D85, why aren't you at your post?

[Mike_d85]

Ok, so I got in my run last night and my lifting this morning.  I have 14.6 K for the week so I'm more or less on schedule despite missing Monday.  I'm going to run routes that are already measured to make sure I don't get too far off on my mileage.

 

I'm going to start running with a goup out of Marathon Sports on Wednesday nights.  They seem like fun people and it's a pretty good crowd. 

 

I never had good luck with the phone gps apps.  I remember running side-by-side friends and having considerable differences in distance data.  It drove me nuts.

 

Any recommendations?

[Mike_d85]

Ok,  Saturday I got a bit lost trying to get around a detour and ended up running on some industrial train tracks and wound up several blocks off the path of where my route was supposed to take me.  I did, however, land just about 1/2 a Km shy of my weekly goal last week.  I'd say that's pretty freaking good considering I missed my Monday run due to moving.

 

Yesterday I took advantage of MLK day and did my run and my weights after sleeping in a few extra hours.  I ended up conking out at the end of my lifting session out of pure hunger.  I'd run 5k and done 3x8 of deadlifts, barbell rows, overhead presses, squats, and bench presses on a protein shake and a pile of fruit.  I was kind of bad after that and got a burger and fries for lunch.  At least it was B. Goode burger and fries so it was lean meat and baked fries.

 

Speaking of food, I need to fiddle with my nutrition spreadsheet.  I have a fairly complex system set up for counting macros for weightlifting nutrition, but I haven't set anything up for marathon training.  I need to track down a guide for macro nutrients and figure out how to fiddle with it for when I start really racking up the distances.  Not to mention that I seem crave more fat than is recommended, but  I notice my joints stop creaking and popping when I indulge myself (around 30% of my calories).  So I indulge and try to stick to salmon, nuts, and chicken fats.  Of course, I may have mis-calculated the number of calories per gram of fat (9 Kcal is the average I found).  I also need to figure out how to correct for it being so bloody cold.  It's 20 degrees right now and it's not far off from the high for the day.   I walk about three miles to work in that not to mention I'm running in it.

[Mike_d85]

OK, it's been a bear at work the past few days so I didn't manage to post yesterday or this morning.

 

I really need to work on the nutrition and sleep.  I felt a little weak yesterday morning at the gym and that's all I can think of.

 

Last night I tried to do the 8 mile route with the run club, but a section was blocked by the city and so I ended up doing ~7.5 miles (12.14 Km).  My pace wasn't great - 5:49 min/km, considering my goal is 5:30 min/km in the marathon (about 3h, 45m).  I'm really trying to keep that pace for my long runs and keep the speed training and gentle jogs in my shorter runs.

[Mike_d85]

I've been working on a macronutrient workbook for running training and I'm pretty comfortable with the nutrient proportions, but I'm not sure about the calories. I've built up loads of tone upping my calorie intake during my last challenge (when I attempted to do power lifting, but went broke and hurt myself instead).  I don't want to lose that, but the muscle building nutrition seems to be pretty directly in conflict with the endurance building nutrition. 

 

For one thing, what I've been reading on runner's nutrition gives me about 1/4th of the protein the weightlifting advice I'd read up on gave me (1 g per Kg of bodyweight instead of between 1-2 g per lb.)  I decided to lock my protein intake at 1g per lb since that's been maintaining the tone I've gotten from lifting.

 

For the first few weeks I'm following a "maintenance" schedule and on long run days a "base" diet.  Once I get into the later weeks of training (March) I'll switch to keeping the "base" for my regular diet and "distance" for my long run days.  I'll keep everything on "base" while I trim before the race and I'm guessing I'll have a pretty good carb store.

 

And here's what my nutrients look like.

Maintain:

Calories 2106 2592  

Protein  486 648 23%

Fat  526.5 648 25%    

Carbs 1093.5 1296 52%    

 

Base:

Calories 2754 3240  

Protein 486 648 18%

Fat 688.5 810 25%    

Carbs 1579.5 1782 57%    

 

Distance:

Calories 3240 4050

Protein 486 648 15%

Fat 1134 1417.5 35%    

Carbs 1620 1984.5 50%    

 

 

Everything is calculated on the average calories per nutrient based on grams (1 gram of fat = 9 calories, 1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 Calories, 1 gram of protein = 4 calories).  I check the totals against my meals for the day.  I need to add in a workout snack section.  When I eat something I log it and use a lookup to pull in the calories, grams of protein, carbs, and fat from a table.

 

Underneath my meals I have a readout of how much I have left to eat or complaints that I have eaten too much.  I also have a spare set of meal charts to plan the next day's meals. 

 

I like spread sheets a little.

