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Jeff's training blog: 3 months, 30 pounds lost!


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Friday I did about 50 minutes on the elliptical machine.

 

Weight this morning is 166.7. Lagging a couple of pounds behind where I was at this time last summer, but that's to be expected given my injury and other circumstances getting in the way of my exercising as much as I did then.

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Monday: About an hour on the elliptical machine, average HR about 135.

Tuesday: 90 minutes on the elliptical machine, average HR about 120.

Wednesday: no exercise.

Thursday: Ran for the first time since before I broke my wrist (which was 11 days ago). Ran about 5.4 miles at about a 10 minute/mile pace, but the intermediate 3.2 miles (slightly longer than a 5k) I ran pretty close to 5k race pace. Not sure what my time was because it's awkward to stop and start my watch with a broken left wrist when it's strapped to my right one. Anyway, average HR was 147, with the 3.2 miles being at about 155.

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Saturday (I think): about 90 minutes divided between mostly elliptical and some exercise bike, slow pace (avg. HR 115).

Sunday: 45 minutes elliptical, 45 minute (4.6 mile) run, average HR 137 for both. The new Warbringer album kicks ass and was really helpful for my enthusiasm!

 

I'm still planning on running a 5k on Sept. 12, despite the broken wrist. So glad that it isn't hurting me at all when I run. It does hurt a little bit when I type, though!

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Tuesday and Wednesday: ran 4.6 miles each day, at about 10 min/mile on Tuesday and in 43 min. on Wednesday, average HR 137 on Tuesday and 139 on Wednesday. Ran the middle part at a higher pace, and (supposedly) hit a max HR of 186 on Wednesday. The highest HR I'm sure about is 177, which is still quite close to what I think is probably my maximum possible HR.

 

Thursday: ran 7 miles at a slow pace, not sure exactly, but somewhere between 115 and 120 bpm average.

 

Weight seems to be about 165 in the mornings lately, and under 163 after runs.

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Weight this morning: 164.8 pounds. Still lagging a few pounds behind weight loss progress last summer, but with less free time this summer and a cast on my arm the last 3 weeks, I'm okay with the progress I'm making. In two weeks, assuming my wrist continues to make good progress and I'm not worried about hurting it again, I'm planning on running a 5k. I'm hoping I can match last year's time (23:49) in this race, which is within reach if I can shed a few more pounds between now and then.

 

Ran 5.6 miles in about 54 minutes, avg. HR 139.

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Somewhere later last week I did a run, but I don't remember what day, mileage, HR or anything, so we'll go with either 3.8 or 4.6 miles and about 10 min/mile, which these days is a pace I can run with HR a shade over 130.

 

Monday: 6.2 miles in an hour, average HR 148.

 

Today: 3.8 miles in 35:45, average HR 134.

 

Race is Saturday. Last year's time was 23:49; this year I just hope to break 25 minutes, given that I'm carrying about 10 more pounds.

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Ran twice today.

 

For the first run, I wanted to run at race pace, but I was using an old inhaler and it didn't do much good, so I had to hold back a little bit to keep from setting off my asthma. Still, I ran about 3.8 miles in 31:07, just slightly over an 8 min/mile pace, which would be good enough to beat my goal time of 25 minutes for Saturday's 5k. Average HR was 150 with a max of 165. And since Saturday's race is only 3.1 miles instead of 3.8 and I'll also be sure to take my good inhaler, I should have a shot at beating my time of 23:49 from last year.

 

Second run: 3 miles in 27 minutes, average HR 137.

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Ran a 5k race this morning. Time was 24:12, 23 seconds slower than I ran the same race last year; average HR was 160. I feel pretty good about the time, though, considering that my broken wrist and a busier work schedule have limited my training somewhat, so I'm about 10 pounds heavier (164.2 this morning) than I was at this time last year. I was also slowed a bit because my asthma was acting up somewhat today for some reason. If I can just keep it up and lose those 10 pounds, I can hopefully beat my best time of 22:40 some time this fall.

 

Cast should come off in a week and a half, so hopefully I can get back to playing racquetball. I miss it!

Edited by veginator
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10k (6.2 miles) this morning in 58:27. Average HR 140, peak 167. So, I managed to break an hour for 10k even though I took it easy for the first mile or so (average HR 110-120). I really kicked it into high gear for the last couple of miles, averaging around 155, to make sure I got under an hour. There's a 5k again this weekend which I'll probably enter, and hopefully I'll break 24 minutes this time.

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Ran 7 miles in 71 minutes, average HR 126 -- although that's probably an inaccurate reading. Monitor's been acting kind of strange lately, giving impossibly high or low readings (more low in this case) for minutes at a time.

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Monday: 7.8 miles in 85 minutes. Must have hit a wrong button, because HR data weren't saved.

