Happy running from Halloween candy

Firstly, Halloween candy. It's true, I was good. I didn't eat any Halloween candy this year. At least, not until Halloween was over. And I'm not sure this is Halloween candy. This arrived in my mail late afternoon Nov 1, sent by someone who shall remain nameless. The package also included wonderful choco chip cookies.

Yes, they're very good. Yes, that jar was full when I got it. No, I don't want to know how many calories there are per handful. Typically candy doesn't particularly tempt me so it's no big deal to hand out candy to the kids. Cookies, yes, a thousand times yes, cookies tempt me, especially ones with chocolate in them. I can hear them calling me, singing to me in multipart cookie harmony. Fudge. Brownies. Some cake. Some fruit crumbles/cobblers. All these things tempt me.

Workouts help balance these things, and over the last several years they have more than balanced out. The last couple months are a bit of a different story. It's a good thing there are no scales in our house, at least not any that are suitable for weighing me. That muffin top is starting to come back again.

So now that it's November I'm taking myself more firmly in hand. Not THAT, GQH, that needs two hands. It's time to start being a bit more careful about portions again, and a bit more regular with the workouts. Since IMC if I haven't wanted to, I haven't. Now I'm going to be going, but for this month it's to get back into the habit again. Core every day, mainly for my knee, but all of them really are core workouts too. "Maintain abdominal hollow" is prominent in the wording describing how to do them, which I interpret as meaning "Suck in that gut fat boy!"

Today was a bit of a different routine. The car is in the shop all day, so I dropped it off, and had their shuttle drop me downtown so I could take the LRT south. I got a bit lucky and managed to meet up with a buddy for coffee, and we had a nice chat. I just missed the bus from the LRT (and there's another rant) and decided that rather than waiting I'd walk home. If I take the very shortest way, and really push it, it takes about 40 minutes. Today I took a bit of a scenic route and paced it as a brisk stroll, so it took just under an hour. It's a beautiful morning out there.

After a snack and some computer stuff I was looking outside, and decided I needed to run. Warmed up with some leg exercises. The run felt good right from the start. I didn't want to go too long or too far, so headed around my 5 K loop. 32:14 and I was back home for a bit of a walk to cool down. Most of this was at an easy pace, not working too hard. Feet felt light, legs felt strong. No nigglies. Mid zone three max breathing. It's almost a shame to stop but I don't want to over do it.