Burying The Lead

(Happy Valentine's Day from Teh Snail)
The gratitude I possess towards my wife cannot be accurately conveyed with words. I am a better person because she is in my life.


Let's start with a thank you for all of the great feedback from my last post. Even GQH had something productive to add, as he reminded me of one of the primary reasons I started running again - to reduce my cholesterol level and improve my overall health. Now if we could just address his addiction to all things phanatical.

The takeaway from last week's post is that I am not getting enough protein and too much carbs in my morning meal. The Crackhead (my coach) has been relentless in his insistance that I take in more protein in the morning(as were several commentors). Overall, my daily consumption should fall somewhere around 0.5g - 0.75g of protein per pound of goal body weight. Using the short term goal of 180 pounds, I should be consuming 90-135g of protein a day. The well documented ideal is that your body takes longer to breakdown the proteins, feeling full longer. The other side of the coin being too many (simple) carbs sets you up for an insulin crash a few hours later. The trick for me is finding the right balance. I am right in the middle of training for my April ultra and need plenty of carbs and protein (and good fats) for training.
The other frequent comment from the last post was to consume 5-6 smaller meals per day. For the record, I am already on this band wagon and I love it. I eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking - 7:30am, have a "snack" around 10am & lunch around noon. Then there is the 2:30pm snack break, usually a 5pm snack break & dinner around 7pm. My snacks are usually fruits and nuts - quick & easy.


Let's put it all on the table. Holly & I have become regulars at the local farmer's market, we are using whole foods in all of our cooking. Very little, if anything in our kitchen is processed. I'm maintaining the desired weight loss of 1-2 pounds a week; needing 10 pounds in the next 8 1/2 weeks to be at 180 by the time SweetH20 rolls around. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Speaking of SweetH20...I got a message from and old buddy last week telling me he just signed up for the SweetH20 50k! Very cool Tom!(Anyone named Tom is cool, right G?) I've been trying to convince him (and CJ) to do this race. At least one of my buddy's has the set to step up to the line...

Last but not least, mini RR for the Freedom Run 10k last saturday. This was a very small, low key race. At most 100 runners between the 5 & 10k. The runners thinned out quickly as we spread about the 3.1 mile course(the 10k'ers did 2 loops) I was supposed to run a progression run, negative spliting the race. I got out fast and felt really good. 1/2 mile into the race I saw I was holding a 7:30 pace and backed off trying to get to the proposed 8:35 pace. Coach said go out "slow" don't worry, trust the pacing. It just felt easy and I was holding 8's without too much effort. I figured it would come back to haunt me at the end. There was a good size hill 2.25 miles in-it really came into play on the 2nd loop. Of course the other side of that coin was the nice downhill closing out the 2nd mile. I really took advantage of it in mile 5 and made up some ground(7:25 split).

Long story short, I didn't blow up, I didn't get passed after the first 1/2 mile and rolled up 5 runners in the last mile. I ran a great race and all of the work is paying off! This was a Peachtree Qualifier, my time will get me into the "B" corral. There will be 60,000 runners this year, I want to be as close to the starting line as possible. As it stands, 56 seconds seperates me from the A corral. My last chance at moving up a corral will be the Berry 1/2 Marathon I am running on the 5th of March.

Proposed splits/actual splits
1 - 8:35/8:00
2 - 8:23/7:53
3 - 8:10/8:16
4 - 7:58/7:57
5 - 7:45/7:25
6 - 7:33/7:58
.2 - 1:46/1:24
Total time 49:59/48:53

PR's Rock!
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2/14/11
Weight 190.0 (down 1.8 from last week; 11 pounds for the year)

Training Schedule
Su - 2:10 Long Run Zone 1/2
Mo - Rest
Tu - 30 minutes Zone 1
We - Strength
Th - Trackwork
Fr - Rest
Sa - 50 min total(20 min zone 1/2 - 30 min zone 3)
Su - 2:32 min Long Run Zone 1/2

This is a recovery week, we are working on a 16/5 cycle - 16 days hard/5 days recovery