Well, COVID is still around. That means very little gym over the last year, and the weight gain that came with COVID hitting. 2021 was just rough for me personally (go see my personal blog for that) and I had to deal with a lot of shit. I barely ran and was juts lazy, until about September. I started running more than 1-2 times a month. And I actually felt pretty good. My plantar fasciitis cleared up, and my back didn't feel so bad. I ended up running 9 times in September. Was feeling pretty good both mentally and physically from it. Decided to run every other day in October. That was probably the best month I had mentally and physically. I did 15 runs that month and drastically saw my fitness improve during it. Started at about 10:00min/mile, and ended up at about 8:45min/mile. It was Monday, October 2nd where everything just clicked and that was the first great feeling run I had in a long time. After that, every single run felt great and it seemed that I was getting faster with every run. I wasn't doing anything crazy; just doing 3 miles around the lake by my house, but it was something. I was really proud of myself and everything was just hitting.
Then I got to November and got lazy again. Only ran 9 times and I could tell both physically and mentally that it wasn't enough. As I am sitting here now, I will get out and start running again. It does really help me with so much.
I started doing intermittent fasting. It was rough at first, really rough. The first week was hell, the 2nd week was better, and I was used to it the 3rd week. I tried to do keto with it and that was miserable. So, I decided to just do IF. It's been about 5-ish months now and I'm sticking with it pretty well. Generally, I eat between 11am and 7pm. I don't watch my calories too much. One day a week I will eat normally because I do like breakfast foods. I ended getting down to 192 at one point, after being stuck at 200 for so long. I gained that back durin the holidays though. I'm trying to get back on track now, but I did find something that got me through the plateau.
My back got better too. Started putting a lot of effort and time and money into it. Found out that I have scoliosis. That was a surprise. Between massage and going to a new back doctor, it is much better now. It bothers me from time to time, but I am functional now.
My goal for 2022 is to keep up with IF, run a helluva lot more, and just stay healthy. I'll get to the gym if COVID goes down, but running should keep me fine for awhile.
2021 run mileage: 200 miles
