Lose weight / race faster

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Dad

If you’re already very lean…good for you…this post doesn’t apply to you 🙂

I’m not…never have been ‘lean’…well, maybe in high school, getting down for a wrestling weight category…I remember it as being the 185 pound category, and in the last year with more muscle, bumped up to the 196 category…played football in university at 208, and now 200-205 typically…I can’t help but think that some 30 years later, it may be time to get down to fighting weight. 

The good news is that losing a few pounds…like even 5-10…makes quite a difference in speed…and I would probably be healthier for it…I can tell by a ‘mirror test’ that’s it’s there to lose without needing extensive testing.

There was a nice little table in Runner’s World a few years ago that’s been quoted a lot over the years that illustrates how much faster you could be if you lost weight. Of course, this would not take into account speed increases due to training, and is largely premised on losing fat, not muscle (Post coming on that topic).

Pounds Lost
5k
10k
1/2 Marathon
Marathon
2
:12.4
:25
:52
1:45
5
31
1:02
2:11
4:22
10
1:02
2:04
4:22
8:44
20
2:04
4:08
8:44
17:28

According to RW author Amby Burfoot, the table is based on research that runners, on average get 2 seconds per mile faster for every pound they lose. The times you see above are the amounts a runner can shave off his/her race times by losing weight.

Joe Friel agrees:  http://www.peaksware.com/articles/nutrition/weight-management.aspx

A common question asked by triathletes is how to lose weight to improve climbing on the bike and running in general. There’s little doubt that being lighter means better climbing and faster running. A pound of excess body weight takes about two watts to get it up a hill on a bike and costs about two seconds a mile when running. That doesn’t sound like much, but what if you shed ten pounds of fat? Dropping ten pounds of excess flab means you would ride up a hill about seven to ten percent faster and run a 5k about a minute faster.

Those are significant improvements in performance that would otherwise take lots of sweat and months of hard training to accomplish.

The Ironman Florida bike course is flat to rolling…and windy…so the extra weight doesn’t hurt as much as it would on a hilly course…part of what I like about Florida…although still a factor.

The run is also flat…but on the run, weight is weight, so a leaner runner would be faster.

Would be nice to ‘buy’ 10-20 minutes in the Ironman, by simply being 10+ pounds leaner…and my knees would probably thank me for it.

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Balancing calories without exercise

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Dad

I _need_ those exercise calories each day to keep from going crazy trying to get the numbers to come out right and enjoy what I eat each day.

I begin the day with a fruit smoothie to begin carbohydrate centric: water, 14oz bag of frozen fruit, a banana, and a tablespoon of Udo’s flaxseed oil, and 2 scoops of SP Complete (protein powder) for 532 calories.  This makes 2, 18 oz cups of smoothie, that I drink over the first hour of getting up.  This is also enough to set me up for a morning exercise session, that I can do any time within a couple of hours of finishing it. 

Next up is typically an egg sandwich…usually mid-late morning if not exercising in the morning, so really an extension of the smoothie breakfast…with either egg whites (most often) or an egg, with 2 slices of Ezekiel bread, a slice of tomato, and then ‘usually’ a slice of cheese and/or 2oz of ham +/-…with egg whites, this comes out to another 325 calories. 

So, my standard smoothie and egg sandwich, is 857 calories…typically by noon…without exercise, almost half my calories for the day.

I find that a 1,000+ dinner, leaves me feeling ‘over-full’…even if it was a BIG exercise day…and therefore typically happiest in the 750’ish range…enough calories to have something to eat that I can enjoy…less than that, and for me, it’s a rather spartan dinner…particularly if out at a restaurant.  From my food log, I know that my restaurant dinners often run up over 1,000 calories pretty easily…always need to watch that…like last night…1,284…dang…that flat bread, rustic pizza was sooo good as an appetizer though…at least I skipped dessert, since I felt full…so good adjustment there.

So on a daily basis, between the 857 calories in the morning and 750 for dinner, that’s 1,607 calories, leaving 2,000 – 1,607 = 393 for lunch, and afternoon grazing…and weight loss…and a beer or two every once in a while…and even the odd dessert…never mind if I run over on the calories on a dinner out.

So even in the off-season, I get out the door every day to get 500-1,000 calories burned off in exercise calories…and more on days that I’m planning to go out to a restaurant for dinner…and then enjoy what I eat without becoming the Michelin man.

