What Next?

When you find a great nutritionist, tell me. I've been trying to find one forever and they are all voodoo magic people that don't actually really know anything. Start with a hard question - say "what would you recommend I do if I'm a vegetarian with gout."

And - you've got one more week of rest / chillout - take it easy this week.

I struggle with being a 180-190 lb runner myself. While marathon training I get down to 170 at my lightest but my body and my lifestyle enjoy me at 180. The best way to shed pounds is the old fashion way. Eat less run more. Creating a negative balance will SLOWLY take off the pounds but it will also SLOWLY add back the pounds if you stray. All I do is cut back on the portions of snacks I have and always ask myself am I eating because I'm hungry or because I am bored. Lots of small meals.

For losing weight, you might want to try the Shangri-La diet. It's not so much a diet as a tool for hunger control. I've been trying it just for the last couple of weeks and it seems to be working. Weight loss is not dramatic, just steady and ongoing as long as you continue the system. The net result is that you're just not as hungry as you used to be, so you naturally eat less.

"A runner must run with dreams in his heart".
Emile Zatopek.

A clear goal is THE most important thing, I find.

As long as my racing/performance goal is BIG enough and inspiring enough to get me out of bed in the morning, then I have no problems doing whatever it takes to achieve it -- whether that is sucking it up on intense training runs, or NOT sucking it up at the table and bar. So God Speed and good luck to you, Herb!

A couple of observations. I trained in nutritional therapy in England and there two big things I "discovered" that I've successfully applied to my own mission -- which is to get as light as I can while retaining muscle mass and staying in excellent health. (Mostly -- for more on that you can see my latest progress report on the 5-minute miling forum slot).

First: all calories are not equal. There is a stack of research showing how much easier it is to lose fat on a RELATIVELY low-carb diet than it is on a low-fat diet. It's counter-intuitive, but it appears that our bodies are designed to store excess carbs from our diet more efficiently than excess fat (and protein). This is not to give you any dietary recommendations -- I'll leave that to your official nutritionist -- but it is just something to be aware of. Calorie-counting on its own won't work, even if you double your current mileage to try to tip the balance. For a good example of this, just look in on the Henry Rono thread on letesrun.com, where the former triple world-record holder now on an inpsiring comeback trail has been given a really hard time about his "slow" weight loss, despite his running almost two hours a day for the last year.

As runners/athletes we can become obsessed with getting enough carbs. What I'd respectuflly suggest you do is sit down with your nutritionist and -- after you've asked her/him for recommendations for a vegetarian with gout! -- work out a rough figure for the amount of carbs you actually need to fuel what you do. You may be surprised at the figure.

Second: as a runner with big goals and as someone (I presume) who is also working, who is in various relationships and dealing with the IRS, car repairs and other joys of modern life, you are probably continually red-lining with stress. Continual stress means high cortisol levels: high cortisol leads to weight gain. Those tv ads are true! So, part of your regime should include learning and applying techniques to de-stress and to make sure you are sleeping well and regenerating properly.

The problem for us runners is that many of us start out using exercise to relax mentally and physically and then... "The Schedule" appears. See what you said: "...I'm going to force myself to lift 2x/week". (My emphasis.)

In terms of best sorts of training to help -- yes, strength training is good -- and so is any intense exercise. You can get those long, long runs in, or plod on a treadmill for 3 hours at a stretch, and you will lose weight, but you will probably lose as much muscle tissue as you do fat. Bad.

By the way, would you also think about reframing your goal wording from "weight loss" to "fat loss"?

Finally, back to the research. It's no coincidence that the current super-marathoners are all capable of astoundingly fast 10ks and 5ks. If you want to do a fast marathon, then racing 5ks and 10ks -- and doing the appropriate quality work to enable you to run them comfortably fast -- will get your marathon PR tumbling.

A really important part of this is to train your nervous system to get used to delivering the power you need without it freaking out and hitting the "bail out!" button. So it's helpful to run many sessions at your predicted goal pace for the marathon.

A four-hour marathon is about 9:11 pace (is that right?), so what those sessions would look like is you go out and run at 9:11 pace (or slightly faster) for as long as you can. Rest. Repeat. As soon as you start losing the pace, stop the session. Do NOT go for a long, slow jog afterwards -- just do enough to cool down properly, so your body/mind retains the feel of the pace work and starts to get the message about what you want it to do.

Congratulations on working on a plan. With the right nutrition and quality training plus smart strength training, well... I predict you'll easily go sub-4 and be aiming at 3:30!

Please Keep us posted, Herb! It's great to read about your progress.

Simon,

Thanks for all the great advice. Yes, I do have a job :-) In fact, a rather stressful on, and that is definitely is BIG part of the overall equation. For a variety of reasons it makes it hard to be consistent (not enough sleep, curve balls at work, having a beer with co-workers after work, etc.). I need to think on this more and be more conscious of it all. How it relates to my training and my eating. I certainly think about it, but probably not enough...

As for carbs, that makes a ton of sense. I will definitely talk it through with the nutritionist. I already try to keep the carbs low.

This week I'm getting back into the swing of things with slight running (45 mins. easy) and a food diary. Next week, I'm going to officially start working on a sub 50 min 10k. I think that's very doable for me. It will push me a bit, help with the weight, etc. I'm specifically not shooting for something real tough for this next cycle.

I'll keep blogging on this subject (my ups and downs) so hopefully people can learn from me and others who reply.