Paying the Price!
I had not gotten on a scale since August. I got on one yesterday morning (not my regular scale) and was startled to see that I'd put on 12 lbs. since then. I know that the cause was a combination of factors - lack of exercise combined with being helpful to my son...helping with his cookies and other snacks.
So, here it is, holiday time and I realize that I need to ratchet up the attention to what I'm putting in to myself. I run and because I am a competitive runner, I know there's a price to excess weight (Note the word excess - that's a word that causes problems for a lot of people with eating disorders - they don't recognize the difference.) and it's estimated at 2 seconds per pound per mile. That means that in a 5K (3.1 mile) race, I'd take about a minute and a quarter longer to get to the finish. That's a big deal in a race that normally take me 20 minutes to run.
What makes this an even bigger deal is that I'm training for a marathon. And there the time penalty works to 629 seconds or 10 1/2 minutes. That really matterrs when you're racing the clock. I should say that one of my life's dreams has been to qualify and run the Boston Marathon and for me, that means I need to run another marathon in under 3 hours and 31 minutes. They identify the cut-off as 3:30, but the fine print essentially says that if the first digits are 3:30 or less, then you're in, so up to 3:30:59 will work. I will be trying to qualify either in late April or early May, with a second attempt in the fall, if necessary.
One note regarding the marathon, in my opinion, for most people, especially those without a running background, trying to run one without at least two years of fairly serious training is likely to result in you being turned off to running, so I discourage it. You are better off running 5 milers, 10K's (6.2 miles) and stepping up occasionally to the half-marathon. The price you pay in wear and tear on your body as you train for a marathon is huge and unless it represents the culmination of a dream, it probably does not make sense.
There's been a trend towards people walking (or run/walking) marathons. This is still a pretty serious commitment (though many runners look derisively at it), and should not be undertaken lightly, but the calculus here is very different. There's a lot of difference in the effort needed to prepare for a 5+ hour marathon versus an under 4 hour marathon. This is reasonable and attainable for most people with a reasonable build-up program of 6 months or so. It can also serve as a reasonable introduction to world of marathoning, just make sure that you pick an event that is walker-friendly. (I'll talk more about that in a future posting.)
I digressed from my problem into running, but the message here is two-fold: first, that we need to be constantly vigilant in maintaining our weight and second, that lack of activity amplifies the sins that we might oterwise get away with. I am now back at my running, but I am paying the price. Meantime, I encourage any of you who see this to post your goal and your progress so we can share the weight-loss process.
So, here it is, holiday time and I realize that I need to ratchet up the attention to what I'm putting in to myself. I run and because I am a competitive runner, I know there's a price to excess weight (Note the word excess - that's a word that causes problems for a lot of people with eating disorders - they don't recognize the difference.) and it's estimated at 2 seconds per pound per mile. That means that in a 5K (3.1 mile) race, I'd take about a minute and a quarter longer to get to the finish. That's a big deal in a race that normally take me 20 minutes to run.
What makes this an even bigger deal is that I'm training for a marathon. And there the time penalty works to 629 seconds or 10 1/2 minutes. That really matterrs when you're racing the clock. I should say that one of my life's dreams has been to qualify and run the Boston Marathon and for me, that means I need to run another marathon in under 3 hours and 31 minutes. They identify the cut-off as 3:30, but the fine print essentially says that if the first digits are 3:30 or less, then you're in, so up to 3:30:59 will work. I will be trying to qualify either in late April or early May, with a second attempt in the fall, if necessary.
One note regarding the marathon, in my opinion, for most people, especially those without a running background, trying to run one without at least two years of fairly serious training is likely to result in you being turned off to running, so I discourage it. You are better off running 5 milers, 10K's (6.2 miles) and stepping up occasionally to the half-marathon. The price you pay in wear and tear on your body as you train for a marathon is huge and unless it represents the culmination of a dream, it probably does not make sense.
There's been a trend towards people walking (or run/walking) marathons. This is still a pretty serious commitment (though many runners look derisively at it), and should not be undertaken lightly, but the calculus here is very different. There's a lot of difference in the effort needed to prepare for a 5+ hour marathon versus an under 4 hour marathon. This is reasonable and attainable for most people with a reasonable build-up program of 6 months or so. It can also serve as a reasonable introduction to world of marathoning, just make sure that you pick an event that is walker-friendly. (I'll talk more about that in a future posting.)
I digressed from my problem into running, but the message here is two-fold: first, that we need to be constantly vigilant in maintaining our weight and second, that lack of activity amplifies the sins that we might oterwise get away with. I am now back at my running, but I am paying the price. Meantime, I encourage any of you who see this to post your goal and your progress so we can share the weight-loss process.
posted by Scooter at 9:10 AM
1 Comments:
Howdy!
My goal is to break the four hour barrier in the marathon. I've been training for the Las Vegas International Marathon, which is January 30th. I have also gained about six pounds the last six weeks by eating everything in sight! This is probably due to my training more vigorously than ever before, more intensity, more miles and the need for more calories...but I do get carried away with my diet. I need to focus more on maintaining my weight for these last six weeks of training. I need to be even more diligent with my diet during the last three weeks where I'll be tapering with less mileage. These fat-laden holidays are brutal!!
Happy trails, Bruce
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