Running with Bowling Balls

I don't bowl much.  A few weeks ago I bowled for the first time in a while with my team from work on a team outing.  Let it be known: I'm a bad bowler.  I barely broke 100 with a few lucky strikes the first game, then the second and third games I choked.  So why am I writing about bowling on a running blog?

I bowled with a 12 pound ball.  I don't normally have a good mental concept of what 12 pounds weighs.  It's sort of heavy, when concentrated into a bowling ball.  Then I realized, since the peak of my running a few years ago, I have packed on the equivalent of more than 2 of these bowling balls!  Since my college weight (and I was never known to be particularly thin), I have added more than 3 of them!

I know my pants are a little tighter than they were 3-4 years ago, when I was putting in a good number of miles each week.  But when put in terms of bowling balls, it really hits home.  I can't imagine trying to run while carrying 2 or 3 bowling balls.  Even if I put them in a backpack, it would be extremely tough.  But that is what I have done to myself.

I haven't run consistently in some time.  My main excuse is getting Zippy to school at 7 every morning for gymnastics.  We left the house at 6:40 every day, I dropped him off and went straight to work.  Getting up early enough to run before that just wasn't happening.

School's out now, and Zippy is done with early gymnastics (next year he'll have gymnastics after school), so my excuses have diminished.  Out of the last 21 days, I have run 16 (and biked 9 miles one day).  I'm not going far, usually just 2 and half miles or so, nor am I going fast, a 10 or 11 minute pace.  But it's a start.  I do have an excuse for not going fast: I am carrying two 12 pound bowling balls!

Now if I can build up some mileage, while finding some resolve not to eat and drink with abandon, as I have been doing, maybe I can drop some pounds and pick up the pace.  It sure would be nice to get rid of my bowling balls.

Losing Weight and Gaining Speed

During the months after I started running, I began to drop pounds. Within a few months, I lost 20-25 pounds, a noticable change. Besides running, I stopped drinking Dr Pepper all the time--that probably made more of a difference than running--and tried to start eating better, specifically, not so much ice cream and sweets, more fruits and veggies. But for well over a year I have remained steady, hovering in the low 170s. I still have a gut; maybe I always will.

Now I have a new motivation to lost some more weight. I have seen several sources correlating weight loss and faster race times; for instance, for every pound you lose your pace will improve by 2 seconds. Since my pace has not improved in training as much as I'd hoped it would, I'll start trying that strategy.

Since my marathon PR is 3:51, a pace of 8:49, and my goal to qualify for Boston is 3:20, a pace of 7:38, that means I have to improve my pace by 71 seconds per mile. So I only have to lose 35.5 pounds before White Rock to qualify for Boston! That will put me at about 139 pounds. Awesome! Now, please don't offer me any candy, ice cream or Dr Pepper!