Fit-to-Fat-to-Fit Blog: 6/02/12

Goal weight: 195 lbs.

Today’s weight: 196 lbs.

It has been six months since my Fit-to-Fat-to-Fit adventure began.  I thought I’d go out and celebrate this morning with a long, long run.

One mile into the run, this is what I saw:

Now THAT’S a way to start a celebration.

Ridgeland has a great set of trails and I pick one up off the Natchez Trace at the Ross Barnett Reservoir Overlook. I’ve taken dozens of photos from there over the years — it’s easily one of the prettiest places in the area.

Here’s what it looks like from a distance:

At this point, I’ve run over a mile. My legs feel very good because I took all of last week off. Why you ask? Well, my wife was away and I don’t like leaving the kids alone when I run (I have visions of the house burning down while I’m gone.) And did I mention the temperature was PERFECT!  It was cool and there was little humidity. My heart rate was 10 to 15 beats per minutes lower than last week because I wasn’t sweating to death.

This morning is the Heatwave Triathlon.  It’s put on by the Ridgeland Parks & Rec. Department and uses the same trail I run on. So I left the house at 5:45 to make sure I beat the runners to the course.  I just saw some of the usual crowd (I love running into people I know while I run. It makes it more fun.) and several folks setting up for the race.  I could hear the announcer getting the swimmers ready for the swim portion.  And I just kept piling on the miles as I headed to my turn around point: The old Craft Center. That was 5.5 miles into the run.

I took a drink, turned around and headed home. When I got to mile seven, something ran across my path.  Since I don’t wear my glasses when I run, I had to get closer to see exactly what it was. It was wild turkey hen.  She ignored me — she knows she is Federally protected, so I was just an annoyance. She trotted into the woods and I trotted on to my house.  It was a bonus.

I got back out on the Trace and headed to the woods where I cut through to my neighborhood.  The triathletes were already on the bike portion of the race and were zooming past me as I ran down the Trace.  At that point, I had burned over 2,000 calories. That’s not a bad start to the day.  And a great way to celebrate six months of being fit again

I came home, popped a couple of ibuprofens and took a shower in celebration.  It was a helluva a run today. The weather was perfect and I ran the farthest I’ve run since the marathon.

It feels darn good being fit again. It really does.