Day 148

I waited until early afternoon to run as it was in the high 20s when I woke up. Glad I waited, it was spectacular...high 40s and sunny with very little wind. Ended up going an easy 4.5 miles. Also had my best eating day in a long while.


Breakfast: Usual-534 cals

Lunch: Grilled chicken breast, rice a roni, green beans-452 cals

Dinner: Same as lunch-516 cals

Snacks: Popcorn, half slice of pizza, skinny cow-524 cals

Totals: 2026 cals, 154g protein

Running
Mile 1 11:05
Mile 2 11:06
Mile 3 11:00
Mile 4 11:10
Mile 4.5 10:54/pace

staying under 2200 for a week is fine of course, but i think it's slightly too low longterm (for the moment). 2000 kcal a day on average while running 30+ miles won't be sustainable for a 235lbs guy (and even if it is, it's probably suboptimal --> too much muscle loss, too much loose skin etc)
sure, if you just want to do it for a week (to prove yourself that you can do it and to focus on what you eat), that's of course completely unproblematic. and if you binge regularly, sure, eat 2000kcal on your other days. but as an average, i'd aim for ~2500 at the moment (as long as you keep up the running).

great job on your runs so far this year!

Tron,

I'm doing a 10K race this Saturday....there's another race on the 23rd that has a 5K or 10K. I wanna do both...should I skip the tougher Wednesday workouts these weeks?

it depends on what your goal is. either you can "train through a race", meaning you don't change anything really (maybe do a 1-2 day mini-taper), or you can really focus on the race and prepare optimally for this single race. the downside of "optimally preparing" is of course that if you race as much as you do (/plan to do), you don't really have any real training time left because you are either tapering for the race or recovering from the race (of course that's a slight exageration, but you get the idea). the upside of optimal preparation is that you'll be slightly faster than without the taper. so if you want to focus on long term goal: it's more important to train optimally. if you want to focus on short term goal (aka reducing my PR as much as possible in every single race): it's more important to race optimally.

personally, i would pick your 2 most important races of the first half of 2016 and really focus on them (probably the 15k and a half marathon, right?). taper properly and try to really be in the absolutely best possible shape then for those two races.
BUT for all the other races: train through them. just train normally in the week leading up to the race. so in your specific case: do the hard workout on wednesday, do a recovery run on thursday, rest day on friday, race on saturday. (long) run on sunday. and on to the next week. (at least as long as your body feels fine; that's quite a tough program). depending on the race, it also can make sense to switch the weekly setup around a little bit. for example: if you do a 5k race, that is more or less the same as a (too) hard tempo run. so you can for example exchange the workout with the race and do a long run on wednesday, the 5k race on saturday and then an easy recovery run on sunday (instead of race on saturday and long run on sunday). or if you do a 15k race on the weekend: just treat this as your long run (so DON'T do the 15k race on saturday and a long run on sunday). just switch the workouts around if needed so that it makes sense...

hope that helps.

Thanks that is a big help...I'll just train as normal for the shorter runs and try to peak for the 2 longer races. I think with the way I've been improving I'll still be able to set PR's. Did another easy 4.5 today, gonna do an interval run tomorrow then I planned on playing golf thursday. Gonna take thursday and Friday off and be rested for Saturday.

Day 149

Another great weather day...easy 4.5 miles. I'm gonna do an interval run tomorrow then two days off before race day on Saturday.


Breakfast: Usual-587 cals

Lunch: Grilled chicken breast, rice a roni, green beans-637 cals

Dinner: Taco Tuesday! One hard, one soft w/ cheese-377 cals

Snacks: Popcorn, Fritos honey BBQ twists, skinny cow-625 cals

Totals: 2225 cals, 138g protein

Running
Mile 1 10:58
Mile 2 10:55
Mile 3 11:15
Mile 4 11:09
Mile 4.5 10:54/pace

Day 150

Interval run...perfect weather, high 40s with very little wind. Did a one mile warm up and cool down with 4 half-mile intervals in between. I was a few seconds faster than last month and felt good although the last one was really tough! Off day tomorrow and Friday...going golfing in the morning,


Breakfast: Usual-540 cals

Lunch: Bacon, scrambled eggs w/ cheese, grits-627 cals

Dinner: Grilled pork chops, pasta noodles, sweet peas-791 cals

Snacks: 2 Skinny cow-300 cals

Totals: 2259 cals, 150g protein

Running
Mile 1 10:59
Intervals
4:05
4:03
4:04
4:08
Mile 4 11:30

Have you ever tried tapering off your calories for your meals instead of eating the 'usual breakfast' (no idea anymore what that is for you) then increasing your calories per meal throughout the day?

My usual breakfast is Special K protein flakes with 1% milk. Never tried the tapering...I'll check out the link though! Have you tried it?

Yes, that is my general plan each day, when pre-planning my meals for the nest day, for the past 6 months or so. I first heard about the idea on a health channel while in the doctors office waiting for my annual blood work results and it (along with eating at a deficit obv) helped me to drop the last 15 or so pounds to get down to my final goal weight. It also seems to help to reduce snacks/cravings between meals for me.

Day 151

Off day...played golf, hit a few good shots but playing 6-8 times a year and never practicing isn't enough to play as good as I used to.


