<p>idad, I don’t think you’re at “light activity,” though.</p>
<p>I don’t know. If I go up to moderately active, then it calculates that I will lose 1 pound per week eating 2000 calories a day. I’ve been eating less than 2000 calories a day and I haven’t been losing 1 pound a week, so I know that’s not right.</p>
<p>I figure that I’m moderately active (or more) in terms of exercising, but I’m sedentary in terms of job and stuff – not doing physical labor or on my feet all day. </p>
<p>With light activity, is says that I will lose 1/2 pound a week at 1972 calories a day. That’s pretty close. I’ve been losing between 1/2 pound and 1 pound week and averaging somewhere between 1722 and 1972 calories a day.</p>
<p>Who knows? At this point, I figure I’ll just eat what I eat and lose what I lose. I stay on top of weighing myself because I am determined to not slip back into gaining weight. The best insurance against that is to stay focused on fitness. I have eased up and am not quite so strict on the diet these days.</p>
<p>Race Report- It was awful. I guess I just didn’t have the base for this distance and this difficult of a course. My time was pretty bad, but I didn’t quit. I did have to walk on some of the hills (I hardly ever, ever walk in a race). It just felt really hard. However, it was a gorgeous day and a beautiful course in the country and the finisher’s "medals’ (“woods”) were made from old oak barrel planks from Jack Daniels. We got them signed by the Master Distiller after the race. I also managed to sneak in for 3rd in my age group and got a large plank award which is one of the neatest awards I have ever gotten. My daughter did great- she blew by me with 1 1/4 miles to go for a 20 minute PR (personal record- in her first real half marathon- there was the one we ran when we were supposed to walk…). Her husband was just a couple of minutes behind me in his 3rd race of any distance EVER. He released her to kick in with a couple of miles to go. H rode his bike 43 miles to get to the race to watch us finish (I dropped him off part way there in the cold with his bike…). All in all, a good day, but I need to do some serious evaluating about whether I want to be racing. My pre-race (starting maybe a day in advance) anxiety level is not healthy. It feels like I am facing major surgery or a plane crash. I’m serious about this. It is a real problem and I don’t know why I feel this way. I am NOT in the Olympics and this happens even with “lesser” races that I enter. H thinks part of it is that I race VERY hard and I know how much it is going to hurt. It certainly isn’t a stroll through the country. Good news is that injury did well. I know I still have a lot of weakness in the left leg which also doesn’t help with my race times. Driving the long drive home (well, via a really great barbecue place) was the only discomfort.</p>
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<p>Yay! That is **very **good news, indeed. You’ve been battling this thing for a long time.</p>
<p>My little walk today was an epic fail. 50 degrees, bright blew sky. So I headed out the door and by the time I got to the end of my street, a dark black cloud and blown in, the wind was whipping, and it started to rain. 50 degrees and sunny is one thing. 50 degrees, windy, and raining? Not so much. So I pulled a quick U-turn and headed back to the barn. I don’t wanna walk that bad! So 3/4 of a mile is just going to have to do it for today. There’s always tomorrow, right?</p>
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<p>MOWC, that’s pretty serious. Is it possible for you to enjoy running without racing?? Then you’d get all the goodies – the aerobic benefits, the endorphin high – without any of the baddies. Perhaps you could just “race” against yourself, setting out challenges that you want to accomplish, without the pressure of a real race.</p>
<p>VeryHappy- I really do enjoy training/running. I am good at racing, though (have been doing it for over 30 years), and I love the social aspects of it. I also love the way it feels after the race when you have done your best and you get to eat and drink beer with your friends and analyze every step. In my running circle and at my level of running, racing is sort of expected. I hope I can figure out this absurd anxiety I have BEFORE the races. I may have to force myself to, literally, jog through a few races so that I don’t put any pressure on myself and see how that feels. Of course, then I don’t get cool age group awards! :)</p>
<p>Spent most of the day outside watching high school baseball. Just got back from the gym a little bit ago after a solid workout.</p>
<p>The CrossFit WOD for today was:
