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May was a great month for those of us at Get Fit Slowly. I guess I shouldn’t speak for JD, but from our recent conversations, we’re both very happy with how are fitness levels are progressing.
In a few short months I’ve gone from absolutely hating running to feeling like I’m missing something when I don’t get my run in for the day. I used to look forward to my days off, and now I only take them because I feel like I need to give my body a break. Sometimes, I even run twice a day.
Some of you may have read that JD and I have been competing this month to see who can run the most miles. We’ve been approaching this contest from two different angles. JD is training for a marathon and so he runs with a training group every Saturday–varying distances around 13 miles. Then, he runs two or so shorter runs a week of about 3 miles. I’ve been running mostly every day–between 3 and 6 miles per day. This month, I ran a total of 83.30 miles at an average pace of 6.36 miles/hour. All month, JD and I have been within a couple of miles of each other, but late last week I realized that the last day of the month was a Saturday. I’d pretty much come to grips with the fact that he was going to win our little competition. But now his quad is hurting and so he won’t be able to make his run on Saturday. So, by default, it looks like I’ll be the winner–it’s no fun winning a competition due to an opponent’s injury so we’ll have to have a rematch when he gets his leg healthy. However, I did learn one thing about running this month. In fact, I learned it twice. Running is a lot more fun when you’ve got something to run for. My 10K race was really fun, and competing with JD for the monthly mileage total was fun too. If I want to keep enjoying my running, I should probably find some more events to train for.
It’s pretty obvious that I concentrated on my cardiovascular fitness this past month. As a result, I didn’t lift weights as much as I wanted to and I didn’t watch my diet as much as I should have. Consequently, I didn’t lose a pound during the month of May. I still weigh 194.4 pounds. Usually, this would be discouraging for me. But I’ve begun to realize that if I lead an active life, I don’t have to count calories to maintain my weight. This is possibly a life-altering realization for me! If I want to keep dropping the pounds, however, I need to get back on the counting calories wagon.
Because I’m still not at a “healthy weight” for my height, I’m going to shift my focus a bit for the month of June. I’m not going to lose my cardiovascular shape, but I am going to lose four pounds of fat. Here’s how I’m going to do it. I plan on running 3 times per week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I’m going to run 3 miles, 5 miles, and 3 miles respectively for a total of 11 miles per week. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I’m going to hit the weights. I’m also going to strive to count my calories and input them into fitday.com as much as possible. For some reason, this is really hard for me to do . I can never seem to get it done for more than 3 days or so. I need to stay at around 2000 calories/day AND replace the calories burned during my workouts in order to drop four pounds this month. Wish me luck.
Maybe in July JD and I can compete for mileage again. Though I’m not so sure it’s a challenge I want to take on.
J.D.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Ann M. // Jun 2, 2008 at 6:43 am
Congrats-Keep up the great work. I really enjoy reading about you and J.D.’s exercise experiences.
I’m training for a sprint triathlon and also trying to lose a few pounds. I log my eating onto The Daily Plate which is really easy. I know of a few people, including Leo from Zen Habits, who have switched from FitDay to The Daily Plate (www.thedailyplate.com) because it’s easier to input stuff. That may help you to stick with logging food more consistently.
2 Red // Jun 2, 2008 at 8:59 am
Calorie counting is surely a beast.
Why doesn’t nature automatically print calories on things? I think evolution would favor this.
3 Andrew is getting fit // Jun 2, 2008 at 10:40 am
Sounds like you are doing great.
I’d definitely agree that running races is the way to go. It just helps get you out on the road when it’s cold outside etc.
4 greenman2001 // Jun 2, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I like this post because it shows the fundamental structure of problem solving: you’re tracking your results on paper and making adjustments in your strategy when you don’t get the results you want. I wish you were more consistent in this approach, because you’re modeling behavior in public for people who are trying to change their lives (yes, Mac: you’re a role model!), but I’ll take what I can get!
I still wish that you and JD were less inclined to try losing strategies harder in the face of failure, instead of trying new strategies. For example, there’s some aspect of your approach here that is leading you to not manage your calorie intake successfully. But you’re going to keep taking the same approach — calorie counting through FitDay — that you’ve been trying since November 2007 even though it isn’t working for you, instead of finding the weak point in the strategy and making an adjusment. You’re convinced, as always, that it’s a failure of will rather than a failure of strategy, and that the solution is just to try harder.
I’m also glad to hear that you’re now onboard with the idea of replacing the calories you burn during exercise. You need to give your body the fuel it needs to perform, not starve it faster to meet a weight goal.
I agree with you also that you’ve achieved a major victory: you’ve gone a month without gaining weight while not watching your calorie intake carefully. A month is a short test period, but still. Good work!
5 Susan // Jun 2, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Lover of running, running twice a day… I think you can officially call yourself a “runner.” (And that’s pretty cool.)
Sounds like you have a solid plan for June. Adding strength training will help maintain a good body balance. And, I prefer focusing on fat loss as opposed to simply body weight. Lean mass accounts for part of overall body weight, but you don’t want to lose your lean mass!
6 Deb // Jun 13, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Yeah for the not counting calories/not gaining weight month.
Your plan for June sounds reasonable to me. In losing weight and leaning up I’ve learned that it’s the weight training that makes the biggest difference, not the cardio. Muscle burns more calories and we become leaner even if the scale doesn’t change.
I have a major problem logging my food (with Fitday, too) religiously. So I’ve decided it’s not something I’m going to do more than one week every couple months. More as a “check” than as a monitoring tool.
With all that work you’re doing, make sure you get enough protein. Add a protein mix (or 2).. one low in fat and carbs to your diet. It helped me push into the muscle-building phase, maybe it will help you too.
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