Spring Race Training: Week 9

Posted on March 23, 2009 by threlkeld

09spr-training-09Another good week for me. Here’s the blow by blow:

The recovery runs throughout the week tended to be on either end of the spectrum, with most runs having me feeling a little tired, and two in particular where I had that familiar run-over-by-a-truck feeling. It’s funny what a number those runs can do on your head; you think you’ll never feel good again and you ruminate on exactly how fast you plan to run in The Big Race, which seems patently absurd as you shuffle along at 10:30…

I’ve had enough of those exhausted runs over the past couple of months to know that I can go from ass dragging to perky in a mere 12-24 hours. So I keep the faith, do the run, and try not to worry too much. It’s easy to see which was which this past week: The slower afternoon times on Tuesday and Friday are dead giveaways.

As usual, I had three hard workouts this week. Or, let me amend that: I’d gone into the week thinking I had two hard workouts and one colossally hard workout. As it turned out, the big scary workout turned out to be a paper tiger.

Since Sunday was the scary day, intensity was dialed back throughout the week. The Tuesday general aerobic run was sans tempo miles. Still, I felt good on Tuesday morning and took advantage of that by running a speedy pace after a very gradual, slowish warmup of 2-3 miles. Thursday was a fun session on the track (did I just include “fun” and “track” in the same sentence?). I felt the effects of that effort 24 hours later on Friday evening, but I recovered in time for…

Sunday!! Sunday!! Sunday!!*

Sunday was the huge workout that, oddly enough, I’d come to look forward to rather than dread. It felt sort of like engaging in a science experiment of questionable wisdom:

Enroll as your subject a 43-year-old woman. Have her run 101 miles in one week, followed by 78 miles the next. Make sure a fair percentage of those miles are fast. Then put her in Central Park and make her run 6 miles up and down hills. Then have her race a 15K. Then feed her a little, and have her do another six miles on hills. Finally, feed her an enormous stack of pancakes, place her in a recliner and observe.

The effects, at least so far, have not been dramatic. My legs are a little sore today (duh) and I’ve got some sort of weird problem with my left foot (inflamed tendon or something) that I’ll get seen to this week. Other than that, the crushing exhaustion and compromised performance I was anticipating yesterday didn’t materialize, nor am I particularly tired today.

Week 10 feels like a cakewalk until, again, Sunday. A little tempo work tomorrow, a little speedwork on Thursday, and no doubles. Then, on Sunday, the race I’ve been eagerly anticipating: a flat 30K that, weather permitting, I hope to run at goal Mpace or faster (7:04). I’d love to break 2:11 (that would be 7:02) pace, but I recognize it may be too early to hope for that.

*Remember those monster truck show ads? Jonathan and I were so enamored of them way back when that we actually decided to go to one to see what they were like. It was in Madison Square Garden — an enclosed space to offer extra exposure to exhaust and deafening engine noise. When I went to the box office to buy tickets, the agent actually said to me, “Uh, these aren’t for you, are they?” This is probably the actual ad that drew us in.

Filed under: central park, eating, injury, racing, training | 8 Comments »

Spring Race Training: Week 8

Posted on March 15, 2009 by threlkeld

09spr-training-081
A hundred and one miles of fun!

Check it out: I ran just over 101 miles this past week, my biggest mileage week since July when I ran a mere 100.1. Piling on that last mile wasn’t the disaster that Mr. Creosote experienced at the hands of a maître d’ and his wafer-thin mint. I did not, in fact, explode.

In the end, it’s just a number. But it’s a big number for me.

Considering that I raced a very tough 25K a week ago, this week went very well. In fact, I’m thinking it’s probably my most successful training week so far. Here’s why:

  • Well, for one thing, I ran 101 miles with no ill effects. Sorry to state the obvious.
  • My resting heart stayed cooperatively low, up after tough days, but back down to 44 after a day or two of recovery. This surprised me.
  • Two of my big quality workouts, both done on the track, were marred by steady winds of anywhere from 5-14mph. That affected my time, and for once I accepted that and felt the sessions went well once that was taken into consideration.
  • Today’s 20 miler was a real confidence booster. I had lots of energy and ended up doing a big negative split.

