For a couple of days after the Half Marathon (did I mention I've ran a half marathon?) I did very little activity at all, and ate rather a lot. To be honest, that's what I'd done for a few days before the race, too, so I was actually pleasantly surprised this morning to step on the scales for the Week 22 weigh-in and see a gain of only 1lb. A gain is a gain, though, and I need to make sure it's nipped in the bud. Yesterday I went to the gym before work, and did a good hour of work with weights, and core work on the floor and with cables, and felt pretty good for it. Definitely ready to get back into training, and stay focussed for the rest of the journey ahead.
Now "my" race is done, even though I'll continue training and working towards races at the back end of the year, my attention is also shifting now to my summer of Ultra Marathon Volunteering. (I'm not sure why I capitalised that - it just felt right, lol.) I'm marshalling at 4 SUMS races over the summer - WHW Race, Clyde Stride, Devil of the Highlands, and John Lucas Memorial - then I'll be crewing for runners at Glenmore 24. I need to make sure my travel plans are sorted for the whole summer, but also I need to make sure that these weekends don't derail my own training. I get so much enjoyment and inspiration out of spending time at the ultras, and with people who I look up to, but it can sometimes come at the cost of eating junk and doing little exercise for the full weekend.
I will also probably need to go buy a load of 'outdoorsy' clothes again, now I'm a smaller size... Every day, it seems, I'm putting something on from my wardrobe and finding it too big for me, I've taken to keeping a carrier bag on the floor by my bed, so I can throw clothes in for a charity shop. Most of my 'small' clothes have come out of storage too, and are fitting me, which is saving me a bit of money! It does make me wonder how much money I spent over the years buying something that was too small for me "because I would get into it soon", but never managing until now, years later - I daren't add up the cost of all these never-before-worn clothes! Nice to finally get to wear them.
I'm curious, do you track your food close enough to know how many calories you've consumed each week and how it relates to weight loss? It might be possible to estimate your currently break even point w.r.t how many calories you'd roughly need to consume to not gain or loose weight. In theory this value will be lower now than it was at the start of year as you simply have less to move around.
ReplyDeleteGiven you felt you were over eating this week and still only gained a 1lb it would seem that you can't be too far off this break even value over the last week. One has to be a bit careful about over stressing the values for just one week, but should give you a ball park. I think it's a good place to be, you've already proven your able to get back on track and loosing weight right away.
All those support days will be a challenge. Loosing sleep, crazy frantic stress at times, irregular eating/snacking. Being an volunteer has to be every bit as challenging as running them. Do you know how you'll be helping out at the WHWR?
I'm at Kinlochleven, at WHWR (which just so happens to be the only marshal spot with a kettle permanently on hand, lmao.....)
DeleteYes, I do track kcals, but I haven't done the analysis yet. Other factors have been at play recently, the the least of which is work stress, but I'll see what I can figure out over the next day or so, and post about it. x