Monday, February 16, 2015

MMNW on point!

Last week, in general, I had a hard time getting my stuff together. Too much to do, high stress work time, not enough hours in the day to get everything done. My standard MO in those kinds of situations is to do the highest priority stuff first and whatever doesn't get done is water under the bridge. After my grandmother's funeral, it took me forever to get the pictures organized and keep up with all of the training and other stuff going on.

The Monday Morning Naked Weight (MMNW) for 2/9 finally showed some nice progress! I didn't totally blow it over the funeral weekend. 175.2 lbs and 19.1% bodyfat. Finally down to typical plateau level. I think my scale is calculating the bodyfat % more erratically because I haven't figured out how to adjust the age that it figures into the calculation. This week I felt very slim.  I got in 3 runs for 29 miles, and 2 swims for 5300 yards. Eating was pretty well on point, and we had 1 night in Greenville in there too.

This turned out to be a great setup for the week that followed. I hit a low point (since 2011 I think) of 173.6 lbs on Wednesday morning. My workouts and eating were totally on point through the week! I did meet an old college friend for lunch at an Indian buffet on Thursday but that was the only hard part. Today's MMNW was 175.4 lbs and 19.3% bodyfat. So 2 weeks right around plateau level.

Normally this is where I stop the weight loss phase and ramp up the training. This year I'm really trying to maximize my weight to power ratio so I want to bust through this plateau and see if I can get past the "skinny fat" phase and just get to thin. So let's keep on this track for a few more weeks and see what happens.

One thing that happened. My grandmother hung onto a few pictures from when I was heavy. I stitched them into this:

I lost more than the glasses
I snapped that pic on Wednesday before swim practice outside of the pool.  I got in 3 runs for 29 miles after taking Saturday as a full rest day and getting in an 11 mile long run on Sunday. Also got in 3 swims for 10,500 yards including a 4000 yard swim on Friday! RAM practice included a 1000 y warmup and a 2600 yard main set. It was totally insane. I never get in that much yardage for a noon practice! It was so amazing.

I'm tapering this week, got the Frozen Heart 50k coming up in Maryland on Saturday! That's the other reason not to ramp up training and end the weight loss phase. I'm going to have the insane post-50k eating festival and recovery week. Also this week Raleigh is getting snow, which means the entire state shuts down. So workouts are going to be sparse as they should be, and my eating has to be pretty strict. Typically I blow the nutrition plan during the taper, so keep your fingers crossed that I will a:) be able to get to maryland and race in a snowstorm and b:) arrive at the starting line rested, light, and strong.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I really need to get on top of weight management. It's looking like I might run the The Great Wall Marathon in May, and it would be much easier to do if I were carrying around 20 fewer pounds.

Tea said...

Congrats John. It takes a ton of discipline to not just lose weight but keep it off. :)

CautiouslyAudacious said...

Solid work! Way to go!

Abby said...

Wow. Amazing difference. Looking great.

Al's CL Reviews said...

You look great, and worked hard for it. Congrats!

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

I've only known you as thin John so it's crazy for me to see those photos! That is an amazing transformation and shows that hard work and perseverance pays off! You look awesome!

Good luck with your 50k! I hope the trail conditions are ok - I imagine that the area you'll be running got snow this week!