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First run after Ironman

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Dad

Glad that I waited until a couple of days ago to get that first run in after the Ironman.  Could almost ‘feel’ recently repaired running muscles being called upon for the first time in a while…I think that they were glad for the time away from the roads…legs felt a bit stiff going out…joints, hips, quads, right knee, all a bit cranky but did warm up, and smooth out.  Kept it easy…31 minutes…that was just about right.

Of course there’s that tendency to want to crank it back up…get back to pre-Ironman levels quickly…we do feel pretty good right?  I think that I’ll give the body a break though…refresh and update my reading with the extra time…oh and a wife clamoring for…alright alright…she says ‘looking forward to’…more attention ‘now that the Ironman is over’…and get back to a maintenance level of 8-10 hours a week by January…my light, recovery weeks were around 8 hours during the Ironman training ramp up. 

I was happiest for the 499 calorie exercise credit in the Food Diary…that extra 500 exercise calorie burn, makes such a huge difference in being able to balance the calories in/out equation….closer to a 1,000 would be even better…many more options there.

By focusing on balanced eating during the day as outlined in our Caloric Intake During the Day page, it feels that I’m choking it back all day, to have 600-750 calories left in the ‘budget’ by the end of the day to have, at least in my heads view, a ‘decent’ dinner that I may actually enjoy. 

Goes to one of my key exercise motivators…food.

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Laura Scott, You Are an Ironman!

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Dad

At the finish line of every Ironman, an enthusiastic announcer, calls out each finisher by name, and loudly proclaims in a voice worthy of town criers of old, that ‘You are an Ironman!’.  At the end of a long day, with the finish line in sight, you get a new-found energy, and roll across the finishing mat, under the bright lights, with a fresh look and a smile…it’s a great moment the first time that you hear that…and every time after.

For me, the Ironman ‘journey’ was the pursuit and attainment of a seemingly impossible athletic dream and finally goal.

On Wednesday night, we watched as a dear friend of ours, Laura Scott, was on the Joy Behar show on CNN, as part of a 3 woman panel discussing the topic, ‘Childless by Choice’.

We’ve known Laura for over 20 year now.  In watching her that night, it struck me just how far she had come in the pursuit of her dreams and goals.  She was poised, confident, credible, and unbelievably calm in front of bright studio lights, cameras, and a rapid-fire format, delivering tight and enthusiastic answers.   Wow!

Laura has achieved national recognition and acclaim for her work on writing a book and associated film documentary, on the topic of Childless by Choice.  It wasn’t always that way.

We were there well before the bright lights that are shining on her now.  I do remember those early days…and years…when Laura thought that one day, maybe just maybe, she could/would write a book and create a film that folks would notice.  Lots of people ‘think’ about stuff like that…very few ever do.

Her pursuit, is not unlike the ‘Ironman’ journey.  In her case, the dream and goals were literary instead of athletic…the path and final accomplishment no less amazing when finally achieved.

Do you have an ‘Ironman’ dream and goal?

Laura we’re very proud of you…”You are an Ironman!”

Good job!

Video excerpt from the Joy Behar Show: Laura in the center

Laura Scott’s Childless By Choice Website

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How many hours per week training needed for Ironman?

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Dad

Joe FrielI was listening to a Webinar by Joe Friel (long-time triathlon coaching guru), where he was walking through setting up an Annual Training Plan (ATP) for a 32-year-old, age-group athlete that was hoping to use Ironman Coeur d’Alene 2011 to qualify for Ironman Hawaii, which he estimated would take about a 9:45:00 Ironman finish…so a pretty high-end goal…for his first Ironman distance triathlon.

This athlete was training last year around 11 hours a week on average, so about 550 hours for the year…and has a baby on the way in 2011.  The fellow said that his goal for 2011 was 12-15 hours a week.  Having been reminded of the impact of a new baby on parents with our first granddaughter this year, this is a _very_ ambitious guy…wonder if his wife was listening in?…hope nobody sends her the link to the webinar 🙂

Joe said that for Ironman, he’s found that an annual average of 12 hours a week is about a minimum if you just really want to finish the race…pro’s are typically minimum 20, to 25-35 hours a week.  Joe therefore set up the ATP at an average of 14 hours a week, or 700 hours a year….which ended up with about a half-dozen peak weeks at around 20 hours of training…and then bumped it up a bit more…could sense that for the level of goal that our athlete had, that Joe felt this is the _bare_ minimum, and probably not enough, given that things change over a year, new baby, catch a cold, other adjustments…life…job…get in the way.  Joe said that in 30 years of setting up ATP’s “I’ve yet to have an athlete complete the season with the training plan exactly as we set it up early in the year”…so a BIG part of training is adjusting for things that come along the way.