Breakfast: BK sausage egg & cheese Crissanwich, small hash browns-760 cals

Lunch: Grilled chicken sandwich w/ bacon, swiss, fried egg-735 cals

Dinner: Baked fish, red potatoes, corn-673 cals

Snacks: Skinny cow-150 cals

Totals: 2318 cals, 143g protein

Friday morning weigh in

235.4

Week 1 -2.0 lbs
Week 2 -1.4 lbs

Total -3.4/50 (6.8%)

Total mileage:
Week 1 26.0
Week 2 28.5

Total 54.5/1300 (4.2%)

I'm very motivated right now...lots of races coming up the next few months!

That's great to hear. Think about those races every time you run, and think about how great it will be cross the finish line in a great time because you put the hours in training. I always picture the 4-5 guys in my club that are currently faster than me and spend the miles thinking about how awesome it will be to beat them one day

I had a quick skim through and couldn't see.... what are the races you're specifically training for now?

Doing a 10K close to the beach tomorrow, possibly a 5K next Saturday the 23rd. Best race of the season is the 15K double bridge run on Feb 13th, then a 10K on March 5th and a HM March 19th!

Nice, sounds good. The 10k and HM are fairly close together so you are going to take it a bit easier on the 10k or just go for it?

Meh they're 2 weeks apart so I'll go for it and make that my last tough run before the HM. The 10K course is pretty challenging, lots and lots of hills even though it's Florida.

Day 152

Another off day from running...took a sub teaching job which really screwed up my eating schedule. I've gotten used to sleeping late, going running around 11 am and eating breakfast after. Today I had already eaten breakfast and lunch before 11. Ended up having an extra bowl of cereal around 4 so I went a bit over. Race day Saturday!! Aiming for 58:00 or less, 9:20 pace...


Breakfast: Usual-525 cals

Lunch: Grilled pork chop, rice a roni-693 cals

Dinner: Applebee's bourbon street chicken and shrimp w/ red potatoes, boneless wing appetizer (half order)-1080 cals

Snacks: Special K protein flakes, 1% milk-480 cals

Totals: 2778 cals, 135g protein

Just finished...GPS shows a time of 58:52 but 6.38 miles and 9:14 pace. Had a side stitch from the end of mile 2 til halfway thru mile 5...I never get those! After it went away I smoked mile 6 in 8:54!! Waiting on offical results...

Day 153

Race day!! Weather was perfect although it started out really foggy which made it feel a little cool. The course was on Pensacola Beach and very flat, literally no hills at all. My plan was to run the first 2 miles around 9:10-9:15 and if I felt good just stay at that pace.

First mile was a solid 9:09 and I was feeling great. Mile 2 started out fine but towards the end I started to feel a stitch in my left side. It wasn't terrible but I almost never get those! I tried to just run through and keep pumping out 9:20 splits until it went away. That wouldn't happen until the end of mile 5.

I noticed my GPS was getting further and further behind as the race went on. By the end of mile 5 it was about .12 behind the course's mile marker. So I knew I'd have to push it to make sure I broke 60 minutes. Thankfully the stitch went away and I felt terrific and really pushed it mile 6 and killed it! An 8:54 split and by far my fastest mile of the race. I didn't have a whole bunch left in the tank for the finishing kick but cruised the rest of the way and finished at 58:51. GPS showed 6.38 miles and a 9:14 pace.

I ended up finishing 5th in my age group and 95th overall, not sure how many runners entered. The results should be online in the next day or two.


Breakfast: Post race...1/2 turkey sandwich, cookies-611 cals

Lunch: McDouble, pizza slice-618 cals

Dinner: Bbq chicken thigh & leg, meatballs, baked beans-787 cals

Snacks: Protein bar, Oreo thins, whoppers candy, skinny cow-812 cals

Totals: 2827 cals, 132g protein

Running
Mile 1 9:09
Mile 2 9:20
Mile 3 9:18
Mile 4 9:21
Mile 5 9:21
Mile 6 8:54
Mile 6.2 9:14/pace

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Great result man, you happy with that?

On to the next goal....

Yeah I was very happy with how I did, especially running thru that cramp and killing the last mile. Probably gonna skip the 5K race next week and just get ready for the 15K in 4 weeks. My goal for that one is gonna be around 1:27:00 or so, which is a 9:20 pace again.

Had a great long run this morning, 7.5 miles in just over 1:20.

congratulations, awesome!

Day 154

Long run day...wasn't sure how I'd feel but was pleasantly surprised. Once I got started I felt terrific and the weather was once again perfect. Ended up getting in 7.5 miles, same as last Sunday and at very close to the same pace. No soreness at all!


Breakfast: Bacon, eggs, grits & toast-803 cals

Lunch: Patty melt on rye w/ swiss, steak fries-846 cals

Dinner: Wendy's grilled chicken sandwich w/ asiago cheese, small fry-790 cals

Snacks: Popcorn, kettle chips-304 cals

Totals: 2827 cals, 132g protein

Running
Mile 1 10:51
Mile 2 10:47
Mile 3 10:48
Mile 4 10:35
Mile 5 10:37
Mile 6 10:41
Mile 7 10:41
Mile 7.5 10:21/pace

Official results from Saturday...

98/299 overall
5/12 40-44 age group

1st half 29:18
2nd half 29:33

Day 155

Another perfect weather day...did an easy 4.5 miles. Felt great the whole way!

Breakfast: Usual-559 cals

Lunch: Baked fish, red potatoes-736 cals

Dinner: Potato soup, pizza slice-673 cals

Snacks: Popcorn, granola bar-260 cals

Totals: 2228 cals, 108g protein

Mile 1 11:02
Mile 2 11:09
Mile 3 11:02
Mile 4 11:04
Mile 4.5 10:28/pace