219.5 this morning when I woke up and 219 after mowing the lawn.
So this is the first time I have started a day below 220 pounds since 2005 at least and probably earlier. I know I was in the 215-218 pound range when I met my wife in June 2002 and did my first official half marathon a couple weeks later.
In 2001 I did manage to get down to 204 with lots of walking and weights. When I was 215 in 2002 though I was probably at my peak weight lifting level and my body fat % was probably as good as if not better than what it was when I was 204. I suspect that if I can hit near 215 in the next couple weeks (before the half marathon on Sept 2nd?) that I will have a higher body fat % than what I was at the same weight in 2002 to as well.
This means that while about 215 is a goal weight that I have been keeping mind, I should be able to keep getting lower. In a perfect world I would like to hit 197 and 15% body fat. I checked my body fat % when I was at 222 and it was at 25% (this would mean that back when I started this journey I was probably around 35% body fat with the assumption that I haven’t lost any muscle mass in that time). The 25% means that as long as I don’t lose any muscle mass while I try to get down to 197 then the 15% should be just about right for that weight. This would awesomely correlate with having lost a total of 60 pounds from my start weight of 257 pounds.
Doing the math from 219.5 this means I still need to lose 21.5 pounds with the hanging question of “by when”. Ideally I would like that to happen by October 19th which will be the final of the 3 back to back half marathons I am doing this fall – the WFPS half marathon. I also want to make sure that by the end of these 3 races I have hit a new personal best on the half distance – so I have to beat 1:46:11.
October 19th is 9 weeks away starting tomorrow – approx. 2.4 pounds a week – possible but tough, requiring focus.
So how does this look? It means that I want to be around 215 for the Sept 2nd half marathon and then continue the weight loss to be around 207-208 for the 2nd half marathon on September 22nd. This puts me in the position to keep pushing and losing and be down to 197 for the 3rd half marathon 4 weeks later. This is achievable as I did similar losses last year when I got focused last fall.
How do I make this happen? Diet and exercise of course – same as any weight loss goal. But more specifically I have to do a few things:
- Really watch the snacks – don’t want anything going on that will cause a weight regression or a spike. I probably won’t cut out Coke completely but I will watch my intake very closely. This also means nothing like licorice or other candies that could cause an insulin spike on me.
- Focus on the diet – I want to make sure I am getting enough protein so that I don’t lose any muscle mass and a high protein diet seems to be the best way for me to keep full/not be hungry, have energy and still get lots of actual taste. For someone around my size, rough numbers from the almighty internet give me around 100 grams a day. I will write up something else shortly to describe what I am going to try to follow for diet for the next few weeks.
- Make sure my shorter runs on the treadmill stay high intensity – longer calorie burn as the body cools down plus this will help with my speed to improve.
- Get in lots of miles outside – long slow run training distance should be starting to get longer than a half marathon. The run scheduled for this upcoming Sunday is slated for 13.5 miles or 3 laps around the neighborhood but I have been slowing adding to these and I will be trying to do 4 laps for sure instead or possibly 5.
- I will be starting to look at adding in a morning run on weekdays before work – would have to do them outside and would do probably around 2 miles or so – these would not replace the higher intensity training runs on weekday evenings on the treadmill. The idea being to try and really ramp up the metabolism here, hopefully without injuring myself – if it seems like too much then I will take this out and look at extending the treadmill runs an extra 5 to 10 minutes each night.
- Get in the pool more – weather has been a bit cool but has now warmed up again and the forecast is for that trend to continue so I will be taking advantage of that to do as many laps and resistance exercises as I can while the weather is warm enough and before we have to shut it down for the season.
- Start figuring out a free weight / body weight routine that I can do quickly so that it is ready to go on days that I can’t get in the pool. This will be focused on chest, arms and shoulders most likely including chin ups, dips, pushups and then free weight dumbbells for arm curls and shoulder presses.
This will require some intensity and focus for sure but is very doable but we will see how it survives when it crashes into the activity schedules for the kids when September hits!
While doing this I am trying to keep a longer term focus on my weight loss but also focusing on getting my speed up for the first of the 3 halfs that are coming up. Ideally I would like to hit the weight loss goals laid out up above and just catch my personal best on the half. This would then allow me to continue to lose weight and train hard – in that way the reduced weight will help my speed while I actually get legitimately faster through training as well. What this would then hopefully mean then is that each of the next 2 half marathons would get faster pushing my personal best even lower. If all that were to occur it would mean that after I finished the 3rd race I would for sure be in the best shape of my adult life (at 42).
Now what would happen if I then started training for the Goofy Race and Half Challenge in January 2014 from that starting point? I suspect I could shatter my old personal best on the full marathon (current PB is 4:15:01) as part of this event…quick check of the website and Goofy Challenge is still sitting at 96%….damn. Decisions need to be made…
If I were to do the Goofy what would my goals be? I would have to set a new personal best for sure – under 4 hours would seem like a requirement as well. 3:30 would be in the realm of possibility if my weight was in the right range…3:00 or 3:15 for Boston Qualifier? That is really not likely at all but that would be 21 weeks away from this Sunday and if my weight was down and I trained extremely hard….? But if I got to 3:30 for Goofy in January could I hit 3:00 in June for the Manitoba Marathon (at 43)? It is all possible because my body does seem to be able to pull off some crazy things despite my size but maybe I am looking too far ahead and getting myself way too worked up – I need a closer focus right now.
…But if I hit 197 and 15% body fat for October 19th what could I expect to be for January 2014 for the Goofy? I wouldn’t be in the pool so I suspect my weight loss would be slowed or stopped but if I could keep up the high protein diet and start focusing on weight lifting (to replace the pool) in addition to the running could I get my body fat percentage down even lower? Would around 195 and 10% make sense? That would mean basically losing about another 10 pounds of body fat while putting on 7 or 8 pounds of muscle…in the 12 weeks between the WFPS half and the Goofy Challenge? Adding a pound of muscle a week is doable but takes significant focus and dedicated muscle training – not really what I am shooting for here on top of putting in hours of running training a week. So nope – that is very unlikely – the body won’t gain that kind of muscle that quickly so maybe a more realistic goal would be to try to add ¼ pound of muscle per week for 10 of those 12 weeks (factor in taper) for a 2.5 pound muscle gain. While doing this try to lose a few more pounds of fat (again high protein diet would be key) – if were to hit 192 then balance out the ratios and you get 11.5%. This might be possible with dedication and focus. After the Goofy was over I could do a more concentrated push for 10%. All that being said 15% would still be a fantastic spot to be at….yes must have a much shorter range focus right now while understanding that hitting those goals puts me in an amazing place to push for something even more phenomenal.
Whoohoo – under 220 – now don’t screw it up Ted.
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