Following the principle of periodization, when Joe puts together his ATP over a year, it includes Prep, Base, Build and Peak periods before a Race…with different focuses in each period…and obviously if you race more than once a year, these are adjusted around your A, B and C priority races…and with a rather slick technology twist, the Training Peaks software (both Daughter and I use the program to log workouts) will set this all up automatically by answering a few questions…pretty cool, to give you an idea of what a training year will look like, even if you don’t specifically use the workouts…pretty darn complete though.

More details on a page that I created, Training Needed for Ironman, that also highlights Coach Gale Bernhardt’s ideas on training hours needed.

My Annual Hours for 2011

I was left thinking that I may want to bump up my annual plan for 2011.  In the past 4 years, I haven’t been logging workouts much in the time after Ironman, until I start the training back up specifically in January…so for about 8 weeks…so I’m not exactly sure what my annual training hours have been.  But roughly:

2007:     almost 500
2008:     about 450
2009:     almost 500
2010:     about 350-400, depends how this year finishes up

Due to other commitments and travel in 2010, I took a pretty relaxed approach to the training for the beginning of the year, working out consistently, but only 5-8 hours a week in maintenance mode, and then focused on Ironman really from the middle of July forward…so about 16 weeks out…ramping up to some peak weeks in the 15 – 16.5 hour range.

Could be time to raise the numbers for 2011…looks to me like at least 500 hours…I’ll probably plug-in 600, and see what the year looks like, peak weeks and recovery weeks in particular, to get an idea of the levels.   With Daughter joining me again at the starting line, could be time to get serious 🙂

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End of season immunity system strain

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Dad

I was reminded this morning by Iron Buddy Anne Boone, that during heavy training, and at the end of the season, and particularly after an Ironman outing, that the immune system has been strained, and can open the body to colds, that it otherwise would repel…and another reason to not ramp up training volume again too early, letting your body recover from the season.

I guess, not a great idea to kiss strangers for a few weeks 🙁

Cold Prevention Checklist

To summarize, do the following to help avoid the sniffles during heavy training or tough Ironman Triathlon competitions:

  • Make sure not to compound the physical demands of heavy training or competing by scrimping on calories
  • Consume plenty of carbs when training and competing: they not only increase endurance, they may reduce the immune system suppression associated with strenuous endurance exercise
  • Ensure that your protein intake is adequate so that your body has the amino acid building blocks to make the proteins you need for healthy immune function and the amino acid glutamine to fuel key immune system cells that defend against attack
  • Eat from a wide variety of foods and consider a daily multi-vitamin and -mineral supplement to ensure that your diet always has an adequate supply of the nutrients needed to support immune function
  • Take in a little extra vitamin C during periods of heavy training and a week or two before and after competitions, as this may give your immune system an added boost
  • Put yogurt, yogurt drinks or other products with certain active cultures on your grocery list. These beneficial microbes may help support keeping your immune system healthy.

From Article on Ironman.com with tips on how to boost the immune system.

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Watch that eating out

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Dad

We went to a new local restaurant last night that we’ve been waiting to open for a few months now.  They opened last Tuesday, so we gave them a few days, and eager to see the place, decided to go…even though we know that sometimes it takes more than a week for a place to get the kinks out.

Ah, eating out…I _know_ that’s where I can get tripped up on the calorie thing.

Other than more than 2 beers…alright…I went with the recommendations of the server, hoping to stay within the kitchen’s favorites:

  • one scallop as an appetizer with bacon…considered not eating the bacon, but it was a really tiny piece…didn’t want to insult the chef our first time there…ended up posting as 48 calories…fine
  • a very healthy salad, split…good
  • a piece of white bread with olive oil…ah, not bad…could have skipped it
  • duck…took off the skin, cut away the fat…great dish
  • the pan-fried mashed potatoes side…sooo good…my wife couldn’t help herself in taking a few forkfuls…saved me to some degree…so not horrible for the final portion size that I ate…could have swapped in another healthier side…didn’t think about it at the time…will next time

Near the end of our meal the owner came over, and sat down, nice chat…the chef then came over as well, and we were all talking about the new place, and our first dinner there.

  • we decided to split a piece of chocolate cake
  • and the chef insisted that we try the creme brulee, since they make it inhouse…’on the house’

The chocolate cake came out as a modest size…so splitting it, and without eating the icing, fine. 

