The Last Fifteen

I've come to think of them as my running buddies. I either have 15 of them, or just two depending on how I count. For 15, I'm counting pounds. For two, I am thinking ST and OM (those are nicknames, of course--the real names are Spare Tire and Omentum). I'm talking about the weight I'd like to lose to get to an "ideal" weight for me, which I guess to be about 175 pounds.

Apart from running regularly, I have done absolutely nothing in an attempt to lose weight. Nothing. I think that if I made some sensible adjustments to my diet and increased the running and/or other activities slightly, these 15 would come off pretty easily. I dropped the first 10 pretty fast, and I have stabilized at about 190, which is still too heavy for me. My current BMI is 26.5, just inside the "overweight" range. Getting down to 175 would take me to a comfortable 24.5.

Again, that would fit my personal fitness goal, which goes something like: always have a normal BMI and be able to pass the Navy PFT for your age group. (I do fall within the maximum height/weight standard for the Navy, which is 196 for me).



Today I went on a 12-mile bike ride here in the neighborhood.

12M / 47min / 15.3mph / 714cal

12 miles seems like a great distance for a run replacement. It appears to burn a similar amount of calories. One idea would be to alternate running and biking during the week, which could look like this:

S / off
M / run
T / bike
W / run
R / run
F / bike
S / long run

-----

S / off
M / 5M run
T / 12M bike
W / 5M run
R / 5M run
F / 12M bike
S / 8M long run

TOTALS: 23M run / 24M bike

Strech Benchmarks

I have no plans to try this, but an interesting stretch goal for various distances would be the pace required to qualify for the Boston Marathon as a 45 year old Male. That pace is exactly 8:00/M. Here are the finishing times at that pace for various races:

• 3:30 Marathon
• 1:45 Half Marathon
• 1:20 10M (Crim)
  
• 49:46 10k
• 24:53 5k

I think my next race should be a 10k, and it would be great to run one on the same day as my pals in Manchester, UK. That's May 16, and there is one at Oakland U just south of here.

For giggles, here are the dates of the next several runnings of the Boston Marathon (my age on race day is in parenthesis):

• Monday, April 18, 2011 (43)
• Monday, April 16, 2012 (43)
• Monday, April 15, 2013 (44)
• Monday, April 21, 2014 (46)*
• Monday, April 20, 2015 (47)
• Monday, April 18, 2016 (48)

*this is the first year I will be eligible for the 3:30 qualifying time; note that two of these races are on my birthday!

Chicago/Left Knee

Had a nice 6 miler on the Chicago Riverfront Trail and Lakefront Trail. Walked a little. My left knee continues to hurt on the side near the ITB. Not sure about it--weight does not seem to bother it.