One mile, high reproducibility

Today was the first day in my entire life I have run a mile without stopping.

I didn’t clock it, because I usually clock my first mile, which includes my 0.25 mi. warm-up, rather than my first mile with a quarter-mile offset. But my first mile was 12:05 today.

And the mile run wasn’t killer. By the end of the final lap, I was having some trouble controlling my breathing, and phlegm production had increased significantly. A quarter-mile recovery walk was sufficient for me to pick up and run another 0.625 mi. I would call that a “highly reproducible” run, which makes me all kinds of giddy.

I only did three miles today because of the continuing twinge in my left leg and because I don’t know when I’ll be able to get new shoes. I’ll probably work on intervals for the first half-hour of a workout, then walk another half-mile or so, then call it quits. That gives me about a 40-ish minute workout.

Today’s pace, overall: 13:15 min/mi.

This may be overly optimistic, but I could very well see myself running two miles without stopping by the beginning of September. I still can’t believe I just ran a mile this morning.

I noticed this morning that I’ve lost weight since summer started. When I returned to Charlotte at the beginning of June, I bought a set of small men’s t-shirts that are now fitting significantly looser. And then there’s the fact that all of my pants can now be put on or taken off with no unfastening required.

One of my goals is to slow down the weight loss to ensure I’m losing only stuff I want to lose (fat, rather than muscle), but I’m not sure how to do it. I eat plenty (more than enough), I work out as much as I am comfortable with, I drink as much water as I can while avoiding needing to pee every 15 minutes, and I sleep regularly. Seems moderately healthy, other than the fact that I still eat like a Texan/Southerner, just in smaller amounts. My cholesterol can’t be the best, and to me, no amount of exercizing justifies eating completely like shit. But I do it anyway, for now.