I used to eat creme brulee from time to time, but haven’t for a looong time…seemed to me that it’s pretty high in calories…it was a pretty big portion, and soooo good…I complimented the chef accordingly…logging it in my Food Diary, as Daughter would say, ‘oh boy’…I picked the one from The Keg in the database, since there wasn’t an exact match…641 calories, loaded with fat and saturated fat…well that went the day.

So what do I do when I overdo it one day?…make it up by starving the next to balance it out?…nope…turn the page, and treat the new day normally….enjoy the memory of that creme brulee since it’ll probably be quite a while before I do that again…once it’s in the body, nothing to be done at that point, I can only do something about what I’m going to eat today…and it was soooo good.

Here’s how my Food Diary Daily Summary dinged me as result…complete with frowny faces…and yes they are red…almost too funny…although without that creme brulee, I was right on the money…not for a weight loss day, but good…a lot of smiley faces for the good stuff, however:

You exceeded the number of calories needed to maintain your weight by 559 calories.  This is roughly equal to 0.16 lbs of fat.
Too many dessert calories.
Saturated fats accounted for 14.0% of your calories.  For a healthy heart, try to stay below 9%.
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Men’s Only Yoga

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Dad

Back to yoga on Sunday, I was reminded of my introduction to it.

I never stretch…like never…or at least didn’t, until I started going to yoga a few years ago.  A good friend of mine, and local triathlete Chuck Hooker, is an avid ‘yoga guy’…and for years literally, kept trying to get me to come out for his favorite class, ‘men’s only’ yoga with Tom Pace at Serenity Now Yoga Studio.

 I always though it was a little weird every time that Chuck brought it up…I’d say

“gosh Chuck, ‘men’s only yoga’…isn’t that be sort of missing the point of going to a yoga class in the first place”

…never mind that I’ve been a stocky, stiff, largely muscle-bound guy all my life, that’s _never_ done any stretching…to some large degree because I don’t like it, and to another, didn’t want to injure myself…and with a virtually injury-free training record (except for the recent knee thing which is more of an impact issue over time), it’s like ‘if it’s not broken don’t fix it’.

So one day I did go…I’d don’t even remember why…but I did…and I was shocked to find out that I _really_ liked it.  Tom was a very laid back guy…the other ‘guys’ in the class were ‘normal’ guys, and I found…and have at yoga classes since…that folks are really focused on what’s really happening on their mat, not on what’s going on around them…and all shapes and sizes

…okay, okay, ‘sometimes’ in a ‘mixed’ class, one can’t help but get an extra stretch sometimes to check out the form of a particularly ‘flexible’ classmate…all in all, well worth the time

I don’t lift weights for strength training…in some seasons I have, but I find that I can build muscle/bulk-up pretty fast and really don’t need or want the extra weight…and with the knee thing, doing a lot of leg work that stresses the joint is not particularly a good idea. 

I’ve found yoga to be a great strength option.  I’m not into it for the gentle, meditative style, but for the Vinyasa Flow or Power style.  It can deliver a kick-your-butt workout, excellent for the upper body…and oh, yes…I do get stretched out, and it’s helped me develop more shoulder flexibility in particular that’s helped with the swimming. 

I’ve tried Bikram Yoga, which is conducted in a room at 105F….many people swear by hot yoga…but other than the appeal of being in a room with 30 scantily clad, ‘glowing’ women…for me personally, the feeling of sweat pouring off my body like rain off a roof in a thunderstorm, is not really my idea of a good time.

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Exercise and Diet

Posted on November 14, 2010 by Dad

First short bike ride after the Ironman on Saturday…40 minutes, easy-for-me pace…online Food Diary credited 498 calories for the effort…nice to get a bit more cushion back into the calorie-watching equation…_very_ tough without exercise in there for me to stay under 2,000 calories a day when I’ve been used to eating 3-4,000 calories a day.

A big part of that is simply habit of course…I’m used to eating the same things each day a lot of the time…I need to adjust that now, to leave a few calories in the budget for the end of the day, and only eat when hungry…not when I’m used to eating.

Sadly, without exercise on a 2,000 calorie budget, my usual fruit smoothie breakfast and egg sandwich during the morning total 825 calories, only leaving me 1,175 calories for the rest of the day, including ‘lunch’…that’s a _real_ challenge to stay inside of, since I’m used to ‘grazing’ in the afternoon…never mind trying to drop a few pounds.

