Pheidippides’s BodyBlog

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! 

I ran a 5K this morning.  Great conditions - temperature was probably in the high 50s at race start, course was perfectly flat and fast.  My goal was to beat 20 minutes.

I started fast, as I always do, often to my later regret. It didn’t feel crazy fast, but I finished the first mile in 6:01.  I just about held on to that pace the second mile, finished that in 6:08.  At that point I was slightly regretting the superfast start, but at the same time knew that I just about had my PR and sub-20 minute time in the bag, because I could slow down a lot the last mile and still get under my goal.  I did slow down over the last mile, to around 6:37 pace, but still held on and finished pretty strong.  This time I think I passed a couple people the last 200 meters.  To be honest I was concentrating so hard I was barely aware of others at that point.

My best race by far, in terms of age-graded performance.  My overall race pace was 6:16 min/mile — faster than I thought I could do.  I finished the 5K exactly 1:10 faster than I ran my last 5k one month ago, and the course was almost identical.  My aerobic fitness and stamina have improved a lot in that time, and my workouts and overall mileage have improved.

I’ll be recalibrating my workout paces and my goals for the year, but I now feel a lot more confident about attaing my goals of a sub-1:30 half marathon and sub-40 minute 10K, and with enough smart training and some weight loss I think a sub-3:00 marathon may even be in sight.

I weighed myself this morning, and with 10 days to go I am just about there.  169.8 pounds — one third of a pound from my June 1 goal.  If I keep watching my food intake and keep up the running, I’ll definitely hit and surpass my goal.  That will set me up nicely for getting faster in my running and for losing a bit more weight and improving my physique over the summer.  According to the scale my bodyfat right now is 17%, and I’d like to get that down into the 12-14% range over the summer.  I’ve never been that lean, at least not since high school, if then.  Even at my fittest I’ve always had love handles.  It’d be nice to get rid of them.

Waist still hovering around 36 inches. That’s from the widest point, just below the navel.  So that still needs some work.  But I’ve knocked off an inch in the last 3 weeks, so it’s good.

I’ll be running a 5K on Memorial Day, and the weight loss makes me think I have a good shot at finally breaking the 20 minute barrier.   That will be the goal, anyway.  The biggest obstacle will be maintaining discipline on Sunday while I go wine tasting and eating out in Napa with friends.  I will have to hold back on the wine consumption and not eat too heavily.

My wife and I both started diets on May 1 — the goal is to eat really well and lose a significant amount of weight by June 1.  She’s trying to lose 10 pounds, which sounds like a lot to lose in one month.  My goal was a bit more modest.  I was at 177 on June 1, and I wanted to get under 170.

I seem to be well on the way toward that goal.  I’ve been eating very carefully, and running at the same time, so I think I’ve been running a bit of a calorie deficit as well as shedding water weight.  Yesterday the scale said 172.8, and today it said 170.8.  I obviously cannot have lost 6.2 pounds of real weight in six days, but it does mean that some of the weight I was carrying was just water weight or bloat from all the eating I was doing.  I feel a bit trimmer and lighter, and the measuring tape also indicates I’ve lost a small but significant amount around my waist.

I’m a lot more confident now that I can get well under 170 by the end of May.  That bodes well not only for being able to look and feel better for the summer but for improving my running fitness and times before Labor Day, when I plan to kick my training into higher gear.

My diet isn’t all that strict; it’s just a matter of eating a lot less.  So far I’ve eaten a little less at every meal, avoided late night snacking and snacking generally, avoided ice cream, and drunk lots of water.  I’m allowing myself to go for stretches at a time feeling just a bit hungry, and enjoying the sensation after feeling bloated so much of the time previously.

I’ve got my sights now on achieving a "real" (meaning consistent, rather than one day) weight of 168 by June 1.  That would put me ahead of previous schedule.

My ultimate goal is to get my weight down into the low 160s to see how carrying less weight will help my running times.

I haven’t done any weight lifting lately, but I’ve been doing pushups almost every day.

Running is coming along.  My first real running fitness test was a 5K the Sunday before last. I finished in 20:40, well off my PR of 20:04 last Labor Day.  I was disappointed, but not really surprised.  I’m coming off a lull in my running, and I’m a few pounds heavier than I was for that last 5K.  Training is going pretty well, and my mileage is increasing, so I’m confident of improving soon.  My first goal is to get that 5K time under 20 minutes before mid-summer.  Then I’ll concentrate on training for a 10K, with my goal of running under 40 minutes by the end of the year, before I run the California International Marathon again in December.

No progress on weight loss so far, due to lack of discipline.

This is my first post since Feb. 4, when I was gearing up for a 4 mile race, my first of the year.  The result was a big disappointment, and for the next five weeks I scaled my running way back.  The consequences were putting on a few extra pounds, and losing a bit of my fitness.  The upside was giving my body time to heal and recover from some lingering injuries.

