daggart's way to half-marathon

[Leithient]

MAIN GOAL: Prepare to run a half-marathon by January

I need sacrifice, to lose weight, rest enough (at least rest during the hours I spend sleeping).

 

1. Exercise

 

Strength training: return to basics. I'll follow a 3x5 routine 2 times a week (AB).

 

12/12 +2 STR +1 DEX

>6/12 + 1 STR

<6/12 = FAIL

 

Score: /2 - /2 - /2 - /2 - /2 - /2

 

Running: 4 times a week.

 

24/24 +2 STA + 1 DEX

>18/24 +1 STA +1 DEX

>9/18 1 SRA

 

Score: /4 - /4 - /4 - /4 - /4 - /4

 

2. How I eat

 

Mindfuldness eating

The three main meals must be eaten sited down.

Every bite must be bitten 30 times. (I'm not going to count them every time, but more or less that's the point).

 

PASS or FAIL +1 WIS +1 CHA

 

3. What I eat

 

Mediterranean diet to lose 13 lbs (6 kg) and/or 5% BF

I have a meal plan at home. I want to follow it and keep a food journal here.

 

13 lbs / 5% BF +2 CON + 1 CHA

>6 lbs / 2.5% BF +1 CON

<6 lbs / 2.5% BF = FAIL

 

4. LIFE GOAL

Getting the best results as possible at university

 

Monday to Friday: read at least 2 papers or 2 chapters of a relevant book or 60 pages.

+1 WIS

Saturday to Sunday: 12 hours playing the piano. (Play a Polonaise and 2 Chopin etudes).

+1 WIS + 1 CHA

 

It could change during the challenge. I don't know if I could improve my studies playing the piano only during weekends, but I'm going to try it.

 

Score A: /2 - /2 - /2 - /2 - /2 - /2

Score B: /12 - /12 - /12 - /12 - /12 - /12

 

SIDE QUEST(S)

 

Manage my time: biphasic sleep

1.5 hours + 4.5 hours

9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

3 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.

 

+1 WIS/CHA

[smurray]

Nice goals.  I am planning a half at the end of March to help in conditioning for a Tough Mudder in June.  Good luck with the training.

[ShadowLion]

Great plan! Looking forward to seeing your progress this challenge!

[Leithient]

 Thank you guys. I've changed some things, I don't know if it's definitive or I will change something more before Sunday, but at the moment I'm fine with my goals.

[vibrantnotions]

I find the idea of biphasic sleep fascinating - are the nights long enough where you are now?  They still seem a little short here.

 

Love the mindful eating goal, how we eat is so important!

[Leithient]

Thank you for being so supportive. As we are in Autumn, we have around 12 hours of nigh. I can't have a fixed schedule for the nap, but I think I could manage the sleep hours. Today I slept 5 hours instead of 4.5, but I'm fine.

This morning I started the 'official' half-marathon training. I run 1 hour and I covered 8.63 km. I think it isn't so bad.

[Stronkey Kong]

I'll be subbing. I'd like to see how you do on the Medi diet. Also, if you know how many grams of protein you can get with all the whole grains, legumes, and nuts. Its somewhere I'd like to go with my diet. I love mediterranean food too.

[Leithient]

Do you think that I should control my macronutrients intake? I know that the protein intake isn't a problem (Mediterranean ≠ vegan/vegetarian) but carbohydrates control could be. That's the reason why sometimes we overeat.

If you think it's necessary, I could control it. I think my ideal intake right now is around 70 grams (1*kg), so today I'll see if I am near to this number.

[Leithient]

First problem.

Yesterday I did my nap at 21:30, the alarm clock sounded at 23 h. but I 'decised' that sleeping was better and I woke up today at 4 am. And tonight I've to go to a play, so I'll come late to my house and don't know when going to sleep and how many hours. I've thinking on doing the nap at 7 am, but it seems like too many hours of sleep .