..as the theory goes, losing only a 1/2 pound a week means running a 250 calorie deficit each day…to lose 1 pound a week, a 500 calorie deficit per day…and never mind having a couple of beers at the odd dinner out…and mabe dessert every once in a while…geez.

‘Running the numbers’, shows just how tight it really is without exercise in there.  At my weight, and typical intensity,  1-1.5 hours a day can give me an extra 1,000 calories of exercise burn to play with…opens up a lot more options….even 30 minutes of exercise takes 500 calories out…and that can definitely be the difference for me whether I drop a few pounds a month, or gain them.

So for the next 8 weeks of lighter than normal exercise, so far I’ve cut back/out the cheese…and that alcohol thing is coming under severe portion control scrutiny.

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2 beers…too many?

Posted on November 13, 2010 by Dad

Following up with my recent alcohol-containment-initiative, I kept it to 2 beers at the local pub tonight…Saturday night after-all…they have 2 glass sizes…14 and 20 oz.

I always select the 14 oz. size, not so much for moderation but so that I can try different ones, without a 20 oz. commitment…they have 24 beers on tap, and more than that in the bottle…and always switching in new ones.

Entering those 2 scrawny beers into my Food Diary, and it still dunned me with the following…including the frown face:

🙁 You consumed 33g of alcohol, which exceeds the maximum recommendation for men (28g).  Alcohol can increase your appetite and decrease the metabolism of fat.  It also decreases testosterone levels, which can harm the muscle-building process.

Dang…well, I’m going to call that close enough for a Saturday night out.

Feels like a good example of ‘triathlon lifestyle’…in this instance it means that there are actually age-group triathlete’s like myself that think about, and adjust, and even write about whether 2 beers is too much when they’re focusing on nutrition in the off-season, and looking to shed off a few pounds before getting the exercise ramped up again…of those of you that know me, I’ve definitely been known to have more than 2 beers on an evening and not even think about it…although maybe I should be.

Sounds a bit weird when I write it down…but it happens to be true…even with Ironman Florida a year away, the date on the calendar is a motivator for me that reaches out to even today…a year away…okay…I know I’m scaring you…I’ll stop now.

…and for an offsetting opinion, Daughter generally shakes her head at my focus most of the time 🙂

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Caloric Intake Timing During the Day

Posted on November 13, 2010 by Dad

Going back to Matt Fitzgerald and his book Racing Weight for a minute, let’s look at his general recommendations for how to balance calories eaten during the day…the timing of exercise moves this around a bit.

Many authors that focus on endurance athlete’s, really focus their timing recommendations based on the timing of exercise throughout the day…and therefore, their recommendations are more purely focused on Before-During-Immediately After exercise, and then the rest of the day fit around that….Matt also addresses these adjustments, so I’ve extrapolated his chart to create a basic baseline that I think is still instructive…or more properly, a good reminder for myself.

I’ve added my notations based on my 2,000 (no exercise) and a 3,000 (with 1,000 calories of exercise) calorie diet budget…I added a 1,500 calorie column for the tinier folks in the same range as my Daughter:

Percentage of Daily Calories1,500 Calorie Budget2,000 Calorie Budget3,000 Calorie Budget
Breakfast: 20-25%300-375 400-500 600-750
Morning snack:10% 150 200300
Lunch: 20-25%300-375 400-500 600-750
Afternoon snack:10% 150 200300
Dinner: 20-25%300-375 400-500 600-750
Optional evening snack: 5% 75 100150

Many authors…particularly authors of ‘diet books’ note that too often the tendency is to eat too lightly during the day…especially breakfast…and then hit it too hard at dinner, and end up feeling miserable, and even perhaps overshooting the goal for the day…balance and consistency produces a much more even energy day….in a later blog, I’ll outline my typical daily pattern.

You can read more from Matt Fitzgerald at http://competitor.com …type in Matt in the Search box…or buy one of his 17 books including this one

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Alcohol and Diet

Posted on November 13, 2010 by Dad

Alcohol is a diet killer that’s for sure.   As a reminder for _each_ drink, in round numbers:

Beer (12oz):                150 calories          (16oz pint):         200 calories
Light beer (12oz):       100 calories          * best diet choice…tastes so lousy I can’t drink more than 1
Wine (5oz):                 100 calories          (8oz glass):         160 calories    
Vodka (1.5oz)             100 calories          (3oz ‘martini’):     200 calories

and of course, have more than 1 drink, and it all multiples…ouch when you go to enter it into a daily food log…like I just did from last night

…extended conversation with Daughter last night led to exceeding my daily calorie goal via extra glass…or was it 2…of wine…was pouring without ‘measuring’

Five days of no exercise, and therefore no exercise calories burned, really highlights the negative affect of alcohol calories.

