Friday, August 19, 2016

Chicago - Week 15 (8 to go!)

Monday
Distance - 6.2
Pace - 9:42

Hard morning.  Snooze button like 800 times.  (Poor Bill).  "Fingers crossed its still raining."  Oh, not raining.  Leaving.  "Fingers crossed Kyle bails."  Nope, Kyle wakes up too.  On the run: easy pace out, (Finest is coming, Judy.  Be good!), but then a little push on the way back, just because dang it felt good to run post-rain in *just* 70 degree weather.  (10:30, 9:58, 9:36, 9:40, 9:30, 9:18, and 8:08 for the balance).

I can't believe how different the pace on these is from last year.  I remember *dying* to see 10:14.  9:42 now comes without total burn out.  I also like these Monday runs because there are a lot less variables.  I run only with Kyle, so not too crazy of an external 'pacer' push (like sometimes Tuesday or Friday).  Almost nothing by way of hills.  No stops, or recoveries to artificially sweeten the deal, like Saturday or Thursday.  This is what me looks like in my most simplest "go for a run" format. The pace is the pace, and today, I love what it looks like!

Took a new present out for a spin, too.  (Thanks Humana Vitality Bucks!)

More info than I could ever possibly need!  But the heart rate chart is great.  Lots of time in the orange.  Probably a little too much time in the red for a Monday.  Tomorrow, if I wake up for #10KTuesday, I think purposeful back of pack placement is a *must*.

Evening
The Kilometer Kids fundraising hosted a "get tanked" event tonight.  Using an under water scale to assess body composition, the process gives more accurate and in detail feed back than your typical home bathroom scale.

(Details on how this type of thing goes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5wITqBfVz0)

I am not ready to go into a lot of detail on my results, but suffice it to say that the metrics pulled me into a SERIOUS (if short-lived) bout of depression and uncertainty.  How?  How can I be doing THE MOST I have ever done and have my numbers still be THIS bad?  How is all of "this" NOT enough???  In a matter of hours, I ran through most of the grief stages:   Denial .. I didn't breath out hard enough, I didn't wear the right swim suit, I misrepresented my height (5'0 versus 5'1 .. because I am 5'0.6" and never know how that should be reported). Anger .. tantrums all night, late bed time, no run Tuesday morning. Bargaining ... I tried to focus on this being a good thing:  if I am so seriously out of range, and am running sub-26:30 5Ks, there's such great room for improvement.  If that improvement comes seriously slowly, I'll at least see PRs for eternity, right???  Depression .. just hand over the cookies & wine, and nobody gets hurt.  It all showed up.  Acceptance didn't come until Tuesday, though, and with a lot of help from a friend.

Tuesday
Distance - 6.2 total, run/walk
Pace - didn't keep

Looks like I am running evenings this week.  One itty bitty mishap on the sleep front, and I am struggling with early morning again.  Oh well.

Acceptance - Missing the AM run was really a direct result of my shitty mood post-dunk.  I only really started feeling better after a chat with a friend, where I was forced to remember just about ever detail of how far I've come.  (tears at work .. needed that! .. thanks friend. :) ).  This turned the depression into motivation.  I dusted off My Fitness Pal, and started tracking.  The entire day!  Woo.  Under calories.  Lots of healthy choices.  Day 1(again) in the books!

Unfortunately, by the time I got on the treadmill (9 pm), I just didn't wanna.  So I started with a walk.  Something is better than nothing.  Tunes and warm up helped talk me into mile 2 being a run moderate.  (can't report a pace, but no less than 6 mph speed, adding speed every 1/4 lap, and into the 8 mph setting for the final 400 m).  Another walk .5.  I thought I would walk/run in mile increments, but at 1/2 mile of walk, I had recovered and was bored. Finished the .6 to 5K running hard, and then off treadmill so kid could watch t.v.  I wanted to get in more distance, even if not running, so after that, I took myself out for a 3.1 mile walk (at 9:45 pm, with head lamp).  Mainly I played Pokemon go, haha, but my neighborhood is hilly, so better than nothing.  10KTuesday the extreme extended edition. :)

Wednesday
Distance - 3.1
Pace - 9:40

Wednesday is typically rest or XT, but this week, I can't say my Tuesday was legitimate, and I won't run Friday in prep for Atlanta's Finest.  So I felt totally up for a quick 5K before work.  (especially since the work step challenge is still kicking my butt).  Took it complete easy for two miles, (10 min pace ish) and then ran at 10% race pace the last mile.  It was tough, but just for a mile and on a treadmill, handle-able.

Still tracking, too.  Day 2.  Looking forward to a Friday weigh-in for the first time in ages.  I won't be disappointed if I don't see TOO much change in four days, because its the WRONG time of the month for scale victories.  But maybe, just maybe, a smidge of a reward for the effort.