[Wollio]

So, I don't know your background enough to know if you are working towards being a concert pianist or something, but 12 hours of piano over 2 days seems like an enormous amount! If you enjoy it enough to do that, go for it, but just make sure you aren't burning yourself out on something you love.

[ShadowLion]

In my research on bi-phasic sleep, the consensus seemed to be that the people who were most successful with it had very set times for their main sleep and their nap. If that wasn't the case, they ended up getting very tired and eventually slipping off the program. I tried it for about two weeks about a year ago and would do well for three or four days - had loads of time! - but the one day a week I had to break my pattern messed me up for a couple of days thereafter. I wasn't able, and still am not, to change that one schedule blip, or I would try it again.

 

As a fellow musician, six hours a day doesn't seem that huge. Used to do that every day when I was in school, but my fear would be developing an injury from the two consecutive days of intense load and then no load for 5 days. If it were me, I would warmup and do some hand exercises through the week. Just 5 - 10 minutes of stretches and some quick, light scales and arpeggios every day or two would probably be enough.

 

You've got some interesting experiments this challenge!

[Leithient]

My idea is being able to have a fixed schedule during at least 3 weeks - I've been reading and people seems to be more flexible when biphasic turns into a habit. But I'm messing it up a bit. If I were living alone I will have a nap at 9 p.m. but I don't want my mother looking after my sleep habits - she likes to control everything. So I have dinner, I wait a while and I try to sleep. I'm not tired at this moment, so I think I could sleep between 9:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. + 2 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. I hope it won't interfere with my workout.

About the piano schedule, my fear is forgot the studied during the 5 days off. I have the class on Tuesday which means that I'm 'onky''only' 2-3 days without moving my fingers, but I'm worried about my qualifications. We'll see this week. Thanks for your words.

Today I have too much food for breakfast, but during the rest of the day I only eat 5 tangerines, 1 apple and 2 slices of bread with peppers. I think it isn't so bad - when I weight tonight and have dinner I could say this more convinced, but I'm optimistic.

I read 2 papers, 2 chapters of a 'relevant' book and 2 chapters of a pleasure book. Pretty well, I think.

Rest day. I wasn't in a mood to go to the gym this morning.

[Leithient]

So, I don't know your background enough to know if you are working towards being a concert pianist or something, but 12 hours of piano over 2 days seems like an enormous amount! If you enjoy it enough to do that, go for it, but just make sure you aren't burning yourself out on something you love.

Good point. I don't know where I am... At this moment I'm finishing the last year before the Superior studies of piano and starting a PhD about literature. Well, I'm doing a master, not exactly the PhD. So, next year maybe I will be with the PhD or doing examinations in order to be admitted at the Superior Conservatoire. I need to study a lot for both things! :-) (the only problem is that I don't know if I love more music or literature!)

[Thyra]

...

Today I have too much food for breakfast, but during the rest of the day I only eat 5 tangerines, 1 apple and 2 slices of bread with peppers. I think it isn't so bad - when I weight tonight and have dinner I could say this more convinced, but I'm optimistic.

...

I am impressed by your menu, I haven't eaten seen so much vitamins in a week

[Leithient]

Haha, here fruit is the easy snack (cheap and available on every market).

 

Another failed day with biphasic sleep. Tonight I'll try to sleep when I came back and dinner after the nap.

 

I've been calculating my macros:

 

PROT 115-125 g

CH 150-165 g

FAT 50-55 g

 

Tonight we'll see if I've could adjust my diet to them. Darwins_Demon, I'm copying a couple of ideas from you.

[Leithient]

Day 3: a lot to do better the next time

 

Exercise

 

Running.

 

Score: 2/4

 

How I eat

I can't have breakfast sat down because there is no space in the kitchen. Should I have breakfast in other room or trying to eat slower even if I eat while standing up?

