The first one was the High Noon Shoot-out. This was a stupid race. Some might call it novelty but I just call it stupid. 1.3 miles in blazing sun 97F temperature at high noon just for the hell of it. This race was put on by the Fort Worth Runners Club and it was followed by the annual club picnic.

I already ran 7 miles at marathon pace (7:08 min/mile) in the morning so I wasn’t feeling all that good, hip and the calves were cramping a small bit but I decided to run it anyway. Entry fee was free which is always a good price. The race had no timing or bibs, it was a short and narrow out and back course along the Trinity River. Timing was self administered or they called out your time as you crossed the finish line. Then you had to turn in your time with name, age and sex on a placement card that you got at the finish. This was the first race where I ran without a bib or timing chip. Definitely made the race feel very friendly and low key.

I never ran a race this short so I had no idea what to expect in terms of pacing. I figured it shouldn’t be much worse than my 800m repeats it’s just “slightly longer”. When the horn sounded and we were off I was in the lead and stayed there for the entire out section. By then it was a pack of 3 of us who kept together and the other two guys just passed me at the turnaround. I felt like I was done and I have clocked a 3:29 for the first half which was a 5:21 pace, a bit slower than my 800m repeat pace at the track. Based on race calculators I was supposed to be able to run a 5:30 mile so I was right on target. The second half was much much harder and I faded a good bit so my back time was 3:43 for a total of 7:12. My mile split was actually 5:24 which I am pretty happy with. I finished 3rd overall and 2nd in my age group.

The winner ran a 6:57 and the second place guy ran a 7:00 flat. They both ran 8 and 13 miles this morning respectively so they weren’t exactly running on fresh legs either.

But my co-worker who also ran the race already did his 20 mile long run before the race. They say the shorter the race the longer the warm-up should be, well I think he might have gone overboard with that 20 miler .

After the race we had free beer, hot dogs and burgers which made it into a fun an enjoyable event. And now I have a 1.3 mile PR!

The race I ran last weekend was the 4th annual El Scorcho which is another novelty race. It was my longest race so far and the venue was not ideal for a record setting pace considering it was 84F at the start with 65% humidity and it happened to be at midnight. But I did pretty good all considered.

I have learned from my last half marathon in 80F that hot weather and fast paces just don’t match so I purposefully picked a much slower pace than I should be able to run in ideal racing conditions. The slower pace was 7:03/mile. This was my goal which would have given me a target time of just under 1:50.

I got to the race venue around 11:00PM and things were in full action by then. Everyone was lugging coolers from the parking lot to the start in Trinity Park. It looked more like a picnic/free concert at the park than an endurance event. I was only half crazy and ran the 25K but there were full on crazies who went twice the distance at 50K. There were 128 finishers in the 50K and 329 in the 25K.

I met up with a couple of my running buddies, one of them was going to bandit the 25K and we decided that we would stick together as long as it was possible. His goal pace was 7:05 best case and 7:30 worst case. My 7:03 sounded doable for both of us.

We had a staggered start, the 50K started at 12:00AM and the 25K started at 12:10AM. The course was a 5K loop in Trinity Park and we had to do 5 or 10 loops respectively.

At the start I toed the line as usual and I was asking the guys around me about their target pace. Most were talking about 7 minute paces so I figured we should be good to go and hang in there. After the start two guys bolted and ran definitely faster than 7:00 pace. But I didn’t care, I have learned my lesson about running my own race instead of someone else’s. Me and my bandit friend and three other guys formed a pack and we were putting in some solid time at the beginning. First 5K was 21:33. I felt good and things were right on target.

Second lap was pretty uneventful although we have started lapping some 25K runners and we were definitely catching a lot of 50K runners. We were actually catching the back end of the 50K about 6 minutes into the race which meant some of those folks were on a 16+ minutes/mile pace. I’m not sure how many of them actually finished the distance. Second 5K was 21:55, right on the money.

