This week was Thanksgiving, and although I ate my share of the feasts, I still managed to bring my average weight down a pound for the week. On top of that, every weigh-in this week was under 180 pounds for the first time.
Turkey Trot
I switched up the running schedule a little bit this week because I was running the Mesa Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. That's a 10k, so I threw that in in place of this week's tempo run. I was doing the Turkey Trot for a couple of reasons. 1: I had several family members also taking part, so I wanted to go up in solidarity. 2: Steven had heard that I might do the Turkey Trot and renewed his trash talking about how much younger and thinner he was and how he could still beat me even though he hadn't run since our last race. His main rationale was that he's twice as good at the tuba as he was the last time we raced. I challenged him to back up his talk and come up and run with me. It was really important for me to have a rematch since I was so humiliated last time.
It had rained all night the night before, so everything was really nice and cool on the morning of the race. Steven and I had stayed up late playing Lego Indiana Jones the night before, so we only had about 3 hours of sleep when we woke up. We left the house about 6 AM. There was very little traffic between Tucson and Phoenix, which is very rare, but most welcome indeed. When we got closer to the park in Mesa, I got an idea of just how big this was. Streets were blocked off for quite a ways out, so it took like twenty minute to drive the last mile to the parking lot. Once we parked, we still had to walk 1/3 of a mile to the park where the race started. We got our bibs and T-shirts, walked 1/3 mile back to car to dump the shirts, then met up with our cousins.
We had 20 minutes until the race started, so we got in line for the 4 porta-potties they had there at the start. I later found out that they had about 400 porta-potties at the finish, but since the finish is in a different place, that wasn't helping me. So, first suggestion for improvement: either more porta-potties at the start, or put a sign near the ones at the start giving directions to find more. After 10 minutes, we had only moved through 1/4 of the line, so it seemed mathematically unlikely we would get there before the start. Since I didn't have to pee too bad, I gave up and went back into the crowd while Steven went to climb a fence and find some other solution. He eventually found some not very secluded area of the park to pee, which was only a little bit of a help to him since going #1 wasn't his main reason for trying to visit the porta-potty.
The "gun" went off, and it was probably a couple of minutes before we crossed the start line. We weren't in too much of a hurry to get to the start since it's all chip time in this race, so our thinking was that the crowd would thin out a bit if we waited. That may be true, but we discovered quickly that the only slightly thinner crowd was now made up of walkers, stroller pushers, people with canes, kids, etc. Bad move on our part.
For a couple of days before, I struggled with trying to come up with a good strategy to beat Steven. I figured I had two choices. Option 1 was to just go at any easy pace, then pick the pace up significantly for the last couple of miles hoping to leave him in the dust. This was the plan I used last time, and it failed miserably because I was injured/hot/needing to pee. Sure, I'm a better runner this time, but I would be in a lot of trouble if anything started hurting, Even if I didn't hurt, I ran the risk of Steven hanging with me during the easy pace, then overtaking me by sheer force of will when I tried to kick.
So, I decided to go with option 2, which was to just go out as fast as I can, and hope the fast pace just destroyed him early enough for him to either give up or drop out. I figured that I might not be left with anything with which to kick, and I would probably not negative split for sure, but that my second half time wouldn't matter because Steven would be dead at that point. So, I tried to take off fast, but because of the density of the crowd, I couldn't do any better than 8:20 for the first mile. It was still enough that Steven was really struggling. It was really no more than a couple of hundred feet past the start before he was noticeably breathing heavy. He was trying to say something to me right after the start, but was having to pause between every 2 syllables to catch his breath. By the second mile, things had opened up enough that I was able to speed up a little bit. Steven still said he was feeling great, and that the pace was fine, and he'd have no problem hanging on until the end. We finished the second mile in 7:49
At about the 2.4 mile mark, there was a water station. I moved a couple of feet away from Steven to grab water, and then when I turned my head to look back, he was gone. Just vanished. I looked ahead to see if he had made a break for it, but didn't see him there. I stopped for a few seconds to look back around the water stop, but didn't see him there either. I thought about starting up again more slowly, to let him catch up, but I was still worried that he might have passed me. So, I turned it on again, and finished the third mile in 8:07.
The fourth mile was 7:55, still on a great pace. Near the beginning of the fifth mile, I started to feel a little bit funny down in the bowels. I had needed to pee a little bit, but was ignoring that, so my body replaced that feeling with a different feeling that was sort of a cross between needing to poop and having my bladder explode. It was not at all pleasant and I was afraid I was going to have to detour over to someone's house and offer my watch in exchange for a bathroom trip. I tried to decide what would be worse: Stopping and ending what was already a pretty good race, or soiling myself. I decided that while the discomfort was great, the risk of actually sharting was low, and I soldiered on, finishing mile 5 in 7:55.
By mile 6, I felt normal again, so I sped up a little bit, doing that mile in 7:38. I sped up just a little bit more at the end, doing a 7:36 pace for that last little stretch, finishing in 49:05.
Results here. This works out to a 7:54/mile pace, which is the fastest race I've ever run, pace-wise. I finished 425th overall out of 2303 total finishers, and was 339th out of 1231 men. I got 51st out of 150 in the Male 35-39 division.
In the last 5k, I did 24:45, so I figured that doubling that time and adding some to make up for the fade over distance would get me a goal time of 50:00 on a perfect day. I thought that more realistically I would just be happy to do under 55:00. So, I'm terrifically pleased.
After finishing, I met up with cousins and waited for Steven to come in. Randy had already come in about four minutes ahead of me. That's a great time for him considering he rarely runs over 3 miles anymore because of a bum knee. Steven finally came in with a couple of other cousins at 1:07:18. This was a lot slower than his time last time, and over 18 minutes slower than my time. He said he ran into some poop trouble as well, and that's why he had to drop out. I sympathize, but a middle or long distance race isn't about who can put their legs in front of them the fastest. It's about who can manage their body the best. So, whether it's because he ran slower, or had to run with cheeks clenched, he still lost.
I believe he's sufficiently humbled now, but on the other hand, he's going around telling people we tied (since he won once and I won once). I believe he's angling for a rematch.
So, it was a great race for me, but overall I'm less than impressed with the Turkey Trot. The complaints I would direct to the race organizers are as follows:
1. The aforementioned porta-potty thing.
2. There's way too many people. Over 2300 for just the 10k, plus whoever was hanging out for the fun runs. If they were all serious runners, that might be one thing, but since it's more of a social thing, the course is too crowded with families jogging nine abreast, as well as the strollers and all the others oblivious to what's going on around them. A huge number of people is okay in a marathon where the field will thin out after the first few miles, but in a 10k the race is over by the time you get to that point.
3. There's no good food. There are banana pieces and orange quarters afterwards, but no muffins or bagels or cookies or anything. I think if they did have anything desirable, they'd have to come up with some sort of corral to keep the huge number of spectators from helping themselves. Still, it needs to be done.
4. The turkey. In the flyer and on the website, they say a special certificate is given if you beat the turkey (defined as running faster than 45:00). Well, the "certificate" is just half of a letter sized sheet of paper fed through a laser printer that says "I beat the Turkey". It's not even card stock or anything. I honestly can't believe that they even have the balls to tout that as if it's something to work for. See Shane's certificate in the picture on his blog. The goofy part is that I did beat a turkey. There's was someone running in a turkey suit, and I passed him in mile 4, finishing about 2 minutes ahead. I originally assumed this was an official turkey, running on pace to finish in 45:00, but when I passed him, I began to suspect he was just a chump in a turkey suit. (Note: it looks like the exact same turkey as the one in the aforementioned post from Shane's blog.) So, if the race is going to persist with this "Beat the Turkey" thing, give out something that's worth winning, even if you have to lower the threshold to 40:00 to justify it. And, if that's the official race turkey, drop the pretense of the 45:00 time and just give something to everyone that can beat him. Or, if you want to keep with the 45:00 threshold, make sure your turkey is fast enough and well-paced enough to actually do that time. If that's not your turkey, but rather just some dude, then I don't know what to tell you...
The one really good thing I can say about this race is that it's chip timed. It's really hard to find a race that short with chip timing. And, they use the new ChronoTrack system of disposal chip tags. It's a paper thing you loop on your shoelaces, then dispose of afterwards. It's easier to put on/take off then a normal shoe chip, and it's less irritating than an ankle band. Then when the race is done, you don't have to wait around for someone to collect your chip. Pretty cool.
So, if I lived in Mesa, and knew enough people that it was a good social event for me, I'd probably go back and do it each year. As it is, it's not worth the drive for me to do it again unless it's a big family event again or something.
