Greg's Weight Loss Blog

As I get leaner and more and more fit I get a lot of comments from people. People who know me, people who haven’t seen me in a long time and from folks that see me every day. These comments are mostly positive but as Carla showed today on her blog they can be rather negative at times too. Sunday I heard one that I just have to share because it totally made my day.

Sundays are my long run days. These are the days when I actually get in my car and drive 25 minutes to a trail instead of just walking out the front door and hitting the road. On shorter runs I tend to stick with the neighborhood streets but when the running plan calls for a 10 mile run I just can’t imagine running that on streets with no sidewalks in boring suburbia. So I drive down to the Trinity Trail, an awesome trail system in Fort  Worth, TX and go for it. Last Sunday’s recipe called for a 10 mile run. I got there bright and early and hit the trail by 7:30. I was done with my run before 9:00 and since I was already in town I figured I’d go to Central Market, an awesome grocery store with really good stuff, and buy some stuff.

I love Central Market. They have bulk cereal, granola and oatmeal that I like, they have a fantastic selection of breads including 100% whole wheat, a cheese selection that is unmatched around here, deli meats that are to die for and fresh produce and a butcher that are all hard to resist. It’s impossible to get out of the place for less than $100 and I usually have less than two bags to show for it. It’s a completely different shopping experience than Walmart.

So I went to Central Market right after my long run in my 2.5″ inseam split running shorts and technical t-shirt with sodium deposits sparkling all over my body and smelling pretty nasty probably, although I can’t really tell but my wife makes me take off my running clothes in the garage when I come home from an easy 3 mile run. I got the usual stuff, pears, some energy bars, some rolled oats for myself, fennel bulbs, bread, farmers cheese and salami and bologna for the family.

As I was waiting for the salami in the deli, an older guy asked me if I had been running this morning. I was contemplating telling him that I don’t run and what I was wearing was actually my grocery shopping outfit but instead I fessed up and told him that I ran 10 miles at 8:08 minute/mile pace. He said that sounds pretty good and he remembers those days when he could run that fast. Then I told him about my running aspirations and my goals and he looked me up and down and said “well, you’ve got the physique for it”.

That comment just totally made my day. Apparently I have the physique of an endurance athlete now at least according to an old runner at Central Market. I’ll take that opinion any day! I told him while laughing that he should have checked me out last October when I was closer to 240 lbs.