 

Edit: NF forums does not like tables copied into it.  Terrible.

[Mike_d85]

Well I fell off the wagon just a little.  Yesterday I didn't manage to get either to the gym or on a run.  I also worked late and stressed out all day.

I got up this morning and went for a little 5k jog just to get my head back on track and my schedule back in order.

 

Hopefully the office will cooperate.  It seems likely since we're having a company-wide meeting this afternoon that should end the day fairly early.

 

Spreadsheets updated.

[RisenPhoenix]

For one thing, what I've been reading on runner's nutrition gives me about 1/4th of the protein the weightlifting advice I'd read up on gave me (1 g per Kg of bodyweight instead of between 1-2 g per lb.)  I decided to lock my protein intake at 1g per lb since that's been maintaining the tone I've gotten from lifting

 

If I'm mathing right (and I'm probably not, bear with me), wouldn't the 1 gram protein per kilogram roughly equal the 2 grams protein per pound of bodyweight (since 2ish pounds = 1 kg)?  So the numbers shouldn't be a quarter the intake.  Maybe half if you use the one.

 

I personally fall in the camp of "keep protein high always."  Because no matter what you're doing, you're looking to build/repair muscle, and higher protein will help with that.  Maybe up the carbs instead of fat if you're looking for endurance recovery, but otherwise I think you're looking more at calorie numbers rather than macro numbers.  Dunno.

 

Anyway, I use MFP, because I'm too lazy to maintain my own food database.

[Mike_d85]

If I'm mathing right (and I'm probably not, bear with me), wouldn't the 1 gram protein per kilogram roughly equal the 2 grams protein per pound of bodyweight (since 2ish pounds = 1 kg)?  So the numbers shouldn't be a quarter the intake.  Maybe half if you use the one.

 

I personally fall in the camp of "keep protein high always."  Because no matter what you're doing, you're looking to build/repair muscle, and higher protein will help with that.  Maybe up the carbs instead of fat if you're looking for endurance recovery, but otherwise I think you're looking more at calorie numbers rather than macro numbers.  Dunno.

 

Anyway, I use MFP, because I'm too lazy to maintain my own food database.

 

I was using the high number (2g per lb) to be dramatic.  I guess I'm camping with you since 1g per lb is fairly high and I'm good and used to having a piece of chicken with lunch.

 

In the end I decided to use a higher fat content when I was really ramping up the distance since apparently fats make my joints run so much smoother.

[Mike_d85]

I've got my 8 miles in last night after a crappy morning at the gym.  I'm not 100% sure why but I was just a little off kilter the entire day.  I was weak at the gym and couldn't get a decent pace going with the run club.  As a matter of fact I've been having trouble maintaining my race pace a lot the past few weeks.  I'm not sure if it's the cold or if I'm adjusting to upping mileage, but in late December/first week of January I was running 5 - 5.5 minute km.  Now unless I do speed work specifically I'm just below 6 minutes.
 
In more depressing news we got a call last night that my wife's grandmother is likely passing soon.  The whole family was with her last night in case she went.  She's had a few strokes recently so it's not shocking, but it still sucks.  She's a sweet lady.

[Mike_d85]

Unfortunately, my wife's grandmother passed.  We've had to fly down to SC last minute.

 

I'm trying to keep my runs in, but the weightlifting is out and I have a feeling the nutrition will be a bit in the gutter.  At least because of my celicac's I can commandeer the kitchen and make the comfort food myself.  After she's bent over backwards to re-engineer thanksgiving and christmas dinners to be gluten free (despite my protests) for me I owe her more than one family meal.

[RisenPhoenix]

Eeee, my condolences.

 

Good luck trying to keep the runs in, but don't stress too much about missing things!

[Mike_d85]

OK, back home and back to life.

 

My nutrition has stayed somewhat sane.  Most of what I  ate Sunday through Wednesday was fruit, yogurt and crackers.  I can tell that my metabolism slowed down a tick in the past week, but I'm fine with that.  Turns out I've actually lost a few pounds without meaning to (I guess while I was flip-flopping on changing my plan).  I'm sure it will ramp back up this weekend.  I'm going to try and not get carried away with the goodies this weekend, but between the americas rugby tournament kicking off Saturday and the Superb Owl on Sunday I make no promises.  Except that I promise to make Brats this weekend.  It's not THAT bad, right?  They're just pan fried and boiled in hard cider and served with onion and bell pepper on a bun.

 

I'm behind on my running since I missed what has been my long run on Wednesday.  I did get a 5k jog in last night.  I'm going to shoot for 15k Saturday morning and that still leaves me about 8k short for the week.