Turkey Trot: The Aftermath
I went and redid my marathon training schedule using this new 10k time and got training paces that are about 10 seconds faster than what I was doing. That's fine. I'm tough.
What I'm learning from the race is this: I'm not a good racer. I'm getting faster at running, but there's still some things I need to do better to race well. For one, I'm not usually a good finisher. I go into a race with a mental idea of what time is acceptable to me, and I'm way too quick to revise that as I get more tired. I might have a "best case" goal, a "pretty good" goal", and a "at least I won't be too embarrassed" goal. I very quickly focus on the time that would be least good, and give up the faster goals. This is especially the case near the end of the race.
For example, after doing 4.2 miles in 34 minutes, I thought, "If I just do 10 minute miles from here, I've still made my goal of under 55". I'm doing these kinds of calculations the whole race, which is an unfortunate side effect of running with the Garmin. And this kind of thinking of deciding what to settle for has meant I've never had a negative split race until now. So, this time, I actively fought against that and kept myself going at pace, doing a very slight negative split.
I've thought about doing a race without the Garmin, but I feel like I'd either run too fast and fade too quick, or I'd think I'm struggling, only to find out later that my pace was 30 seconds slower that I expected. Still, even if either of those things happen, it might be helpful to know which one happens.
The other thing is that within 2 minutes after the race, my heart rate was back down to normal and I felt like I could go out and do the whole thing again. My legs were never sore, even for a second. I feel like if I were doing it right, I should have felt worse at the end. If I was really giving it my all, I should be struggling to walk afterwards and wanting to puke.
So, I'm just now getting a handle on the fact the distance running is more mental than physical. I will keep up the training to get faster, but I will also need to figure out how to get over the dual mental hurdles of rationalizing the abandonment of goals, and not putting all of my effort in.
Long Run
On Saturday, I did 16 miles @ 9:38. I was way ahead of pace, so I actually finished 1/4 mile short then walked the rest to let the average pace slow down to 9:38. I didn't feel bad about this since I actually bumped the stop button near the start of the run and ran about 1/4 mile "off the clock". I was more sore afterwards than on the last couple of long runs, probably because my legs were a little bit used up after the race. The plus is that I only had one 20 oz bottle of gatorade during the run (plus 1 after), plus a few drinks from the drinking fountain. This is way easier than the 2 liters I needed to drink (plus another liter after) when I last did 16 miles back in the summer.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Year 2, Week 4, Day 7
Weight (today's reading): 177.4
Weight (weighted moving average): 179.2*
Today's food: 3 clementines, yogurt, 1/2 roll, tall grapefruit juice, fried okra, spaghetti with meatballs, 4 pieces garlic bread, pumpkin pie, kettle corn
Today's exercise: day of rest
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 179.2*
Today's food: 3 clementines, yogurt, 1/2 roll, tall grapefruit juice, fried okra, spaghetti with meatballs, 4 pieces garlic bread, pumpkin pie, kettle corn
Today's exercise: day of rest
* new low
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Year 2, Week 4, Day 6
Weight (today's reading): 179.6
Weight (weighted moving average): 179.4
Today's food: clif bar, 1 gu packet, 40 ozs gatorade, grilled chicken salad, mini muffin, slice of sourdough, lots of shrimp cocktail, large cherry icee, 1/2 scoop ice cream, pumpkin pie
Today's exercise: 16 miles @ 9:38; 60 pushups
Weight (weighted moving average): 179.4
Today's food: clif bar, 1 gu packet, 40 ozs gatorade, grilled chicken salad, mini muffin, slice of sourdough, lots of shrimp cocktail, large cherry icee, 1/2 scoop ice cream, pumpkin pie
Today's exercise: 16 miles @ 9:38; 60 pushups
Friday, November 28, 2008
Year 2, Week 4, Day 5
Weight (today's reading): 177.6
Weight (weighted moving average): 179.4*
Today's food: tall grapefruit juice, 1 can cranberry sierra mist, thanksgiving leftovers (2 slices turkey, potatoes, stuffing, corn, gravy, fruit salad, 4 orange sweet rolls, pumpkin pie)
Today's exercise: none
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 179.4*
Today's food: tall grapefruit juice, 1 can cranberry sierra mist, thanksgiving leftovers (2 slices turkey, potatoes, stuffing, corn, gravy, fruit salad, 4 orange sweet rolls, pumpkin pie)
Today's exercise: none
* new low
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Year 2, Week 4, Day 4
Weight (today's reading): 178.0
Weight (weighted moving average): 179.6*
Today's food: granola, 1 cup gatorade, banana, 1 piece bacon, thanksgiving dinner (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn, fruit salad, 2 rolls, pumpkin pie, turtle pie)
Today's exercise: mesa turkey trot
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 179.6*
Today's food: granola, 1 cup gatorade, banana, 1 piece bacon, thanksgiving dinner (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn, fruit salad, 2 rolls, pumpkin pie, turtle pie)
Today's exercise: mesa turkey trot
* new low
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Year 2, Week 4, Day 3
Weight (today's reading): 177.2
Weight (weighted moving average): 179.8*
Today's food: piece of toast, yogurt, BLCP sandwich (Bacon, Lettuce, Cheese, Pickle), 2 mini brownies, pear, orange, 2 small lobster tails, 2 mini butterfingers, lots of chips and salsa
Today's exercise: none
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 179.8*
Today's food: piece of toast, yogurt, BLCP sandwich (Bacon, Lettuce, Cheese, Pickle), 2 mini brownies, pear, orange, 2 small lobster tails, 2 mini butterfingers, lots of chips and salsa
Today's exercise: none
* new low
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Year 2, Week 4, Day 2
Weight (today's reading): 178.6
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.0*
Today's food: piece of pumpkin bread, bk rodeo cheeseburger, orange ginger beef stir fry, tall orange juice concoction
Today's exercise: 4 miles @ 9:48 (including 4 trips up the hill by the track); 60 pushups
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.0*
Today's food: piece of pumpkin bread, bk rodeo cheeseburger, orange ginger beef stir fry, tall orange juice concoction
Today's exercise: 4 miles @ 9:48 (including 4 trips up the hill by the track); 60 pushups
* new low
Monday, November 24, 2008
Year 2, Week 4, Day 1
Weight (today's reading): 179.8
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.2
Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, apple, pork ragu with pasta, tall orange juice concoction, tri-tip steak, 2 peanut butter cookies
Today's exercise: run 4 miles @ 9:48; 60 pushups
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.2
Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, apple, pork ragu with pasta, tall orange juice concoction, tri-tip steak, 2 peanut butter cookies
Today's exercise: run 4 miles @ 9:48; 60 pushups
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Year 2, Week 3 Wrapup
This was the first week of actual marathon training for the next marathon on January 3rd. I had been focused on speedwork and stuff for the last couple of weeks in preparation for the 5k, but I've been doing 12-14 mile long runs at least every other week since the last marathon, so I'm hopefully not too far off marathon shape.
I've got 7 weeks of training set up that will ramp up pretty quickly to a 20 mile long run, and still have the usual 3 week taper. The program's similar to the last one, except that it's much shorter obviously. Also, I've been averaging more miles, so this one keeps me up at around 30 miles/week, and is 4 days/week instead of the 3 days/week I was doing before.
The one other big change is that the paces I'm using are up to a minute faster than what I was using to train for the last marathon. That's pleasing to see, because it means I'm getting better. What's more pleasing is that I feel a lot better after running one of these faster runs than I did running slower runs in the last marathon training. Training for the last marathon, a 3 mile tempo run at 9:15 was a real struggle, whereas now I can do 5 miles at 8:30 without even really breathing heavy afterwards. I believe spending those few weeks focusing on the short distance speed has really paid off in terms of resetting my body's perception of what "fast" is and what "difficult" is. After spending a few weeks pushing myself to the limit of how fast I could go, everything slower than that seems easy now. For that, I am very thankful. If I can swing it, I think it might be a good plan to do that short distance speed focus between each marathon.
On Saturday, I was supposed to run 14 miles @ 9:48. I had planned it so that I would be out on Silverbell when my dad came through on the finish stretch of the El Tour de Tucson (a 109 mile bike race around the perimeter of Tucson). After finding him and cheering, I would head over to the Santa Cruz River trail, then head south for as many miles as I needed to, then turn around and head back to the place where I left my car getting its oil changed. I had timed this so that if I stayed exactly on pace, I would arrive at the car place exactly 10 minutes before they closed for the day. The turnaround point was entirely dependent on how much distance I had covered before getting on the trail.