The third 5K was getting a bit tougher our pack was starting to separate and two guys jumped from us and were a couple of seconds ahead of me and my bandit friend. We kept our distance and tried to maintain as much of it as was possible. Third 5K was 22:12. I was slipping and I could feel it. I asked my buddy if it was the 3rd or 4th lap and I was pretty disappointed when he told me that we had two more laps to go.

On the fourth lap the two rabbits from the front of us disappeared they were keeping a pretty good pace while me and my buddy kept on fading. My buddy was fading more and more and he took a water break after the 4th lap and said that he would try to catch up with me and keep coming. When I lost him at the lap marker I actually started to feel like he was holding me back and I was slowing my pace down for him earlier. But looking at my pace I was wrong. I was fading on my own just fine. Lap 4 was 22:46, my pace was falling apart. I started to have flashbacks of my last half marathon how I could barely keep it together by the end and how my pace was slower than 8 minutes/mile at the end. I felt a bit better this time and I kept thinking that I should push the last lap harder and harder. I thought it was all mental at this point and I jut had to push myself through it.

The last lap was feeling fine, I knew I was fading but I kept thinking about my form and pretending it’s a tempo run. I lost my buddy at the water station but he caught up with me a mile into the lap only to fade one more time. He could not keep the pace any longer and once again I was on my own. My half marathon split was 1:33:30 which I’m pretty happy with, it looked a lot more even paced than the last half I ran. I have decided that with 0.5 miles to go I’d really try to kick it hard and see where I end up. Last lap was 23:36 even with the kick and I ended up running a 1:52:02 and finished 4th overall. Considering the weather and the time of day I think it was a great pace for me and I think my BQ goal for October is definitely still attainable. When I checked some of the other finishers around me they all have 1:22-1:25 half finishes from last year under ideal conditions. It gives me hopes that under ideal conditions a 3:10 is certainly doable.

As for the other aspects of the race, it was really good.

Venue: The looped course is a bit twisty and boring and the constant lapping of people make it tough but it also keeps you on your toes and provides you with constant rabbits to chase. The surface conditions alternated between pavement, packed gravel and some areas we had to run even on grass. I thought I was going to twist my ankle on the grass but luckily that didn’t happen and I managed all the terrain changes just fine. The course was very well marked with glow sticks in the darker sections and there was no doubt ever in my mind which was I’m supposed to run.

Crowd Support: This race was the best I’ve ran so far in terms of crowd support. People were out there cheering everyone on. I have heard my name yelled more than I could possibly count and it never stopped to be entertaining. I really enjoyed the crowd and the constant cheering. The two end points had music blasting from two pick up trucks which also made them something to look forward to. All in all the crowd was fantastic.

Hydration: I brought my own 8oz bottles and the Fort Worth Running Company staff kept them ready to go every time I ran a lap. It was awesome to have my own pit crew and they did a phenomenal job. I almost forgot to stop for water after the first lap it wasn’t until they yelled me that I realized I was supposed to get water. I need to get the 8oz bottles with the nipples next time though, the ones with the caps just don’t work too well, not even with a straw especially when the straw is too damn short to reach the bottom. Volunteers were abundant and water and electrolyte was plenty at all parts of the course. The cups were nice and large and the volunteers yelled out what they were holding so you didn’t end up with electrolyte when you were expecting water. Post race support was also great with plenty of water and electrolytes to go around.

Nutrition: pre-race nutrition was a mixed bag for me. It’s kind of hard to prepare for a midnight race. I had pasta for lunch then the family wanted pizza for dinner so I had two slices of that and three hours before the race I ate some yogurt with muesli. I had no GI issues, things were going great. I had a gel pack 15 minutes prior race start along with 8 oz of water. I had 3 gel packs on me and I was going to have one per lap but I didn’t even get to them I was just too busy running. In training I usually eat the gels during water break but with racing I just don’t stop. I really need to start working on fuel consumption during running if I ever want to eat some of these gel packs during a race. Post race nutrition was also awesome, they had plenty of bananas, skittles, M&Ms, trail mixes, cookies, oranges, peanuts and chocolate to replenish some of the lost calories. I felt pretty dizzy when I finished the race but after drinking and eating some food I felt perfectly fine. In an hour after the race I felt really great even though the legs were fatigued. Again, the race food was great and the race staff did a phenomenal job!

