse death to objects below.
When  what to their doggy eyes did appear,
But a Fatty running with all the sound of eight tiny reindeer!

The thunder of the footfalls hard and not fast,
they knew in a moment it must be barked at.
More rapid than turtles his footfalls they came,
And he huffed, and groaned, and told them to tame.

Now yorki! now collie! now, mutt and poodle!
Now, lab! Now, shepard! Now, hound and boxerdoodle!
To the porch and the fence and the top of the wall!
Now bark away! Bark away! Bark away all!

That's all of that poem I can come up with right now but outside of the dogs, I love running in the middle of the night. I've been trying to alter my running form to land more midfoot and less heel, I can definitely tell a huge difference and it feels much better but it's hard to do without constantly focusing on it. This is my favorite time of year to wander the midnight streets. Most of the houses leave their christmas lights on all night and it makes things a bit more magical. Christmas in Phoenix is pretty strange though, the lights on the cacti are indeed hung with care but many of them are covered in christmas cheer none-the-less.

How a Fatty recovered and lost 5 pounds doing it

In a word?

Vicodin.

I had no idea that stuff was such an appetite suppressant. After pulling that back muscle on Sunday evening I dove into a hard regiment of sleep, vicodin and ice packs for the next 2 days followed by 2 more days of heat. It was honestly that bad. Friday I was finally able to start bending again and I did a light workout on the old bowflex. Saturday I went for a run and then hit the bowflex hard when I got back.

The gym membership expired and after the last two days on the backyard bowflex, I don't think I am going to renew it. It's $65 a month and while I love the environment and the steam room, I don't like using the treadmill (see previous anti-treadmill post) or the other cardio machines very much and the bowflex really does allow me to do a full body workout just like I would do at the gym. Money saved is money earned right?

This week has been pretty eye opening for me as far as food intake goes. I am by no means starving myself but I am eating probably close to 40% of the sheer gross weight of food I used to eat and nowadays the food I am eating tends to be much healthier and more thoughtful. It's certainly a better way to live and I am excited to be well past the habit forming weeks at the start.

So todays weigh-in is 329!

How a Fatty had to listen

Wednesday morning, 3am, I'm still on a reversed sleep schedule. It seems that every time I don't have to work my body quickly turns vampiric. It's not bad though, I like running under the stars and the streets are silent except for the falling of my feet and breath as it escapes.

Wednesday morning, 3am, I've not run since Sunday. I went for, or tried to rather, go for a trail run along Lake Pleasant but the rockiness of the trail turned into mostly a brisk walk. It was gorgeous out though, the sun was setting and there were ducks and other water birds making a ruckus. I love being around water. It is pretty scarce here in the desert and Lake Pleasant is one of the few places where it is in abundance around here. The lake was formed with the help of a dam but it's still beautiful in it's own way. The trail I ran had a bridge at my turn-around point and the last time I walked it the bridge was floating but not this time. The water has receded and the floating bridge rests at the bottom of a ravine. The lake wasn't but 20 feet away and there were a whole lot of birds playing in the water. I realized I hadn't just sat and listened to nature in far too long so I did. I took off my backpack, sat down and listened to the wind. It was phenomenal. I love those moments.

On the way back to the car I felt a pain in my right central back and thought maybe it was just a kidney or my liver being weird. I've being dealing with some crazy intestinal issues the past few years and so I ignored the pain and headed to the gym. First machine, Lat pulldown. Set 1. Hooooha! Set 2. Hooooha! Set 3. Hooooouuuwwwwwwwwwwwwww! I stupidly and foolishly ignored the pain and jumped on machine number two, the row machine thingajobby...Set 1. HooOW! Set 2. OWWWWWWOKOKIGIVE! And off to the steam room, I definitely had strained my lower delt? to the point that I had to ask someone to pull me up off the bench in the steam room and I walked out of the gym without my shoes on because I couldn't bend over without crying. The last 3 days have been a constant stream of ice packs, Vicodin and now heat pads and it's finally starting to hurt a bit less and loosen up.

If I had only listened a little bit more. Ah well, lessons for the future.