Everything would have gone perfectly if the battery in my Forerunner hadn't died. I've noticed a problem with the Forerunner where sometimes it can turn itself on and get left on. When you put it into or take it out of its cradle, sometimes it comes on during that process. I don't know if it has something to do with dirty or worn contacts on the watch or in the cradle, or if it's just a defect in my particular unit, or what. I've also noticed that if you leave it in the cradle, but disconnect the cradle from the computer, it might turn on then. The upshot of this is that if I don't look closely anytime it's near the cradle, I risk losing battery.
So, on Saturday I turned it on 15 minutes before the run and saw that the battery was dead, so I gave it 15 minutes of charging before leaving. I didn't expect it to last the whole run, but it did last about 6 1/2 miles, so that was good. I was checking it more often than normal, especially when I was near a landmark I already knew the distance from, so that I would know how far I had gone when it eventually died. When it did die, I knew what the distance was when I passed the last landmark, so I could just change my route to head towards another point of known distance. From there, I headed home, and then ran back and forth between my house and other known points of reference until I had enough mileage to head to the car place 2 miles up the road. I planned to get to the car place after 13.5 miles, because I had no idea if my pace was way off and didn't want to risk being late.
When I got to the car place, I checked the clock and found I had been out for 128 minutes, which gives a pace of about 9:30 for 13.5 miles. I double checked all the distances on Google Maps afterwards, and I'm pretty sure I did 13.5 miles. So, as dependent as I am on the Garmin, I'm pretty impressed that I was able to figure it out old school, and that I was able to keep my pace as close as I did. I figure the slightly faster pace makes up for the slightly shorter distance.
It wasn't too long ago that a 14 miler like that would wipe me out for a few days, and make the trip down the stairs on the next couple of mornings a really agonizing journey. As I started getting better, I would use the morning stair trip as my gauge of what sort of an impact I was getting. If it hurt too much to go down the stairs in the morning, it was clear I was working really hard. If it only moderately hurt, then I was doing okay. As of now, it's been a couple of months since I was even the slightest bit sore going down the stairs, so either I'm just really used to this, or I need to work harder, or something. Schedule-wise, I think I'd have trouble going out more than 4 days a week, or going out for longer on each day. So, the only way to increase the mileage from here is to just run the miles faster. Thinking about it from that perspective makes me pretty certain that I want to focus on speed again after this marathon and renew my effort to get down to a 22:30 5k time before training for Ogden.
The other notable thing about this week is that looking back over my daily entries shows me that I ate a lot this week, and I've got a nice plateau in the weight graph to show for it.
I've got 7 weeks of training set up that will ramp up pretty quickly to a 20 mile long run, and still have the usual 3 week taper. The program's similar to the last one, except that it's much shorter obviously. Also, I've been averaging more miles, so this one keeps me up at around 30 miles/week, and is 4 days/week instead of the 3 days/week I was doing before.
The one other big change is that the paces I'm using are up to a minute faster than what I was using to train for the last marathon. That's pleasing to see, because it means I'm getting better. What's more pleasing is that I feel a lot better after running one of these faster runs than I did running slower runs in the last marathon training. Training for the last marathon, a 3 mile tempo run at 9:15 was a real struggle, whereas now I can do 5 miles at 8:30 without even really breathing heavy afterwards. I believe spending those few weeks focusing on the short distance speed has really paid off in terms of resetting my body's perception of what "fast" is and what "difficult" is. After spending a few weeks pushing myself to the limit of how fast I could go, everything slower than that seems easy now. For that, I am very thankful. If I can swing it, I think it might be a good plan to do that short distance speed focus between each marathon.
On Saturday, I was supposed to run 14 miles @ 9:48. I had planned it so that I would be out on Silverbell when my dad came through on the finish stretch of the El Tour de Tucson (a 109 mile bike race around the perimeter of Tucson). After finding him and cheering, I would head over to the Santa Cruz River trail, then head south for as many miles as I needed to, then turn around and head back to the place where I left my car getting its oil changed. I had timed this so that if I stayed exactly on pace, I would arrive at the car place exactly 10 minutes before they closed for the day. The turnaround point was entirely dependent on how much distance I had covered before getting on the trail.
Everything would have gone perfectly if the battery in my Forerunner hadn't died. I've noticed a problem with the Forerunner where sometimes it can turn itself on and get left on. When you put it into or take it out of its cradle, sometimes it comes on during that process. I don't know if it has something to do with dirty or worn contacts on the watch or in the cradle, or if it's just a defect in my particular unit, or what. I've also noticed that if you leave it in the cradle, but disconnect the cradle from the computer, it might turn on then. The upshot of this is that if I don't look closely anytime it's near the cradle, I risk losing battery.
So, on Saturday I turned it on 15 minutes before the run and saw that the battery was dead, so I gave it 15 minutes of charging before leaving. I didn't expect it to last the whole run, but it did last about 6 1/2 miles, so that was good. I was checking it more often than normal, especially when I was near a landmark I already knew the distance from, so that I would know how far I had gone when it eventually died. When it did die, I knew what the distance was when I passed the last landmark, so I could just change my route to head towards another point of known distance. From there, I headed home, and then ran back and forth between my house and other known points of reference until I had enough mileage to head to the car place 2 miles up the road. I planned to get to the car place after 13.5 miles, because I had no idea if my pace was way off and didn't want to risk being late.
When I got to the car place, I checked the clock and found I had been out for 128 minutes, which gives a pace of about 9:30 for 13.5 miles. I double checked all the distances on Google Maps afterwards, and I'm pretty sure I did 13.5 miles. So, as dependent as I am on the Garmin, I'm pretty impressed that I was able to figure it out old school, and that I was able to keep my pace as close as I did. I figure the slightly faster pace makes up for the slightly shorter distance.
It wasn't too long ago that a 14 miler like that would wipe me out for a few days, and make the trip down the stairs on the next couple of mornings a really agonizing journey. As I started getting better, I would use the morning stair trip as my gauge of what sort of an impact I was getting. If it hurt too much to go down the stairs in the morning, it was clear I was working really hard. If it only moderately hurt, then I was doing okay. As of now, it's been a couple of months since I was even the slightest bit sore going down the stairs, so either I'm just really used to this, or I need to work harder, or something. Schedule-wise, I think I'd have trouble going out more than 4 days a week, or going out for longer on each day. So, the only way to increase the mileage from here is to just run the miles faster. Thinking about it from that perspective makes me pretty certain that I want to focus on speed again after this marathon and renew my effort to get down to a 22:30 5k time before training for Ogden.
The other notable thing about this week is that looking back over my daily entries shows me that I ate a lot this week, and I've got a nice plateau in the weight graph to show for it.