Onto the details.

On Monday and Tuesday I experienced varying levels of tiredness, varying from barely any at all to near-stupefying exhaustion. Sunday’s hilly 25K race was a huge effort, so this was expected. Still, it was interesting to note how delayed the fatigue was and how, in some ways, it seems recovery running almost seemed to stave it off (I was most tired Tuesday evening).

Wednesday’s speed session on the track went as well as it could. It was very windy, so I focused on effort and decided to not let the effect of the wind on my pace get to me too much.

Thursday was the day when I suspect there was a tremendous amount of training consolidation going on. I had a terrible ache in my thighs and calves overnight, along with “I’ll eat anything” hunger. I also lost about two pounds overnight, a loss that I’ve sustained in the days since, despite drinking a lot of water and eating quite a bit.

Friday was the low point of the week, as I had a workout I’d come to dread: a 15 miler with the last five at a tempo pace on the track. Despite doing everything I could to prepare, I was again disappointed with the results. Once again, my legs felt heavy for the 10 mile aerobic portion, with the added delight of a slightly upset stomach. Once I got to the track and felt the steady wind, I began to rapidly lower my expectations of what I could sustain over 20 laps. Still, I gave it my best effort, managing five miles at 7:05 pace (instead of the planned 6:51 pace). And I only had one bout of stopping/berating/pep talking at the halfway mark.

I actually ran a little better after stopping halfway through, although whether that was for mental reasons or merely because the wind may have died down a little, I’ll never know. Of note is that my stomach was completely screwed up about an hour afterwards, which I chalk up to a physical manifestation of several days cumulative stress from the race plus heavy training (despite the recovery days, which still featured mileage in the teens).

I felt very good on Saturday and ran the two recovery runs faster than I’d expected to.

This morning I woke up feeling good again, owing to nine hours of deep sleep and Saturday night tea-totaling (okay, I admit I had one beer). In fact, I was actually excited to go do the 20 miler. I had no plan for the run, which may have explained why it went so well. Going in with no preconceptions or pressure allowed me to truly run by feel, which was a refreshing break after the two earlier, pace-focused workouts in the week.

I ran the first three miles as a very easy warmup, then decided I felt good enough to try to keep things in the 76% max. heart rate range. I stopped and took a little breather at the turnaround point and then decided to just run and keep my eye off the watch for the next few miles. With five miles left to go, I made the commitment to step up the effort. While this wasn’t to be a fast finish long run (as that wasn’t assigned), I wanted to run the last few miles “comfortably hard” (as opposed to “hardly comfortable”).

Imagine my surprise when I got home and discovered that I’d averaged well below 8:00 pace for the last few miles, all at a reasonable MHR of 76-77%, with a final blowout mile of 7:33 at 83%. I needed to have a good run combined with a relatively windless day to remind me that I am making progress.

Week 9 is another 100 miler, although there’s no tempo work and the speed session is short at 2400m total. This cutting back is (I suspect) to reserve some energy for the big workout on Sunday: the NYRR Colon Cancer Challenge 15K race sandwiched inbetween two full 6.2 mile loops of Central Park.

Filed under: central park, eating, racing, recovery, training | 8 Comments »

Hope, change and tempo runs

Posted on March 13, 2009 by threlkeld

Matt Fitzgerald recently wrote about how he was afraid of his upcoming workout. I have one like that in a few hours, a 10 mile general aerobic run with an additional 5 miles at 6:51 pace tacked onto the end. That’s about my current half marathon pace, which I’ll need to sustain just over 34 minutes.

These 34 minutes and 15 seconds will be difficult. I know this. What I want to avoid is having them be pure hell.

