Week 4 - Activity Log - Faster, Stonger, Longer

It is now week 4 of my training for The Great Scottish Run to raise money for the Ceridian Payback Foundation.  My Couch to 10k in 10 weeks ambition is now fully established and for the first 3 weeks of evidence, can consider myself on track to succeed.

 

With my knee still a bit tender, I decided to rest it a little more so did no activity on the Saturday (Day 1 of week 4). I would normally be looking to take part in the Glasgow Parkrun but I am a little concerned about my knee and do not want to cause myself an injury that could ruin the whole thing!

 

Sunday though, was a different matter and I decided to go the the Isle of Cumbrae with friends of ours. There is a road that travels round the island so the main town there, Millport, has plenty of bike hire shops. This is a 10 mile (16k) round trip. A nice exercise and good rehab for my knee.

This was a great day out but it was a gentle ride out as it was more like a family day. Using Map My Run, I could set it to bike ride, and still track round the island.  Taking 1 hour and 17 minutes (I paused the app when we stopped for a pic-nic), the app still claimed a calorie burn of 644. Not sure if this seems correct, but I am sure that some good had to come of the day trip and it was a thoroughly good day out too.  Mixing up the training seems to be a good tactic.

 

Tuesday then marked the start of the running again back at my old faithful, Alexandra Park. A thorough warm up, music on, Map My Run set back to running again and off I went. 

I do not know if it was because it was a week since my last run, or the fact that it was raining for the first time ever on one of my runs, but I was all over it. I kept a good pace, made it over the hill and kept it going all the way to the 5k finish and I was absolutely loving it. This was a non stop run.  5k over hills, a lifetime achievement and I felt that I could have continued to do more so decided all future training runs in Alexandra Park will be upped to 6k. I have never felt so good after a run as did this day. 

After the run, I did a thorough stretch and warm down. My knee was starting to feel a bit tender again so will try to rest it up again till Thursday's run.

 

On Wednesday, I did no activity (rest day) but did spend all night stretching my tender knee, just while I was sitting on the sofa. This seems to have paid dividends because at the end on the night, I stood up and all my tenderness was gone so I have now convinced myself, that the issue is with my warms ups and downs and I have not done myself a serious injury.

Thursday then, and my first 6k challenge. During the warm up was thinking to myself to just keep a steady pace and try to run the 5k non stop (when I say stop, I mean slow to walk!), and then see what I can do on the last kilometre.  Given that the even kilometres are always uphill, I needed to be realistic so normal routine - good warm up, music, Map my run and off.

Once again, a thoroughly enjoyable run. I have noticed a pattern that on the first kilometre or 2, my legs get gradually heavier but then on 3 and 4, I am in a good rhythm and really enjoy the run, then the 5th km is a tough one because I am getting to the end of my fitness level but today, I am in the mindset that I am not stopping at the 5th, and will keep going as far as I can.

The 5th KM comes in and I get up the initial hill before it plains off to the biggie. I have made a mistake with my music, with Bill Conti having got me past the 5k, I am now listening to random stuff and it is nice to hear but not really motivating me to keep going - need to resolve this for the next one!

 

Bottom of the hill on the 6th km and I am feeling tired but equally pleased with myself for running the furthest I ever have in my life so I just get my head down and focus on my breathing. My mindset it that I will probably make half way before stopping, but no, I get half way and manage to dig deep and keep it going all the way to the top.

 

I am completely knackered though and feeling a little bit emotional. I never believed that I would manage to do this hill at all without stopping but today, I have done it 3 times and best bit, the last half of final kilometre is all down hill. So its an nice easy pace down the hill and getting near the end think to myself "Sprint Finish!" but it is just a step too far, so I make it over the line at a moderate pace and stop the clock.  6k non stop, 3 hills and no Mr. Starfish. I really am feel quite pleased with myself, so after my stretches if anyone saw me strutting back to the car looking like I lost a pound and found a tenner, I make no apologies!

 

Final activity for the week was a 600m, swim at the Gorbals. Wanted to go there again as I do tend to struggle with the 50m pool at Tollcross and there is the bonus of the jacuzzi. With my knee stiffening again, I figure a swim and underwater stretches followed by the jacuzzi would be just what the doctor ordered - and it was!

Only issue I have with my swim was that that I managed to an extra 100m than normal, AND did it in 5 minutes less time. This is a good achievement on one hand, but when I logged it into Map My Run, it calculated a calorie burn of 584. Neatly 100 less than normal, which I do not fully understand. More distance in less time = less calories?  going to research this as I am a bit baffled my that!

Otherwise, I think I have had a great week. Marked some lifetime achievements (5k non stop, 6k  non stop, 600m total swim). I am without a doubt getting fitter, stronger, faster and have increased stamina and endurance. I feel brilliant and more confident and I am starting to notice a bit of bagginess with my clothing. Life is good! :-)

 

Week 2 Summary Report - Nutrition - Exercise - Weight

Week 2 and I am now well into my training for the Great Scottish Run 10k for the Ceridian Payback Foundation. It has been a great week in terms of fitness and learning and I am delighted to start with advising that I have registered for the 10k so I am now committed and next week I will be recruiting the troops from my workplace to join in and get the fundraising going.