 

Right heel/back of foot has been pretty sore lately. Plantar fascitis, I guess. I'll probably rest it today and see how it is tomorrow, but it would really be nice to improve some more on my 5k time in the race I'm doing this coming weekend.

 

Cast is finally off my arm, so hopefully I'll be able to get back on the bike soon, but it's too soon to put weight on it yet.

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Wednesday: 5.4 miles in 49 minutes. Average HR was 142, if I'm remembering correctly.

 

Got my cast off Monday. It's pretty stiff and sore still and I'll have to wear a splint most of the time for several weeks, so no weightlifting for a while yet, but at least I can go back to playing some racquetball now.

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Thursday: played 7 games of racquetball. I didn't play that great after a 7-week layoff due to my broken (left) wrist, but actually a little better than expected, and it just felt great to get out there and hit the ball around again.

 

Weight this morning was 161.8. Still have about 10 pounds to drop to match last year's weight loss effort, but I'm very slowly getting there.

 

Heel area is still sore. I think I may get a night splint. I've been hearing that that works pretty well for plantar fascitis. There's a 5k race tomorrow and I'm definitely planning on running in it, but I'm in kind of a dilemma about whether to run any today or not. On one hand, I'd really like to do something to train some more, but on the other hand I don't want to make my foot any sore than it already is, and the weather's too yucky today to bike even if I didn't have a gimpy wrist. Maybe I'll ride the exercise bike at home, and try not to fall asleep while I'm doing it.

Edited by veginator
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Achieved my 2nd-best time ever in my 5k race yesterday morning, 22:50.8. With just a few more pounds' weight loss, I should be able to beat my PR of 22:39 pretty handily. I'm going to rest my sore foot a day or two and see if I can get it healed up, then resume running again. I'd like to get out on the bike, but I don't know whether my still-healing wrist is strong enough to support some of my body weight on the handlebars yet, so we'll see about that. I'm planning on another 5k race in 3 weeks, where hopefully I'll be able to get my time down close to 22 minutes, assuming continued weight loss between now and then.

 

Presently I'm at about 162. Goal weight for now is 150, which I'm hoping to get to within a couple of months.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Still suffering with a sore heel/foot, so I haven't been able to run much at all the last couple of weeks. A couple of miles here, three miles there, maybe a total of 10 miles running in 2 weeks, and it still hurts. Racquetball doesn't seem to bother it as much. I've played twice, and it hasn't hurt as much as from that as from running. Today I played 6 games. Did the elliptical machine for half an hour a couple of times as well. I'm hoping to run a 5k race this weekend, but whether I actually do it depends on whether my foot is at least feeling as well as it did 2 1/2 weeks ago when I ran the last one.

 

I'm not weighing myself at the moment because I'm quite sure I haven't lost any additional weight and probably have put a couple of pounds back on, so it would just be frustrating.

 

The weather has been absolutely terrible here lately. 20-plus degrees below normal and often rainy, so I haven't been able to ride my bike at all. That's what I really need to do to stay in shape with minimal running mileage, but the weather has been rather uncooperative.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ran a 5k race this morning in a rather slow time, a little over 27 minutes. I knew it would be significantly slower than the great time I had 3 weeks ago (22:50) because my sore foot along with lousy weather that's kept me from biking much has really limited what I've been able to do training-wise. I've only run once in the last 3 weeks, just 2 miles on a treadmill; done about half an hour on the elliptical machine three times; played racquetball twice (about an hour and a half each time, so my most intense workouts); and done about a 10-mile bike ride. So that's a total of about 6 hours of cardio in 3 weeks not counting the race today, not a whole lot for me. So, even though I wasn't slacking (average HR 160), I'm just not in as good a condition as I was a few weeks ago. Hoping to turn that around here if I can get some tolerable bike riding weather the next couple of weeks. I'm going to see a sports medicine guy who sounds like he'll be able to help my plantar fasciitis a lot, but unfortunately that's not for a few weeks.

 

The good news is that my foot doesn't hurt much post-race, so maybe it will keep slowly healing if I stick to cross-training instead of running for a while.

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My foot started hurting more as the day wore on yesterday, although not any worse than it did after my last race a few weeks ago. Frustrating that it's not getting any closer to being healed up enough that I can resume running regularly again.

 

Did a 20.5-mile bike ride in 1:26 today, average HR 129, max of 155.

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Aside from an hour of basketball with my son yesterday, very little exercise this week, and it shows on the scales, unfortunately. I'm up a couple of pounds despite still eating a diet that would not put weight on for most people! My foot is somewhat better than it was last week, but I'm sure if I ran another 5k race I'd be right back where I was. I may wind up getting a trainer for my bike so I can ride indoors when the weather is bad, especially if I continue to be unable to jog regularly. Four more weeks, barring cancellations, until my appointment with the sports medicine guy about my foot.

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