Day 44 of 300: I Stopped Weighing Myself
I went looking for the last fitness post and found it dated April 2. Forty nine days ago. The title was “Under 110.” That morning I weighed 109.8 kg. By April 27 the scale said 110.6. Then I stopped getting on the scale.
That is twenty four days of not knowing. I pulled the Garmin data to see what the rest of it looked like. Then I asked the assistant for a verdict. It said I looked slightly fat. Oh dear.
The numbers since April 2
- Days elapsed: 49
- Activity days: 19
- Activity rate: 39%
- Runs: 7 (6 treadmill, 1 outdoor)
- Walking days: 12
- Last weigh-in: April 27, 110.6 kg
- Days since last weigh-in: 24
Seven runs in forty nine days. Exactly one a week. The plan said three.
The training days
Day 44 (May 16) was the first time I ran outdoors in this whole project. It was also the longest single run I have done.
| Day | Date | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 38 | Apr 16 | Treadmill, 2.7 km |
| 39 | Apr 29 | Treadmill, 6.4 km |
| 40 | Apr 30 | Treadmill, 1.3 km |
| 41 | May 4 | Treadmill, 4.1 km |
| 42 | May 5 | Treadmill, 4.5 km |
| 43 | May 7 | Treadmill, 3.7 km (recovery) |
| 44 | May 16 | Outdoor run, 6.5 km |
Day 38 came fourteen days after the last post. Day 39 came thirteen days after that. Then the cluster: four runs in nine days from April 29 to May 7. Then nine days off. Then the outdoor 6.5 km on May 16.
The shape is not a build. It is a series of starts.
The gaps
April 3 to April 15: four walks, zero runs. Twelve days where the treadmill saw me once and then didn’t.
April 17 to April 28: twelve days of nothing on Garmin. No walks logged. No runs. The watch was on my wrist but I wasn’t moving in a way that registered. I have a reason for those twelve days. It isn’t a good one.
May 9 to May 15: no runs, two short walks. Then May 16 broke the spell.
OMAD didn’t survive that gap either. Somewhere in April the eating window opened and didn’t close.
The load
- Acute load (today): 153
- Chronic load (today): 176
- Load ratio: 0.8
- Acute load on April 2: 474
- Chronic load on April 2: 356
On April 2 I was running a 1.3 load ratio and Garmin had me at “productive.” Today the acute load is a third of what it was, the chronic load is half, and the ratio sits at 0.8. That is the technical definition of detraining. Months of accumulated cardiovascular work, mostly undone.
0.8 is still inside the optimal band, which means I get to call this a cooling rather than a breakdown. Convenient framing. Probably true.
What was good
The May block was real. Four runs in nine days, including back-to-back treadmill sessions on May 4 and 5, a recovery jog on May 7, and the outdoor 6.5 km on May 16. That run in Kathmandu was the longest single effort I have managed in this whole project and the only one not on a treadmill. Sixty five minutes. Six and a half kilometres. It happened. Thanks to the Himalayan Hash House Harriers, a drinking club with a running problem.
The walking has been more consistent than the running. Twelve walking days in forty nine. Not enough. Better than none. Today’s walk was 62 minutes and 4 km. That is what put me in front of the keyboard. Much of this is for dog training, time on leash to get my dogs to stop pulling me along.
What’s next
The numbers need to come up.
The plan from here, in order of priority:
- Back on the scale tomorrow morning. Twenty four days of not weighing myself is twenty four days of pretending.
- Three runs this week. Not two. Not one. Three.
- A fitness post for every training day. No more silent months.
- Get the chronic load back over 250 by the end of June.
The half marathon in December does not care about my reasons. It cares about kilometres in the legs and a heart that has done the work. I have twenty eight weeks. At my current activity rate I will arrive at the start line undertrained and overweight.
Show up more often. Log it when I do. Step on the scale. Write the post.
Day 44 of 300. Seven training sessions in seven weeks. The next seven need to be in three.
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