I've tended to cross train and work the core Thursdays and Saturdays meaning yesterday was the first planned session this week and illness last week and a mix of illness and work the week before meant none were completed then.
It proved pretty satisfactory though. I did 30 minutes on the cross trainer at a fairly easy 'recovery' pace followed by the 20 exercises and stretches in my routine. I was pleased with how they went, in particular things like the single leg squat where there appeared to be no loss of strength/stability. There was just one exercise where I felt the glute mede on the left wasn't firing as well as it might, but I'd expect that to improve in the coming weeks.
Diet wise broadly on track. I say broadly because in the evening I went over target by 3 rich tea biscuits, a slice of wholemeal bread and a smear of spread. However, that still left me way under maintenance and I'm not sure how accurate the allowance was as WLR's estimates for the cross trainer seem miserly. My guess is that you could increase them by 50% to be accurate, which would leave me about on target for yesterday.
The scales agree:
- 14/02 171.8lb 18.5% BF
- 15/02 169.0lb 17.7% BF
- 16/02 169.4lb 17.7% BF
- 17/02 167.4lb 17.2% BF
- 18/02 167.2lb 17.1% BF
As I have geeky, statto tendencies I have all that logged in a spread sheet so I can track daily changes, overall changes and even total and daily loss of fat. From that, I was pleased to note that yesterday's loss was, apparently, entirely fat.
Interestingly, I was reading a couple of articles yesterday on the effects of weight loss on running performance that gave a rule of thumb that a 1% reduction in weight would lead to a 1% reduction in race times. If that were accurate, my dropping to 11st would knock over 15 minutes off the marathon time. At the very least though, that is dependent on the lion's share of the loss being in the form of fat rather than lean tissue and that's why I'm monitoring the composition of the loss.
Other point is that I'm relying on the weight loss to make 3:30 achievable rather than to reduce the target to 3:15. I'll make a definitive plan for time in the week before but my loose plan at this stage is to aim for something like 3:28 to give me a touch of breathing space. Don't know though, that could all change (up or down) depending on how the next few weeks go.
5 comments:
Thanks for the link to the article Rob. Like you, I'm also trying to shift some fat in the hope of finally getting a good time in my next marathon. Sadly, I'm pursuing a sub 4:30 goal rather than your speedy time :) x
Thanks for the links. It's the perennial problem of the runner eh. How to eat for muscle and endurance, whilst at the same time shifting fat. If I ever find an answer I'll let you know. As it is, I just seem to be gaining weight at the moment!
:) Thanks Manj. When is your next marathon?
Aslison - maybe you're finding what I'm losing?
(Yes I am feeling a smug b'stard today...though that might change when I have to do the scheduled 8.5 mile tempo run...).
I'm going to read those articles right now. Thanks for the links.
I know my times suffer when I'm carrying too much weight as I am now: I seem to be in the same dilemma as Alison. Whoever decided that running automatically made you thin obviously didn't do their research.
London, a week after yours. Am trying to hard to shift a stone before then, maybe possible maybe not. I've printed off those articles and will have a read through tonight.
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