Mile splits and HRR% (Heart rate Reserve %):
06:45 – 80.7% – A bit too fast start
07:00 – 87.8% – getting in the groove
07:03 – 88.0% – right on the money
07:02 – 88.9% – perfect pace
07:04 – 89.1% – still going strong
07:02 – 88.4% – another perfect split
07:01 – 88.5% – Why am I speeding up?
07:12 – 87.8% – Uh-oh!
07:13 – 87.1% – Yup, the wheels are coming off again
07:09 – 87.4% – Or maybe not! Hanging on for dear life
07:17 – 86.4% – Tougher and rougher
07:26 – 85.3% – Yeah, I’m done
07:27 – 83.9% – Is this thing over yet?
07:42 – 82.5% – OMG!
07:51 – 83.1% – WTF?
07:05 – 87.3% – Last 0.5 miles and I still managed to kick it! I’m happy and relived

As you can see I was running well into lactate threshold throughout the entire run (82-88% of HRR) and I “bonked” right at the 1 hr mark which is basically the definition of lactate threshold runs, a pace you can keep for one hour. Us, fatties (165lbs) just can’t run fast in the heat.

All in all it was a great event and I’m certainly planning on running it again next year!

Eating healthy and making good choices became second nature to me by now. Just because I quit counting the calories it did not mean I quit watching what I’ve been putting in my mouth. I’m still eating the same foods in the same amounts as I have been in the past I just do it without the help of my kitchen scale and without jotting down everything into my food diary. I still keep a mental diary of my daily intake and I’m still counting calories in my head. But it’s a lot more manageable than running to the computer after each meal to make sure the calories are still in order.

I’m also allowing myself small indulgences and I no longer feel utter remorse if I eat a cookie or devour a piece of cake every now and again. They fit into my lifestyle and they fit into my caloric budget as you can tell from my weight chart for the past month.

As you can see my weight has been fluctuating a bit over the past month with two notable spikes. The first one happened on the weekend of my half marathon and I think it had to do with hydration more than anything. I lost a lot of water during the race and I probably drank more than my fair share of water after the race to replenish. I also carb loaded for the race which meant more pasta than I would usually eat. The second surge in weigh was on 4th of July weekend. That weekend involved some festive eating with salty snacks at a friend’s place which also lends itself to excess water intake. But that very same weekend I also ran a total of 20 miles in two runs burning over 2,000 calories so everything went back to normal after that.

If you look at the overall trend of the red line it’s still downward. I’m happy about that even though my wife is not. She thinks I’m about 10 lbs too light at the moment and I should not only quit “dieting” I should start eating more to gain 10 lbs back. Needless to say I have no intentions of quitting my “diet” and I will not gain any weight back. My averaged weight on 6/17/10 was 166.6 lbs (75.6 kg) and today it’s 164.8 lbs (74.7 kg). I have lost 1.8 lbs (0.8 kg) in a month without even trying and without counting calories or measuring food with a scale. I’m officially under my initial target weight that I set when I started my transformation which was 165 lbs (74.8 kg). Having reached this goal now I’m onto the next one which is single digit body fat. I have checked my fat percentage with a 3 point caliper measurement and I’m at 11.8% at the moment. I know I’ll get there and I’m in no real hurry to achieve it.

The speedometer is basic but it does everything I needed which is to measure distance accurately. I set it up initially so one revolution was 1 meter and set it in metric mode this way every 0.001 km was one revolution exactly. This way I could use it as a simple revolution counter. I rolled on my bike 50 revolutions then took a 100 ft tape measure and measured the distance. It was 329.5 ft. So I knew that each revolution of the wheel was actually 2.008 meter which is more accurate than the 2.030 meter the manual of the speedometer indicated for my wheel size. This method is actually very similar to the method that is used to certify running courses. Once I calibrated my speedometer I rode to the hardware store to pick up some bright orange paint.

