Those that can't...blog!

   It's a little hard to maintain a running blog when you're not actually running. The p-fash has stopped me in my tracks (literally) and I'm busy investigating and lining up medical treatment for it. I've also been doing the stretching and icing thing, along with some exercises Dr. Dombroski suggested. But I am not running and, apart from wearing my brand-new Air Pegasus shoes around the house, it's a little hard to consider myself a runner these days.
   One of my biggest fears in taking this much time off from running is that the weight would slowly start to creep back up. Frankly, I was almost panicky about this a couple of weeks ago. To my relief, I've found that the weight has stayed at pretty well what it was when I stopped running. Not sure why this has happened as I don't feel as though I've compensated for the lack of running by cutting back on the calories too much.
   Okay, I think I might need to revise that last statement. In retrospect, I think running made me hungry and that I ate extra to squash that hunger. Now that I'm not running, I don't feel the same need to replace carbs or fluids and so I'm probably not eating as much as before and I'm guessing that this is likely why there have been no major upward weight gains.

   With all this non-running time on my hands, I have resorted to simply reading about it. I've had a couple of running mags cross my path lately and I've also discovered how popular a blog topic running is. I had no idea that so many blogs dedicated to running or some aspect of it actually existed until just lately. Some of them are pretty technical. Others, like mine, are more for the "lay" runner--people who have discovered running and the different things it means to them. They tell stories about the role running has in their quests for weight loss, personal and spiritual fulfillment, travel plans and social outlets. Like pretty well any human endeavour, their stories are filled with pain, loss, triumph, confusion, enlightenment and much introspection. Running seems to have filled a void for many people.

   Many running bloggers took up running as a weight loss solution. The smarter ones not only run but also have made other lifestyle changes, many of them including diet. Quite a few also happily include recipes and pictures. In light of this, I have decided to post a picture of a delicious meal I recently made for myself. I'll let you take a look at it for a bit and see if you can guess at the ingredients. It was yummy! I don't know that I'd necessarily recommend it as part of a healthy diet but I did really like the colour combination. Very pretty!
   So I'm hoping that I'll be back hitting the bricks sometime soon. Orthotics arrive the day after tomorrow and then a GAiT assessment a couple of days after that. I may just wait to get both of those behind me, listen to what the doctor has to say, and then head on out. There's a race I need to run in three weeks from today and I'm a little leery of how much conditioning I might have lost the last little while. Normally I would ratchet things up a bit to get caught up but I'm guessing that might be a touch counter-productive to helping the p-fash continue to heal. Time will tell (and I understand that it will also heal!)

P.S romaine, bacon, cheezies, lemon poppy seed dressing