Life: Training, Eating and Weight Gain

Yesterday was a big milestone as I did my first legitimate "long run." My training for the 10 mile race is going to consist of a lot of short exercise sessions (30-45 minutes) running plus progressively longer weekend runs. I got together with my friend Brandon and we ran 4.5 miles outside on Sunday. Before we started he said "Are you ready for some hills?" The run was downhill for the first half and uphill for the second half and I am talking some major inclines!!! Even though it was slow it was a continuous run and the good news is I am feeling great. The most difficult part is actually muscle fatigue rather than cardio fatigue.

Unfortunately my weight loss goals are not really going well so far. I have been exercising and eating healthy but my weight has gone up about 4lbs. I can only attribute this to water retention and muscle growth otherwise I am going to have to do something more drastic than portion control and low fat eating to lose weight rapidly. Part of the incentive for losing weight is for health reasons so I am happy that I am getting healthier through exercise. However, my left knee and ankle are both not fantastic and getting the weight off is important for avoiding long term injury through running. From what I understand you put about 3X your body weight on each joint while running so dropping 20 lbs is like reducing the stress on my joints by 60lbs. Talk about the wrong kind of "going with your gut."

Greg