With the paint in hand, helmet on head, speedometer calibrated and reset I took off from my house and marked every quarter mile on my running route. My route generally involves 1 mile running out then do a mile loop around another neighborhood then do a 0.5 mile out and 0.5 mile back leg and keep repeating the 1 mile loop and the 0.5 mile out and back until I rack up enough miles to finish off with the last mile to run home. The problem was that the 1 mile out segment wasn’t quite 1 mile and the loop was only 0.95 miles so I never knew just how much I had to lengthen my run on the 0.5 mile out and back segment to make up for the shortage.

Now I know since I measured everything out down to the thousandth of mile and my new route marking is just perfect. I can run any distance with 0.5 mile resolution from the house and get perfect mile splits. I already ran 3 miles on my new measured route tonight and ironically my footpod measured 2.998 miles with the calibration value loaded in it and my GPS measured 3.01 miles. I might have went a bit OCD and should have just used my trusty tools instead of spending an hour and a half in the scorching sun painting numbers on the road.

I forgot to put on sunscreen so my arms and neck are pretty burned right now and I rode a total of 11 miles for all the painting and verifying of the distances. I still think it was time well spent .

I used to put a good amount of bacon fat under my eggs and pour salad dressing onto lettuce by the bucket load. Well that second statement is a lie, I was never too big on salad dressing, I always use sparingly even when they give you 4 servings of it in a packet. So when I started my transformation into healthy eating I gave up the bacon fat, I still eat bacon just not the fat, and started cooking my eggs in non-stick pans with no oil. As long as you do scrambled eggs you’re OK, most of it comes out and you can scrape the rest of it with a wooden spoon. But as soon as you start venturing into the land of “sunny side up” or “over easy” you start heaving problems with the egg sticking to the non-stick skillet. So I had been using cooking spray on the days I was making egg varieties with the nicely cooked white and soft yellow in the middle.

But when I saw this sprayer at BB&B I knew that I would no longer buy Pam and I will be more environmentally friendly while still staying healthy. And I was right! Misto works as advertised! It’s super easy to use, you just fill it with oil then use the built in pump to pressurize the can and BAM! you’re misting oil into the pan. I have no idea how Pam can still stay in business when there is such a product on the market that does it just as good for practically nothing.

The best part is that you don’t have to use canola or olive oil in it, you can use any kind of “gourmet” oil for your cooking needs. I have tried almond and chestnuts and they both are great. I also use it to spray it on my salads and salmon if I want to go light on the lubricants. I’ve been using it for the last couple of months and I could not be more pleased with it. All in all Misto is a great product and I think every kitchen should have one!

Eat Less Move More

There is no secret! It really comes down to one very simple thing: to lose weight you have to generate a caloric deficit. There are two ways of generating that caloric deficit.

1. Eat Less
   By reducing your caloric intake yet maintaining caloric demand your body will be in a caloric deficit and it will have to come up with the energy from some other source besides food. And most of us have plenty of storage to rely on. Our fat cells are excellent energy stores, they store about 3,500 calories of energy per lbs of body fat. So by eating less your body will start to burn off all the excess fat and slowly but surely your waistline will start to dwindle.
2. Move More
   The other way of generating a caloric deficit is by increasing the caloric demand of your body. Caloric demand of your body depends on age, sex, weight and activity level. The older you get the lower the caloric demand so the sooner you start the better off you are. It is pretty tough to change your sex, I’m not really sure it’s worth it, and the lower your weight the less energy you use so that really leaves us with one option to increase caloric demand which is increasing your activity level. Unless you quit your desk job and start loading trains or stocking warehouse shelves you really have no other option but start an exercise regime. It can be as little as 30 minutes of walking in the evenings after dinner or as much as a full fledged marathon training running 35+ miles a week. As long as you increase your activity level slowly but surely your waistline will start to dwindle.

And that’s all there is to it! As long as you do either one, or for optimal results both, you will lose weight. And the person who just asked the question while gets a bit disappointed that there was no secret involved, no pixie dust, no gastric bypass surgery, no magic drugs, no quick fix deep down inside they already knew that the only way to shed the fat and keep it off is by eating less and moving more.