I have not posted on here in awhile but would like some advice from everyone. I am currently running 3 days a week and doing strength training 3 days a week (with Chalean Extreme). I have exercised fairly regularly for 11 years mainly cardio or so but have seen the pounds creep up because never really looked at my food. I am 35 and weight about 125 pounds and 5'1, I would like to reduce my body fat percentage. I trained with Galloway last year for the New York Marathon and got hurt during the actual marathon and could not finish. I don't know what happened, just my foot hurt from the very beginning, I tore a ligament. I had been doing cardio (Turbojam) on 2 days while running 3 days a week and that might have been too much pounding. I agree that strength training is essential. But I am so scared to add another day of running b/c I am fearful of injury. I usually do one run of about 4-5 miles, one running class day (where we do speed intervals, hills) and one longer run day. I am not up to a lot maybe like 6 miles. I really want to reduce my body fat. I have been trying to eat between 1600-1800 calories per day. Any suggestions for a complete program that is not overdoing it but can speed up the weight loss. I want to get faster with my running, but feel that if I can lose some weight that will really help.

Well, as you (prob) know, fat loss is about being in a deficit.

How do you KNOW you are eating between 1600 and 1800 a day? Are you guessing? Are you estimating? Are you eyeballing ANYTHING at all? Do you eat an apple and say, "this is a medium sized apple", and then look up medium apple and put it down as 75 cals? Do you use a spoon or tablespoon to measure out a scoop of peanut butter? Do you pour yourself a glass of milk (or creamer for your coffee) directly into the cup/mug? Do you count splenda cals, and I cant believe its not butter spray?

My point is, you are little already. You are concerned with losing body fat. Your BMR is 1320 cals a day. I used the Harris Benedict activity multiplier of 1.55, which puts you at the higher end of moderately active... I assume you prob have a sedentary job, but i could be wrong-- keep in mind, almost ALL OF US grossly OVERESTIMATE the amount of calories we feel we burn a day, in other words we think we are OWED more food than we really are.So, activity of 1.55 puts your daily avg calories needs (to maintain) at about 2050 cals a day. Keep in mind these are just starting point numbers. In ANY CASE,, if you are 100% sure that the days you eat 1800 you are really eating 1800, than that only gives you a 200 calorie deficit for that day. That's if you are SURE. My point with the whole thing at the beginning is that unless you are WEIGHING your food to the GRAM with a scale, EVERYTHING you put in your mouth, you could be off...... when you only have a 200 cal deficit a day, if you are off even a LITTLE bit, then you are really eating at maintenance, and you wont lose a pound of fat. Even if you are eating 1600 a day, that is only a 400 cal deficit, and if your tablespoon of peanut butter is a little heaping tomorrow, than that 190 cals just turned into 240 without you realizing it, and did you know that little single serving creamer at the gas station coffee counter has 40 calories in it!!?!? Boom!! You are down to a 300 cal deficit. And guess what else? Your medium apple was really a little bigger and in fact had 110 calories in it.....and you accidentally forgot to count the small handful of almonds you took out of the receptionists bowl.....that's about 50 cals right there...assuming it was only one handful.... Do me A favor and check out the link i gave on the previous page, entitled "the Secret to Fat Loss"

Do you understand what im getting at? The smaller you are, the more diligent you have to be. And the bigger your deficit is (PROB) going to have to be. Im sorry. You might need to eat closer to 1400 or 1500 to give yourself a 500 cal a day deficit, which equals (in theory) one pound of fat loss a week.

Don't listen to people who tell you that exercise is 20% of the equation and diet is 80% for fat loss. Diet is everything. Diet is 100%. Training/exercise helps to ensure that you will be happy with your body when you achieve your goal (of course it serves other purposes as well!)


You are also absolutely right to assume that losing fat will help make you faster!! its FREE SPEED!!! The more body fat you drop, the faster you will get without even trying!! Think of your excess body fat as dead weight your bum has to drag along on every run!

Do you have an actual running goal?
A race? A distance? I need more info to help you design a program...
But right off the bat, how long have you been running (this recent spell i mean?-- i dont care if you ran in HS if that was 20 years ago!) When you trained for NY, that was as a walker? using the run/walk method? How many miles do you run per week now?

If you are doing that running group/class than you've already got speed work built in, so don't add any of that! Only more advanced runners have any business doing more than 1 speed workout per week...... you prob wouldn't physiologically benefit from any more. However if you REALLY want to get faster, once you are ready (depending again on your distance goal-- is it short like a 5K or long like a 1/2 or full?) you would prob benefit from lactic acid threshold training, as opposed to sprint/interval/Vo2Max style speed work. It (intervals) seems to be the most popular, but only because the average joe runner doesn't KNOW about threshold training workouts! I can honestly credit threshold training with taking me from a mid pack runner to winning local races.
Anyway, for now keep working on increasing the distance of your long run once a week, and if you can, i highly recommend adding one easy running day, where you run neither far nor fast, but at a relaxed, fun, comfortable, recovery run pace. At the end find time to do slow,isometric stretching, mobility work, and foam rolling. Try to do mobility and foam rolling twice a week-- once after a run, and once on an off day. you MUST take at least one day off a week.... Strength gains are achieved when we are at rest, not while we are working.....
You agreed that strength training is essential, but i don't see that you've placed any focus on it. I recommend get the fat off first (ie focusing on diet/emphasizing strength training more than you are now) and running moderately or doing some other form of moderate cardio. Once the weight is off you can scale back the strength training (just maintenance lift) and focus on the running and training. For now work on increasing your weekly base mileage.
Once again, what are your running goals?