 

Score: FAIL

 

What I eat

1676 Kcal

103 g PROT 233 g CH 47 g FAT

 

LIFE GOAL

1 paper

Virgil's Aeneid finished

 

Score: 2/2

 

Biphasic sleep

9:30 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Obviously FAIL

[Leithient]

I give up the biphasic sleep project, I can't adjust the nap to my schedule, so I have to choose another side challenge. I've thought 30' of creative writing, what do you think? Do you have any other ideas? The only 'problem' of creative writing is that I write in Spanish, so I can't share my work here (well, I can, but nobody will understand it).

[Stronkey Kong]

Do you think that I should control my macronutrients intake? I know that the protein intake isn't a problem (Mediterranean ≠ vegan/vegetarian) but carbohydrates control could be. That's the reason why sometimes we overeat.

If you think it's necessary, I could control it. I think my ideal intake right now is around 70 grams (1*kg), so today I'll see if I am near to this number.

 

Monitoring your macros is always helpful.

 

Here are some general guidelines:

Carbs (CHO for short) fuels workouts of all types, it is the preferred source of energy.

Protein (PRO) is used for rebuilding, it can be used for energy if needed, but it burns much more slowly. Also, rebuilding requires energy input and its best to get it from CHO.

Fat (FAT) is an essential building block, or in certain metabolic processes, it burns slower than other macros.

 

There are a number of us in the warriors guild trying to do body recomposition this challenge. (This challenge I'm following Donar, forkboy, courtniemarie, mango, markvivian).  That is we want to burn off fat, and replace it with muscle without any substantial change in body weight.

Toward that goal we calculate our maintenance calories and break down our macros into percentages of that caloric intake.

 

I am currently doing 40% CHO : 30 PRO : 30 FAT.

 

At 3000 cal a day, I am eating 300g CHO : 225g PRO : 100g FAT

 

I am in the beginning stages, and this is the initial experiment. From here I take measurements and adjust my macros to maintain my weight and optimize the muscle gain and fat loss. Of course, your goals are different and may not demand such strict attention.

 

Here are some general guidelines:

 

To build strength: add more PRO, get enough CHO to fuel your workouts (maintain at least a neutral calorie intake)

To  lose weight, maintain high PRO, cut calories from CHO and FAT, maintain a slight caloric deficit

To increase energy/stamina, eat more CHO

The ratios can be unique to each person's metabolism and lifestyle, watch your performance, sleep, and body composition, and adjust accordingly. To optimize your own intake, try to hit your macros within +/- 5-10g everyday. Try to stick with a ratio for a week or two and see what changes take place. Adjust accordingly.

 

So it looks like your doing a combo of strength and cardio training. Increasing carb intake could seriously help if you're feeling tired. How's your sleep? Usually too few carbs makes sleeping difficult like waking up a lot during the night or never really getting to sleep etc. I'd also maintain high PRO, around 30% of your calories.

 

I'm no expert, but I hope this helps.

[Stronkey Kong]

Haha, here fruit is the easy snack (cheap and available on every market).

 

Another failed day with biphasic sleep. Tonight I'll try to sleep when I came back and dinner after the nap.

 

I've been calculating my macros:

 

PROT 115-125 g

CH 150-165 g

FAT 50-55 g

 

Tonight we'll see if I've could adjust my diet to them. Darwins_Demon, I'm copying a couple of ideas from you.

 

Since you're doing 6 workouts a week, and running a lot, you might want to up your CHO. I'd also bet that the 1600 or so cals is a bit on the light side for you, unless you're really, really short and light and/or your goal is weight loss. Make sure when you calculate your needs to factor in your exercise, not just BMR. Also, given your goals, you might want more CHO less FAT. Maybe swap 5-10% FAT for CHO. I'm acutally thinking I might need less FAT down the road, but we'll see when my new measurements are a week and a half from now.

[Leithient]

 Day 4: meh!

 

Exercise

 

Running.

