Practically a year later and I am back, training for the same Marathon: Cape Town, which will be run on Sept 18 this year.
That’s 85 days from today and I am finishing up week # 6 of an 18-week Hal Higdon Intermediate training program.
Initial goal was to shoot for a BQ at 3:55 but I now realize that is overly ambitious for what will be my first marathon since 2009. Perhaps 4:30 will be a more realistic goal – or maybe just a respectable finish, depending on the weather on the day.
Training cycle thus far has been fair to middling, with a few truly horrible ‘Bataan death marches’ in the mix. One here in the Houston heat & humidity and another one along the C & O Canal path in Washington D.C. Started too late and ran in the sun practically the entire way. Not a good idea.
Few minor injury issues including a tight – left – piriformis muscle but nothing too serious; getting a weekly Airrosti treatment to ward off further complications.
The real problem is weight as in too much of it. Since last year I went up to 191 lbs – mostly due to undisciplined eating (portion sizes, snacking, candy, etc.) and also going completely off the plant-based diet.
Last couple of weeks I have re-focused on the weight issue and now using Cronometer to log everything. The idea being to create a 1,000 calorie deficit per day, for a total deficit of 7,000 calories per week, which should put me on the path towards losing 2 lbs per week.
I am not sure how this will work with increased training – being in the middle of a marathon training cycle is likely not the best time to be reducing one’s caloric intake. But if I don’t do something now, I am going to waddle up to the start line in Cape Town in September at 180-lbs plus, which is guaranteed not to end well.
This week it was relatively easy to drop from 188 to 186; counting calories and being on a no-oil 100% plant-based diet practically ensure quick initial weight loss. We will see how it goes next week and for the following 12 weeks.
runningonelegatatime 