I’m now back into a serious fitness regimen.  The focus this year will be on running, but incident to that I plan to lose some weight, do some modest strength training, and continue working on gettign leaner and fitter overall.  I currently weigh 175.2, well over my low point last year, but not terribly so.

My pre-Memorial Day goals are to get my running mileage up to about 30 mpw or more, do a couple of races, try to get my 5K pace back to about 20 minutes (or better if possible), and drop six pounds to close to 169.  I’m doing regular pushups as well, and will work at supplementing running with some cross training (swimming and gym machines, and maybe some cycling) and light strength training.  If I can lose weight I know I will be able to set new PRs in races this year.  At the end of the year I plan to run the California International Marathon, and next April I’ll run the Boston Marathon (I qualified with last December’s performance).

I’ve already started eating better — watching portion size, avoiding bad carbs, avoiding deadly late night snacking, that sort of thing.

Ultimate goals this year: 1) Get weight down under 165 pounds; 2) run 5K in well under 20 minutes, half marathon in under 1:30, and 10K in under 40 minutes sometime before the marathon.  I still don’t have a clear marathon goal, but at a minimum I’d like to beat 3:10.

Another interval workout yesterday: 3 x (1200,800,400).  I went into it with the goal of holding different paces at the different distances rather than going for one steady pace.  The goal was roughly est. 10K pace (6:40) for 1200, sub-5K pace for 800 (6:20) and near 6:00 pace for 400s.

It helped that there were two guys in the B group this time who were faster than I and really pushed my pace.  I held back a bit on the 1200s but still hit the mark, pretty much, finishing in 5:02, 4:58, and 4:43 (pace ranging from 6:44 to 6:20); in the 800s I ran 3:09, 3:01, and 3:05 (6:20 to 6:04) and in the 400s I ran 1:29, 1:30, and 1:24 (pace ranging from 6:02 to 5:38).  The overall pace wasn’t faster than last week, on average, but I ran the fast intervals faster, and that last interval I ran about as fast as I ever run in these workouts.

Average pace over all distance last week was 6:14 min/mile.  This week, with some longer intervals and a little holding back on those intervals, average pace was 6:20 min/mile.  Total speed interval distance this week:  7200 meters or  about 4.4 miles.

The plan is to run the 4 mile Valentine’s Day race and go for a time of 26 minutes, 6:30 min/mile pace.  I will take it easy with my speed running between now and then — maybe run a few short, very fast speed intervals early next week, but no tempo runs and no long interval workouts between now and the race.

Interestingly my glutes ached after this workout. Running fast seems to work different muscles, especially the glutes, which don’t ache after long slow runs.

My weight yesterday was 172.8 — no improvement — but bodyfat percentage measured at 16.3%, a new low and a bit of a surprise.  It’s possible with all the pushups and fast running workouts I’ve built up a little muscle and lost a bit of fat.

Another solid week of training.  Total running miles:  33.6, about the same as the week before.  It didn’t feel like I was pushing it, either, so I’d say I have a pretty solid foundation at that level after taking time off after the marathon.

Saturday I ran with my running group and did a 4 mile tempo run.  My goal was to maintain 7 min/mile pace, which I did, finishing in 27:55, or 6:59 min/mile pace.   That is my best tempo run, and it may be the fastest I’ve run over that distance, whether in training or in a race.  So I feel like I’m in pretty good shape to shoot for a 6:30 min/mile pace in the 4 mile race I’m going to do in 2 weeks.  We’ll see.  Yesterday I followed my Saturday 4 mile tempo (and 9.3 miles overall) with 11.8 miles of steady, moderate running (about 8:40 min/mile pace).

I raised my weekly pushups total to 214, and managed to hit a new single set high of 40.  I’ll shoot for a little more than that this week.

The bad news: with my focus on running and pushups, I’ve really slacked off concentrating on diet, and I’ve actually put a few pounds back on.  The Super Bowl party yesterday didn’t help.

My 5 weeks of slacking (relatively) in my running don’t seem to have hurt my speed.  I ran my first aerobic interval workout yesterday with my running group in about two months, and it was my fastest interval workout yet. 8 x 800 meters, and with the warmup, inbetween jogging, and cooldown it was about 8 miles total.

I ran the intervals as follows:

1:       3:14

2:        3:06

3:       3:06

4:       3:08

5:       3:05

6:       3:06

7:       3:06

8:       3:04

After the first interval, which at about 6:30 pace was my slowest, I ran every interval from about 6:18 pace to about 6:10 pace, significantly faster than my 5K race pace.  That’s the fastest pace I’ve sustained over an interval workout.  I was also very consistent, and I was able to run the last interval the fastest, so I was pacing smartly throughout.

There’s a 5K/10K coming up in a week and a half, and a 4 miler a week after that, and I definitely want to do that one.