September Start up

It has been a while since I posted.  I did not take a break from working out but I did take a break from running.  It seems that my fast switch from the run to the bike for the tour challenge aggravated my runners knee. I have been doing heel dips like crazy to strengthen the stabilizing muscles and alleviate the pain.  It seems to be getting better so maybe it is working.

I found out that I have a hard time logging workouts and updating the blog when I am taking an ad hoc attitude towards workouts. This is not a good excuse, it just makes it clearer that I need to have a challenge, a race target, or an achievable goal to motivate myself.  I am still working on that.

I have signed up for sailing lessons for the month of September.  This will put me on the reservoir in one of those dinky little boats for one full day a week for 4 weeks. And I have been looking for a TRX class to figure out if that is a good way to workout, especially on the go.

Mean while I have been researching the 5:2 diet and have given Intermittent Fasting a serious attempt.  There is a significant body of research that indicates this is a great method for improving overall health and longevity as well as losing excess body fat.

For the first time ever I have attempted to embed a Vimeo video below. I HOPE IT Works! This is a BBC documentary that reviews some of the research on the 5:2 (five days normal eating, 2 severely calorie restricted days every week).

 

Eat, Fast and Live Longer - Horizon from Steve Hartman on Vimeo.

I also found this ebook by Dr.  John M. Berardi from Precision Nutrition. This has a really good overview of the concepts and then documents one persons trials with various formats of fasting.

In the end I have chosen to follow a one day ( 24 hours) a week fasting regime.  I stop eating at 10:00 on Saturday night and then consume only water or tea until 10:00 Sunday night.

I have completed 3 weeks of this regime so far.  I am finding it difficult to prepare meals for the family while not eating myself but overall it seems that the body adjusts to the hungry feeling and it goes in waves.  I find that drinking a hot beverage really helps with those hunger pangs.

I can not comment on the effectiveness in terms of health or longevity impacts. I have noticed a significant loosening in my trousers and figure I have lost in between 7 & 10 pounds in the three weeks.  Part of this is due to a change in what I have been eating on top of the fasting.

Not much else to report. I will return to more regular blogging.

Plod On.

Amalgamated Monday-Wednesday

Wednesday Weigh In – Week 6

This week: 0 Pounds
Total: 13 pounds

What can I say? That is not a pretty picture.  0 losses this week. it was kind of an up and down week that ended up being flat.  I don’t know what is going on it seems that on alternating weeks I have reasonable losses and then I plateau. Looks like I have some work to do to get back on target!  I might have to go out and buy a juicer or go on the soup diet.

I ended up not running on Tuesday or Wednesday as those tinges that I felt in my SI  joint on Monday became tightness and a little painful.  It was enough of a concern that I decided to rest it for a few days and then try again.

Streak to the beach - Day 43

Time : 30:00  Minutes
Distance : 3.5 Miles 
This Week: 3.5 Miles

Total: 161.75 Miles

Another morning another hotel treadmill.  Staying at the Delta in Edmonton, in a very nice but dated suite.  The bedroom had floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the mall. That was kinda weird.

Not that I had a lot of time to get used to it. We arrived late Sunday night, Worked Monday until Midnight and checked out at 7:30 AM on Tuesday. That is not a lot of time to be staring out windows.

The run was OK, the treadmill had seen better days, it squeaked when I ran in the center of the track. If  I ran offset either to the left or right it did not. That made me a little nervous as my footfalls are too close to the edge. I failed to bring my headphones so I was stuck watching sports highlights without commentary.  Who knows that might be a better way to watch.

I set the treadmill for an easy pace and just grooved out the 30 minutes. At the end of the run I started to feel a twinge in my SI joint area, and backed off a bit.

Nice Hotel, Nice Run but no bananas!

Plod On.

Weigh In Wednesday

Wednesday Weigh In – Week 5

This week: 2 Pounds
Total: 13 pounds

Streak to the beach - Day 38

Time : 45:08  Minutes
Distance : 5.1 Miles 
This Week: 12.4 Miles

Total: 141.5 Miles

Running is all about gumption, tonight it was getting together the gumption to strap on a pair of shoes, drive to a group run and them end up running alone.

I picked a fun route not really knowing the distance (somewhere between 7 & 10K) that runs thru Griffith woods and then thru a natural wetlands and back to the store.

The route to Grffith Woods is the same but when I got into the park I turned left instead of right, this takes us through some open areas with good views of the river.

Then some open trail on less than even conditions but a very fun stretch to run; flat, straight and through the trees.

And finally up a honking hard hill before running through the wetlands with great sounds from the birds and frogs before looping back on the highway to the store.

Why is it that hills never look as hard in pictures as they do when you are running?

All in all I averaged a 5:28 min /km pace (8:45 min/mile). So a good strong run.

Plod On

Wednesday Weigh In

Wednesday Weigh In – Week 4

This week: 0 Pounds
Total: 11 pounds

Streak to the beach - Day 31

Time : 40:00 Minutes
Distance : 4.62 Miles 
This Week: 11.12 Miles

Total: 112.00

Hmmph guess I had a bad weekend, somehow no matter how starved I felt or how hard I worked the scale did not move this week.

If you look closely you can see that it did move. Things were good at the beginning of the week and then the inertia shifted on the weekend and I hope a downward trend started today!

It is finally starting to look a lot like spring. What a difference one day makes (see yesterday).  I should have run here today.

But I did not, instead I headed down to the tread mill and cranked out a few miles. I did a modified ladder run tonight, started up at 6.4 mph for a mile, then 6.8 mph for a mile then 7.2 mph for a mile then 7.6 mph for a mile then back down at 2 min per pace (just cause I did not have it in me to  do any more).

It was a good run after a long day.

Plod On.

Wednesday Weigh In

Wednesday Weigh In – Week 3

This week: 4 Pounds
Total: 11 pounds

Streak to the beach - Day 24

Time : 40:04 Minutes
Distance : 4.50 Miles 
This Week: 11.65Miles

Total: 84.08

Double up day. I did a fairly hard run this morning in the freezing cold (-5) then did the evening run with the running room in spring like condition +12 and windy.  Quite the change in conditions in 15 hours.

We ran the lower Springbank -  Batallion park 7.25 route.  The route is one of my favorites from the Running Room store.

The run starts out with a downhill then a long straight flat for 2.5 km. Usually this is a fairly easy section of the run but tonight was very hard because it was into a strong head wind. The next 2.5 km is intermittent uphill sections and is usually a hard run.  The rest of the run is a slight downhill and tonight with a great tail wind and was very fast.

I was surprised that the run went so well given the 4 Miles this morning. I felt great throughout and even was holding back for the last section. 

A great running day.

Plod On.

Weekly Weigh-in #1

I don’t know if all runners are as compulsive about their weight as I am.  I weigh myself every day first thing in the morning right after I get out of bed.   I have gained a few pounds over the months that I had to reduce mileage due to the hamstring injury and over the Holiday season (why is it so easy to gain weight on vacation).

When I am feeling a little chubby like I am right now I have a tendency to chart what is going on.

Over the next few months I intend to drop the extra pounds and get into a good running weight again. My plan is simple, watch portion size and reduce snacks (like the 6 or so cookies I had with lunch). 

Simple does not mean easy.

Plod On