A few weeks ago I had a run that was very similar to this, one that I didn’t think went particularly well. I was 13 seconds off pace and had to stop a few times. Since then, I’ve looked at what may have gone wrong that day, and experimented with a few potential remedies, all in order to help prepare myself for another try today.

First, I looked at how I ran the initial non-tempo miles and concluded that I ran them too fast. All of them. From the get go, I was so eager to work hard on this run that I started working hard too early, then paid for it during the miles that counted at the end. I was also running into a headwind for the initial 5.5 miles, which I know tired me out. I should have taken this into account and adjusted my pace, but I was too bull-headed at the time to do so. Also, this run was scheduled for the first day of my new menstrual cycle, a time that has proven itself time and time again to be the day when I am likely to run at my worst.

I also looked at what I was doing in the days before that sub-standard run. For one, I’d cut calories fairly drastically (I’ve been cutting them to shed fat), so I may have been low on glycogen reserves. I’d also done a fast finish 17 miler on the Sunday before that Tuesday run, so I was probably not fully recovered from that.

Here, then, was data I could work with — a whole bunch of factors that I could influence next time around.

I knew I’d have to do this run again — except with the fast miles a little longer and a little faster — in a few weeks, so I conducted a few experiments. First, I tried doing a fast finish long run with the aerobic section done at a lower heart rate than my typical 75-78% for general aerobic efforts. I kept it right around 72% max heart rate, then only sped up in the mile or so before the very fast ones at the end. I also did the first two at very slow speed and low heart rate — under 70% mhr.

The other thing I did was make sure I didn’t cut my calories too severely in the two days before this run, and I loaded up on carbohydrates and water. I also made sure I got plenty of sleep and stayed away from alcohol.

The result? I had no problem running at 7:00 pace for the last 2.5 miles of a 17 miler.

I’ve taken care to do all the pre-run preparations described above. In a few hours, I’ll put that together with my pre-tempo-miles pacing strategy and hope for the best. At least I’m going in knowing I’ve done everything I can to help myself, and that can only benefit me mentally.

Now let’s see if this actually works.

Filed under: drinking, eating, training | 6 Comments »

“Insane hunger”

Posted on March 12, 2009 by threlkeld

That’s what part of my training diary entry read this morning. At 3AM, I awoke with two urgent needs: first, do something about the ache in my thighs and calves, the dreaded DOMS*; second, eat something right now.

Random waves of ravenous hunger appear to be one side effect of combining high mileage with high intensity. And the hunger is of a particularly urgent, single-minded sort. It’s not, “Oh, I’m ready for dinner” hunger. It’s “I’m so hungry I’m going to eat that smashed Twinkie in the middle of the road” hunger. I was aware of this kind of “I’ll eat anything as long as it resembles food” hunger from reading about people in ultrarunning races. I had yet to experience it for myself until pretty recently.

But here it’s hitting me at odd times — typically either in the dead of night, or (more strangely) an hour or so after I’ve already eaten something substantial. There also is a delayed aspect to the hunger. Recently, I had two back-to-back days of extreme hunger in the early days of a recovery week. It started after a speed session and continued well into the next day, which featured a mere 7 miles of recovery running. The point being, I’d expect this sort of thing in a high mileage week itself, not in the days following one. I can only speculate that as my body consolidates the previous week’s training-induced stress and recovers from it, it’s demanding help in that consolidation and recovery from food.

I’m building muscle like it’s going out of style, and losing fat. So I’m guessing the demand for food (and craving for protein in some cases) is also to support that repair and expansion work at the muscular level. I have no idea what I’m talking about, by the way — this is pure conjecture.

In any event, I go with the hunger, getting up in the dead of night to shovel whatever appeals into my face, illuminated only by the 40 watt refrigerator bulb and with an audience of one bleary-eyed cat, confused by my sudden presence, yet hopeful that I’ll feed her too. Last night it was roasted sweet potatoes (carbs), spelt (more carbs) and prosciutto (protein, fat and salt). I wonder what I’ll need next.