5 rounds of 400m run and 5 back squats</p>
<p>I did the 2000 meters of running and I did 5 sets of back squats, but not quite the same…
5 reps @215#
5 reps @230#
4 reps @250#
4 reps @260#
3 reps @270#
1 rep @300#</p>
<p>New 1RM for my back squat today at 300 pounds. Previous 1RM was 260 pounds. I’ve made major improvements by doing other exercises including front squats, KB swings, and split squats. I have really cut back on the amount of back squats that I do, but I was happy to see my weight shoot up like it did today. I improved by 40 pounds!</p>
<p>Now that sounds like it would be a good workout by itself and it was. But I wasn’t done. I finished the day off with 100 kettlebell swings @30#. I had originally planned to do as many as possible in 15 minutes, but decided to call it quits at 100. That took me 7 minutes and I had an average HR of 150BPM with a max HR of 180BPM.</p>
<p>Another great day in the gym for me! :)</p>
<p>Went to the Y for the machines. It was 49 and sunny when we left home. When we left the Y, it was raining and the sun was out. The temperature feel to 43 a few minutes later. It was a little windy out too. I had on a hooded sweatshirt which was just a little bit chilly. My son had a windbreaker which probably worked out a lot better.</p>
<p>MOWC – Our area has some pretty heavy duty running groups (the kind that include people who represented their country on Olympic teams when they were younger and a whole bunch of pretty serious runners) & training clubs, and I understand that they often have social times after one of the workouts. </p>
<p>D really liked swimming, but not competitions – I think when she’s out of school she’s going to start Masters swimming and not do competitions but be happy as a clam. (A minnow?)</p>
<p>MOfWC, first of all, I’m thrilled to hear that your injured leg did well. Yay!!! Congrats! Keep it up. Okay, now you have your official “first real race after my injury” time. Can you try and see if you can concentrate on beating that time the next time you race (instead of the cool trophies)? I know, easier said than done - I planned on running my 12 miles today at a “marathon pace plus 1”, and ended up finishing my run in 1:35, which is waaay faster than my goal time was. I just could not slow down. Not good. I also wonder if you could talk to a sports psychologist about your pre-race anxieties…</p>
<p>arabrab, our yD swam competitively for a few years, but was not enjoying it. She ended up joining a water polo team and still plays. She thinks it is like rugby on steroids and really likes it.</p>
<p>Thanks. This time was so poor it would be pretty hard NOT to beat it! I doubt I will run another half marathon any time soon- at least not until the fall. I think I can run some of the lower key 5Ks without the pre-race freakout. If I have to stop racing, I think I can live with that.</p>
<p>BB- it sounds like your training is going very well and that you will race much faster than you are expecting. Just be careful of injury with all that fast training.</p>
<p>1850 calories</p>
<p>53% fat
26% carbs
21% protein</p>
<p>Don’t beat yourself up too badly, MofWC, I think you’re pretty amazing. Managing 3rd in your age group while coming back from injury is a great accomplishment. </p>
<p>Idad, I’m surprised at your calorie intake, it seems low. I have to eat that much just to maintain my weight, and I’m pretty small.</p>
<p>MoWC - Is this anxiety new, increasing, or something that has always been part of your competitive make-up?</p>
<p>I think we all feel like we know you from your posts on these threads. You are remarkably candid - you share the highs and the lows of your life. One thing that seems clear to me is how much running is part of your identity. Yes, you love all things running - but more than that, at your core you are an elite runner. Having been really good, what you don’t want is what my daughter calls, “sympathy applause.” </p>
<p>Now - you are not even close to being in danger of being the recipient of such applause, but qualified success must be a little frustrating. Maybe I am projecting here, but I don’t want to be one of those racewalkers that people say, “Oh, she used to be good.” That causes me mild anxiety - and I can’t imagine what it would feel like for you. We have held off aging, we are told we are “young for our age” and we don’t want it to end. </p>
<p>I know I sound ridiculously analytical - usually I keep things lighthearted here - but I think the anxiety is more about aging than racing. As long as you race well, you can’t be old. </p>
<p>And if I am way off track (so to speak) - just ignore :)</p>
<p>On the UPSIDE of all of this - it couldn’t have happened at a better time for your daughter. She can BEAT you - and how cool is that???</p>