 

Score: 3/4

 

How I eat

 

Score: FAIL

 

What I eat

1694 Kcal

94 g PROT 218 g CH 58 g FAT

 

LIFE GOAL

fragments about theory of literature

2 chapters of Symbols of Aeneid

 

Score: 2/2

 

Biphasic sleep

Thinking on a change.

[Leithient]

Since you're doing 6 workouts a week, and running a lot, you might want to up your CHO. I'd also bet that the 1600 or so cals is a bit on the light side for you, unless you're really, really short and light and/or your goal is weight loss. Make sure when you calculate your needs to factor in your exercise, not just BMR. Also, given your goals, you might want more CHO less FAT. Maybe swap 5-10% FAT for CHO. I'm acutally thinking I might need less FAT down the road, but we'll see when my new measurements are a week and a half from now.

 

Thank you, the information you give me in your two posts is very useful. I want to lose a bit of weight (faster running). I think my needs are about 1775, so between 1700 and 1775 could be fine. PRO/CHO/FAT percentages could be 30/50/20.

 

I've plan a menu for tomorrow and I have difficults to achieve my PRO intake, but, more or less could be somethink like the following:

 

BREAKFAST

1 slice of bread + 3 slices of turkey breast (125 Kcal)

1 hard-boiled egg (77 Kcal)

2 oranges (123 Kcal)

1 wedge of watermelon (85 Kcal)

2 tsp olive oil (80 Kcal)

 

LUNCH

2 hard-boiled eggs (150 Kcal)

3 artichokes (180 Kcal)

1 apple (94 Kcal)

 

DINNER

50 g of spelt (170 Kcal)

1 tuna can (54 Kcal)

 

SNACK

3 tangerines (120 Kcal)

400 ml of milk (196 Kcal)

 

1462 Kcal

83/133 g PRO 220/222 g CHO 38/40 gFAT

 

CHO and FAT are very similar to the ideal, but PRO...

[ShadowLion]

You did great on the CHO and FAT! Did you feel full through the day? How was your energy?

 

I love artichokes, but don't think I could eat three of them in one sitting!

[Leithient]

Well, something is not working because I am hungry the whole day (it creates me anxiety, so I ended the day eating cookies or something BAD, as I did yesterday). I'm working on my diet. Today isn't being a good day (too much bread, I think, and my Kcal intake is going to go through the roof). I'm sure that one could eat healthy (or, at least, healthier) without the need of being hungry, expecting to eat something forbidden and so on. I'm sure and all my efforts are for achieving that goal (have healthy habits, without being hungry). I'll research today about how to deal with hunger and which meals I should avoid.

[Stronkey Kong]

Well, something is not working because I am hungry the whole day (it creates me anxiety, so I ended the day eating cookies or something BAD, as I did yesterday). I'm working on my diet. Today isn't being a good day (too much bread, I think, and my Kcal intake is going to go through the roof). I'm sure that one could eat healthy (or, at least, healthier) without the need of being hungry, expecting to eat something forbidden and so on. I'm sure and all my efforts are for achieving that goal (have healthy habits, without being hungry). I'll research today about how to deal with hunger and which meals I should avoid.

 

There's a definite connection between weight loss/gain, CHO intake, sleep, and anxiety. I've dealt with a lot of these issues myself and based on a lot of the posts I've read on NF seem to support the connection. I feel like for a long time I've gone through a cycle of high CHO, feeling calmer, sleeping to much, but gaining weight, then cutting CHO to lose weight, but then getting anxious, losing sleep etc. Then I wind up cycling back.

 

I'll be glad to see what you find.

[Leithient]

Thank you, Darwins.

 

Well, at least one good new (if there wasn't for the first goal I don't know if I could keep the enthusiasm for the rest of the goals):

 

today 80 minutes running, 12.04 kilometers

 

Longest distance, max. time running since A LOT of months.

 

I'm going to the shower, weight myself, see my measures, etc.