*A problem easily solved with my favorite regularly smuggled controlled substance from overseas, the wonder drug from the UK, Solpadeine. It’s chock full of codeine goodness, and the effervescent variety works in about five minutes.

Filed under: eating, recovery, training | 4 Comments »

Spring Race Training: Week 4

Posted on February 15, 2009 by threlkeld

09spr-training-04
This was a good week.

I’m going to try to make this short because:

  • I’m enjoying some red wine and it’s apt to take a toll on my writing and typing ability shortly
  • I’m roasting a chicken, which requires frequent attention, and — when combined with the wine — one major responsibility is about all I can handle
  • I’m waiting to watch my DVR’d Tyson Invitational (no relation to the chicken) and this post is the only thing holding me up

So here’s the Morse Code version, taken straight from the training diary:

Mon
Feel quite fatigued today, almost fluish.

Tue
Felt right again this morning. Did the run on the road and all the strides on the track. Did two extra since I felt so good. Leg issue is very mild, almost gone.

Wed
RHR back down to 45. Good run. Legs felt fresh and groin issue is very minor, almost gone. 1.5 fast miles were hard but not awful.

Thu
Leg sore at 5:30AM, but okay after some ibuprofen. Windy, cool run outside AM — very relaxed pace. Nice afternoon run, still very windy.

Fri
“Leg is still bugging me, so put off run until the afternoon. Used heat and Nabumetone in AM, which seems to be helping.

V. windy with headwinds of 17mph. Avg windspeed was 11mph. Felt like I had dead legs for the first one, then loosened up and the others felt better. I didn’t try to hold to the pace since the wind was ridiculous for half of each lap.”

Sat
Tired today and pace shows it. Fell down and bashed my hand and knee. Taking ibuprofen for the leg, which was back with a vengeance this morning.

Sun
Good run — had lots of energy and running the fast bit at the end wasn’t too hard. Windy in spots, mostly on the way out. Stomach a bit screwed up afterwards. Leg okay during run.

People, if you’re not keeping even a basic training diary, it’s high time you started. I can’t tell you how many times having even this sort of shorthand record has helped me pinpoint an issue, whether it be exhaustion, impending injury or run-of-the-mill training “staleness.”

This week was a real confidence booster because, I nailed all of my key workouts. The highlight was this morning’s 17 miler with the last two at 7:00 pace. At this point, running this fast tends to frighten other people on the running path. While I don’t do this deliberately, there is something satisfying about watching people do a double take and then leap out of the way as I pass. Jonathan’s passing them at 6:00 pace, and he says the effect is even more dramatic at that speed.

It was also a great week because I ran all but one session outside. At last! The snow is gone. Good riddance.

I’m playing it by ear with the groin thing. It doesn’t hurt a bit while running, and heat/ice/anti-inflammatories seems to keep it at bay. I’ve got a 90 mile week coming up with lots of faster running. I’ll see if it gets worse as a result and, if it does, go get it looked at. If it doesn’t get worse, though, I’ll live with it. I’ve trained with worse problems.

Also — this is totally unrelated — I want to sing the praises of an excellent shoe: Pearl Izumi’s Streak. I started wearing this for races and have been interested to see if it can hold up for the full marathon distance. I wore it for the 17 miler this morning and it was great for that. I’ll wear it for next week’s 20 miler. It’s probably the most comfortable shoe I’ve ever worn — it’s almost like running in a pair of slippers. I still love the Fastwitch 3 from Saucony, but it’s not quite enough shoe for 26 miles. This one may be the ticket. If you decide to try it, though, be forewarned: it runs very small. I have to wear a full size larger.

Week 5 features a longer tempo run, an 800m intervals session and a 20 miler, all totaling up to 90 quality miles.

Filed under: drinking, eating, injury, shoes, training | 4 Comments »

I love to eat and run

Posted on February 13, 2009 by threlkeld

If you feel like eating, eat. Let your body tell you what it wants.
— Joan Benoit Samuelson

Or rather, run and eat.

