All you can eat Stec

So last tuesday, everything seemed to be going wrong.  I drove four hours to meet with some clients, and I did everything i could think of to prepare with meeting them and the meetings didn’t quite go as planned.  I come home, things are crazy at the house with kids and I’ve got a million things to do with work to tie the loose ends before the vacation and pack etc…  Really no time to do my scheduled run.  Oh, and top it off I had a conference call that went long. 

 Even worse — it was my INTERVAL workout.  This means pain, but also some heavy duty growth.

As I was thinking about not running and how nice it would be to just relax a little bit before I get my stuff done, I also began thinking about how not only will I be strengthening my body by a difficult workout, but I will also be strengthening my discipline, determination, and will to accomplish my goals.

I did go out and run, and although I almost puked twice (once after my 4th and last 1200 meter interval, another as I inhaled the greesy smell while I passed the KFC on my 10 minute cooldown) It felt so good that I had done it.  If situation comes where its twice that hard to go workout because I did it Tuesday I’ll be more likely to get it done.

I’ve got good news and bad news.

Good news is I’m taking Wed, thur, Fri off work for vacation.  Bad news is its going to be difficult to go to Utah with my wife’s extended family and still eat healthy.  I fell off the boat right about our last trip down there two years ago and I’m not going to do the same this time.  I understand that I’m going to have to be semi-flexible about eating unhealthy food but I’m going to have to draw the line, and I’ve had awkward situations in the past with turning down a dessert turning into a personal attack.  Whatever.  I’ll do my best.

So the plan is,
Monday:  Lift Morning, head to medford, exercise bike after work
Tuesday:  Run (Interval Training{4×1200@7:01/mi with 1:30 rest intervals)
Wednesday:  EARLY flight to utah, Lift in the late afternoon with Mark
Thursday:  Run (1 mile warmup, 3 miles@ 7:46/mi, 1 mile cooldown)
Friday:  Lift with Mark + some other type of cardio…  Maybe tennis or something
Saturday:  Run (7 miles @ 8:16/mi pace)

I’m not going to track any food this week (along with the last half of last week), but I’m going to make a stalwart effort to keep my protein/water high, stay away from useless calories, and eat every few hours.  Ugghhhh going to be hard with these folks.  My wife doesn’t think so — I guess we’ll see.

So I ran the 5k in Salem yesterday.  First of all, here’s the stats:

Time: 22:32
Avg Pace:  7:13
Avg Speed: 8.3 MPH
Max Speed:10.7 MPH (at the start and end)
Avg Heart Rate: 160
Max Heart Rate: 176
Mile 1:  7:11
Mile 2:  7:15
Mile 3:  7:22
Last .12:  6:03/mi pace

Everything went pretty good considering we showed up about five minutes before the race and really didn’t have time to warmup or stretch.  I wanted to at least run a 7:26 which i guestimated from my 10k run two weeks ago.  Once the gun went off and I started quickly I knew 7:26 was going to be WAY easy and I was just going to push it as hard as I could.

One thing that always makes me laugh is the people at the start and how fast they’re going.  A lot of people I can tell they are going to poop out rather quickly, and am surprised by how long they hold on till they do.  There was this one 10 year old that was sprinting at SUPER SPEED for the first 200-400 meters, then died… lol.  But I was thinking during the race about what percent of running is mental.  I remember at that kids age thinking that if I really really had the motivation I could  run endlessly at top speed.  Too bad your body gets in your way…. or does it?

Anyways, I had this older guy breathing down my neck the entire way and we helped push each other.  It was a smaller race and it does get a little annoying in races if you have to run by yourself, so it was nice to run with someone.

One thing I did that was kind of mean that I didn’t realize I did until after I did it, is I had a garmin watch and so I told the older guy that we had a half mile left and gave him a bit of encouraging words.  With much enthusiasm he passed me and started hauling towards the finish.  Of course a half mile is way too long for us to really kick it in that fast so he slowed down with 200 meters left and I was able to pass him.  Whoops.

Some numbers from the last two weeks, hopefully people can swing by and leave comments on what they would do to change.  I am cutting slowly as to not lose muscle, 3 lifting days/week, and 5-6 days of cardio/week.
Avg Food Intake:                             Avg Calories:
Cals:  2622                                                 Avg Calories burned: 3,032  (according to fitday)
Fat:  73 (25%)                                         Avg Logged Activies/day:  514
Carb: 293 (42%)
Protein: 206 (32%)

And the result?
No change in weight
2% Change in bodyfat (not always accurate, calipering myself) from 16-14%
1.1" increase in chest size
No change in arm size
-.8" hip size
+.1" thigh size
-2.1" shoulder size
-.3" waist size
Running is improving
See my bodyspace for picture changes…

These aren’t bad results and I’m generally happy about ‘em, just the question is,  is there anything I can do to get the results faster?

