Pheidippides’s BodyBlog

The good news is my Achilles tendon seems mostly to have healed in the last week, allowing me to run on Saturday for the first time in 18 days.  I ran pretty slowly, totaling 5 miles.  I plan to run again today.  We’ll see how that goes.  I’m not yet sure how much the layoff has affected my fitness.

One thing it has affected is my weight.  I’ve gone up to 174.8 as of today, although my BF hasn’t gone up much (it’s at 17.2%, according to scale, although the reading fluctuates every day).  The good thing is that with all the pushups and hard running I’ve done over the last three months a good portion of the gain seems to be muscle rather than fat, but the bad news is it’s going to be hard to get anywhere near my weight goal by Labor Day.  At this point my goal is to get solidly under 170 pounds by September.  I don’t want to be focusing on weight loss during my fall training.

The other goods news is I did a single set of 52 pushups on Sunday, the most, I think, that I’ve EVER done at any point in my life.  I may have done that many once a couple of years ago, but never more.  I’m within sight of my 55-pushup goal to be achieved by Labor Day.

My last race was a success, but it was followed three days later by a big setback.  The race was the 5K I ran on July 25.  I beat my previous PR by 8 seconds with a time of 19:22, not quite as fast as I’d hoped but still my best race yet.  I started fast, clocking 6:04 for the first mile, then I slowed to 6:16 for the second and about 6:22 for the third.  My overall pace was 6:14, so I was pleased.  At the time it seemed like my running was progressing really well and I was on track for that sub-40 minute 10K, my big goal for the year.

Alas, three days later, during my afternoon speed interval workout, my right foot started to hurt.  It wasn’t the same as the Achilles tendonitis I’d suffered two years ago; this was lower and nearer the heel.  I made it through three 600 meter intervals and an 800 meter interval with increasing discomfort, but had to give up during the second 800 meter segment.  I haven’t been able to run since then, and it’s been 9 days.  I’ve hit the gym three times and spent time on the stationary bike to try to maintain aerobic fitness, but there’s no way I can avoid setting my running back if this keeps up.

At first I thought it might be a stress fracture, but the doctor seems to think it’s an injury to the Achilles tendon where it connects to the heel.  I’m taking a painkiller and trying to rest it, and that’s about all I can do.  In the meantime I’m going to keep going to the gym to try aerobic exercises that don’t put pressure on my heel — especially the stationary bike, as it works my quads as well as the heart.

It’s quite frustrating, but if it heels within a week or two it won’t set me back too much and I should be able to still enter some races this fall.

I have another 5K coming up this weekend.  I hope to go under 19 minutes this time.  Training has been going really well, so I think it’s possible, but it might be a bit warm to get a PR.  We’ll see.

On other fronts, I just did my first set of 50 pushups this morning, so I’m getting close to my Labor Day goal of 55 in a single set.  I really haven’t been doing any upper body exercises other than pushups in the last couple of months, but they have undoubtedly given me some more definition in the chest, shoulders, and arms.

With June over, It’s time to get going on my goals for the remainder of the summer.  My running went really well the last month and a half, and I managed to lose some weight as well, but I still have a way to go.

My goals for Sept. 4, the Friday before Labor Day: (1) Get weight down under 164 (I’m 167.8 today); (2) get BF down to 13% (I’m at 17.4% today); (3) get waist down under 33 (I’m at 35.5 inches today).  (4) Increase pushups to 55 at one time (42 today, and high of 48 over last month).  (5) Build running mileage up to 40 plus miles per week.  (6) Get 5K time close to 19 minutes or better if possible.

The goal is to get myself in ideal shape by Labor Day to begin a fairly rigorous training program for running races in the fall, and ultimately achieve my goals of (a) a sub-1:30 half marathon; and (b) sub-40 minute 10K.  If I can get my 5K time under 19 minutes by Labor Day AND if I’m comfortably over 40 mpw running without injury by that time, I may set a goal of a sub-3 hour marathon.  But I won’t do that unless my weight, mileage, and 5K pace make that a realistic goal.

I ran the Shriner’s 8K race this morning.  It’s part of the Pacific US Track and Field Assocation road race circuit, so it always has a lot of fast runners from all over California and some other parts west as well.  It was my first 8K ever.  My goal was to try to set and stay at a roughly 6:30 pace, and demonstrate my progress toward a sub-40 minute 10K.