Year 2, Week 3, Day 7
Weight (today's reading): 179.8
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.2
Today's food: donut, 3 slices barbeque pork loin, tall orange juice concoction, clementine, sweet & sour pork, microwave popcorn, 3 peanut butter cookies
Today's exercise: day of rest
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.2
Today's food: donut, 3 slices barbeque pork loin, tall orange juice concoction, clementine, sweet & sour pork, microwave popcorn, 3 peanut butter cookies
Today's exercise: day of rest
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Year 2, Week 3, Day 6
Weight (today's reading): 180.8*
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.3
Today's food: donut, 40 ozs gatorade, tall orange juice concoction (made from 1 cup double strength orange juice, 1 cup club soda, the juice from the can of pineapple I was using for dinner, a couple tablespoons grenadine, crushed ice, maraschino cherries), 2 helpings sweet and sour pork, 4 peanut butter cookies
Today's exercise: run 13.5 miles @ 9:29; 60 pushups
* Before running. After eating a donut, drinking 40 ounces of gatorade, drinking a few swallows of water, and running 13.5 miles: 177.4
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.3
Today's food: donut, 40 ozs gatorade, tall orange juice concoction (made from 1 cup double strength orange juice, 1 cup club soda, the juice from the can of pineapple I was using for dinner, a couple tablespoons grenadine, crushed ice, maraschino cherries), 2 helpings sweet and sour pork, 4 peanut butter cookies
Today's exercise: run 13.5 miles @ 9:29; 60 pushups
* Before running. After eating a donut, drinking 40 ounces of gatorade, drinking a few swallows of water, and running 13.5 miles: 177.4
Friday, November 21, 2008
Year 2, Week 3, Day 5
Weight (today's reading): 181.0
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.2
Today's food: piece of pumpkin bread, 4 clementines, pork ragu with pasta, 4 donuts, more pork ragu, tall orange juice, microwave popcorn, 2 mini butterfingers
Today's exercise: none
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.2
Today's food: piece of pumpkin bread, 4 clementines, pork ragu with pasta, 4 donuts, more pork ragu, tall orange juice, microwave popcorn, 2 mini butterfingers
Today's exercise: none
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Year 2, Week 3, Day 4
Weight (today's reading): 179.4
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.2
Today's food: piece of pumpkin bread, long john silvers (2 fish, 3 chicken, fries, 4 hush puppies, medium pepsi), banana, 2 clementines, orange chicken with steamed vegetables
Today's exercise: easy 5 miles (9:48 pace); 60 pushups
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.2
Today's food: piece of pumpkin bread, long john silvers (2 fish, 3 chicken, fries, 4 hush puppies, medium pepsi), banana, 2 clementines, orange chicken with steamed vegetables
Today's exercise: easy 5 miles (9:48 pace); 60 pushups
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Year 2, Week 3, Day 3
Weight (today's reading): 179.6
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.2*
Today's food: piece of pumpkin bread, yogurt, 4 clementines, posole, apple, pretzels, popcorn, 5 bites of macaroni, piece of pumpkin bread
Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, (run 1 mile @ 7:48, jog .5 miles) X2, 1 mile cooldown (total of 5 miles); 60 pushups
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.2*
Today's food: piece of pumpkin bread, yogurt, 4 clementines, posole, apple, pretzels, popcorn, 5 bites of macaroni, piece of pumpkin bread
Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, (run 1 mile @ 7:48, jog .5 miles) X2, 1 mile cooldown (total of 5 miles); 60 pushups
* new low
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Year 2, Week 3, Day 2
Weight (today's reading): 179.6
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.3
Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, spanky's (chicken sandwich with green chilis, cottage cheese), several handfuls popcorn, tall grapefruit juice, chili dog, chili fries, piece of pumpkin bread
Today's exercise: none
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.3
Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, spanky's (chicken sandwich with green chilis, cottage cheese), several handfuls popcorn, tall grapefruit juice, chili dog, chili fries, piece of pumpkin bread
Today's exercise: none
Monday, November 17, 2008
Year 2, Week 3, Day 1
Weight (today's reading): 181.4
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.4
Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, shepherd's pie, pear, 2 peanut butter cookies, shepherd's pie, tall grapefruit juice, handful of almonds, microwave popcorn
Today's exercise: 5 miles @ 9:48 (including 4 trips up the hill by the track); 60 pushups
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.4
Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, shepherd's pie, pear, 2 peanut butter cookies, shepherd's pie, tall grapefruit juice, handful of almonds, microwave popcorn
Today's exercise: 5 miles @ 9:48 (including 4 trips up the hill by the track); 60 pushups
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Year 2, Week 2 Wrapup
This week was the stake 5k. I had been focusing a lot on speedwork over the last few weeks because I had wanted to put in a good showing. There are a lot of runners in my ward, and I really wanted to not embarrass myself in front of them.
The race itself was at a local park on a cross country course that is used occasionally for high school races. So, I at least knew it was measured correctly. The timing was very unofficial. It was basically a guy with a stopwatch at the finish "area" (there wasn't a marked line, so I guess you were considered finished whenever you intersected the 20 foot radius circle circumscribed about the stopwatch guy). The idea was that you would finish, the guy would tell you your time, and you would go over and write your time on a sheet next to your name. A lot of people didn't really catch the idea, so the set of people who actually had a recorded time was much smaller than the set of people who actually ran.
I was shooting for at least 25 minutes, and hoping for 24. I started a little bit too fast because I wanted to get ahead of the lumbering herd. Consequently, I got tired pretty quick. The course wasn't too well marked, but they had a few people stationed at trouble spots to keep people on the right track. There was one tricky turn, though, that had nobody posted. When I got there, I saw the arrow that cut over the parking lot, but a couple of guys who were still even with me didn't. They veered off to the right, onto the same loop that we just did. I'm sure they figured it out quickly enough, but it had to cost them at least a minute. I felt bad, but by the time I noticed they were gone, they were out of earshot.
I was pretty wiped out by the middle of mile 3, so I figured I'd slow down for 20 seconds, catch my breath, then come back with a big kick at the end. I jogged the 20 seconds, and started speeding up again right as I turned the corner into a stretch of deep sand with a massive headwind. It had been pretty windy all morning, but this was the first part of the course that ran straight into it. After finally slogging through the sand and the wind, I turned the corner again to head straight into a huge puddle. I ran really wide into some grass on the right and thought I was going around it, but the grass was just concealing more puddle, and my left foot went in ankle deep. That was about 1/4 mile from the end, so I tried to step it up after all that for a good finish. By the last 100 yards, I thought I was sprinting towards the finish line. I know I was definitely exerting myself a lot more. However, looking at the Forerunner, my speed during that time wasn't any faster than it was before the jog/sand/wind/puddle. Disappointing.
I never heard the guy tell me my time. I'm not even sure he was watching. My watch said 24:45, so that's what I wrote down. It's no more or less official than their sophisticated system. That's way better than any previous 5k I've done, but still way off of my near-term goal of 22:30. I did go back through the results of my last 5k, and if I could have run this time at that race, it would have been good for 1st in the M35-39 division. That makes me feel a little bit better.
For this race, though, that put me third out of the people in my ward. Carlos beat me by two minutes, but by the time I'm his age, he'll be 59, and maybe by then I'll have a shot. Jason also beat me by over a minute, which was surprising to me since I didn't even know he ran.
I was disappointed that so many of the other runners in the ward didn't actually run. Most of them were there, but chose to stay back with their wives and kids. That puts me higher in the standings, but it means I still don't know I match up with them. It also means they can continue to trash talk without having any opportunity to back up all their boasting.
It took forever to put all the times together to do awards, and by that time there were only a couple of dozen people left to hang around. I ended up getting 3rd place in the 30-39 age group. More accurately, you could say I had the third best time of all the people in the stake, aged 30 to 39, who were able to figure out what was expected of them with regards to recording their time. There could have been 50 people that finished ahead of me that didn't get credit for all I know. Either way, I took home a lovely certificate, wrought from Xerox and Sharpie, and a Dairy Queen gift card for the princely sum of one dollar.
My Saturdays will be tied up with long runs for the next 8 weeks, so I'm going to have to put off any further assault on the 5k until after the marathon.
I went to see the new Bond movie on Saturday. My normal movie routine is to get a large popcorn and a large cherry coke, finish the popcorn, then pick up the free refill on the way out. Saturday was the first time I was unable to actually finish the large popcorn, like it was more than I wanted, but also more than I could really handle. This would be interpreted by some to be a positive sign, but I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. I was especially disappointed because you can't really take good advantage of the free refill if you don't first "unfill" the bag. Turns out this theater now charges 50 cents for their free refill, so I'll be less likely to patronize their snack bar in the future anyway. I made up for the shortage of popcorn after the movie by eating both a gyro and souvlaki at Fronimo's, the Greek fast food place.
Scott asked about the totals of how much I've run in the last year and stuff. I went back into the Garmin software to check it out. My first run with the Forerunner was 11/25/07, so there's a few miles between 11/5/07 and 11/25/07 that are unaccounted for. There's also a few runs that I did without the Forerunner (like treadmill runs, or the marathon). On those, though, I entered estimates into the software so that they're included. Also included are things like walking intervals between speedwork and Sunday walks where I wanted to see how far I went.
The other problem I have is that I lent the watch to Becki a few times so that she could see how far she went and how fast. That skews my results a bit, so I went through and deleted any runs that were obviously hers (like if I showed two runs in one day, and one was significantly slower). Here's what's left:
For the year from 11/5/07 to 11/4/08 I logged 797.48 miles. Total time spent was 154 hours, 14 minutes, 20.30 seconds. That works out to a 11:36/mile pace. Total calorie expenditure: 118,884 calories.
The race itself was at a local park on a cross country course that is used occasionally for high school races. So, I at least knew it was measured correctly. The timing was very unofficial. It was basically a guy with a stopwatch at the finish "area" (there wasn't a marked line, so I guess you were considered finished whenever you intersected the 20 foot radius circle circumscribed about the stopwatch guy). The idea was that you would finish, the guy would tell you your time, and you would go over and write your time on a sheet next to your name. A lot of people didn't really catch the idea, so the set of people who actually had a recorded time was much smaller than the set of people who actually ran.
I was shooting for at least 25 minutes, and hoping for 24. I started a little bit too fast because I wanted to get ahead of the lumbering herd. Consequently, I got tired pretty quick. The course wasn't too well marked, but they had a few people stationed at trouble spots to keep people on the right track. There was one tricky turn, though, that had nobody posted. When I got there, I saw the arrow that cut over the parking lot, but a couple of guys who were still even with me didn't. They veered off to the right, onto the same loop that we just did. I'm sure they figured it out quickly enough, but it had to cost them at least a minute. I felt bad, but by the time I noticed they were gone, they were out of earshot.