Last week, I had a couple of actions and targets to set for this week. These were:

1.      Research Nutrition in terms of calorie balance

2.      Increase Running Training to 5k

3.      Increase Swimming to 500m

4.      Get below the obesity line on the Wii Fit

Let's start with the nutritionals. I want to be clear that I am doing this for fitness and weight loss BUT I absolutely want to promote healthy living. Last week, my daily average calorie count after exercise deductions was 1274 and despite being happy to lose 3.5 pounds, I wanted to research this as it felt like I was going too far and frankly, I am glad I did.

The first article to catch my attention was here at LiveStrong.com where they claim that the "Average" man needs a minimum of 1300 calories a day and recommends between 2000 and 2400. If you read this article, pay particular attention to the "Significance" section, which has a first sentence of "Eating too few calories can cause numerous problems before you die of starvation". Sounds scary and I believe from this that I definately needed to increase my calories for the level of exercise that I am doing.

The issue with most of these articles is that they always seem to talk about average men. I think at 6'1" and 227 pounds, I would not fall into this category so did some googling and found an excellent calculator at freedieting.com that takes in your height and weight, asks how much exercise you do in a week then calculates what your calorie intake should be to (a) maintain weight, (b) achieve weight loss and (c) achieve extreme weight loss.

The really interesting detail is in the supporting article where there are tips on how to keep your body guessing so that your metabolism does not slow down.

So for me, I am going work to a guideline of consuming between 1800 and 2250 calories per day over the week. Last week I did 1500 which I am now convinced was far too low for the amount of training I am doing!

With this lesson now learned, the day by day consumed calories for last week were as follows:

 

Saturday - I normally do a run on a Saturday morning so skip breakfast. Was out at night for a meal where I had a pasta. I am showing this as a bad day as I should have eaten more in the afternoon.

Sunday - Had some breakfast then had a BBQ in the late afternoon. Showing this as a bad day too as I went the opposite way and induldged myself too much. Alcohol intake was reasonable but I think the 2nd Burger is my moment of weakness on this day - the sensible choice would have been to have just 1. This would have put me on a green day!

Monday - Giving myself a green day on this one. Not quite the calories I should be on but this is a rest day for me so should make a concession. Note that I am simply eating the leftovers from the previous day's BBQ!

Tuesday - Perfect - I am right in zone I want to be in. This is a run day so it is good to eat a bit more.

Wednesday - Hmmm - Probably a bit on the low site but, again, this is a rest day so can make a concession - rated amber, as I could do a bit better.
 

Thursday - Another bad Day, I am just not getting the calories in that I really need. This was a runday so I need ot make sure that I stock up better. Probably a better lunch is what is needed here.

Friday - Perfect - Bang on with the Calorie count and exactly where I want to be. I did a swim on this day.

So overall, I have only managed to achieve healthy status on 3 days of the week. The weekend was a disaster in terms of nutrition and I need to do more mid week, particularly on run days.

Total Calorie intake for the week was 13162, a staggering 3000 more than the week before and the daily average was 1880, 300 up on the week before. Looking at these figures, I have definately made a positive impact on a healthy diet but there is still work to do.

Physical Activity

This a has been another active week with some excellent progress. Ramping up the running training to 5k has taken me to my limits but I am finding that with every run out, I am getting further before I need to stop for a walking break. I do seem to have problems with my breathing so next week's research will be into breathing techniques.

Also, my swim this week was the at new TollCross swimming pool, which is an olympic size. Last week I was in a 25 meter pool, so doing a length, stopping, doing another length was quite good. This time, a length was 50m so I really had to dig deep to complete the 500m that I wanted to. But I did achieve this (although anyone who watched me might claim this to have been debateable!).

Saturday:

Tuesday:

Thursday:

As my blogs through the week show, I am running further and finding that a steady pace in favour of a quick time works better and will server me better when I ramp up to the 6km. I still have not made it up to the top of the hill in Alexandra Park yet, but on my last run, was very close - Target set for next week!

My Calorie burn has for the week has gone right up as a result of the increased activity. 2672 for the week is over 800 on the week before, re-iterating the point that I absolutely need to eat more.

So the Daily Average Calorie Balance for this week was 1499, an increase of just over 200 on the week before but still not near enough to 1800 that I think I should be doing.

Finally, weight loss. Getting the Wii Fit out to check the progress, I am absolutely delighted to annouch that at 102.3 Kgs (a loss of 1kg / 2 pounds) and a BMI of 29.89 (-0.3), I am now officially Overweight! (yeeeeesssssss!!! - Fish Supper on the cards tonight for sure!). And as an incidental, my Wii Fit age is now 37 (-1) so in terms of weight loss, I am still well ahead of target.

Ultimately, this week has been a learning curve on getting the nutrition right and pacing myself during training. I still have some work to do on upping my calories but If I can do this but achieve the same weight loss (by filling up on less fatty things), then I will be a happy chappy indeed!

Focus and targets for next week

1.      Get the calorie counts up for the overall week.

2.      Get the good days and bad days in a zig-zig pattern.

3.      Only have bad days for being over (none under).

4.      Investigate breathing when running and swimming.

5.      Keep Running at 5k distance but in Alexandra park, make it to 3km before slowing.

6.      If I do a swim, keep it at 500m but try to do 5 x 100 meter runs.

Favourite Pic for the week: