Talking about Matt Fitzgerald's racing weight quick start

I talk about Matt Fitgerald's book Racing Weight Quick Start. 

Quick start week 6

So I'm going into week 6 of my quick start weight loss.

Here was my weigh in this morning.

I've lost almost two percent body fat. And that makes me happy, but I had kinda figured on being further down than that at this point.

Granted this has not been easy. Trying to do this over the holidays has been even worse.

There is food everywhere!

But I am making progress. And I am thankful for that.

I've got two more weeks before I'm supposed to start the training cycle for my next race, but maybe I'll put off the spring race and focus on getting lean.

Hanson's Method review

Well, you can definitely count me a Hanson's convert!

I only began running a little more than two years ago. I ran my first ever half marathon last April. I finished in 2:11:33. For that race, I used one of Garmin's heart rate plans. But it left me like I could've done more. And I felt like I hurt too long after the race, as if I wasn't fully prepared.

I signed up to race the half at the KC Marathon which was Oct. 21. When I began training for it, I started out using the same plan from Garmin still thinking I wanted something different. I did that plan for about a week and a half before deciding I wanted/needed something more. I had checked out the Hansons book from the library earlier this year and had been lurking these groups so I went ahead and ordered the book for myself and printed one of the free calendars from the website.

I had to skip the first week or so of the calendar because of the time frame but I'd gotten my mileage up to about 20 per week so I just jumped right in. I really want to break 2 hours on a half marathon but I thought that might be a little ambitious so I set up my paces for a 2:05 finish time. The first couple weeks really kicked my rear end, but I could really feel a difference too.

So I stuck with it. Other than having to jump in late, I missed only 3-4 workouts. I debated starting out with the 2-hour pace group, but I decided since I'd trained for 2:05 that was who I'd stick with. But I realized about a mile in that I was feeling really good and I wanted to give more, so I ignored the pace band the rest of the race and ran by feel.

I finished in 2:02:31 and I am super happy. It was warmer than usual, pretty humid and very windy. Plus the Kansas City course is really challenging (ie- hilly!). But it was a beautiful race, and I had a blast! Now to figure out training paces for that sub-2!

Week 7 half marathon training

We rode to get groceries on last Sunday and my Beloved tells me my rear wheel is out of true. When I got home I found a broken spoke. Not very happy about that. Thankfully I had a spare wheel to put on till I can figure out what I want to do about that.

Tuesday was Valentine's Day, and my Beloved sure knows the way to my heart!

The Garmin Connect app got an update this week that included this new feature. It will automatically put your activity stats on a photo for you to share. It's kind of limited, it only does this one thing. But it's still pretty neat.

I really like the Orange Mud hydration packs, but they aren't something I really need right now. I will surely buy one of their vests when I start really racking up the miles later this year in preparation for my first ever marathon. I have had my eye on this Squishy Hat they sell. So I ordered one and it came in the mail.

My first run with the Squishy hat and it's exactly what I was wanting in a hat. Something to put on my head so I wouldn't have to worry about my hair before a run (LOL!), something to act as a sweatband that didn't look like a sweatband, and something with a bill I could use to keep the sun out of my eyes. The Squishy Hat performs very well. And it even (mostly) fits my massive melon! I usually have to special order hats from a store that specializes in triple-XL size hats.

Today's long run was my longest run to date. And it's still only half way to the finish line of a half marathon! And there's only 63 days left to the Garmin Marathon! Part of me is screaming, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" But I'm sure I can do this.

Last week's long run was kind of miserable. My usual habit is not to eat anything before my morning runs. But with my runs getting up in the 90 minutes plus range I think that's hurting me. So today I had a bowl of granola cereal with milk and a glass of water. I felt much better on this run, so we'll have to keep an eye on that.

The weather has been crazy beautiful here these last couple days.

2016 year in review

It's been a good year.

I set my goals for this year on Dec. 31, 2015. On that day, I weighed 214 pounds.

This photo was taken on that day.

The goals I set were these:

I wanted to weigh 170, finish a 5k in less than 30 minutes and finish a 10k race.

I ran my first sub-30 5k on April 17.

I went on to clock a 26:53 on my race in October.

I ran 10 kilometers distance way back in February, but I pushed myself further on that run than I was supposed to and ended up hurting my knee a little. It wasn't a big problem, but it scared me. I've fallen in love with running and I'm not anywhere near ready to give it up.

Sometime in summer I decided that I needed to run an actual 10k race. So I started looking and found the Ward Parkway Thanksgiving Day Run.

I started training and was raring to go by the end of November.

I wanted to finish in less than an hour, and I came so close clocking 1 hour 40 seconds. I had an absolute blast. It was so much fun!

The last goal on my sheet was to weigh 170 pounds. When I wrote that down, I have to admit I just pulled that number out of the air. I didn't really think I'd get close, I thought I was aiming high. But as the year went on I realized I was getting very close.

I dropped below 180 pounds for the first time on Nov. 8. I almost can't believe it myself.

This photo was taken a couple days ago, my weigh-in this morning was 177. I'm going to count it as a win!

So what are my goals for 2017? Well I went a wrote up a sheet for them too.

I'm excited, it's going to be a great year!

November miles

Racked up 62.5 miles during the month of November. Was kinda aiming for 80, but I forgot about my training plan tapering me coming up to my 10k.

Ward Parkway Thanksgiving Day Run

I ran my first ever 10k ever Thursday morning!

It was the Ward Parkway Thanksgiving Day run.

I had a blast.

I really wanted to break an hour and I came so close! My official time was 1:00:40!

Here's the start, I'm in there somewhere!

Finished! I really pushed it there at the end.

Here's the official results.

Every finisher of this race gets a pie. I ate it all in one sitting. HaHa! It was good!

It was such a great day. I was whipped all the rest of the day. I was really thankful I thought to bring my foam roller along.

Last night while I was playing around online, I got an email from the Garmin Marathon offering me a sweet discount because I've been saying nice things about them on Twitter. So now it's official, I registered to run my first ever half-marathon this April!

Oh boy what have I got myself into now? Haha!

Garmin training plan

I can't believe it's been 11 weeks since I hung these calendars on my wall.

One of my goals for this year was to be able to run 10 kilometers distance, but I made kind of a snap decision at the very last minute to run an actual 10k race.

And here I am about a week away from race day! And I'm getting very excited.

My life had a little bit of a shake up last week in the career department. And that's going to screw up my plans just a little but everything should be OK.

I am very happy with the free training plan from Garmin.

I can see a marked improvement in my fitness. Being able to see the improvement in the heart rate and pace data collected by my watch makes a big difference. Without that data I'm not sure I'd feel like I was improving.

October miles

I got in a great 77.8 miles in the month of October. Even counting taking it easy for several days with a hamstring issue. 

In other news, only three weeks to go till my first ever 10k race!

September miles

Set a new record for miles last month. The 10k training is really coming along.

Transformation

Google photos does this thing every once in a while where it will remind me of photos I took one year ago. Today it reminded me of the photo on the left below.

It really hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm down to about 190 now. And I know I've made some huge progress over the past year. But this photo really took me by surprise. So I had to make the photo on the right to go opposite the one from a year ago.

Signed up for my first 10k

One of my big goals this year was to be able to run 10 kilometers.

I completed that back in like February. Well I thought, I need to run a 10k race!

I found the Ward Parkway 5k on Thanksgiving Day which is now offering a 10k option this year!

So I signed up!

I also found a free 10k training plan from Garmin to prepare for the race.

I printed out the training calendar and put it on my brag wall.

Then I figured I need a Garmin watch capable of making full use of that training plan so I found a refurbished Forerunner 220 and bought that too.

Broke 30 minutes!

I finally broke 30 minutes for a 5k run.

But it wasn't a race, so I'm not counting it as reaching my goal just yet.

10k distance finished!

I ran 10 kilometers for the first time today! I wasn't supposed to go that far. But as I got close to the end of my run, I just didn't want to stop!

New Years Resolutions 2016!

I made a list of goals for 2016. Can't wait to see how far I get!

Happy New Years!