Challenge 3 Week 6

Not much to report this week. I cannot believe this 12 week cycle is already half over. My running goals were almost entirely met: 8 mile long run; 19.75 miles total (0.25 miles short of goal for the week). IT band seems to be healing up with three times a day stretching. I continued to increase my speeds on my HIIT runs. I did not quite get daily nutrition intake into my calorie goal range of 1800-2000 per day. However on the plus side, I did eat many more whole food meals. I also did not buy any more Balance Go Mix. Average daily calories this week were 2115 with a breakdown of 39% protein, 39% carbohydrate, and 22% fat. Weight is still up a bit from the start of this challenge (still at 129.4; 18.4% body fat according to Omron). No changes in measurements. On a positive note though, this appears to be lean mass. I have lost about another 0.5 to 1% body fat since starting this challenge using Tanita, Omron, or mybodycomp. Depending which values you trust, I have apparently gained between 0.8 and 2.5 pounds of lean mass. This would be super because even the worst values would finally give me 100 lbs of glorious lean mass. Of course this weight could just be water weight from female hormones and/or creatine in which case I’m likely exactly where I started.

I had two women at my work ask me this week if I had lost weight. Why is it, when I have been basically the same weight for the past 6 weeks, that the 20 pounds I lost is suddenly noticeable? One of the women was more inquisitive and wanted to know how I did it. I said “Body for Life.” She’d never heard of it and wanted to know what was “special” about it. I was not really sure how to reply so I finally said “Well, it’s easy for me to stick with it.” I think for me, this is the real key.  I did explain some of the specifics but she rapidly lost interest. The other woman kept encouraging me over the course of this week to explore the snacks in the break room. What’s up with that?!

Goals for Week 7

Running: Long Run of 9 to 10 miles (IT band permitting); total mileage of 20 to 22 miles.

Eating: I’m going out of town for work for 3 days this week. I will bring myoplex lite, whey, & a shaker cup to balance out my meals. No creatine this week. Need to sort out whether the scale change is real weight gain or water weight. Keep working to get average daily calories back under 2100. Keep adding more whole foods. I am working to convert to all whole food meals except for the occasional post-workout whey shake or the occasional Maggie Bar.

Training Schedule: Stay on current schedule. The only real changes are that (1) I am only not running on my LBWO day and (2) most all of my “short” runs are about 3 miles. The hotel apparently has a 24 hour fitness center. I expect to get all of my workouts in.