I was pretty wiped out by the middle of mile 3, so I figured I'd slow down for 20 seconds, catch my breath, then come back with a big kick at the end. I jogged the 20 seconds, and started speeding up again right as I turned the corner into a stretch of deep sand with a massive headwind. It had been pretty windy all morning, but this was the first part of the course that ran straight into it. After finally slogging through the sand and the wind, I turned the corner again to head straight into a huge puddle. I ran really wide into some grass on the right and thought I was going around it, but the grass was just concealing more puddle, and my left foot went in ankle deep. That was about 1/4 mile from the end, so I tried to step it up after all that for a good finish. By the last 100 yards, I thought I was sprinting towards the finish line. I know I was definitely exerting myself a lot more. However, looking at the Forerunner, my speed during that time wasn't any faster than it was before the jog/sand/wind/puddle. Disappointing.
I never heard the guy tell me my time. I'm not even sure he was watching. My watch said 24:45, so that's what I wrote down. It's no more or less official than their sophisticated system. That's way better than any previous 5k I've done, but still way off of my near-term goal of 22:30. I did go back through the results of my last 5k, and if I could have run this time at that race, it would have been good for 1st in the M35-39 division. That makes me feel a little bit better.
For this race, though, that put me third out of the people in my ward. Carlos beat me by two minutes, but by the time I'm his age, he'll be 59, and maybe by then I'll have a shot. Jason also beat me by over a minute, which was surprising to me since I didn't even know he ran.
I was disappointed that so many of the other runners in the ward didn't actually run. Most of them were there, but chose to stay back with their wives and kids. That puts me higher in the standings, but it means I still don't know I match up with them. It also means they can continue to trash talk without having any opportunity to back up all their boasting.
It took forever to put all the times together to do awards, and by that time there were only a couple of dozen people left to hang around. I ended up getting 3rd place in the 30-39 age group. More accurately, you could say I had the third best time of all the people in the stake, aged 30 to 39, who were able to figure out what was expected of them with regards to recording their time. There could have been 50 people that finished ahead of me that didn't get credit for all I know. Either way, I took home a lovely certificate, wrought from Xerox and Sharpie, and a Dairy Queen gift card for the princely sum of one dollar.
My Saturdays will be tied up with long runs for the next 8 weeks, so I'm going to have to put off any further assault on the 5k until after the marathon.
I went to see the new Bond movie on Saturday. My normal movie routine is to get a large popcorn and a large cherry coke, finish the popcorn, then pick up the free refill on the way out. Saturday was the first time I was unable to actually finish the large popcorn, like it was more than I wanted, but also more than I could really handle. This would be interpreted by some to be a positive sign, but I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. I was especially disappointed because you can't really take good advantage of the free refill if you don't first "unfill" the bag. Turns out this theater now charges 50 cents for their free refill, so I'll be less likely to patronize their snack bar in the future anyway. I made up for the shortage of popcorn after the movie by eating both a gyro and souvlaki at Fronimo's, the Greek fast food place.
Scott asked about the totals of how much I've run in the last year and stuff. I went back into the Garmin software to check it out. My first run with the Forerunner was 11/25/07, so there's a few miles between 11/5/07 and 11/25/07 that are unaccounted for. There's also a few runs that I did without the Forerunner (like treadmill runs, or the marathon). On those, though, I entered estimates into the software so that they're included. Also included are things like walking intervals between speedwork and Sunday walks where I wanted to see how far I went.
The other problem I have is that I lent the watch to Becki a few times so that she could see how far she went and how fast. That skews my results a bit, so I went through and deleted any runs that were obviously hers (like if I showed two runs in one day, and one was significantly slower). Here's what's left:
For the year from 11/5/07 to 11/4/08 I logged 797.48 miles. Total time spent was 154 hours, 14 minutes, 20.30 seconds. That works out to a 11:36/mile pace. Total calorie expenditure: 118,884 calories.
Year 2, Week 2, Day 7
Weight (today's reading): 179.4
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.3
Today's food: peanut butter cookie, 2 strips bacon, 2 tall glasses of grapefruit juice, 1 slice barbeque pork loin, potatoes lyonnaise, (apple pie with ice cream)x3
Today's exercise: day of rest
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.3
Today's food: peanut butter cookie, 2 strips bacon, 2 tall glasses of grapefruit juice, 1 slice barbeque pork loin, potatoes lyonnaise, (apple pie with ice cream)x3
Today's exercise: day of rest
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Year 2, Week 2, Day 6
Weight (today's reading): 179.4
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.4*
Today's food: pop tart, banana, 1/4 muffin, 3/4 of a large movie popcorn, large cherry coke, fronimo's (gyro, pork souvlaki, fries, large cherry coke), 2 candy cane oreos, peanut butter cookie, cup of ice cream
Today's exercise: stake 5k
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.4*
Today's food: pop tart, banana, 1/4 muffin, 3/4 of a large movie popcorn, large cherry coke, fronimo's (gyro, pork souvlaki, fries, large cherry coke), 2 candy cane oreos, peanut butter cookie, cup of ice cream
Today's exercise: stake 5k
* new low
Friday, November 14, 2008
Year 2, Week 2, Day 5
Weight (today's reading): 180.0
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.5
Today's food: yogurt, manuel's (chips and salsa, chile relleno, 1/2 taco), pear, barbeque pork sandwich, small jello
Today's exercise: none
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.5
Today's food: yogurt, manuel's (chips and salsa, chile relleno, 1/2 taco), pear, barbeque pork sandwich, small jello
Today's exercise: none
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Year 2, Week 2, Day 4
Weight (today's reading): 177.0*
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.5*
Today's food: yogurt, pear, ham sandwich, piece of chocolate cake, 1 1/4 bratwurst, french fries, 6 candy cane flavored oreos, microwave popcorn, hot chocolate
Today's exercise: 60 pushups
* new lows
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.5*
Today's food: yogurt, pear, ham sandwich, piece of chocolate cake, 1 1/4 bratwurst, french fries, 6 candy cane flavored oreos, microwave popcorn, hot chocolate
Today's exercise: 60 pushups
* new lows
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Year 2, Week 2, Day 3
Weight (today's reading): 179.8
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.9*
Today's food: yogurt, apple, pastrami sandwich, 6 whoppers (the malted milk ball, not the burger), apple, shepherd's pie
Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, 3 miles @ 8:30, 1 mile cooldown; 60 pushups
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 180.9*
Today's food: yogurt, apple, pastrami sandwich, 6 whoppers (the malted milk ball, not the burger), apple, shepherd's pie
Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, 3 miles @ 8:30, 1 mile cooldown; 60 pushups
* new low
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Year 2, Week 2, Day 2
Weight (today's reading): 180.0
Weight (weighted moving average): 181.1*
Today's food: yogurt, 4 candy corn kisses, panda house (honey shrimp, beef w/ broccoli, lo mein, medium pepsi), bashas dinner special (2 chicken strips, potato wedges, macaroni, roll)
Today's exercise: none
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 181.1*
Today's food: yogurt, 4 candy corn kisses, panda house (honey shrimp, beef w/ broccoli, lo mein, medium pepsi), bashas dinner special (2 chicken strips, potato wedges, macaroni, roll)
Today's exercise: none
* new low
Monday, November 10, 2008
Year 2, Week 2, Day 1
Weight (today's reading): 178.8
Weight (weighted moving average): 181.2*
Today's food: yogurt, apple, nora's leftover denny's meal (4 onion rings, 2 cheese sticks, 1 chicken finger), 6 jawbreakers, 2 peanut butter cookies, posole, cookie bar, microwave popcorn
Today's exercise: 2 mile warmup, intervals (4x400, 4x200 @ 7:15 pace), 1 mile cooldown (total 6 miles); 60 pushups
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 181.2*
Today's food: yogurt, apple, nora's leftover denny's meal (4 onion rings, 2 cheese sticks, 1 chicken finger), 6 jawbreakers, 2 peanut butter cookies, posole, cookie bar, microwave popcorn
Today's exercise: 2 mile warmup, intervals (4x400, 4x200 @ 7:15 pace), 1 mile cooldown (total 6 miles); 60 pushups
* new low
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Week 53 Wrapup/Year 1 in Review
I got 26 miles in this week, and it went pretty much without incident. I set my alarm to wake up early for the long run on Saturday, but when I woke up, my throat was sore and I was coughing up chunks of dried brown snot. I said "forget it" and went back to sleep. When I woke up again, I contemplated not running at all so as not to take precious energy away from my body's healing processes. Ultimately, I decided that the next marathon is too close to be skipping long runs like that, so I finally went out for 10 miles at 4:00 PM.