I also sprained my foot during my marathon in October....mile 2 to be exact..... And then i sprained it AGAIN the week before my January marathon...... Its never gonna heal.......

blue- sounds like you had quite the adventure! I hate getting lost, and crazy people who let their dogs off leashes.

ajpinn- mk know's her stuff and I couldn't have said it any better than she did. I'm also doing Chalean Extreme and I'm loving the results I'm getting. Good luck with your goals.

I went to my follow-up orthopedic appointment today and I didn't have to get another cortisone shot because the doc was happy with the major decrease in sensitivity. He pushed on the side of my hip and this time I barely felt anything! I told him that I went to physical therapy and got some stretches and have been doing them as well and he was happy with the progress I've made. I asked him about foam rollers and if I would benefit from using one and he ok'ed it. I found one at REI and took it home and tried it out. It definitely was painful but I'm sitting down now typing this up, and I'm not getting the usual uncomfortable feeling in my hips that I was usually getting.

Tomorrow is the first day of my half marathon group-training. I'm really excited and a bit nervous as well to get back to running. I'm really hoping that I can go for a decent amount of time before getting any pain.

I also went to Barne's and Noble and found a good book that I can't wait to dive into called "chi running: a revolutionary approach to effortless, injury-free running" It will hopefully help me to have the best running form to prevent any further stress on my joints.

I guess the gist of this rambling post is to just say that I am feeling positive about my rehab-progress and I can't wait to be back to running shape, lol.

I also got my tax check in so I'm hopefully getting a bodybugg tomorrow! WOOHOO!

Happy running, all!

thanks for all the advice and sorry about your injury. I also have the book chi running and it seems great but honestly haven't started finished it. I have been using calorie king and online resources for my calorie estimates but I could be off. As for running. This bout since trying for the marathon I have been running again for about 3 /2 months. My goal is to lose weight and get faster during races, mostly 5 and 10ks for this year. In New York, you have to do 9 qualifying road races to get entry into the marathon so I am doing this whole cycle thing again, so this year my goal is to get by body fat down so next year when I run the marathon I can have a better time (my first marathon was 5 1/2 hours and was 4 years ago). My goal is to be fit but also be able to run for the rest of my life. After I do this marathon I don't plan to do more, just half marathons but we shall see. I want to learn how to exercise to meet my potential but not to overdo it or injure myself. I don't see myself entering any contests but I have not felt good about my body in a while and would like to get back there, so to be lean and left body fat. I also want to keep habits that I can continue for my lifetime. So I would say my goals are two fold, be a faster runner and trim fat. thanks for your advice. My class does different stuff each week, this week we did hills. I don't know the schedule but I am assuming it will just build on what we have been doing.

Myroker,
I loved reading this. I just got back into running after about 8 months. Sadly I have gained a ton of weight during that 8 months. My best 5k time was 27min, when I was consistently running. When I went for a 3mile jog yesterday it took me 39 minutes , but at least I figured I was getting out there. I just back from a 4 1/2 mile jog that took me 53 minutes, I know it is awfully slow. I mainly need to focus on my diet to get my weight down, to increase my time so it is not embarrassing. I am running the 10k in the Cleveland Marathon in May. I definitely can run 6 miles, but my time is going to be humiliating. Again my weight is holding me back. My ultimate goal is is to run the half marathon in Akron, Ohio in September. Anyways, I found your post to be inspiring.

AJP, in my experience, strength training has made me a considerably faster runner, especially by focusing on lower body/core work (though I am not complaining what upper body lifting has done to my arms and shoulders!) I know you said you had been running for 3.5 months this time around but how long have you been incorporating CE? I found it took probably a month or so of consistent weight training to start seeing an improvement in my running. But that improvement first came in endurance (I could run for longer periods of time without getting tired and walking); speed came with the weight lifting PLUS speed sessions on the treadmill. If you are not already, I would think about replacing one of the runs with a speed workout, or maybe adding one in. Maybe think about cutting calories, though it's a little counter productive during marathon training. Still, I have found that if I eat at my "weight loss" level (which is 1200 calories) 6 days out of the week, and the day before my long run, eat more (around 1700 calories), I have the fuel to complete my runs, and the weight still manages to come off.

Eve- SO happy to hear about your injury improvement and yay for no more cortisone shots! good luck with your HM training and have fun!!

