145.2lb

As always, despite my best intentions, it's never easy to own up to a gain, even a relatively small 0.4lb one. While a couple of my days this week haven't been perfect as far as food goes, I haven't done too badly. My exercise has been good, so it's not that. I think that it's really just that time of the month again, when I have a wee gain, and my body does it's own thing to slow me down and make me take stock. It's a good thing. It means I don't crawl up my own arse, thinking how wonderful I am at this weight loss thing. I get shit wrong, I get het up over nothing, I eat too much chocolate sometimes. Basically, I'm human.

So, to take stock, I'm nine and a half pounds away from goal. That's nothing. I'm so close I can taste it! All I've got to do is remember that today's weigh in does not accurately convey how I did this week, or how I've felt. I've been feeling really good. walking tall and holding my head high. I've been enjoying feeling petite, if you can believe it. I can snuggle in to armchairs and not get stuck. I can do the same in the high backed chairs in Cafe Nero, where TMM and I like to partake of a recreational coffee or two. I can easily fit in to my train seat, even with a couple of layers of Winter clothes on, and a big coat. (I know, public transport seats are an obsession of mine) Half a pound on my official weigh-in weight does not negate any of those feelings.

One of the best things has been my new found enthusiasm for running, which has sort of taken on a life of its own. I'm really enjoying it at the moment. I ran five times this week, racking up 50km, my longest run being ten miles yesterday morning. While at the start, I sort of dreaded the idea of ten miles a little, because I knew that I was going to be out for nearly two hours, actualy, the time flew in. Before I knew it, I was over half way through. The whole thing took one hour and fourty seven minutes. I was finished by 8am, and TMM and I had a lovely, healthy breakfast of scrambled eggs together. I also had wheaten bread and cheddar. Good grief, I enjoyed it! The run earned over 1100 cals, so I was more than happy to spend a few extra on bread and cheese that I rarely eat.

In training for the marathon again, I find that I am running a lot of routes that I ran the last time I trained, two years ago. Yesterday's ten miler was one I've only run once before.

I had a look back on Runkeeper to compare the times. Last time, I was about five stone heavier than I am now, and the run took two hours and seventeen minutes! Wow. Huge difference. A whole half hour quickerythis time. If I could maintain that pace over the marathon, I should be able to finish in under five hours. I'm trying not to get my hopes up over a finishing time. Anything better than last time is an improvement. But I have to be honest, it's hard not to get caught up wanting a sub five hour time.

Last time, I think the time that I ran at in training had a lot to do with why I unexpectedly cramped up. I'm very much an early morning runner. I get most of my running done between five and six thirty am. The marathon starts at 9am, and that means I coulb be going till 2pm That's all morning, to mid afternoon. So I think I need to do some of my long runs a bit later. It's hard to eny myself the pleassure of the early morning scenery and peace as I run at my usual time though.