November 5, 2007 is when I started this little project, so I've been doing this a year now. I went from unhealthy and fat and out of shape to healthy, 40 pounds thinner, and running marathons in the span of one year.
Um, yeah.
For the next year, I'm looking at much of the same. I've got three marathons scheduled, plus a few other scattered races here and there. I assume I'll keep losing weight, because that's what happens when I run more than I eat. I've been in dire need of some new clothes, but I'm afraid to buy too many because either I could lose more, or gain it all back. I have one pair of slim pants that I was really proud to buy when I started losing weight, and they just fall off of me now. I'd hate to buy a bunch more clothes now, and have them start falling off in a couple of months. Conversely, I'd hate to buy them a little small and have them get too tight as I chunk out again. I don't quite know what to do about that other than to pick a weight and stick with it. Basically, if my weight starts getting too low, or otherwise gets to a point I like, I'll start actively eating more to level it out, and then go buy clothes to fit.
One change I'll make is to stop tracking my blood pressure. I'll check it every week or two to see where it is, but I've pretty much got that licked now. So, I'm not going to compulsively track it anymore. The actual measurements I took were all over the place, but once I enter it into Excel and have it graph a trend line, you can see the definite downward trend:
Year 1 in Review
Briefly summarized, here's what I did for a year:
In November, I started this project of tracking what I eat, tracking my blood pressure, and tracking my exercise with the intent of seeing how far I could get in eight weeks. I made a specific plan to start running again with the only goal to be able to run 3 miles or 30 minutes without stopping. I got some new shoes, and started a specific running schedule. I had everything mapped out with intervals of walking and running, starting with only 1 minute of running, then ramping up to increasing lengths of runs and decreasing lengths of walks. The high point of my weight was November 8th, with 222 pounds (this was not my all time high, unfortunately).
At the beginning of December, I did the Tucson Half-Marathon, running 1/4 mile for every 3/4 mile that I walked. It was a little bit more than I should have done at that point, and I was out of commission for a week with soreness and a hurt foot. The foot kept bothering me, and I didn't make a whole lot of progress the rest of the month. I got to the point where I could run 7 minutes at a time, but ultimately felt that eight weeks wasn't enough time to really gauge an overall change in my health. So, I extended my plan.
I was sick a lot in January, which caused me to miss a lot of runs. I also went to Mexico for a while, which slowed down my weight loss considerably. Still, by the end of the month I had worked up to the point where I could do 14 minutes of running twice with only 2 minutes of walking between. Also, I got bit by a dog.
In February, I finally made the goal of being able to run 30 minutes uninterrupted, and by the end of the month was running 5 miles. I also ran a 5k with a time of 28:33.
At the beginning of March, I baited my little brother Steven into running a 10k with no training at all, thinking that I could beat him handily since I had been running a few months. I got the shin splints really bad at the beginning of the month, and was pretty crippled by the time of the 10k at the end of the month. I did the 10k in 1:03:17 and suffered a very humiliating defeat. I had my first daily weigh-in under 200 pounds, which was the first time in 10 years.
I took a lot of April off to rest my shin splints, then finally went to the doctor about it. He diagnosed me with flat feet and overpronation and prescribed inserts and/or stability shoes. I got inserts, then later got new shoes, and my shins have been fine since. At the end of April, I decided to start marathon training for 3 reasons. One, I need a schedule or a goal to keep going and I couldn't think of anything else to do since there weren't any 5k or 10k races in the summer here. Two, Scott was goading me into trying for the Park City Marathon, and I wanted to prove to him that it's impossible to train for a marathon in the summer in Tucson. Three, if I didn't die training, I would actually have the option of doing it.
May was all marathon training, and I was beginning to discover just how difficult it was to run in the heat.
In June, we went on a cruise and then to Walt Disney World. I had intended to keep up my training schedule on the ship and in Florida, but didn't. I had built a couple of extra weeks into the schedule, so this was not a big deal. So, I ran more and it got hotter.
July was hotter still, and I began to set my affairs in order preparatory to my certain demise. I also decided to actually commit to the marathon.
In August, I ran said marathon with Scott and Shane. I didn't do that well time-wise, but I finished, and I had a much easier time of it than my long runs in training. I also got a bloody nipple earlier in the month, and some new shoes later in the month.
In September, I ran a mountain race in Vegas, then ran up Mt. Wrightson the next week.
For the first couple of weeks of October, I was really sore from the mountain run, so it took a while to get back to a normal running schedule. I got my lab results back this month, and they were impressive, showing me in excellent health.
So that brings me to now. Next week: the Stake 5k!
November 5, 2007 is when I started this little project, so I've been doing this a year now. I went from unhealthy and fat and out of shape to healthy, 40 pounds thinner, and running marathons in the span of one year.
Um, yeah.
For the next year, I'm looking at much of the same. I've got three marathons scheduled, plus a few other scattered races here and there. I assume I'll keep losing weight, because that's what happens when I run more than I eat. I've been in dire need of some new clothes, but I'm afraid to buy too many because either I could lose more, or gain it all back. I have one pair of slim pants that I was really proud to buy when I started losing weight, and they just fall off of me now. I'd hate to buy a bunch more clothes now, and have them start falling off in a couple of months. Conversely, I'd hate to buy them a little small and have them get too tight as I chunk out again. I don't quite know what to do about that other than to pick a weight and stick with it. Basically, if my weight starts getting too low, or otherwise gets to a point I like, I'll start actively eating more to level it out, and then go buy clothes to fit.
One change I'll make is to stop tracking my blood pressure. I'll check it every week or two to see where it is, but I've pretty much got that licked now. So, I'm not going to compulsively track it anymore. The actual measurements I took were all over the place, but once I enter it into Excel and have it graph a trend line, you can see the definite downward trend:
Year 1 in Review
Briefly summarized, here's what I did for a year:
In November, I started this project of tracking what I eat, tracking my blood pressure, and tracking my exercise with the intent of seeing how far I could get in eight weeks. I made a specific plan to start running again with the only goal to be able to run 3 miles or 30 minutes without stopping. I got some new shoes, and started a specific running schedule. I had everything mapped out with intervals of walking and running, starting with only 1 minute of running, then ramping up to increasing lengths of runs and decreasing lengths of walks. The high point of my weight was November 8th, with 222 pounds (this was not my all time high, unfortunately).
At the beginning of December, I did the Tucson Half-Marathon, running 1/4 mile for every 3/4 mile that I walked. It was a little bit more than I should have done at that point, and I was out of commission for a week with soreness and a hurt foot. The foot kept bothering me, and I didn't make a whole lot of progress the rest of the month. I got to the point where I could run 7 minutes at a time, but ultimately felt that eight weeks wasn't enough time to really gauge an overall change in my health. So, I extended my plan.
I was sick a lot in January, which caused me to miss a lot of runs. I also went to Mexico for a while, which slowed down my weight loss considerably. Still, by the end of the month I had worked up to the point where I could do 14 minutes of running twice with only 2 minutes of walking between. Also, I got bit by a dog.
In February, I finally made the goal of being able to run 30 minutes uninterrupted, and by the end of the month was running 5 miles. I also ran a 5k with a time of 28:33.
At the beginning of March, I baited my little brother Steven into running a 10k with no training at all, thinking that I could beat him handily since I had been running a few months. I got the shin splints really bad at the beginning of the month, and was pretty crippled by the time of the 10k at the end of the month. I did the 10k in 1:03:17 and suffered a very humiliating defeat. I had my first daily weigh-in under 200 pounds, which was the first time in 10 years.
I took a lot of April off to rest my shin splints, then finally went to the doctor about it. He diagnosed me with flat feet and overpronation and prescribed inserts and/or stability shoes. I got inserts, then later got new shoes, and my shins have been fine since. At the end of April, I decided to start marathon training for 3 reasons. One, I need a schedule or a goal to keep going and I couldn't think of anything else to do since there weren't any 5k or 10k races in the summer here. Two, Scott was goading me into trying for the Park City Marathon, and I wanted to prove to him that it's impossible to train for a marathon in the summer in Tucson. Three, if I didn't die training, I would actually have the option of doing it.
May was all marathon training, and I was beginning to discover just how difficult it was to run in the heat.
In June, we went on a cruise and then to Walt Disney World. I had intended to keep up my training schedule on the ship and in Florida, but didn't. I had built a couple of extra weeks into the schedule, so this was not a big deal. So, I ran more and it got hotter.
July was hotter still, and I began to set my affairs in order preparatory to my certain demise. I also decided to actually commit to the marathon.
In August, I ran said marathon with Scott and Shane. I didn't do that well time-wise, but I finished, and I had a much easier time of it than my long runs in training. I also got a bloody nipple earlier in the month, and some new shoes later in the month.