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<p>Ha! I don’t know what “maintenance” would be. I’ve been losing weight for nearly 14 months and before that I had been gaining weight for years! :)</p>
<p>LiveStrong (and my calculations) suggest that maintenance for me would be somewhere in the 2250 to 2500 a day calorie range. I’ve been losing an average 3/4 pound to 1 pound a week over the last couple months, so that’s a pretty signficant daily deficit. A pound a week is 500 calories a day below maintenance.</p>
<p>idad, aren’t you pretty close to an ideal weight now? I can’t imagine you’ve got much more to actually lose.</p>
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<p>Ha! The government BMI charts say that I have to lose 19 more pounds just to barely squeek out of the “overweight” category. Of course, those charts say that Barack Obama is borderline overweight, too! IMO, those charts are as misguided as the push to get people to eat more carbs. I don’t think beat</p>
<p>Based on body fat, instead, I’m already out of the “overweight” category.</p>
<p>I would look terrible if I lost 19 more pounds. I could see maybe 5 or 10. At this point, I’m mostly just getting a little more muscular, a little less flabby. Waist and hips are are getting smaller. Arms, shoulders, and chest are staying the same. The weight has been slowly drifting down with that. I’m genetically not on the skinny end of the scale – more broad shouldered.</p>
<p>Thanks, wip2. The anxiety isn’t really new, but I may be just at the age where I’m not interested in having it! I used to freak out pretty badly about marathons back when I was really good (late 20s/early 30s) because marathons were HARD and back then slow people didn’t do marathons. Seriously- when I started doing marathons a 4:00 marathon was slow. There weren’t the charity events and all the walk/runners. So-you really put it on the line. It’s nice now that there are so many more participants.<br>
When I first started entering some races in Nashville in 2008 and was an unknown, I was a little nervous but not too much. I had no expectations. I returned to competitive running in 2009 (due to the fault of a CC member, GolfingMom, who doesn’t post anymore but is now a good IRL friend of mine). I got her started running (she had lost 80 pounds) and she talked me into entering Grandma’s Marathon in MN. I had gotten back to competitive weight by late 2008, so my 2009 races went really well. My anxiety level was terrible, though, especially since my internet and IRL running groups overlap and it is a very intense bunch. I should add that almost all of them are a LOT younger than I am. I don’t really think it is about my times/performance, though, because I was pretty anxious about the Vegas Half Marathon that I was going to WALK with my friend! (of course, we wound up running it…) It’s something about a starting line and a finish line. I remember being up in northern Wisconsin in Oct 2009 before Whistlestop Marathon and really questioning why I was putting myself through this. Once the race starts, I don’t think I am too much different from any other marathoner. You argue with yourself the whole way and debate the merits of quitting while you are calculating your expected finish time. :)<br>
I got very anxious last summer about the organized bike rides, too. It’s almost like I fear the hard effort, but yet I sure can push myself in training!
I AM thrilled that my daughter can beat me and that she is enjoying running. It takes away a small part of the incredible sadness I still have over the fact that my talented son has never really been able to run since knee surgeries senior year of high school. He can do a little running, but never got to run in college or realize his potential. I would give up my running in a second if somehow it would let him really train and race.</p>
<p>It’s hard to do low carbs when you don’t do the cooking. Wife made dinner with 1.5 cups of rice.</p>
<p>Just doing some weightlifting at home and various chores. I was quite sore this morning after tennis yesterday. Feeling much better now. I would like to get a run in but we’ll see if there’s time.</p>
<p>I want to add that I am thrilled that I can even run at all. There was a real chance that this injury (pinched nerve, hamstring, whatever it all is) could have meant no significant running for a long time. I’m not upset about my time yesterday- just surprised that the race felt as hard as it did to yield a time slower than I expected. That happens. When it does, it’s important to figure out what is going on. That’s part of learning from each race.</p>