8 Weeks and All Clear!

So I have been set free!  My last visit to the Doctor was this afternoon, and I am officially good to go.  He was still pleased with the progress and as long as I remain sensible in my mileage and speed buildup he expects me to get completely back to where I was.

So now I set my sights on the future.  Big goal is Ottawa marathon which is 23 1/2 weeks away.  I plan to use the next 5 1/2 weeks building up my mileage to about 60, gradually adding more fast workouts and extending the long run to about 15 miles.  Then I can still fit in an 18 week training plan. the Kaiser half and Shamrock half along the way will be useful to assess fitness.  It all looks doable and I have a chance to get into reasonable shape for the marathon.

Now my weight is an entirely different matter.  I was at a low of 143 when I was running lots back in July, I hit a peak of 159 this month.  That's 16 pounds......  I looked back at my weight gain/drop when I was last off running and noticed that it was about 8-9 weeks after I started running that my average weight peaked, and 13 weeks before I was back at the starting weight.  It took 17 weeks to lose 2.5 pounds and then it dropped off pretty consistently at just under 1 lb/week.

So if I lay out last times miles/weight (top chart) and compare with this time (top chart) I can get a projected weight trend (the blue dots).  I should get back under 150 for the Shamrock half, and could be back to the mid 140s for Ottawa. Good news is that I won't peak until Xmas, so I can keep eating!