Wednesday Weigh In

     The train feels like it is back on track and headed in the right direction again.  Sunday was the official start to my journey to reach the marathon, but with the time I put in since last Wednesday and keeping mostly to my eating plan I wasn't surprised that I had a loss.  I will say that it felt great to expect a loss and see it show up. 

7/9/14 official weigh in

187.5 lbs

Change: -1.5 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 129.5 lbs

Current BMI: 29.3 (overweight)

Change: -.3

 

      My long run went very well today.  I tried out my new Camelbak Marathoner vest, and to say I was in love by mile one would be an understatement.  I will be posting a full review of it later, but I will say this; it made my run a lot more enjoyable from start to finish.  Without having all that extra weight hanging on my hips I felt like my running form stayed solid throughout my entire run.  As for the run itself, my pace was a little faster than I had scheduled for myself, but I was feeling good and I managed to keep my pace pretty steady throughout.  Obviously my first mile was my fastest, but to see my last two miles almost as fast makes me feel real good about where I am at.

     After my run I was walking back to my house cooling down when I looked down and almost stepped on a little feathered friend.  I couldn't believe that he didn't take off when I got that close.  It is hard to tell from the picture with nothing to gauge his size, but he was small.  He would have fit into the palm of my hand.  I bent down to take a quick picture and he stayed right there.  

     I also wanted to share this other picture I took of my cat Harley after my run today. I thought it was cute, but it also made me think to myself, I'm the one who just ran ten miles what are you so tired for! LOL 

And Here We Go!

     In the words of the Joker played by the late Heath Ledger "And here we go!"  Marathon training has begun.  I can't say how excited I am to start this journey, but I think its a little fitting that I use a quote from the Joker because you have to be a little crazy to pay a fee to run twenty six miles three hundred eighty five yards just for the fun of it.

  

     I am feeling pretty darn good with where I am at right now.  I have had three solid weeks of running with little to no knee pain, I feel like my form is good and I was able to build back a nice base to build off of.  This past week, even though I wasn't running any super long distances, I was able to follow my training plan exactly.  It feels like I have the combination correct, but I won't know for sure until I really start piling on the miles.  I still have to work on keeping my pace as even as possible, I seem to have trouble keeping a steady pace through out each mile.  I always seem to have to make adjustments to keep my pace in check. I also have to remember not to run a faster pace just because I feel good and can.  I have set those paces for a reason and the last thing I want to do is sabotage myself or injure myself because I was greedy and thought its no big deal to run faster on an easy pace day.

     I did pick up a couple of things from runners warehouse this week that should help out.  Where I live, I am surrounded by a lot of farm land so when I am out on my long runs there won't be a lot of places to stop and rehydrate.  I love my  Amphipod Runlite 3 hydration belt, but in the dog days of summer it just doesn't carry enough fluid without me having to refill it.  I don't really want to swing back by the house, because then I will feel like just calling it a day.  I want to be able to just head out and when I arrive back at the house I am done!  So I picked up the Camelbak  Marathoner hydration pak.  I haven't given it a try yet so I don't have a "review" for it, but it holds a whopping 70 oz of fluid and has plenty of pockets for my nutrition and iphone.  It fits pretty darn well on me, but we will see how it all plays out this week on my 10 mile run on Wednesday.

     The other item I picked up was a case of orange flavored Clif Shot Bloks for my during race nutrition.  I am not a big fan of Gu and other gels and when I was at Ragnar we received a few of the shot bloks in various flavors to try.  I ended up really like the orange flavored ones vs. any of the others so that has been my go to item for my fuel.  I first used them in my last half marathon and I seemed to be able to consume them easily on the run with no GI issues.

     That's all for now, I will check back in a couple of days for Wednesday Weigh In.  Bye for now!      

