Changing Up on the Calorie Front

As I enter week 3 of this Half Marathon training program, I’m getting pretty tired of my clothes fitting a lot tighter than they did a year ago.

In the past, I wrote a blog review of an app on my iPhone: LoseIt! Well, after the using it for some time, I’m finding that the weight loss that I’m looking for just isn’t happening. This can only be for three reasons:

1. I’m not tracking *everything* that I’m eating: Counting calories requires attention to minute details. That extra cookie could be 150 calories! And yes – guilty as charged.
2. I’m not able to track everything I’m eating: This is usually due to an incomplete food database in your calorie counting app.
3. My BMR is lower than what my tracking app calculates

I really really need to start dropping some of the major poundage that I have put on in the last year. To get things back on track, I’m going to change up my calorie counting regimen. Here’s what I’m doing:

1. I’m changing to MyFitnessPal. The food database seems to be more complete than LoseIt (at least based on what I eat). And,  my calculation of my BMR is a full 200 calories lower in MyFitnessPal that LoseIt. Not to mention, it’s never my fault, right?
2. I will be tracking *everything* that I’m eating. Period.

My goal is to drop 30 pound by the end of the year. That’s about a pound a week. About 3500 calories less to eat. Keep the carrot cake and casino buffets away!!!!

Speaking of burning calories – I ramp up by a couple miles this week:

• Monday: Scheduled rest.
• Tuesday: 3.5 easy miles
• Wednesday: 2  miles
• Thursday: 3.5 easy miles
• Friday: Scheduled rest
• Saturday: 5 miles
• Sunday: Erg 35 minutes
• Total: 14 miles plus rowing

In the Dumps

I can’t say anything more.On Saturday I decided to give the trails a short tryout. 3.5 miles or thereabouts. Slower than 14:00 per mile. And by Saturday night my right knee was in a ton of pain and discomfort. I tried to head out mid afternoon Sunday, but was unable to make it more than a few dozen yards before the pain had me throwing in the towel. This does not bode well for my next few planned races. If I can’t do a couple trail miles without pain, how do I tackle 10?

I supposed there’s always a silver lining. From Cool Running:

“The pain often feels worst when running downhill or walking down stairs, and the knee is often stiff and sore after sitting down for long periods. You might hear a crunching or clicking sound when you bend or extend your knee.”

Yup.

“How did your knee get off track? Probably because of relatively weak thigh muscles and a lack of foot support. It's your thigh muscles that hold your kneecap in place, preventing it from trying to jump its track. Running tends to develop the back thigh muscles (hamstrings) more than those in the front (the quadriceps), and the imbalance is sometimes enough to allow the kneecap to pull and twist to the side.”

Okay. How do I fix it?

“Quadriceps
(To treat and prevent runner's knee)

Standing Leg Lifts
Stand with your back against the wall. Lift one leg up as high as you can with the knee straight. Hold for five seconds, then bend your knee to relax, hold for five seconds. Straighten your leg again, and do five of these before switching to the other leg. Over time, see if you can build up to ten seconds.

Foot Turns
Lie down or sit in a chair and stretch both legs out, knees straight and feet pointed up toward the knees. Tighten your thigh muscles and turn your feet out as far as you can, holding for ten seconds. Now turn your feet in as far as you can and hold for ten seconds, keeping your thigh muscles tight for the entire exercise. Do three of these sets.

Foot Press
Either sitting or lying down, put one foot on top of the other and pull up with your lower foot as you push down with the upper foot. Hold that for ten seconds, and then switch feet and repeat. Try five sets of these.”

Which means there is hope. And I should count my blessings that it’s a whole lot better that some of my blogging/running buddies with legitimate injuries.

On tap for this week:

• Monday: Scheduled rest day. I’m going to give my knee one more day of rest. (It’s feeling much better today).
• Tuesday: 5 easy miles. Quad exercises. Core exercises.
• Wednesday: 3 easy miles.
• Thursday: 5 easy miles. Quad exercises. Core exercises.
• Friday: Scheduled rest day.
• Saturday: Schedule calls for 10 miles. I will reassess on Saturday morning. At any rate, if I’m physically okay, I’ll put in at least 6 miles.
• Sunday: 3 easy miles. I’ll need to try the trails again. If this goes better than this past Saturday, then I’ll do my race the following weekend. If not – anyone want a bib to the Crystal Cove Xterra 17K?

Week 3 on the Way

I need to apologize for my infrequent posting these days. Several things are going on with life that are taking my time and attention away from some of the fun things in life. Oh well. Since I can;t say that I make a living out of running, I guess I’ll just have to grin and bear it.

