The Week That Was: Weight Management & Running

Two months of 2013 are now over and I'm now just a couple weeks away from the Shamrock'n Half Marathon and roughly halfway through the expected length of my diet. I performed well in regards to expectations (staying within my calorie budget and getting in the necessary miles) this past week.

Starting off with Weight Management, I burned 3759 calories in the past week (my highest weekly total so far this year) and only ate back 1522 of those to end the week 2237 calories below target. Add that calorie deficit to my targeted ½ pound loss, and I mathematically should have lost 1.1 pounds. Here are my actual results:

	Avg	Min	Max	Last	Avg H20	Avg Fat
02/18-02/25	174.7	172.8	177.2	174.2	98.0	40.4
02/25-03/04	174.8	174.2	175.8	175.6	98.8	39.4
	+0.1	+1.4	-1.4	+1.4	+0.8	-1.0

I'm not completely sure what to make of my results. This is my first "up" week of the year (other than the first which was impacted by not dieting the last week of last year) although being up by 0.1 isn't bad. My minimum weight for the week was way up, but my maximum weight was down an equal amount, so that's a bit of a mixed bag. My fat weight was down while water weight was up, so if those measurements were accurate, I probably had a good week. I expect if I have another good week next week that I will see a decent loss.

Lose It added Challenges near the end of last year, and up until March, all of the challenges I participated in were around logging every day. For March, I found a challenge regarding minutes spent walking, jogging, and running: the goal is to complete 2000 minutes. Doing the math, in an average week I do 380 minutes (four 30 minute walks with the dogs, two 40 minute walks with the dogs, two 50 minute five mile runs, and one 80 minute eight mile run). Multiple that by four, and I'm at 1520. The "extra" days in March are Friday (30 minute dog walk), Saturday (40 minute dog walk plus 80 minute run), and Sunday (40 minute dog walk) which should get me another 190 minutes for 1710 minutes total. So if I do the "normal", I'll end up 290 minutes short.

With the half-marathon, I'm probably not going to have a very normal month. I'll get some extra running in early, but then less than normal while recovering from the run. Additionally, rain may play a little havoc with my dog walking schedule. I figured when I signed up that I wouldn't get the full 2000 minutes, but now that I've signed up, I want to meet the goal. For now, that means I need to get in another twelve 25 minute walks.

Through the first three days of the month, I'm off to a good start. I've walked the dogs three times for a total of 110 minutes (expected), went for a long run on Saturday for 2 hours (40 more than expected), and did an additional 25 minute walk on Friday. So I'm currently at 255 minutes (65 minutes above expected). This coming week may be rough as I have tennis on Thursday and poker on Friday so I'll miss one of the dog walks. I'll try to get in a solo walk on Friday to make up for some of it. There's also a threat of rain which could cause me to have a further deficit. Regardless, it's nice to have this challenge.

Moving onto running, I completed my longest run of the year as well as the most miles in a week so far this year. I had thought about going out for a short run on Sunday to make it the most miles "ever", but I was pretty sore after the 12 mile run. Here's the chart for this week:

M	T	W	R	F	S	S
6.27		5.21			12.10
Total Mileage: 23.58

I ran in new shoes this week, and I wasn't a big fan of them. Luckily I found a few pairs of my previous shoes and they arrived today. I walked and ran in them today, and I definitely made the right choice. I may buy a few more pairs (I bought two this time) to stock up before I can't find them anymore. Looking at my mileage compared to my weekly goal of 16 miles:

Miles Ran 16 Mile Goal Miles to Max

And here's a look at my progress towards my goal of 800 miles ran this year:

Previous This Week 800 Miles 1000 Miles

I've completed 170.29 miles so far this year and am on track to complete 1003 miles in 2013. I'll be tapering down this week and next with the plan of doing two 5 mile runs during the week (preferably Monday and Wednesday) and an 8 miler this weekend.