Thursday
Distance - FAIL

Went to OCEE with best intentions.  Walked around for a mile while waiting for speed work to start.  Then thunder / lightening rained us out.  Drove home with best intentions.  Stayed in work out clothes until after dinner, but then ..  started reading Harry Potter, and never got back to the 2 mile repeats.  Womp.  I wasn't thinking I'd do them full out, because I knew I wanted to taper, but I *at least* thought I'd run something.  OOPS.  Oh well. I started this training cycle early enough, and am feeling strong enough about what I am doing that I should be able to give this week to Finest, and after that one, no more.  Straight Chicago training to the nth degree from Sunday to October 9th.

Day 3 tracking .. going strong!  Added some crunches before shower and after work, too.

Today, I also read another post on the topic of the "dunk tank" body fat composition test, and it gave me the one piece of information I needed to go looking in my own blog for more info: Tanita.  As in "search: posts: tanita scale."  And from a March post, voila:

1/20
Weight 145.6
Fat % 36.4
Fat Mass 53lbs
Metabolic Age - 49
BMI 28

3/20
Weight 140.4
Fat % 34.7
Fat Mass 48.8
Metabolic Age - 44
BMI 27.4

*SHOCK* I already had seen all of this information.  And back in March, I processed it as "progress" and not "FAILURE."  Mainly because the charts on this new print out say things like "Poor" "Very Poor" and contained other phrases with the dreadful "O" word, where I don't think the Good Measure Meals broke it down quite that way.  I will take overweight.  I know that.  But Obese is a word I banned from the vocabulary at least a year ago!

So .. I'm ready ..

August 
Weight 139 (I think that's a little high based on time of month, having eaten before tank, etc.  I'm at 137 or less most mornings, so I am sure this improved more than just 1 lb, and during marathon training, so I'll take it).
Fat % 32
My fat mass: 45
My BMI now is 26.7 (26 even if I use my most recent "lowest" of 135.7).

So yea .. slow .. but I AM changing.  We can focus on that!

In unrelated / very related news:  I already had an appointment to try something a little "different."  (scheduled pre-dunk test, for real)  And before you eeep, let me explain. ;)  I didn't want to try something TOO invasive (yet?), but I see these offers on Group On all the time .. freeze the fat, heat the fat, laser beam the fat to smithereens.  Original price: $2,400.  Now: $89.99.  Well .. so I decided .. what the heck.  Maybe I just need a little laser to stimulate the process ..  to get the fat juices flowing?


This picture makes my middle look humongous.  IRL, not THAT bad .. just the belt going around all those controllers, the laying down, the scrunched up dress, and the tipping of the bed.  For realz.  

I read about this for a bit (of course), and people don't lose A LOT with "I-lipo."  But they claim that when they measure, they lose CMs, and that their clothes fit a little better, etc.  I'm not looking for -10 lbs in 8 sessions, but at this point, help with -5 in two months would make all the world of difference.

Bonus for the Spa: during the consult, technician said, "but ... oh man ..  you're so small already."  I LITERALLY turned around to look for the person behind me who she must be talking to."  Then she said, "and oh my goodness, your legs!" ... which tipped me off that we were, indeed, still talking about me.  lolz!

After that, I stayed as pictured above for about 25 minutes (2 of 8 11-minute sessions purchased with Group On).  When I got up, I didn't "see" any miracles, and by the time I got back to work, I had a raging headache.  On the other hand, I did feel "lighter."  Pardon the TMI, but as a runner friend of mine once said about using the toilet ... "in a new weight category." LOL.

I feel kinda dumb for even trying this .. but desperate times call for desperate measures.  If it even helps me get a lb or two off just by placebo effect, I'll take it.  I'll update after I have finished out the rest of the sessions.  Fingers crossed.

Friday
Rest or XT

Swimming?  Maybe.  If it doesn't pour this afternoon, I guess I'll do that to loosen the legs.  Either that or a short quick mile or two of intervals (quick and slow) on the treadmill.  TBD.  If I do something, I'll come back and write on it.

Continuing the other conversation .. This AM, the scale said 136.1.  That's exciting, even though not my lowest recently because:  -1 lb from Monday, 2. by this point in any given month, I am usually at the HIGHEST I'll be that whole month, and 3. this was not post any exercise either the night before or the morning right before stepping on scale.  The other lowest was after a long run.  So I am SOOOO excited about stepping on that scale next Friday, and seeing a NEW lowest number.  Very motivated to keep tracking and doing my 80-100 sit ups, interspersed throughout the day.  Its working!

Re: "I-lipo," firmly in the camp of saying:  it does work. Probably gets a bum rap because it doesn't work miracles, per se.  And I'm sure the change is so minimal, anyone who isn't already monitoring this SO closely wouldn't notice.  But here's how I know, where other peoples might not notice...  I have a scar from a surgery as an infant on my stomach.  It causes a little pooch of fat to deposit above it.  This morning, the view down from my eyes to my feet on the scale looked SO different.  Almost flat above the scar.  Now below .. which is *the* problem area, I can't tell .. hoping same effect, just not as easy to see a small difference.  But little pooch most definitely seriously flatter.  Can't do that with a week of dieting.

Saturday
See race report

Total - TBD.  Pretty Sucky So Far

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