In September, I ran a mountain race in Vegas, then ran up Mt. Wrightson the next week.
For the first couple of weeks of October, I was really sore from the mountain run, so it took a while to get back to a normal running schedule. I got my lab results back this month, and they were impressive, showing me in excellent health.
So that brings me to now. Next week: the Stake 5k!
Year 2, Day 5
Weight (today's reading): 179.6
Weight (weighted moving average): 181.4*
Today's food: 2 fish burritos, 1/2 quesadilla, shepherd's pie, 3 cookie bars, popcorn, 6 snickerdoodles
Today's exercise: day of rest
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 181.4*
Today's food: 2 fish burritos, 1/2 quesadilla, shepherd's pie, 3 cookie bars, popcorn, 6 snickerdoodles
Today's exercise: day of rest
* new low
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Year 2, Day 4
Weight (today's reading): 178.8
Weight (weighted moving average): 181.7*
Today's food: 4 pancakes, orange juice, 3 mini cookies, 2 fish tacos, small serving chicken chili, 2 mini cookies, chocolate almonds
Today's exercise: run 10 miles
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 181.7*
Today's food: 4 pancakes, orange juice, 3 mini cookies, 2 fish tacos, small serving chicken chili, 2 mini cookies, chocolate almonds
Today's exercise: run 10 miles
* new low
Friday, November 7, 2008
Year 2, Day 3
Weight (today's reading): 179.6
Weight (weighted moving average): 182.0*
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: yogurt, raspberry croissant, pear, pulled pork sandwich, jawbreaker, 3 mini cookies, chili cookoff (small cup chili, 1/2 pretzel with cheese, 1/2 chicken skewer, 1/2 beef skewer), 3 mini cookies, microwave popcorn, 4 mini cookies
Today's exercise: none
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 182.0*
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: yogurt, raspberry croissant, pear, pulled pork sandwich, jawbreaker, 3 mini cookies, chili cookoff (small cup chili, 1/2 pretzel with cheese, 1/2 chicken skewer, 1/2 beef skewer), 3 mini cookies, microwave popcorn, 4 mini cookies
Today's exercise: none
* new low
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Year 2, Day 2
Weight (today's reading): 178.4*
Weight (weighted moving average): 182.2*
Today's blood pressure: 129/80
Today's food: yogurt, banana, bratwurst, apple, jawbreaker, bowl of posole, tortilla chips, 2 sugar cookies, 1 liter dr. pepper, 4 sugar cookies
Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, run to the top of the hill by the track 3 times, 1 mile cooldown (3.5 miles total); 60 pushups
* new lows
Weight (weighted moving average): 182.2*
Today's blood pressure: 129/80
Today's food: yogurt, banana, bratwurst, apple, jawbreaker, bowl of posole, tortilla chips, 2 sugar cookies, 1 liter dr. pepper, 4 sugar cookies
Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, run to the top of the hill by the track 3 times, 1 mile cooldown (3.5 miles total); 60 pushups
* new lows
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Year 2, Day 1
Weight (today's reading): 180.8
Weight (weighted moving average): 182.7*
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: yogurt, banana, pulled pork sandwich, apple, 2 jawbreakers, sugar cookie, several bites of posole while I was cooking it, large dr. pepper
Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, 3 miles @ 8:30, 1 mile cooldown; 60 pushups
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 182.7*
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: yogurt, banana, pulled pork sandwich, apple, 2 jawbreakers, sugar cookie, several bites of posole while I was cooking it, large dr. pepper
Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, 3 miles @ 8:30, 1 mile cooldown; 60 pushups
* new low
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Week 53, Day 2
Weight (today's reading): 180.6
Weight (weighted moving average): 182.9*
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: orange juice, yogurt, 2 pieces of pizza, 2 cheese sticks, 2 donuts, 8 jawbreakers, donut, large pepsi, handful of almonds
Today's exercise: 60 pushups
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 182.9*
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: orange juice, yogurt, 2 pieces of pizza, 2 cheese sticks, 2 donuts, 8 jawbreakers, donut, large pepsi, handful of almonds
Today's exercise: 60 pushups
* new low
Monday, November 3, 2008
Week 53, Day 1
Weight (today's reading): 182.0
Weight (weighted moving average): 183.1*
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: orange juice, yogurt, pear, chili, 8 jawbreakers, chili, bratwurst, orange juice
Today's exercise: 1.5 mile warmup, intervals (2x800, 4x400 & 4x200 @ 7:15 pace), 1 mile cooldown (total 7.5 miles); 60 pushups**
* new low; ** I almost did the whole workout as written. I just had to walk 100m of the part between the 400s and 200s to catch my breath.
Weight (weighted moving average): 183.1*
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: orange juice, yogurt, pear, chili, 8 jawbreakers, chili, bratwurst, orange juice
Today's exercise: 1.5 mile warmup, intervals (2x800, 4x400 & 4x200 @ 7:15 pace), 1 mile cooldown (total 7.5 miles); 60 pushups**
* new low; ** I almost did the whole workout as written. I just had to walk 100m of the part between the 400s and 200s to catch my breath.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Week 52 Wrapup
I ran Monday and Wednesday of this week, but then the cold that's been being passed around by our family made its way back to me. So, I took the rest of the week off because I didn't want to risk making myself sicker by over-exerting myself.
I've been talking marathons with some cousins on my Dad's side and some cousins on my Mom's side. One group has looked at things time-wise and determined that the Ogden Marathon in May is the best target. The other group is thinking that St. George in October is probably best. I'm committed to helping both groups, since they're first time marathoners, and doing whatever it takes to do it with them. I've also just committed to doing the Running From An Angel Marathon in Boulder City January 3rd with Scott.
That's 3 marathons in a year. It's not the fact that I'm committing to 3 marathons that's insane. What's insane is that I'm looking at that schedule and thinking "Yeah, that's totally reasonable" instead of "Zounds! What am I thinking?!". Something has clearly snapped in my head. I'm also still planning on doing the Ragnar Del Sol in February somehow. And, last night as I was going to sleep, I was thinking, "Boulder City will be too hilly for a good time, and those other two I'll be obliged to stay with the first timers, so I won't have a good time there. Maybe I should work in a 4th for a time trial somewhere in the year." Yeah, something's definitely snapped.
BMI Rant
This week, the moving average of my weight slipped under the 25 BMI threshold for the first time. 25 is the most commonly accepted boundary line between the "normal" and "overweight" categories.
Now, BMI is sort of a controversial measurement. If you read around the internet, you're bound to find a lot of whining about the BMI and how it doesn't really apply in real-world situations. Usually, this whining is done by fat girls who are trying to be in denial of the fact that they are fat. There have been thousands of blog posts out there railing about the fact that "The BMI said I was overweight, but look at me, I'm healthy", "Real women have curves", "The BMI says Arnold Schwarzenegger's obese, so it must be wrong when it tells me I'm obese". Then, when I see actual pictures of the people doing the ranting, 90% of the time I'm thinking, "Well, you are fat..."
I'm not qualified to judge the health of those people or their ability to lose weight, but those things are really separate from the BMI anyway. For the sake of those people and anyone else interested, I'm going to now teach a mini-lesson on the proper use of the BMI measurement:
All the BMI is is a formula that correlates a person's weight to the square of their height. The formula was invented by a Belgian in the 1800s to try to find a way to accurately compare the weights of people of different heights and develop statistics of a population as a whole. The whole idea of assigning classifications to the numbers is a relatively recent phenomenon, and is based on finding the correlation between a population as a whole with high/low BMI and the increased risk of death or illness across that population as a whole. So, we're talking about really two separate but kind of related things. One's a formula that attempts to compensate for variance in height (yet fails, because at really short or tall heights the numbers get really skewed), and the other is classification of populations into categories depending on what number the formula comes up with.
To review, the only thing a BMI number really is is a ratio of your weight to the square of your height. Period. Full stop. Any interpretation of that number is a whole separate process.
On to the interpretation part of it. The current numbers used to define what your BMI "means" are from WHO, and classify under 18.5 as "underweight", above that but under 25 as "normal", 25.0 to 29.9 as "overweight", and 30+ as "obese" (where I was when I started this, by the way). The CDC in the US didn't use the WHO numbers until 1998, and previously had a higher cutoff for normal (27.5 or somewhere around there). So, ten years ago, millions of people in the US suddenly became overweight. Those people didn't suddenly gain any weight or increase their mass. Their body composition didn't change. Their health didn't change. They were just suddenly called overweight. It's kind of funny imagery, but it should just serve as a reminder that we're really only talking about statistical classification here.
