2019 was a pretty rough year for me. I injured myself in March training for Umstead/VM150. Achilles tendinopathy, or at least that's the most likely culprit. Personal and work-related stress left me pretty depressed the remainder of the year. Being unable to run, I turned to my backup coping mechanism: beer and pizza. (Or sometimes, nachos and margaritas.)
It didn't take long for the pounds to start piling on. I had actually started out 2019 trying to lose a little weight to get back to where I was in 2017. And I had lost maybe 10 pounds between January-March. I regained those 10 pounds almost immediately, and put on another THIRTY FIVE POUNDS before the end of January 2020. The result: almost 60 pounds heavier than my "peak fitness" from 2017.
It's embarrassing. I obviously could do the math. Clothes stopped fitting. I bought bigger jeans, only to have those not fit anymore. But depression is a strange thing. Plus, I had all kinds of free time that would have otherwise been spent training - so why not meet up with a friend at the bar?
Anyway... As luck would have it, I stumbled onto a really good deal on an ElliptiGo stand-up bike in November. It needed a lot of TLC (aka- a complete refurb), which I worked on over the winter. By January, I was riding it on a regular basis - and my Achilles/ankle seemed to be tolerating it well.
Superbowl Sunday, I did my first 50-mile ride on the ElliptiGo. Around that time, I also had started paying close attention to my eating habits. Unlike previous times I lost weight, I did not count calories this time. At least, not officially with an app, etc. I had a vague idea of how many calories I was consuming, of course. The weight was starting to come down slowly.
Then the Covid-19 madness hit. Bars and restaurants were shut down. (People could still get takeout, of course.) But I took it as an opportunity to double-down on my fitness efforts. I kept ramping-up my distance on the ElliptiGo. On May 2nd, I did my first (and so far, only) 100-mile ride on the bike. I also was very diligent about what I ate, and rarely got takeout from anywhere.
June 3rd, I was down 50 pounds from where I started in January. Just 10 pounds away from my goal. I'm also able to run a little bit. (~ 6 miles.) That's nowhere close to where I was even last year, let alone 2017/2018. But it's something. I think the ElliptiGo has allowed me to strengthen my Achilles without the impact of running. Losing the weight has certainly taken some of the stress off the tendon as well. I'm hoping to slowly ramp-up my running again throughout the rest of the year, and return to ultras in 2021. (It's not like there are going to be many races this year, anyway.)
The moral of the story is it's never too late to make a change. And, make the best of your situation. I was extremely lucky to find the ElliptiGo when I did, and lucky it was something I could stick with. I also probably couldn't have lost the weight as quickly if the temptation of going out to restaurants/bars was there. Still, I could have gone the other way and binged on Netflix and ice cream during the pandemic.
Even if my ankle won't tolerate ultra running anymore (which I'm not giving up on yet)... But if I can't, at least the ElliptiGo can scratch that itch. And, I'm pretty confident that skating will be okay as well. Only time will tell.
