Oxygen Deprived

For the last year I've been trying to lose some weight. I haven't been on any diets per say or counted calories though I do try to be very conscious of what I'm eating, trying to eat only when hungry, eat better, eat less, run more, drink lots of water, etc...

This last week I've been hovering right around 40 pounds below what I used to weigh and needless to say I feel great. It's really amazing the difference gaining some fitness can make in your life, both in terms of how much energy you have and how you feel. Not to mention how it affects running. I think back to how I was running a little over a year ago and think about how I'm running now, or better yet, I picture wearing a 40 lb backpack on all of my runs... ouch!

As I reflect, I think one of the hardest things about losing weight is having patience, as most people know, it's not good to lose to much weight to quickly. So, if you want to do it right you could be in it for the long haul – depending how much you want to lose and how hard you’re currently working to lose it. When there's at least some progress it definitely helps to fuel the motivation. Of course I had a bigger goal in mind but I would normally just try to focus on what I thought would be possible for any given day or week. Though it’s probably best to focus on weekly versus daily goals as your weight naturally fluctuates which can be frustrating - make you feel like your not seeing the kinds of results you want or that you are working so hard to obtain.

Over the last few months (or even longer) I've been staying pretty steady at around 35 lbs below my initial weight – which in reality was about my initial goal. It's been nice because I’ve been able to focus even less on what I'm eating yet because of the added benefits of being able to run further and faster I've been able to maintain my weight more easily.

Lately, I’ve started to think that I could stand to lose another 10 to 20 lbs, but now not so much with the goal of looking and feeling better (though hopefully that will happen too) but mostly so I can just run better. My friends and family would all say I'm crazy and that I don't need to lose anymore weight - they're all really nice like that. But during really hard efforts I can feel it holding me back, maybe not a ton (no pun intend) but I feel it. Obviously, my level of fitness plays a roll but if you look at what you could potentially do with an equivalent level of fitness while carrying less weight - it's a no brainer.

So, not out of obsession but more out of the desire to run better which in the end, I may obsess about a little.

Disclaimer: By my title "Run More, Eat Less", I’m in no way trying to trivialize the process, effort or the difficulty some people experience trying to lose weight, but for me it’s become like a slogan.

Posted by Heath at 3:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week I ended up with over 33 miles in 6 runs. I've been feeling good and seeing improvements in my pace and stride rate. I had originally scheduled myself to run 7 times last week but I'm glad I took yesterday off, though it wasn't that restful when you consider all the strenuous yard work (moving tons of rock and building a deck) I've been doing. I really need to heed the wise words from Jeff when it comes to taking days off - among other things.

On the schedule for this week is more of the same, easy pace mileage with one long run and one short race. According to the book I'm using the long run (this one anyway) shouldn't exceed 25% of my totally weekly mileage. I'll try to take that under consideration but with scheduling at least one day of rest plus participating in the monthly 2 mile race on Saturday it may have to be a tad bit longer.

I'm definitely excited to start getting into more quality workouts along with starting to build up my long run mileage.

On another note, I finally had time to play a little bit with the look and feel of my blog. Well, I added some links and a header image. More to come as time allows...

Posted by Heath at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, it's not really that much of an accomplishment but I'm pretty excited about making it six days straight into my abbreviated marathon training program. I still have some stuff to finalize and figure out but so far everything has been going well.

Pace: As the week progressed my legs started to feel a little tired but overall I felt strong, stronger each day in fact. Today was back and forth a little bit, I had a few miles that I had a hard time holding back at an easy pace and other miles that I could hardly manage my easy pace.

Mileage: I'm looking to hit 40 miles this week if I run about 6.5 tomorrow. I originally was going to start with 35 mpw and then increase to 40 mpw but since I'll soon be focusing on more intense workouts I didn't want to over due it and combine more intensity with an increase in mileage. I still may need to increase my weekly mileage later but there's a good chance that 40 mpw will get me threw 'till the end.

Stride Rate: After less than one week of focusing on increasing my stride rate from 152 to the 180s I'm now running consistently in the low 170s. Not too bad an adjustment after just 6 days. Occasionally it gets pretty hard to keep my legs turning over this fast but I think when I do hills seem much easier. Maybe it's because there's less ground to cover with each step - makes sense. Or maybe it's because I'm running at an easy pace. Regardless, I'm curious (not to mention excited) to see how picking up the pace will feel with a faster stride rate.

Posted by Heath at 8:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Today is only my 3rd day into my marathon training plan and running 3 days in a row feels really good. I know running 3 days in a row doesn't sound like much for someone attempting to train for a marathon, and you're right, it's not. But it's still more consistent than I have been with my running in recent weeks. In the past, I've ran 5 to 6 times a week routinely but recently it appears I've gotten out of that habit.

I've also noticed that my pace and my stride rate are also more consistent with less concentration. It's pretty awesome how quickly the body can learn and adapt - hopefully this trend will continue as the workouts become more intense.

There's definitely something to be said for consistency and I'm excited to see how running consistently over the coming weeks will not only make me feel but also how it will help to improve my fitness level.

Posted by Heath at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, today was officially my first day of marathon training as I've finally managed to come up with a training plan. I know 11 weeks isn't much and for some reason I thought I had longer than that, but once I laid it out that's all there is.

I've been reading Daniels' Running Formula which lays out some really good advice for a 24 week training program which is then dividing into 4 phases. He also realized that runners won't always have 24 weeks and provides some good information for tailoring the program to fit the number of weeks that you do have available. This being said, I know won't be as prepared as I would have been if I had the full 24 weeks but if I stick to what's planned for the next 11 then I should at least do okay. I mean, compared to just running as I normally do.

The other thing that makes me hopeful is that I'm not starting from scratch as I've been running and training already, just not as much, as focused and as serious as I know need to be.