 

I got chastised in the gym this morning.  One of the gym rats I haven't seen in a while came back in.  Turns out that: 1 - he is a powerlifting competitor, 2 - my deadlift was rounding out enough that he thought I was going to throw my back out, 3 - he doesn't stop talking once he starts.

[Mike_d85]

I got my run on saturday and my GPS started going wonky again.  After mathing at my weird, irregular route using this page, I figure I got about 14 km in.  The problem is that kicked entirely too much of my ass. 

 

I think I need to shorten my Wednesday runs and get some really long runs going on Saturday.  I might have also pushed a little too hard in the gym Friday trying to make up for missing a week of lifts.  Regardless, it made me realize that I'm not getting any really long distance growth in one run. I've been sticking to the 8 mile circuit with the run club (about 12km) and it's felt good, but I need to start getting one big number growing like in my plan.  If for no other reason I need to work on the logistics of managing one long distance (hydration, nutrition, just plain not quitting) as well as my overall running fitness.

[Mike_d85]

I could sleep for DAYS right now.  I spent too much of last night trying to level up my smithing in Skyrim.  I want dragon scale armor, damn it.

 

Tonight at run club I'm going to take the 4.5 mile circuit.  That'll get me closer to the 8km my Wednesday is supposed to be and let me go to sleep early.

 

I guess I should stop being lazy and start tracking what I actually lifted in the gym:

Step Ups:

8X 90#

8X90#

8X100#

 

Lunges

8X90#

8X90#

8X90#

 

Bent Over Rows:

8X50#

8X50#

8X70#

 

Bench:

8X35#

7X35#

6X35#

 

Pullups:

5

4

4

 

I can't decide if I'm starting to lose strength in my arms or if I was just tired this morning.  I feel like my legs are starting to consume my arms a little.

[Mike_d85]

"Are you human?"

Negative.  I am a meat Popsicle. 

 

I ran 5k last night, but I'm not running below 10 degrees since that can start causing damage.  It keeps getting colder and I'm going to have to wait until the temperature gets up to the double digits tomorrow to get my long run in.  I got to the gym this morning and part of my warmup was making sure I could feel my toes again.

 

Squats:

8x90#

8x110#

8x140#

 

Rows:

8X50#

2X8X60#

 

Lat Pull Downs

8X100#

8X105#

8X105#

 

Cable Cross-overs

3X8X20# (do I call it 20 or 40?)

 

Sissy Squats

3 sets of 10

[RisenPhoenix]

"Are you human?"

Negative.  I am a meat Popsicle.

 

I giggled at this too much.

[Mike_d85]

I get an extra day off work, I get a heavy day.  I started off great, but I definitely started slowing WAAAY down at the end.  I took a nice, long, slow day in the weight room though and I haven't done that yet this year.  I also hit the scale and I'm back up to 160, which is good.

 

Squats:

5X140

5X160

5X160

5X160

5X160

 

Deadlift:

5X5X160

 

Overhead:

5X40

5X50

5X50

3x45

4x40

 

Rows:

5X5X70

 

Bench:

5X70

5X90

5X90

4X90

3X90

 

I definitely taking a nap after lunch to recover so I can go for a run before it starts cooling off after sunset.

[Mike_d85]

I promise I intend to make it more than a week without having to miss runs or lifts, but...

 

I got sick Monday after my run.  Which means I missed my run last night, my lifts yesterday morning, and I'm missing my run tonight (I could probably make it, but I'm still sniffling so why jeopardize the long run Saturday).  I'm starting to get nervous that I'm derailing.  I've been getting back to it every time I miss, but I'm starting to step up to the really long runs.  This saturday is supposed to be 20km (12 miles).  I'm getting into half marathon territory and I've fallen short of the goal 3 out of 8 weeks.

 

I need to stop thinking about it.  The more I think about it the more agitated I'm getting and I'm not even half way through my training yet.

[Mike_d85]

I got back on the horse Saturday, but I got thrown again.  I think I didn't warm up enough because I got distracted finding the start of my route.  Somewhere around Km 12 my back and left knee started cramping.  I muscled through a while and got some coconut water.  My back loosened up buy my knee refused to cooperate.  I had to walk the last 8 Km of my route. Grrr.  My knee is feeling better today so I'm going to go for a run as scheduled (6.5 K)

 

I did get my lifting in this morning and felt pretty good except for my overhead presses. 

 

Bench:

8X70#

8X70#

8X70#

 

Squat:

8X90#

8X160#

8X160#

 

Deadlift:

8X140#

8X140#

6X140#

 

Overhead Press:

8X30#

5X30#

2X30#

5X20#

 

Bent Over Rows:

8X60#

8X60#

8X60#

[Mike_d85]

So there was a random pack of cross-fitters in the weight room today.  I hope that's not a regular thing because they took all the standard size barbells for their circle of jerk and clear.

