Aug 31
2009

I did about 6 months of calorie counting, mostly focused during ramping up my mileage for my best marathon time ever (by at least 50 minutes).  I had intense focus on both training and diet (at least calorie intake) during this time.

However, I never regained momentum after the May marathon, as you may notice in the Net Calorie Intake log.

That said, it was a very effective way of learning how many calories were *really* in certain foods, as well as estimating which food choices were the best choices when you didn’t have a calorie count/guide at your disposal.

The spreadsheet breakdown:

Baseline:

  • Basal metabolic rate – estimated at 13 x current weight.

The “net intake” is the:

  • Total calorie intake for the day
  • - Calories burned running (I used runningahead.com‘s numbers for my post workout weight x mileage, which were the most conservative estimates of calories burned.)
  • - Basal metabolic rate (post-workout weight x 13 calories)

My target for “net intake” was a net deficit of 500 calories.  As you can see, I went overboard early on, but eating caught up later on.  If you notice the “averages” line, I averaged about a 476 calorie deficit.

The “intake” number is the:

  • Total calorie intake for the day
  • - Calories burned running

You’ll notice that I didn’t count any other exercise.  There are two reasons for this:

  1. Calories burned directly during non-aerobic exercise are negligible (at least for calorie counting purposes).  You may burn 200 calories doing weights, etc…, but you’ll probably get that much error in a too generous portion at a restaurant as well.  I tried to keep a good estimate.
  2. I didn’t really do any other exercises other than running.  Cycling and elliptical machines give wildly varied calorie readings, and I always felt more of a workout from 1-2 miles of running than an hour of hard cycling.

I have to emphasize, this was a time of incredible focus for me, but the log itself was not sustainable for even my statistics-minded head.  I also need to point out that the calorie need calculations are from the over-simplified 13 x weight in lbs formula.

I’ll share some other insights into my “calculations” and what I learned about nutrition during and after this exercise.

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Aug 28
2009

…instead of a death-defying run back-and-forth between our two campuses (9.2 miles).  Bummer.

In fairness, the only death-defying parts of the run were the crossings (at between 9am and 3pm) of Poplar Level Rd @ Jefferson, Fern Valley Rd @ Jefferson, Outer Loop in front of Jefferson Mall, Preston Hwy near Manslick, and crossing/running along the entrance and exit ramps to the Snyder @ Preston.  Ok, so those crossings could be pretty harrowing.

In its place, my team will be running (others may be walking) on this puppy (sans TV):

966i_1

4 teams of runners or walkers will be spending 2 consecutive 12 hour days on the treadmill, relay-style.  Given my experience running 20 MILE LONG RUNS on the treadmill, I ought to be good for a 4-6 hour contribution of the two days, October 1 and 2.

More details to follow…

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Aug 15
2009

View from the lookout

View from the Iroquois Hill Lookout toward St Mary's and Elizabeth hospital

Today was  a beautiful day.  My parents watched the kids while I ran my long run from their house to Iroquois Park, around, up the hill…  no time pressure.  Limited traffic to deal with for that time of day too.  (My usual long run follows Taylorsville Rd, Hurstbourne Pkwy, Billtown Rd, and Bardstown Rd, crossing Billtown and Taylorsville Rds twice. I’d happily do a run like this for 20+ miles at whatever pace my body had in me–I think my occasional feelings of burnout from running have to do more with time constraints and treadmills that actual mileage put in.

Don’t get me wrong, a week after running my first 70 mile week (in 6 days instead of the usual 7), I ran 56 this week and the runs at the end of the week hurt, including today’s. However, the minor pain was worth the enjoyment of the run itself. I’ve been treadmill bound this week and most of last week. Getting out in the park or a nice marathon course is pretty much what I put up with all the other runs for.

Check out the crazy elevation profile:

I thought my pace was suffering quite a bit more than it did. Not happy with floating so close to 10 minute pace, but despite how I felt and how warm it was, I only went over 10 minutes once:
RunningAHEAD – Strings_n_88keys’s log: View Workout.

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Aug 3
2009

Ok, clarification…  the help I seek is with my plan, not with my sanity.

Working on a 70-mile week, goal marathon 11/8.

[Training log summary]

Should I push through to 80 miles over the next 4 weeks or down to the 50-60 mile range and work on pacing?  Currently, my easy runs are in the mid-upper 9s, but with rest days, probably would be in the mid-8s.

Any thoughts?

My best marathon performance ever (by 50 minutes) was on a 6/12/18 week average of a 45/46/47 miles.  Current stats on my 6/12/18 week averages are 56/49/40 miles.  That PR marathon was on a ramp up to 60 through February 17th, with races of 5k/10k/10Mile/half in between then and a May 4th marathon.



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Aug 1
2009

I guess it’s a good sign that I could finish a long run with any legs at all given that I’ve run my first back-to-back 60+ mile weeks ever.  I just hate feeling like my legs are dead on a training run. I did, however, manage a first half/second half negative split yet again. Of course, this probably means that I need a 2 mile warm-up for my marathons now–my legs don’t get moving until after the first mile.

Hopefully, I’ve strung together a nice, steady, mileage buildup:

weeklysincebeginning2008

For those of you in the Louisvile area–yes, you can run along Hurstbourne Pkwy and Taylorville Rd:



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