A little over a year ago, when I started training in earnest for my third marathon, I began to notice a shift in my relationship to food. Namely, I became aware of wanting specific kinds of foods at specific times. I would know when I was low on carbohydrate stores because I’d find myself wanting raisins, or bread with jam, or juice. A need for protein and iron asserted itself in the form of knowing that I wanted nothing more than a steak for dinner, preferably with a side of spinach.

Not only do I crave certain foods based on their nutritional makeup, but it’s the intensity of the desire for those foods — and specificity of the individual food items — that I find so striking. I don’t just want a bagel; I want a salt bagel. I don’t just want meat; I want roasted chicken. When I don’t have those things around, my disappointment seems out of proportion. But is it? Or are our brains just very good at determining those nutritional elements that are lacking and driving us toward the foods that can replenish them?

I’ve learned to make a mental note of a craving and plan for it. After a recent hard run, I had a strong desire for an everything bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. I had none of those things in the house, but I made sure that I would next time around. After some long, windy intervals this afternoon, that’s exactly what I wanted. And it’s exactly what I had.

I can’t wait to have some tenderloin and sweet potato fries later on this evening…

Filed under: eating, physiology | 1 Comment »

Race Report: Boston Buildup 20K

Posted on February 8, 2009 by threlkeld

Just a quickie report, since this was a training run and not really an all-out race effort.

This race starts at the Southport, CT railroad station and goes inland. And, let me tell you, it is hilly! With the exception of the Boston Blowout 30K (not technically part of the Buildup series), all of these Boston-prep races are very hilly. As I was struggling up my fourth extreme hill today, I found myself wondering if I really do want to ever run Boston. It never looks that bad on television, but, then again, neither does eating worms or climbing Mt. Everest.

It was actually a perfect day for racing in terms of temperature. I did a two mile warmup in tights, long sleeve, hat and gloves and was hot within half a mile. So I changed into shorts and a tech tee and that turned out to be perfect. Unfortunately, it was very windy, with a wind coming primarily from the west/northwest, although it was a swirling wind and would sometimes blast from the south too, usually at the most inopportune time.

I had a pacing plan of 7:05 or so for the first 3 miles, then 7:15 for the next 3, then try to run around 7:00 or better for the rest. That all went to hell pretty quickly given the hills and wind. I don’t know my exact time, since I again forgot to turn off my watch, but it was somewhere in the area of 1:31:15, or around 7:22 pace average. I don’t know the details of my run beyond mile 9.26 since my watch lost contact with the satellites for the remainder of the race. That coincided with a 10 minute downpour from miles 9.0-10+. So that certainly slowed everyone down, although I must say I’m getting better at ignoring horrendous weather conditions, at least from a mental standpoint.

I was running with guys for all of the way. I didn’t spot one other woman, so the ones who beat me must have been quite a ways ahead, and I didn’t look back to see who was behind me. I was told at the 10K water stop that I was woman #7, and no one passed me, so I guess I was seventh overall. I managed to pass a few guys in the last three miles, though, improving my overall field placement.

I’m fairly certain I could have run this faster without the wind, hills and 70 miles on my legs already for the week. But it’s hard to know how much faster as it truly is a difficult course, with a few monster hills that go on for a good half mile or so. At least I had the experience of passing a few people on those uphills, and I flew on the downhills. My time was good for first in my age group, which was a pleasant surprise. My reward was a hot pink Asics long sleeve technical shirt. Good base layer, or shirt for wearing hiking so I can be easily spotted at the foot of a deep ravine.

I like these races because they are small, congenial and you can just turn up, find parking and race hassle free. Yet, they’re pretty competitive, too, I suspect because not only are lots of the participants actually using them to train for spring marathons (Boston or otherwise), but the pickings are slim for winter racing outside of the NYRR offerings, so serious runners take advantage of what’s there.

