Archive for: weight loss

Ready for the Nashville Country Music Marathon

Posted by Jim on April 15, 2012

Nashville Country Music MarathonI’m ready.  I’ve finished the most difficult part of the marathon training and now I’m tapering my mileage during these last couple weeks before the marathon.  I’ve run 441 miles and nearly 100 hours to get ready for this race.  I would have liked to get in more miles, but the 25 mile run last week (only 1.2 miles short of a marathon) told me that I’m ready to finish.  Even with the nearly six weeks off during December/January (due to injury), I was able to get back on track and ready for the race.

My biggest regret in preparing for this marathon is that I’ve not lost more weight.  As of this morning I’m down 16.75 pounds from my starting weight of 161.5, but it looks like I’ll be running the marathon at just over 240 pounds.  That’s a lot of extra weight that I simply shouldn’t be bringing along.  But I have only myself to blame.

I plan to continue running regularly after the marathon so that I can stay in shape and continue to lose weight.  I’m hoping to weight 220 by the end of September this year.  That would be a total weight lose of 41.5 pounds in one year.

I completed three training runs so far this week:

On Tuesday I ran a comfortable six miles in an hour and 20 minutes.  On Thursday I completed my last speed run before the marathon.  I ran a quick pace of 10:43 a mile for a 10 kilometer run on the crushed rock trail at the Walker County Community Center.  Then today I completed 8.7 miles on the roads in Cloudland Canyon State Park.

Just 13 more days until I stand in the starting corral at the Country Music Marathon in Nashville, Tennessee.  I’m excited.  The anticipation is starting to set in as I draw closer to finishing this 30 year goal.

Categories Races, Training
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My Own Personal Battlefield

Posted by Jim on March 4, 2012

Chickamauga Battlefield cannonsWhen I started my run today, I was thinking about doing more than my typical four mile run, but I wasn’t sure just how far I wanted to go.  I decided to run at least seven miles at the Chickamauga Battlefield near our home.  I got there around 4:30 p.m. and figured I had about two hours of sunlight.

I choose a route I had not run before around the north and then east sides of the park.  This took me across the recently reopened Alexander Bridge which has a rich history from the Civil War.  I wanted to do a loop, so I kept running south thinking I would soon come across a road that would take me west to the main road through the park. Well, that took a little longer than I had expected.

I finally arrived at Red Belt Road and was able to make my way back to Lafayette so I could run north to my car.  But by now I had run eight miles and had another four miles to go.   It soon became dark, and I found myself breaking an important safety rule.  I was wearing black and running in the dark.  This is NEVER a good idea.  There were white reflective strips on my jacket, but it was still not the best situation to be in.  So, anytime a car approached, which was frequently, I would get several feet off the road and make my way as best I could.

By the time I got to my car I had run 3 hours and 12.8 miles.  Even though I didn’t enjoy running after dark, the rest of the run was relaxing and a real pleasure.  I had no soreness during or after the run.  I feel privileged to live where there are so many great places to run.

So my runs are going very well, but I’ve got another battle going on right now, my weight.  I had added about 10 pounds during the winter break while recovering from injury and illness.  And now I find that my diet is simply not good.  I have been eating more than I should and craving snacks throughout the day.  Usually running helps me control these cravings, but not so much lately.  As of this morning, I have only lost 12.5 pounds since starting the marathon training last October.  The goal was much greater than this.

So, I’m confessing my problem and hoping that it’s one more step toward doing something about it.  I’ve done okay today, but still not great.  I really need to buckle down unless I want to weight 240+ pounds when I run the Nashville Country Music Marathon next month.

(Photo Credit: Michael Noirot)

Categories Diet, Training
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Running on the Riverwalk

Posted by Jim on February 21, 2012

Mile marker 0 on the Tennessee RiverwalkI had an interview near downtown Chattanooga today, so I decided to take a change of clothes and run on the Tennessee Riverwalk (just across the street from my interview). It was a chilly 52 degrees, but the sun was shining and the Riverwalk was busy. I parked by the Chickamauga Dam, changed clothes and hit the trail. Even though I had a long run yesterday, I was feeling great and decided to see how I did eliminating my walk breaks on this run.

My pace for the first mile was nice at 11:45. Again, since I run with a heart monitor, I expected that I would slow down over the next few miles. And I did. I decided to turn around at the two mile mark (easy to recognize by the Jim Collins metal sculptures place at each mile mark, see photo above). My run back was almost a minute slower per mile.

I finished the four mile run in just under 49 minutes. This is a pretty good pace for me right now. I stayed in my training zone of 132-150 heart beat per minute for 95% of the run. Overall, this was a great run for me. I feel confident now that my past injury is healed and I should have no problem training for the marathon these next two months. I still want to lose nearly 15 more pounds so that I’m running the marathon at a weight of about 235. But honestly, I’ll be happy to be under 240.

Tennessee Riverwalk and a view of Lookout MountainOne other note: since I am playing catch-up on my training, I have to accelerate my long run increases for the next several weeks. I’m thinking about adding 3 miles to my long run every other week. That would have me running my longest, a 22 mile run, just two weeks before the marathon. I had wanted to run up to 25 miles on my longest run before the marathon, but the 22 miles will have to do. I don’t want to injure myself from over-training.

