My plan is to get a daily nutrition plan this week, and stick to it next week. See if I can drop 1 - 1.5 lbs per week between now and my marathon. Now it's time for some fun with FitDay to guess at my caloric intake needs and protein/carb/fat distribution.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Fat
Yesterday I had the gym measure my body fat. 13.5%. Last winter a personal trainer measured with those calibers and said it was 7%, and one of the $200 weight scales at a marathon expo said I was 10%. At that time, I think I was 8 lbs heavier. Odly enough, if 13.5% is accurate, I'm more relieved than bummed. Just a little relieved... everyone wants to have a low body fat, right? However, what this means is that I have rooom to lose weight without looking like I'm malnutritioned! I'm only 5'7.5" and weigh 167. That's officially a BMI of "fat." My guess is there are not a lot of sub 3 hour marathoners carrying that much weight on such short legs.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Pensacola Race Report
When I asked Paul if it was a bad idea to do a marathon instead of 22 miles as part of my marathon training, he said it was a great idea if I ran the right pace. Of course Paul is the race director, so obviously he said to run it. My goal pace for my A race 7:10, so I asked if I could run 8:00's to get a PR. He said no, more like 8:30. I laid in bed the night before the race wondering what pace I should go out at. 8:20 is the number that I settled on before falling asleep.
Since it was a local race, there were lots of people there that I knew. At the starting line I ran into Steve, Ty, Ron, and Mark. The one person that I didn't see was Eamen. He was the person that was going to run close to my pace.
The first 2 miles I felt like I was shuffling but my Garmin said I was going too fast (7:52 and 7:45), which I thought was fine. I'd rather look down and see that I need to slow down then look down and see I need to speed up. Soon I saw Christine, whom I've seen a few times at the morning group runs. She was running the half. We chatted a little, and I found out she was doing the Flying Pig Marathon in May. The Flying Pig is the only marathon I've done, so I told her what I thought of the course and my experience. We didn't talk about much else before seperating.
The next few miles were consistant and I felt great. 7:51, 8:05, 8:06, 7:58, 7:53, 7:51, 7:57, 7:51, 7:56. My ave HR never went over 148 for the mile splits. With about 1 mile to go before the half marathon finish, I saw Suzanne at the bottom of the hill. I let myself speed up on the downhill to catch her. Her husband (Ty) had a goal of running under 3:30, which would put him right around where we were, but she said he was up ahead somewhere.
Shortly after the halfway point I grabbed 2nd gel. Usually I can stomach 3-4 before getting sick of them, but the 2nd one did it for me today. The idea was 3 gels and water, but I took Heed instead of the 3rd gel. Next long run I'm going to try sports beans or the gummy things. I can't have my stomach feeling upset during a race.
Mile 15 or so I caught Ty. He was on pace for a sub 3:30. Excellent considering his first marathon was 4 months ago, and I think it was a 4:45. I let him know I was there, but I didn't want to try to have a conversation with someone working on getting a PR. He dropped back a bit and I continued my 8 min/mile pace.
Then I went past the 23 mile marker. There must be something about that mile, because it's where I slowed down in my other marathon. For 23 miles, I felt fine. In fact, I felt like I was holding back. All the sudden my feet hurt, my ankles hurt, my muscles were sore, and my legs were heavy. Mile 24 was 8:54. Next mile was 9:59, including some walking, then the last mile was 8:57.
Finished in 3:32:17. 12 seconds slower than my other marathon. I wasn't bummed about missing a PR, but I was bummed that the end of the race hurt so much. It was supposed to be easy. Aemen finished in 3:45, which would would of been a much better pace for em.
Here is all the data from my Garmin on the race:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7633144
Since it was a local race, there were lots of people there that I knew. At the starting line I ran into Steve, Ty, Ron, and Mark. The one person that I didn't see was Eamen. He was the person that was going to run close to my pace.
The first 2 miles I felt like I was shuffling but my Garmin said I was going too fast (7:52 and 7:45), which I thought was fine. I'd rather look down and see that I need to slow down then look down and see I need to speed up. Soon I saw Christine, whom I've seen a few times at the morning group runs. She was running the half. We chatted a little, and I found out she was doing the Flying Pig Marathon in May. The Flying Pig is the only marathon I've done, so I told her what I thought of the course and my experience. We didn't talk about much else before seperating.
The next few miles were consistant and I felt great. 7:51, 8:05, 8:06, 7:58, 7:53, 7:51, 7:57, 7:51, 7:56. My ave HR never went over 148 for the mile splits. With about 1 mile to go before the half marathon finish, I saw Suzanne at the bottom of the hill. I let myself speed up on the downhill to catch her. Her husband (Ty) had a goal of running under 3:30, which would put him right around where we were, but she said he was up ahead somewhere.
Shortly after the halfway point I grabbed 2nd gel. Usually I can stomach 3-4 before getting sick of them, but the 2nd one did it for me today. The idea was 3 gels and water, but I took Heed instead of the 3rd gel. Next long run I'm going to try sports beans or the gummy things. I can't have my stomach feeling upset during a race.
Mile 15 or so I caught Ty. He was on pace for a sub 3:30. Excellent considering his first marathon was 4 months ago, and I think it was a 4:45. I let him know I was there, but I didn't want to try to have a conversation with someone working on getting a PR. He dropped back a bit and I continued my 8 min/mile pace.
Then I went past the 23 mile marker. There must be something about that mile, because it's where I slowed down in my other marathon. For 23 miles, I felt fine. In fact, I felt like I was holding back. All the sudden my feet hurt, my ankles hurt, my muscles were sore, and my legs were heavy. Mile 24 was 8:54. Next mile was 9:59, including some walking, then the last mile was 8:57.
Finished in 3:32:17. 12 seconds slower than my other marathon. I wasn't bummed about missing a PR, but I was bummed that the end of the race hurt so much. It was supposed to be easy. Aemen finished in 3:45, which would would of been a much better pace for em.
Here is all the data from my Garmin on the race:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7633144
Thursday, February 12, 2009
cause or effect?
This morning I felt great after my morning run. It got me thinking... I try to justify the days that I don't exercise by telling myself I'm feeling overtrained. What else could be the reason for feeling so lethargic? Well, I think the lack of energy could be from skipping a session. Sometimes people "listen" by only hearing what they want to hear. The same is true when it comes to listening to your body.
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