I’m really going to step it up a notch this week. I need to be in Bend Monday and Tuesday night, but other than that I should be able to stay home and crank it out.  Since I PR’d with my 10k I am upping my ‘FIRST TO THE FINISH’ 5k training program to run an insanely fast 5k on my birthday (6 weeks away)!

Monday: Lift morning, Exercise bike in bend hotel
Tuesday:  Run morning Riverbend park trail in bend, {20m warmup, 10×400 6:46/mi w/ 1:30 RI, 10m cooldown)
Wednesday:  Exercise bike morning in bend hotel, Lift After work
Thursday:  Run {1 mile warmup, 4 miles @ 7:46/mi, 1 miles easy}
Friday:  Swim morning, Lift After work
Saturday: EARLY RUN : 8 miles @ 8:16 mile pace
Sunday:  REST

Going to be an insane week.  Going to up my calories a beyond 3000 keeping as healthy as I can and drink plenty of water.

Overall not a bad week - didn’t do cardio on Monday to make my rest a bit longer, and I skipped working out alltogether on Friday to get ready for my 10k.  (posted below)

Here are the stats:

Food intake:
Calories/day: 2490
Fat % - 22
Carb % - 45
Protein % - 33

Exercise:
1:20 of lifting (2 sessions)
30 min of stationary biking (1 session)
Nearly 3 hours of running (4 sessions) (Around 18 miles) - Click below for the stats.
http://www.runningahead.com/profiles/3227956200f1439cb3152f66bdbd0773

Today I ran my 10k in Junction City, oregon.  I was pleased to find some old freinds, Mark and Sarah Agsten from Roseburg.  Mark asked if I was going to keep up with Sarah and was like LOL.

Anyways, my shins were a bit sore but found that a mile warmup and stretching helped quite a bit.  At the start I’m usually tempted to run WAY fast - and then the rest of the race turns out awful.  I just had to keep telling myself, "run your own race," and kept a pace of 8:00/mi while everyone flew by.  I finished with a pace of 7:51 so I kept to my goal pace (and a bit faster) the entire time.

One thing that was cool was for the last few miles I ran with this guy and we motivated and pushed each other to the finish.  Its nice to have someone there to push you while feeling the same amount of pain.  At the end of the race some older guy came up to me and thanked me — he was right behind me and said I motivated him through the last mile and a half. Runners are so nice!
Most importantly, I know what I can do for the next race and I’ll be even more prepared.  It was 11 bucks and a Saturday morning well spent!

Stats of the race –
Place: 183
Division:  Age 25-29
Div/Total:  14/26
Time:  48:44
Pace:  7:51

And some Garmin stats:
Avg Heart Rate: 162
Max heart rate: 176
Avg Speed: 7.7mph
Avg Pace: 7:49
Time: 48:37

So… Planning this next week is going to be rough….. lets see…

I need to get over to Bend but I’ve got 2 dinner programs (4 hours away from each other and 3 hours away from bend) that I’ve got to promote.  So I guess Bend is going to have to take another week for the team b/c I can’t make it there and back in a day…. or can I?

I just realized that 100% of you have no idea what I’m talking about.  Ok, imagine the state of oregon.  Take the bottom 2/3rds of it and all those towns have psychiatrists that I need to leave samples to. And they use a TON of what I have.

Cliff notes:  I drive 1000-1500 miles a week and still half the territory is screaming for samples.

Oh, and I absolutly love it when some random office in BFE calls for samples, so I drive 3 hours there and 3 back to get it to them and I show up "the doctor only has time for a signature….."  ok…. Is there a better time?  I can wait? "no… "  nice.

But its a great job and I feel important so thats good.

On with the planning!

Monday:  BIG day in Eugene; Bike ride morning; Lift After work
Tuesday: Run in the morning, head to Bend (key doctors only) or finish in Eugene
Wednesday: Lift in the morning, head to Medford (stay night in medford)
Thursday:  Drive back to Eugene, get run in when possible
Friday: Lunch in Florence, rest for 10K tomorrow
Saturday: SCANDIA RUN 8AM 10K WOOT! WOOT!

Well it was a great week.  I felt good the entire time and I felt like I met most of my goals.  In addition to lifting 3 times and doing cardio 5 times this week, I signed up for the 10k next Saturday in Junction City.  It’ll be nice to get a baseline to see how fast (err.. slow) I really am.  I also felt like I really improved on the squat, especially on my form.  I’m starting to hit a weight thats difficult using Rippetoes workout program and my form is still pretty solid.

Exercise:
Three Lifting workouts
4+ hours of cardio per week that includes:
One swimming workout (800 meters) — 1 session
At least one hour of running (22.8 miles) — 4 sessions (Most miles in one week)
I didn’t get a bike workout in this week.  Next week for sure.  Going to cut one run out.
Food:
Avg 2823 Calories per day
27% fat
38% Carbohydrate
33% Protein
One Cheat meal on Saturday (1348 calories)