So there are two major things going on in my life right now, and running is taking a back-seat to that. I expect my weeks to be mostly fake-zeros with a weekend long run until things settle down.
Here's photos of everything I eat: http://instagram.com/stevetursi
Weight loss contest update (I am in two weight-loss contests right now.)
* Lifetime Fitness 90-Day challenge:
I missed the March 25 weigh-in, but I was plateauing anyway and wouldn't have done great. As of March 26 (according to my March 17 weigh-in), my bodyfat is down 20%, which is second place in the Montvale NJ club but still not in the top 100 nationally.
* Hertz "thinner winner" employee weight loss contest:
My score, -11.87%, put me past Piff-Looger and I am over one percent over his 10.8%. He's has dropped to fourth place. But I'm still not in first - some guy in our OKC office came out of nowhere and is 0.33% over me, so I'm still in second out of 480 (first loser.) This is as of the weigh-in on March 7 - but the results weren't posted until March 25th (which is why this blog post is delayed). On March 20th I weighed in again and had a great result - putting me at almost 15% loss.
Daily log..
Wednesday March 12
I tried to make it to the Lifetime CRT class at 5:30 but I couldn't get out of work on time.. so instead I went to the hertz gym and ran 3.01 miles on the treadmill.. in 23:58. Big weight loss today: 272.8 - Down 2½lbs since yesterday.
Thursday March 13
Another winner of a weight loss day. 271.2. 4lbs in 2 days. Wouldn't it be great if every day was like that? That'd be 14lbs/week! I'm just worried about the next plateau and when that's going to happen and how long it'll last.
My run today - 2 miles in 22:38 on the treadmill - was blah. Not feeling a ton of energy.
Pi Day Friday March 14
Lunchtime run with Ami. For some reason we were in a hurry today and ran 2.45 miles at 8:46 pace, and ran the last quarter at about 7:30.
Saturday March 15
6 laps (18 miles) at Rockland Lake with Ami in 3:13. Felt strong for the middle 4 laps, and not so strong in the first and last laps. Had a protein-eggs-blackcoffee shake prior to the run, and zero calories during the run, so this was a good sign of fat adaptation occurring, albeit more slowly than I'd prefer.
Sunday March 16
Crummy day at bowling (134/142/168-444) followed by 5+ laps at the Mahwah High School track.
St. Patricks Day Monday March 17
Broke another treadmill at the office gym, after a mere 7 minutes at about 8 minutes per mile. Not happy. Was on track for another sub-24 5K. I went outside, in 24ºF weather, in my shorts and t-shirt, and ran 2.36 more miles in 20:33.
There was a special at the bowling alley tonight, and I went by myself and played ten games for practice. My scores were 129-118-122-157-168-166-129-231-205-139. Turns out I just need 7 games to warm up.
Tuesday March 18
Lifetime run group, and since there wasn't anyone slow to run with, I ran up front with the fast guys - and they actually couldn't keep up with me! One of them said to me, "I thought you were big and slow!" That was gratifying.
Wednesday March 19
Things are about to get really busy for a week. The daily run is just something that I need to do alongside all the other things I need to do. Today, I ran on the treadmill for ten minutes before taking an hour long group exercise class.
Thursday March 20
Easy 2.7 mile loop around the block in 26 minutes with Ami
Friday March 21
Afternoon short loop around the neighborhood near Joey's school at dusk. 1.2 miles.
Saturday March 22
Conveniently, we had a planned light weekend between last Saturday's 18 miles and next Saturday's planned 21. I would have liked to do 12 today, but it turns out that I did half that. Ran with the lifetime group, where we did 6.5 miles in 57 minutes. This was a tough run for me, especially with the hills!
Ran with the tri club for the the first time in a couple of months, where I managed to keep up with the front-runners at 8:30 or so for 4 miles before peeling off and relaxing for the last mile or so back to the car, then home to go back to work.
That afternoon, at bowling, I shot much better this week. In fact, I have a new high game and tied my high series. - 162-194-246 for a 602 series. Here's how that big game went:
Monday March 24
Joey had his first lacrosse practice today, and that means track season has started for me. I get to do a workout on the track around the field he practices on. And today, I decided that I'd finally do an outdoor 5K to see how I do when not on the hamster wheel. And an hour before the run, I did something that I hadn't done since early February.
 |
| Rocket Fuel? |
The result: I ran 24:37, 70 seconds faster than my 5K PR set in 2011. This is not surprising - I am lighter, in better shape, and this was on a flat accurately-measured track, and that 5K was on hilly roads with a bit of trail thrown in. The rice? It is an interesting experiment, and I was hoping the answer would be obvious. But the problem with this experiment is that I had no control. If I had been thinking, I would have run the 5K on the diet that I've been working on for the last couple of weeks, and then going back later and running it again on the rice. And there are so many independent factors (such as weather - it was about 32ºF at this run) that I'd have to repeat it a bunch of times and average out the results. But my hunch is that the rice did NOT give me a significant performance increase. I'm fairly certain I could have broken 25 on my low-calorie diet.
The track (at Suffern Middle School) has a 5000m start line measured, 200m from the finish line. This gave me a convenient and easy way to verify that I was on track to meet my 25-minute goal - run each of the 25 half-laps in a minute or less, which I did. My slowest half-lap was 1:00.5.
By the way, I jogged 5 laps before the run to warm up. And the rice was upsetting my stomach.
Tuesday March 25
I ran for ten minutes on the treadmill (fast - 1.3 miles), before doing a few sets barbell squats at lunch, then I sat in the steam room.
