Recovery from sickness

Today was my first day back at the gym in almost a week. I went to the gym last Wednesday and did a 15-mile bike ride followed by some weights, but by the next day I was feeling kind of crummy. By Christmas eve I was full-blown sick. I don't know how I made it through work that night. It was the works: stuffy nose, sinus pressure, headache and sore throat. This morning was the first day that I felt I had enough energy to go work out, even though I'm still a bit stuffed up.

I looked kind of like this over Christmas weekend

I only have a week and a half left until the 10k, and I'm getting nervous that I'm not ready. I'm sure I'll be able to finish, but I highly doubt I'm going to reach my initial goal of finishing in under an hour. Today I just wanted to see what I could manage in one hour on the treadmill and I was only able to do 5.51 miles. That's about 0.75 miles short. It's OK, though. I'm still not at 100 percent and the altitude will be about 2,000 feet lower in Las Vegas. That should play in my favor. If I can finish in 65 minutes, I will be very pleased.

As per the usual, I haven't been doing very well on my food intake, but what can I say? It's the holidays. I'm not feeling too guilty about what I eat until the first day of 2012. That's when the new year starts and that's when my new diet starts. Until then, anything goes...

Total distance: 5.9 miles running (including warm up and cool down)

Nutrition is killing me

Metaphorically and literally speaking, my nutrition as of late is killing me. I've done much better overall this year, but I'm still eating too much takeout and too much sugar. I bet my weight-loss would be much more impressive if I took my diet a little more seriously. Perhaps that's the next step. Maybe my 2012 goal will be to keep up my current routine and then work on my eating habits even more.

For example, yesterday I totally pigged out. I usually eat whatever I want most days, and on the weekends I splurge a little more if I had a good exercise week, but for some reason I still feel very guilty about yesterday. I ate cheeseburgers for lunch, pizza for dinner and had some popcorn and chocolate while playing video games with Jen.

I've added more fruits and vegetables this year and cut out a lot of the late-night eating and have switched to diet sodas. I rarely eat white bread and eat a lot of whole grains and wheat, and I've even switched to a tasty vegetable-based pasta that I eat often. Maybe the next step is to cut out more of the sugary stuff and sodas in general, although that's gonna be tough because I LOVE carbonated beverages. We shall see. The holidays are always tough to avoid the sweets, but I'll do my best.

Today, I had a nice workout. Nothing crazy, but I was pouring in sweat, so I suppose that's always good. I did 10 miles on the bike and then did a fast 1.5 miles on the treadmill. And as always, added some abs and weights after. When I got home I cooked up a big bowl of veggie pasta with some cranberry juice and a banana. Not a terrible start to the day...