 

Incline Bench (heavier bar):

3X8X50#

 

Step Ups (light bar):

8X90#

8X110#

8X110#

 

Lunges (light bar):

8X90#

8X90#

7X90#

 

Rows (standard bar):

3X8X50#

[RisenPhoenix]

So there was a random pack of cross-fitters in the weight room today.  I hope that's not a regular thing because they took all the standard size barbells for their circle of jerk and clear.

 

I've gotten used to just straight up interrupting the Bros who hog things when they are going to be done and/or they need all that space.

 

I have shit to do, I can wait for a bit, but after a while I'm not going to stand by while they flex and do poorly performed lifts.

[Mike_d85]

I've gotten used to just straight up interrupting the Bros who hog things when they are going to be done and/or they need all that space.

 

I have shit to do, I can wait for a bit, but after a while I'm not going to stand by while they flex and do poorly performed lifts.

 

No, I'll hand it to those guys, they were hustling the entire time they had the bars.  Sets of Romanian deadlifts, jerk and clears, and overhead presses split by about 30 second rest periods.  I think they went about four cycles of that.

[Mike_d85]

I got in 6.5 miles last night.  I forgot to time myself, but I finished with the pack of people doing the same run as I was doing.  One of them took a shining to my friend.  When I left them they were gushing over their Garmins.  Maybe I should ask him if he showed her how his monitors sleep last night.

 

At run club last night Saucony unveiled a new special edition shoe for the Boston marathon inspired by the green line trains.  It's only a $10 premium over the shoe I was going to buy anyways (and virtually the same model).  I might get a pair for the lulz.

[Mike_d85]

Well I made a silly mistake last night: I ran faster than I was supposed to.  We'd ordered takeout and I was supposed to do my 6.5km run in 45 minutes.  Silly me ran it in 35.  Booyah.

 

I took a light day at the gym since my lower back has been nagging me.  It's not really hurt per-se but it has been sore a little too long for comfort:

Bench:

3x8x70#

 

Lat Pull Downs:

8x100#

8x110#

8x110#

 

Row:

8x50#

8x50#

8x60#

 

Sissy Squats:

3 sets of 10

 

I'm going to shuffle my routine a little.  I'm a little too tired on Thursday for my own good and a little to well rested on Friday since I don't run Friday nights.  So, the easy day I've been taking on Friday is pretty much getting shuffled to Wednesday and the workout I've been doing on Wednesday that has literally left sweat puddles underneath me is being moved to Friday.

[Mike_d85]

Saturday was the farthest I've ever run!  I get to say that for the next six weeks.  My knees are taking a hot minute to recover.  I'm going to have to ice them after long runs, but I felt good an ran a strong 2 hour 22.5 km (13.5 miles).

 

Got my lifts in this morning:

Squats:

8x90#

8x160#

8x160#

 

Rows:

3x8x50# (I've been having trouble holding form at 60#)

 

Deadlifts:

3x8x90# (my back tweaked last week and I'm a little hesitant to throw more weight on)

 

Overhead Press:

8x30#

7x30#

6x30#

 

Bench:

3x8x70#

 

I also tried some core stuff.  A few dumbbell things I saw online I gave a shot, but I don't like them.   I ended up just doing a bunch of decline crunches.  In addition to working the core I feel like it stretched my back a good bit.  I think I like that one for a bit of relaxation.  Speaking of backs, my deadlift really made mine sore last week.  I'm having some trouble rounding my back out so I think I'm going to try getting a lifting belt.  I know it's not a back brace but I think my diaphragm has passed it's freestanding limit and that's why my back is being employed.

[Mike_d85]

I ran 6.5k the past two nights and plan on running 8 tonight.  I'm not trying to kill myself, but I have plans on Thursday.  Plans which blessedly involve sitting down a lot.  I'm glad I gave myself the light workout on Wednesday.

 

 

Lunges:

3x8x90#

 

Rows:

3x8x60# (I found some 2.5# since I keep doing weird things with my chest at 70#, but 50# is easy peasy)

 

Cable Crossover:

3x8x20#

 

Lat Pull Downs:

8x100#

8x120#

8x110#

 

Sissy Squats:

3 sets of 10

 

Mountain Climbers (the core experiments continue!)

3 sets of 30 seconds.

 

I don't know if the Mountain Climbers did much to work my core but I definitely ran up my heart rate doing them.  Next I'll try the Russian Twist.  I'm not sure I can bring myself to do "windshield wipers" in public.