This week starts week 3 of my journey to the Long Beach Half:

• Monday: Rest day
• Tuesday: 8 X 400, mile warm up, mile cool down for 6 miles total
• Wednesday: 3 miles easy
• Thursday: 40 minute tempo
• Friday: Rest day
• Saturday: 9 mile aerobic
• Sunday: 3 miles easy
• Total: 25 miles

I would like to pump the mileage up a bit, but with everything else going on I’m having trouble finding the time to execute the plan, much less add more to it. In fact, last week there were a couple days I didn’t get in, so I finished up with a rather anemic 18 miles on my feet.

Off to make good with life challenges!

Row row row my not boat

That’s the best way I can describe yesterday. I had some plans in the evening, so I hurriedly got up on my ergometer (my not boat) when I got home and did a 30 minute program consisting of 6 sets of 4 minutes on, 1 minute rest, 16-18 strokes per minute (slow and strong – a real strength building set). Total distance rowed was 5500 meters (about 3.5 miles). I should have gone 3 more sets for 45 minutes total, but I’m experiencing some knee tendonitis (old high school injury) that I seemed to have aggravated with my traipsing through the hills on Sunday. So, I decided to take it easy (a little) and shut it down early.

Speaking of shutting down early, my lack of planning for Saturday left me a couple miles short of plan last week – 29.5 miles (5.5 miles rowed, 24 miles run) instead of the planned 33. I did get in my two days of resistance training though, so all is not lost.

This week is more of the same:

• Monday: Row. 45 minutes/5 miles.
• Tuesday: Intervals at the track with Cal Coast. Around 5 miles total.
• Wednesday: 6 mile easy run.
• Thursday: 3 mile run. Resistance training consisting of three sets of Lying Hip Abduction, Cook Hip Lift, Kneeling Overhead Draw In, Knee Fall Out, Squat Jump
• Friday: Rest day.
• Saturday: This is a step back week, so 8 miles easy.
• Sunday: 6 pace miles. Resistance training consisting of three sets of Lying Hip Abduction, Cook Hip Lift, Kneeling Overhead Draw In, Knee Fall Out, Broad Jump
• Total planned miles: 33

Other than my knee, all systems are go. I’m feeling good for the first time in several weeks. And for my knee – it’s nothing that a little ibuprofen won’t cure.

Week 2 Wrap Up

Week 2 wrapped with a 4 mile recovery run. I finally made it to the gym last night for some stretching and core work. Final stats for the week: 33.3 miles running, 7.6 miles rowing. I need to mention two other items of note. This past week I've been really fatigued. I've also been having trouble sleeping well at night. These are some classic signs of over training.

I'll keep an eye out and probably slow myself down this week. I'm only demonstrating two of the seven classic signs of over training. Other signs include increased resting heart rate, frequent colds, weight loss, impaired racing and training times, slow recovery from training, and a loss of enthusiasm for running. So far I haven't seen any of those (although I wouldn't mind the weight loss), so I'm not too concerned *yet*.

Plan for this week is another step up in the mileage column:

Monday: Rest day/cross train (probably going out for a hike)
Tuesday: 8 miles (4 mile GA, 4 mi HMP (Half Marathon Pace))
Wednesday: 4 mile recovery, gym for stretching and core
Thursday: 8 miles GA
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 13 mile long run
Sunday: 4 mile recovery

Total miles: 37. Whew!

Week 3 Done!

So - third week on this training cycle is done. Went out on a 4 mile recovery run late yesterday. It lived up to my expectations - steady but slow. I was still sore and physically tired from Saturday's 12 miler, so I wasn't expecting an earth shattering run. I did a normal two mile out and back along the Newport Back Bay. I managed to keep my heart rate down (72% of max, 133 bpm) which is all I was really targeting. I was going to hit the gym for some stretching and core work. But, I got a late start on my run (isn't daylight savings great?), so by the time I got to the gym, it was going to be an 8 PM finish. I decided to pass on the gym and get some dinner instead.

So - that wrapped up week 3. Ended up at 35 miles for the week. Whew - back to back 30+mile weeks. I'm a little sore here and there, but otherwise doing okay. On tap this week is a couple mile rollback - 32.5 miles:

Monday - 4 mile easy run; stretching and core work
Tuesday - 7 miles - intervals
Wednesday - 4 mile recovery run; stretching and core work
Thursday - 45 minute tempo
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 9 mile 3/1 run
Sunday - 4 miles at HMP; stretching and core work

Onward to week 4!