All - a question for the longer distance runners who need to fuel up during the race. Yesterday I went out for 8 miles and have noticed during the past few runs that I tend to run out of gas between 5-6 miles which makes the last few miles incredibly long and slow because I have nothing left in the tank. I'm guessing it's time for me to start incorporating some gus and gels. I know there are quite a few out there for me to choose from, but wanted to know if you had any favorites so maybe I can avoid the nasty ones?

I have been doing the weight portion of chalene extreme for a little over 3 months and just finished the lean circuit. I do feel it has helped my running and I feel a lot stronger. I finished a 4 mile race yesterday in a little over 38 minutes which is fast for me. I don't know if it is my class where we did speed training or hills or the weight training or a combo but I will take it. I think the weight training and the new class are helping and hopefully will improve my speed and endurance as well. I know the key is to really fuel my body and make sure it is the right kind of fuel. wow, I don't know I could function on 1200 calories day day, that is amazing, and you are exercising an hour a day. wow, I am more at the 1400-1600 calorie range. I have used the vanilla bean gu, that is my favorite kind, i bought a case of the strawberry banana but I hated it and gave them to a friend. They tasted like a bad medicine to me. I also like the shotblocks, they kind of taste like gummi bears. They come in different flavors. I used them when I was running for more than an hour. Cliff makes them. Just make sure to drink a lot of water with them. I think my plan it to do one speed training (with the class and continue when it is over and hills), a longer endurance run on the weekend, and a recovery run or tempo workout. Add in 2 more cross training sessions during the week like the bike, 3 weight training and some yoga and core work and watch my diet. thanks everyone for all the advice. It is nice to share with others that are in your same position.

Hello all,

5 more days until super sexy Coke zero day...............

I registered for the Seattle half marathon on June 26. My dh is registered for the full. Yes the dh who started running 10 minutes ago is running the full Marathon. I wanted my first 1/2 to be a little less GIGANTIC, but I wanted to do it with my man more. Well we wont be anywhere near each other as he runs MUCH faster than I, but we will be together driving to the start.

My IT band is still being a bit of a brat, so for the last couple weeks I've done less running and more on the bike and yoga. We are also doing a 2 day 200 mile ride together in July.

Weight is 100% what goes in.

FP: I haven't need extra nutrition running yet, but I have biking. I like Honey stingers because they are natural. Cliff shot blocks and sport beans work OK for me too. I really like bananas the most, but there are transportation issues involved. Real food seems to sit in my stomach better. MY Dh has been trying different foods on his runs. He is up to running 20 miles on his long runs and spending $5-7 on stingers and shot blocks doesn't rock his world. He eats dried figs/dates, pb honey sammie halves, bananas . I have also tried and hated a couple of gus, but loads of people love them. I think you just have to try stuff out. My mentor on the triathlon site I belong to swears by snicker bars for herself.

I could get on board with that REAL fast.

SGeranium - congrats on registering for the half. And, yes, my bf is an amazing runner with relatively little effort so I get you on your DH running the full...

EveL - yay! thanks for sharing your good news! How did day 1 of half-mary group training go?

missjkd - welcome! glad to have you on the thread! Glad to hear that you are getting back out there.

So impressed some of y'all are at a place when you need to use gels and that kind of thing...that makes you hard core in my eyes.

So I haven't run for the past few days w/ TOM but did get some good, long brisk walks in and also painted the living room (no need to do upper body strength work out after hours with a brush and roller...) I'm challenging myself to remain physical during TOM even though I am tired, low energy, sore boobs, etc. Amazing how much my appetite fluctuates with my cycle - I am enjoying it being low again.

Anyway, I have a post-dinner run scheduled for tonight and it's shaping up to be a nice sunny, breezy day which should make for a good workout. Three weeks until my 5k!

Eh.....
there comes a time when i must ask myself a question-- what is more important, the "last 5 pounds" or a summertime of running and loving it and setting PRs and winning little local races and being healthy and active
??
its warm in the morning again guys. Granted, its still early spring and at any moment we can get another does of winter, but so far since spring hit, its been pretty much in the 40s every morning. It was in the 50s the other day!

So, i ran an easy 6 on Tuesday, and then today a 5.5 mile Glycogen Depletion Run...was gonna be lactic acid threshold, but i just dont HAVE a LA Threshold anymore! gonna haf to work on that....
Glycogen depletion goes like this (FYI, its an EXCELLENT weightloss tool--supposedly!)and its going to seem similar to LA Threshold, the difference is its shorter.
So, 1 min at 5K pace (6:30 min/mi), 2 min 10k PACE (7:10-7:30 min/mi) and then 2 minutes easy (8-9 min miles) .... repeat. THEN, after 30 minutes of this, i bring it down to an easy 9 minute mi and just run steady state for another 20 minutes, AFTER i depleted the glycogen (the purpose of the intervals).
LA Threshold, on the other hand, you sustain the paces for much longer..... 5K pace fo .25 miles to half a mile/full mile, and then 1-2 miles at 10K pace, the a mile or 2 at marathon / recovery pace..... different paces for different purposes and races