Gain and Loss

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I picked up a few pounds while I was in Germany.  Two weeks of no training, along with plenty of beer, sausage, and local pastries, will do that to you.  When I returned, I weighed five pounds more than when I left.  That might not seem like so much, but on a small guy like me, that's kind of a lot, especially for only two weeks.

Less than 48 hours after I landed, I had a race, and a week later, another one.  I did pretty well on the first, probably because it was all flat and downhill.  But the second, which had a ton of climbing, not so much.  I'm guessing those extra pounds didn't help.

Getting back into a healthy routine has been pretty hard, too.  I just got so used to fatty foods, sweets, and having wine or beer with every dinner.  And for whatever reason, I was eating huge portions, too.  I guess I got used to that, and working at Google, it's very easy to eat whatever you want, and a lot of it.  So I continued.

Slowly, I was able to eat meat less often, get dessert less often, and lay off the snacks.  I missed my morning run less and less often, and my pace even started creeping back towards normal, pre-Germany levels.  I was eating better, running faster, feeling great!

Then a couple things happened.

1.  I had a cyst removed.  No big deal, but I got a couple stitches, and the doctor told me I couldn't exercise for a few days.

2.  It was my last week at Google.  You know what that means.

I ate so much damn food, it's not even funny.  And I wasn't going for the healthy stuff either, oh no.  But hey, it was my last chance to enjoy one of the most-loved perks of being a Googler, and I'll be damned if I wasn't gonna take advantage of it.

My last day there, I went to a cafe I usually don't for breakfast, and they had breakfast tacos and French toast with real maple syrup.  I almost cried.  It was like they knew.

Still, I think only two days is going to be a much easier bounce-back than two whole weeks, and now I'm going to be quitting on the food luxuries cold turkey.  And for the first time in months, I'm going on a long training run tomorrow.

Yes, months.

Every weekend for the past several months, I've been unable to work in a long training run.  First it was the Second Gauntlet, then the Wine Tour, then another race, then Germany, then two more races, and literally three months later, I'm finally going on a long training run.  I almost forgot what they feel like.  The next three weekends each have a race, and I'm moving back to Texas right after that, so this will actually be my last-ever long training run in California.  Better make it a good one.