The letdown was that “the bagel guy didn’t come through” (RD Jim Gerweck’s words). The 25K Buildup race I ran (and will run in about a month) had the best salt bagels last year. We’ve been promised two bagels each next time around. Fortunately we brought bananas and PowerBars, which turned out to be especially lucky since we got caught in a horrible traffic jam on 95 on the way home, turning a 45 minute drive into a 2 hour slog home.

I napped for an hour and a half on the couch. Now I’m, uh, “rehydrating” with Yeungling and watching DVR’d English Premier Football, to be followed by semi-drunken viewings of the Reebok track meet (I’ve already had a few spoilers, unfortunately…but no matter) and Tropic Thunder. Thank goodness next week is a recovery week and I only have to run 3 miles tomorrow…

Filed under: clothes and gear, eating, racing, training | 10 Comments »

Taking in the sights in White Plains

Posted on February 1, 2009 by threlkeld

I’ll post my usual training week recap eventually, but I had to post about my run through a section of White Plains, NY this morning. WP is hard to describe — it’s a center of commerce in Westchester County and has undergone tremendous commercial development over the past 10-15 years. It consists of a fairly concentrated collection of towering office buildings and shopping malls, wrapped up in a series of wide-lane roadways. The sidewalks aren’t quite as empty as Stamford, CT (which always reminds of the post-apocalyptic Charlton Heston movie from the early 70s, Omega Man), but they aren’t exactly bustling with human activity.

What’s interesting about WP is the residential areas that surround the commercial core. WP abuts Scarsdale, one of the richest communities in the country, yet you know instantly when you’ve crossed the line from Scarsdale into WP. Within a block or two, you go from stately mansions to rundown  multifamily dwellings. I took one of the roads I run on, Fisher Avenue, a bit farther north today to extend my run. Once past the train and bus stations, the neighborhood deteriorated quite quickly.

Just half a mile to the north of moneyed Scarsdale were streets filled with stray cats (a family of 12, all brown tabbies), transplanted Central and South Americans on their way to work on Sunday morning and — my favorite — people dressed to the nines and headed into the “French Speaking Baptist Church” (Haitians, maybe?) for Sunday services. Jonathan ran the same way this morning and spotted a restaurant I managed to miss, a (Peruvian-run?) pizza parlor called Machu Pizzu.

I never saw this sort of thing on my runs in Iowa.

Filed under: eating, everyday life, training, westchester | 2 Comments »

Race Report: Ted Corbitt 15K

Posted on December 20, 2008 by threlkeld
ted-corbitt-15k

This was toward the end of the race, since I'd been trying to pass that woman in blue for eight miles. Note the efficient heel strike.

It seems fitting that for the inaugural race to honor Ted Corbitt — known as the father of American ultrarunning, among numerous other distinctions — we would have truly treacherous and trying conditions. A race of 9.3 miles is hardly an “ultra.” But today’s race felt a lot longer than it actually was.

Despite yesterday’s surprise storm — which dumped six inches of snow on NYC, followed by sleet and a plunge in temperatures — a few hundred hardy souls convened on Central Park’s 102nd St transverse this morning to honor Ted. The race was declared a “fun run” to discourage people from going nuts and turning it into a speed skating event. Our timing chips were collected and we were on our own to judge our performances against the clock, the conditions and our peers.

I’d been looking forward to this race for weeks, since it was slated to be a true HTFU* effort. Just how HTFU it would be wasn’t clear to me until I actually headed into the city this morning and saw the conditions we’d be running in: Temps in the 20s with wind chills  between 7 and 18; a steady 8-10mph wind from the north; an outer loop coated in a thin layer of semi-frozen slush; transverses consisting of hard-packed snow. I’d say about 15% of the course was totally clear of snow or slush — I can see exactly where those sections were when I look at my GPS route map vs. the speeds I was running at various points.