I do believe that there would be less of a BMI backlash if the labels used were something other than "normal" or "overweight" or things like that. If the labels were to be "average" and "above-average" and more non-judgemental sounding things like that, it might be better accepted. The problem with using "normal" anywhere in your labelling is that you automatically stigmatize anyone stuck with the "abnormal" label.
Some other things about BMI:
BMI is not a predictor of individual health, although there is strong statistical correlation between high/low BMIs and poor health. If you are tall and very muscular, yes, you might be in the obese BMI category, but nobody will make the mistake of calling you unhealthy.
BMI does not tell you body fat percentage. Your percentage of body fat is a much better indication of whether you're unhealthy or whether or not you're "fat". It's also going to have a much bigger impact on whether you look fat. I know plenty of people who have BMIs lower than I, but have a higher fat percentage, or an uneven distribution of fat around the middle or the posterior. Looking at those people, you'd probably call them fat. But, even though my BMI's higher, you'd be a lot less likely to call me fat (now, anyway).
BMI is not a clinical diagnostic tool. Looking at someone's BMI without looking at the person behind it doesn't tell you anything about that person or about their health. You have to examine the whole person and their health history, symptoms, body, et cetera before drawing any conclusions rather than make any judgement based on a number.
So, if anyone is using a BMI diagnostically, they should be slapped. Any doctor that tells someone that they need to lose weight just because their BMI is over 25 should be slapped, just like any doctor who misses obvious signs of an eating disorder because they won't look past a "normal" BMI of 21. An insurance company that rerates a person into a higher risk class just because of a high BMI without considering other health factors or body types or measurements should be slapped.
The other side is that anyone who gets really hung up on their own BMI should be slapped. Anyone who feels stigmatized by the label they've been assigned out of the BMI categories should be slapped. It's a number and a statistical measurement, not an assessment of your value as a person, so get over it. Yes, your number puts you in the "obese" category. Yes, being in that category makes you statistically more likely to die or be sick. However, those are only predictors of populations as a whole, and your individual health can only be adequately assessed between you and your doctor.
There. Rant over.
Now that I've got that out of the way, though, I confess that I feel much better knowing I'm now a normal person. All you other people with BMIs outside the 18.5-25 range can suck it.
I've been talking marathons with some cousins on my Dad's side and some cousins on my Mom's side. One group has looked at things time-wise and determined that the Ogden Marathon in May is the best target. The other group is thinking that St. George in October is probably best. I'm committed to helping both groups, since they're first time marathoners, and doing whatever it takes to do it with them. I've also just committed to doing the Running From An Angel Marathon in Boulder City January 3rd with Scott.
That's 3 marathons in a year. It's not the fact that I'm committing to 3 marathons that's insane. What's insane is that I'm looking at that schedule and thinking "Yeah, that's totally reasonable" instead of "Zounds! What am I thinking?!". Something has clearly snapped in my head. I'm also still planning on doing the Ragnar Del Sol in February somehow. And, last night as I was going to sleep, I was thinking, "Boulder City will be too hilly for a good time, and those other two I'll be obliged to stay with the first timers, so I won't have a good time there. Maybe I should work in a 4th for a time trial somewhere in the year." Yeah, something's definitely snapped.
BMI Rant
This week, the moving average of my weight slipped under the 25 BMI threshold for the first time. 25 is the most commonly accepted boundary line between the "normal" and "overweight" categories.
Now, BMI is sort of a controversial measurement. If you read around the internet, you're bound to find a lot of whining about the BMI and how it doesn't really apply in real-world situations. Usually, this whining is done by fat girls who are trying to be in denial of the fact that they are fat. There have been thousands of blog posts out there railing about the fact that "The BMI said I was overweight, but look at me, I'm healthy", "Real women have curves", "The BMI says Arnold Schwarzenegger's obese, so it must be wrong when it tells me I'm obese". Then, when I see actual pictures of the people doing the ranting, 90% of the time I'm thinking, "Well, you are fat..."
I'm not qualified to judge the health of those people or their ability to lose weight, but those things are really separate from the BMI anyway. For the sake of those people and anyone else interested, I'm going to now teach a mini-lesson on the proper use of the BMI measurement:
All the BMI is is a formula that correlates a person's weight to the square of their height. The formula was invented by a Belgian in the 1800s to try to find a way to accurately compare the weights of people of different heights and develop statistics of a population as a whole. The whole idea of assigning classifications to the numbers is a relatively recent phenomenon, and is based on finding the correlation between a population as a whole with high/low BMI and the increased risk of death or illness across that population as a whole. So, we're talking about really two separate but kind of related things. One's a formula that attempts to compensate for variance in height (yet fails, because at really short or tall heights the numbers get really skewed), and the other is classification of populations into categories depending on what number the formula comes up with.
To review, the only thing a BMI number really is is a ratio of your weight to the square of your height. Period. Full stop. Any interpretation of that number is a whole separate process.
On to the interpretation part of it. The current numbers used to define what your BMI "means" are from WHO, and classify under 18.5 as "underweight", above that but under 25 as "normal", 25.0 to 29.9 as "overweight", and 30+ as "obese" (where I was when I started this, by the way). The CDC in the US didn't use the WHO numbers until 1998, and previously had a higher cutoff for normal (27.5 or somewhere around there). So, ten years ago, millions of people in the US suddenly became overweight. Those people didn't suddenly gain any weight or increase their mass. Their body composition didn't change. Their health didn't change. They were just suddenly called overweight. It's kind of funny imagery, but it should just serve as a reminder that we're really only talking about statistical classification here.
I do believe that there would be less of a BMI backlash if the labels used were something other than "normal" or "overweight" or things like that. If the labels were to be "average" and "above-average" and more non-judgemental sounding things like that, it might be better accepted. The problem with using "normal" anywhere in your labelling is that you automatically stigmatize anyone stuck with the "abnormal" label.
Some other things about BMI:
BMI is not a predictor of individual health, although there is strong statistical correlation between high/low BMIs and poor health. If you are tall and very muscular, yes, you might be in the obese BMI category, but nobody will make the mistake of calling you unhealthy.
BMI does not tell you body fat percentage. Your percentage of body fat is a much better indication of whether you're unhealthy or whether or not you're "fat". It's also going to have a much bigger impact on whether you look fat. I know plenty of people who have BMIs lower than I, but have a higher fat percentage, or an uneven distribution of fat around the middle or the posterior. Looking at those people, you'd probably call them fat. But, even though my BMI's higher, you'd be a lot less likely to call me fat (now, anyway).
BMI is not a clinical diagnostic tool. Looking at someone's BMI without looking at the person behind it doesn't tell you anything about that person or about their health. You have to examine the whole person and their health history, symptoms, body, et cetera before drawing any conclusions rather than make any judgement based on a number.
So, if anyone is using a BMI diagnostically, they should be slapped. Any doctor that tells someone that they need to lose weight just because their BMI is over 25 should be slapped, just like any doctor who misses obvious signs of an eating disorder because they won't look past a "normal" BMI of 21. An insurance company that rerates a person into a higher risk class just because of a high BMI without considering other health factors or body types or measurements should be slapped.
The other side is that anyone who gets really hung up on their own BMI should be slapped. Anyone who feels stigmatized by the label they've been assigned out of the BMI categories should be slapped. It's a number and a statistical measurement, not an assessment of your value as a person, so get over it. Yes, your number puts you in the "obese" category. Yes, being in that category makes you statistically more likely to die or be sick. However, those are only predictors of populations as a whole, and your individual health can only be adequately assessed between you and your doctor.
There. Rant over.
Now that I've got that out of the way, though, I confess that I feel much better knowing I'm now a normal person. All you other people with BMIs outside the 18.5-25 range can suck it.
Week 52, Day 7
Weight (today's reading): 181.8
Weight (weighted moving average): 183.2*
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: 4 pancakes, 4 sausage links, orange juice, 2 mini heath bars, popcorn ball, 2 pork chops, slice garlic bread, mashed potatoes with apple gravy, 6 mini snickers
Today's exercise: day of rest
* new low
Weight (weighted moving average): 183.2*
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: 4 pancakes, 4 sausage links, orange juice, 2 mini heath bars, popcorn ball, 2 pork chops, slice garlic bread, mashed potatoes with apple gravy, 6 mini snickers
Today's exercise: day of rest
* new low
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Week 52, Day 6
Weight (today's reading): 182.6
Weight (weighted moving average): 183.4
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: small bag of popcorn, apple, 2 scoop gelato, 5 layers worth of enchitaco, dum dum, popcorn
Today's exercise: none
Weight (weighted moving average): 183.4
Today's blood pressure: forgot
Today's food: small bag of popcorn, apple, 2 scoop gelato, 5 layers worth of enchitaco, dum dum, popcorn
Today's exercise: none
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