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Monday, December 5

Week 1 Taking Flight

Happy Monday everyone. Week 1 of my training program begins with great excitement about the possibilities ahead. Right now my primary focus needs to be toward re-build my weekly mileage. I plan to do that with, first, getting in consecutive days of running (something that has been very difficult the past 5 months). Re- building my mileage will come through extending my daily runs and doing double runs. I can tell my aerobic endurance (or VO2) has gone way down from where it was 5 months ago. I am thankful for cooler months ahead as it would be so tough to handle gasping for air in Texas heat y'all. Second I plan to work on quality of running during this re-building phase. Being alert to form as well as trying to keep at a reasonable pace.

I am continuing to watch my calories and work on loosing this weight. I'm starting my week -4 lbs already! I know a lot of people who try to loose weight through running and don't. I have been one of those people and it can be so frustrating. I think in most cases its a issue of balancing enough calorie reduction while keeping fueled enough to have quality runs. Also I know of others who want to loose weight first then start running after the weight is off. I understand this thinking as it is HAWRD (that's Texas talk y'all) to carry those extra pounds around let alone run with them. But I think just the opposite-if you can handle running at a heavier weight, that will only work in your favor as your heart, lungs, and legs will become stronger through the increased work load. As the weight begins to drop, then that extra strength gained will benefit you in speed and endurance. I don't claim to know anything scientifically but it makes sense to me. I will share more specifics about my diet in future post.

In the meantime I have a question about how you track your mileage. Before my fall I was using a Face Book app to track my mileage. This was convenient but I often thought it could be viewed as prideful. I tried Daily Mile and thought it was okay, maybe I just need to give it another try. I also thought about downloading an app on my cell. So my question is what app. do you use if any to track your miles? If you want to see some super tecky running charts then you need to check out Raina. Besides being in awe of her as a runner she uses super cool charts to track her running.

I hope you have a great week of running - pressing-on

Terri

4 comments:

TX Runner Mom said...

I have actually gained weight while training for a marathon, which is definitely not my goal. I agree, there is a balance and for the past few years I have actually managed to lose a few pounds during training. As for tracking my runs, I just started using Training Peaks. I haven't used it long enough to give feedback on it yet.

Unknown said...

Hi Sweet Lady! I'm excited for you next, new training adventure. I really agree that it's the quality of running that we do right now that counts.
I agree with the "prideful" thing and I just use the Garmin website calendar to track my mileage. I plug my watch into the computer and it tracks everything that way. For my eyes only :) ! That pride thing is sticky, isn't it?!

fancy nancy said...

I'm with TX Runner Mom...I gained 5lbs while training for the Boston Marathon! I do struggle with eating enough calories for the amount that I run though and tend to plateau a lot. I use daily mile to track my miles and it has been pretty good.

Teamarcia said...

How great you're back to running after that fall!
Congrats on -4! That is huge, especially at this time of year.
I'm a poor tracker at best. I use Daily Mile.