Phase I:

A couple weeks of regular and consistent easy pace runs with some strides thrown in (still need to figure out how to do those) and my first long run towards the end of the second week (probably not much longer than the 10 mile race I recently ran). Nothing hard, just an abbreviated base building phase. I'm still thinking about what my weekly mileage should start at but I'm leaning towards 35 to 40 miles per week. The plan calls for running most every day which shouldn't be a problem. When running 6 or 7 days week with at least 1 run being a long run these miles should divide out pretty easily. Plus, I wanted to have a fair amount of mileage but with the abbreviated program I didn't want to assume that I'd be able to make any big increases later on while also increasing the intensity and quality of my runs.

I also want to focus on increasing my stride rate while performing these easy runs. I read that the average stride rate for successful runners is in the neighborhood of 180 foot falls per minute (90 per foot). I counted mine several times while just running as I normally do and each time it came out to about 152. Then I tried to increase and maintain my stride rate so that I might not only feel what a faster rate feels like but so that I also might get used to it. I thought at first since I'm taking more steps per minute that I would end up running to fast but the problem seems to be the opposite. Since I'm taking more steps I'm trying to make them smaller to maintain an easy pace but I find that I'm going a little too slow. My legs are getting used to turning over quicker though I'm still not getting to the 180s I have been able to maintain in the 160s. Maybe when I'm running at a faster overall pace it will be easier to increase the rate even further. At an easy pace even the 160s feel like my legs are turning over pretty fast compared to how fast I'm actually running.

Posted by Heath at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Lately, I've been remiss in blogging due to time constraints. I've thought about blogging a lot but somehow that's just not the same thing. It's actually a little frustrating to have things to blog about and then have to just keep putting them on the back burner - where eventually they become of little interest (assuming any are of interest in the first place). But, without hesitation I need to post something, no matter how much, about today's Garden of the Gods 10 mile run.

Over the last couple weeks since my previous blog entry I've been taking things pretty easy. After my second full course run I was feeling pretty weak and having troubles maintaining my normal training intensity. So, I started to back off my training in an effort to just feel fresh and ready to run again. I mistakenly ran the full course a third time and it turned out to be very slow and frustrating. With that, I continued to back off on of my mileage, intensity and frequencyo. I believe backing off was the right thing to do and I slowly started feeling like myself again. Then this last week prior to the race I continued to take it easy - possibly too easy but I was nervous about starting to feel like I couldn't run and push the pace on race day like I've been planning.

This morning I was feeling good and only time would tell whether or not I've trained enough over this last week. It was a beautiful morning in the garden - actually a bit cooler than normal yet still gorgeous and warm and also still hot once well into the run.

I've heard about runners writing their splits upside down on the race bib to help them hit their race day goal and so that's what I did. I took my best training run of the full race course and started adjusting the times until I had the total down to 90 minutes. I tried to consider things like was the mile in question mostly up hill or down, was it early on or late in the race, etc. 90 minutes is very ambitious for this course with its hills but since I had already broken my 10:00/mi goal pace with a 9:34 I thought why not shoot for an overall 9:00 pace.

Here's how my previous best training run, race day goal and actual splits broke out:

* = The race course ended up being 10.27 miles according to my garmin.

Around mile 9 I was really starting to wonder what I've gotten myself into with this running thing and when thoughts of my first marathon would come to mind the only thing I could think was - what was I thinking?! But these feelings subsided once I made it to the finish line and hopefully with the right training everything will be fine in September. I'm really just starting to race and to learn the ropes and I'm happy with my overall performance.

On thing the above table doesn't tell is how I ruined my new shirt. Being a relatively new runner I'm still trying to acquire the appropriate running clothes and though I now have some running shorts, I normally just run in an old t-shirt. Well, the shirt for this race is not just a t-shirt but an actual running shirt and though I really didn't know if you’re supposed to wear the shirt you get for the race in the race - I thought I'd give it a try.

Apparently, not only do you need to be concerned with what shirt you wear but also putting some thought into where you place the safety pins to hold your race bib is a really good idea. I placed mine, though I didn't think about it at the time, roughly in the vicinity of my nipples. Around mile 8 or so I noticed two rather large red circles on my chest and immediately realized what was going on. Unfortunately, in the midst of a race you don't have a lot of time to stop and worry about stuff like this. It wasn't really hurting at this point anyway and I wish I hadn't even noticed it until after the race. At the two last water stations I proceeded to take a drink of water and dump the rest of the water on myself in an effort to get a little relief from the race. The dumping of the water ended up streaking the right circle down practically to my waist. Needless to say, I looked like million bucks by the time I ran through the crowd down to the finish line.

But once the race was over I momentarily forgot about what I must look like as I basked in the fact that the race was over. I still don't even know what my official time was but do know that I missed my goal by at least a couple minutes. I was walking around drinking gatorade and greeting my awesome family who came out to cheer me on when I realized I still needed to push stop on my garmin (at that point it read 1:33:28).

After standing around talking and drinking cup after cup of gatorade for a few minutes - I was reminded of my unfortunate situation several times. Mostly by concerned and well meaning friends or runners. Then as we made our way past a medic tent a girl looked at me and asked "Would you like some bandaids for those?" That's not something I thought I would be hearing today nor did I think I would be standing at a medic tent with my shirt up having bandaids applied to my nipples - there's a first time for everything I guess. There were some uncomfortable/slightly embarrassing moments as we continued to make our way through the crowd. But nothing will ever compare to the pain I felt when I got home and took a shower. Between the stinging of the air and the burning of the water it was excruciating.

I just checked and the results are already posted. Looks like I didn't come in much before what my garmin said afterall. I'm still happy though!

1:33:20

Posted by Heath at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (40) | TrackBacks (0)