Wednesday Weigh In

7/2/14 official weigh in

189 lbs

Change: +1 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 129 lbs

Current BMI: 29.6 (overweight)

Change:+.2

   

     Well I am not going to bore you with a long drawn out story trying to figure out as to why I gained this week because I know the reason.  As much has we all want to think that just doing the exercise will be enough and the dinner plate can be filled with whatever you want, these last couple of weeks have shown me a couple of things.  One; while trying to lose weight you have to stay pretty strict to your plan.  A saying I heard once I think says it best; you get thin at the dinner table and you get fit at the gym.  So needless to say I really need to get back on track and focus on my diet, shit I only have 16 more pounds till I hit my "goal weight".  Once I get there I will reassess my situation and decide if I need to drop a few more, stay were I am or add a couple back.

    

     Now the seconded thing I learned is once I am at my goal weight and in the so called maintenance period, and as long as I keep running and staying active, I can deviate from my diet a little bit here and there and enjoy some of my old past times.  In moderation of course.  

     With no more family or friends planning any visits in the near future and now that my running is back on a steady track I am looking for a few good weigh ins over the next couple of months.  I would really like to get to 173 before October so that's my summer goal; to lose the last 16 pounds by October. 

     I am skipping talking about my long run today, but it will be part of my marathon training week post that will be out later on, but I did wanna show you all this.  My Facebook was blowing up yesterday while I was at work and when I finally got to see what was going on, to my surprise it had to do with my leg.  Runner's World magazine did an online story showcasing some wonderful running related tattoos on their site.  My friend John, who's kind of a big deal and co-captain of my Ragnar team, found my leg made it into their story and posted it on Facebook.  Now I'll have to send them a pic of my Ragnar tattoo!

MARATHON TRAINING = The Training Plan

     
     Every journey begins with a single step and now that I have my goal, the next question is how am I going to get there, right?  I have spent the better part of the last 4 months reading books, combing the internet and asking countless questions to try and figure that out.  What I have really found is that there in no one plan that was tailor made for me and everyone has their own opinion of what really is the right way to train.  What I ended up doing is taking, what I think, are the best parts of different systems and molding them into a custom made plan for me.  The base of my plan is rooted in the Hal Higdon novice version, but in my mind I didn’t think only one 20 mile run is enough to prepare me for the 26.2, so I went with his intermediate idea of three 20 mile runs.  My friend Thomas, from my Ragnar team, is where this idea came from when I was asking him questions about his 1st marathon.  In my opinion, the most important item I needed to consider was my time available to complete the training.  Wednesdays being my day off will lend itself perfectly for my long runs.  I don’t want to cut into my limited time I have to spend with Mandy each night so for the rest of the week days early morning before work is the only time I can really fit the miles in, and due to time constraints I really need to keep the mileage down on those days.  For the weekends, Saturday is a work day for me so it has the same constraints as weekday so mileage will need to be kept down and Sunday I rotate having to work and work starts a little later in the morning so it seems to be the best fit for my mid length runs.  Cross training is a little up in the air right now as to what I will be doing if any.  I will ease myself into it though, I don’t want to over do it and burn my body out.

     Below you can see my plan as I have it laid out.  (click on the image for an enlarged view)  I don’t want to say this is a fluid plan because I want to stick to it, but as my body reacts I might make some minor tweaks on mileage or which days I run.  I tried my best to keep the other advice I got from my friend Katie, which is not to do two had workouts back to back.

Here is a more detailed laid out of my training plan:

     Sunday - Race Pace: so for this day I will run my first mile and my last mile at my easy 9:45 pace and run all other miles at my 3:59:59 or better marathon pace of 9-9:10 per mile avg.  I also threw in a complete easy pace day every two or three weeks to help curb any chance of over training.

     Monday – Rest Day: No exercise or running of any kind, thank God!

     Tuesday – Easy Pace: so for this day it is just about putting in a few miles at a nice steady easy pace of 9:45-10:15 per mile.  The mileage starts at three and climbs to six during the meat of the training cycle.