(Original Photo Credit: Michael Tinkler)

Categories Diet, Training
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It’s Been A While…

Posted by Jim on January 4, 2012

It’s been nearly two weeks since my last post.  I’d like to blame it all on the busy holidays, but it’s a bit more than that.  Seems that my leg injury (knee and calf pain) wasn’t going to go away as quickly as I had hoped.  Then a non-running related condition has kept me off my feet for nearly a week.  This is a most frustrating situation.  I’ve only run three times since my race on December 17th and none in past five days.

Even though the situation right now is very irritating, I’ve not changed any expectations for my marathon.  I know that I need to let these injuries heal.  And when they do, I will be back out running again.  I will have to tweak my schedule a bit to be sure I get in the long runs that are needed to prepare for the marathon.  But I had already left a little room for adjustments in case of something like this.  As long as I’m back running again soon, it won’t be much of a problem.

The other issue I need to address is the lack of any weight loss these past three weeks.  While my sons were visiting I let my diet waver a bit.  There was junk food in the house for the first time in months.  And yeah, I indulged.  Even though I didn’t put on any weight, I am now behind my weight loss schedule by nearly five pounds.  So I’ve got some work to do.  I’m sure that once I’m running again the weight will come off.

So, it’s a few more days of rest and then I try to run again.  The nearly 200 miles I put in so far are not wasted.  I should be able to get my mileage back up very soon.  Thanks for following me and supporting my efforts!

Categories Diet, Training
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Training Update: October 10 – Present

Posted by Jim on October 29, 2011

Since I started my marathon training a few weeks ago, I thought I’d update you on what I’ve done so far.  Keep in mind that I started running again only a couple weeks ago and I am at least 40 pounds over weight.

October 1 – Decided to do something about being out of shape.  Okay, I’m in shape…but that shape is round.  So I started paying more attention to what I eat and thinking about an exercise plan.  I weighted myself in the morning at 261.50 pounds (I use a doctor’s scale).

Note: I like to weight myself everyday and average my weight for the week.  I know, this is not recommended by the weight loss gurus, but it works for me.  I don’t have a problem with getting discouraged.  I like to know how food and exercise affect my body every day.  So each morning I step on the scale to see how I’m doing.

October 10 – Okay, I’ve given it a lot of thought and decided that it’s time to finally achieve the goal I set twenty-eight years ago…to run a marathon.  The weather is beautiful, so off to the 3/8 mile running track at our local church.  39 minutes later I finished my first run of 3 miles.  I ran 5 minutes and walked 5 minutes until I finished.  It felt great to get out and run again.

October 12 – Today I decided to try running on the crushed rock path at a local park.  The running surface and the couple moderate hills on this one kilometer (.62 miles) course slowed me down a bit.  I ran 3.1 miles in 43 minutes.  This time my run/walk ratio was 6:4 (6 minutes running and 4 walking).

October 14 – Three miles has felt great so far.  I’m not in as bad of shape as I expected.  My volunteer work doing trail maintenance at Cloudland Canyon State Park (and my time on the park’s disc golf course) seem to have helped me some.  So I chose to run 4 miles today.  My 11:36 pace was about a minute faster per mile than my 3 mile run on Monday.  Run/walk was 6:4.  Felt great!

October 16 – Back to the park to run.  Finished my 5K (3.1 miles) about 3 minutes sooner than my October 12 run.  But I felt like I was pushing it a bit after the first 10 minutes.

October 17 – Week two and I started with a 3 mile run at the church.  This time I changed my run/walk ratio to 7:3.  The 3 minutes of walking seemed to be just right.  Again, my pace improved.  I expect this to happen a lot for the first few weeks as my body starts to get adjusted to running again.

October 19 – It’s a cold and breezy 48 (F) degrees.  I threw on a technical shirt, a cotton tee and my warmup jacket and pants.  I also wore some cotton gloves and a winter headband.  Felt wonderful as I finished my 4 mile run in 45 minutes.

October 21 – Time for my long, slow run.  I added a mile to my longest run last week and finished my 5 miles in just under an hour.  It was a cool, but comfortable 62 (F) degrees.

October 23 – My Sunday run was 3.1 miles on the slow park path.  I forgot my watch, but I estimate it was about a 40 minute run.  My run/walk ratio was 8:2 today.

October 24 – On this beautiful sunny and 72F day, I ran a good pace (for me) of 10:47 for my 3.8 mile run.  Some minor pain in my right ankle, but nothing bad.

October 26 – Three miles at the park in just over 38 minutes.  I like to mix up my running paths like this.  The hills and soft surface at the park are rather enjoyable.  Still running/walking an 8:2 ratio.

October 28 – Today…I’ve not gone to bed yet.  My long run was a 10K (6.2 miles).  I ran a very slow pace to finish in 1 hour, 23 minutes.  I’m not worried about the time on these long runs.  Right now I am building a base and time is not important.  Thighs were a little sore the last mile.  That let’s me know I’m getting in shape.

Categories Training
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