With my non-exercise, sedentary BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) calculated be to be roughly 2,000 calories a day…this is the total number of calories that I need in order to maintain my current weight…2 pints of beer is 20% of my daily calorie ‘budget’…3 pints, 30%…my food diary screams if/when those numbers go in. 

In the ‘season’ when I’m burning an extra 1,000-2,000 exercise calories a day on average…and BIG days, 5-6,000 calories, the impact is more ‘hidden’…although then you take the veil away, and look at the numbers, alcohol…with it’s total lack of any nutrition…is a real waste of a calorie budget…and makes it _really_ tough to get some weight off.

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Emotional Eating: How Hungry Should You Be?

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Dad

In a book that I’m reading, Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald, he makes an interesting point about ‘Emotional Eating’.  He has a Hunger Rating Scale, and suggests that you:

Rate your hunger each time you eat as a way to get in touch with your body and learn the difference between real hunger and emotional eating urges.  On a 1 to 10 scale, eat only when your hunger level is 7 or above.

He further makes the point that:

The goal is to eat only when physically hungry and, when eating, to eat only until comfortably satisfied, never stuffed.

He presents the following chart:

10.    All I think about is food (Dad edit: About to _really_ pass out from hunger)
 9.     Ravenous
 8.     Quite hungry
 7.     Ready to eat
 6.     Snack hungry
 5.     Neither hungry nor not hungry
 4.     Satisfied
 3.     Full
 2.     Uncomfortably full
 1.     Painfully stuffed

In thinking about this, during the training season, during the day, I would definitely be eating at 6 or above, and sometimes at 5 in advance of a workout…and often keep eating at a meal past 4 to 3…alright sometimes to 2…okay okay, odd time to 1…sometimes a steak and beautiful wine is just oh so good.

…very interesting thing to keep in mind…I’ve put the chart on a post-it-note on my computer monitor.

You can read more from Matt Fitzgerald at http://competitor.com …type in Matt in the Search box…or buy one of his 17 books including this one

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CNN: Triathlons grow more than 50% in 2 years

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Dad

An interesting group of articles this morning on CNN about the rapid growth of triathlon…a lot of focus on the ‘healthy lifestyle’ of the training…parallels my own thoughts on ‘why I do this’.

Everyday athletes embracing triathlon
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/09/triathlon.popularity/index.html

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The sport of triathlon is becoming the “new marathon”
The number of triathlons has grown more than 50 percent in the past two years

Another perspective on becoming a triathlete from Dr. Sanjay Gupta

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After Ironman Recovery and Off-season Nutrition

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Dad

Having just completed Ironman Florida for the 4th time…in a row…geez…hard to believe 🙂 …I’m now turning my attention to recovery and nutrition.

Burning 10-15,000 exercise calories a week allows for quite a range of eating and drinking options….that’s 3-4 pounds a week (@ 3,500 calories a pound), so I can really pack it on fast if I don’t make some rapid adjustments to compensate for the lack of calorie burn during the ‘off-season’.

General wisdom is that if you want to drop a few pounds, the off-season is the time to do it…therefore right now through the next 8-12 weeks…since you need the food energy to support training, once the volume and intensity picks up…sort of counter-intuitive to some degree…although I’ve found it to be true for me…difficult to train hard, and maintain energy for each daily workout, and also run a calorie deficit to get a few pounds off.

With exercise down to a relative whisper for the next 4-8 weeks, I’ll be re-focused on tracking what I eat every day, and tightening portion control…hard to break those in-season portion habits…and see if i can trim off a few pounds in the off-season, before ramping back up in January…coming out a least even by January 1, with holidays and all, would be the first goal…5+ pounds thinner even better…5 pounds heavier wouldn’t kill me, and some argue even desirable, so we’ll see how it shakes out.

I think though, that I may _really_ add in a weight/fat loss goal this year, to get down to a ‘lean’ racing weight…even though my weight’s been about the same for years, I know that I’m carrying around a few fat pounds that aren’t doing anything useful…I know that I’d be faster, if I was lighter.

A very useful site that I’ve used over the years to track calories and nutrition is www.myfooddiary.com

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