I should probably start by apologising for the lack of updates. This blog was supposed to track my progress as I attempted to transform myself into an athlete of some sort…
Life has been slightly hectic over the last three months. I had just taken up karate at the time of the last entry, and since then I’ve been going twice a week, and attended my first, 9th Kyu grading. So, I’m now a red belt.
A large part of November was taken up by studying for my professional qualification exam, an associated assignment, and taking part in NaNoWriMo, a contest where participants attempt to draft a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. This didn’t leave a great deal of time to get to the gym, unfortunately.
In my last post, I’d also mentioned I’d booked an appointment with a sports physio to get a second opinion on my troublesome knee. I’ve now had four sessions with Shona, and I think there’s been definite progression. Structurally, she thinks the knee is more or less okay for what I need it for, although she suspects there may be some damage to my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
However, Shona’s happy f0r (and actively encourages me) to continue building up the strength in my knee in the gym, cycling and going to karate. At our last session, last Sunday, we broached the subject of me starting to run again.
While I’d been feeling comfortable enough playing football, it just so happened that the Tuesday night game that had been a fixture of my week for five years seems to have reached a natural end; most of the other players appear to be old and injured as well! I did have the opportunity to play in a couple of other games, but Shona suggested it might be worthwhile to take a bit of a break while I worked on strengthening my quadriceps and hamstrings.
I downloaded an app a while ago, Get Running, that is designed to build you slowly up to running a 5k; I’ve been using it on the elliptical machine since I couldn’t run. Shona thinks it would be worthwhile giving it a go. So I paid a visit to the specialist running supplies shop and had my gait analysed, then tried on some different brands of shoe before we settled on the pair that were the most comfortable and offered the most support.
I didn’t buy them, mainly because they were £100. And I’m a little unsure about what to do, because I don’t want to start running if I’m not wearing the right shoes. I might just make things worse, and end up back at square one. So that’s something I have to mull over during the festive period.
Food will also weight heavily on my mind (and my hips) over the next four weeks. The knee rehab and running is only part of this blog; alongside my attempts to get fit, I’ve also been attempting to lose weight.
In my last entry, I declared I’d slimmed down from a peak of 110kg (over 17 stone) in June to 92kg (14st 7lbs) in September. This wasn’t quite accurate; a run-in with my sister’s Wii Fit led me to realise I was using my scales on carpet, they were therefore returning a false reading, and I was around a stone heavier than I thought I was.
However, as of yesterday, I’m now around 91.4kg (14st 5lbs), with a BMI of 25.86, very nearly normal. My body fat’s down to ~24%, and I’m the lithest I’ve been since I was in my mid 20s. I sill aim to lose maybe another stone, but I might leave that until January; I have at least four Christmas and one New Year’s meals ahead of me, so I appreciate my weight loss may slow slightly, but I’m okay with that as I feel much more comfortable in my skin.
Ideally I’ll be getting back to the gym and karate next week, but I’m more or less going into hibernation for the rest of the month. I’ll update again in January, full of hope and as-yet-unbroken resolutions.