     Wednesday – Long Run: here is where it all counts, I start out with a mileage of ten miles and progressively build up to a total of twenty miles.  I throw in a step back day every three weeks where I cut my mileage back to let the body recover.  I have also set this pace at a nice steady 10:15-10:30 per mile avg., because on these runs, speed is not the goal, time on the feet is.  I need to learn and get use to spending multiple hours on my feet, not only for the physical purpose, but the mental as well.

     Thursday – Rest/Cross Training Day: Thursday is primarily a rest day, but if I decide that I want to do some cross training, this would be the day.  If I cross train here is what I am thinking, a few easy miles on the bicycle just to keep the legs moving a little bit.  Planks, push ups, squats and stretching are a few others that will be added as well.  I was thinking yoga, but I don’t know of a good studio around me and I’ll admit it, I am a little scared to.

     Friday – Tempo Run: Now I could totally be misusing this term, but for me it lets me know that I will run a set number of miles at a pace faster then my goal race pace.  For this plan my Tempo pace will be 8:20-8:30 per mile avg. starting at 3 miles and building to a total of 6 miles.  Now I have also given myself some leeway here and decided this could be turned into interval runs if the pace seems to be too much for me at these mile distances.  The goal is to make this my 10K time, because according to the Runners World race pace predictor, a 3:59:59 marathon finisher should be able to run a 10K at that pace.

     Saturday - Easy Pace: this is basically just a carbon copy of Tuesday’s plan.  It gets me a few more miles on the road and running on tired legs from Friday’s run should simulate the later stages of the marathon.  I hope anyway.

     Well that is the plan; I hope my rambling makes sense to you all.  I think I covered everything I wanted to cover, but if I missed anything then I guess it wasn’t that important.  Please feel free to leave any feedback, good or bad, on my plan and my approach to the marathon.  I think the only thing I really didn’t cover was nutrition, and that will be more of an on going experiment to find what works for me.  I think I will have a good handle on that after my first or second 20 mile training run. 

I am an impatient person by nature, so I can’t wait to see how this whole thing plays out for me.  Really, Is it October Yet!!!  

* For quick access to my entire Marathon training journal click the "Marathon Journal" tab just below the Running In The Fat Lane header

Wednesday Weigh In

     Well another week has past and another trip to the scale to see where in this journey I am at.  My weight loss has slowed down the past few weeks for a variety of reasons.  Dealing with an injury and sidelining me from running for three weeks was a big contributor and my eating habits lately has been the other.  It is summer time so grilling out and eating out have increased over my normal routine, and this week was no exception.  Mandy's Father is in town visiting so we have been enjoying summer with grilled steak, Mandy's famous potatoes, a trip to a really good Mexican restaurant and today the world famous Tony Packo's.  I have been able to slowly increase my running mileage which has helped counteract the effects of what I have been putting in my pie hole.  Don't take this as complaining because I am the one choosing what and how much I eat, and the fact I still lost a half pound is fine with me.  All this means is it is taking me a little longer to get to my goal.  With marathon training starting up I am hoping all the miles I will rack up and if I am able to control my food intake I should be right back on track in no time.  

6/25/14 official weigh in

188 lbs

Change: -.5 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 129 lbs

Current BMI: 29.4 (overweight)

Change: -.1

     Today's long run went great and I finally feel like I am back to my old self again.  I can tell I still need a few more miles to feel completely back to where I was, but today was great.  This was the first time I have gone past the 6 mile mark in weeks and my knee did not disappoint.  My father-in-law wanted to go out with me, but only wanted to do 4 miles so he ran the first 2 with me and then turned around and headed back as I kept on going.  It was pretty humid but with the overcast skies and a light breeze it was still bearable.  Looking at my pace breakdown, I accomplished exactly what I wanted to do.  I started off nice and slow; slowly building my pace each mile feeling good and strong all the way through, just in time for the start of marathon training!