Temperature was probably 60s, mostly sunny, light breeze.  Good conditions for an 8 a.m. start.

I started a bit farther back than I would have liked because the starting line was so crowded, and got off to a slower start than I expected.  But after about 600 meters it started to thin just a bit, and then I was able to get  up to my target speed.  At that point I started passing slower runners.  My mile splits (rounded) were 6:33, 6:20, 6:30, 6:34, and my last .97 mile split was 6:13.  I was able to hold pace, pretty much, and I passed a few runners over the last two miles as some runners slowed down.  Overall time was 32:16, a pace of exactly 6:30.  So I hit my target right on the nose.  In terms of age graded performance that’s equivalent to about a 40:50 10K, so I’m definitely getting closer.  With a little more mileage and steady training I should be able to get under 40 minutes by early fall, maybe earlier.

I was very pleased with the performance, since it showed I’m right on track with where I want to be.  But to put it in perspective, I only placed 14th out of 41 runners in my age group, and the top runner in my age group (45-49 years old) ran the 8K at a 5 minute/mile pace !!  So I’ve got my work cut out for me. I’m looking forward to it.

Summer is underway (I guess it technically starts on Sunday, but I count from when the kids’ school gets out), and so far I’m making progress on my fitness goals.  Running is going very well.  Number 1, I’ve stayed healthy; number 2, I’ve managed to slowly and steadily increase my mileage; and number 3, I’m getting faster.  Tomorrow is an 8k, my first race at that distance.  My goal is to run under 32:30, a 6:32 pace.  The course will be fast and flat, and the competition will be very tough, so it will be easy to go out fast.  It may be just a bit warm.

I’ve set my summer goals for weight and bodyfat.  Goal date is September 4, a Friday, rather than a Monday, to make it a bit easier, since I tend to be a bit undisciplined in my eating on weekends.  The goal is to reduce weight to at least 164 pounds by Sept. 4, from current weight of 168.4, to get bodyfat from 16.4% to 13%, and to reduce my waist from 35.8 inches to 33 inches.  The goal is to achieve all three goals, so, for example, I may need to lose more weight than that to get my bodyfat down that low.

I also want to keep upping my pushups total and also start working on pullups.  Current pushups high is 47 — want to get that up to 50 if possible by next Friday, but I’m doubtful.

Today I ran my first 10K.  Well, it was billed as a 10K, but as I was timing my mile splits I figured out the "mile" between mile 5 and 6 was about .2 miles short!  So I ran 6 miles.  What it lacked in distance it made up in terrain, because the first and last miles were through twisty, narrow, somewhat hilly, and soft dirt trails.  So it was not a course to get your best time.  Of course, since this was my first it was bound to be my best time.

Anyway, my goal was to use this race as a way of figuring out what my 10K level was so I could calibrate my training toward my 10K goal race in the fall.  So the plan was to go out at a very controlled, moderate pace, hold it for three miles, then see what I could do over the last half of the race.  The one thing I absolutely did not want to do was to go out fast and crash.
There were 184 participants, not an overly big bunch.  I started out fast, well within the top 10 runners, though well behind the really good ones, about three of whom took off far in front.  After about the first mile I settled in with about four to five other runners, one of whom also was named "Steve", and who seemed to be known by all the race volunteers, who all yelled out, "Go Steve."  After a while, knowing it wasn’t me, I started to get irked.  I made it my goal to beat the guy.  Around mile 4 I passed a guy who looked about my age, along with a guy around 20 (it’s great to pass guys who are 20), and set my sights on catching the other Steve, who looked like he might be my age.  I thought if I did that I would definitely be the top over 40 finisher, because I knew the guys who were far ahead were a lot younger.  So I stayed right on Steve’s shoulder and felt pretty good about being able to catch him at the end.  With 200 meters to go, out of the dirt trail, I took off, and when he saw that I was going to try to beat him he took off too.  I was still maybe 5 yards behind with 50 meters to go, but I ran as fast as I could and beat him by .1 seconds at the finish line. As it turned out, his "chip" time was a bit faster than mine, because he lined up at the start farther behind the starting line than I did.  It also turned out he was a lot younger than I thought.
My finish time was 40:42.  Assuming it was about 6 miles, that’s a 6:47 pace, so I assume translated into a real 10K it was the equivalent of a little over 42 minutes.  Because of the terrain, though, I ran at least one minute slower than I would have on a flat, faster surface, so I would describe it as about a 41 minute effort.  That was good for 7th overall out of 184, 1st out of 15 Men 45-49, and first among all Master’s age (40+) runners.  I actually beat everybody over the age of 34.  I was very happy with that result.  I’m not completely certain but it may be the first time in my life I actually placed first in any athletic event, even in an age group, so that was good.

