My Journey With Weight Loss – Dry February

As my sister was putting the dogs out 1st thing this morning I asked her if it was windy out as I had heard my windchimes last night. She said there was a bit of a breeze but not really wind. Sadly, that was not the case at east beach where there was a good wind happening and of course I was running straight into it. I kept pushing and eventually the wind died down and I got through my 8k run. I looked at the time and thought wow, now that was a good pace. It is the best time I have done since December so maybe this pushing myself hard is actually working.

So today starts Dry February, a month to raise funds for the Cancer Society and to stay away from alcohol. I admit during the holidays and then the trip to Mexico I have been consuming more than usual. I know that by taking a break it can have really good health consequences even if it is for the short term (I also do Sober October). This year I have even more reason to do this, I’m training to run a 1/2 marathon!

Alcohol consumption can have significant impacts on training. There are some recent studies that link alcohol consumption the day before training on having a detrimental impact on recovery. Moreover, alcohol consumption can tend to have a negative impact on larger muscle groups such as gluts and quads. Ok, that in itself is an incentive as those are the main muscles I need for training.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my wine but the past couple weeks as I bumped up my training I have been very cognizant of my intake, trust me the longer the run the less alcohol (if any) I would consume the day before. As I am now seriously working on endurance and speed I need to do everything I can to be successful in my training. What that means is for at least the next month I am opting out of alcohol consumption on any day where I have training the next day. To be clear, I do some form of training 6 days a week so wine will only be consumed on Saturday’s as Sunday is my day off (note, this rule will likely be broken for Superbowl Sunday).

I’m pretty confident doing runs like the 16k I will do this week are going to help keep me on the right path.