It has been an amazing past several weeks, weather-wise, and I feel like I've managed to get quite a bit out of the outdoors. Thanksgiving Day I realized I couldn't smell anything so I ended up getting an impromptu 6 days off of work to go along with my positive COVID diagnosis. I was blessed by not having any other symptoms, so I was able to accomplish quite a bit in general: a walk or run every day, organizing my basement (and getting rid of a good deal of trash to boot!), finishing the assembly of my workbench in my shop.
A day or two before Thanksgiving I ordered a Garmin Forerunner 45S, and it arrived the Thursday after Thanksgiving. I can already say it's been a great addition to my workout routine! I'm about halfway through a 10K training program and it's been phenomenal to have tons of data beyond "you went this distance in that amount of time". I was able to obtain this device at a significant discount through a friend, but I would gladly have paid the full $200 price tag.
This morning was probably the first major hurdle in my daily workout routine. It rained pretty much all day yesterday and turned to snow overnight; by the time I woke a little after 4, there were at least 3 inches of snow on the ground. I went out to give my walk a shot, but with no sidewalks cleared and my shoes letting snow in, I only made it about a half mile from home before I decided to turn around. I needed to get some clearing done in my driveway anyway, so I was able to tackle that and still have plenty of time to enjoy my coffee before leaving for work. I'm hoping things are cleared off enough for my run tomorrow morning, but if I have to put that off a day or two I guess that's just life.
I'm thinking I will have to invest in a new pair of running shoes soon. Parts of the soles on my current pair had separated, although I was able to use a combination of super glue and Gorilla glue to hold them together. And then there are the holes over my toes where the snow was getting in this morning. The loop near my house that I use is between 4 1/4 and 4 1/2 miles, and I've managed that almost every day for several weeks now; I think it's safe to say I've walked or run over 150 miles in the last 5-6 weeks, and these shoes saw a lot of use 5-7 years ago before I pretty much put them away.
As of two days ago I finally dropped below 200 pounds. Except for a brief time in 2003 due to some depression issues, I haven't been this light since my freshman year of college in 2000. I was thinking about that year yesterday, remembering how I had to do a food-logging exercise for a couple of days for health class. I thought it was so funny that I decided to take those days to eat an entire roll of Pillsbury cookie dough. Maybe not as bad as the drinking binge my high school anatomy teacher told us about from when he did a similar exercise in college, but still, pretty disgusting when I think about it.
Sorry, this post is a bit stream-of-consciousness, but I hope you found it entertaining.