Next up is an 8K this coming Saturday. Since that race is part of the PAUSTF circuit, it will have a very competitive field.  I will not be winning any awards in that race!

According to my scale, I have entered uncharted territory:  166.6 pounds, and 16% bodyfat.  The bodyfat figure is the lowest figure I have recorded yet since I started recording it a year and a half ago or so, and the weight number is the lowest since I can remember — certainly the lowest number since my 20s, nearly 20 years ago — possibly even more.

My waist measured 35.75, possibly a bit lower (it seems to be impossible to hold the tape measure completely still, or at one measurement), but I’ll call it 35.75.

So, I’m on track to get down under 165 by June 26, and I’ve already reached my BF goal (although that figure fluctuates wildly because of scale error).  Still three quarters of an inch from getting my waist where I want it.  Still, great progress over mid-Spring, when my weight was regularly in the mid-170s, my BF was up around 19%, and my waist was well over 37 inches.  It is getting to the point that I should begin to see the positive effect of weight loss on my race times.

May was a success, fitness-wise.  I achieved my goal of getting my weight from 173-177 (it varied a lot, depending upon how much I ate) to under 169 (168 last Friday).  I finally broke 20 minutes in the 5k (19:30).  And I improved at pushups (high for a single continuous set: 46).  I didn’t quite get my bodyfat or waist as low as I would have liked, but it was a good month.

So now that it’s June 1 it’s time to set some new goals for the month.  Since I will go on vacation in Yosemite starting June 28, my goal date will be June 26 — not quite 4 weeks from now.  Fitness goals for that date:

1)  Get weight down to 165 (will take hard core effort)

2)  Get bodyfat down to under 16%

3)  Get waist (at largest point) under 35 inches

4)  Run 10K under 41:30 (that’s 70% age graded factor, pace about 6:40)

5)  50 pushups in one continuous set

6)  Install pullup bar in my garage and get going on pullups to complement pushups

That’s six goals, which is a lot over a short time, but I’m already underway with most of them.  I’ve got the 10K on my calendar; it’s on June 14, 13 days from now.  My recent 5K pace was 6:16, so finishing a 10K under 6:40 pace should be doable.  If I feel good I’ll try for sub-41 minutes (6:35 pace).

The weight will be hardest, because I know from experience that my current weight level is a kind of threshold I’ve reached several times over the last three years, but never broken past.  At this level my body starts really telling me it wants more food, and I have a hard time saying no.  The difference this time, I hope, is that my diet already is underway AND I’m increasing my running mileage.  The last three weeks I’ve run 31.8, 32, and 34.3 miles.  I plan to keep my mileage up in the 35 mile range through June.  Saturday morning I had one of my best training runs ever: 13 miles in 141:16 — 7:47 pace.  Losing weight and running SHOULD work together, with the running burning off the calories and the lower weight making it easier to run faster.

I met my May diet goal, with the scale showing I weighed 168 when I got up this morning.  The BF measurement was a bit odd — it showed I was 18.4% rather than 17, which it showed yesterday, but I attribute that to a significant error factor in the machine.  I think I’m really somewhere between.

That’s one of only two times I’ve weighed 168 since I start keeping measurements on this site 1 1/2 years ago.  With more focus and diligence, this time, that number will become a ceiling, not a floor, and I’ll continue to shed unwanted flab and pounds.  Already I’ve lost some flab around the middle.  I wouldn’t say my abs have definition yet — I’d say I have about 3% more BF to lose before I get even a hint of real abs showing — but they are looking more presentable than a month earlier.  Enough, anyway, that I’ve run without a shirt a couple of times.  Yesterday I ran mid-day, completely sunny, temp in the low 90s (mild by Sacramento summer standards).  Too hot for a top.

The bigger advantage with the weight loss is faster running times.  If I can lose 5% of my weight (say, drop from 173 pounds, my approximate last race weight, to 164 pounds), then I should be able to improve running time by about 5% as well (according to some experts I’ve read).  That would mean lopping about another minute from my current 5K time of 19:30.  That is very strong motivation!