    

MARATHON TRAINING = My Goals

     Now that I have chosen which race to run, my next challenge was to establish what my goals are going to be, and believe me that seemed to change daily!  I have read in several places and even heard from close friends that setting a time goal for your first marathon should not be high on my priority list.  The only thing I should be worried about is getting to the finish line.  I can understand where this comes from; it is a daunting task to jump from a 13.1 half to a 26.2 full marathon alone without worrying about what time you will finish in.  For me, I need more of a goal than just saying my goal is to finish, I need a time to strive for.  If I don’t have a time goal I feel like my training will just be all over the place and I won’t be as prepared, plus if I shoot for my goal time and come up short but still finish the race isn't that still a victory anyway?
     
     Based off my last half marathon finish of 1:57:43 the Runners World race predictor is estimating a marathon time of 4:05:26 for me which I feel is totally achievable.  However, with a time so close to breaking the 4 hour mark I might as well set myself up to hit a finishing time of 3:59:59 or better. I don’t feel like that is to unreasonable of a goal and even if I don’t break the 4 hour mark but I still finish the race I didn’t fail anything I did what I set out to do, complete a marathon.  I don’t like to do A,B & C goals as it gives me an out for not reaching my A goal, but in this case with so many unknowns and variables I think it is appropriate.

My Official Goals: 

                            A) Finish the marathon in under 4 hours with a smile 

                            B) Finish the marathon in under 4 hours

                            C) Finish the marathon with a smile

                            D) Just finish 

* For quick access to my entire Marathon training journal click the "Marathon Journal" tab just below the Running In The Fat Lane header

Wednesday Weigh In

     I am sitting here typing this from the parking lot of the Palace of Auburn Hills (just north of Detroit), and why am I writing this from the parking lot, well that's because my wife and her friends are inside the arena watching Bruno Mars perform. I told Mandy I would drive them up here so they could enjoy themselves and not have to deal with the traffic, so I brought my computer and kicked my feet up and started typing.  I won't be able to post this till tomorrow, because I won't be getting home till probably 1am and I have no internet right now, so enjoy Wednesday Weigh In on Thursday!

     
     This week was not to bad for me when it comes to my calorie intake, but not every day was a good day. Sunday Mandy wanted to go for a bike ride and we both wanted to get something to eat. I really don't know why but I was really craving pizza so I decided we would try this small place in Marblehead, Bruno's Pizzeria . I have to say it was pretty damn good. Traditional hand tossed pizza with plenty of toppings available to choose from; all the ingredients tasted fresh and they had excellent fast service as well. We will defiantly be going back the next time I need a a pizza fix.
 

     Having said all that, I didn't have a big loss this week but another pound lost is a plus for me. What will be interesting to me is how my marathon training will effect my weight loss. I have read that some people actually gain weight while training. I wonder if it is because they are running so many miles that they think I can eat whatever I want or they are building muscle and getting stronger which contributes to the weight gain. I will just take it one day at a time and one week at a time, and keep an eye on my calorie intake and make adjustments as needed. For this past week anyway, here are the numbers...

6/18/14 official weigh in

188.5 lbs

Change: -1 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 128.5 lbs

Current BMI: 29.5 (overweight)

Change: -.1

      

     Today’s long run was extremely short in comparison to what I will be doing here soon, but I am still building myself up slowly from my knee issue I have been having.  I am happy to say today I had no pain whatsoever.  I kept my avg. pace around a 10 min mile and this time did everything I could to run relaxed and not focus my attention on my knee waiting for the pain to kick in.  The weather wasn’t too bad; it was mostly overcast with a light breeze and a temp in the low 80s, and the humidity was defiantly noticeable but not horrible.  Next week is my last “rehab” week before I start my marathon training so I have been trying to ramp up my miles and my pace a little bit so I will be ready to go.

      
Well I better pack it up, the concert should be over soon and I have a long rainy drive back home!