Not only was I scheduled to run a 15K race, but I also needed to sandwich it in-between 9 miles to make an 18 mile long run. I ended up with a total run of 16.8 miles. The trains and subways were delayed, so I had to cut my pre-race run from 4.5 to 3.5 miles. Then I ran the race. Then — and this was the last thing I wanted to do — I set out to run the third leg. That ended up being 4 miles since the wind chill plunged 10 degrees in the final 15 minutes, my feet were soaked, and I was on the verge of hypothermia.

I do this for fun, remember?

Race time (unofficial): 1:09:10. I’m very pleased with that time considering the crap I ran through, on a course that’s normally pretty difficult anyway. Average pace was 7:24, but I managed a 6:55 for mile 7 (nice downhill) and a 7:07 for mile 9 (flat).

There were so few of us running that the volunteers recognized me as I did multiple loops. Three cute guys, all bundled up and huddled together, saw me approaching prior to the start, with a race number. At first they were confused, thinking the race had started and I was in the lead. Then they figured out that I was just warming up and instead yelled, “You can do it!” For some reason, we all thought that was hilarious. A few others noted that they’d seen me three times rather than two (since I passed by them on my third, extra leg of 4 miles), with one cajoling me, “You can stop running now!”. I thanked a lot of volunteers today.

Despite the conditions (and the considerable effort it took to get there and back on foot from Westchester), I’m glad I did this run today. Central Park was stunning, with a fresh, white coating of snow over everything. People all around us were sledding, cross country skiing and throwing snowballs. A winter wonderland oasis in a city where snow otherwise presents little more than a filthy burden.

After struggling to get out of my wet shoes and socks in a portapotty and endeavoring to get the feeling back in my fingers, I didn’t have the energy to trek the quarter mile to get a half frozen bagel from the boxes on the 102nd St transverse. Unfortunately, the one piece of food I brought with me, a PowerBar, had the appeal (and consistency) of a slate roof shingle; frozen solid! So I found a great little diner on 103rd right across from the subway stop, Jimmy’s, where I got a toasted bagel and hot chocolate.

*Harden The Fuck Up.

Filed under: basebuilding, central park, eating, racing | 8 Comments »

Fit, fast and … fat?

Posted on December 16, 2008 by threlkeld

Compared to most women in this country, I look like a runway model.

I have what I think is somewhere in the range of 24% body fat, although it could well be higher or lower, since all I have to go on is my consumer-level Moron body fat measurement device. While this number is on the low end of normal for the general female population (especially today, when overweight-to-obese is the new “normal”), it’s on the high side for a competitive marathon distance runner.

The discrepancy I see between myself and the women I finish with in races (who are typically carrying noticeably less extra poundage than I am) has bothered me more for theoretical than practical reasons thus far. After all, if I’m finishing with the skinny bitches, then the fact that I am not a skinny bitch myself is not holding me back. Or is it? I don’t know.

Not knowing something, especially something that might impact something else that’s important to me, really bugs me. So I sought out some expert advice from Mary Coordt, who is not only a nutritionist, but she’s also a three time Olympic marathon trials qualifier and frequent speaker on nutrition for runners. Since if you so much as exchange one email with me your expectation of privacy is null and void, I’ll share what she told me with you.

When I presented her with my plight (“I’m obviously fatter than my peers at the finish line, can’t seem to lose that extra fat no matter what I do, and I fear that it’s slowing me down.”) her response was frank, informative and oddly reassuring. To paraphrase, it went something like this:

You’re born with a certain body type and physiological framework within which to work. You’re in a normal range for body fat and you’re making great progress. So stop comparing yourself to the thinner marathoners and look to the bulkier runners instead (she mentioned Russians in particular) who have no problem moving fast over long distances despite the loads they’re hauling. Keep training and your times will drop. Don’t worry about it.

To me, one mark of a true professional is being able and willing to tell someone that they really don’t need your services.

So I’m going to stop looking for the diet or person who can promise me fat loss. I’m just going to keep running.

Filed under: eating, physiology, resources | 8 Comments »

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